World Heavyweight Championship

[5.0] "This isn't the same championship as the NWA title no matter how many times WWE rewrites history. This was split off of that. It only lasted 10 years and Hogan was the only one with a reign longer than a few months. After 1997 it was hot potatoed on a regular basis and never regained any prestige it had early on."

[10.0] "THE title of professional wrestling, looked like a piece of artwork from the Renaissance, had the top stars of the century having the title, and was always booked amazingly, until 1999. After that it fell off and got handed off to the WWE, where they sort of brought it back until 2010. Just beautiful title all in out."

[9.0] "In separating the promotion from the championship, the WCW World Championship deserves recognition for not only being the second-most respected World Championship in the United States in its era, but perhaps the second-most respected across the globe during that same timeframe. What happened in its latter days was regrettable, but also forgivable when considering who held the title."

[9.0] "In my opinion this was the second most coveted belt in wrestling and at times even taking the top spot. Some of the greatest legends held and defended this title. It was held hostage by Hollywood Hogan for years but I didnt mind as I was a huge Heel Hogan guy. It was without a doubt one of the most iconic titles."

[6.0] "One of my favorite designed belts just by how classic it is and how much it *looks* like a trophy, so bonus points. And there are some great reigns for this belt, the majority of the holders are considered some of the best or at least well respected wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling. But... fuck, if you want a great example of how booking can tarnish the legacy and importance of a belt, this belt is the perfect example. Of course, the biggest example is the time from 1999 in January to the end of WCW. Constant less than week long reigns, vacancies, shitty confusing booking, and some of the worst title holders of all time in Vince Russo and David Arquette.You can say who really is the worse of the two, I think Vince is worse simply because he wasn't even a fucking celebrity. At least most of the other title holders at this time were people that made sense. Let's be honest though, 1999 - 2001 isn't the only bad time for this belt. 1994 - 1995 was also especially dreadful, at least depending on how much you like what I call Hoganism. 469 day reign for the Hulkster with some absolutely abysmal to straight up horrendous booking, such as the Starrcade main event with Brutus the fucking Barber Beefcake, and the entirety of Halloween Havoc 1995's main event. Also, 1991 - 1992 wasn't great either, with Ric Flair being fired and bringing the belt to WWF, and Lex Luger not getting the victory against Flair that he deserved. Let's just ignore Lex Luger isn't the greatest wrestler either. There are some great parts of this belt's history though. Vader's title reigns are great, Sting and Ric Flair were great most of the time, a lot of the NWO storyline worked wonderfully with the title, Bill Goldberg's victory alone was wonderful, and even the victories for people like DDP and Booker T were great. And it was decently used during the Invasion angle if you don't think about how the majority of the holders were WWF people. It's really hard to rate this title due to how it only lasted for 10 years, and the extremes of quality it went through during that period. I do think if WCW continued and were able to get out of the troughs of an overbooked warzone, surely 2000 would only be a footnote in the grand scheme of things. I mean, WWE has had some pretty awful years that nearly damaged the legacy of its world titles. A short lived belt that had a wack ass history, but well loved for a good reason. Did I mention the design of the belt is good?"

[7.0] "A belt of great iconography and history which sadly became tainted towards the end of its and WCWs time, many great men held this championship but as WCW continued its downward spiral this great title started to lose it gleam, constant changes of champion, the Arquette incident. This was a great championship ruined by ridiculous booking choices until its eventual deactivation in rival WWF"

[5.0] "Was at one point the greatest prize in professional wrestling but was ruined towards the end by bad treatment of the title and vacant holding it more than a true champion."

[8.0] "May just be time to forgive and forget on the WCW title lads. For all the flaws we may never see as credible a challenger to the WWE Championship again (if it comes again in AEW I will be perfectly happy). Downfall of this title for many is likely the hot shotting and weakness if reigns in addition to the needlessly over discussed David Arquette (David rules, his win was kinda fun. It was better than Jarrett for a week). But the title is central to the legacy of so many fan favourites like Goldberg, Booker T, Hogan, DDP, Savage, Kevin Nash, Luger, Sting, Flair and others. Vader was a US legend forever because of WCW, no matter what WWF did with him. Ron Simmons had one of the most beautiful moments in wrestling history with this title. Bret Hart did not have the run people wanted in WCW but retiring with multiple WCW World title reigns will have to make up for some of that. Personally I never want to see a Hogan or Luger or Goldberg match again but no doubt some do and this title was key. Ultimately this title was important."

[9.0] "This belt had a beautiful beginning but ended with a gunshot to the back. It was the center of WCW and it's main storylines. It was the beautiful big gold plated belt that didn't look like a Superbowl ring like WWE that made me feel it was better."

[7.0] "It was THE BELT, until David Arquette, Russo (and quite frankly, Jeff Jarrett) were made champions. It looked super cool, along with WCW US belt it looked most prestigious to me. Unfortunately, they totally killed it. It is great that the Rock and Jericho had the belt afterwards to balance it out a bit, but it is a real shame that it was made worthless."

[6.0] "At first this belt was held by legends like Sting, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, etc. There are tons of fun matches that revolve around this belt which makes it more prestigious. Most of the reigns were long and the title's design adds on to it. However, cut to the year 2000 where the belt has changed including vacancies TWENTY FOUR times! Twenty four title changes in a single year! What makes it worse is that Deputy Dewey and God's Favorite Booker Vince Russo had reigns with the belt. On top of that there have been ridiculous matches such as the San Fransisco 49ers match and the Ready to Rumble match. However, WCW did try to fix the belt in 2001 before they closed doors. A great belt that has a tarnished legacy."

[8.0] "The WCW World Title was at one time, the most prestigious title in the world. Thanks to awful booking, the history, and lineage of the title were severely damaged. Though in its later years the title was almost completely destroyed, its golden years cannot be forgotten."

[4.0] "Initially a great championship but as WCW devolved into its later form this title devolved with it. At one point there were 20 title changes in a single year."

[5.0] "It was initially a very well booked title. However, after Goldberg's 1st reign in my opinion, it was booked into oblivion and severely devalued. The fact they put this belt on David Arquette in a desperate ratings ploy left a scar on it it would never recover from."

[6.0] "A once very prestigious title that was butchered in the final days of WCW. It then went on to WWE where the company decided to play hot potato with it and deciding that they devalued it so much they may as well retire it."