At the
1865 World's Fair, Theobaud Bauer debuted the mask, wrestling as "The Masked Wrestler" in
Paris, France. He continued wrestling using the mask throughout France as part of a
circus troupe in the 1860s before moving on to the
United States in the early 1870s. December 14, 1874, The Charlotte Democrat reported on an interesting story from Bucharest Romania about an open challenge made by local wrestler, Jules Rigal being accepted by a gentleman wishing to remain anonymous. The gentleman was a masked wrestler named "The Great Unknown," and rumored to have been Prince Stourja, a Moldavian nobleman with a reputation of Herculean strength. The success of this match lead to the several successful nightly rematches between the two opponents. Until one night a talkative member of the troupe let it slide that "The Great Unknown" was another clown from this circus. The Bucharest crowd became aware of this and lead to a disturbance that cause "The Great Unknown," the manager, and their troupe to narrowly escape being torn apart by the crowd. The police succeeded in suppressing, what seemed, to be a serious riot brewing that night. This event being the earliest documented masked wrestler in Romania and the earliest pro wrestling riot. February 21, 1891, San Antonio's "The Light" reported on an upcoming wrestling event being held at San Antonio's historic Washington Theatre. A large crowd was expected to come see the wrestler, Christol fight "the masked unknown." The identity of the masked wrestler was unknown but reports detailing his expert mastery in the sport. In 1915, Mort Henderson started wrestling as the "Masked Marvel" in the
New York area making him the second earliest North American wrestler to perform with such a gimmick. In the subsequent years many wrestlers would put on a mask after they had been used in an area, or territory, that their popularity and drawing ability diminished, it would be an easy way for a wrestler to begin working in a new area as a "fresh face". Sometimes workers wore masks in one territory and unmasked in another territory in order to keep their two identities separate.
The mask in the US and Canada Many wrestlers have had very successful careers while masked such as
The Destroyer/Dr. X,
Mr. Wrestling,
Masked Superstar and
the Spoiler. In the days where professional wrestling was more regional, with less national television coverage, it was not uncommon for more than one person or team to use the same gimmick and mask, and there have at times been several masked "Interns", "Assassins" and "Executioners" working simultaneously. Tag team wrestling has seen more masked teams, using identical masks to create unity between wrestlers. Successful masked teams include
the Masked Assassins, Blue Infernos and the Grapplers. One of the best-known North American masked wrestlers was
Big Van Vader, who was also known for his in-ring agility despite his large frame during the 1980s and 90s. Other notable examples are
Rey Mysterio,
Mankind,
Kane,
Doom,
Edge & Christian as 'Los Conquistadores' &
Owen Hart as 'Blue Blazer'. Today, masked wrestlers are not a common sight in the
United States and
Canada, but masked wrestlers have a long history in that region, dating back to 1891. A mask sometimes will be used by a well known wrestler in a storyline where they must get around various "stipulations" or betray a trust without revealing their true identity. For instance wrestlers who are suspended in a storyline return under a mask under another name, usually with it being very obvious who is under the mask. Examples of this include:
Hulk Hogan as
Mr. America,
Dusty Rhodes as
The Midnight Rider,
André the Giant as
Giant Machine,
Brian Pillman as
The Yellow Dog,
The Miz as
The Calgary Kid,
Dan Marsh as
Mr. X and
Bo Dallas as
Mr. NXT.
Jimmy Valiant once returned under a mask as
Charlie Brown from Outta Town after losing to
Paul Jones in a
"Loser Leaves Town" match (a stipulation where the loser of the match must resign from the organization for which he worked). Mickie James also revealed to be under the mask when she returned to WWE as
Alexa Bliss's partner.
