Number one on this list, and therefore the greatest masked wrestler of them all, is El Santo. Frankly, it had to be... If youre solely a fan of US wrestling, you may well be scratching your head and wondering why a wrestler youve possibly never heard of has beaten such stiff competition on his way to the top. Well, heres why... El Santo (The Saint), more than anyone else, can claim to be the father of Mexican pro wrestling. In addition, Santo (real name Rodolfo Huerta) is generally considered to be the greatest Mexican sporting hero of all time. For a professional wrestler to be honoured above other, legitimate sports stars in the hearts and minds of the general public is practically unheard of in Britain/America - and it speaks to just how much Santo did for the wrestling business overall. In fact, Santo has transcended even the popularity of a sporting superstar; he is considered a folk hero and a symbol of courage and pride to the Mexican people. Think of your absolute favourite wrestler ever and put a number on how much you love him/her. Then, times that by a million and youre starting to get some idea of just how much Santo means to Mexican wrestling fans. Santo is a legendary figure in lucha libre, a form of professional wrestling that has massively influenced both the American and Japanese styles and continues to do so to greater and greater effect with each passing year. As a result, it is not an exaggeration to say that, without Santo, the modern style of wrestling quite possibly wouldnt exist. Santo also popularized wrestling by starring in movies (with other Mexican stars such as Blue Demon and Gory Guerrero), lending his image to popular comic books (where he was Mexicos equivalent of Superman) and even being the subject of an animated TV series. His son, El Hijo Del Santo (The Son of The Saint) today bears the mantle of the legendary Santo, carrying his legacy into the new millennium... The mask of El Santo is an iconic image in professional wrestling and will forever stand as one of the key elements of its visual vocabulary. By being one of the first high-profile masked wrestlers ever (he first donned the mask of Santo in 1942), laying the foundation stones for modern lucha libre, and inspiring literally every masked wrestler since then, Santo is, quite undeniably, the greatest masked wrestler of all time.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
