Personalized Championships in Wrestling

Once in a while a wrestler will create his/her own championship which is based on their persona.  These are known as personalized championships.  Now this should be in no way a regular thing but when it happens it can be interesting.  Here are a few examples of personalized championships over the years.

MILLION DOLLAR CHAMPIONSHIP

When the subject of personalized championships comes up, chances are this is the first one that will come to mind.  The "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase's attempt to buy the WWE (then WWF) Championship from Hulk Hogan is a memorable moment in wrestling history.  He hired Andre the Giant and a bogus referee, Earl Hebner, who had undergone plastic surgery to resemble Dave Hebner, a legitimate WWF referee (who was Earl’s real life twin brother) in an attempt to acquire the WWF Championship.  After numerous failed attempts to win the championship, a frustrated DiBiase decided that he didn’t need the WWF Championship and would create his own.  Thus, the Million Dollar Championship was born.

The original plan was for DiBiase to win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 4, but it was changed when the Honky Tonk Man refused to drop the Intercontinental Championship to Randy Savage.  However the  creative team still wanted DiBiase to have a championship so they created the Million Dollar Championship especially for DiBiase, which provided him with a new opportunity to showcase his character and engage in exciting storylines.  DiBiase stated that although it would’ve been nice to have been the WWF Champion, he had more success and enjoyment with the Million Dollar Championship than he ever would have had with the WWF Championship.

The title was rarely defended but had memorable moments, including Jake “The Snake” Roberts stealing it and DiBiase defending it against his former bodyguard Virgil. The championship was abandoned in 1992 when DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster (IRS) won the WWF Tag Team Championship but was revived several times, most notably in 1996 when DiBiase (now a manager, having retired from in-ring competition due to injury) awarded the belt to his new protege “The Ringmaster” (a.k.a. Stone Cold Steve Austin).

FTW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

The FTW (F**k The World) Heavyweight Championship was created by Taz in 1998 due to storyline limitations and injuries affecting top champions. Taz introduced the title as a symbol of rebellion.

Taz lost the title to Sabu on December 19, 1998, intentionally, as he was confident he would soon win the ECW World Championship from Shane Douglas. Taz regained the FTW Championship from Sabu in a title versus title match at Living Dangerously on March 21, 1999 then unified the FTW Championship with the ECW World Championship, defeating Sabu and subsequently retired the FTW title.

In 2020, Taz revived the FTW Championship in AEW and awarded it to Brian Cage.  Chris Jericho later won the title and rebranded it as "For The World," but the original meaning was restored after he lost the title to Hook, who retired the FTW Championship after his title defense on September 25 at Dynamite: Grand Slam and returned the title to Taz.

INTERNET CHAMPIONSHIP

The Internet Championship is a unique title in the independent circuit, created by Zack Ryder (now known as Matt Cardona) on his YouTube show "Z! True Long Island Story" in 2011. Ryder was the inaugural champion and still holds the title today, having continued to defend it under his real name since 2021. The title was not officially recognized by WWE.