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Masked wrestlers have been a staple of the sport since 1933, when American wrestler Cyclone Mackey wrestled under a mask in Mexico. The idea caught on, and now the world of Lucha Libre is renowned for its colorful masked characters.
But Mackey was not the first masked wrestler. That honor goes to Theobald Bauer who donned a mask at the world's fair in 1865. "The Masked Wrestler" probably had no idea of the seeds he was planting in the wrestling community.
Many masked wrestlers protect their identities with great vehemence. El Santo, the famous Mexican grappler and movie star, was famous for NEVER removing his mask--even when he went out to dine in fancy restaurants.
However, there are other masked wrestlers whose identities haven't been much of a secret. Sometimes this is deliberate, sometimes not, but it always winds up being entertaining.
Here are ten masked wrestling acts whose identities were anything but secret.
#10 The Midnight Rider
Back in 1983, Dusty Rhodes was involved in a bloody feud with Kevin Sullivan. After beating each other senseless for months, they were booked into a steel cage 'loser leaves town' match, which Dusty lost.
Enter the Midnight Rider! As if it weren't obvious from his body type, mannerisms, and voice, that the rider was just a masked Dusty Rhodes, the Midnight Rider took great pains to let the audience know how Dusty was feeling during his interview time.
The gimmick worked quite well, with fans enjoying the spectacle of frustrated heel wrestlers trying to unmask Rider and prove it was really Dusty Rhodes. In fact, the gimmick worked so well that Dusty repeated it several times over his career.
#9 Who?
After a number of successful years as a tag team--including a reign as champions--the Hart Foundation split up, primarily so Bret Hart could be utilized at the top of the card.
His partner wasn't so lucky. While the Hitman went on to feud with greats like Shawn Michaels and Mr. Perfect, the Anvil became...Who. The joke was that anybody could tell that Jim Neidhart was the man under the mask, with the announcers repeating the 'who' punchline ad nauseam.
It didn't get Neidhart over in the least, and just annoyed fans who probably weren't all that invested in the Anvil to begin with, and was abandoned after a short while.
#8 La Luchadora
These days fans pay close attention to the contract status of their favorite wrestlers. So when Mickey James announced she was ending her relationship with TNA and would be participating in NXT Takeover for a dream match with Asuka, fans were all over the news with great enthusiasm.
After her stellar performance at NXT, it was a no-brainer that she would be joining the main roster. Perhaps that's why so few people were fooled when La Luchadora arrived to interfere in Alexa Bliss's matches.
With Mickey James's unique body shape and move set, few fans felt any surprise at all when La Luchadora was unmasked to reveal the Hardcore Country queen.
#7 The Killer Bees
Jumping Jim Brunzel and B. Brian Blair had fantastic wrestling pedigrees. Blair had been trained by no less than Hiro Matsuda, while Jim Brunzel was part of a successful tag team with Greg Gagne.
That's why it was a bit of a head-scratcher when the two showed up with a strange gimmick more suited for heels; masked confusion.
Their identities were never meant to be a secret; instead the Bees would don masks mid-match to confuse their opponents. They remained babyfaces in spite of this rather dishonest and dastardly tactic.
Eventually the Bees dropped the masked confusion gimmick, and just wrestled bare faced, but their careers remained stalled.
#6 Giant Machine
Stop me if you've heard this before...
Andre the Giant was suspended by the WWE for missing a tag team match, and didn't appear on television (in reality Andre was filming movies and touring Japan, while taking a break from the WWE's road schedule to heal.) A few months later, and a masked wrestler who also happened to be seven foot four inches tall started lumbering onto the scene.
Fans, of course, knew it was really Andre under the mask. Bobby Heenan nearly had a weekly conniption because he couldn't prove it was Andre the Giant under Giant Machine's mask. The gimmick was so over with the fans it went on for much longer than anticipated, with Andre adding other obvious maskers such as Piper Machine and Hulk Machine--Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan, of course.
As you can see, it's a trope that wrestling keeps re-visiting, perhaps because it is so successful when deployed.
