Color Scheme Question

[HeenanGorilla]

As John "Fruity Pebbles" Cena changed his color schemes (orange/blue, purple/gold, etc) from one to the other, my first thought was "Just pick one and let that be yours". I was thinking how Hogan's Red and Yellow (God, I wish I didn't have to remember Tony Schiavone tripping over his terrible line calling Hulk "yellow" when he was the 3rd man)..where was I? Oh, right. Hogan's red and yellow combo kind of being a brand in itself. There are others who, when you think of them, a color combo comes to mind. (Bret Hart's pink/black, Demolition's black, Kane's red/black, etc.)

As a kid, I loved when wrestlers or teams would come out in different colors. Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man, The Rockers...they never really committed to a set color. Some combos looked cool, some not so much...I enjoyed the bright, colorful WWF era of around 1988-1992. Brutus Beefcake, Honky Tonk Man, Koko B. Ware. The different colors brought a lot of possibilities to magazine covers, posters, t-shirts, etc.

As a former marketing major, I find these things interesting. I thought it was a mistake for, Rey Mysterio for example, to always have a different color combo because it didn't give him the immediate identity that green and black did to DX, for instance.

But, I realize that having superstars--especially Cena--changing their colors gives WWE a lot more sales. Kids buy Cena stuff all the time. A closet full of black Stone Cold shirts was fine for those fans because they had different expressions on them. But Cena changing opens up repeat business. How many Red/Yellow Hulk shirts does a kid need? Maybe a couple. But a kid who has his parents buy allll this blue and orange Cena stuff---t-shirt, caps, wrist bands--now needs the new colors to be up to date.

What do you think is better, as a fan? To have your favorite wrestler have a set look or to have options? I think of The Million Dollar Man in red tights or Hacksaw Jim Duggan in bright green. Just doesn't work for me. I also hate neon green Yankees hats and the Mets' 40 different jerseys per season.

But I must say, Ultimate Warrior in the same get-up every time would have gotten boring. Tough call...

 

[Dirk]

The variety probably has to do with merch sales - a new Cena shirt every third month makes for the dollar signs.

Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio are two guys whose new outfits and colours always interest me, so I'm going with variety. It's a little more versatile.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I can't say I've ever been bored by the colors a superstar wears.

But then again if Kane came out in blue, I would wonder what the fuck happened.

 

[braveh]

nWo was the biggest shirt of all time.

I think you're overestimating Hogan's red and yellow...that wasn't a big part of the brand. Barely a bleep on the radar. It was a little factor...but not a big one.

I think they handled Cena's orange shirts brilliantly. From the orange kids style shirts, to the respect loyality hustle to the rise above hate...from a marketing perspective I find that brilliant. You see the consitency there in the color scheme...each shirt was memorable....each shirt became like a tradmark in itself and related to the wrestling angles...

The champ is here shirt, in comparision is really weak for some reason. I don't know why.

 

[LODemolition]

Cena's best color scheme was the kelly green and white that he debuted at WM28. He's from Connecticut, so the shirt that resembles the Celtics logo was a great idea.

There's certain guys that mixed it up and could make any color work (Savage, Warrior just to name a couple). Then like you said, there's some that just stuck with one color and there was no need to fix something that's not broken (Taker, Austin, LOD).

 

[Lee]

But then again if Kane came out in blue, I would wonder what the fuck happened.

I musn't have been the only one who waited for him to come out in green when teming with X-Pac.