wwe

Bryan Danielson | Aberdeen, WA

This (Daniel Bryan) Bryan Danielson shirt design was one of my favorite projects to work on. I cheered on the legendary AEW and  WWE Superstar since his days wrestling for independent promotions like Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA. WWE briefly let him go in 2010 after a controversial incident on television. He was scripted to choke out an announcer with a tie during an on-screen attack with his Nexus cohorts. Sponsors objected to the violent image, and WWE officials decided he went too far.

While he was banished, he resumed wrestling on the independent wrestling scene. Bryan decided to capitalize on the publicity the angle earned him and had a contest for his fans.

Bryan Danielson shirt design story

The premise was to design a shirt, four colors or less, depicting Bryan as an angry teddy bear. Preferably, he would clutch the infamous pink tie from the firing incident.

After reading this news, I sprung to action. First, I hand drew the anthropomorphic, scowling fur ball, posing in Bryan’s signature satin ring robe. Next, I scanned in the sketch and cleaned it up using Adobe Photoshop. Then, I transitioned the art to Illustrator, where I redrew it to create a vector file.

I colored in the bear’s ring gear with his signature deep red hues. He is holding up a finger signaling #1, a signature taunt that eventually evolved into his double fingers up YES! gesture.

Before he could declare a winner of the contest, WWE hired Bryan back. He then returned as a surprise partner at that year’s SummerSlam facing his former partners in the Nexus. I believe I would have won, since several fans emailed me wanting to buy their own copy of the shirt.

AWA World-1 Wrestling / Valdosta, GA

Ramma-lamma-lamma – Rock n’ Roll is King! I always have fun when I create a project that involves one of my outside interests. Whether it’s designing band merchandise such as one-inch buttons, or a wrestling poster design such as this one, I always have an edge because of my lifelong passion for the subject matter.

Years ago, the AWA pro wrestling promotion was one of my main print and web design clients. During this time, the AWA was divided into several regional offices in the USA. An independent promoter ran each territory. The Georgia based World-1 South group hired me to create this poster for an upcoming event in Ellaville, GA. A tournament featuring 80s stalwart tag team stars the Rock n’ Roll Express was the main event of the evening.

Old school pro wrestling poster design

I poured through a few of my old coffee table wrestling books to find the perfect old photo to feature. Ricky and Robert are putting their dukes up, ready for action.

Then I scanned in an old bandanna to frame in the classic babyface team. My actual bandanna was turquoise, but I recolored it pink to make it pop over the blue grunge background.

I used the Mesquite “Wild West” style font for the main title “Old School Tag Team Tournament”, as well as a grunge stamp style font throughout for a strong, masculine feel. The vintage disco style font for the words “3rd Annual” tops the design off with a flamboyant flair. Finally, I tilted the elements in the foreground to help the art catch a few more eyes.