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The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Top 5 Masked Wrestlers
The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. We take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to participate and give us their Top 5 on said topic. So, onto this week’s topic…
Week 284 – Top 5 Masked Wrestlers
Who are your top five masked wrestlers of all time?
Mike Hammerlock
5. Mil Mascaras – If you listen to Mascaras’ detractors, he’d refuse to be on this list if he only came in at #5. Deal with it Mil. Blue Demon didn’t make my list. Neither did Vader or Tiger Mask or the Destroyer. Or Aldo Montoya! My apologies, I digress. You can make an argument that Mascaras is the prototype for all masked wrestlers. He’s the guy who took lucha libre worldwide. Maybe he is impossible on a personal level, but that kind of underlines his greatness. Everybody wanted him despite the prima donna attitude.
4. Jushin Liger – Google image search “masked wrestler” and the first returns are pics of Liger. That ought to tell you something. He invented the shooting star press and his name is on both the Liger Bomb and the Liger Suplex. The man progressed the sport like few others. In terms of all-action high flyers, Liger probably is the gold standard. You can argue others, but most of the other contenders were aping Liger’s act. When he had to tone it down because the human body can only take so much of a beating, he began to specialize in mat-based classics. Very few wrestlers generate the kind of instant enthusiasm that Liger does, which tells you that behind that crazy mask is one hell of a wrestler.
3. Rey Mysterio Jr. – I suppose I ought to mention why I didn’t pick Mankind or Kane. They went the KISS route and took off their masks. I’m a firm believer that unmasking equates to the death of that character. So, compared to the others on this list, Mankind and Kane had short careers. Rey-Rey has spent two decades under the mask. Beyond that, the mask was an essential part in elevating Rey from the cruiserweight ranks to being a world champion. The mask gave him mystique, it made him more than his height and weight stats suggested he could be. Obviously Rey has more talent than Mikey Whipwreck, but the major reason why Rey worked as a champion and Whipwreck didn’t was that Rey’s mask enabled him to become something mystical. Maybe he really is made out of vulcanized rubber. Maybe he is something more than human.
2. El Santo – It’s difficult to lump El Santo in with other wrestlers. Age-wise he was a contemporary of Lou Thesz. He was as much a movie star as he was a wrestling hero. It’s probably best to consider him a religious figure. People pray to El Santo idols. The closest comparison to him might be Maurice “Rocket” Richard, who has inspired widespread idolatry in Quebec. El Santo is the godfather of lucha libre even if he wasn’t the greatest technical wrestler. He became more legend than man and he defines what it is to have a mask take on a life of its own.
1. Mr. Wrestling II – The question is who do I view as the all-time greatest masked wrestler? Doesn’t require so much as a moment’s thought: Mr. Wrestling II. I remember watching Georgia Championship Wrestling in my youth and Mr. Wrestling II was always the most exciting match on the card. Plus, he was Jimmy Carter’s favorite pro wrestler. You know any other pro wrestlers who counted as the favorite of the President of the United States? No, you do not. That’s because no other wrestler has ever held that distinction. I mean, JFK surely enjoyed ladies wrestling in stag films and Reagan would have thrown money at a masked wrestler if he called himself El Contra, but we don’t have to speculate when it comes to Mr. Wrestling II. He collected belts in various southern territories, more than 50 throughout his career. The most remarkable thing about him though was Mr. Wrestling II wasn’t young or terribly fit at the height of his popularity. However, under the mask he was able to project an air of reliability during a time period when society was undergoing regular upheavals. You could rely on Mr. Wrestling II. He didn’t always win, but he always fought the good fight. He represented the everyman in the ring. I also suspect that without Mr. Wrestling II improbable national popularity, Ted Turner’s interest in the wrestling business would have been fleeting at best.
Shawn S. Lealos
5. Big Van Vader – So, who cares if you can see his face, Big Van Vader still wore a wrestling mask when he wrestled and was one of the best big man wrestlers of all time. I remember watching Leon White in the AWA and he was a big, boring wrestler. Give him a few years in Japan, and he returned to WCW as a MONSTER. Seriously, watch his matches with Sting and you will see how awesome Big Van Vader really was.
4. La Parka – Ah, the Chairman of WCW. Of course, La Parka started out in AAA where he made his name and then WCW grabbed him when they were raising every cruiserweight from ECW to Mexico and Japan. He was never a main event star, but he was a highly entertaining wrestler, bringing his chair to the ring where he would play it like a guitar and then smash it over someone’s head. He later became part of the Latino World Order with Eddie Guerrero.
