3. Mr. Wrestling II
If any wrestlers career bears testament to the power of wearing a mask, then it is surely the career of Johnny Walker, AKA Mr. Wrestling II. Promoter Jerry Jarrett (father of Jeff) was taking over the booking of Georgia Championship Wrestling, one of the biggest and most visible territories of the 1970s. He knew he was about to lose one of the territorys biggest stars, Tim Woods, AKA Mr. Wrestling. Jarrett attempted everything he could think of to entice the popular masked wrestler to stay, but Woods was adamant about leaving. Realizing that fans would miss the character, Jarrett hired veteran wrestler Johnny Walker to play his successor, the aptly named Mr. Wrestling II. It was a real hit it and hope strategy, but, amazingly, it worked. Walker, a former lightweight sumo, was almost forty and had mostly retired from pro wrestling after a respectable, yet largely undistinguished, career. Hed held a couple of regional singles titles and been a pretty good tag team wrestler. Still, at the time he received the gig, he was working at a gas station in Tennessee, believing his glory days to be firmly behind him. Mr. Wrestling II was an instant success with the fans. The gimmick had an in-built fanbase in the region, but, within a relatively short span, Walker had managed to transcend it and become a megastar in the territory. Later on, as more regional promotions gained greater publicity via TV syndication deals, Mr. Wrestling IIs star rose even higher. According to wrestling historians Steven Johnson and Greg Oliver, the erstwhile Mr. Wrestling II was even invited to the White House and became friends with President Jimmy Carter and, amazingly, his mother, who was a huge wrestling fan. Reportedly, he even visited her home on one occasion (wearing the mask of course). Walker had also been invited to Carters inauguration, but declined to go because it would mean removing his mask in public. President Carter, ever the mark for Walkers gimmick, completely understood. Not bad for a guy whod been pumping gas just a few years earlier... Walkers wife (Mrs. Wrestling, we suppose) - who had a neat sideline designing and making costumes for wrestlers like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Paul Orndorf, as well as celebrities Liberace and Dolly Parton - would even add to his devotion to kayfabe by claiming to fans that she had never seen her husband without his mask. Now, thats a spouse! Mr. Wrestling II completely re-defined the level of success that a masked wrestler can have. He also stands as a living example of just how much a mask can re-ignite a flagging career. As the success of Mr. Wrestling II attests, it is never too late to achieve your dreams.