Question About Tights

Hi, Scott.  I had a question that I thought might make an interesting topic on conversation for the blog.  I was recently watching the Randy Savage Anthology on Netflix, and around the time he became the Macho King he transitioned from the short trunks to long tights, which he kept for the rest of his career.  It got me thinking about wrestling tights in general.  Some wrestlers make a transition from trunks to long tights, like Savage or Hulk Hogan, others switch the other way, like Triple H or Chris Jericho.  Still others keep the same look for an entire career, like Edge, while others seem to constantly be changing, like the Undertaker, Kurt Angle, and more recently CM Punk.

So my question(s) are: Who makes the call on switches like this?  Does Vince or whoever tell a wrestler what to wear, or do they have some input based on what they prefer to wrestle in?  The second part of my question is, which wrestler do you think had the best costume/tights?  My own vote would be for the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, especially when taking into account the badass alternate white suit and tights.  That outfit summed up his entire gimmick so well that even a first time viewer could tell exactly what he was supposed to be on sight.

Thanks,

Jonathan Dalecki  

When they were up here for Canadian Stampede in 1997, my roommate actually had drinks with Shawn Michaels' then-finance, who was the person in charge of designing and making all the tights for the guys.  So at that point there was someone who was assigned to taking care of it for them, and I assume it's the same thing today but even more corporately motivated.  Like if Punk wants to change his tights he likely has to go through proper channels so that Mattel can alter the new line of figures and the videogame people can change their coding and so on.  However, since they're ultimately the ones who use and wrestle in the gear on a daily basis, it would have to be mostly their call.  

Dibiase's gear was always a favorite of mine, although classic 80s Randy Savage is the most awesomely understated and yet garishly perfect gear you could imagine.  Bright primary colors for the boots and tights, stars on the front and "MACHO MAN" in unambiguous letters on the back.  One look at those and you know you are watching a professional wrestler.  IRS's outfit kind of summed up the character perfectly, the uptight doofus wrestling in a suit and tie.