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Face paint in wrestling - will there ever be a big star wearer again?


JakeRobertsParoleOfficer

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I was thinking to myself that there really isnt any wrestler in the mainstream anymore except for Sting (iif hes still wrestling) and maybe Muta.

 

back in the day you had BIG stars in

 

Warrior

Sting

Muta

Road warriors

Demolition

Powers of Pain

 

whose all had MAJOR pushes and were Big stars

 

why do you think today or certainly over the last 10-15 years there hasnt been any breakout star who wears paint (and no im not inc jeff hardy in that)? and do you think that it would still be 'over' today if someone came along wearing it??

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Why wont you include Jeff Hardy? He was/is a megastar and he wore daft facepaint that WWE marketted ridiculously well in 2008/09. He's proof that its not a dead art. Its a bit daft that you include Muta (who I believe wears a mask and not facepaint when he slaps on the Muta gimmick) and Sting who isnt wrestling at the minute, but not TNA's main attraction and one of the biggest stars of recent years.

 

There he is wearing the belt with his paint on. He was over, the fans wore his stupid shit on his face to the arenas and his merch sold with that face paint image on it.

450px-Jeff_Hardy_WWE_Champion_Royal_Rumble.jpg

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(and no im not inc jeff hardy in that)

 

Im not moaning about this but why do you say that? He was over HUGE in WWE before quitting and is still Hugely over in TNA, he has been a main eventer for a couple years now and is one of the most recongisable wrestlers in the world today. He wears facepaint. Therefore yes, there is someone other than Sting.

I can see your point though. But wrestling has moved on from the times of someone having to have a 'gimmick' with a gimmick look, now its all about just having your own name (or a made up name for some reason) and your gimmick is whatever attitude you've been told to have.

 

Plus all the wrestlers that did wear facepaint always ended up looking a right mess after 10 minutes of sweating buckets.

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I think the point that was being made was about people who came along with face paint and got over to big star status.

 

Although I personally think Jeff Hardy used the face paint to change his charecter and add a bit of a more prominent look that helped him get to main event level.

 

Another one that has been left of was Golddust the paint was instrumental in him getting over.

 

In regards to another Power and Paint - Road Warrior style team/ Ultimate Warrior I dont think we will see that as people want more these days.

 

Although someone with good ability and a good backstory wearing face paint I think could get over it would either need to be a cultural thing or about a belief etc (something realistic anyway) as I dont beleive you could ever have another really big mystical wrestler in the US.

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i definatly hope so,i never liked the fact that pro wrestler's getup is leaning more & more towards mma/real fighter gear every year.

 

same goes with masks or elaborate outfits, somehow they both get stuck with the "90's" and easily get dismissed as outdated while, to me personally, pro wrestling is still a form of fantasy.

 

Back in the day you could find some unique looking wrestlers almost everywhere, now if you want to see somethign colorful your best bet is watching lucha libre...or some very niche stuff like chikara offcourse, but my point is that it's sad the big leagues don't try stuff like that more often.

 

i really liked the boogyman, shame he didn't last longer, he was exactly what is missing in todays wrestling.

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sorry guys

 

the reason that i didnt inc Jeff hardy was that he didnt start off as a face paint wearer its something that came along later as an addition.

 

I will inc him though. Yeah should have inc Goldust, cant believe i forgot about him.

 

what iw as getting at was a character that was symbolised by there paint and it all matched or was colour co-ordinated etc.

 

Yeah Muta did have paint for ages, it wa sonly i think in the late 90's he changed it over.

 

yeah i dont like that they're going away from the tehatrical to the MMA stuff. MMA is real, wrestling is physical theatre. there is a divide, and i'd like to see more 'character's' rather than just the same ol generic look!

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Just realized Boogeyman's face paint makes him look like a bloody strawberry.

 

Also, I think Muta wore face paint in the early 90s before settling on a mask.

Mutohs hair was thinning and he looked ridiculous, so he changed up his look (aswell as his wrestling). Shaved his head bald, grew a goatee and started wearing the coolest masks in wrestling.

 

the_great_muta2.jpg to 0.jpg

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Face paint in wrestling - will there ever be a big star wearer again?

 

I certainly hope so.

 

 

I was thinking to myself that there really isnt any wrestler in the mainstream anymore except for Sting (iif hes still wrestling) and maybe Muta.

 

back in the day you had BIG stars in

 

Warrior

Sting

Muta

Road warriors

Demolition

Powers of Pain

 

whose all had MAJOR pushes and were Big stars

 

why do you think today or certainly over the last 10-15 years there hasnt been any breakout star who wears paint (and no im not inc jeff hardy in that)?

 

There has though: Jeff Hardy.

 

But since he doesn't count I'd say the reason we haven't seen one is because there haven't really been that many wearing them just like the outfits in general getting plainer and plainer. In the 80s you had the people you mentioned. In the 90s we had the full face covered style with guys like Dustin Rhodes becoming Goldust and Sting reinventing his character/look with different designs.

 

Its not like there have been an abundance of guys in paint so it isn't like there were many of them who could/would get over from it. The only obvious one I can think of behind Hardy is The Boogeyman whilst I'm not sure he counts at the level of MAJOR stars we are talking about I'd say it worked out well for the guy the only things he had going for him were his character and his look and he was able to get a decent run out of it.

 

and do you think that it would still be 'over' today if someone came along wearing it??

 

If it was the right guy/girl/tag team then I'd say 'yes'.

 

Of course, I may be proven wrong on this but then again so might the people who totally dismiss the idea.

 

Really there is no way to tell how a Road Warrior/Demolition type character/team would work in 2011 or whether the kids of today would be as impressed as a lot of us were in the Eighties until WWE actually go ahead and try it. I'd say its worth a shot with the right person.

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If it was the right guy/girl/tag team then I'd say 'yes'.

 

 

Good call there. Women's wrestling in the US has always been dominated by attractive chicks. You'd never get a Macy Gray lookalike holding a belt in WWE or TNA no matter how skilled a mat technician they were. I wonder if a full face-paint do would work as a gimmick to get a less attractive Diva/ Knockout over?

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Good call there. Women's wrestling in the US has always been dominated by attractive chicks. You'd never get a Macy Gray lookalike holding a belt in WWE or TNA no matter how skilled a mat technician they were.

Awesome Kong was TNA's main woman wrestler for years, and she's only attractive if you enjoy visiting those fetish sites. She left because she wanted more money otherwise, she'd still be there. Now WWE has JUST signed Awesome Kong.

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Good call there. Women's wrestling in the US has always been dominated by attractive chicks. You'd never get a Macy Gray lookalike holding a belt in WWE or TNA no matter how skilled a mat technician they were.

Awesome Kong was TNA's main woman wrestler for years, and she's only attractive if you enjoy visiting those fetish sites. She left because she wanted more money otherwise, she'd still be there. Now WWE has JUST signed Awesome Kong.

Yeah but she's a monster. He's kinda right, you wouldn't get a plain looking girl pushed as a star in the US unless she had some serious features.

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You wouldnt get a plain looking male getting pushed and holding a major title unless their was a gimmick behind it. You have to have some form of look whether its ugly fucker green teeth or a bloke who looks like John Morrisons better looking brother. There's only so many places for spots on the female roster compared to the men, so they have the luxury of picking and choosing who they put onscreen. There's plenty of role's for ugly gits on the male roster. Its like that way in all walks of entertainment, so you cant knock them for it. You either want to buy a WWE Diva Mag to look at the hot girls on it or you want to watch Awesome Kong rip somebodies head off. Its the reason WWF sacked Todd Pettingill's co-host on Mania. Remember her?

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