WWE Title Belt Maker Reveals Where Raw Tag Team Title Design Came From

– Wrestling title belt maker Dave Millican spoke with Chris Featherstone on Pancakes and Powerslams for a new interview discussing the Raw Tag Team Titles’ creation and more. Audio and highlights are below:

On why his previous relationship with WWE ended: “Things were changing. They wanted contracts signed on belts, they wanted exclusive rights to the designs, which Reggie [Parks] wasn’t willing to sign over. “And thank God he didn’t, because that’s come to play for us many years later, and is part of our income. Reggie was always a handshake guy. Just no contracts and that kind of thing. It used to be very simple. Anybody in the old NWA office… sometimes Dusty Rhodes himself, would call and say [they] wanted a belt. Chief Jay Strongbow called and requested what we [now know as] the Winged Eagle belt, which is our most iconic belt. [1996]ish, we kind of had a falling out. They wanted to go another direction because no contract would be signed.”

On who was behind the current Raw Tag Team Championship design: “The tag team titles, I begged them, please let me make them nickel, let me make them gold, let me make them silver and gold. Just don’t make me do copper. And it just came down from the top that copper is what they wanted, I think in particular, Stephanie McMahon really just wanted to do something different. They want to kind of reinvent the wheel every time, and something that is not used somewhere else, which is understandable. And so, when they bottom-lined it for me and said, ‘look, it’s gonna be copper,’ I was like okay, I can do copper. So I did that, thinking at one point in time we’re gonna change these. And man, when they changed them is when the brand split happened, they employed a few other guys… and I didn’t get a chance to make them. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I begged them, please don’t make me make this copper. Really, kind of all of that stuff started with me and branched out.”

On if there is a current Women’s Tag Team Championship belt in the works: “I have, but I’m not privy to it. Anything that I’ve heard is probably similar to what you heard or read. The way that works is you have a confidentiality clause. So, if I was involved in it, I couldn’t tell you anyway. But what I can do, is tell you unequivocally that I’m not. So, I think that probably exists. Now, sometimes things exist and they change their mind and they never debut. That’s happened with concepts they’ve sent my way. So I think that they probably are out there. I think that they’re probably already made. But, that’s just hearsay, that’s not based on anything official.”