History Main / CommonKnowledge

** Many wrestling fans are under the impression that the original Big Gold Belt had a black leather strap and that the plates were completely gold (not helped by the fact that the belt was depicted this way in merchandise). [[https://i1.wp.com/lylesmoviefiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/nwa-big-gold-belt.jpg When the belt was first made in late 1985]], the strap was a Cordovan brown color with light gray stitching and the plates had a sterling silver[[note]]Many in the championship belt community have claimed that the plates were actually made of German silver aka. nickel silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper (sometimes with a bit of tin or lead added) meant to mimic the appearance of silver but with no actual silver present. This is untrue, the engraving on the back of the plates confirms that they are indeed solid sterling silver with 24-karat heavy gold electroplate.[[/note]] background with the lettering, swirl patterns and relief pieces being gold-plated. While the original brown strap was eventually replaced by a new black strap, it wasn't replaced until 1999. Even most people who know that the strap was originally brown think that it was replaced much earlier. This is likely because the original brown strap became so dirty and discolored by the mid-'90s that it began to look black[[note]]The same thing happened to the original "oval" WWF Intercontinental Championship introduced in 1998, which had a purple strap with a brown backing, and the original "Big Eagle" WWF Championship introduced the same year, which had a dark blue strap. The straps on both belts had turned black within a year. The revised designs (the ones with the scratch WWF logo instead of the block logo) were given a black strap. This is probably why the majority of wrestling championship belts nowadays have black straps, since any other color will darken over time from all the dirt, blood, sweat, baby oil and alcohol staining the leather and black leather straps don't have to be cleaned or replaced as often.[[/note]]. As for the plates, not only did they initially look completely gold on TV except in close-up shots, but as time went on, the gold became less shiny and the silver became tarnished, which made it harder to tell that the plates were two-tone even up-close (compare how the plates looked when they were [[https://youtu.be/7JQWWu5X-Ms?si=pYouzfIgQxn7oqow&t=1m29s brand new]] to how they looked just [[https://youtu.be/j8ggDRV5Rj4?si=usUKwvZ9cj2aOW-I&t=59s five years later]]). And towards the end of WCW's existence, the original Big Gold Belt was replaced by a series of cast copies[[note]]Despite what Wikipedia says, these cast copies were not made in order to be used as props in the ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' movie. The [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/5d/f6/735df65c881406b14b7f06b0991a21e2--ready-to-rumble-belts.jpg prop belts]] in that movie were etched replicas made by professional championship belt maker Joe "[=J-Mar=]" Marshall and have very noticeable differences compared to the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dx7FXJvWsAEvryB.jpg real Big Gold]] and the [[http://belttalk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DDPBGdone1.jpg cast copies]], so they couldn't have been cast from the original. WCW ordered two cast copies because the original Big Gold was in rough shape by that point and they needed replacements. A third cast copy was made as a backup in case one was lost or needed repairs and two more were personal copies made for Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage making a total of five direct copies.[[/note]], which ''were'' entirely gold-plated, with one of these cast copies carrying over into WWF during Wrestling/TheInvasionAngle. The WWE versions of the Big Gold Belt used for their World Heavyweight Championship would also feature all-gold plates on a black leather strap (with a red crocskin backing added in 2011), which probably helps fuel the misconception among younger fans.

