Tights Appreciation Society

The “Trunks Appreciation” galleries on this blog have frequently paid tribute to the old “trunks n boots” look — my personal favorite gear option for a pro wrestler.   But let’s not neglect the wearing of long tights as another appealing clothing choice.

After all, stretchy spandex tights still allow for sufficient freedom of motion for rolling around on the floor, and give you more square inches of fabric to sell your gimmick.   Brightly colored tights also emphasize the strength and agility of your legs, drawing our eyes to the lower body like a highlight marker over a line of text.

Is it just me, or does it seem as though the most technically sound, well-trained grapplers tend to wear tights instead of trunks?   Wearing tights says to one’s opponents: “Beware:  I know what the fuck I’m doing inside the squared circle…”

When selecting a pair of tights to wear to the ring, what is the best color?  For a heroic Baby-Face, I have always been partial to pure white, bright tights which allude to the cleanliness of the hero’s character and purity of his soul.  It is no mere coincidence that the most popular wrestlers in the history of both France (L’Ange Blanc) and Mexico (el Santo) wore pure white tights.

One pair of bright, beautiful tights can be eye-catching enough, but when two Tag Team partners pull on identical spandex, the effect can be absolutely hypnotic, your eyes unable to pull away from those matching thick thighs, asses, and crotch bulges.

Kazarian and Daniels apparently acquired the (slightly used) tights formerly worn by the British Bulldogs and had the balls to wear them.  That is hot — just seeing these two veteran studs in the Bulldogs’ signature gear sends the message that they are strong as hell and know how to really hurt their opponents.  And I dig it when the tights are a different color from the trunks — a classic Old-Timey pro wrestling look.

Speaking of tights that do not match the color of the trunks, the Mexican luchadores south of the border seem to prefer this look, coordinating the colors of their tights and trunks with their flamboyant masks.  Damn, why do I love seeing big beefy Real Men in flamboyant costumes?!

I believe their intention is to resemble a super-hero, like Superman, who of course wore his red underwear over his blue tights.  The Mexican wrestlers adopted this same look to imply that they are strong and indestructible.  And why did the creators of Superman draw him with his red briefs outside the tights?  I recently saw an article claiming the original cartoonists borrowed this look from Victorian era body-builders:

“When the [Superman] costume was first invented in 1938, [Siegel and Shuster were] looking to find a superhero icon.

The vision was turned toward Victorian strongmen, or circus strongmen. They wore their underwear on the outside of their pants because in the Victorian era, no skin could be shown.

So when they first started doing circus strongmen, they would wear tights, and then they would put underwear over the top [of them] to give the illusion of nudity.”

Perhaps the most noteworthy recent example of tights being worn to enhance a wrestler’s gimmick is the black leather number recently adopted by Seth Rollins.  Phwoar! —  that body with those long black pants just absolutely works.  He is like a the ultimate Leatherman.  He seems so confident, dangerous, and bad ass even when he just stands around in those sexy black leggings.

I am not sure what it is about a hard-bodied torso in shiny black pants, but seeing that image does all kinds of things inside my brain. (Also seeing the submissive blond, Dolph Ziggler, worshipping at the feet of the dominant Master trips a few triggers as well…)