Currently on display for the first time at Fanatics Fest NYC, WWE announced Friday a new lineup of title belts for the NBA, NHL and a number of colleges.
The belts will include all NBA and NHL teams, while the collegiate line will feature a number of schools from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.
Among the collegiate lineup are belts for Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Colorado, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Penn State, North Carolina, Michigan State, Nebraska, Florida State, Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Miami, Oregon and Kentucky.
The belts currently retail on the WWE Shop and Fanatics.com for $549.99. The addition of NBA, NHL and NCAA brands follows similar deals with the NFL and MLB.
The tradition of giving WWE belts to title winners from various leagues began in 2013 when former wrestler and current WWE chief content officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque gifted a belt to the Boston Red Sox after winning the World Series.
“David Ortiz — Big Papi — was a huge fan,” Levesque told TheWrap in 2021. “Still is. Here’s a guy with all this bling, he’s got the earnings and the giant chains and everything. It’s part of who he is. When they won the World Series, he was such a big fan and was so into them, we [sent him a] title. He wore it nonstop and just put it over like a million bucks.”
According to TheWrap, Levesque then gifted a belt to LeBron James after the Miami Heat won the NBA title in 2013, and James then purchased belts for the rest of the team. Since then, the belts have made regular appearances with title teams across various sports.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.