Paul Wight Got Heat In WWE Over Ring Gear Idea He Got From Undertaker
Vince McMahon is well-known for being peculiar with certain phrases and comments, one of which is not wanting his talents to refer to the championships as "belts", and during a Wrestling Inc. exclusive interview with Nick Hausman, Paul Wight weighed in on that.
During his time working for WWE, that was a rule that he had to learn and adapt to whenever he held gold, and the wrestling legend admitted that "it's funny because it makes sense, why would you diminish a championship? It's either a championship or a title." While that isn't an unbreakable rule in AEW, a lot of wrestlers do still refer to them as championships or titles in promos.
"If you call it a belt, a belt is something that holds your pants — a strap," he said. "I get it's cool and it's slang, but I am a little old school. I believe if you're going to have a championship, then you treat it with respect because you've earned it and you don't want to diminish it. You want to enhance it, but the younger crowd does whatever they think is cool. What do I know?"
When it comes to doing things that aren't seen as the norm, that is something that Wight has experience with, as he decided to put zippers into his boots 15 years ago rather than the classic laces. At that time, Wight clearly didn't get a positive reaction as he recalled "you thought I'd committed a holy atrocity," based on the response of the locker room.
"When I saw The Undertaker's boots were zippered, I went out and got zippers in my boots because, before that, you had to lace up your boots," he said. "... Because when you lace up 50/60 eyelets every single night — I used to have callous' on my pinky fingers, big thick callous' from pulling up laces every night on my boots. It was an honor and a pleasure, but the business evolves."
Another change that has happened in recent times is in regards to the design of many championships, with velcro being used to keep them in place rather than snap buttons. Wight admitted that it's all about "whatever works" at this stage in the game, as things continue to change up and develop throughout his career.
"I would trust the snap buttons before I personally would trust velcro, but if velcro works ,then good for them," he said. "Business evolves and the business changes. It'll be holographic [eventually], you won't even have to carry it. They'll just shoot a hologram on your belly and then you'll have your title."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling Inc. with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.