** Fans often say that the reason why the original belt did not have any wrestling company logos on it was because it would have been too expensive to do so[[note]]Which is most likely true to a degree. Jim Crockett Promotions may have been a subsidiary of the NWA -- and it's most successful one at that -- but they were ''not'' the NWA and would have likely ended up having to pay a licensing fee to the NWA to have their logo engraved onto the belt. The book also notes that JCP often got into trouble with NWA board members for using the NWA name on their products without permission, but never faced any severe punishment over it because they were the most financially successful company under the NWA banner.[[/note]]. The real reason is because Jim Crockett told Crumrine to not put any NWA logos on it ([[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418412621639440872/ the original concept art]] had the NWA letters at the top of the main plate) since he knew that his company was beginning to outgrow the NWA and wanted to ensure that the NWA couldn't claim ownership of the belt when the inevitable split happened. Indeed, when Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW and seceded from the NWA in 1993, WCW and NWA battled for the belt in court with WCW winning full ownership of it and NWA went back to using the "Ten Pounds of Gold" belt that represented the NWA championship before the introduction of the Big Gold.
* It's commonly believed that the WWE purchased WCW lock, stock, and barrel on March 26, 2001, except they didn't. WWE only purchased certain assets of WCW, which included its trademarks and logos (including the World Championship Wrestling/WCW name), several contracts to lower to midcard wrestlers, and its video library. The rest of WCW's assets, which includes several contracts to the main event wrestlers (Wrestling/RicFlair, Wrestling/{{Sting}}, Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}, Wrestling/KevinNash, to name a few), as well as the legal matters (including Hulk Hogan's ''Bash at the Beach'' 2000 and Wrestling/SidEudy's ''Sin'' 2001 lawsuits, and several anti-discrimination lawsuits), was retained by the then-current AOL Time Warner and spun off into a holding company called Universal Wrestling Corporation, which was also the name briefly used by Turner Broadcasting after acquiring Jim Crockett Promotions in 1989. Universal Wrestling Corporation somehow existed until '''2017''', even though it had no assets and didn't promote a single wrestling show.

** Everyone knows that the original Big Gold Belt was made by Charles Crumrine (even Website/{{Wikipedia}} lists him as the maker of the belt). It wasn't. While the plates were indeed manufactured by Crumrine Jewelers, Charles Crumrine himself died on May 22, 1985 while order for the plates was placed on November 20, 1985 (as evidenced by notes from Crumrine in the ''Big Gold'' book). The plates were primarily made by Victor Ortiz with some assistance from Charles' daughter Jeanne Lashelle. Some also believe that Crumrine made the strap, which is not the case. Crumrine Jewelers made belt buckles, not belts. The original brown strap was made by Ralph Harris of Harris Leather and Silverworks while the replacement black strap was made by Andre Freitas of AFX Studios (a company who made a lot of costumes and props for WCW, including the all-gold cast copies of the original Big Gold Belt.)

** Fans often say that the reason why the original belt did not have any wrestling company logos on it was because it would have been too expensive to do so[[note]]Which is most likely true to a degree. Jim Crockett Promotions may have been a subsidiary of the NWA -- and it's most successful one at that -- but they were ''not'' the NWA and would have likely ended up having to pay a licensing fee to the NWA to have their logo engraved onto the belt. Especially since JCP often got into trouble with NWA board members for using the NWA name on their products without permission, but never faced any severe punishment over it because they were the most financially successful company under the NWA banner.[[/note]]. The real reason is because Jim Crockett told Crumrine to not put any NWA logos on it ([[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418412621639440872/ the original concept art]] had the NWA letters at the top of the main plate) since he knew that his company was beginning to outgrow the NWA and wanted to ensure that the NWA couldn't claim ownership of the belt when the inevitable split happened. Indeed, when Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW and seceded from the NWA in 1993, WCW and NWA battled for the belt in court with WCW winning full ownership of it and NWA went back to using the "Ten Pounds of Gold" belt that represented the NWA championship before the introduction of the Big Gold.

