The art of wrestling is told through the physical and verbal stories in the ring, but they can get more creative for individual wrestlers. Quite a few performers like to express part of their art through unique means of paint or masks. The masks have been associated with lucha libre wrestlers throughout the years. Rey Mysterio is the top example of a legendary wrestler becoming synonymous with his mask. There have been many other wrestlers wearing masks to fly under the radar. Wrestlers that you think of without a mask have either worn masks before getting famous or wore them for a short time.
The paint for one’s face or body is another way to add a unique look that plays into a character. Finn Balor is known for the Demon King paint that takes him to another level and plays into his alter ego. There have been many wrestlers to sport the paint at different points in their careers with less importance to their career. We will look at some familiar wrestlers that either rocked the mask or the paint at points in their runs, but it is not the look associated with their personas. Find out which wrestlers had fun looks you missed out on. These are ten wrestlers that once wore a mask along with another that have sported paint at some point.
20 Mask: Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt wore a mask for a short time in NXT for health reasons. Momentum was found for Wyatt in NXT with this gimmick before it made its way to television. Wyatt sustained a broken nose in NXT and did not want to take time off to lose his status as a rising star.
It ended up looking cool with a visual like Phantom of the Opera. Wyatt did not want to keep the mask beyond the need for it and itched it when he was cleared to compete without it. A spooky mask may be a fun addition for Wyatt whenever he returns to change up his look.
19 Paint: Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes has found enough success since leaving WWE to make fans forget about his time as Stardust. The gimmick of Cody portraying a new version of his brother’s Goldust character led to huge failure. It led to Rhodes requesting his release from WWE and starting fresh on the independent circuit.
The career of Cody has taken off following the incredible runs in Ring of Honor and New Japan and the success of All In. Fans are excited to see All Elite Wrestling’s future. We likely will never see Cody sporting the face paint to ruin the success he’s created for his career. Stardust is gone forever.
18 Mask: Andrade
Andrade was a highly successful wrestler internationally before joining WWE. His incredible lucha libre run as La Sombra found him success in CMLL and New Japan as a top talent. Triple H made the call to have Andrade (then known as Andrade "Cien" Almas) unmask before making his debut in NXT.
Andrade's look is something that Triple H felt would make his career have a higher ceiling. Andrade was a tremendous NXT star without the mask and is trying to find success on SmackDown. Many purist wrestling fans were upset that "El Idolo" did not bring his mask to WWE, but it seems to have worked out for him.
17 Paint: Barry Windham
Barry Windham's career deserves more respect when talking about the great '80s and early '90s stars. Windham brought consistency to any promotion he worked in. The Four Horsemen were arguably at their best when Windham replaced Ole Anderson and teamed up with faction mainstays Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard.
One forgotten part of Windham’s career took place in WWE. A new gimmick featured him wearing face paint. It looked comical and fans did not take him seriously. This character is among the worst ideas to come from WWE in the '90s. Windham luckily has his career remembered for the better days.
16 Mask: TJ Perkins
TJ Perkins is trying to find relevance in 205 Live after a disappointing start for the cruiserweight division. The Cruiserweight Classic ended with Perkins winning the tournament and the Cruiserweight Championship to start the new project. However, he lacked the personality to make it work and lost the title within a month.
Impact Wrestling also felt the same about Perkins and decided to put a mask on him. TJP played a masked character for its most recent run in the company. He eventually unmasked with a big segment featuring Hulk Hogan. Perkins has yet to find success in a major company without the mask.
15 Paint: Vampiro
Many fans today know Vampiro for his role as the commentator and an on-screen personality for Lucha Underground. The career of Vampiro peaked in the '90s with impressive runs in AAA and WCW. A move from AAA to WCW would introduce him to new fans when he feuded with Sting, among others, in the WCW run.
Vampiro wore face paint during his WCW run and that inspired the feud with Sting. The idea of two mysterious wrestlers with paint led to the two having a few matches. Vampiro looks like a different person today, but he was once known for the face paint and dreadlocks.
