Belt maker Dave Millican talks business deal with AEW, how much AEW World Title cost to make

Belt maker Dave Millican speaks about his business relationship with All Elite Wrestling and how much it cost to make the world title

Photo Courtesy: All Elite Wrestling

The original AEW World Title design is a five-figure championship. 

The original AEW World Championship was designed by longtime belt maker Dave Millican. Millican guest appeared on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast and among the many conversational topics was the AEW World Title. 

When asked how much did it cost to make, he said he did not remember the exact number but it is in the five-figure range. 

I don’t remember the exact number but you’re five figures into it (Millican said about the price to make the AEW World Championship). You’re $10,000-plus into it because of all the layers and all the stones that were set and the custom artwork and the rust job and the whole bit. It’s a five-figure championship belt.

Millican mentioned that he’s seen comments that AEW no longer wants to use his group for their belt designs. He stated that they have a business deal with AEW and as of the podcast recording, he’s in touch with the company. AEW owns the belt design but Dave owns the trademark for the imaging. 

I made a deal with AEW to where they own the designs to what we did for them. Again, this is not a bad relationship, this is not something where I’m not — I’m in touch with them literally today on a business deal. So, people look at it and say, ‘Oh, they don’t wanna use them anymore.’ It’s just internet crap. It’s business, and so we do business, you know? (Millican laughed) And sometimes things make sense and sometimes they don’t and when they don’t, you shrug it off and you shake hands and you go back and you wait for the next deal to come along and that’s just what it is. So, you know, it’s the licensing thing… Correct (I own the trademark for the imaging), and you can go buy a bootleg of most of them on eBay for, I don’t know, 200 bucks, 300 bucks, whatever but, you can also go down, you can go to Cancun and probably get a fake Rolex real quick (he laughed). 

You can do that but what you can’t do is replace our history and I say ‘ours’, not just mine. It’s not just my history. I’m only part of it. 

The AEW World Title is currently in MJF’s possession and his next title defense is scheduled for the Revolution pay-per-view where he’ll take on Bryan Danielson in a 60-minute Iron Man match

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions. 

About Andrew Thompson 9830 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.