Gift Ideas: What to Buy a Pro Wrestling Fan | Smark Out Moment

Gift Ideas: What to Buy a Pro Wrestling Fan

Posted by Outside Interference Tuesday, May 14, 2024

It doesn't even have to be Christmas in July for it to be the perfect time to pick up a gift for someone you love or for yourself, and when it comes to professional wrestling fans, there is no season of giving—as there are no seasons at all. Pro wrestling never stops, and the all-year grind applies to being a fan, as well.

There is no off-season to switch your baseball cap to your football jersey. Instead, you live and breathe by Monday Night Raw, Wednesday Night Dynamite, Friday Night SmackDown and Saturday Night Collision, among other shows.

So be it for a birthday, an anniversary, or just for something special, if you're on the hunt for the perfect gift for the wrestling aficionado in your life, you're in luck, as you actually have a lot of options to pick from!

Whether they're in the WWE Universe, consider themselves All Elite, or they're the die-hard fans packing the indie houses, a major part of any fandom is expressing that through apparel, merchandise, toys, collectibles and more.

Let's dive into some of the many suggestions that you could pick up for a pro wrestling fan to make them shout out "This is awesome!"

Print-on-Demand Products

Of course, we have to start off by mentioning the products you can pick up if you're a fan of the pro wrestling website and podcast Smark Out Moment itself!

Smark Out Moment doesn't have a dedicated shop of its own (yet), but we do have shops on Redbubble and TeePublic to help put funds back into the website and channel operations.

If you're a fan of some of the inside jokes from over the years or some general wordplay, or just fond of the Smark Out Moment logo itself that you want to place on a t-shirt and proudly promote us, those 2 services offer you the option to take any of those designs and apply them to a number of different products, including tees, tank tops, hoodies, crewneck sweatshirts, baseball tees, hats, wall art, mugs, pillows, totes, pins, phone cases, magnets, stickers and even stationary.

Search around on those sites for specific phrases or artwork revolving pro wrestling and you never know what type of products you might find, and know that purchasing from those artists helps fund independent content creators quite a bit!

Pro Wrestling Apparel - Direct Sellers

Of course, if you want to go directly hopping into the apparel side of things from direct sellers instead of any print-on-demand services, you're likely going to find your way onto either a company's specific stores (like WWEShop or ShopAEW) or you'll end up on Pro Wrestling Tees.

There are lots of other vendors, but Pro Wrestling Tees is the go-to for most wrestling fans that has the biggest presence online, a great reputation and a wide selection to choose from.

Many wrestlers set up partnerships there, rather than to try to do something on their own, as in exchange for taking some of the profits, they know their merch is being distributed through a reliable outlet that can also put more eyes on themselves than if they did all the marketing themselves.

Shirts are what Pro Wrestling Tees is mostly known for, but they've expanded into other avenues, offering products like trading cards, keychains, foam hands, patches and even the Pro Wrestling Crate mystery box.

Pro Wrestling Costumes & Cosplayers

Want to go one step further beyond just shirts and apparel, and get into more of the costumes and cosplaying side of things?

Halloween Costumes and Fun.com are longtime partners of Smark Out Moment we'd love to give a shout out to, as they frequently sponsor our giveaways like our most recent WrestleMania XL contest.

They're both great resources to pick up a quick Halloween costume of a pro wrestler or, as is the case with many sites, pick up some t-shirts or other random WWE merchandise, too.

Want a WWE logo rug? They have it. Need some new WWE slippers or an ugly Christmas sweater featuring Macho Man Randy Savage? Browse around and you never know what might be the perfect wrestling gift on these pages!

Pro Wrestling Action Figures, Funko Pops, Toys & Collectibles

If there are fans of it, there are toys of it. That is a rule that certainly applies to pro wrestling, as you can find nearly every type of toy or collectible out there with some kind of wrestling attachment to it.

Quickly searching on something like Ringside Collectibles alone is already an overload and they tend to only primarily focus on action figures (though they do sell other related things, naturally). You can just as easily find a Funko POP version of nearly every wrestler out there, too, if that's more your thing.

But if you go to your local comic book shop, collectibles reseller or anything that fits that niche, you're going to find a treasure trove of everything you can think of as well as things you never knew existed. Even if you're a fanatic about collecting like Matt Cardona and Brian Myers (note: check out The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast if this is something you're interested in).

Just be prepared for some pretty hefty prices if you have your eyes set on some of the rarer collectibles, as WWE's Most Wanted Treasures has shown that getting your hands on some ring-worn gear or a former King of the Ring's crown or piece of memorabilia can set you back thousands upon thousands of dollars!

Pro Wrestling Championship Titles

We all like to receive trophies for our accomplishments, so why not feel like a WWE champion by picking up one of their title belts?

This is one of WWE's best-selling sections, as you can tell any time you look at a packed arena and see how many fans have a belt on their shoulder.

Whether you're picking up a smaller toy version for a child or more of the deluxe or realistic replicas that are more expensive, they even sell replica side plates, old championships that have long since been retired, commemorative belts with designs revolving around particular Superstars, and more.

WWE has also expanded heavily in the past few years into other sports, partnering up with the NFL and MLB for belts that feature logos of teams like the New York Yankees, Kansas City Chiefs. If you're a fan of pro wrestling and baseball or football, that's a two-for-one gift idea!

 

Naturally, in those sports, you also get things like a Super Bowl ring.