3. El Santo – When talking about masked wrestlers, Mexico is where the true spirit of the masked wrestler lives and there might not be a more popular masked wrestler in Mexican wrestling history than El Santo. Not only was he a great professional wrestler, but he also helped push wrestling into movies long before the WWE ever dreamed it was possible. Most of his career saw him battle Blue Demon, but El Santo was really the one of the icons of masked Luchador wrestling.
2. Mil Mascaras – If El Santo was the greatest of all time, why do I have Mil Mascaras ranked higher than him? When I was a kid, it was Mil Mascaras that was the face of masked wrestlers and that might be because he brought his Luchadore style to the United States. A lot of wrestlers hate Mascaras for being an arrogant jerk who only cared about himself, but that doesn’t take away from his Hall of Fame career.
1. Jushin “Thunder” Liger – Sure, there have been great wrestlers out of Japan like Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, Great Muta and Jumbo Tsuruta, but I put Jushin “Thunder” Liger right up there with all of them. Much like Mexico, Japan loves their masks with famous American wrestlers like Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero wearing masks when the wrestled in Japan. Liger always had the cool masks and was one of the most exciting Japanese wrestlers I have ever seen wrestle in America. In his time in WCW, Liger had some of the most exciting matches in the cruiserweight division.
Scott Rutherford
5. Tiger Mask/Satoru Sayama – A true innovator. Tiger Mask was nothing more the NJPW trying to cross-promote and garner interest by making a popular anime character come to life. The thing with Satoru Sayama is he’s one of the very best light heavyweights we’ve ever seen. The man took the gimmick and created a legend. Curiously he spent many of his early years working in Mexico and England learning rather than Japan which may explain the innovative offence he introduced when he started working as Tiger Mask. A lot of his offence centered on leg strikes, which often clashed with the more submission-based offence promoters favored and Satoru has often had issue with management while as a performer. Funny now that leg strike make up a large part of a wrestlers repertoire these days…Anyway, we all know the series of matches he had with Dynamite Kid that changed the landscape of wrestling. Even today, while we’ve seen the moves those two introduced a million times there’s just something special about the way Tiger Mask moved and executed his spots that will never be matched.
4. Jushin Liger – It took me a while to come round to the Cult of Liger. For a long time I avoided Puro. Not that I had any real bias against it but I never could invest myself in the matches. Things and personal tastes have changed over time and for the last 5 years or so I have really gone out of my way to mine the history of certain performers and Jushin Liger now ranks high as one of the greatest wrestlers I have ever seen. It’s funny, you only see the guys hands and hair (maybe…no idea if it’s really his or not) and the rest of his body it completely covered, yet he somehow can convey all the emotions needed to be a great wrestler. Highly innovative in the ring he is the inventor of the Shooting Star Press and variations of the power bomb and suplex. During much of the 90’s and 2000’s if you put in him the ring with a guy 230lbs or less a ***+ match was sure to follow. Even though he mainly sticks to tag matches these days he still manages to put forward quality efforts and garners much respect from fans and peers alike.
3. Mil Mascaras – I’m not a big fan of Mascaras. Maybe I have read too many things about his ego and treatment of others whom he deemed beneath him, but I have no problem saying Mil is one of the great masked wrestlers just through sheer longevity and influence. Jesus, the man is 72 and still getting in the ring. I know Mick Foley has had pot shots at Mil for the way he performs and his selfishness in the ring but Foley is in his 40’s and having multiple back surgeries just so he can sit without pain but Mil gets around and still performs and makes good money. For me, I always saw pictures of Mascaras in the PWI in the mid-80’s and would look in awe and imagine what he was like to watch because he looked so cool. Years later I got to see him perform and I was disappointed. But through his look, his charisma and his ability to make himself seem better than he really was he forged one of the most impressive careers you could imagine.
