REGGIE PARKS: The WRESTLER Who Built Every BELT You Ever LOVED

In March 1998, the WWF Championship lost its eagle. The man who built it had refused a deal, and almost no fan ever learned his name. Reggie Parks was a tag team wrestler from Edmonton who spent his career on the undercard, then built the championship belts that defined the Golden Era and the New Generation of professional wrestling. This is the story of Reggie Parks, the "King of Belts." Trained by Stu Hart in the Hart Dungeon, Parks wrestled across the territories, from Stampede Wrestling to Omaha, Amarillo, and the Carolinas. In 1962, he made his first belt for about 75 dollars after a six-foot trophy kept falling apart in the ring. That belt turned a side job into a business that reached the AWA, the NWA, Jim Crockett Promotions, WCW, and the WWF. In the 1980s he built the belts Hulk Hogan carried through Hulkamania. In 1988 he created the Winged Eagle WWF Championship, worn by Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. He also built the classic WWF Intercontinental Championship and the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. Then came the replica boom, the dispute over royalties with Vince McMahon's company, and the end of the Winged Eagle on television. We look at how his belts were made with acid-etched zinc, gold and nickel plating, and hand-tooled leather, why the WWF and Parks parted ways, how his partnership with Dave Millican carried the craft into UFC, New Japan, and beyond, and why his work still looks better than most of what came after it. Reggie Parks died on October 7, 2021, at the age of 87. If you grew up watching wrestling in the 80s and 90s, you grew up looking at his work. Subscribe to The WrestleVerse for more deep dives into the stories behind the territories, the titles, and the business. Tell us in the comments: what is your favorite Reggie Parks belt, and which forgotten rivalry or championship should we cover next? 0:00 The Night the Championship Changed 1:57 From the Farm to the Dungeon 6:12 Six Feet of Junk 9:57 Acid, Zinc, and Leather 13:41 The Eagle That Ate the Plate 17:12 EVERY BELT YOU EVER LOVED 21:19 The Price of an Eagle 25:20 THE KING OF BELTS #ReggieParks #WingedEagle #WWFHistory