#5 The Conquistadors II
The original Conquistadors were an enhancement talent tag team who mostly put over more famous duos like the Rockers.
Their identities were kept secret largely because no one much cared. Jose Luis Rivera would also wrestle singles matches as an enhancement talent sans the mask. Jose Estrada Sr. had some success in Puerto Rico and a brief reign as light heavyweight champion, but neither man generated much interest in the United States.
Fast forward to the Attitude Era, and Edge and Christian were in a bind. They had just lost a ladder match to the Hardys, the stipulation for which was they would not be granted any more title shots so long as the Hardys remained champion.
In order to circumvent this ruling, the duo donned the Conquistadors disguise. Fans, of course, caught on quickly, especially since the new Conquistadors seemed to use all of Edge and Christian's signature moves.
Then things got really complicated. The Conquistadors defeated the Hardys to win the tag team championships. A short time later, a fresh-from-the-shower Edge and Christian challenged two men in the Conquistador masks to a match for the titles. Unfortunately for Edge and Christian, the Hardys one-upped them and took over the Conquistador gimmick to re-capture the titles.
It was a hilarious, entertaining angle, and one of the rare times a heel team has donned masks to circumvent management.
#4 The Yellow Dog I and II
It was so nice they did it twice!
Once, Barry Windham was...you guessed it...suspended, and the Yellow Dog graciously offered to pick up all of his contracts and appearances.
As usual, no one was fooled by the Yellow Dog, and Whindam would eventually be unmasked and return to using his regular name. The gimmick wasn't wildly popular since it was so close to the same time as Midnight Rider.
Then, several years later, the NWA went to the same well with Brian Pillman, who lost a loser leaves town match to Whindam. Pillman would go on to frustrate his heel opponents by using numerous other wrestlers under the Yellow Dog mask, such as Tom Z-man Zenk.
#3 Doom
Doom makes it onto this list as one of the few times that a mask actually failed its intended purpose. Their identities were never intended to be known, but wrestling fans quickly recognized Ron Simmons and Butch Reed as the men under the masks.
The idea of masking Doom came about because booker Kevin Sullivan wanted them to be a 'blank slate,' the personified will of their manager Woman (in reality Kevin's wife at the time.) Butch Reed was a veteran performer and well known in the southern promotions, while Ron Simmons had been pushed on Television as a blue chipper for several months before Doom's debut.
The masks didn't work, at all, with Jim Ross admitting that 'their identities are the worst kept secret in all of wrestling' on the air.
Oddly, when they were forced to unmask, they became even more successful, capturing the World Tag Team championships before splitting. Ron Simmons would of course go on to winning the WCW world title from Vader, while the aging Reed retired.
#2 Mr. America
After Hulk Hogan defeated Vince McMahon, the CEO decided to force the legendary performer to sit out the rest of his contract.
Hogan responded by donning the Mr. America identity. In spite of having Hogan's signature locks, theme song, and moves, the announce staff and WWE magazine tried to play it off as if he were a completely different person.
The gimmick was fun, but ended on a sour note. Hogan became frustrated with his contract and quit, so the WWE 'fired' him for pretending to be Mr. America.
#1 The Romantic Touch
The Romantic Touch is an example of a self-aware wresting gimmick. ROH realized that fans were used to the 'masked confusion' story lines and decided to play on the trope.
Rhett Titus had been forced to 'retire' from ROH after his SCUM faction lost their match, and returned shortly after as The Romantic Touch. Mostly an enhancement talent, he was in an interesting angle with Veda Scott, who seemed to be the only one--other than the fans, of course--who realized Rhett Titus was the man under the mask.
An unsubstantiated rumor had it that Titus was given the Romantic Touch gimmick as a way of using him for enhancement purposes without hurting his image as Rhett Titus. In any event, he would abandon the gimmick and re-form the All Night Express with Kenny King in 2015.
There you have it; Ten not-so-mysterious wrestling acts, and ten entertaining story lines.
