Nic Nemeth never shied away from pushing the limits with his ring gear, but according to him, WWE wasn’t always on board.
Speaking with Ella Jay, the former WWE star looked back at several outfits the company banned, revealing that some of his favorite ideas were quickly shut down backstage. One of the first outfits to land him in trouble came before a Hell in a Cell pay-per-view when WWE officials told both him and John Morrison to stop tanning so much. Rather than taking the criticism seriously, Nemeth decided to turn it into a joke.
“We did, um, it myself and Nitro were fighting at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and we were told we were opening the show and this was about a week or before and they said, ‘And hey, we you guys need to stop tanning so much.’ Yeah. And so I took that as, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll show you mfers.’ So I’m tanning outside. I’m spraying myself. I’m going to tanning beds back when I did that. And we both show up like melting orange brown… I wanted to go head to toe. I think it’s zebra print, zebra gloves, zebra trunks, zebra vest… It’s head-to-toe animal print.”
Nemeth said the stunt got exactly the reaction he expected once he walked backstage. While he and Morrison found the whole thing hilarious, management saw it as a step too far and felt the outfit hurt his presentation rather than adding to it. Nemeth disagreed with that assessment, arguing that his credibility had far more to do with how he was being booked than what he happened to be wearing.
“He goes, ‘Didn’t you guys get that memo about not tanning?’ And we start laughing. And I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re proving a point. Uh, don’t tell me not to tan. Uh, don’t tell me not to do anything cuz I’ll do it.’ He goes, ‘First of all, this is absurd. This is cutting into your credibility… this outfit. Never wear this again.’ And I go, ‘My credibility has nothing to do with my clothes or hair. It’s more the booking, but that’s fine. You got it.'”
That wasn’t the only time Nemeth found himself testing WWE’s patience. He admitted that whenever he got frustrated creatively, he’d often find subtle ways to express it through his gear. One design managed to stay under the radar for nearly a year before someone finally questioned what it meant, and when they did, Nemeth didn’t bother giving a diplomatic answer.
“Another time I had ‘Over It’ on my ass and I got away with it for about a year and then someone—it wasn’t Vince didn’t even ask—someone just went over and told on me. ‘Hey, what is that supposed to mean?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, over it. You know, the shitty booking of me while I go steal the show.’ And he goes, ‘Okay, I’m not telling him that.’ And then walked away.”
Nemeth also thought he had the perfect callback during his feud with Rusev. Inspired by Rick Rude’s classic gear, he had Lana’s image airbrushed onto the front of his tights, believing it fit the storyline perfectly since all three were friends behind the scenes. In his mind it was a fun old-school wrestling reference, but WWE didn’t see it that way.
“The Lana pants… Rick Rude did it, and I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ Lana and Rusev are genuinely my friends. I’ve already had a make out with her in a small room while Rusev watched, which is already weird. So, I go, ‘This would be great.’ I’m spray painting her on my crotch, and I debated having her face the other way. And I was like, ‘That might be too much.’ So, I just spray airbrush her on the pants. ‘This is going to be great. We’re fighting over a girl and this is a call back to the 80s. Like this is cool.’ And was told never wear that again.”
Another idea met the same fate when Nemeth designed gear that made it look like he was literally wearing the Intercontinental Championship around his waist. He thought it was another creative visual that fit the story he was telling in the ring, but it didn’t survive WWE’s approval process either.
“I got a pair of pants with the Intercontinental title across the entire front. Like I’m wearing it… and was also told never wear that again.”
Looking back, Nemeth said those experiences summed up one of his biggest frustrations with WWE’s creative environment. He felt performers were constantly encouraged to stand out and think differently, but only until those ideas crossed an invisible line. Over time, he even started wondering whether some of his ideas would’ve been approved if they had come from a bigger star.
“‘Don’t you guys want to have any fun?’ It’s like, would you tell Shawn Michaels to not wear the Intercontinental title… Would you tell Shawn to do this?… That’s what I effing thought. Okay, got it. So, it’s like it became like, I’m being told this because I’m me. If somebody—it was someone else—it would be okay. So, that’s the frustrating part. It’s go be creative. Go step on toes. Not those toes.”
Even after all the warnings, Nemeth admitted he wasn’t ready to give up on the ideas completely. If he thought a piece of gear added something to his character or a storyline, he’d occasionally find a way to sneak it back onto television anyway.
“All of those were banned from ringside, but I snuck them in a couple more times.”
For Nemeth, being creative was never the hard part. Knowing where WWE’s invisible line was—and deciding whether to cross it anyway—was a completely different story.
Which of Nic Nemeth’s banned gear ideas do you think WWE should have let him wear?
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