2. Kane – I may catch heat for this choice let alone being so high. For starters, I’m not a complete WWE fanboy and second I haven’t got that much time for Kane as a performer. However, if you’re talking about a masked wrestler and the impact they’ve had on the landscape around them, Kane is way up there. Since 1997, we’ve had variations of Kane and the Kane back-story and the mask itself. What’s really interesting is that the gimmick was probably not supposed to last much past WM14 but Glen Jacobs has managed to make it 18 years now by continually tweaking the look of the character and has been able to easily slip between heel and face depending in the needs of the company. Testament to his ability, just when we though Kane was done and dusted he goes and forms a team with Daniel Bryan and played a large part in given Bryan the last parts of his character that he rode to headlining WM30. Either way, you have to respect Kane for surviving the trends in wrestling and morphing his character from the Attitude era to the PG era without missing a beat.
1. Rey Mysterio – The culture of masked wrestlers is not that ingrained in modern wrestling in North America. Often associated with job guys or the alter ego of a popular wrestler, it’s always been a tough journey for any masked wrestler to break through to any great effect. Often you will find that a masked performer will be big in Japan and Mexico but only ever reach cult status elsewhere. Rey Mysterio SHATTERS that convention and then some. What’s even more impressive is that he’s managed to do that standing 5’6” and barely 175lbs for most of his career. Even more astonishing was that he became a legit wrestling superstar as part of the WWE where he would often struggle to reach shoulder height on most of the wrestlers. He innate ability to thrill fans and gather sympathy is almost peerless and so talented is Mysterio he would go up against guys like The Undertaker at Royal Rumble 2010 and have you believing he may beat the Deadman. I know these days a lot of hardcore fans have taken to dismissing Rey as a wrestler and it’s a pity as he really is the best “little man” we’ve ever seen and likely the most iconic masked wrestler in history.
Justin Watry
5. Mr. America – Just on the basis that this WAS Hulk Hogan! Do not tell anybody though. Apparently, a lie detector said otherwise. Because of the fact that you have to kinda-sorta-but-not-really add his legacy as The Hulkser to his summer 2003 run as Mr. America, it makes sense. Plus, with everything that went down in the United States around this time, I actually understood WHY WWE went this route. Now, yes, the entire run was cut short and ended up being a disaster due to all the backstage babbling. However, for a few short weeks, it was fun. Not the Roddy Piper match but everything else. Only in wrestling kind of stuff…
4. Doink The Clown – My personal choice. Nothing about wins. Nothing about titles. Nothing about longevity. Nothing about tenure. Nothing about match quality. I wrote going to my first ever-wrestling show last year for The Layfield Report, and meeting Doink The Clown was a part of that. It absolutely meant the world to me. As a young kid getting to climb into the ring after the show to meet Doink was just so cool. I still remember bragging to my buddy that I went over the second rope, while he went under the second rope. Either way, that moment still holds a spot in my heart when discussing wrestling. The full article is buried somewhere in my Layfield Report archive.
3. Kane – I want to thank Twitter user James for this suggestion. Otherwise, I may have left out old school Kane. Since this is where I have to fill space, let it be known that I 100% supported the idea of Kane being unmasked in 2003. At that point, the ‘monster’ was long gone. He had dated Tori, kissed Terri Runnels, teamed with The Hurricane, spoke often without that voice box thingy, only held the WWE Title for one night, ‘hulked up’ with the one and only Hulk Hogan backstage, made jokes with The Rock, turned face/heel a million times, lost more often than not on pay-per-view, dealt with the entire Katie Vick fiasco, and was clearly without much of a direction teaming with Rob Van Dam in early 2003…so yeah, it was time for him to be unmasked. Well beyond saving the persona of a mysterious masked figure. That being said, his introduction in 1997 and most of 1998 and 1999 was great stuff. Deserves a spot in the top five.
2. Mankind – Growing up, Mankind was my favorite wrestler. I now Shawn Michaels is the greatest WWE Superstar of all-time but before his 2002 return, it was Mick Foley. Especially Mankind. To this day, he is on my bucket list of guys I want to interview. Even after being repeatedly shut down, I still put in my offer every few months. Therefore Mick, if you are reading this, you know how to reach me. Any time would be appreciated. He is THAT intriguing of a character and WWE Hall of Famer. Very few people in the industry captivated me in the 1990’s like he did. Even up to his retirement(s), I was a fan every step of the way. Cactus Jack was cool, Dude Love was fun, wrestling as Mick Foley was awesome, but all three WWE Championship wins were as Mankind. Very close to making the #1 spot.