** Fans often say that the reason why the original belt did not have any wrestling company logos on it was because it would have been too expensive to do so[[note]]Which is most likely true to a degree. Jim Crockett Promotions may have been a subsidiary of the NWA -- and it's most successful one at that -- but they were ''not'' the NWA and would have likely ended up having to pay a licensing fee to the NWA to have their logo engraved onto the belt. Especially since JCP often got into trouble with NWA board members for using the NWA name on their products without permission.[[/note]]. The real reason is because Jim Crockett told Crumrine to not put any NWA logos on it ([[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418412621639440872/ the original concept art]] had the NWA letters at the top of the main plate) because he knew that his company would one day split from the NWA and wanted to ensure that the NWA couldn't claim ownership of the belt. Indeed, when Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW and seceded from the NWA in 1993, WCW and NWA battled for the belt in court with WCW winning full ownership of it and NWA went back to using the "Ten Pounds of Gold" belt that represented the NWA championship before the introduction of the Big Gold.

** Fans often say that the reason why the original belt did not have any wrestling company logos on it was because it would have been too expensive to do so. The real reason is because Jim Crockett told Crumrine to not put any NWA logos on it ([[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418412621639440872/ the original concept art]] had the NWA letters at the top of the main plate) because he knew that his company would one day split from the NWA and wanted to ensure that the NWA couldn't claim ownership of the belt. Indeed, when Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW and seceded from the NWA in 1993, WCW and NWA battled for the belt in court with WCW winning full ownership of it and NWA went back to using the "Ten Pounds of Gold" belt that represented the NWA championship before the introduction of the Big Gold.

** Many wrestling fans are under the impression that the original Big Gold Belt had a black leather strap and that the plates were completely gold (not helped by the fact that the belt was depicted this way in merchandise). [[https://i1.wp.com/lylesmoviefiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/nwa-big-gold-belt.jpg When the belt was first made in late 1985]], the strap was a Cordovan brown color with light gray stitching and the plates had a sterling silver[[note]]Many in the championship belt community have claimed that the plates were actually made of German silver aka. nickel silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper (sometimes with a bit of tin or lead added) meant to mimic the appearance of silver but with no actual silver present. This is untrue, the engraving on the back of the plates confirms that they are indeed solid sterling silver with 24-karat heavy gold electroplate.[[/note]] background with the lettering, swirl patterns and relief pieces being gold-plated. While the original brown strap was eventually replaced by a new black strap, it wasn't replaced until 1999. Even most people who know that the strap was originally brown think that it was replaced much earlier. This is likely because the original brown strap became so dirty and discolored by the mid-'90s that it began to look black[[note]]The same thing happened to the original "oval" WWF Intercontinental Championship introduced in 1998, which had a purple strap with a brown backing, but the strap had turned black within a year. The revised design (the one with the scratch WWF logo instead of the block logo) was given a black strap. This is probably why the majority of wrestling championship belts nowadays have black straps, since any other color will darken over time and black leather straps don't have to be cleaned or replaced as often.[[/note]]. As for the plates, not only did they initially look completely gold on TV except in close-up shots, but as time went on, the gold became less shiny and the silver became tarnished, which made it harder to tell that the plates were two-tone even up-close (compare how the plates looked when they were [[https://youtu.be/7JQWWu5X-Ms?si=pYouzfIgQxn7oqow&t=1m29s brand new]] to how they looked just [[https://youtu.be/j8ggDRV5Rj4?si=usUKwvZ9cj2aOW-I&t=59s five years later]]). And towards the end of WCW's existence, the original Big Gold Belt was replaced by a series of cast copies[[note]]Despite what Wikipedia says, these cast copies were not made in order to be used as props in the ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' movie. The [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/5d/f6/735df65c881406b14b7f06b0991a21e2--ready-to-rumble-belts.jpg prop belts]] in that movie were etched replicas made by professional championship belt maker Joe "[=J-Mar=]" Marshall and have very noticeable differences compared to the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dx7FXJvWsAEvryB.jpg real Big Gold]] and the [[http://belttalk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DDPBGdone1.jpg cast copies]], so they couldn't have been cast from the original. WCW ordered two cast copies because the original Big Gold was in rough shape by that point and they needed replacements. A third cast copy was made as a backup in case one was lost or needed repairs and two more were personal copies made for Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage making a total of five direct copies.[[/note]], which ''were'' entirely gold-plated, with one of these cast copies carrying over into WWF during Wrestling/TheInvasionAngle. The WWE versions of the Big Gold Belt used for their World Heavyweight Championship would also feature all-gold plates on a black leather strap (with a red crocskin backing added in 2011), which probably helps fuel the misconception among younger fans.

