Kassius Ohno aka Chris Hero aka Chris Spradlin is re-establishing himself back in the WWE almost four years after his initial departure from the company. He’s steadily climbing up the NXT ranks and currently finds himself in a heated feud with Hideo Itami possibly culminating next month at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, the latest installment of the NXT pay-per-view.
While Ohno is the WWE’s ‘knockout artist’, he’s also the dude with some pretty awesome custom wrestling gear inspired by some memorable basketball teams. From the ‘Dream Team’ to Jordan’s Bulls and even the Sacramento Kings, Ohno has worn some really dope stuff for his matches. Don’t be surprised if he comes to the ring wearing some sort of Brooklyn or New York inspired gear for NXT TakeOver next month.
Kassius Ohno recently had an interview with ESPN’s Tim Fiorvanti discussing his love for those NBA jerseys and the league as he grew up.
“This actually started back when I was in NXT last time. I got a set of wrestling gear inspired by the old school Orlando Magic. I graduated high school in ’98, so 1990 to the early 2000s when basketball was really vivid in my life and in my mind. Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, those guys were very influential to me when I was a kid, so I just thought, ‘Okay, well, our home base is Orlando. It might be kind of cool to get an outfit made that looks a little bit like that.’ Actually, not many people caught on at the time because I really only wore the outfit maybe three or four times, so I had that, and that was the original inspiration.
My first set after that, I got three sets, and they were based on the Seattle SuperSonics, the Chicago Bulls, and Dream Team. At first, they were just teams that were vivid in my memory from my childhood, 1992 Dream Team. It doesn’t get any better than that. What an iconic team. Then, you’ve got the Michael Jordan Bulls, and I like the cursive style jersey, like from possibly his rookie year, I believe. Then, the Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp SuperSonics. How badass were they? How cool were they? I just thought all these could translate to outfits. Even if somebody doesn’t know basketball, doesn’t put 2 and 2 together, design-wise, it still looks pretty cool.”
