wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The 7 Worst Masked Wrestler Reveals

May 5, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Black Scorpion Image Credit: WWE

It’s a trope in wrestling for masked men and women to be a part of the show. While there are those luchadors for whom the mask is a fundamental part of their identity and it stays with them for most, if not their entire career, in US-based wrestling, it’s more common to encounter the mask as a short-term plot device to obscure someone’s identity before a shocking reveal. Just a few months ago, the gimmick was used to good effect with Mickie James playing La Luchadora to return to the main roster and help out Alexa Bliss. This implementation, like a number of successful historical instances, worked well because the identity of the masked wrestler was a surprise and that surprise brought back a character who had legitimately been gone (at least from the WWE main roster) for a long time, and who fans were legitimately excited to see return.

This week, I’m looking back at seven instances that didn’t go so well. To be clear, I’m not including instances when we were supposed to know who was under the mask, like John Cena as Juan Cena, Hulk Hogan as Mr. America, Dusty Rhodes as The Midnight Rider, etc. While you can argue the identity was obvious for some of the entries below, the story being told was that no one, including the fans, knew, and a big reveal was happening. An additional caveat that I’d bet $5 at least one reader will comment on after not reading the intro: after careful consideration, I decided not to include Vince McMahon as The Higher Power because he was hooded, not masked, which may seem like nitpicking, but it was a slippery slope once I started counting not only masked wrestlers, but ones who otherwise had their identities obscured, and I decided not to tread down that path.


Ric Flair vs Barry Windham-WCW Heavyweight Title by TSteck160

#7. Barry Windham, WCW Slamboree 1994

In the build to WCW’s Slamboree 1994, reigning champ Ric Flair was booked against a mystery opponent. In retrospect, I’ve always wondered if this was a result of a lack of credible challengers at that point, paired with the knowledge the whole landscape of the company was about to change with the arrival of Hulk Hogan, and thus WCW needing a lame duck opponent to fill in for the preceding month’s PPV.

The mystery opponent might have been anyone, though the field narrowed significantly when a masked man attacked Flair on TV, thus giving us some sense of the opponent’s physical size. Prior to that partial reveal, as a kid I remember hoping that Sid Vicious would be cast in that spot, and thinking there was an outside chance it could be Hogan himself. As I brainstormed a list of candidates, Windham’s name was on my radar, but I figured he wasn’t a big enough star at that stage to justify the big mystery build, so it couldn’t be him, right?

Wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, Windham is an all-time great worker, but given his level of fame and kayfabe success at the time, added to the fact that WCW didn’t have any long-term plans for him given he didn’t appear again (though some reports suggest he got injured in the match) all the to-do felt like a bust. Maybe the worst part of all: given the “Legend’s Reunion” tagline of the annual Slamboree show at the time, WCW might have easily had the same match, billing it as either two old friends or two old rivals giving it one last go and it could fit perfectly with the show’s overarching theme and felt a lot more satisfying to fans, without the letdown of the reveal.

#6. The Miz as The Calgary Kid, WWE Raw, August 2009

While most of the entries on this countdown make the cut because they were, to at least some degree, a surprise and one that underwhelmed fans, this one enters the countdown for hitting the unsweet spot of being both utterly unsurprising and totally underwhelming. In the summer of 2009, The Miz had a short feud with John Cena and lost decisively, including a blow off match that took The Miz off TV. Conveniently, the very next week, there was a match between two unsigned talents for a WWE contract, pitting WWE alum Eugene against the masked, hitherto unseen Calgary Kid.

Had months passed in between Miz getting banned from Raw and this bout, fans might have overlooked the marked similarities in The Calgary Kid’s physique and wrestling style, but as it stands, this was precisely the kind of gimmickry hardcore fans hate for rendering momentous stipulations meaningless. Miz lost and got himself banned from Raw; with a contrived win over Eugene, he was back a week later to the pleasure of absolutely no one.

#5. Devon as the first member of Aces and Eights, TNA Bound for Glory 2012

The Aces and Eights angle was a mixed bag on the whole, with a few really good moments, a few big disappointments—in the end, I place it squarely in the middle of the pack of TNA’s various stabs at dominating heel stable angles.

One of the early missteps showed up on the heels of a big win for the new stable, with a pair of masked members winning a tag match to earn them “full access” to TNA, after which Devon who’d given the team an assist, got unmasked.

