21 Most Iconic Wrestling Shirts

CM Punk’s return sent shockwaves through the pro wrestling industry. Hell, the din that came out of the United Center in Chicago probably made the Richter Scale. To commemorate CM Punk’s return to pro wrestling, AEW revealed a new t-shirt, which is an offshoot of what I believe to be one of the greatest, most iconic wrestling shirts ever devised. Also, Pro Wrestling Tees announced that the new shirt has become the highest-selling design in the history of the ecommerce outlet in less than 72 hours.

It’s a thing of beauty, and it got me thinking about what some of the greatest wrestling shirts of all time are, in addition to what makes a great wrestling shirt. Is it the sales? The look? Simplicity? Big colors? After all, wrestling shirts are not a “one-size fits all” venture. Everybody’s going to have their favorites, and I certainly have mine. Hopefully, this list represents a combination of some of the most iconic wrestling shirts you can own and some of my favorites.

Honorable Mention: Cancelled Wyatt Family T-Shirts

About five years ago when the Wyatt Family was perhaps at its peak with four members, allegedly canceled shirt designs “leaked” onto the web, and they were some of the most ironically funny pieces of WWE merchandise I’ve ever seen. A simple Google search will lead you to what I’m talking about, but one shirt had all four members of the stable embroidered on the front with “#SquadGoals” hanging above them. Another one parodied “Watch Me” by Silento and said “Now watch me HIT. Now watch me BRAY BRAY.” Whether or not these were under any serious consideration to become shirts is currently unknown, but I figured they’d be worth a mention on a humorous note.

21.) Storyline Shirts

What better way to sell your television product than by physically selling T-shirts that have become part of the storylines we watch every single week? Greg Valentine’s “I Broke Wahoo’s Leg” shirt might be the most iconic example, but what strikes me funny is how the first thing that comes to mind isn’t necessarily Valentine breaking Wahoo McDaniel’s leg, but rather the image of Valentine wearing the black T-shirt that said he did. This formula of wrestling shirt would be redone again and again through the years. Another example is the “Eddie Guerrero is My Favorite Wrestler” T-shirt that was part of the Eddie and Chavo angle in WCW. You can buy both those shirts, by the way, over at Pro Wrestling Tees.

20.) Nasty Boys

I’ve got no problem selling the Nasty Boys short of anything they may have accomplished in the wrestling business. Sleazy, unathletic, bad attitude, bad work rate, bad work ethic; these are all accurate descriptors of the Nasty Boys, and yet they are an iconic tag team. But why? Their T-shirts played an important role. The shirts are loud, colorful and unique, just like the two slobs that donned them, for better or worse, and despite all the trash I just talked, I may just buy one.

19.) What?

One of the most despised chants in wrestling is also one of the most iconic wrestling shirts. It wouldn’t be such without the association it has with the man who first coined it. As annoying as “What” chants are and what they have come to stand for, if you were to remove all of that and see it for what it was at the time, it was actually pretty funny. Not to mention, the image of Austin walking down the aisle in his jean shorts, boots, knee braces and “What?” shirt is sort of burned into my head.

18.) D-Generation X

D-Generation X is often overrepresented on many lists, and maybe even given too much credit at the expense of Attitude Era kingpins like Steve Austin, The Rock and Mick Foley. However, hey have one of the more iconic wrestling shirts you’ll find, and several shirts of theirs could have made this list. If I had to pick one, I’d be partial to the metallic looking D-X logo the Triple H-led gang wore when they crashed WCW Nitro. Stable T-shirts are always a hit and this one was no different, not to mention, the sleek design makes it acceptable to wear in a number of different outfits. Just don’t let anybody get a good look at the back of it.

17.) Monday Night Jericho

Given my age, this is one of the few WCW shirts you’ll find on my list of iconic wrestling shirts, but it’s also the best Chris Jericho shirt. Sure, he’s got his joke shirts like “A Little Bit of the Bubbly” and “I’ve Got a Ticket,” plus the Y2AJ shirt that fits the criteria of #21, and The Inner Circle shirt which nearly made this list. However, similar to Austin’s “What” shirt, the image in my head is what makes this shirt great, and the image is the deranged heel Jericho character we saw towards the end of his WCW run where he was rocking the shirt, Cowardly Lion haircut and WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Plus, it was a parody of the very same show he wrestled for. Nowadays, it seems like every wrestler has a T-shirt that spoofs their show, but Jericho was one of the first.

