Top 10 Worst WWE Costumes Ever
#10: The Spirit Squad
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Now, the first entry on our list isn't necessarily bad on its own, but rather its the context that makes it feel like such a misfire. Male cheerleaders undeniably earn their place on the sports field, but they don’t feel like a great fit for the squared circle. And so The Spirit Squad...well, they just all looked rather silly. The matching green uniforms, pom-poms, headbands and other accoutrements were a bad gimmick from the start. No wonder the group became something of a joke amongst the WWE roster. The only real lasting legacy from this team was former member "Nicky," who works with the company to this day as Dolph Ziggler.
#9: Rocky Maivia
He wasn't "The Rock" just yet. This third generation WWE Superstar made his debut as a very generic and very green babyface, complete with a ridiculously over-the-top outfit. Maivia hit the ring for his first match at Survivor Series 1996, all smiles, vigor and optimistic energy—it just didn’t fit with the pseudo-Samoan Warrior get-up. The blue streamers, the cheap looking neckpiece and matching armbands...it all looks like it was thrown together at the last minute. There's no rhyme or reason as to why Rocky looked so bad. But the crowd eventually turned on him, and essentially booed him into heel-dom, sending him down the path that would eventually lead to "The Rock." So hey, it’s not all bad!
#8: Viscera
Poor Viscera. It didn't matter whether he was wrestling as Mabel, Big Daddy V, or even as a member of Men on a Mission, he always seemed to get saddled with a horrible wardrobe. Viscera was a big dude, but that didn't mean his costumes had to be so baggy and poorly tailored, right? Ill-fitting leather trench coats that made him look like an extra from ‘Blade”, suspenders with no shirt, and painfully gaudy outfits were just some of the bad ideas that Frazier donned in the ring. He changed often, but never for the better!
#7: Michael Cole
We got two words for ya: orange singlet. That was what longtime WWE announcer Michael Cole wore for his match against Jerry "The King" Lawler at WrestleMania XXVII. Although today Cole has embraced weight training and fitness, the veteran play-by-play commentator wasn't exactly in peak physical condition back in 2011. As a result, his matching collegiate singlet and headgear looked pretty ridiculous and on-the-nose as Cole made his in ring debut. Of course, it was intentional for Cole to look ridiculous as a part of the angle, but that doesn't change the fact that it made for one heck of a jarring mental image.
#6: Battle Kat
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He-Man this definitely is NOT. Battle Kat was a blink-and-you-missed-it character during some of the WWF's darkest days of the early nineties— just one of the company's many silly ideas that didn't stick. The man who first played Battle Kat originally competed in the company under the name "Brady Boone," but this gimmick had Boone (born Dean Peters) wearing an on-the-nose cat mask in an attempt to....act more feral, we think? It didn't work, not even when Battle Kat made claw shapes with his hands, or tried to use his "cat-like agility" to win matches. Chalk this one up to yet another bad idea that should've never made it to television.
#5: The Gobbledy Gooker
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It's one of the most infamous missteps in WWE/WWF history, a Survivor Series mystery that should've stayed that way. The thing is, The Gobbledy Gooker's debut was HYPED big time prior to Survivor Series 1990. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, wondering what was lurking inside that giant egg. So, when a giant, ridiculous turkey creature broke through the prop and started dancing with "Mean" Gene Okerlund...well, the writing was officially on the wall that this was a bad idea. We're not sure whether The Gooker was intended to be a wrestler, or just a bizarre one-off, but it instantly became part of boneheaded pro wrestling lore.
#4: The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust
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Don't get us wrong, we LOVE Goldust almost as much as we love Dustin Runnels, the man behind the character. For this entry, we're singling out a very specific look from Goldust's enviable career in the squared circle: his "artist" period. Maybe it was the ball gag, the unflattering cut of the clothes...who are we kidding, it was definitely the ball gag. Goldust was being managed by Luna Vachon at this time, and his costumes seemed to be a hodgepodge of whatever outrageous material was available backstage. Runnels made a lot of outfits work throughout his career, from the original yellow jumpsuit to the iconic black and yellow combo he wore near the end of his WWE tenure. This, however, was just bad.
#3: Bastion Booger
Some pro wrestlers get lucky, and go through one or two gimmicks before finding one that works. Then, there are those like Mike Shaw, who move from idea to idea throughout their careers, with little to no consistency. Although Shaw's best known gimmick might be Norman the Lunatic, he's arguably better known for the various BAD looks he's had over the years. Friar Ferguson was one, but it’s Bastion Booger that earns him a spot on the podium. Designed to be disgusting, wearing tights (can we call these tights?) that were purposefully designed WAY too small, Booger left absolutely nothing of Shaw's to the imagination. Thankfully, Bastion Booger never received a main event push, as we don't think we could've handled seeing this get-up on a weekly basis.
#2: Max Moon
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Beware: behind every bag gimmick there just might lurk the heart of a champion. Case in point? Lucha Libre legend Konnan was one of the men who wrestled for the WWF under the very embarrassing moniker of Max Moon. The idea behind this character is actually fairly solid: a real life adaptation of a Japanese anime-styled cyborg, complete with a prop gimmick cannon. Unfortunately, the execution left much room for improvement. The fire hose rings don't really work, the corresponding mask is awkward and the color scheme looks as if Ultraman got dressed in the dark. It wasn't intimidating, effective or even really cool, but rather poor execution of an idea that probably needed a couple more drafts before hitting the ring.
#1: Giant González
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Someone out there knows exactly who it was that thought a giant furry man-suit was a good idea for the Grandest Stage of Them All. Jorge Gonzalez was a basketball player turned professional wrestler who worked for WCW for a couple years before making his way to the WWE. The Giant González suit with fake anatomic muscles and body hair debuted before the man's WrestleMania match IX against The Undertaker. But it's that mental image of González facing The Dead Man that's burned into the memories of many wrestling fans. Like, why couldn't we have put The Giant in normal clothes? Why the suit? We're still traumatized, and we still want answers.
