10 Worst Decisions Eric Bischoff Ever Made

7. The Unmaskings

Only last month, a new generation of wrestling fans discovered via Twitter that Rey Mysterio Jr. worked unmasked for a spell in WCW.

For those of us old enough to remember this happening in real time, it felt utterly ridiculous back then - and it stills utterly ridiculous to this day.

The call to unmask Mysterio was an awful one, and it wasn't just Rey who would be unmasked, for poor Juventud Guerrera was similarly pressurised into losing his trademark mask.

Putting a mask on the line in a match can work well in bringing a sense of genuine intrigue to proceedings, yet the unmasking of either Mysterio or Guerrera had no real major fallout. It was just like, "Hey, here are these guys without their masks now. Enjoy!" - with there no reason to unmask either man bar unmasking them for the sake of unmasking them.

In Guerrera's case, the Juice was unmasked after losing a Mask vs. Title contest against WCW Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho. Even Jericho was against Juve being unmasked, as he detailed in his A Lion's Tale book.

For his part, Eric Bischoff has talked about how these unmaskings were done to allow the talent to emote better, for their facial expressions to be seen clearer. In the years since, Eazy E himself has admitted that he maybe didn't quite appreciate the impact that these decisions would have when it comes to Mexican wrestling audiences.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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