16.) The Hardys

I always liked the Hardy Boyz logo. It creatively combines an “M” and “J” with an “H” for “Hardy” on what Michael Cole would probably call a “pendant-like structure.” This T-shirt has been reproduced multiple times, so rather than simply name one, I’m just going to list the general shirt here because all the designs are so similar. Given the pop Matt and Jeff got for their surprise WrestleMania 33 appearance, their “Reborn by Fate” shirt probably sold like hot cakes, but their 2007 shirt, which I’ll call “Hot and Cold” for its fire and ice aesthetic really suits the brothers. Simple, yet effective, just like The Hardys!

15.) Rated-R Superstar

The Rated-R Superstar gimmick is one of the best heel gimmicks of the last 15 years and the accompanying shirt fits the character perfectly. This version of Edge was a, for lack of a better term, edgy character in a transitional era, which helped drive sales among older fans who found a grittier product more preferable. It’s also a shirt I’ll need to add to my collection sooner rather than later, as I’m nostalgic for that Edge heel run up until the Anonymous Raw GM angle.

14). EC F’n W

The ECW revival was very real in the mid-2000s. Rob Van Dam’s suggestion to Vince McMahon that WWE should throw an ECW reunion of sorts drummed up a heap of enthusiasm for what was once considered to be a dead brand. Not only was this not so, ECW merchandise and DVD sales boomed during this period, and the poster child for ECW shirts was “E-C-F’n W.” The shirt has been parodied by other promotions, such as AEW, and best of all, it’s been printed on both black and white.

13.) Just Bring It

Nobody could coin a catchphrase like The Rock. In one night, he was able to get “Boots 2 Asses” trending on Twitter, and that one simple phrase eventually took on a life of its own as a T-shirt. “Just Bring It” was no different, in fact, it also inspired the name of the third title in the SmackDown video game series. Like many iconic wrestling shirts before or since, the beauty in this shirt is the simplicity, and because of that, it’s been printed a handful of times, including “Team Bring It” and the patriotic variant to commemorate 9/11. The latter version passes the nostalgia test, as I can easily visualize The Rock in his sleeveless shirt, sunglasses and sweatpants talking about poontang pie and The SmackDown Hotel.

12.) Nexus

“You’re either Nexus or against us.” Although Nexus shirts reportedly didn’t sell well during the summer of 2010, they were popular in my house. Even though this was a heel group, and one with a ton of organic heat, people gravitated toward the simple design. The Nexus armbands were an extension of the shirt, as up to that point, only T-shirts were the way stables would show unity. For fans who liked to go against the grain, this was the shirt for them.

11.) Yes!

The Yes! Movement was a massive deal back when I was in college, so much so that I’ve probably seen as many Daniel Bryan shirts out in public as any wrestler, period. His Che Guevara parody shirt is one of my all-time favorites, but the “Yes! Yes! Yes!” shirt was the one I would see most often when I’d be out and about. The beauty of it is that it incorporates Daniel Bryan’s signature maroon color, which he’s all but trademarked as his own at this point. It also set up the spin-off “No! No! No!” shirts, which probably didn’t sell as well, but still succeeded in making me laugh. If you were to take a time machine back to the day Daniel Bryan signed with WWE, nobody would have predicted he’d become the star he became. Having a kickass shirt to sell certainly helped.

10.) Brahma Bull

The more preferable of the two Rocky shirts on this list, The Rock’s Brahma Bull was such a cool design. The idea behind the bull stems from The Rock’s zodiac sign, Taurus, which also helps explain his relentless style in the ring. The beauty of the Brahma Bull logo, however, is in the details. Once again, it’s pretty simple and has been done multiple times over, however, one thing I didn’t notice until recently was that The Rock’s Brahma Bull is also giving The People’s Eyebrow. It’s not the edgiest design in the world, but it’s probably the design most closely associated with The Rock.

9.) Macho Man

The Macho Man T-shirt is not only one of the most iconic, but also one of the most influential wrestling shirts of all time. For a while, the standard WWE T-shirt was just a picture of the wrestler on it. They seem to have sold reasonably well for the time, but they were uncreative, uninspired and representative of a time before wrestling blew up and dipped its toes in the mainstream. The Macho Man shades design is one of the oldest on this list and has aged incredibly well. You can buy it from multiple outlets in a few different colors, though it’s probably best remembered in the powder purple design Randy Savage wore on TV a handful of times.

8.) John Cena

The “John Cena T-shirt” has unintentionally become one of the more iconic wrestling designs. These shirts have a way of all looking different while being inherently the same. There are minor differences in the actual design, but at this point, there have been enough colors made of these shirts to make the rainbow. Roy G. Biv would be proud. It’s also one of the great marketing ploys in WWE. There aren’t many outfits a lime green or Kool-Aid Man red T-shirt would go with, but that doesn’t stop people from buying them. It’s also cool how the design has spawned the occasional easter egg, like how his green and yellow on black shirt parodies the John Deere logo.

