A massive part of what makes a WWE Superstar is their attire. Get this aspect of the character wrong and the crowd won’t take to you and you’re destined for failure. Look at the Undertaker’s Deadman ring attire, Steve Austin’s iconic black trunks and Kane’s demonic mask.
Their attire made the characters they were playing that much more believable and helped the audience suspend their disbelief in the show.
Wardrobes have become even more epic at WrestleMania events with Superstars usually having a specially made costume that is completely over the top to make the massive pay-per-view even more special
We’re all aware of some of the best costume fails in history, such as The Shockmaster, The Mantaur, and Max Moon. An attire can make or break you.
Unfortunately, it’s not just minor characters that never got a chance who have had wardrobe fails. Some of the best Superstars of our generation have also had horrendous wardrobe malfunctions. This article will take a look at the top Superstars of the last 25 years and their ugliest wrestling attires.
A lot of today’s Superstars have avoided the list because WWE is now a lot more careful about their presentation and how the characters are conveyed on screen but over the years, other Superstars have not been so lucky!
Let’s get started with the Excellence of Execution.
#10 Bret Hart
When Bret Hart made his in-ring return at WWE WrestleMania XXVI, the execution of his attire was not so excellent. Bret had not been seen competing in a WWE ring since Survivor Series ’97 some 13 years earlier.
I was so excited to see the Hitman get back in the ring and get his revenge on Vince McMahon. I was looking forward to seeing him don the famous pink leotard, reflective shades and white boots. This was not to be. Bret made his way to the ring in denim shorts, t-shirt and awful trainers with white socks poking out.
Whether it was something to do with the insurance company warning him and the promotion about how much physicality Bret was allowed to endure or whether he actually thought he looked cool will remain a mystery.
Breezango would not think twice about issuing a ticket to the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be. It’s a shame that catchphrase can’t apply to his ring attire.
#9 Sheamus
It’s probably a bit out of order to just pick Sheamus out for this, but King of the Ring attire is literally the worst thing about the iconic tournament. When a wrestler wins the King of the Ring, it can propel them to superstardom, but since it stopped being a pay-per-view, it is seen as a bit of a curse.
Bad News Barrett won, renamed as King Barrett, looked awful and got nowhere near the WWE title. Booker T renamed himself King Booker, went regal and changed his accent and completely ruined his image in my opinion. But Sheamus, wore horrendous attire too, probably the worst of the three and went on a huge losing streak.
Luckily the Irish Warrior has since recovered from this awful part of his career and no longer dresses in his ugly green cape and Game of Thrones-esque crown and for that, we must all be truly thankful.
Although, while we’re here, I’d like to mention it was a toss-up between this attire and the kilt he has started wearing for ugliest attire. The King of the Ring curse attire pipped the kilt to the post.
#8 John Cena
John Cena is one of the greatest Superstars, not only of his generation but of all-time. However, before his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick propelled him into superstardom, Cena was a rookie and he dressed like one, wearing some of the ugliest trunks I’ve ever seen.
They came in multiple colours, foreshadowing his Fruity Pebbles endorsement following The Rock’s insults during their feud. Red, blue and even green trunks were seen during the time when he was finding his feet in the WWE.
Ugly trunks did not stop him becoming a 16-time world champion though and it was in this fashion faux pas, that he came within a hair’s breadth of beating Kurt Angle on his debut. His attire did not get much better in his later years and any one of his colourful t-shirts could have made the list but debut attire is often the worst attire of a wrestler’s career and John Cena is no exception.
#7 The Rock
Do you smell what The Rock is cooking? Yeah and it stinks. Another debut and another awful wardrobe that thankfully did not plague a multiple WWE Champion. When he came out at Survivor Series 96, I don’t think anyone believed he would attain the level of success he has and that assumption was simply based off his horrendous attire.
However, let’s not forget that during this era, there were plenty of gimmicks and characters that had terrible dressing sense so it wasn’t as shocking as it now looks to a modern audience. With a fuzzy top, blue trunks and tassels that were there seemingly to represent the culture of The Rock and his Samoan wrestling family, he certainly cut a striking figure.
It just did not work in the slightest bit. As he developed his character and became more successful, The Rock toned it down a bit and ended up wearing black-based trunks with his logo on them. A much better look than what he debuted with.
#6 Triple H
Considering Triple has been with the WWE 20+ years, I would say that he’s done pretty well to only have one ugly wrestling attire. I wouldn’t even consider his attire worn during his gimmick as a blue-blood particularly bad, as it matched his character.
There was a time in 2003, where Triple H injured his groin and had to wear supportive bandages so he could still compete. As this would be completely noticeable in his usual black trunks, he switched to ugly short tights. I really do not know what he was thinking. The looked absolutely sickening.