** Many wrestling fans are under the impression that the original Big Gold Belt had a black leather strap and that the plates were completely gold (not helped by the fact that the belt was depicted this way in merchandise). [[https://i1.wp.com/lylesmoviefiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/nwa-big-gold-belt.jpg When the belt was first made in late 1985]], the strap was a Cordovan brown color with light gray stitching and the plates had a sterling silver[[note]]Many in the championship belt community have claimed that the plates were actually made of German silver aka. nickel silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper (sometimes with a bit of tin or lead added) meant to mimic the appearance of silver but with no actual silver present. This is untrue, the engraving on the back of the plates confirms that they are indeed solid sterling silver with 24-karat heavy gold electroplate.[[/note]] background with the lettering, swirl patterns and relief pieces being gold-plated. While the original brown strap was eventually replaced by a new black strap, it wasn't replaced until 1999. Even most people who know that the strap was originally brown think that it was replaced much earlier. This is likely because the original brown strap became so dirty and discolored by the mid-'90s that it began to look black[[note]]The same thing happened to the original "oval" WWF Intercontinental Championship introduced in 1998, which had a purple strap with a brown backing, but the strap had turned black within a year. The revised design (the one with the scratch WWF logo instead of the block logo) was given a black strap. This is probably why the majority of wrestling championship belts nowadays have black straps, since any other color will eventually darken and black leather straps don't have to be cleaned or replaced as often.[[/note]]. As for the plates, not only did they initially look completely gold on TV except in close-up shots, but as time went on, the gold became less shiny and the silver became tarnished, which made it harder to tell that the plates were two-tone even up-close (compare how the plates looked when they were [[https://youtu.be/7JQWWu5X-Ms?si=pYouzfIgQxn7oqow&t=1m29s brand new]] to how they looked just [[https://youtu.be/j8ggDRV5Rj4?si=usUKwvZ9cj2aOW-I&t=59s five years later]]). And towards the end of WCW's existence, the original Big Gold Belt was replaced by a series of cast copies[[note]]Despite what Wikipedia says, these cast copies were not made in order to be used as props in the ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' movie. The [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/5d/f6/735df65c881406b14b7f06b0991a21e2--ready-to-rumble-belts.jpg prop belts]] in that movie were etched replicas made by professional championship belt maker Joe "[=J-Mar=]" Marshall and have very noticeable differences compared to the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dx7FXJvWsAEvryB.jpg real Big Gold]] and the [[http://belttalk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DDPBGdone1.jpg cast copies]], so they couldn't have been cast from the original. WCW ordered two cast copies because the original Big Gold was in rough shape by that point and they needed replacements. A third cast copy was made as a backup in case one was lost or needed repairs and two more were personal copies made for Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage making a total of five direct copies.[[/note]], which ''were'' entirely gold-plated, with one of these cast copies carrying over into WWF during Wrestling/TheInvasionAngle. The WWE versions of the Big Gold Belt used for their World Heavyweight Championship would also feature all-gold plates on a black leather strap (with a red crocskin backing added in 2011), which probably helps fuel the misconception among younger fans.