14 Mask: Trish Stratus
Injuries have led to a few different wrestlers having to wrestle while wearing protective masks. Trish Stratus had one of the more memorable instances of this after sustaining a facial injury in a match. During this time, Stratus was the face of the women’s division with no other strong stars to replace her.
WWE allowed her to continue appearing while wearing the mask to avoid further injury. Stratus played a heel character at the time that would use the mask to her advantage to get cheap heat. A great performer can use a protective mask to add their appeal rather than it becoming a weakness.
13 Paint: Blue Meanie
The Blue Meanie found success taking off in ECW. Not many expected him to have a long-lasting career due to his portly appearance and lack of athleticism compared to his peers. Meanie, however, won over the crowd by having a genuinely likable personality as a fun-loving character.
The gimmick was inspired by the villainous characters from The Beatles' animated film, Yellow Submarine. Meanie also decided to put some paint around his eyes to appear as glasses in comical fashion. It became part of the look that fans associated with him. Meanie surprisingly had a couple of runs in WWE to prove he was a successful performer.
12 Mask: Hulk Hogan
The strange creation of Mr. America would see Hulk Hogan wrestle in a mask for a few months. WWE wanted to change things up during the program of Hogan and Vince McMahon feuding. McMahon fired Hogan despite Hogan winning a match over him at WrestleMania XIX.
This led to Hogan pretending to be a different person under the Mr. America mask. Fans were in on the joke as he did the same moves and poses to anger McMahon. However, the real-life backstage struggles between the two would see McMahon let Hogan legitimately leave the company after failing to agree on a contract figure. Hogan unmasking in an untelevised segment on a prior episode of SmackDown was used as the kayfabe reason to fire him again.
11 Paint: Brutus Beefcake
Hulk Hogan’s on-and-off best friend Ed Leslie, aka Brutus Beefcake, was given chances in WWE and WCW thanks to Hogan’s power and influence. Beefcake made the jump to WCW with a big contract, thanks to Eric Bischoff doing everything in his power to convince Hogan to sign.
There were a few different characters and attempts at a push for Beefcake that never worked out. One of the sillier ideas would see him become a new character who only spoke two words -- "yes" and "no." Ridiculous face paint was given to try to add a different level of intimidation to him in the Dungeon of Doom. Fans didn’t take Leslie's new character seriously and the gimmick ended shortly after.
10 Mask: John Cena
John Cena has been involved in a lot of silly gimmicks throughout his career and one featured him wearing a mask. The Nexus faction had a great chance to be special, but it resulted in disaster. One of the biggest wins came when Cena was forced to join the group.
Wade Barrett would eventually “fire” Cena due to him refusing to follow orders. Cena returned under a mask with the new name of Juan Cena. It added comedy to an angle that was once serious. We recently saw the return of Juan Cena in a backstage segment where he was showing some love to the Lucha House Party.
9 Paint: Chris Jericho
One of the wrestlers to recently start using face paint for their character is Chris Jericho. The wrestling work of Jericho after leaving WWE has been incredible. Jericho reinvented his wrestling character again between the New Japan appearances and now signing with All Elite Wrestling.
The face paint was used by Jericho to add a different layer to his character different from what fans know him for. Jericho wanted to be an unpredictable heel and channeled a clockwork orange type character to get the heat. The paint may be gone now as Jericho revealed on his podcast he doesn’t plan to bring that look or element to his character to AEW.
8 Mask: Sami Zayn
Sami Zayn joined WWE for the NXT brand after a successful run on the independent circuit playing a completely different character. Ring of Honor, PWG and many international promotions would feature him as the masked character known as El Generico. His tag team with Kevin Owens (then Kevin Steen) put them both on the map.
Zayn recently admitted in interviews how difficult it was to start wrestling with the mask when NXT wanted that. It worked out for the best as he became a tremendous performer and the top star for NXT in its early days. Zayn will likely never go back to the mask unless he leaves WWE and wants to wear it for a match or two.
