($19.99?! Well, now it’s just not financially practical for me to tear it off my body every time I wear it, so what’s the point? Props: Cagewriter)
One of the many great things about the era of the internet is the ability of one moment or idea to take off and become a force all its own, no matter how fleeting or trivial it might have been. I’m not just talking about ghost riding the whip here, either. Take Tom Lawlor’s most recent UFC entrance where he channeled Hulk Hogan at Fight Night 20 in an effort to let the audience know that he was a) a real American, who b) fights for the rights of every man. Pretty sweet, right? In homage to that entrance, Tri-Coasta is offering up this t-shirt so all you Lawlormaniacs can show your support.
But after checking out the shirt and thinking through the possible ramifications of buying/wearing it, we are once again forced to ask ourselves, is this awesome or not awesome? Join us after the jump.
Reasons it might be awesome
If you’re a North American male between the ages of 18-40, you probably watched somewhere between a little and an unhealthy amount of pro wrestling growing up. If you didn’t, you probably got suplexed by the kids at school who did. If you’re a woman, your belief that pro wrestling is stupid has probably remained unchanged since you first became aware of what it was.
The point is, a shirt design that is an homage to pro wrestling’s golden age seems pretty cool. In fact, it’s cooler than an actual Hulkamania t-shirt, which seems just a little too irony-prone to be safely out of the hipster fashion zone, plus it has the advantage of being somewhat obscure to your average man on the street. And, like we all learned when we got really into ska music in junior high, as soon as too many people know about something it ceases to be cool.
Also, Tom Lawlor himself is a fighter worth supporting, as is evidenced by this interview, so there’s that.
Reasons it might not be awesome
As much as we like the idea of clothing that confuses most people, that comes at a price. Playing as it does on a well-known trope, this shirt just invites annoying pricks at parties and old men at Ace hardware to ask you to explain it to them. And since you just came here to get really drunk and embarrass yourself/get a spare key to your apartment made so you can give it to your girlfriend as a sign that this relationship is totally going somewhere, odds are you don’t have time for this nonsense.
Plus, it’s a shirt that says another man’s name on the back. Something about that just feels…weird. That’s the toughest part about fighter t-shirts, really. As much as I may want to wear a t-shirt with Fedor choking out a dragon, I don’t necessarily want Fedor’s name blazoned across my chest. That’s why a Rolling Stones t-shirt is cool, but a Mick Jagger t-shirt isn’t.
So that’s where we are after spending way too much time thinking about whether to buy a twenty-dollar shirt. Help us out by giving your input in the comments.
If you find yourself stopping in mid-sentence to wonder why you failed to give this much thought to other, far more important decisions in your life, you are not alone. As long as you’re in deep thought mode, you might want to reconsider that embarrassing drunkenness/spare key stuff, too. Both are bound to have some major unintended consequences.
can’t even read it. Fail. Should just have a smiley face (or the fighters face outline) with a dirty sanchez and on the back “filthy whatever whatever..”