The Greatest Professional Wrestling Concept Album EVER: Track By Track
3. Unmasked!
Killer Lyrics: I’m up high, trying to say goodbye / The only way I know how / Crude and graceless / Peeking through the eyeholes / Seeing the real you.
This melodic and melancholic song is easily the most romantic number on the album, even if the lyrical content keeps listeners firmly in the realm of pro-wrestling. It showcases the sensual tones of Darnielle’s vocals with the crooning “I will reveal you” particularly effective.
The narrator of the track is dominating his opponent in a Mask Vs. Mask match. He watches from the top rope ready to hit an aerial offense, halfway between a hungry vulture and a new mother. He takes the win and with it the mask of his foe.
Though, once the match is through, and the unmasking has occurred, the crowd are unmoved by the monumental moment, other than a “few hangers on” yet to leave. Likewise, the unmasked wrestler doesn’t care his run is over. He can breathe now “like they’ve sawn off [his] cast”. The mask acted as protection and cover for a broken person, who is now fixed and whole again.
The only sadness is left lingering within the protagonist. He surveys himself in a locker room mirror and realises he is still bound behind a mask. Yet, in loss his opponent was granted freedom.