1. Rey Mysterio – No explanation needed.
Ryan Byers
5. Jushin Thunder Liger – The majority of the wrestlers on my list are people who were major headlining stars or characters who are significant in the history of professional wrestling. I wouldn’t quite put Jushin Liger into those categories, because, as a junior heavyweight, he was only rarely in a main event slot in his home promotion and he didn’t really blaze a new trail in wrestling as much as he followed in the footsteps of people who had already laid a groundwork for him. Despite that, he still cracks my top five for being one of the single-greatest in-ring performers that I have ever seen. Most people reading this will already know that, so I’m not going to beat you over the head with a list of great Liger performances. However, one thing that I think should have some attention drawn to it is Liger’s incredible longevity. This man is less than two months away from turning 50, he made his professional wrestling debut literally 30 years ago, he has broken his leg, he has had a tumor surgically removed from his brain, he has been booked by Vince Russo, and, after all of this, he’s still capable of putting together a great match with a Tommy End or an Adam Cole on a modern independent show or going to Pro Wrestling NOAH or CMLL for a run as a supreme asshole heel, and it’s all just as great as his matches with Brian Pillman or Hiro Hase all those years ago. For that alone, he deserves worlds of credit.
4. The Destroyer/Dr. X – The Destroyer is a pro wrestler from before my time. However, unlike some, I try not to limit my knowledge of wrestling’s history to only what I personally observed as a fan. Looking at things from an historical perspective, the Destroyer has to be considered one of the biggest masked wrestling stars in the history of the game. Born Dick Beyer in upstate New York, the man started wrestling in the mid-1950s but truly took off in the early 1960s when he put on a mask and became, for the first time, the Sensational, Intelligent Destroyer. His first big territory was Los Angeles’ WWA, where he was a rival of such legendary names as “Classy” Freddie Blassie and Pedro Morales. From there, Beyer’s popularity grew to the point that he was recruited by Verne Gagne’s AWA, though Gagne rebranded him as Dr. X instead of the Destroyer. Regardless of what you called the man, he was successful, having a run that included a reign as the AWA World Heavyweight Champion, winning and losing the belt from Verne himself and holding it for slightly over a year. Where the Destroyer had his biggest run, though, was in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he befriended the Giant Baba and even helped Baba in the office a bit. In fact, Beyer was such a big star that he managed to earn victories over three of the biggest stars in puroresu history: Antonio Inoki, Rikidozan, and the aforementioned Baba. He even became a crossover star, landing a significant role on a Japanese comedy series akin to Saturday Night Live or Laugh-In.
3. Rey Misterio, Jr. – I’ve written in more than one column for this website that I believe Rey Misterio, Jr. is a very influential, important character in the history of both Mexican and American professional wrestling who does not get half of the credit he deserves as being a transformative figure in the squared circle. Born in the United States, Misterio began his professional wrestling career in Mexico, where, due to his diminutive stature, he was almost booked as a “mini” (little person) wrestler before it was decided to give him an opportunity as a full-sized competitor. From there, he revolutionized lucha libre in some respects, as he was one of the first wrestlers to incorporate the psychology and selling of American professional wrestling into lucha, which previously had relied more upon showmanship and displays of machismo than it had on the drama that can be generated by an underdog babyface. After several years, Rey transitioned to wrestling in the US, where he exposed many fans to high-flying maneuvers that they had never seen before and broke down walls in terms of small wrestlers being pushed at the same level as muscle-bound heavyweights. Unfortunately, with WWE writing much of American wrestling’s history these days, Rey will probably not get the credit that he deserves in the eyes of many, but hopefully third-party sources will continue to recognize him for what he is.
2. Tiger Mask – Normally I don’t like to do ties or combination entries on lists of this nature, but the legacy of the Tiger Mask gimmick is so enduring and has been associated with so many excellent performers that it’s difficult to talk about one without incorporating the others. Originally the character was part of a Japanese comic book, after which it was turned into a gimmick for young junior heavyweight wrestler Satoru Sayama. Sayama absolutely revolutionized Japanese professional wrestling and in turn professional wrestling across the globe, creating a high flying yet hard hitting style that became the framework for junior heavyweights as a separate division and genre of the pseudo-sport from their larger comrades. It is this style that produced some of the greatest Japanese matches of the 1980s and 1990s and it is that style that the contemporary American independent wrestling style is based upon. In his later years, Sayama was also one of the first wrestlers to incorporate elements of mixed marital arts into worked pro wrestling matches, another revolutionary step. From there, the gimmick was transferred to Mitsuharu Misawa, and Misawa as Tiger Mask laid the foundation for his career, in which he was one of the biggest stars and best in ring performers in the history of the country. Though not nearly as big of a star as Misawa, excellent veteran wrestler Koji Kanemoto also began his career as Tiger Mask, and, even today, wrestler Yoshihiro Yamazaki remains a cornerstone of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s junior heavyweight division under the feline hood. There will probably never be a masked gimmick in wrestling that has a similar legacy.
