Cody Rhodes Hints At Bringing Back The WWE Winged Eagle Belt
Cody Rhodes has hinted at bringing back the classic Winged Eagle WWE Championship belt if he becomes Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
Over the decades, there have been many different designs for the top WWE Championship belts, some better received than others. However, one belt stands atop the rest as the most iconic of them all and that is the Winged Eagle design used for most of the 1990s.
Introduced by Hulk Hogan in February 1988, the Winged Eagle was held by the top stars of the following decade, including Bret Hart, Diesel, The Ultimate Warrior, and Shawn Michaels. It was replaced by the Attitude Era design following ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s victory over Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania 14 in 1998.
In a new interview with Corey Graves on his After The Bell podcast, Cody Rhodes has revealed that, hypothetically, “it would be something” to bring back the iconic design if he were to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
“Hypothetically, it would be something to do that, achieve the ultimate industry dream, being the best of the best ever, in terms of that moment in time, and then to perhaps give it a fresh coat of paint with the winged eagle, the redundantly named title we are discussing. That would just be something. That’s all I can really say.”
While Cody Rhodes will next be in action against Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins in a WrestleMania 38 rematch at WrestleMania Backlash on May 8th, he has previously stated that his goal in coming back to WWE is to capture the top prize in the company, something his father Dusty was never able to achieve.
Cody Rhodes is no stranger to bringing back classic versions of WWE titles. In 2011, during his first run with the promotion, he re-introduced the version of the Intercontinental Championship originally used between 1985 and 1997, albeit updated with the WWE logo and a white strap. That version of the belt continued to be used until 2018.
H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the above transcription.