It may seem external, but ring attire can make or break certain wrestlers (can you imagine Flair in his prime

without the "RF" on the side of his tights?). However, what are some of the worst ring attires you can think of? This only applies to stuff worn while wrestling, stuff like Steamboat's dragon outfit doesnt count. Zack Ryder had a hideous pair of tights in WWECW where he had tights where one leg was long and the other was short. IRS was also a ridiculous outfit, he had some good matches while wearing the business suit, true (mainly as a member of Money Inc), but i could never take him seriously with it on (Mr Hughes OTOH, while not the best wrestler in the world, looked more effective in the suit and tie look).

Would "every indy wannabe who wrestles in ordinary shirt and pants" count? You'd be depressed at just how many of those there are clogging up the smaller indies in this country. And I don't mean stuff like the Hardys wear, I mean "gear" that literally looks like they bought it at Walmart.

Whenever I see Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake's various bizarre tights/bowtie/gloves, I imagine to myself this is what people that hate wrestling think wrestlers look like. Hee even had some where it looked like he cut out portions of the original material and replaced it with, like, sheer material from lingerie which was doubly bizarre.

Beefcake fit the gimmick, and started ok, but by the end of his 80s run those pants were really getting unsettling.

 

I always thought Jannety looked ridiculous in the mega tassel overload rockers gear he would wear in the 90s.

 

Probably not bad enough for worst but Savage seemed much cooler before he got the tassel bug and full bodysuits. I'm thinking the WM X gear.

 

Modern day... I think it's part of his gimmick ... but Bo Dallas with the all white and the recent weight gain is not a pleasing sight.

I actually prefer the full body suit on Savage. It was so over the top and more than a little ridiculous, but it fit him.

 

CW Anderson had a terrible singlet, with the hands forming the "CW" letters. It's one thing to start out and have cheap looking gear but it's another thing to keep it around after you start making a name for yourself.

 

Not necessarily on topic, but I have a gripe with anybody that doesn't wear knee pads and/or wrist tape.

Stardust and the Ascension have the worst gear currently.

Easily. It gets even worse throughout the match too. He knew it too, since it was a one match thing.

Some of Jerry Lawler's colorful combinations were terrible. He should have stuck to black, blue and darker colours.

 

The entire Memphis wrestling roster ever wouldn't be too bad of an answer either. Goodhelmet often makes a point (which I agree with and that is still true today) that wrestling is always a few years behind the rest of the world when it comes to trends. Jarrett's promotions always seemed to be a few years behind the rest of wrestling when it comes to trends (fashion trends at least as they were very up to date when it came to musical choices for their videos).

 

Somewhat in line with this topic: I have always wondered how some of the bigger wrestlers like Bossman always had a tidy outfit with those crazy late 80s schedules. You know he's going to sweat a whole lot during the match so he's got to wash, dry and iron your shirts every day or carry a fuckload of them and do laundry every few days. Austin has mentioned that he only had two pairs of trunks with him all the time and that he'd wash them every night but I also wonder if some of the wrestlers with more elaborate costumes had some sort of company laundry service.

Jimmy Jacobs had an awful outfit. He had one leg of his pants missing. I saw a girl wrestler in the 80' recently wearing a similar style. Just hideous. I'm not sure if he still wears it or not as I don't keep up with Indy wrestling anymore.

Jeff Jarrett's Double J outfits were shit. Ultimate Warrior @ Summerslam 92 was sad.

British Bulldog in the Attitude era and towards the end of the New Generation era

Owen Hart the High energy era

Only somewhat on topic, but do wrestlers realize how bad they look when their ponytail sort of loosens up but doesn't all the way during a match? Or someone like Jack Swagger, who usually looks electrocuted within two minutes of the bell?

 

Owen Hart the High energy era

Owen's Nation tights (the "danger" singlet) was pretty hokey as well. He really should have stuck to the black hart singlet.

I'm probably the only one, but I kind of liked Owen's "damn road sign" outfit.

 

I don't think it's possible to have a worse outfit than Giant Gonzalez's WWF one, but those one-legged tights are up there. Benoit's tights with the giant stain in the crotch area were bad. I hated this Jericho outfit because that design was just a random squiggle, but maybe I couldn't see what it was supposed to be. He seemed to have a lot like that. Mascara Sagrada's outfit looked really cheap. The mask looked like it just had a piece of plastic glued to it. 1999 WWF had two unrelated gimmicks with attire made to resemble underwear.

One of my 3 biggest problems with wrestling is attire. So forgiving me for ranting.

 

Anything that's not short or long tights. I don't mind the amateur gear itself or blended with long tights. I don't mind the trunks that Lesnar sports. Guys like One Man Gang and Bam Bam Bigelow are on the cusp. Bossman looked like a turd. Undertaker looked like a turd.

 

What has bugged me more then anything is John Cena and his 'look'. This guy is your ACE and he's running around in JEAN (Cargo)SHORTS and a fuckin BALL CAP like a frat boy. He wrestles in sneakers. He looks like a tool. He doesn't look like a World Champion/Top guy. Have you seen him in a suit? You're a multi-millionaire. Get a fuckin tailor.

 

You can add Bray Wyatt and his crew to the list. Bray can at least remove his pants and have long tights or something. I hate the Dudley Boys and have always thought they sucked. There look sucks harder then they do. The majority of the ECW roster fits the bill. Extremely Crappy Wardrobe to go along with the Extremely Crappy Wrestling.

 

I like Bret Harts amateur-long tight blend. But the color was awful. Pink! Fuckin Pink! Add the shitty shades and saturated stringy hair and you expect me to buy into this pony as your workhorse. Your Ace. Yeah, OK. Bret The Pinkman Hart.

The pink seemed to work for him just fine

What does that even mean?

 

A lot of looks work for a lot of guys. Doesn't mean it looks good or I gotta like it.

Honky Tonk Man's tights pre-WrestleMania III, a blue and purple spandex suspenders and pants combo. You can see him in them in the SNME battle royal just before WM.

Bray Wyatt rocking his own merch has always irked me. It kills the character for me and he looked a lot better when he was wearing a plain vest under a Hawaiian shirt.

Jimmy Jacobs had an awful outfit. He had one leg of his pants missing. I saw a girl wrestler in the 80' recently wearing a similar style. Just hideous. I'm not sure if he still wears it or not as I don't keep up with Indy wrestling anymore.

When I last saw Jacobs wrestle (late 2013/early 2014) he was wearing pants

Jeff Jarrett's Double J outfits were shit. Ultimate Warrior @ Summerslam 92 was sad.

 

Those flashing sunglasses were so ridiculous even by wrestling's standards of excess. He was like a cowboy interpreted through the eyes of extraterrestrials.

Know what grinds my gears? When everyone looks the same. So I give a guy like Ryder credit trying to do something like the short/long combo to stand out a little (although the look didnt work). Sometimes outfits are necessary to fit a characters and gimmick. Guys like Bossman and Taker would've looked stupid in tights. Bret Hart's pink and black was unique and really set him apart. It helped that pairing Hart/Hart Foundation with pink made alot of sense.

Bray Wyatt rocking his own merch has always irked me. It kills the character for me and he looked a lot better when he was wearing a plain vest under a Hawaiian shirt.

I think Wyatt's coolest look is when he has something written on a blank tee, ala "All is Lost" at WM30.

What does that even mean?

 

A lot of looks work for a lot of guys. Doesn't mean it looks good or I gotta like it.

Your gruff old wrestling fan gimmick is obnoxious