* "Dunning-Kruger effect" is often used as a shorthand on internet arguments for "complete buffoon thinks they're an expert" (and has become a snarl word on the internet), with the infamous graph showing "mount stupid" of someone after learning the very basics going from no confidence to complete confidence instantly followed by a trough and a slow climb to confidence again. In reality, it's more "below average person thinks they're average", which is a very normal human condition. In the commonly used interpretation, you might have person A claiming that lobsters and flounder are in the same family because they're "fish" (used to mean aquatic creatures) and that neither are animals because they will equate animal with non-human mammal loudly arguing with person B, a biologist. A more accurate example would be person A claiming that bats are rodents whereas person B claims they're not, and person C, a biologist explains that bats are not rodents, and person A accepts that they were wrong, knowing they aren't experts. The actual graphs, far less interesting, were derived from test-takers at Cornell (already cream of the crop, so they'd have a legitimate reason to be a little overconfident) where the bottom quartile of test takers think they had scores around the class average (it doesn't necessarily mean they got 0-25% test scores, just that their scores, which could have even been passing grades, are in the bottom 25% of class results). Meanwhile, the top test-takers see themselves as merely above-average. The above average and average test-takers assessed themselves both at slightly above but near average, having the most accurate self-assessment.

** Today the belt is owned by Conrad Thompson, a wrestling podcaster and Wrestling/RicFlair's son-in-law.[[note]]He's married to Ric's older daughter Meghan, Ric's younger and more famous daughter [[Wrestling/CharlotteFlair Ashley]] is married to fellow WWE wrestler Wrestling/AndradeCienAlmas. He's had the belt since 2013, before he met Ric or married Meghan. In fact, it was his acquisition of the belt that led to him meeting Flair; they met during the writing of the book. He kept his ownership of the Big Gold a secret until after he became famous through his podcasts.[[/note]] It's not in Wrestling/TripleH's office (after Flair gave it to him as a gift) as often believed[[note]]According to Flair, he actually gave Triple H the "[[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/7b/2a/287b2a32fe88ac1bd28723f43164d997.png Vegas Big Gold]]", a knockoff version briefly used by WWF at live events during their legal battle with NWA/WCW over the real Big Gold appearing on WWF television during Flair's WWF run.[[/note]] nor does Wrestling/ScottSteiner have it ([[https://c4authenticbelts.com/ though he did keep possession of it for several years]] after swapping it with one of the cast copies -- the same one that would carry over to WWF in fact -- before eventually selling it to Conrad.)

** Today the belt is owned by Conrad Thompson, a wrestling podcaster and Wrestling/RicFlair's son-in-law.[[note]]He's married to Ric's older daughter Meghan, Ric's younger and more famous daughter [[Wrestling/CharlotteFlair Ashley]] is married to fellow WWE wrestler Wrestling/AndradeCienAlmas. He's had the belt since 2013, before he met Ric or married Meghan. In fact, it was his acquisition of the belt that led to him meeting Flair; they met during the writing of the book. He kept his ownership of the Big Gold a secret until after he became famous through his podcasts.[[/note]] It's not in Wrestling/TripleH's office (after Flair gave it to him as a gift) as often believed[[note]]According to Flair, he actually gave Triple H the "[[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/7b/2a/287b2a32fe88ac1bd28723f43164d997.png Vegas Big Gold]]", a knockoff version briefly used by WWF at live events during their legal battle with NWA/WCW over the real Big Gold appearing on WWF television during Flair's WWF run.[[/note]] nor does Wrestling/ScottSteiner have it (though he did keep it for several years after swapping it with one of the cast copies.)

** Today the belt is owned by Conrad Thompson, a wrestling podcaster and Wrestling/RicFlair's son-in-law.[[note]]He's married to Ric's older daughter Meghan, Ric's younger and more famous daughter [[Wrestling/CharlotteFlair Ashley]] is married to fellow WWE wrestler Wrestling/AndradeCienAlmas. He's had the belt since 2013, before he met Ric or married Meghan. In fact, it was his acquisition of the belt that led to him meeting Flair; they met during the writing of the book. He kept his ownership of the Big Gold a secret until after he became famous through his podcasts.[[/note]] It's not in Wrestling/TripleH's office (after Flair gave it to him as a gift) as often believed[[note]]According to Flair, he actually gave Triple H the "[[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/28/7b/2a/287b2a32fe88ac1bd28723f43164d997.png Vegas Big Gold]]", a knockoff version briefly used by WWF at live events during their legal battle with NWA/WCW over the real Big Gold appearing on WWF television during Flair's WWF run.[[/note]]. It is also widely believed that Wrestling/ScottSteiner stole the original Big Gold while he was WCW Champion and replaced it with one of the cast copies. It's certainly plausible since Steiner was the last person known to have possessed the original belt prior to WCW's downfall and he did use one of the cast copies during the last few months of his title reign; the same copy that would carry over to WWF in 2001 in fact. General consensus is that Steiner did keep the original for years until Conrad bought it from him, but there's no definitive proof of this.

