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Last night, Taz resurrected his old FTW World Championship belt on AEW Fyterfest and bequeathed the Championship to Brian Cage, who going forward will be billed as the FTW Champion.
Since that time, PWInsider.com has received numerous questions about the title and how it can be used in AEW. While I covered this somewhat in my Q&A this morning, here is the deal.
The FTW belt was never owned by ECW, therefore it did not transfer over to WWE's ownership. In actuality, The belt was designed, created and owned by Taz, who came up with the original 1998 ECW storyline where he declared himself champion as a result of Shane Douglas refusing to defend the ECW World title against Taz. While Paul Heyman obviously gave Taz a platform and the push at the time, it was not something ECW devised for him nor was the belt something ECW commissioned.
Taz actually holds the copyright on the actual design of the belt, which allows him to do whatever he wishes with the design and the FTW intellectual property within professional wrestling. If he ever wanted to merchandise the belt, such a replicas, t-shirts, etc. Taz would be well within his rights to do so.
The belt that Brian Cage now holds is indeed the actual original FTW Championship belt. After FTW the belt was retired following the 1999 ECW Living Dangerously PPV, Taz retained ownership of the championship belt, which has been in his possession for the last 20-plus years.
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