Question about Lou Thesz's NWA belt, PWF belt

[Peru-Yakuza]

How come the old World Heavyweight Title belt, the NWA International belt worn by Rikidozan, and the All-Japan PWF heavyweight belt have the same design? I know the Momotas gave Baba the second belt and he designed PWF belt from it, but how did Rikidozan come to have the same belt (or should I say, design) as Lou Thesz?

[edgehead1984]

I believe it is because Lou Thesz held both the NWA International Title and the NWA world title at the same time. The NWA replaced the old belt and gave it to the International title. You explained the rest.

I'm not sure though, Hisa might know.

[Peru-Yakuza]

The design starts with the old World Heavyweight Title belt. This belt is shown in the "World Heavyweight Title" page and in the NWA World Heavyweight Title page it is the first belt shown.
This belt says, as you can see, "World Heavyweight Title Belt". It has the basic design of legend at the top, a globe in the middle with the picture of a ring, and at the bottom another globe with a star. The chained beads which make the belt show various throws and holds.

The belt that Lou Thesz had and which he showed in UWFI said "World Heavyweight Champion" and under this, a name plate saying "Lou Thesz". Rikidozan had the same design for his NWA International title, but I cannot see what the nameplates say. There is no leather on the belt until Lou Thesz affixes it for UWFI. (This is the part where my facts are fuzzy. Did Thesz just give the belt to Rikidozan upon dropping International recognition? Did the nameplates even change? Was there another belt? Was the belt Thesz showed in UWFI merely a copy made exclusively for them?)

The PWF belt has the same design, only in place of the "World" there is "P. W. F.", the nameplate says "Giant Baba" and instead of a ring there is a world map on the center globe. The leather is brown and covers the whole back of the insignia and beads instead of being the same width as the Thesz belt in UWFI. A similar design was given to the PWF tag belts, only in place of the nameplate there was a crown and no chains held the belt beads.

In the 2000's, Kazushi Sakuraba was awarded a belt similar to Lou Thesz's, only instead of the star at the bottom there was his "KS" ("LCS") logo, and the belt leather was colored orange.