The mask in Lucha Libre The
Luchador mask, known as a mascara in Spanish, “draws from Mexican history in which
Mayans and
Aztecs warriors would complete for superiority”. The style of the masks represent “animals, gods, mythological figures and other elements of Mexican folklore”. "The mask is the luchador's identity, both in and out of the ring. Luchadores will keep their faces and real names a secret throughout their entire lives; some of the more iconic luchadores have even been buried in their mask." “WWE Hall of Famer
Eddie Guerrero once wrote that ‘Calling him a legend doesn’t even do justice to how big he was. In his heyday, Santo was bigger than
Hulk Hogan and ‘Stone Cold’
Steve Austin combined’”. The Mexican fanbase quickly took to the mystery of the masked man and soon after, Mexican wrestlers themselves started wearing masks, becoming "enmascarados". Early masks were simple with strong, basic colors designs that could be recognized even in the back row of the arena. Over the years, the masks evolved to become very intricate and colorful, drawing on Mexico's rich history. ’ wearing a “mascara’ (mask). Lucha Libre is still an incredibly popular sport in Mexico, with souvenir masks being sold at events and online. Masks are colorfully designed to evoke the images of
animals,
gods, ancient
heroes, and other
archetypes, whose identity the luchador takes on during a performance. Most wrestlers in Mexico start their career wearing a mask, but over the span of their careers, a substantial number of them will be unmasked. Sometimes, a wrestler slated for retirement will be unmasked in one of his final bouts or at the beginning of a final tour, signifying loss of identity as that character. Sometimes, losing the mask signifies the end of a gimmick, with the wrestler moving on to a new gimmick and mask, often without public acknowledgement of the wrestler's previous persona. The wrestling mask is considered "sacred", so much so that the intentional removal of a mask is grounds for disqualification. If a wrestler is unmasked during the match, his top priority is to cover up his face and they usually get help from people at ringside to do so. Most masked wrestlers wear their masks for any and all public appearances, using the mask to keep their personal life separate from their professional life; because of the mask, most Mexican wrestlers enjoy a higher degree of anonymity about their personal lives. Some wrestlers become larger-than-life characters, such as
El Santo, one of the most popular cultural icons who always wore his mask in public, revealing his face only briefly in old age, and was even buried in his trademark silver mask.
Luchas de Apuestas In lucha libre, the highest achievement is not winning a championship but winning the mask of an opponent in a
luchas de apuestas, a "bet fight" where each wrestler bets their mask. The
luchas de apuestas is usually seen as the culmination of a long and heated storyline between two or more wrestlers, with the winner getting the "ultimate victory". It is customary for the loser of such a match to reveal his real name, where he's from and how long he has been a wrestler before taking the mask off to show his face. Unmasked wrestlers will wager their hair instead, risking having his or her head shaved bald in case of defeat. There can be several reasons to book a
luchas de apuestas beyond the obvious purpose of elevating the winner. If the loser is a younger wrestler, then the loss of the mask can sometimes lead to a promotional push after unmasking, or the wrestler being given a new ring persona. Older wrestlers often lose their masks during the last couple of years of their career, often for a big payday depending on how long and successful a career they've had; the more successful the wrestler that's unmasked, the bigger the honor for the winner. The first
luchas de apuestas match was presented on July 14, 1940 at
Arena México. The defending champion
Murciélago was so much lighter than his challenger
Octavio that he requested a further condition before he would sign the contract: Octavio would have to put his hair on the line. Octavio won the match and Murciélago unmasked, giving birth to a tradition in lucha libre. in
Madrid,
Spain. High-profile
luchas de apuestas include El Santo winning the mask of
Black Shadow, Los Villanos winning the masks of all three Los Brazos (
El Brazo,
Brazo de Oro and
Brazo de Plata),
Atlantis winning the mask of
Villano III,
La Parka unmasking both
Cibernético and
El Mesias,
Villano V taking
Blue Panther's mask and
Último Guerrero winning the mask of Villano V. Some wrestlers have made a career by the volume of masks they have won rather than the general quality of their opponents—wrestler
Super Muñeco claims to have won over 100 masks, with at least 80 verifiable
luchas de apuestas wins, while
Estrella Blanca is said to have the most
luchas de apuestas, with over 200 masks won.