Look, I respect Devon. He’s a solid worker and with Bubba/Bully Ray, he’s been half of one of the legit greatest tag teams of all time. The problem is that he was never a huge star in his own right, never broached the main event scene, and to make matters all the worse, wasn’t going to move up at this point in his career, given he was well past his prime. Yes, there was a bit of shock value to the Devon reveal because Bully Ray was so high profile in TNA’s representation against the new stable and suggestion that the two might feud, but when you’re pushing two over the hill tag guys coming to blows as the central angle for a main event level stable storyline, it just falls flat.

#4. The Shockmaster, WCW Clash of Champions, 1993

This is a difficult entry to rank. On one hand, the moment of The Shockmaster’s reveal was so laughably bad that it has lived on in infamy well past the point it ever would have if things had gone as planned—the embarrassing incident of poor Fred Ottman bursting through a wall like The Kool-Aid man, tripping over a misplaced board and falling on his face, losing his helmet in the process, and thus becoming a laughing stock for the rest of his brief tenure in WCW.

(Moreover, for those super nitpicky readers who will call me on it, yes, The Shockmaster was wearing a helmet, not technically a mask, so it’s debatable if he should be eligible when I ruled out a guy in a face-obscuring hood, but I made the judgment call.)

I’m giving The Shockmaster this place on the countdown, though, because the reveal of the mystery partner to join Sting, Davey Boy Smith, and Dustin Rhodes against Vader, Sid Vicious, and Harlem Heat in War Games was a big deal at the time, and regardless of the manner it happened, the reveal that Typhoon was the face’s cavalry was pretty underwhelming—not to mention that the botched entrance robbed the big man of any new credibility he might have mustered as a new face on the scene in WCW.


Hulk Hogan unveils the Masked Man by TSteck160

#3. The Butcher, WCW Halloween Havoc 1994

In 1994, Hulk Hogan was terrorized by a masked man clad all in black. Though most reports suggest Arn Anderson was the one working under the mask, and some rumors say that Curt Hennig was originally pegged to be revealed, in reality, it was Brutus Beefcake who got the spot—Hogan’s long-time ally on and off-screen, and one of the few friends to never betray him if for the simple fact that no one would ever buy him as a credible main event threat.

The two went on to a one-sided feud in which Hogan justifiably dominated in a series of thoroughly lukewarm matches. The biggest historical interest attached to the turn in retrospect was that it marked the beginning of Beefcake playing gimmick hot potato, as he’d transform into The Zodiac, The Man With No Name, The Booty Man, The Disciple and, well, probably a half dozen more gimmicks I’m forgetting in his painfully directionless and scatter-brained WCW tenure.

#2. Vince Russo as Mr. Wrestling III, TNA, 2004

In the early days of TNA, Vince Russo was a creative player behind the scenes and entered the fray on-screen as a heel non-wrestler. He made his debut under the mask of Mr. Wrestling III, who used a guitar to help Jeff Jarret win the NWA Championship.

One of my biggest beefs with the execution of the reveal was this: Russo made his attack quickly and then unmasked without any provocation, much less being forced to do so. So why the hell did he wear the mask at all? The moment screams contrivance and grasping at a big dramatic reveal without any logical build. Even worse, while Russo was an important figure in wrestling history from a creative standpoint, he was a non-entity on WWE TV who was probably best known for editing their magazine, and he was a relatively short-term, forgettable on-screen personality in WCW. Thus, while this was supposed to feel like a huge moment and huge acquisition for TNA, it fell completely flat.

#1. The Black Scorpion, WCW Starrcade 1990

In 1990, WCW Champion Sting was attacked repeatedly by masked man and amateur magician The Black Scorpion. From most of what I found, Al Perez was working under the hood and was supposed to debut as a new star coming out of the gimmick, but purportedly bailed out over creative differences (mainly that he thought he would get to beat Sting, but that wasn’t in the cards).

Some fans speculated Sting’s old running buddy from pre-WCW, The Ultimate Warrior, might be revealed as his antagonist, but that wasn’t to be either. So, in lieu of any clear, planned upon, or truly exciting options, WCW went with Ric Flair.

Obviously, Flair is one of, if not the single best wrestler of all time. However, The Nature Boy had feuded recently and pretty exhaustively with The Stinger to the point that no one was excited to see him in that role again, besides the fact that The Black Scorpion persona made little to no sense on Flair who was an in-ring traditionalist (not a magician) and nothing if not flamboyant and eager to take credit for everything he accomplished (not a guy who would wear a mask).

Which masked men reveals would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.