7 Paint: Luna Vachon
The late Luna Vachon was a very important figure for women’s wrestling in the '90s. Vachon wrestled a serious style unlike most of her peers that were spotlighted during that era. WWE found success with Vachon as both a wrestler and a manager. The pairing of Luna and Bam Bam Bigelow worked well together in the early '90s.
Vachon stood out with the face paint that provided an intimidating look. Her mohawk hairdo also played a huge role in her standing out and looking unlike any other woman in WWE. Many believe that Lucha deserves induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, but it has yet to come.
6 Mask: Alberto Del Rio
Alberto Del Rio had a huge career wrestling in Mexico before even signing with WWE. His run as Dos Caras Jr. would feature Del Rio wrestling under a mask. It paid tribute to his dad Dos Caras as both had great legacies as top stars in lucha libre.
Del Rio was not against losing the mask when WWE wanted to repackage him. The logic was similar to Andrade Almas’ story as WWE felt he was too attractive to wear a mask. Del Rio found success as a world champion in WWE on multiple occasions. It would have been highly unlikely for Vince McMahon to push him with the same confidence if Alberto kept the mask in his WWE tenure.
5 Paint: Crush
Crush joining Demolition is a wrestling moment most fans forget about since the better days for the tag team took place before he joined. The career of Crush kept going as a singles wrestler getting a decent push after Demolition ended. Crush continued to wear face paint following his departure from Demolition.
The face paint added a unique look to the already intimidating Crush. Unfortunately, he could never fulfill the potential many expected from him. Crush did still have a fun career in WWE, with the face paint era standing out as his better days before he changed his look up to join the Nation of Domination.
4 Mask: The Undertaker
The Undertaker wore a mask for a short time in his career due to injury. WWE needed all hands on deck in the mid-'90s when the product started to dwindle. They could not risk losing a big name like The Undertaker after he sustained a brutal facial injury at the hands of Mabel.
The Undertaker would wear a protective face mask during his matches to avoid further injury while still performing on a nightly basis. The mask just added to his persona with the first appearance of any mask that looked like the Phantom of the Opera. WWE even created action figures with the mask for Undertaker in recent years, due to longtime fans having nostalgia for the look.
3 Paint: The Godfather
Charles Wright entered the WWE Hall of Fame thanks to his Attitude Era gimmick, but he had a few different characters before that. There was the time in The Nation of Domination as Kama Mustafa and a run in The Million Dollar Corporation as just plain Kama before the change to The Godfather.
However, the first major gimmick for him in WWE was Papa Shango. It was a unique concept for the character meant to oppose Ultimate Warrior. Shango wore face paint and had a spooky look while using voodoo to make his opponents sick, including Warrior in a few memorable moments. The character did not last too long, and he ditched the paint for his future runs.
2 Mask: Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan has become one of the biggest stars for the WWE today after a long run on the independent circuit. Under his real name of Bryan Danielson, he got started out after training with Shawn Michaels and getting mentored by William Regal. Bryan did not express much personality and decided to wrestle with a mask.
The name of The Dragon was given to Bryan as he wrestled in the colorful mask for a short time. Bryan eventually lost the mask and returned to wrestling under his real name. He became a top indie star for Ring of Honor while keeping The Dragon nickname. The mask is so far in the past for Bryan that most fans have no idea he ever wore one.
1 Paint: The Usos
The idea of matching war paint for tag team wrestlers can add another element of teamwork to them. Jimmy and Jey Uso have been in the WWE system for a long time now. Their first major push as faces led to them starting to wear colorful face paint that matched to bond them together.
It was a look to make them stand out, as the younger fans often cheered for The Usos loudest at the live events. A decision was made to ditch the face paint and The Usos have wrestled without it for a long time now. Don’t expect them to go back to the paint, given how successful they’ve been in recent years with the "Uso Penitentiary" gimmick.