Public encounters in wrestling merchandise

[Baby Shoes]

We have the thread in sports about people seeing random ass fan gear in public. Even though wrestling shirts are pretty popular and easy to come by these days, I still pop a little bit inside when I see someone wearing wrestling merchandise in public. I have a needlessly big collection of wrestling shirts and love breaking random ones out in public. Let's use this thread to share stories of when we see people wear stuff in public or if there are stories about encounters when wearing wrestling merch yourself that you find entertaining.

Recently, I was in San Diego on a business trip and did a double take when I saw a guy sitting in the outside tables at the Cheesecake Factory in Downtown San Diego sporting the CODY American Nightmare Bullet Club shirt. Fairly common these days, a Hot Topic shirt, but even with the momentum of The Elite and AEW, as someone who was pro-Cody since he was a vanilla rookie in WWE and owns multiple of his WWE shirts, it was cool to see,

Yesterday I ran into a Wal-Mart to grab something and saw a guy approaching me wearing the Randy Orton shirt from a little bit back that had the green RKO on it. That made me smile, only to see about five feet behind him someone (who I presume was with him) following in the Red, White and Blue Roman Reigns logo shirt from around the same time.

With myself, I think I mentioned the time I got a lot of attention wearing a JINDER MAHAL shirt during his title reign and when some guy marked out for my TJP shirt when I was on vacation last year. I usually wear the less common ones when I go to show, which leads to comments, like the bizarre interaction I had with some guy who loved my Riott Squad shirt at the Royal Rumble and wanted me to go "riot" with him after the show, whatever he meant by that.

A few weeks back I wore a Cena shirt I had picked up cheap while I was working around the house. I had run into the store to grab something when some lady from the checkout started asking me all about Cena and the movie Bumblebee, though she seemed to treat him more like a movie star than a wrestler - yet my U Can't Stop Me shirt got her attention without any reference to Cena.

A few weeks before that I wore that #ELEVENYEARS shirt with the big picture of Kofi's face that was on sale leading into Wrestlemania and a kid working at the IHOP I stopped in to eat came over to tell me how much he loved my shirt.

Post your public sightings or exchanges in wrestling gear here

 

[SFH]

I live in south Louisiana. People are still wearing OG NWO shirts with a fuck ton of moth holes in them.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

95% of the shirts I own are wrestling related, but they're all from indies or NJPW. I live in NY, and very rarely does anyone say anything. I wore my Bullet Club hat one day and someone told me they liked it, and then asked if it was for a local gun club (I live in a good area of Queens, NY). I told him it was wrestling related and he said, "Oh" and went back to ordering his Chinese take-out.

 

[JHawk]

A guy came into my work today wearing HBK Converse shoes and a shirt depicting Edge spearing the Beatles on Abbey Road. During the ensuing conversation he shows me his leg tattoos of HBK, Bret Hart, Goldust, Steve Austin, then tells me Vince is on his ass and I can see it by googling "Vince McMahon tattoo".

He was right, it's one of the first images.

 

[Baby Shoes]

way to go and immediately win the thread, JHawk

I swear I have seen that tattoo online before so kinda funny that you met the guy

 

[strummer]

Lawler talked about that tattoo on his podcast. The guy showed it to him before a show or at a signing or something

 

[JHawk]

Lawler talked about that tattoo on his podcast. The guy showed it to him before a show or at a signing or something

He mentioned something about Lawler starting it all but it seemed weird even in context, so I'm glad you can clarify.

 

[Epic Springs]

I had a DX shirt when I was 12 during the height of the attitude era that got a lot of comments back in school but I remember wearing an nWo shirt around that same time to the beach and this old dude stopped me and said "hey hey, WCW rasslin'!". I kinda just nodded and kept walking.

Since then, I have a few Bullet Club shirts that get an occasional "too sweet" from strangers but I also own a shirt that has Marilyn Monroe on it wearing the LOD spikepads that used to always get comments from people.

 

[treble]

I remember seeing this kid in Toys R Us once, he probably wasn't any older than 12, wearing the Big Show's "Big Nasty Bastard" shirt.

 

[CookieMueller]

I wear wrestling shirts in public fairly often and no one ever comments on them. Which is just as well. Actually, I did get a comment on an Iiconics shirt I wore at Universal Studios, but you could wear a family reunion shirt at a theme park and SOMEONE would have something to say about it, just to make conversation in a long line if nothing else.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

i wear them all the time (I'm wearing my njpw lionmark shirt right NOW OMG!). I've had people give me a nod of recognition several times with WWE shirts in particular and an older woman outright asked me about the Andre shirt I have once since she recognized him.

I see other people in wrestling shirts but I never say anything because...I don't like people.

 

[King Kamala]

I semi-frequently wear rasslin t-shirts in public.

Yesterday, I went to a small outdoor indy show at a Franco-American fair and all of the wrestlers were marking out over the Billy Kidman shirt that I was wearing. I bragged about it too much to my girlfriend.

Another time, I wore my HBK Sweet Chin Music t-shirt (it's a recent, faux vintage shirt that I see Bucks wear a lot) while heading home from a long trip and a gas station attendant at a rest stop in Western Massachusetts wouldn't shut up about the time that he worked backstage catering and the Heartbreak Kid apparently told him he made him the best grilled chicken wrap he ever had. If he had only made the best steak wrap with ketchup ever, he'd probably have gotten a full time gig with WWE.