** Many wrestling fans are under the impression that the original Big Gold Belt had a black leather strap and that the plates were completely gold (not helped by the fact that the belt was depicted this way in merchandise). [[https://i1.wp.com/lylesmoviefiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/nwa-big-gold-belt.jpg When the belt was first made in late 1985]], the strap was a Cordovan brown color with light gray stitching and the plates had a sterling silver[[note]]Many in the championship belt community have claimed that the plates were actually made of German silver aka. nickel silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper (sometimes with a bit of tin or lead added) meant to mimic the appearance of silver but with no actual silver present. This is untrue, the engraving on the back of the plates confirms that they are indeed solid sterling silver with 24-karat heavy gold electroplate.[[/note]] background with the lettering, swirl patterns and relief pieces being gold-plated. While the original brown strap was eventually replaced by a new black strap, it wasn't replaced until 1999. Even most people who know that the strap was originally brown think that it was replaced much earlier. This is likely because the original brown strap became so dirty and discolored by the mid-'90s that it began to look black[[note]]The same thing happened to the original "oval" WWF Intercontinental Championship introduced in 1998, which had a purple strap with a brown backing, but the strap had turned black within a year. The revised design (the one with the scratch WWF logo instead of the block logo) was given a black strap. This is probably why the majority of wrestling championship belts nowadays have black straps, since any other color will eventually darken and black leather straps don't have to be cleaned or replaced as often.[[/note]]. As for the plates, not only did they initially look completely gold on TV except in close-up shots, but as time went on, the gold became less shiny and the silver became tarnished, which made it harder to tell that the plates were two-tone even up-close (compare how the plates looked when they were [[https://youtu.be/7JQWWu5X-Ms?si=pYouzfIgQxn7oqow&t=1m29s brand new]] to how they looked just [[https://youtu.be/j8ggDRV5Rj4?si=usUKwvZ9cj2aOW-I&t=59s five years later]]). And towards the end of WCW's existence, the original Big Gold Belt was replaced by a series of cast copies[[note]]Despite what Wikipedia says, these cast copies were not made in order to be used as props in the ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' movie. The [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/5d/f6/735df65c881406b14b7f06b0991a21e2--ready-to-rumble-belts.jpg prop belts]] in that movie were etched replicas made by professional championship belt maker [=J-Mar=] and have very noticeable differences compared to the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dx7FXJvWsAEvryB.jpg real Big Gold]] and the [[http://belttalk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DDPBGdone1.jpg cast copies]], so they couldn't have been cast from the original. WCW ordered two cast copies because the original Big Gold was in rough shape by that point and they needed replacements. A third cast copy was made as a backup in case one was lost or needed repairs and two more were personal copies made for Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage making a total of five direct copies.[[/note]], which ''were'' entirely gold-plated, with one of these cast copies carrying over into WWF during Wrestling/TheInvasionAngle. The WWE versions of the Big Gold Belt used for their World Heavyweight Championship would also feature all-gold plates on a black leather strap (with a red crocskin backing added in 2011), which probably helps fuel the misconception among younger fans.

