The Rockers Played Role In Launch Of Backstage WWE Division

Though it's not always appreciated to the full extent it deserves, wrestling gear plays an extremely important role in defining and emphasizing aspects of performers' characters. At the same time, the gear needs to be comfortable and hold up under extreme athletic conditions. None of that would be possible without the team of gear designers hard at work behind the scenes.

Appearing on the "Not Sam" podcast hosted by WWE contributor Sam Roberts, WWE gear designer Sarath Ton provided a peek through the curtain by sharing more about the company's current gear designer team, as well as the division's origins in making gear for Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty of The Rockers.

"There's three of us backstage," Ton said. "Myself, Terry [Anderson], who's been there since the very beginning ... [and previously] her sister Julie. The position of seamstress at WWE was created specifically for Terry and her sister, so literally everything that you've seen from, I want to say, '87 on, '88 on. ... The first set that Julie made was for The Rockers, and then they started ordering from her all the time. Then they started making stuff for The Hart Foundation, Sensational Sherri, and then eventually they got brought on."

Ton also revealed that it was none other than Undertaker and Kane manager Paul Bearer who helped bring the two women in full-time for the company as seamstresses on the road.

"Julie was a fan of The Rockers, and she had made tights for them and just brought [them] to them one day," Ton continued. "And they just really liked it, so they kept ordering them from her." Ton credits the two women for helping define the aesthetic of professional wrestling from the 1980s through the 1990s.