10 WWE Superstars In Desperate Need Of An Image Update
All the gear, no idea.
Thankfully, we are far removed from the nondescript, identikit attire of the tiresome turn of the decade.
With few exceptions, so many of the Florida Championship Wrestling graduates emerged on the main roster proper wearing bland trunks to the sound of even more bland generic stock rock. Wade Barrett; Ted DiBiase, Jr,; Ezekiel Jackson; Davey Boy Smith, Jr,; Drew McIntyre; all wore virtually the same gear. They looked transplanted from a production factory because they were, in effect. Almost literally colourless, they were homogenised in both ring style and aesthetic.
The stars look more like stars now, and that is because the stars plucked from the Independent and worldwide scenes have retained just enough of their own identity to project themselves as stars. Shinsuke Nakamura is a rock star in both his physical charisma and leather pants; Kevin Owens effectively transmits his fighter aura in MMA shorts. Even those mostly developed within the system have since developed. The New Day are impossible to ignore, mirroring their joie de vivre with glorious technicolour. The team with which they stole so many shows, the Usos, look both cool and menacing in their stripped-back new attire. Their brilliance is there to see in black and white.
That said: certain WWE stars really could benefit from an upgraded - and consistent - aesthetic...
10. Finn Bálor
There's no suggestion Finn Bálor should cover up those abs.
They are gloriously chiselled enough to trigger the definitively - almost suspiciously - straight Vladimir Putin. Trunks are the way to go. The issue with Bálor's non-demonic duds is the colour scheme: all-jet black is the preserve of the no-nonsense badass. Stone Cold Steve Austin was a brilliantly unrefined Texas tough S.O.B. He drank beer, not wine. Post-1997 neck injury, he didn't wrestle; he brawled. He didn't deal in metaphors; his use of the language was hilarious in its brutal economy. Stan Hansen did not f*ck around with fancy flips; half-blind, he just battered your head off with lethal lunging lariats.
Finn Bálor is no no-nonsense badass; his ring game, while stiff and strike-heavy, is spectacular. He also wears a beaming smile on his face, resulting either from his general disposition or pure relief at having avoided the weekly Kane kicking he was subjected to last year.
In order to accentuate his dazzling babyface act, Bálor should adopt full-time either the futuristic silver-grey of No Mercy, or convey his velvet-smooth mechanics with his Royal Rumble claret garb after the technicians he borrowed inspiration from.