5 Unmaskings That Helped Careers (& 5 That Hurt Careers)
In Lucha Libre culture, a wrestler's mask is heavily tied to their identity - take Rey Mysterio as an example. While kayfabe is no longer as prominent as it once was in America, in Mexico, wrestlers still take the task of keeping their identity hidden very seriously. Losing a mask is seen as the ultimate failure in Lucha Libre.
RELATED: 5 Best Wrestling Masks Of The 1990s (& 5 Worst)
Not every instance of a wrestler losing their mask has been disastrous though. Throughout the globe, including Mexico, several performers have lost their masks and gone on to experience even more success than before. Of course, there have also been several instances where being unmasked has proved to be detrimental to a wrestler's career.
10 Helped: Tiger Mask II
Over the years, there have been some iconic Japanese masked wrestlers, most notably Jushin "Thunder" Liger. The Tiger Mask character also has a rich history in Japan. The character was inspired by a Japanese Manga character with the same name and debuted in New Japan Pro Wrestling in the early 80s. The original Tiger Mask was portrayed by Satoru Sayama until 1983.
In 1984, All Japan Pro Wrestling purchased the rights to the character and gave the role to Mitsuharu Misawa. In 1990, Misawa abruptly decided to unmask in the middle of a match. Hindsight proves it was the right move for Misawa as he would go on to be a multi-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion in AJPW after unmasking.
9 Hurt: Mr. America
In 2003, Hulk Hogan was back in WWE. He would eventually begin working a whacky masked gimmick as Mr. America. In kayfabe, the alter ego was Hogan's way of getting around Mr. McMahon's insistence that he sit out the rest of his contract. The less-than-stellar gimmick had an abrupt ending when Hogan quit WWE over creative and payout issues.
His departure was explained in storyline when the footage was shown of Mr. America unmasking after the June 26, 2003 SmackDown went off the air. Since Mr. America was revealed to be Hogan, Mr. McMahon was well within his rights to fire him. The Mr. America character was never seen again. Unsurprisingly, not many fans cared.
8 Helped: El Hijo Del Fantasma
In Mexico, once a performer is unmasked, there's no going back. In America, the rules on unmasking aren't as strict. El Hijo Del Fantasma is a great example of this. In 2018, El Hijo Del Fantasma lost a match at Triplemania 26 forcing him to unmask and reveal his identity. In 2019, Jorge Luis Alcantar Bolly signed with WWE and became a member of the NXT roster.
In April 2020, Bolly would once again take on the identity of El Hijo Del Fantasma as he competed in a tournament for the interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Fantasma would win the tournament. Shortly after, he would again unmask and rename himself Santos Escobar. Since then, Escobar has experienced decent success in NXT and the main roster. He's currently a member of the revamped LWO with lots of potential for future success.
7 Hurt: Rey Mysterio
This is perhaps the most famous unmasking in American wrestling history. In the mid 90s, Rey Mysterio debuted in WCW and became an instant sensation. Mysterio would become arguably the most popular Cruiserweight in the entire company. For some inexplicable reason, though, Eric Bischoff seemed hell-bent on unmasking Mysterio and the other masked Luchadors.
RELATED: 8 Things You Forgot About Rey Mysterio's Time Without A Mask In WCW
In 1999, Mysterio and Konnan would lose a Mask vs. Hair match to Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, leading to Rey's unmasking. Mysterio has said the unmasking cost him financially as far as merchandise sales. His popularity would take a slight dip and he wouldn't really rise up the WCW card, leaving many to wonder what the whole point of unmasking him was. Luckily he would put his mask back on when he joined WWE.
6 Helped: Konnan
In the late 80s and early 90s, Mexican Lucha Libre was going through a boom period. One of CMLL's biggest stars at the time was Konnan El Barbaro. In 1991, Konnan and his arch-rival, Perro Aguayo, were booked to compete in Lucha Libre's most iconic match type, Mask vs. Hair. Their encounter would see an estimated 20,000 fans jampack the legendary Arena Mexico.
After a back-and-forth clash, their match would end controversially after Aguayo kicked Konnan into referee El Gran Davis, leading Davis to disqualify Konnan. In the end, Konnan would honor the referee's decision and have his brother unmask him. This endeared him to the Mexican audience and made him an even bigger star than before.
5 Hurt: Kane (2013)
The American wrestling audience is a lot more forgiving than other wrestling fan bases. At least when it comes to wrestlers putting masks back on. They accepted Rey Mysterio when he put his mask back on in 2002. They also accepted Kane when he decided to mask up again in 2011, after nearly a decade without it. Going back to the well repeatedly eventually gets old, though.
In 2013, WWE booked Kane to once again unmask. This time, Kane would remove his mask and hand it to Stephanie McMahon, pledging his allegiance to The Authority in the process. This would be the birth of the much-disliked Corporate Kane. Some characters (like Kane) aren't meant to be overly humanized.
4 Helped: Eddie Guerrero
Masks are sacred in Lucha Libre. A performer's mask is essentially an extension of them. Some legendary performers like El Santo identified so closely with their masks and wrestling persona that they're even buried with their masks on. Understandably, if a performer went against that tradition, they would be hated. That's exactly what happened with Eddie Guerrero.
In the early 90s, Guerrero was working in Mexico under a mask as Mascara Magica. In 1992, Guerrero would voluntarily unmask and reveal his identity. This immediately made Guerrero a hated heel. In hindsight, it was probably the best decision of his career. Under his real name, Guerrero would eventually become WWE Champion.
3 Hurt: Psicosis
Eric Bischoff did some truly great things during his time as WCW's shotcaller. Unfortunately, it wasn't all rainbows and lollipops. While Bischoff did turn WCW into a juggernaut of a promotion, he also made some bad decisions that ultimately hurt the company. One of Bischoff's questionable decisions was unmasking several WCW luchadors without much reason.
RELATED: 10 Things Wrestling Fans Should Know About The Legendary Mexican Wrestler Psicosis
In Bischoff's mind, seeing the performer's faces would make fans connect with them more. That wouldn't turn out to be true. Psicosis' unmasking is proof of that. While he was never an upper-echelon Cruiserweight in terms of popularity, Psicosis had a nice following. After he was unmasked by Billy Kidman in 1999 though, his character's mystique took a serious hit.
2 Helped: Kane (2003)
In 1997, Kane debuted as arguably the most dominant monster heel in WWE history. After a few years though, WWE had booked Kane to be a lot softer around the edges. To put it bluntly, WWE was ruining the character by over-humanizing him. In 2003, though, WWE found a solution that would revert Kane to his old monstrous ways.
Kane would be booked to lose a Mask vs. Championship Match to Triple H. After unmasking, Kane would go on a furious rampage, attacking everyone from his tag team partner, Rob Van Dam, to Linda McMahon. The unmasked Kane was arguably more successful than his original masked version. This version of him would win the World Heavyweight Championship in 2010 and hold it for longer than a day.
1 Hurt: Juventud Guerrera
During the mid and late 90s, WCW had a lot of success thanks to their Cruiserweight division. While Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko get a lot of the credit for the division's success, they weren't the only performers putting on great matches. One of the division's underrated stars was Juventud Guerrera. Juvi also had one of the more attractive mask designs on the roster.
Unfortunately, in 1998, Juvi lost a match to Chris Jericho and was forced to unmask. Much like Psicosis, the unmasking greatly affected Juvi's mystique. In any other promotion, it would've also hurt his career trajectory as well. In recent years, Juventud has put the mask back on but he's never regained the aura he had before being unmasked.