What makes this even worse, is that before he wore trunks, he wore tights that actually quite suited him. Why someone did not advise him to go back to this look while he was recovering is completely beyond me.
As mentioned in the introduction, a bad attire can take away from the wrestler and his character and this is what happened for me when he changed to these awful supportive shots.
Ugly, ugly, ugly attire.
#5 Kane
After a long hard day at work, a lot of men come home, remove their shirt and just leave their vest on in the interest of comfort. It truly is a horrendous look and actually reminds me a lot of the start of Better Call Saul as he drowns his sorrows in a glass of whisky and reflects on what his life used to be before he met Walter White.
As Kane’s character was ruined more and more, he adopted this look as part of his ‘Corporate Kane’ persona. It couldn’t be further from what the character of Kane is supposed to be about. It just looked ghastly. I mean let’s face it, he’s hardly Bruce Willis in Die Hard and coupled with the elbow pads, it was just a bad decision all round.
Kane has had some epic attire in the past too, with his black and red theme. Back in 2000, he hit his attire peak when he adopted the all-black look with red flames. This look was definitely the bottom of the barrel for Kane.
#4 Big Show
Big Show is a 7 foot tall 500-pound behemoth. He’s had a few attires that we could look at in this list but none are worse than the black trunks he wore when he first arrived in the WWE. I don’t know whose idea it was and whether it was to distance him from his Giant character in WCW, but putting him in black trunks was a hideous idea.
When you’re a certain size, you need to look at alternate attires other than little trunks that leave very little to the imagination. When I’m watching two men compete, the last thing I want is to be distracted by what’s going on with their attire. That’s not the kind of Big Show I’m after.
Luckily, he did not wear these hideous trunks for long and switched to tight shorts, but these weren’t much better. In his later years, he switched to the full singlet that we know him for today. As long as he doesn’t try and relive his younger years attire-wise, I think we’ll be safe.
#3 Undertaker
You might be wondering why The Undertaker is on this list. It’s not because of his Deadman gear and it’s not because of his biker gear. So what does that leave? Well, it leaves the absolute atrocity he decided to wear in the tag-team match he had at No Way Out 2001.
You cannot be a fan of what bikers wear and you can say that his biker attire did not look good, that’s fair enough. However, there is no denying that he did dress as a biker does and the look completed the gimmick he was attempting to portray. That’s why it didn’t make the list.
But, when you decide to wear the tightest top you can find with a logo that looks like it was printed by someone who sells t-shirts illegally on the streets, that automatically gets you a spot on the list. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen The Undertaker wear and I actually had to screenshot a picture of it from the WWE Network because no picture of it exists on the Internet, it’s that bad.
It showed off a body that didn’t look like it was in the greatest shape which is strange for The Undertaker and thankfully he must have seen his error as I can’t recall him wearing this again since.
#2 Shawn Michaels
Here we have one of the most respected Superstars in the industry, coming down to the ring to referee a match in hotpants and a sleeveless t-shirt. I’m finding it difficult to articulate just how appalling this is.
This is a man who is known for flashy attire, looking amazing and being the ‘sexy boy’ his song suggests. I do not know what he was thinking. He must have been ill or his mirror was broken. He looked like he was late for an early yoga class or he forgot his kit for sports class and had to use what was in lost property.
For me, it completely took the focus off the match he was refereeing between Mankind and Triple H as I was trying to avoid looking at him throughout the entire contest. He was just as bad when he refereed at Judgment Day 2000 and the referee shirt actually made it look like he had no pants on at all.
Stop giving Shawn Michaels guest referee spots if this is how he’s going to dress. In some of his future refereeing assignments, he decided to wear pants much to my delight.
#1 Batista
Were you saying Boo or Bluetista? I was saying Bluetista. Talk about taking the shine off an epic showdown between Evolution and The Shield. Tag team partners often match each other attire wise or at least wear similar colours as it complements the tag team and makes them look more united.
However, that fateful night at Payback 2014, Batista decided to make the worst decision of his career and dress in blue. Twitter exploded and then the memes started. To be fair, he did look like someone had messed with is attire in WWE 2K17 just to see what different colours looked like.
The match itself was absolutely brilliant which is why it’s such a shame because the fact the Batista looked so out of place is what was the main focus of the night. Orton and Triple H were both in the same colour trunks so I’m not sure why Batista found it so hard to colour coordinate with the rest of the group.
The WWE Universe were already annoyed with his run in WWE having won the Royal Rumble for no reason and this did not help his case. It’s easily the ugliest attire on the list and the fact that it generated such a backlash from the fans means it deserves its place at top of it.
Send us news tips at [email protected]