1. El Santo – It’s virtually impossible to not put El Santo on top of this list, because, without El Santo, there’s a good chance that we wouldn’t be compiling this list. Granted, he was not the first masked professional wrestler and he was not even the first masked luchador, but the superhero persona that Santo built and the cultural phenomenon that he became are what made wearing a mask standard operating procedure for Mexican wrestlers, and it is mostly if not entirely the influence of lucha libre that has kept masked wrestlers alive in Japanese and North American wrestling into the twenty-first century. In addition to Santo himself being such an endearing part of Mexican culture that the anniversary of his death is still observed as a minor holiday, his mask and legacy were transferred to his son, El Hijo del Santo, who, though not as legendary of a figure as his father, remained an absolute top-flight luchador for three decades. If you would like to learn more about El Santo, check out his 411 Wrestling Hall of Fame biography that I wrote back in 2007.
Caliber Winfield
5. La Parka – Look, are there better masked wrestlers than La Parka? Of course there are. Can anyone name you a classic La Parka match? Probably not. Regardless of these facts, La Parka was one of the reasons that WCW became a household name, and for a while, truly bigger than the WWE, because he represented a style most in North America hadn’t seen. While there were also others doing the style of Lucha, La Parka leaped past them and became ‘underground cool’, which is what almost every wrestler hopes to become. He was known as the Chairman of WCW, with a rock God strum of his weapon, and a smooth strut that defined the word swagger. Besides, if not for La Parka, we wouldn’t have had that awesome moment where Madusa wore his suit in order to wrestle Prince Iaukea. Right?
4. Ultimate Warrior – Disregarding who he was, and what he did/said outside of the ring, his inclusion on this list is all about what he did inside it. I got into wrestling in 1995, and through videotape rentals, became a huge fan of the Warrior. One of my fondest memories as a child-hood wrestling fan was sitting on my couch, with the Warrior Wrestling Buddy I was given from a friend at school, when I saw the commercial; “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the ring”. He was gonna return at WrestleMania, and clearly, he was doing it just for me. Child hood fondness can just about forgive any sin, which is why Warrior had such a huge following up until his death, despite the fact he was….eccentric. The recent ‘best of’ set really turned me around on his ability as a wrestler, as I believed he was owner of only a few quality matches, when it’s quite the opposite. Truly a man made for professional sports entertaining.
3. Mankind – I’m only including his run as Mankind, and not the other aspects of his career. The day of his debut is still the most scared I’ve ever been watching wrestling. That night I was telling my mom how The Undertaker was scary, and soon after Mankind took on Bob Holly. Once their match was over, my mom looked at me and said “No, THAT’S scary”, and she was right. His appearance, mannerisms, the Mandible Claw, the foam that Bob Holly spat up, it all played perfectly into the character. Beyond that, Mick was arguably in his prime, having great matches all over the place, with his crowning achievement during that period taking shape in a 30-minute Broadway with HBK, something that flew in the face of all his detractors. The match remained Mick’s personal favorite until his 2004 street fight against Randy Orton, which also happens to be my all time favorite match.
2. Sting – Sting is the guy that Vince McMahon wish he had to replace Hulk Hogan with in the early 90s. One of the more versatile wrestlers of all time, Sting went toe to toe with the likes of Ric Flair in marathon matches of a technical aspect, then turning around and brawling with the likes of Vader in some of Big Van’s greatest matches. Stinger’s height of popularity, ironically, happened when he wasn’t wrestling at all, during his war against the nWo. I was a massive fan of Sting at this point, and thought the whole angle with the nWo was just about the coolest thing ever. We’re talking the full set of the cat’s pajamas. I even bought the Pro-Wrestling Illustrated Starrcade 1997 Special, which was all about the match, and had a Tale of the Tape poster which I put on my wall, agreeing with the statement, that yes, this is the match of the century. Regardless of what people say about his abilities now, I hope I get to see Sting have one more round, only this time in a WWE ring.
