This is kind an awesome story. So back in 1963, when Bruno Sammartino beat Buddy Rogers for the WWWF title, he was given a brand new belt - and the belt that Rogers had disappeared. Well, someone found it...
For some reason Sammartino never got the original belt from Rogers. Instead, a new one was made, and Sammartino wore that one for the eight years he spent atop the WWWF. So what happened to the first title belt? It had been a mystery, until this week.
Annie Barend, the widow of former WWWF wrestler Johnny Barend, was cleaning her attic in Avon, N.Y., recently when she found a belt wrapped in a bath towel. After some research, Barend discovered that she had stumbled upon Rogers' original belt.
Totally explains why Barend even had the belt, and also how come the belt hilariously says WORLD'S CHAMPION on it even though it's a silhouette of the U.S.
(edited by CHAPLOW on 17.8.12 2101)
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I LOVE old belts, and I've never seen these. Pretty awesome find indeed. I pretty much haven't liked a title belt since Hogan won the big green belt and they gave him the new one.
Yeah, I think that's it. The lead-in to announcing the battle royal was how there had been a number of guys say they'd been promised a shot at the title next (or this) week.
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