John Cena with a new Super Mario Bros. 3 inspired shirt. #SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/AVNiy02BZi
— PWUnlimited (@PWUnlimited) August 22, 2021

7.) Cactus Jack: Wanted Dead

This is the only Cactus Jack shirt you’ll need in your life. Coincidentally, it’s the only Cactus Jack shirt Cactus Jack needs in his life, too, as you’ll seldom see him wearing any other sleeveless shirt in the ring. The design, which harkens back to the ‘90s, is a little more complex than some of the other designs of the time, but markets the wrestler effectively. Cactus Jack is a wild card, and therefore, if you wear his shirt, you, too, can be a wild card!

6.) Bullet Club

Maybe what I’m about to say is a bit of a stretch, but without the Bullet Club T-shirt, there might not be an AEW as we know it. The Bullet Club shirt helped put Pro Wrestling Tees on the map and gave indie wrestling a much-needed shot in the arm. The Bullet Club also gave Japanese wrestling some much needed visibility stateside, and a lot of that had to do with having a T-shirt that people perceived as cool. Granted, it can get tricky. Non-wrestling fans who see this shirt might get the wrong idea. That said, if you wear this shirt out to a bar and someone comes up to you with a raised hand, go ahead and Too Sweet them because there might not be a better feeling. This shirt is also notable for its various spinoffs (I happened to pick up the Stephen Amell/Green Arrow Vigilante Club shirt).

5.) Best in the World

What can I say about this design other than it personified everything that was right and true about pro wrestling in 2011. Until CM Punk came to AEW, the design got locked up in litigation hell with Punk and WWE having disowned one another. To celebrate Punk’s debut in AEW, they brought back a more modern take on this design, which also comes on a black ringer tee, not at all unlike Roddy Piper’s “Hot Rod” T-shirt. That’s probably not a coincidence since Punk related to Piper so much as a kid, but it’s a distinguishing characteristic of the shirt and part of what makes this shirt one of the best. It’s also one of the highest-selling shirts WWE ever produced and cemented Punk’s status as a bonafide draw in an era where it’s tough to be considered one.

4.) Hot Rod!

Speak of the devil! I’m not sure if the idea to do CM Punk’s “Best in the World” shirt on a ringer tee came from Piper’s iconic “Hot Rod” shirt, but it worked wonders for both and added to the charm of each. I get that Piper wrestled in blue trunks, but he’s always felt naked without his signature shirt and kilt. It went perfectly with the character and I view it similarly to how I view the Cactus Jack shirt. This shirt was the source of Piper’s sharp wit and bravado. If you wear his shirt, you may feel some of that, not that I speak from personal experience or anything like that.

3.) Hulkamania

There’s just something about the red and yellow…whether you prefer “Hulkamania” on a red or yellow shirt, “Hulk Rules” or “Hulk (Still) Rules,” no shirt can match the charm of a Hulk Hogan shirt. A lot of that has to do with the man who wore (and ripped off) the shirts, Hulk Hogan. No, I’m not talking about Terry Bollea and his one-inch punisher. I’m talking about the well-hung, hot-dog skinned, All-American who will not hesitate to fight for his rights and yours. If you can distinguish between Hulk and Terry, then this might be the shirt for you. Hogan’s red/yellow might be the greatest color combination in wrestling, though, Bret Hart’s pink/black probably gives it a run for its money. What do you think?

2.) Austin 3:16

Ah yes, the shirt that brought WCW to its knees. When you see the words “Austin 3:16,” you’ll know why this shirt is as high on this list as it is. It may be the most iconic shirt of all time. Two colors, 10 characters. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

1.) nWo

This is the greatest, most iconic and most influential shirt in pro wrestling. It has probably stood the test of time as well as any shirt, and the simplicity has allowed for tons of spin-offs. Of course, you have the nWo Black and White shirt, the nWo Wolfpac shirt, plus the shirts of spin-off groups on top of it, such as the Latino World Order and Blue World Order. Further, the best shirt Randy Orton ever had was the shirt that parodied the nWo logo. It’s such a clean look!

The nWo shirt helped give WCW a shot in the arm at the start of the Monday Night War. That reason alone probably justifies this shirt’s ranking, but if you think about it, the number-one and number-two entries on this list of most iconic wrestling shirts helped start and end the Monday Night War. How cool is that?