The 10 most ridiculous outfits in wrestling history
In professional wrestling, dress can make or break a character. An artist may have a near-perfect physique and the ability to put on five-star classics with a broomstick, but if he’s dressed in an outfit that makes him look like a janitor, no one is going to take the wrestler seriously.
The history of professional wrestling is full of ridiculous outfits, but they aren’t always bad. Some outfits are poorly designed, while others are ostentatious in a good way, but still pretty crazy when you think about it. Without further ado, let’s take a look at 10 of the craziest wrestling outfits, including some really bad ones.
ten The Shockmaster
Let’s just put the Shockmaster out of the way. Much has been said about poor Fred Ottman’s disastrous start thanks to him spilling his way into public consciousness, but let’s talk about his actual gear. First, there’s this puffy sleeveless trench coat that would have looked a lot cooler if it was some kind of animal fur or something. But the main event here is his headgear, a Stormtrooper helmet fitted with a kit – so “spray painted and covered in glitter” counts as kitbashing. The rent is so low, especially for WCW, that it seems to come out of the Southpaw regional struggle.
9 Jeff jarrett
Double J’s WWE gadget was that of a country music singer, with his own “hit single.” But what was wrong with her outfit? The confusing choice of suspenders and a collar doesn’t really scream “country music singer,” especially in the 1990s when guys like Garth Brooks were dominating the charts. Jeff Jarrett doesn’t even look like a country singer from the 1970s, a look currently nailed down by hanged man Adam Page in AEW.
8 Demolition
Despite being some of WWE’s oldest champions, the look of Demolition resembled those medieval drawings of elephants by people who had never seen elephants but for the Road Warriors. Hawk and Animal were very cool attempts to replicate the vibe of the Mad Max movies, while Ax and Smash were very much of the early part of WWE’s long tradition of pop culture misunderstanding.
Rather than post-apocalyptic football players, Demolition had more of an S&M thing, with a face paint that looked more like KISS than the Road Warriors. Even WCW’s KISS Demon looked cooler than that.
7 Farooq Assad
When it comes to the ridiculous toothed crown, it’s important to distinguish examples like Farooq’s precocious attire from that of someone like Max Moon, which suits an astronaut character. Farooq’s gear, while equally silly and costumed, doesn’t really suit a tough gladiator character, especially because the goofy helmet looks more like something from Tron than Spartacus. This is a pretty brutal treatment for the man considered to be the first black wrestling world champion.
6 Jushin Thunder Liger
The beloved and iconic junior heavyweight legend Jushin Thunder Liger gimmick is based on an anime created by Go Nagai in an attempt to replicate the success of Tiger Mask. His gear is so garish, with big hair, giant horns and bright colors, that he always stands out in matches, even against other masked wrestlers. The new Japan Pro-Wrestling has a few masked wrestlers today, including El Desperado, BUSHI and the fourth iteration of Tiger Mask, but they are relatively conservative compared to Liger.
5 Giant Gonzalez
Best known for his legendary vilified match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania IX, Giant Gonzalez is one of those ridiculously tall “attraction” wrestlers who couldn’t fight a lick. While as El Gigante in the early 1990s in WCW he was just a very tall guy in athletic shorts, WWE really golden the lily with his outfit, putting him in a weird bodysuit. with airbrushed musculature and patches of fur. In retrospect, it looks more like a Beast Titan cosplay than a beast.
4 The Ding Dongs
The Ding Dongs were WCW’s hilarious attempt to emulate WWE’s kid-friendly gadget, except without thinking about what a kid would actually like. Basically WCW took a team of jobber tags and put them in masks and coveralls with bell symbols all over them, as well as actual bells on their wrists and ankles. The idea was that the bells would ring as they wrestled, but they ended up spreading across the mat during the game.
Needless to say, the absurd outfits made them look even more like jobbers, and when the duo debuted at Clash of Champions VII the living crowd rejected them. At least the potentially fake WWE Toxic Turtles stuff was that there was a zeitgeist to capture.
3 Mantaur
Remember how Big Van Vader came out in a giant smoking helmet that made him look like a demon made from HR Geiger concept art? Mantaur was like that, but much less successful. The poor guy came out wearing a giant bull’s head that made him look like a mascot, only to reveal he was just a generic hoss underneath. What’s worse was that her ring was a velvet-accented singlet and furry boots, which further compromised any physical imposition. He would probably have become World Champion if he wrestled with the mask. Mantaur was walking so Black Taurus could run.
2 Oz
The entire Oz gimmick is already a deeply bizarre decision – which kayfabe wrestler would choose to dress like the Wizard of Oz? – but the outfit itself deserves a special discussion. For one thing, seeing Kevin Nash in an unflattering wizarding robe is hilarious enough. What’s really hilarious and worthy of ridicule is the fact that Oz came out with a bearded rubber mask on and then took it off when it was time to wrestle. It’s such an odd choice that it’s hard to believe anyone thought it would work.
1 Macho Man Randy Savage
Beloved icon of professional wrestling and gas station jerky, Macho Man Randy Savage is the most popular wrestler with the most ridiculous outfit of all time. In her heyday of fashion, Savage wore all colors at once, a giant hat and sunglasses, and a seemingly endless number of pom poms on every possible surface of her body. While it’s all the rage to say that Macho was better than Hulk Hogan, he’s certainly more over the top than The Hulkster in terms of personality and outfit, making him the perfect pop culture icon.
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