Wrestling Masks: Beyond Halloween Costumes
Tis the season when we dress up in
wacky costumes, celebrate all things creepy, and gorge on enough
candy to make at least ten new diabetes. When it comes to
straightforward costumes that sledgehammer the point home, they don’t
get any more simple and effective than a good mask. Shit, a lot of
times, that’s all you need. Complement it with a T-shirt and jeans,
and you’re good to go! While I’m sure they generate far more sales
during Halloween season, in the world of pro wrestling, masks are a
white hot accessory year-round.
The mask fits right into the
imaginative and vibrantly colorful environment that is wrestling,
where larger than life personalities command the stage. Nowadays, we
tend to associate it with iconic grapplers such as the great Rey
Mysterio. But in my early days of fandom, masked wrestlers were
mainly jobbers. Jabronis. Or as me and my Cousin Drew would call ‘em,
“the weak guys”. When you saw a cat like Agent Steel in the ring,
you automatically knew the dude standing across...