The WWE Just Pulled a Page Straight Out of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Playbook
The world of professional wrestling is finally taking note of the stylistic advancements made by Philadelphia's most patriotic tag-team — it’s only a matter of time before The Trashman blasts his way to the title belt.
This past weekend marked the biggest event of the year for World Wrestling Entertainment fans as WrestleMania 41 took over Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for a two-night extravaganza of red-blooded, white-feathered, pure American entertainment. The main storyline of the WWE’s annual summit of Raw and SmackDown wrestlers was the championship performance of John Cena in the final WrestleMania match of his career, and although much of the tweeting and squawking about the biggest weekend in wrestling this Monday morning was about the international superstar, fans of a certain independent wrestling outfit are chirping up about how the most profitable and powerful company in scripted fighting may have stolen its costuming ideas from America’s most beloved amateurs.
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When Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch took the belts in the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, wrestling fans and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia watchers alike noticed that Valkyria showed up to WrestleMania looking like she was about to get blasted in the eyes with the Talibum’s pocket sand:
In the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Five classic “The Gang Wrestles for the Troops,” the show parodied the WWE’s semi-regular all-American event WWE Tribute to the Troops by having Mac, Charlie, Dennis and Frank celebrate Ben the Soldier’s return from tour and budding romance with one Desert Rose by putting on a wrestling show and rewarding the veteran with the pair of jean shorts that would become his standard-issue uniform for the rest of the series.
Taking after Charlie and Mac’s original tag-team duo “The Pigeon Boys,” Charlie, Mac and Dennis don painted-on six-packs and sleeves of white feathers that would later inspire the actual WWE champion Valkyria in order to become “The Birds of War.” The Gang also enlists the services of one Da’Maniac, played by the late wrestling legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, whom they book to fight Rickety Cricket dressed as a Taliban terrorist But when the cops nab Da’Maniac on some unpaid parking tickets, the Birds of War join the War on Terror themselves — and promptly get their tailfeathers kicked.
But while the Birds of War may have laid an egg in their amateur debut, over the 15 years since “The Gang Wrestles for the Troops” first aired, their influence on the wrestling industry has clearly soared to the point where belt-worthy fighters flock to their wardrobes for inspiration. Now that the WWE is copying the arm-feathers of the Birds of War, it might be time for the wrestling organization to finally invest in another aviary advancement from the show: Mixed martial artists are already fighting like a crow thanks to Fight Milk.
