Sarath Ton Shares Why Roman Reigns Lacked Red Gear At Survivor Series

Speaking recently with Sam Roberts on Notsam Wrestling, WWE designer Sarath Ton explained why Roman Reigns was dressed in black instead of red during The Bloodline’s WarGames event at last week’s Survivor Series (via Fightful). According to Ton, the decision came down to Reigns’ choice rather than by production intent. You can read a few highlights about the situation and listen to the full episode below.

On why Reigns chose to wear the black gear: “The Bloodline, I did all the red. You will notice that there was one member of the Bloodline who wasn’t in red, and that’s not because it wasn’t made, it was because the fabric texture wasn’t what he thought it was going to be. He put it on to see how it felt. At the end of the day, he’s the Tribal Chief, he gets to do what he wants. It would have been cool if they were all dressed in red, but at the same time, he does his thing and you’re following him.”

On how Ton uses his gear design to reinforce the show’s narratives: “One of the small details, I’ve been working on Sami’s stuff for a little while and when he transitioned into the storyline with the Bloodline, we had talked about putting ‘Honorary’ on his tights and for whatever reason, things didn’t progress as quickly as we wanted them to, as far as the gear. All of a sudden, the moment comes where Roman bestows the shirt on him. I was telling him, ‘had we put ‘Honorary’ on your pants when you wanted to, you wouldn’t have gotten the emotional beat that you got then because now Roman is bestowing you with the Honorary name.’ When we were doing the tights for [Survivor Series], I modeled his stuff closer to Roman’s than the Usos. We almost made an Honorary version that was closer to what the Usos were wearing, but in my head, you’re trying to follow Roman so your look is going to be more like his and the Honorary is going to be more pronounced in the front than the Usos on the back. There were other beats where, if we had done it ahead of time, I don’t think it would have hit the same way in the story. This isn’t something talked about with anyone, it’s just something we try to keep in mind when we create these outfits, we’re still telling a story. Anything we can do to assist in that, whether subconsciously or not, people can look back and are like, ‘I see that detail I didn’t notice before.'”