10 Worst Uses Of Face Paint In Wrestling
Face-painted and tainted.
Face paint is an old and well-known element of the pro-wrestling world. Throughout different generations, there have been several memorable performers who did their best work with their faces painted, including (but in no way limited to) guys like Jim Hellwig (Ultimate Warrior), Steve Borden (Sting), and Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow (Ax and Smash of Demolition).
Just like masks, the paint helps to extend a wrestler's visual style and personality above the shoulders, and care needs to be taken to pull it off right. A good piece can enhance a character and present more cosmetic options than masks. A bad piece, however, can completely nullify them.
Without a doubt, there have been some ugly face paints, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad. Aja Kong springs to mind… she will not be on this list.
This is simply a collection of the ten more poorly-conceived, silly, and/or pointless attempts at facial art the squared circle has even seen.
Before proceeding, here are some honorable mentions:
-The Road Warriors. Their early AWA face paint was disgraceful, especially compared to their legendary trademark designs.
-Lord Tensai: fake tattoos never look good next to actual tattoos.
-The KISS Demon, because Gene Simmons wrestling.
Now, on to our top (or bottom) ten...
10. Damián 666 (LWO)
Damián 666 was already an established international wrestler when he briefly became a member of the LWO during WCW's Nitro peak.
As interesting as his paint style had always been, it was a bad idea to replace the trademark “666.” It was probably done to avoid upsetting American viewers, but there's just something uncool about having your name or your faction's name written on your forehead.
It's like the wrestling equivalent of those old Spider-Man costumes with a picture of Spider-Man on the chest.
For similar reasons, the nWo incarnation of The Great Muta almost made it on this list… but he almost looked like he had an nWo logo floating above his neck, which is frankly kind of cool.