10 Secrets To A Guaranteed POP In Wrestling
9. Removing An Article Of Clothing
A generation of wrestling fans, those who make up a not inconsiderable part of the audience these days, was raised on Hulk Hogan tearing off his yellow vest and conveying his vast, super-heroic power to the audience.
As that audience matured (grew pubes), Vince McMahon realised that booking women to show off their skin would also allow that audience to react. Of course, Jerry Lawler was 49 years old in 1998 and didn't have the "excuse" of being a hormonally ravaged teen, but Sable was 31 in 1998, so it was all performative.
It wasn't just the pimpled, N64-playing, Sunny D-quaffing boys who delighted in this sort of thing amid the Attitude Era; the squeals of women were heard all throughout arenas when Jeff Hardy took his top off to get his demented aerial stunts all the way over. But it was mostly the lads, let's face it.
Though nowhere near on the same scale, Angel Garza initially got over as one of the few highlights of the early NXT on USA era by, midway through his matches, removing his tights, throwing them at his foes, and working the rest of his matches in trunks.
Kazuchika Okada generated one of the loudest pops in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling by switching from flared trousers to his classic trunks in 2019.
It's not particularly big nor clever, but it is relatively over, or rather was in 1998: truly, the Road Dogg of in-ring secrets.