What do people mean when they post ...

[saintpat]

... that all WWE wrestlers look alike or that they all have a generic look?

I see this posted quite often (most recently in a thread on the Rest of Wrestling forum, but often in this form) and I just don't know what people mean when they 'say' that.

I will give a few examples of how I see that people on the WWE roster look, to me, quite different. There's no way you could confuse any of these with the others:

Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Kane, Kofi, Orton, Ryback, Funkasaurus, Sin Cara, Sandow, John Cena, Miz, Big Show, Undertaker, Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Christian, Sheamus, Mark Henry, David Otunga.

That's a pretty good cross-section of new, old, main event, midcard and lower midcard guys, and I don't see how any of them look alike in really any way. And what does a "generic" wrestler look like, anyway?

If you think WWE guys all look a like, or are 'generic,' please help me understand what you mean. I see a lot of variety.

[cool guy]

It's gotten a lot better lately, I have to admit.

Now it's mostly that people are lacking characters.

[hitch]

Not enough wrestlers look as if they'd give you a fright if you bumped into them in a dark street, alone and at night.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

There was a time a few years ago when a lot of guys looked like they belonged in Legacy, all in short tights, oiled up, and bad tribal tattoos. That has been alleviated quite a bit though lately.

[juvijuiceisloose]

They've gotten a lot better now, but it seemed like every guy that was coming out looked like either a Randy Orton or Miz clone.

[mystikz]

Yeah not every heel is SRS now either. That got old fast.

Definitely an improvement now. Though I do agree there should be more "characters" or gimmicks like before.

[saintpat]

Sept 22, 2012 2:28:41 GMT -5 hitch said:

Not enough wrestlers look as if they'd give you a fright if you bumped into them in a dark street, alone and at night.

That's hard to reconcile since I'm talking about people in the IWC who post on this board and others -- and most of them seem to like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Zach Ryder, who aren't the types you'd least like to see in a dark alley.

And do people who would give you a fright in such situations all look alike?

[Deleted]

It's just the proliferation of trunks. Less guys wear singlets and tights, and in the attitude era attires were all over the place so that's some fans' frame of reference.

[sagsag]

They've gotten a lot better, it was definitely more of a mid/late 2000's thing.

Although during the 4-way IC match at NOC, I kept getting Rhodes and Miz confused because they were dressed exactly the same and have the same body/haircut.

[AdamAFL was sooooo wrong]

Because a lot of people just blend into one (below the main eventers who mostly have their own characters). They're very bland. Say what you want about TNA but most people, if not everyone, has an established character and is easily distinguished from everybody else on the roster.

[Dang!]

There was a time when many guys had just short hair, were clean shaven and wore trunks. They looked more like fashion models than like pro wrestlers. Compare Ted Dibiase Jr. to his father! Compare Cody Rhodes to the other Rhodes family members!

[saintpat]

Sept 22, 2012 8:57:37 GMT -5 Dang! said:

There was a time when many guys had just short hair, were clean shaven and wore trunks. They looked more like fashion models than like pro wrestlers. Compare Ted Dibiase Jr. to his father! Compare Cody Rhodes to the other Rhodes family members!

Well, Million Dollar Baby Dibiase doesn't have facial hair like big-money daddy did, and Cody has a slightly different body type than Dusty and a, um, different color scheme than Golddust.

As for the post about trunks: really? Chris Jericho in trunks looks a lot different than CM Punk in trunks. I don't see how they look alike.

I mean, it's professional wrestling/sports entertainment. How many choices are there? Trunks, spandex/pants like Edge, singlet or street clothes. I guess they could get a few guys to wrestle in a suit with dress shoes and maybe some guys in dresses, but how many choices are there?

If the depth of perception of people who say "all WWE wrestlers look alike" is that people who look completely different wear, well, wrestling gear, I think it's a rather shallow observation to say the least.

[Ishmeal Loves Kaseyhausen]

Dark, short hair. Short-tights with some type of tribal design/name combination. bad tattoos.

Of course, there will be exceptions.

[molson5]

I've never followed any of the developmental stuff but I browsed at a FCW roster pretty recently and was very impressed at the range of looks. So ya, this is definitely an old habit criticism that really isn't valid anymore.

I guess it's still true that for a wrestling promotion, the WWE skews very young - you don't have the old fat guys, or the old tough bar-fighter looking guys that older promotions always had.....but I don't think that's a bad thing, it's something Vince brought to wrestling almost 30 years ago and it's worked well for him. As far as diversity in looks of young athletic guys, they do pretty well now.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

Dudes with short hair and black trunks was "the look" for awhile, and it had the reputation of being a little generic. Currently, a lot of guys wear colors again, but gone are the days of long singlets, street gear guys, weird Jeff Jarrett-types of attire. There are always exceptions to this (Swagger, Cena, etc.), but there's just not as much variety in overall "looks" as their once was. That's where it comes from.

I don't think it's a big deal right now, but that "main event look" was a bit bothersome for a while there. So many guys were going for that "look" right out the gate instead of finding their own thing. Justin Gabriel tweaks his attire so he has those icarus kind of things on his boots, which is a minor adjustment that helps sell who he is. I like seeing stuff like that - or a guy like Punk who has the Chicago flag stars motif.

[Spankymac is sick of the swiss]

It's an outdated perception now, but from 2005-2009 or so, yeah, it was pretty bad.

[Crappler El 0 M]

You don't hear it as much now, but it was because it seemed that a lot of the guys coming out of developmental were of similar size, similar bodies, and similar hair cuts, etc.

[PKO]

An outdated complaint.

It's genuinely funny when people still say it about NXT/FCW or call it the "clone factory". It just highlights that person doesn't pay attention.

[mrjl]

some thoughts

Cody Rhodes and Evan Bourne look a lot a like. A couple years Dolph washed the bleach out of his haid and cut it and he looked like Bourne

To me Alex Riley actually looks like he could be related to the Miz.

[juvijuiceisloose]

Sept 22, 2012 22:13:26 GMT -5 mrjl said:

To me Alex Riley actually looks like he could be related to the Miz.

Riley was the poster boy for the FCW Clone Factory.