So many contenders, who'd be your pick and why?

Can we include face painted wrestlers, or strictly masks?

Strictly masks. Between great 70s and 80s wrestlers and lucha workers, there should be more than enough candidates to work with.

I'll go with Kendo Nagasaki (Thornley not Sakurada). He's what I tend to think of when I think of a masked wrestler. The allure of the "masked man" was never stronger in my opinion in terms of mystique and character.

It's hard for me to put someone above Mysterio at the moment. I love Liger too but Mysterio was such a great babyface and was the catalyst in some ways for masked wrestlers of his generation in the US

 

 

Between Liger and Mysterio for me. Having a hard time deciding which one I would pick.

Here is the shortlist, in my view:

 

The Destroyer / Dr. X

The Spoiler / Super Destroyer

Mr. Wrestling II

The Assassin

The Masked Superstar

 

And I think someone has to mention Mil Mascaras and Dos Caras.

 

And perhaps as a gimmick, Tiger Mask.

As a star Santo. By a massive margin. As a worker Rey. Then probably Santos kid.

Is Santo demonstrably a bigger star than Mascaras, Dylan? Just asking.

I honestly feel like Mexican wrestlers should be their own separate category. It's such a great heritage and so much a part of Mexican wrestling that it has an massively unfair advantage over US masked guys, which was a very small subcategory and died off decades ago.

 

I'd go with The Masked Superstar, Mr. Wrestling II and the Spoiler.

 

Mysterio for the luchadores obviously.

 

Need to watch a lot more Destroyer clearly.

Do you mean the best worker who wore a mask or the best masked persona?

Whatever you want OJ, whatever is more interesting.

Yeah, was thinking about this and Hijo del Santo has to be in this discussion. He is an absolutely amazing worker and easily one of the most over workers in his home country ever.

Whatever you want OJ, whatever is more interesting.

 

The greatest masked wrestler in terms of persona is El Santo and next would probably be Blue Demon. As far as workers go, El Hijo del Santo, Blue Panther and Villano III would rank as the best of our lifetime.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Wrestling II. Awesome guy

Of all guys that it would be reasonable for us to have footage of, Masked Superstar is pretty high up on my list of those I wish we had more of.

Is Santo demonstrably a bigger star than Mascaras, Dylan? Just asking.

yes

Easily Rey Mysterio Jr for me. Thousands of good matches, hundreds of great matches and so many classic matches. WWE writes the wrestling history books & with their access to his 5-year WCW career(3 of them under the mask) & his ECW run he will go down as the best by far.

 

His first WCW match/PPV match vs. Dean Malenko was great and he immediately was on my 'Top 5'(Booker T) and then he went on to define that belt & division. I have a small bias because I saw what is in my mind his best match ever live: vs Eddy Guerrero @ Halloween Havoc '97.

 

Even though it was a dumb decision to take his mask and THEN push him when a more over, main eventer Rey would mean more Rey masks being sold, I still liked a lot of his stuff post-mask. Like his initial Giant-killer gimmick(too bad they screwed up the payoff by releasing Paul Wight...you know have him actually 'kill The Giant'?)

 

When he returned to WWE I thought it was cheesy to put the mask back on him but have since softened to phony wrestling stipulations(I think Taker/Michaels retirement match is the only legit one ever...for now). And Rey has since become one of the best of the last decade+. The 09 Jericho feud, the Smackdown 6 era, the Eddy/Rey TV WWE title match 04, Rumble 06 performance, Finlay matches just so many good ones. His only real misses were the Eddy custody feud(matches were good though), the Mania 22 triple threat(shoulda been a classic with another 15-20 minutes) & subsequent WHC reign...

 

Anyways when he it comes down to it, who's sold more money in masks than Rey Jr.?? Some Lucha guys may have sold more units over time, but I'd bet the farm Rey's brought in more cash.

