3 WWE attires that Vince McMahon disliked and 2 that he liked

In modern-day WWE, there are dozens of writers and creative team members who work on characters and storyline developments for RAW and SmackDown on a weekly basis.

Although Paul Heyman oversees the creative direction of RAW and Bruce Prichard oversees SmackDown, the final say on everything we see on WWE television is ultimately decided by Vince McMahon, the company’s Chairman and CEO.

As everybody who watches WWE knows, the Superstars we see on our screens need a lot more than in-ring ability to entertain an audience. They need personality, interesting characters and, of course, suitable attire.

For example, would the Kane character have worked as well if he wore blue trunks instead of his red and black attire, complete with a mask to hide his scars? Probably not. And would children have gravitated towards John Cena as much as they did if his merchandise was black instead of green, purple and any other bright colour you can think of? Who knows, but those bold colours certainly helped sales.

Simply put, the clothes that WWE Superstars wear – from their entrance attire to their ring gear – are very important, so it is no surprise that McMahon sometimes has a say in what his talents should wear.

In this article, let’s take a look at three WWE attires that McMahon disliked and two that he liked.

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#5 Disliked: Seth Rollins' white attire (SummerSlam 2015)

The inspiration for this article comes from a recent Q&A with Seth Rollins, who revealed that he is not allowed to bring back the white gear that he wore at SummerSlam 2015.

At the time, fans had become accustomed to seeing the former Shield member in the all-black attire that he began wearing after he betrayed Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in 2014 and aligned with The Authority.

Then, for one night only, he decided to experiment with all-white attire for his infamous Champion vs. Champion match against John Cena, which he won thanks to interference from SummerSlam host Jon Stewart.

Speaking to fans at a Q&A, the two-time Universal Champion said Vince McMahon does not understand the appeal of the white ring gear and will not let him wear it again.

"No, Vince won't let me wear it. He doesn't understand that people think this is the coolest gear that they've ever seen. He doesn't get it. I get that question more than anything else. I mean, it's just huge, man. I think it's in the archive. I gave it to the archivist guy and he puts it up in all the Axxesses and stuff."

#4 Liked: The Miz's trunks (instead of shorts)

The Miz was fired from WWE by RAW guest host Jeremy Piven in August 2009, so he turned up on the next week’s episode of RAW under a mask and with a new ‘Calgary Kid’ gimmick.

This also involved a change in attire, with Miz ditching his shorts to wear red trunks as part of his ‘Calgary Kid’ disguise.

As the man himself recalled on Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss in 2016, Vince McMahon liked Miz’s new ring gear and told him to wear trunks instead of shorts in the future.

“When I got [backstage], one of the talent relations guys goes, 'Vince loves you in trunks. You are wearing trunks from now on.' I was like, 'I don't want to wear trunks! I don't want to wear trunks!' And it's like, if Vince McMahon says, 'you're going to wear trunks from now on,' you're going to wear trunks from now on, so I started wearing trunks and I haven't gone back.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

Over a decade later, Miz has gone on to become one of the most decorated Superstars of his generation, and he still wears trunks to this day.

#3 Disliked: Roman Reigns' shoes (Fastlane 2017)

When The Shield split up in June 2014, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose completely reinvented their characters by using new music and wearing different attires to what they wore during their time as “The Hounds of Justice”.

Roman Reigns, meanwhile, used a remix of The Shield’s theme music, while he slightly changed his attire but continued to wear a black tactical vest and cargo pants.

In March 2017, “The Big Dog” decided to change things up a bit by matching the white trim on his vest and gloves with the soles of his shoes for his match against Braun Strowman at Fastlane.

The minor change of appearance was welcomed by the majority of fans on social media. However, as Reigns told Sam Roberts on the Notsam Wrestling podcast, Vince McMahon was not too keen.

“I pretty much matched up my soles because I’ll wear different colours with the black. I had white on the vest and gloves and stuff, and they had a white trim on it. I matched it up [with white soles] and I thought it looked sweet! One person didn’t and he’s a very important person, so…”

Reigns joked that the idea of him wearing white soles again was “shut down”, so do not expect him to bring the gear back any time soon!

#2 Liked: Big Vito's dress

Big Vito's gimmick was short-lived

Nowadays, the majority of WWE storylines are results-based, with Superstars fighting it out to climb their way up the ranks to eventually find themselves in title contention. There are exceptions, of course (e.g. Bobby Lashley and Lana), but it is fair to say that soap opera storytelling does not exist as much in WWE as it previously did.

Back in 2006, the wrestling landscape was very different to how it is today, with WWE often experimenting with over-the-top storylines on RAW and SmackDown.

One of those storylines involved Vito LoGrasso (aka Big Vito), whose character was revealed to be a cross-dresser after weeks of backstage speculation about his antics outside of the squared circle.

Speaking in a 2017 interview with the Duke Loves Rasslin' podcast, Vito explained that both Stephanie McMahon and Vince McMahon liked him wearing a dress and encouraged him to play the role.

“Stephanie and Vince asked me [to wear the dress] and I said ‘okay,’ and then the first time I smiled on TV, the people were behind me. And then I became a fan favourite. I went undefeated for four months.”

Vito went on to explain that he was supposed to be involved in a rivalry with King Booker at the end of his four-month undefeated streak, but Booker ended up feuding with The Undertaker instead.

#1 Disliked: Daniel Bryan’s jacket (Money In The Bank 2012)

Vince McMahon ordered Daniel Bryan to remove his jacket

Daniel Bryan used to wear a red and white jacket during his run as a heel in 2011-12. However, he decided to mix things up at Money In The Bank 2012 when he wore a new khaki jacket to the ring before his WWE Championship match against CM Punk.

As Bryan recalled in his 2015 book (Yes! My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of WrestleMania), Vince McMahon spoke through a headset to tell an official at ringside that he did not like the jacket. The message was then passed on to Bryan, who had to quickly remove it.

If you look back at the WWE Network footage, you can see at the 01:24:25 mark that somebody caught Bryan’s attention at ringside at the same moment that Punk’s music hit. The camera then focused on the WWE Champion’s entrance, while Bryan was without his jacket when the camera turned back to him.

Sam Roberts brought up the incident during an interview with the WrestleMania 30 main-eventer on a 2015 episode of Notsam Wrestling. Bryan explained that “he is not bothered by much” and he did not mind that McMahon was not a fan of his entrance attire.

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