The mask in Japanese wrestling The Destroyer, an American, was the first masked wrestler to work in
Japan during the 1960s but remained a novelty with very few Japanese wrestlers choosing to wear a mask. The first Japanese masked wrestler is considered to be
Shozo Kobayashi, who briefly competed under a mask as
Fukumen Taro ("Masked Taro"). In the 1970s
Mil Máscaras became the first Mexican Luchador to work on a regular basis and became very popular with the fans. The original
Tiger Mask,
Satoru Sayama was inspired by Mil Máscaras to create the masked "Tiger Mask" persona. After the success of Tiger Mask several wrestlers have adopted the mask, mainly lighter wrestlers who like Sayama had a more high flying and flashy style. The wrestling mask is held in more regard by the Japanese fans than the North American fans but isn't as "sacred" as the Mexican mask, meaning that the wrestler can perform both masked one day and unmasked another if he so wishes. Famous Japanese masked wrestlers include
Jyushin Thunder Liger,
Último Dragón,
El Samurai,
The Great Sasuke,
Dragon Kid and
Bushi.
The mask in British wrestling Although at live shows, masked wrestlers were as prolific in
British wrestling as its American counterpart, they were largely kept off
ITV's television coverage until the late 1960s. Successful masked wrestlers up until this point included Count Bartelli (Geoff Condliffe), the White Angel (
Judo Al Hayes) and Doctor Death (promoter
Paul Lincoln as the top villain of his own major independent promotion). Masked wrestlers were frequently disparaged by top promoters during this period as a symptom of the allegedly "anarchic" conditions in American wrestling - indeed the first masked wrestler on ITV, The Outlaw (Gordon Nelson) was announced as being an American. The most famous masked wrestler in British history,
Peter Thornley, the original British version of
Kendo Nagasaki, made his professional debut - complete with masked Samurai gimmick - in 1964 but did not appear on television until 1971. Nagasaki's first big victory was a win over mentor (and real life trainer) Bartelli in a 1966 mask vs mask match. His own mask was pulled off by opponent
Big Daddy during a televised match in December 1975, an important turning point in Daddy's rise in popularity. Nagasaki later voluntarily unmasked in a ceremony in the ring on TV in December 1977. By 1986 he was back under the mask and was the top villain of
All Star Wrestling from this point until his second retirement in 1993. Another successful masked wrestler from the 1970s was
blue-eye martial artist Kung Fu, played by Eddie Hamill (1943-2025), who lost his mask after a 1976 televised defeat by
Mick McManus but continued to wrestle unmasked still as Kung Fu, winning the
British Heavy Middleweight Championship in 1986. At Christmas 1979, Big Daddy defeated and unmasked Mr. X (Arthur Byce) on television. Subsequently, during the 1980s in
Joint Promotions, masked wrestlers were generally built towards being fodder for Daddy to defeat, unmask and humiliate in headline tag matches on ITV, such as the Spoiler (
Drew McDonald)
King Kendo (aka Red Devil), Battle Star (Barry Douglas), El Diablo, the Black Baron, the Masked Marauders tag team and The Emperor. Meanwhile in All Star Wrestling - apart from Nagasaki - they were mostly treated as short lived reflections of recent fads in popular culture. In 1995, All Star shows were frequently headlined by a masked tag team based on the
Power Rangers franchise, until the copyright owners intervened. In the 21st century,
El Ligero wrestled successfully for both the traditional and American-style promotions.
The mask in French wrestling Bauer as the Masked Wrestler of Paris in the 1860s, would be followed by more masked wrestlers in his home country. A wrestling mask was known in France as a "cagoule" (hood) and fans would often chant "he he la cagoule" to encourage the "bon" (babyface) to unmask a masked "méchant" (heel). Doing so, however, was banned under French wrestling rules - if unmasked, a wrestler would crouch on the mat face-down until the referee restored his mask. (This tactic was adopted by Mexican lucha libre [see above] and it became one of the reasons why masks became the rule there.) One of the earliest successes of televised
wrestling in France was the feud between babyface masked wrestler
L'Ange Blanc, and black clad heel masked wrestler
Le Bourreau de Bethune Der Henker was previously played in the early 1970s by Remy Bayle. British wrestler Dave Larsen wrestled in France under a mask as Zarak. In the 1980s, masks were primarily worn as a component of more outlandish characters such as the tag teams Les Piranhas and Les Maniaks (a team of evil masked clowns) and Mambo Le Primitiv, based on the film character of
King Kong. This tradition continued in the early 21st century with Cybernic Machine, a masked wrestler playing a "computer virus" character, who was a successful heel in France. ==Anatomy of the wrestling mask==