"The Look"

[Hijo de Carlos]

I know that in America it's widely believed that to have the "look" of a main eventer, a wrestler has to wear simply trunks (not long tights) and boots - anything else makes a wrestler "look like a midcarder". Is this view also held in Japan? Certainly I can't think of many wrestlers who achieved main event star status wrestling in something other than simple trunks and boots....

[Sofa Kingdom]

You forgot about kneepads, very few wrestlers in america omit the kneepads.

[Hijo de Carlos]

True enough - and elbow pads too. But I was thinking more in terms of the actual "costume" itself rather than the associated protective gear.....

[Luds]

Lets just think about this for a second... Looking at most past champions in WWF & WCW over the last 10-12 years...

WHO FITS?
WWF Hogan, Savage, Rock, HHH, Austin, Sid, Ultimate Warrior
WCW Booker T, Big Poppa Pump, Goldberg, Jarrett, Flair, Luger

WHO DOESN'T
WWF Angle, Jericho, Mankind, Undertaker, Michaels, Hart, Diesel, Yokozuna, Slaughter, Kane
WCW Nash, DDP, Sting, Savage, Hogan, Giant, Vader

Well historically maybe not, but recently I think that you're right... We've seen wrestlers like HHH, Booker T, Big Poppa Pump go from long trunks to simple trunks...

Some exceptions here: Gimmicks... Guys like Taker, Kane, Yokozuna, Slaughter, Mankind, Giant, Vader couldn't really have the simple trunk look...

But it would be just weird to see Chris Benoit, Jericho, Nash, Hart, Michaels without the long trunks...

[Muiyan]

Both Misawa and Kawada wear long tights....
as well as Chono, and Hashimoto, and the current Mutoh, and current Hogan, and Eddie Guerrero...

[ElGringo]

Eddie is hardly main event. And we're talking about in Japan here. Only the MUGA traditionalists and shooters wear the short tigts as a rule, I think; Satoshi Kojima wears long tights, Tenzan wears mid-length tights, Kensuke Sasaki wears mid-length tights.

[Hijo de Carlos]

Maybe it isn't true in Japan. Maybe it isn't even true in the States. I was just prompted to think about it after reading an article on Edge where the writer said that wearing the long tights could be a factor against him cracking main event status in WWE, as his look "screamed mid-carder"

[Peru-Yakuza]

New Japan guys generally wear black trunks, whereas All-Japan/NOAH guys wear colored. This comes from what Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba used to wear.

Long tights or pants: Misawa, Kawada, Ka Shin, Muto, Chono, Hashimoto, Akira, El Samurai, Kenta, Kikuchi, Kanemaru, Marufuji, Akitoshi Saito, Tiger Mask IV, Sasuke, Hijikata, Naniwa, Rusher Kimura, Kawabata, Kaz Hayashi, Kenzo Suzuki, Naoki Sano, Tatsutoshi Goto, Michiyoshi Ohara

"Shorts" (midlength tights): Sasaki, Tenzan, Kojima, Rikio, Naruse, Minoru Tanaka, Masato Tanaka, Hidaka, Hoshikawa, Sugiura, Yoshinari Ogawa, Muhammad Yone

Trunks: Nagata, Iizuka, Nagai, Kea, Kanemoto, Kakihara, Morishima, Taue, Kobashi, Otani, Takaiwa, Momota, Eigen, Hashi, Fujinami, Miyamoto, Gran Hamada, Yano, Blue Wolf, Wataru Inoue, Katsuyori Shibata, Omori, some others

Singlets: Tamon Honda, Yutaka Yoshie