All Dressed Up

Money Inc. & Chris Hero

I am a very fortunate man.  I have officially gotten the confirmation that I'll be attending Wrestlemania 27.  This will be the fifth one.  My friend Chad and I have attended 22, 24, 25, and 26.  And each year we dress up.

We're heading back this year with another friend, Travis.  So we are looking for costume ideas.  Here are the four previous ones.

Wrestlemania 26:
Without a doubt, last year was my favorite.  We dressed like Money Inc.  I think we got the biggest reaction from other fans on our duds.  Even ROH star Chris Hero, who we ran into after the show, commented and posed for a picture with us.

The Million $ Jacket

I have to give credit where credit is due and thank my mom for putting together the Million Dollar jacket.  She took one of my suit coats and added the gold to the labels and cut a couple of dollar signs out of cardboard and covered them with material.  She also made a gold cummerbund and a giant dollar sign for the back of the coat.

I had to borrow a clip on bow tie from a kid in the neighborhood, as I couldn't find one in the thrift stores around here.  The pants were just a pair of black dress pants that I have. I used a brown makeup pencil to create the beard as I am unable to grow one myself.   I bought one of the tag team titles, and borrowed the other one from a coworker.

I picked up Chad's white IRS shirt from the Goodwill store in town.  I like to find items at the thrift store as chances are we will never use the items we wear again.  The good thing about the jacket is that my mom made it so everything was stitched on and easy to remove.

Hogan vs. Piper

Wrestlemania 25:  To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania in 2009, we decided to pay homage to the main event of that inaugural event.  Well, at least half of it.  


That Hulkamania shirt I'm wearing I bought back in 1988 at Wrestlemania 4.  No, I wasn't there.  But my dad and I went to the Kiel Center in St. Louis and watched it on the big screen via closed circuit.  I held on to the shirt for all those years.  Never wore it.  Not once.  But in my adulthood now, I've worn it a few times.  


I borrowed the Hulkamania headband from a viewer of mine.  I wore a pair of yellow workout shorts for my "trunks."  And bought a fake moustache and spirit gum to secure it to my naked upper lip.  


It's hard to tell in the picture, but Chad is wearing a kilt.  He picked it up at a costume shop in LA.  And that's an authentic Hot Rod tshirt he's sportin'.

Feelin' horny.  (I'm Hornswoggle)

Wrestlemania 24:  As you can see this costume isn't very exciting.  We basically couldn't make up our minds on how to dress up, so we went with the Hornswoggle idea.  Chad was also dressed like the little leprechaun.  It's basically just leftover costumes from St. Patrick's Day.  That's really it.  


This is the only picture I have in the costume.  But someone there took a picture of us with a guy who was dressed like Triple H as the King of Kings, and his friends who were dressed like the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels.  I wish I had a copy of it, because the Triple H was totally bad ass.  The guy could have passed as a stunt double.  Seriously.

We've got spirit!

Wrestlemania 22: Our first Wrestlemania.  We wanted to do something off the wall.  Another friend of ours, Jeremy joined us on this first adventure.


Chad came up with the idea to be the Spirit Squad.  We were able to pick up the shirt and pants at Walmart, so there wasn't a whole lot of work going into this costume either.


The hard part was coming up with cheers.  And yes we did.  I think we had a cheer for five or six of the matches.  Prior to the doors opening at the All State Arena, we walked around and "performed" for the fans waiting in line.  It was a lot of fun and I think people got a kick out of it.


And believe it or not, some people really thought we were the Spirit Squad.  I'm serious.  Several times we were stopped and asked if we "really them."  In fact, when we were walking around the Target store near the arena, we were followed by a group of teenagers who kept asking us if we were the Spirit Squad and if we were wrestling that day.  Definitely made for a memorable event.


So, Wrestlemania 27 is almost here.  We need to come up with something for the three of us.  Right now, we're considering Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, the Red Rooster, and the Brooklyn Brawler.  What's your suggestion?