AEW Makeup Artist Dani Dinino on Sting and CM Punk Coming Up With Face Paint Idea

– The A2theK Wrestling Show recently spoke to AEW makeup artist Dani Dinino, who discussed Sting and CM Punk wearing face paint at the AEW Dynamite Holiday Bash show when CM Punk teamed with Sting and Darby Allin against FTR and MJF. The event was held at the legendary Greensboro Coliseum. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Dani Dinino on how the face paint was a last-minute idea: “Those guys literally came to me like 30 minutes before they were going out on stage. Sting always does his own paint. Sting is the only wrestler, going into working this job, he’s the only wrestler who I knew about. When he’s come for paint, especially in the beginning, that one made me nervous. That’s the only one I’ve been super nervous to do. That’s the thing with Sting, because he usually does his own looks, it’s always very…I’ve done him a few times and it’s been very last minute. ‘If Dani has time, let me jump in the chair and we’ll have her do this.’ He’s kind of the type where, if not, he’ll do it himself. They came in, it was maybe an hour before the match, and he was like, ‘I want this’ and he brought me in a printout of the fist and lightning bolt. ‘I want this and I want you to put it on my forehead.’ I looked at him like, ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yeah, this is what I want.’ I was so nervous on that one. He is very particular about his looks.”

Dinino on Punk’s look: “I’ve learned with him, let me hand him the mirror and have him check it as I’m going. When you do yourself that often, they get very used to how they like their stuff, and I get that. On that one, I literally cut it out and taped it to his face first so he could see where I was going to do it, and had him ‘okay’ it. Then, I just went for it. Everyone loves that one, which I didn’t know if it was going to be a hit or a miss, but everyone loved it and they turned it into a toy. Punk’s look, he came in and had the photo of Sting that he wanted me to copy and then wanted me to do the Chicago colors. Both of them are such icons that it was very nerve-racking to do their paint. The guys don’t like to sit there long, either. I get it, I’m not one who likes to stay and get stuff done either, but they are very much like, ‘Okay, this is good enough, we’re going to go,’ and I’m like, ‘No, I need to fix this.’ They are extremely popular and going to be on TV and if it’s messed up, it’s my fault. It was nerve-racking, but a lot of people liked that look a lot, so I’m glad I got good reviews.”

411mania also spoke to CM Punk at San Diego Comic-Con on how Sting came to him and wanted to use Punk’s design on his face paint. You can check that out HERE.