With Coronavirus spreading around the world, one thing people have on their minds is wearing masks when out in public. Despite the growing group of people who don’t want to wear masks for their safety and the safety of those around them, there has always been a group who willfully wear masks and that is professional wrestlers! We look back at these Top 5 famous Wrestling Masks in history.
Wrestling Masks – Penta El Zero M
Originally debuting in 2007, he soon became the sequel character to villainous Pentagon in Mexico. He bounced around wrestling shows like AAA, CMLL, and Crash in Mexico before changing his name to Penta El Zero M to avoid legal issues with AAA and their ownership of characters they had created. Penta soon appeared on Lucha Underground in the United States and become more popular. He appeared on All Elite Wrestling in the United States where he often teamed up with his brother Rey Fenix. Penta El Zero M also was part of “The Death Triage” with his brother and Englishman Pac. His mask may have started as a take on the mask worn by the original Pentagon but he has taken things in a whole new direction.
Wrestling Masks – Kendo Nagasaki
Kendo Nagasaki was a bad guy who graced British rings starting back in the 1970s. Played by a number of different people, he was big on British ITV wrestling and was a star on their Saturday afternoon World of Sport TV show. The mask worn by the various people who wrestled under the name was made to look like the metal fence across the face similar to the helmet worn in Japanese Kendo sword-fighting competitions. Despite what he wore, Kendo was not known to use a metal or wooden kendo blade as a weapon in his matches. It is said that the current Kendo Nagasaki draws his strength from the competition.
Gentleman Jervis
Debuting in 2005 Gentlemen Jervis was found in many places including Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, Chikara, and various NWA promotions around the country. The Gentleman’s mask is mostly yellow with a black handlebar mustache just above his mouth. He sometimes has his mask covering his hair and sometimes not. Sometimes he shows off some of his hair with the mask being over his head. This fits in with the act of the character who is typically friendly in his matches. Despite his friendly nature, he has won many matches and titles.
Great Muta
Since his debut in 1984 to around the 2000s, this wrestler appeared under facepaint while wrestling in Japan and for WCW in the United States. When he changed his affiliation in Japan from being the president of the All Japan Pro Wrestling company and got a little older he started wearing nylon-like masks that were covered in soft parts and face paint. Since that time he has appeared for the New Japan Pro Wrestling company, Wrestle-1, Ring of Honor in the United States as well as others. In all his travels, he was a big name on the marquee and had fans waiting in line to go see him.
Mil Mascaras
The “Man of a thousand masks” as he is sometimes called is one of the biggest wrestlers out of Mexico. He debuted back in 1963 and soon became a big fan favorite. He wore a mask when he first started wrestling in the Mexican tradition. Since his earliest days as a wrestler, Mil Mascaras has worn a lot of different masks, no matter where he appeared. He is never seen without a mask on and has never lost a match for his mask during his long career. He has appeared in Mexico, the United States, Europe, Japan, and all over the world. With appearing around the world for decades under a mask, he is one of the most well known masked wrestlers in pro wrestling.
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