1. Rey Mysterio JR I think at this point in the article, everyone will have said everything about Rey that can be said, and I agree with all great things said about him. While everyone often goes to his work with Eddie in 1997 as his pinnacle, I believe it’s his feud with Chris Jericho over the Intercontinental Title in 2009. It came to a zenith during their match at The ‘Bash, where Rey’s mask was on the line against Jericho’s IC title and both men went out and delivered a 5 star classic. They were quoted as saying they wanted to use their feud as a way to bring prestige back to the Intercontinental Title, showing what love Rey had for the business, and his fellow wrestlers. Mysterio been in the business since I became a fan, and he’s not even 40 yet. If he stays on track, he’ll go down with the greatest career in wrestling history.
Alex Crowder
5. The Great Sasuke – I must admit that junior heavyweights and cruiserweights are my favorite to watch, so coming up with a list of the five best masked wrestlers is very difficult. There were quite a few skilled masked heavyweight wrestlers as well, but I never felt any of them used the mask true enough. I’m the kind of that person that gets annoyed when Spider-man fights in a film without his mask on. I can’t stand that, and it really grinds my gears so to speak. Also, I won’t mention anyone whose work I have not seen. Nonetheless, my first choice is a man often under looked when it comes to the best high flyers. The Great Sasuke is one of the most incredible performers in the ring I have ever seen. All of his trademarks are a spectacle in my opinion. He can also be a real jerk when he needs to be. Great Sasuke is one of the best Japanese junior heavyweights ever. This man stood toe to toe with greats(in my opinion) like Ultimo Dragon, Yoshitsune, and Jushin Liger. He was one of the pillars of 90’s Junior Heavyweight action and deserves credit for that, along with being the inaugural J-Crown champion.
4. Mistico/Myzteziz – I think too many people judge him harshly for his WWE run, but that can’t negate how incredible he was in Mexico. This man was and still is incredibly popular in Mexico. They call him the Hulk Hogan of Mexico with good reason. I have seen a few of his matches since returning to Mexico and he looks very crisp (much better than his WWE run). If you watch his old stuff especially he pulls off some of the most incredible moves I have ever seen. His finisher the La Mistica is a thing of beauty. Some of his moves just blow my mind. This guy is one of the definitive high flyers of the newer age of wrestling. His movements on his best are the most fluid I have ever seen in a wrestler. Mistico to me is like performance art or theater; whereas, another great like Jushin Liger is literature or a book. Mistico is more over the top than other high flyers, and it is fun to watch.
3. Ultimo Dragon – I can say that apart of me almost put Ultimo higher on the list. If this was just based on designs of masks I might put him number 1. Nevertheless, Ultimo didn’t just have a unique appearance, but he is one of the best of all-time in my opinion. Ultimo Dragon was great everywhere he went whether it was WCW, Japan, or even CMLL. His WWE run wasn’t all that fantastic, but I don’t really blame him for that. Nothing can take away all the incredible matches that Ultimo Dragon had. This man innovated the Asai Moonsault and Asai DDT. This man held gold about everywhere he went. Let’s also not forget his contribution to wrestling as a mentor to young talent. Dragon Gate would probably not exist if not for Ultimo Dragon. Many of the great junior heavyweights of today were mentored by Ultimo Dragon in some fashion. Even today his matches from the 90’s can stun people. Ultimo Dragon pulled off incredible feats In the ring and he’s one of the only wrestlers you can connect to almost every country. He probably helped popularize Lucha Libre in Japan as well.
2. Tiger Mask I – Tiger Mask probably inspired the future cruiserweight and junior heavyweight divisions with his incredible work along with other greats like The Hart Brothers. You can go watch an old Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid match from the early 80’s and it would not be slow compared to modern day wrestling. You could air those matches on a modern day product and they would fit in. Tiger Mask was that ahead of his time. He also smartly marketed himself and inspired many incarnations of Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask was based off a Manga and Anime just as future great Jushin Liger was. Tiger Mask pretty much inspired it all excluding Mexico. He may be a classic, but he’s never outdated.
