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Have you heard? Professional wrestling is scorching hot again. The WWE has reached a level of mainstream popularity that hasn’t been seen since the Monday Night Wars with WCW from 1995 to 2001. This is the era when stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Goldberg became household names. Nowadays, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, and Rhea Ripley are the ones selling out arenas full of screaming supporters each and every night.
One of the biggest ways that fans show love for their favorite wrestlers is through official merch. But real fans know that most of the new stuff being released by the WWE pales in comparison to the designs from back in the ’90s (There are some recent exceptions, like Travis Scott’s WWE drop last month, and the amazing work from independent creators on social media). Many of these vintage shirts are still coveted by collectors and nostalgic fans alike, and can fetch hundreds of dollars on the aftermarket.
“Back then, they were really trying to convert people as fans versus just making a dollar. I think they were willing to take more [time] and put out unique designs,” says Chris Kindig, owner of Suplex Vintage Wrestling (hereby SVW).
SVW is a wrestling-themed vintage boutique that first opened its doors in Philadelphia in 2020 (It closed its Philly location last month, but will continue operations in Orlando). They’re a pro wrestling museum as much as they are a shopping destination, with everything from racks of valuable wrestling tees to action figures, autographed posters, championship belts, and even classic video games.
Ahead of WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas this weekend, we asked Kindig and the rest of the SVW crew—Hector Martinez and Woody Kumetat—to pick their top 25 vintage wrestling tees of all time. While rarity and value played a part in their ranking, SVW placed higher importance on the design and significance behind each tee’s meaning. “Some of the most rare and expensive wrestling shirts may not have ever made a cultural impact on anybody,” says Kindig.
SVW also didn’t want to simply rehash the usual suspects. Everyone knows Austin 3:16 or NWO logo tees are iconic, but SVW dug a bit deeper. “NWO is probably number one,” says Kindig. “But all the logos are just not as special. These shirts tell a much more in-depth story.”
Check out SVW’s selections for the top 25 vintage wrestling tees of all time, below.
Year: 1998
Value: $200-300
SVW Says: The idea that WCW was able to bring in a superstar like Dennis Rodman who was also at the height of his success on the Chicago Bulls, it’s a moment that we may never quite see again. Rodman’s impact at the time was one of the biggest. No one has the aura of Dennis Rodman. He famously left the Bulls to go to Vegas and wrestle. Dennis Rodman was so far ahead of his time. He’s a marketing genius. This still gets reprinted to death to this day.
Year: 1997
Value: $300
Being from Philadelphia, we definitely wanted to have some sort of ECW representation. This was one of, if not the biggest, ECW Pay-Per-View of all time. If you weren’t aware of what was going on in the ECW world, you were hearing stories about it secondhand. It was a different world back then. It was like the niche within a niche. Sabu and Taz was one of the defining rivalries of ECW.
Year:1998
Value: $300-400
This is how we represented the Austin 3:16 design. The way it trips blood on the front is super special. That moment on the back, from his match with Bret Hart, might’ve been the moment that created Stone Cold.
Year: 1994
Value: $1,200
This one is unique because you’ve never really seen one like it before. That gradient stuck out compared to everything else. The graphic is as simple as can be. Undertaker vs. Yokozuna was the main event that year, pre Attitude era.
Year: 1995
Value: $100-150
This one is definitely more traditional. The smiley face with the mask is what I think of when I think of Mick Foley.
Year: 1998
Value: $300
It was so unique to get Mike Tyson on a shirt with Stone Cold. This one defines the time. They’re the biggest wrestlers and the biggest boxer at the time. You could pull that off today, and it would still be the main event.
Year: 1998
Value: $300
This was a shirt I wanted to make sure I included because I just love Celebrity Deathmatch. It was part of that MTV generation that got to mix cultures and do it in a fucking wild way. This was one of the first shirts in my quest of vintage collecting that I had to have for my own personal collection.
Year: 1997
Value: $300-400
This one kind of screams Grateful Dead to me, that type of vintage from the ’60s and ’70s, which is exactly what the Dude Love character was trying to portray. I also love its simplicity. Tie-dye is a simple design, but then there’s the back with the, “Ooh, have mercy.” I just hear Mick Foley’s voice. If you look carefully, Mankind’s smiley face is going through the heart. This shirt sticks out like a sore thumb in the best way.
Year: 2000
Value: $150-200
This is probably one of the more rare ones on this list. As popular as Chyna was, she didn’t get a whole lot of her own shirts. I love the saying on this one, “The best man for a job… is a woman.”
