It may seem a tad niche and specific, but this gimmick really was a staple of wrestling in the territory days. It would invariably go something like this: someone would be suspended, or lose a "loser leaves town match", leaving his enemies to gloat but before too long a "new" wrestler would take up the fight in his stead - a new fighter with something suspiciously familiar about him... He'd look like the banished wrestler, except for his laughably cheap mask and some other on-the-nose clues. He walked the same way, spoke the same way (even down to verbal tics and catchphrases, brother) and even boasted a startlingly similar moveset. To the fans, it would be patently obvious that the two were one and the same, but the paper-thin disguise would always be enough to keep his enemies from proving he was violating his suspension. It happened all over the world across many decades, with these no-so-mystery men cropping up everywhere from 1970s Florida to modern day WWE. There were mystery men of all stripes and species, from vigilante cowboys and cowardly dogs to anthropomorphic flags and characters from folk songs. Sometimes the mystery man was a heroic babyface, bending the rules to get revenge on those who got him unfairly banned. Sometimes, it was a cowardly heel who'd adopt the new identity to try to get around a fair ruling by a babyface authority figure, in which case it was guaranteed to blow up in his face in a manner most comical. Whatever their alignment, this article looks at the best quote-unquote mysterious personages to pull this tried-and-tested con, while exploring the circumstances surrounding their mask-donning.
