20 Pro Wrestling Firsts You Need To Know

7. Wrestler To Wear Face Paint

Wrestling Bladejob
walesonline.co.uk

A couple of possibilities here, but my inner patriot tells me that the first wrestler to wear face paint as part of their constant gimmick was none other than Wales' own Adrian Street. Known as 'The Exotic One', Street worked a somewhat ahead of its time flamboyant gimmick, with outrageous attire and camp mannerisms. Street would evade pinning predicaments by attempting to kiss his opponents, and the gimmick of course made him a big heel in 1960s Britain.

The Great Kabuki is the other name that gets thrown around when trying to establish the first to use face paint. Whilst I'm giving the nod to Street, Kabuki is considered the first professional wrestler to spit mist into the eyes of his opponents.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.