“In my lifetime I’ve learned; hard work pays off, dreams come true, bad times don’t last, but bad guys do.” – Scott Hall, WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Speech, April 5, 2014
In honor of RSVLTS latest WWE Collection drop (four button-down Kunus), and with SummerSlam on the horizon, we wanted to shed a little light on one shirt in particular which has a pretty incredible story behind it: a story of people coming together to create something special in the wake of the world losing legendary wrestler Scott Hall earlier this year.
When Hall passed on March 14, it sent a massive shockwave throughout the WWE universe. As avid wrestling fans, it hit us at HQ pretty hard too. Over the course of his 30+ year career, the man who was so good at being bad endeared himself to millions with a plethora of characters that gave our heroes hell – most famous among them being the toothpick tossing, spit-curl rocking, Razor Ramon.
Immediately upon hearing the sad news about Scott, social media lit up with people sharing stories of how he had influenced them. They offered support, compared memories, and said their "thank yous" to the larger-than-life figure. One group that was particularly affected was the WWE artist community. Their outpouring was noticeably personal, visceral, and heartfelt across the board.
Even though we at RSVLTS had never done a tribute shirt before, we felt called to do so for Scott. Finding ourselves in uncharted waters, we reached out to legendary WWE artist, Nolan Harris, to see what he thought of the idea. To our delight, not only was Nolan on board, but he offered to take the lead as art director for the project, reaching out to fellow artists and organizing the overall design of the shirt. The response he got was nothing short of amazing. In total, 19 renowned artists from around the globe dropped what they were doing to be a part of this unique effort.
The only request we made was that they each produce a rendering of Scott that represented how they personally remember him. One by one, the designs trickled in...each amazing in its own right. The fact that the artists’ depictions spanned such a wide variety of characters, time periods, and moments from Scott’s career speaks to just how remarkable he truly was at his craft. When we finally saw the finished product, we were completely blown away.
The below design, aptly named "The Tribute" (available in short-sleeve KUNUFLEX™), is a tangible representation of the love the world felt for Scott Hall. We hope you can feel that love when you button up this bad boy. Yes, we said bad boy, because remember: “Bad times don’t last, but bad guys do.” Hey yo, Scott, this one’s for you.
Special heartfelt thank you to all of the contributing artists who made this possible: Nolan Harris, In Brightest Day, Abdul Malik, The Joshua Saga, RNKF, Juan “Of the Dead", Mel Coleman, Doug Halliday, Mau Toscano, Migs, Lauren Moran, Josh Campbell, Jackson Zorn, James Diato, Hal Haney, The Fresco, Erik Calavera, Jonathan Bartlett.