WWE doesn't sell replicas of the WWE Hall of Fame rings, and you can't purchase a legit remake of the AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring and pretend you're MJF, but you can get creative and try to forge one of your own.

There are custom rings merchants out there that you can use to create your own one of a kind template that gives you the same feel as if you're wearing something akin to that.

Similarly, if you want to go the simpler route, WWE used to sell smaller wrestling title belt buckles instead of the belts themselves.

Those sadly don't appear to be on the market anymore, but if you want to get creative, you can always get custom belt buckles made and design your own.

At least it won't be as heavy as carrying around one of the true championship belts, and you can be a bit more subtle in your fandom or personalize it in any way that you want to make it seem like it was created specifically for you, as you're the champion.


Pro Wrestling Events Tickets

The most self-explanatory gift that gives the biggest bang for your buck is to surprise a pro wrestling fan with tickets to an upcoming event.

They're more expensive now than ever before, in many ways, but if you can afford it, the look on their face not just when you show them, but the whole time they're at the event is going to be more than worth it.

Of course, you don't have to splurge and go with VIP packages for WrestleMania where you might as well put out a mortgage on your home. There's a new pay-per-view every few weeks, television episodes of Raw, SmackDown, Dynamite and Collision nearly every day, and bonus events like autograph signings, photo events, fan conventions like WWE World and WWE Experience in Saudi Arabia and more.

But even if you can't afford WWE tickets or a seat at the next All Elite Wrestling event, don't ignore the more budget-conscious option of checking out your local indie wrestling federation!

Those shows are significantly cheaper (sometimes as low as even $5) and give you the opportunity to have an up close view, interact with those wrestlers directly, and see some fresh talent before they become huge stars.

Subscriptions to Pro Wrestling Networks & Services

Nothing beats seeing pro wrestling live, but no one—not even superfans like Vladimir, Sign Guy, Smilez and "Brock Lesnar Guy" Michael Corcoran—can attend every show. The travel just makes it too difficult.

Thankfully, everything but the house shows are televised in one way or another, and the pro wrestling fan you're buying a gift for is most likely subscribed to at least one, if not all, of these services.

In the United States, WWE fans are watching on Peacock (likely Premium Plus tier to avoid commercials). Elsewhere, they're watching on the WWE Network. A monthly or yearly subscription to that service would give them a lot of content to watch.

AEW fans are buying pay-per-views through a number of methods like Bleacher Report and would certainly appreciate you footing the bill for one of those events, while Ring of Honor fans can only see those shows through ROH HonorClub.

In the same regard, pro wrestling fans tend to digest a lot of podcasts and are subscribed to many YouTube channels. Frequently, those analysts they're fond of have subscription services of their own for exclusive content, extra episodes, bonus material and more.

For example, Smark Out Moment's Patreon and YouTube channel membership are the only places you can watch members-only Darkcast episodes or directly sponsor an episode topic through the "Pick Your Poison" option.

Whether it's a wrestler's Twitch stream or even more risque services (like OF—you know what we mean), there are lots of ways to turn subscription services into gifts.

Pro Wrestler Cameos

A very popular service over the past few years is to buy a personalized message from a pro wrestler through something like Cameo.

For a while, this got so big that WWE put it on ice, trying to work out a deal where wrestlers could only do this if they earned money directly through the company. Eventually, that was all sorted out, and now, many of your favorite Superstars offer these services.

Mick Foley is among one of those most popular, along with Bret "Hitman" Hart, but it isn't just limited to retired legends, as active Superstars like NXT's Thea Hail and even the normally quiet Solo Sikoa are on the platform.

This takes the idea of an autograph signing up to a whole new level, as you get to not only surprise your loved one with it, but having a personalized message means their favorite wrestler can get in on some inside jokes, pull a prank or simply wish them a happy birthday.

Pro Wrestling Books, Video Games, DVDs & More

The classics never go out of style.

Even though DVDs are not as much of a thing anymore, with the way WWE edits old footage, there's a market out there for old discs of events in their pre-streaming versions.

New wrestling games are made all the time. More updates and season passes for DLC are added all the time to AEW Fight Forever, WWE 2K24 and a quick search on a platform like Steam will give you unaffiliated generic wrestling games that can be just as fun, if not better.

If reading is another pastime of the wrestling fan you're buying a gift for, there's always a new book around the corner. Becky Lynch's recent memoir The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl has been heavily praised. Ronda Rousey is cooking up one of her own, as are many others, and there are hundreds from the past that still hold up as great reads today.

Pro Wrestling Training Sessions

Last, but certainly not least, if the person you're buying a gift for actually wants to become a professional wrestler themselves, why not get their journey started by signing them up for some classes at their local independent promotion?

Imagine the excitement as they lace up their boots and step onto the canvas for the first time, surrounded by the sights and sounds of a real wrestling ring. From mastering basic holds to perfecting high-flying maneuvers, each training session brings them one step closer to realizing their dream of becoming a wrestler. And even if they never make it to the big leagues, the lessons learned in the ring—discipline, perseverance, and teamwork—will stay with them for a lifetime.

Nearly everywhere has a pro wrestling school somewhere in the area that is willing to take on new students to help pay their own bills, keep their venue running, and help put their names on the map as being responsible for training the next big thing.

Be careful to do your research to find the right school that has a solid reputation, manage their expectations that this is a very physical business most people can't actually work in, and then, let them loose and see what magic they can make between the ropes!

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