 

[Baby Shoes]

That Kidman shirt was one of the first posts in the Encourage others thread

Glad you are still winning with it, Kamala

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

I remember seeing this kid in Toys R Us once, he probably wasn't any older than 12, wearing the Big Show's "Big Nasty Bastard" shirt.

This really wins the thread.

 

[Valeyard]

Used to be this older guy, maybe late 50s, I'd see at the supermarket pretty often. Wore an old school K-Mart Tatanka shirt, with his face right on the front. Every time I saw him, it was Tatanka. It brought me some comfort.

 

[SFH]

From the encourage merch thread:

Went take in a huge 80s tribute band last night (attendance was close to 1000). I wore my Rowdy Roddy Piper shirt since it was an 80s tribute band. I didn't feel like full on cosplay (and it seems 80s themed T-shirts was what everyone did).

Interactions I had and what I've learned due to wearing this shirt:

1. Failed pro wrestlers will tie you up for 30 minutes, ignoring the band, shouting in your ear about their life and readily have pictures from 5 years ago on their phone to prove the stories (but none with the wrestlers name dropped). Also they have photos of their WWE check from their try out. He was a cool guy otherwise, but weird interaction.

2. Active "pro" boxers that lost a title fight via decision last week in Atlanta are cool as shit and I'm pissed I didn't get his last name to go friend him on Facebook.

3. Middle aged drunk women think "Hot Rod" waved his hand and then cupped it to his ear for audience interaction. And they will belligerently demand you reenact this for their amusement.

4. When you share the restroom with the venue owner and wash your hands he will compliment both your shirt, and your hygiene ("Man not a lot of guys bother to wash their hands") and then laugh at your bad jokes (I told him I didn't want to be patient 0 when the talent gets sick).


....and I'd considered the Bayley shirt.

One time I wore my Daniel Bryan "yes! yes! yes!" shirt to a Sam's Club and one of those sales people with Direct TV tried working in a joke/sale as I tried to ignore her.

Amazingly my New Day shirt gets NO reaction in public.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Ran into a Walmart in a neighborhood I don’t go to much today and saw some guy in that FOCK FEAR Stone Cold shirt today. Respect.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Had a couple of these in the past week worth sharing.

I think I've mentioned before, I have way too many rasslin shirts. Ones I really wanted and then I will buy the stupid and troll-level stuff when it gets cheap enough. Some point in January WWEShop had a ton of stuff marked down that I remember buying a bunch of random shirts between $5 and $10. I know it was January because I was going to wear my Nia Jax shirt to watch the Rumble with my buddy who got sick and had to cancel.

So in this sale, I had got a few more that led to recent fun.

Last week I had a day I was doing stuff around the house and I wore a Boss and Hug Connection shirt. Wasn't thinking of this when I realized I had an errand to run, so I got some questions from the girl in the store. Luckily it wasn't one of the crazy over top ones (which I also bought in the sale) but the Navy one that really just had their name and some subtle, hugging tube men. Mainly she was trying to read it with her coworkers and I just had to shuffle it off with "Oh, it is a pro wrestling shirt".

Today I had to run out and grab something from the store and I just grabbed my Constable Baron Corbin shirt. No one really knew what it was or paid any attention. I stopped to get a coffee at the Starbucks in store on my way out. The guy waiting for his drink was wearing the ADAM COLE BAY BAY shirt and giving me a glare. I gave him a nod but wasn't looking to get into wrestling talk. Then again, figure the guy in the NXT shirt probably super pissed I'd be wearing a Baron Corbin shirt. Oh well. All hail the king.

 

[Epic Springs]

I've had to stop wearing my Bullet Club shirts in public recently because strangers have confronted me on more than one occasion thinking I was some pro-gun nut who supports the guy in office. When I tell them it's wrestling related, either they bust out laughing or think I'm full of shit. I guess this isn't the best climate to wear something like this.

Note to self: Only wear BC merch in open carry states.

 

[SFH]

Balor Club shirt (pretty generic looking one from around his main roster call up) at the doc. Newish nurse to the practice (and the area it would turn out) asked if I liked wrestling, spared her the "I'm taking a break because of Vince policies" tangent and just said "yes." She asked if I ever heard of a wrestler named "ZZ." I have a horrible poker face, but yeah, between his family's business, he was supposed to play football for my alma mater before tough enough, and the local papers made a big deal of him being on the show. Turns out that's her boyfriend of over a year.

I won't betray all the details of what she told me, but it was genuinely a sweet story (nothing scandalous or salacious but still sweet and cute and not my story to tell) and he sounds like an awesome dude (not like she'd paint a picture of a jackass). She was glowing and smiling, so yay for people being happy. From what I can tell, his family business is his calling and he's damn good at it and looking to provide a good life for this young lady if they are each others' "the one."

 

[King Kamala]

At my doctor's office on Monday, I saw a teen/early twentysomething wearing a Joey Styles "OH MY GOD!" t-shirt. Which I thought was very very odd. It seems like he either picked it up at a thrift store cause it looked cool/retro or Gen Z ain't bad as we thought it was, @Laz !

(They're worse! I canceled Joey Styles for being MAGA years ago!)

 

[Epic Springs]

I've had to stop wearing my Bullet Club shirts in public recently because strangers have confronted me on more than one occasion thinking I was some pro-gun nut who supports the guy in office. When I tell them it's wrestling related, either they bust out laughing or think I'm full of shit. I guess this isn't the best climate to wear something like this.

Note to self: Only wear BC merch in open carry states.

Started wearing them again a few months ago because IDGAF and no one bothers me anymore.