 

Other masked guys I love:

Tiger Mask I- Dynamite/TM feud will always be one of my favorites. TM moved as good or better than even the Dragon Gate guys at their best. I love OG Tiger Mask, and wish he would have brought the gimmick to WWE in 1984 and wrestled Dynamite Kid @ Wrestlemania I for 15 minutes. He could have been a hall of famer(Misawa took over in what 85? Their could have been 2)

 

Great Sasuke- First saw him in '97 @ Canadian Stampede IYH and my jaw dropped and figured he was one of my new favorites(Taka also). Then the next night they have another badass match and then Sasuke's big mouth screwed up his career and I didn't see him again till 2001 when I started getting Puro tapes.

 

And yeah I like Liger too, but in my personal tastes the 3 above are more fun.

 

Wait a minute, Vader is a masked wrestler...if he counts disregard all the previous 1000 words. He wins lol

Is Santo demonstrably a bigger star than Mascaras, Dylan? Just asking.

 

As big a star Mascaras was they are not even in the same universe as far as popularity (in their own country) goes. Rikidozan was as big or perhaps bigger as a cultural star for a period of time but nowadays he's a semi-forgotten figure. One of them has got to be the biggest wrestling star ever in their own country (internationally must be Hogan). Hard to compare them. When Meltzer does he dismisses Santo's enduring popularity as "well, they keep showing his movie replays on TV" which completely misses the point. Blue Demon was always second. Other than Inoki I can't think anybody else who deserves being on a serious discussion.

 

Mil Mascaras was a bigger international star and one of the few (if not the only one?) that was a regular headliner in the three biggest wrestling countries of its time.

 

As workers Hijo del Santo, Rey Misterio Jr. and Blue Panther for their longevity and constant quality of work.

 

Greatest gimmick: Tiger Mask probably. One of the most beautiful masks and a great name.

 

To get some American names in the mix too, I really enjoyed Masked Superstar and the Destroyer. I was shocked when I first saw NJPW footage of Superstar. I thought there was no way this dude could be the one from Demolition.

The real question is who is the better masked man between Vader and Giant Machine.

In general I go with El Hijo del Santo, and if we're counting Vader's mask then Vader.

The real question is who is the better masked man between Vader and Giant Machine.

 

LOL!

 

In regards to Santo, simply put, there wasn't a BIGGER Mexican star, ever. I doubt there ever will be. He crossed barriers no other wrestler has been able to cross. I visited Mexico City about two years ago and I saw four pieces of street art of Santo, I'll try and upload later. He was a cultural icon, and still is. As said elsewhere, his films are on circulation on TV still. Blue Demon is a distant second, but still VERY popular. Not a knock on Blue Demon, just a statement of how big Santo was.

 

The real question is who is the better masked man between Vader and Giant Machine.

 

LOL!

 

In regards to Santo, simply put, there wasn't a BIGGER Mexican star, ever. I doubt there ever will be. He crossed barriers no other wrestler has been able to cross. I visited Mexico City about two years ago and I saw four pieces of street art of Santo, I'll try and upload later. He was a cultural icon, and still is. As said elsewhere, his films are on circulation on TV still. Blue Demon is a distant second, but still VERY popular. Not a knock on Blue Demon, just a statement of how big Santo was.

 

 

This comment is spot on. It's not a knock on Demon. On terms of street recognition probably Demon and Mil Mascaras are almost as recognisable as Santo. They are names that everybody knows. I can't imagine anybody in Mexico would Santo but wouldn't know who Demon is, it does not make sense.

 

But as far as being a beloved "idolo del pueblo" (the common man's hero) Santo is up there with Pancho Villa, Pedro Infante, Zapata and Tin Tan. He's a step above Frida, Benito Juarez, Vicente Fernandez, Cantinflas or Comandante Marcos. Somebody like Demon is several steps below, maybe Chespirito or Luis Miguel level.

El Hijo Del Santo is my personal favourite. His body of work is exceptional.