Year: 1999
Price: $200-250
The upside-down middle fingers on the back with the handcuffs is a super unique design. Of course, the mugshot photo on the front is great [and] feels timeless. I instantly think of the Frank Sinatra mugshot. It’s a staple bad-boy image.
Year: 1994
Value: $250
The 1990s was all about all-over prints. I think this blue one with the Heartbreak Hotel on the back was so nostalgic. He’s wearing the glasses, the leather gloves, it’s super cool. I feel like you need to wear a Starter puffer jacket over it, some Tommy Hilfiger jeans, and a snapback hat. It just screams mid-’90s to me.
Year: 1998
Value: $250
This one is just a two-sided banger. I love the color blocking. There’s a giant scorpion on the back. It’s on a Liquid Blue tag. Liquid Blue tees were always synonymous with the ’90s and these giant prints.
Year: 1992
Value: $350
That massive face of the Undertaker is so creepy. It’s hard not to give this shirt its respect. You could probably pick any AOP shirt from back then and it just hits. That style is so fitting of the times.
Year: 1996
Value: $250
This is a color combination that you won’t ever see with anybody else. Any one of those catalog shirts would be a suitable answer, but I had to throw this one in just because in the swing of resell during Covid. This was one that took off and shot to the moon in value.
Year: 1997
Value: $250
This one is pretty rare. You don’t really see anybody wear it. The actual print is so sick with the Undertaker in the background and the play on words with the “Hart & Soul” tag line. Vintage collectors hold this one in high regard.
Year: 1998
Value: $250
This one is almost self-explanatory. To have two athletes that literally met each other in the NBA Finals that same year get involved in WCW is just too important. And DDP was the hottest thing under the sun at the time. This was one of the shirts that was always in my “never sell” pile. Karl Malone on a wrestling T-shirt—it’s something you thought you would never see.
Year: 1996
Value: $1,000+
The Pay-Per-View shirts from back then were special. I love that Paul Bearer’s face is the moon. It’s super nostalgic for me. Even bootlegs of this design sell for $85 now, which is kind of funny.
Year: 1998
Value: $600
This shirt is fucking bananas. I think it is super creative. It doesn’t even have Stone Cold’s face on it, but it’s still somehow iconic. Vince [McMahon] is in his left hand. That’s hilarious. 1998 was just a great year for tees. Stone Cold’s reign wasn’t even that long, but he was so popular so he has so many good ones.
Year: 1996
Value: $300
Nash and Hall. They were the coolest thing ever when they went to WCW. The Outsiders is such a short moment in time before they started NWO, but those two together were the definition of cool.
Year: 1995
Value: $450-500
I love the colors, the positioning of it all. I love the zebra print that fades into it. The back has the fat WWF logo. They look badass.
Year: 1993
Value: $300
Admittedly, I’m a little biased. This represented my childhood. That pink and black is iconic.
Year: 1993
Value: $350-400
I love how it’s black and white, but the WWF logo is in color. This one is very highly regarded in the vintage world. [It] hits so hard just because of the WWF logo. I prefer that logo over everything. When they got the F out, it sucked. It’s crazy that they lost a battle against the World Wildlife Federation. A lot of people think of the Attitude era, the Scratch logo, but the early ’90s was the shit. And this one has Yokozuna in the mix. That’s my guy.
Year: Unknown
Value: $500
I love the neon colors of the ’90s. And again, I love the all-over prints. This is one that you’re never going to see someone wearing down the street, the Surfer Sting. I like it because it’s not too realistic. It has a caricature type of feel. And then he’s got him in a sharpshooter. Those scorpions on the sleeves, that’s what Westside Gunn uses on every single one of his pieces. He’ll tell you that’s where he gets his inspiration. I don’t know if Sting’s his favorite wrestler, but the Scorpion is his favorite representation of any wrestler. You also don’t see many white T-shirts. This shirt is fucking crazy.
Year: 1999
Value: $350-500
I love the caricature approach. I don’t think many people even know about this one if they’re not ECW fans. It has four of the bigger guys that embodied ECW’s hardcore spirit: New Jack, Tommy Dreamer, Taz, and Sabu. That purple with the red blend just pops.
Year: 1993
Value: $250
For one, show me another yellow shirt that is this fucking dope. And then, how cool was Razor Ramon? His hair, the toothpick, oozing machismo. You couldn’t possibly recreate something as cool as that. I also love the black rectangles around the words that feel super ’90s. This shirt screams the aura of Razor Ramon. And then when Drake wore this one, that 100% gave it a second life.
A lot of people might argue that this doesn’t even deserve to be in the top 25. This is our favorite at Suplex. Bring on the hate.
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