** Many wrestling fans are under the impression that the original Big Gold Belt had a black leather strap and that the plates were completely gold (not helped by the fact that the belt was depicted this way in merchandise). [[https://i1.wp.com/lylesmoviefiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/nwa-big-gold-belt.jpg When the belt was first made in late 1985]], the strap was a Cordovan brown color with light gray stitching and the plates had a sterling silver[[note]]Many in the championship belt community have claimed that the plates were actually made of German silver aka. nickel silver, an alloy of nickel, zinc and copper (sometimes with a bit of tin or lead added) meant to mimic the appearance of silver but with no actual silver present. This is untrue, the engraving on the back of the plates confirms that they are indeed solid sterling silver with 24-karat heavy gold electroplate.[[/note]] background with the lettering, swirl patterns and relief pieces being gold-plated. While the original brown strap was eventually replaced by a new black strap, it wasn't replaced until 1999. Even most people who know that the strap was originally brown think that it was replaced much earlier. This is likely because the original brown strap became so dirty and discolored by the mid-'90s that it began to look black on TV (This was pre-HD after all.) As for the plates, not only did they initially look completely gold on TV except in close-up shots, but as time went on, the gold became less shiny and the silver became tarnished, which made it harder to tell that the plates were two-tone even up-close (compare how the plates looked when they were [[https://youtu.be/7JQWWu5X-Ms?si=pYouzfIgQxn7oqow&t=1m29s brand new]] to how they looked just [[https://youtu.be/j8ggDRV5Rj4?si=usUKwvZ9cj2aOW-I&t=59s five years later]]). And towards the end of WCW's existence, the original Big Gold Belt was replaced by a series of cast copies[[note]]Despite what Wikipedia says, these cast copies were not made in order to be used as props in the ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' movie. The [[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/73/5d/f6/735df65c881406b14b7f06b0991a21e2--ready-to-rumble-belts.jpg prop belts]] in that movie were etched replicas made by professional championship belt maker [=J-Mar=] and have very noticeable differences compared to the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dx7FXJvWsAEvryB.jpg real Big Gold]] and the [[http://belttalk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DDPBGdone1.jpg cast copies]], so they couldn't have been cast from the original. WCW ordered two cast copies because the original Big Gold was in rough shape by that point and they needed replacements. A third cast copy was made as a backup in case one was lost or needed repairs and two more were personal copies made for Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage making a total of five direct copies.[[/note]], which ''were'' entirely gold-plated, with one of these cast copies carrying over into WWF during Wrestling/TheInvasionAngle. The WWE versions of the Big Gold Belt used for their World Heavyweight Championship would also feature all-gold plates on a black leather strap (with a red crocskin backing added in 2011), which probably helps fuel the misconception among younger fans.

* While on the subject of Sting it's commonly believed that the other Music/{{Sting}}, Gordon Sumner, owns the rights to the name "Sting" and the wrestler, Steve Borden, has to pay a small annual fee to Sumner to fulfill the legal obligations of protecting the trademark.[[note]]Not requiring him to do this is known as "abandonment", which basically means that said trademark is now public domain[[/note]] In reality it's actually ''Borden'' that owns the name, not Sumner, even though Sumner was calling himself "Sting" long before Borden even got into the wrestling business.

** When the collapse of the old human empire from the Dark Age of Technology comes up, it's usually described as having been due to the Fall of the Eldar and Slaanesh's birth happening at the same time, which created devastating Warp storms and destroyed all starfaring nations of the time... but this isn't what happened. The Fall of the Eldar happened a long time afterwards, during the 30th Millennium, and the psychic shockwave instead ''cleared away'' the Warp storms plaguing the galaxy and allowed the Emperor to launch the Great Crusade. The fall of the human empire occurred sometime around the 23rd to 25th millennia and was a result of stresses such as the sudden development of human psykers and slowly increasing Warp turbulence (the early signs of what would become Slaanesh's birth much later), but the primary cause was a widespread AI rebellion, the Revolt of the Iron Men.