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Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently discussed the history of bra and panty matches in the company. The veteran writer spoke about how the idea was born during the Attitude Era.
During the late 90s, the Monday Night Wars was at its peak. WCW and WWE were trying to one-up each other by putting on edgier content. This led to the depiction of women in more risqué spots, with Vince McMahon trying to attract the adult male demographic tuning in every week.
On a recent episode of The Wrestling Outlaws, Russo mentioned that the matchup was inspired by the tuxedo matches managers used to have back in the day.
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"A lot of people do not know the history. Here's the problem. When the WWE started labelling and promoting bra and panty matches, people don't know where this came from. (...) There used to be a thing called a 'Tuxedo Match.' It usually would involve managers, and the idea was both managers would wrestle in a tuxedo. The idea is to rip the tuxedo off of your opponent to embarrass him."
Russo recalled that the creative team wrote a storyline involving Luna Vachon and Sable where Luna tried to humiliate her opponent by attacking her and stripping her evening gown. He noted that this segment gave rise to the bra and panty match at the height of the Attitude Era.
"Off of that premise, when Sable was getting really hot, and Luna was old-school wrestler. Sable won an award, she won an award for the WWE magazine. I did this in-ring with her. She wore an evening gown, she's accepting this award. Luna comes in, attacks the cr*p out of Sable in her evening gown. Luna then challenges Rena to an 'Evening Gown Match' saying, 'I am going to strip you down and embarrass you.' It came right from the tuxedo match, bro." Russo added, "The WWE took that to a bra and panties match." [From 3:55 onwards]
The former wrestling writer mentioned that the matches were demeaning to women and was glad that the company stopped having them.
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