The Prizefighter

[Radical]

You prefer your "men in combat to be wearing a t-shirt and shorts"?

Do boxers wear t-shirts? Do UFC fighters wear T-Shirts? When have "men in combat" worn t-shirts? Did you just start watching wrestling when Kevin Owens debuted? Prior to Kevin Owens, name the championship-level wrestler who had to wear a t-shirt because he looked like he was 7 months pregnant. And don't give me Foley, he was a transitional-type champion, they threw him a bone as a "lifetime achievement award" of sorts.

Yeah, and wrestling used to be conducted in the nude. Should we go back to that? Because if you are looking for a more traditional look, that would be the look to shoot for.


I would have even less interest in pro wrestling if everyone was just wearing the same ol' boring-ass spandex trunks. The variety of attires and how it compliments a wrestler's character is part of what makes pro wrestling more interesting and engaging.


No boxers don't wear t-shirts, or UFC fighters but those are ACTUAL sports with strict regulations. Clothing restrictions would be due to wanting to take away any actual sporting advantage or disadvantage from someone wearing a t-shirt or other type of additional clothing.

Pro wrestling may mimic pro sports but if it wanted to be more true to it's 'amateur' cousin then every wrestler would be wearing a full body spandex singlet. It would be more realistic but I'm pretty sure characters like Undertaker, Mankind, Jeff Hardy, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose and many others would lose a significant something in their appeal if they didn't wear their signature ring gear.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In the grand scheme of things, I don't care all that much about what a wrestler's ring gear looks like. As long as the guy doesn't look like some sort of complete embarrassment, then I'm ultimately good. To me, it's just something to nitpick about that some fans go for because they don't have much in the way of viable arguments in other areas. In Owens' case, he's over with the fans so you can't say he isn't popular, he's got the goods inside the ring & has proven that over & over again, his personality stands out, he's a great trash talker on the mic & during the matches themselves, he has a great work ethic and, of upmost importance, fans are invested in him. So the only things that are left are his ring gear and the fact that he's not a gym rat.

Sure Owens is pudgy, but it doesn't seem to hurt him. He's quite athletic inside the ring and obviously has great cardio conditioning. In contrast, the Rock looked like he was chiseled out of stone a few years back when he was WWE Champion but he was completely gassed around 10 minutes or so into his matches with Punk and Cena. Also, with all the hoopla regarding athletes using performance enhancing drugs in everything from swimming, gymnastics, powerlifting, football, basketball, boxing, MMA and, yes indeed, pro wrestling, at least Owens is all natural.

Don't get me wrong, people should do what they can to take care of themselves but that doesn't mean that they have to look like they live in a gym and fuss over every single calorie something has, how many grams of protein it has. Just because you don't have a washboard stomach doesn't mean you're not in good shape.

 

[Rayne]

Don't get me wrong, people should do what they can to take care of themselves but that doesn't mean that they have to look like they live in a gym and fuss over every single calorie something has, how many grams of protein it has. Just because you don't have a washboard stomach doesn't mean you're not in good shape.

For those of you who don't recognize this man, this is Roy Nelson, who you might as well call the UFC's Kevin Owens. Throughout his career, he's been dogged by the 'fat' commentary, because most people can't argue against his results in the cage. (For those "but he lost against this guy" people, you fight in MMA, you lose eventually, and some of the absolute best fighters in UFC have had records that aren't very far above even.) People who look at his body type make all sorts of assumptions about his capabilities, but he's both quicker and has more gas in his tank (late-round stamina) than most other heavyweights out there.

Remember boys, it's not the size or shape that counts, it's what you do with it.