1. Jushin Liger – Jushin Liger is one of the top 5 greatest wrestlers of all-time in my opinion. Jushin Liger can have a great match with anyone from Randy Savage to Ultimo Dragon to Samoa Joe. This man spans several generations of wrestling from the 80’s to the present. Everywhere he goes, he gets insane pops. The American crowds love Jushin Liger, and his home crowds show the same adulation. Liger could probably go out there at age 70 and receive more respect than half the roster he’s wrestling on. Liger has it all. This man can wrestle an awesome technical match, he can be a complete dick heel dropping people on their heads, and he can outsmart Great Muta with a mask underneath his mask. Jushin Liger is just awesome and no amount of words can express that. Jushin Liger to me is the best-masked wrestler ever and one of the best all-time.
Wyatt Beougher
5. Mil Mascaras – “The Man of a Thousand Masks” would merit inclusion on this list just for being credited as the man who popularized masked wrestling in Japan. The fact that he held titles all around the world in pretty much every promotion that he wrestled for, starred in movies, and has been enshrined in multiple Hall of Fames all around the world is just icing on the cake.
4. Ultimo Dragon – Dragon is probably my personal favorite out of all of the wrestlers on the list, and his accomplishments both in the ring and as a trainer of an entire generation of light/junior heavyweights is nothing to scoff at, but based on overall historical significance, I just couldn’t put him any higher. Still though, he edges out Mascaras on the basis holding ten separate titles simultaneously, and because he trained Kazuchika Okada, quite possibly the most entertaining performer on the Japanese scene today.
3. Rey Misterio Jr – Had Rey not packed entirely too much muscle onto a frame that was clearly not designed to carry it and irreparably damaged his knees as a result, who knows how high he would’ve ranked on this list? It would’ve been an uphill battle to unseat my number one pick, but with another decade of performances like he was capable of in the 90s, it might actually have been possible. Even though he’s spent the past decade and a half as a shell of his former self, Rey’s accomplishments are nothing to scoff at, as he’s been both the WWE champion and World Heavyweight champion, as well a slew of other titles in both WCW and the WWF/E, not to mention being arguably the most recognizable masked wrestler in the United States (if not the world). That’s nothing to sneeze at for a guy was widely believed to be too small to make an impact in America.
2. Jushin “Thunder” Liger – Where to begin? Liger, like everyone else on this list, is a highly decorated competitor and a man credited with increasing the popularity of masked wrestling both in his native Japan and abroad. He was in the first-ever match on Monday Nitro! He has moves named after him! He inspired an entire generation of wrestlers, both Japanese and gaijin! I think what really sets Liger apart from the rest of this list (with the exception of number one, of course) is his longevity. He started out working a very fast-paced, high-flying style and continued until his body just physically couldn’t do it anymore, at which point he transitioned to the more mat-based, MMA-influenced style that he continues to use to this day. If musicians like Madonna and Cher can receive mountains of praise for continually reinventing themselves and staying (relatively) relevant, Liger deserves his fair share as well in wrestling.
1. El Santo – Probably not the most gifted in-ring performer on this list, El Santo is, without a doubt, the most influential masked wrestler in the history of the business. Guys like Mr. Wrestling II and the Destroyer became huge stars in the territories, but El Santo was a national hero in Mexico. A year ago, in 411’s Buy or Sell Wrestling, I wrote the following when asked if El Santo was the most successful and influential professional wrestler of all time:
Rodolfo Guzman Huerta, aka El Santo, wrestled for nearly fifty years and is widely credited as being THE GUY to popularize professional wrestling in Mexico. When you add in the fact that he’s one of the biggest legends of lucha libre, you could already make a case for this statement being worthy of a “buy”, but that’s really only scratching the surface. Think Hulk Hogan or the Rock have done well outside of wrestling? El Santo did it first, starring in multiple films and comic books and actually transcending both those and wrestling to become a national figure symbolizing truth and justice. I think Dave Meltzer said it best, “He totally transcended wrestling. He was much bigger than just a wrestling star. I think there have been wrestlers as big as him and as popular as him but none for 40 years where everybody in the country knows him. Santo was more than just a wrestler. Nobody had the enduring popularity he had.” Throw in the fact that there are still celebrations of his life all across Mexico even today, nearly thirty years after his death, and that his mausoleum site is probably more popular in his home country than Elvis’ Graceland home here in the States, and I think this one is pretty easy to BUY.
I stand by those words today, making El Santo the easy number one for this list.
List your Top Five for this week’s topic in the comment section using the following format:
5. CHOICE: Explanation
4. CHOICE: Explanation
3. CHOICE: Explanation
2. CHOICE: Explanation
1. CHOICE: Explanation
