Slam Wrestling’s Painted Faces Quiz

The Great Muta is arguably the most famous painted faced wrestler outside North America. Keiji Mutoh first created the character in 1989 and he became an international sensation. Not only was Muta incredibly agile and athletic, but he was also terrifying. He was unpredictable and would become vicious with little provocation. And of course, he is perhaps the most iconic user of the Asian Mist technique that pre-dates him.

When Sting signed with TNA in 2006, it was a huge deal, especially for those fans that watched TNA because it filled the void left behind by WCW’s closure. At first, Sting was the same Sting he had been during the dying days of WCW. But a few years into it, his character went in a different direction. He still painted his face like before, but his personality was unlike anything anyone had ever seen from him before.

The Ultimate Warrior is one of the most iconic wrestlers who painted their faces. His colored face was integral to him standing out from the rest of his peers and helped him become a huge merchandise seller for WWE. Even to this day, Warrior masks depicting his face paint designs continue to sell on WWE.com, and these face paint masks were a key piece of the last promo of his life.

The Road Warriors are one of the most memorable tag teams of all time. Their entrance spikes and face paint were heavily inspired by the first Mad Max film The Road Warrior. But even though Hawk and Animal were the main duo for 95% of the team’s existence, they were also joined by other members over the years as well, including this Japanese wrestler.

Whether wrestling alone or alongside his brother Matt, Jeff Hardy has always managed to grab fans’ attention. A part of his success in doing that has been his appearance, which has included having his face painted up in creative ways. Then in 2018, he explained one of the main reasons he paints his face before a match.

Wrestlers with painted faces are usually portrayed as inhuman. The paint reveals a more monstrous side of them and it helps sell the idea that the people beneath the paint, well, aren’t really people at all. This has been the case for Abaddon, a member of AEW’s women’s division. To complement her creepy face paint, she has had a tendency to…

Goldust came to the ring decked out in a dazzling coat, platinum blonde wig, gold bodysuit and, of course, his face painted gold and black. Most fans remember Goldust for his creepiness and at times perverted tendencies, but what often gets forgotten is what the character was actually making fun of.

Mid-2000s Smackdown was characterized by many wrestlers coming through hoping to become bigger stars. After all, the show was taped at the time and was seen as the ‘little brother’ to established top show RAW. One of the wrestlers introduced during this period was Heidenreich, who tried a bunch of things – including painting his face – to try and connect with the crowd. Alas, it didn’t work.

Stardust was one of the most unusual gimmicks of the past decade. WWE saw fit to cast Cody Rhodes as this bizarre, esoteric character not unlike his famous brother Goldust. To complete this gimmick, Stardust was billed as hailing from a place that had nothing to do with the man beneath the gimmick.

Vampiro had a short but interesting run in WCW during the late Monday Night Wars after massive stardom in Mexico. Most of his time was spent in undercard feuds and him fighting other wrestlers with painted faces. But as things grew direr for WCW, it was decided that an additional ‘creative’ element would be added to make Vampiro more engaging.

Demolition (Ax-Bill Eadie and Smash-Barry Darsow) was one of the most accomplished tag teams in WWE history. Their first reign lasted a whopping 478 days, which was the longest tag title reign in history until The New Day surpassed it in 2016.

Umaga was one of many wrestlers to come from the fabled Anoa’i wrestling family. Like many before him, he portrayed a savage character that couldn’t speak beyond wild shouts and grunts. But despite that character and its limitations, he achieved quite a bit of success during his short WWE tenure. He was always treated like a serious threat; that is, until one of his cousins appeared on the TitanTron and revealed what the word ‘Umaga’ (supposedly) means.

The Boogeyman was as wacky a character as any in WWE. Introduced during the mid-2000s, this creepy wrestler had a face covered in red and black paint, lacked some teeth, and entered the arena with a smoking staff and ominous mist. But the strangest part of his gimmick involved what he did once he got into the ring (and no, it wasn’t his actual wrestling).

During his time in NXT, Finn Balor was basically the fan-service wrestler. People loved his normal entrance and they adored his ‘Demon’ appearance that he saved for his most important matches. Not satisfied with entering the arena painted up like a boss, Balor has also gone as far as to paint himself and dress up as a character synonymous with the city he was wrestling in. But which of those character(s) did he portray?

Shinzaki, also known as Hakushi in WWF/E, had a unique element to his gimmick. After taking off his entrance attire, it was revealed that his face and torso were covered in some kind of script. What was this script and what did it mean?

Most wrestlers, when they paint their face, they do it for the whole face. But not Darby Allin. Part of his gimmick is that he paints only one half of his face to resemble a skull. People speculated why, but it wasn’t until a recent sit-down interview with Jim Ross that Allin explained it once and for all.

Kamala was one of many big men that wrestled in WWE during the 1990s. He was portrayed as a savage from somewhere in Africa. Part of this gimmick presentation included him being dressed in a loincloth and having his face painted in a menacing black and white. Later managers tried to ‘humanize’ this ‘savage’ by exposing him to the American way of life. It was a different time back then.

Bullet Club is arguably the biggest and most famous stable in wrestling history, with only the NWO comparable. What started as a generic foreigners’ stable in New Japan grew to span many promotions in different countries. At the time of this writing, 44 wrestlers and non-wrestlers have been full-time or part-time members, including the famous tag team of Gallows & Anderson. But when did they join the stable?

The Usos are one of WWE’s most decorated teams. They’ve been with the company for over a decade and have been a staple of its tag team division for almost that entire period. They’ve beaten many top tag teams to win gold, except for…

Papa Shango was one of the most memorable characters of the early 1990s for better or worse. A wrestling voodoo practitioner, Shango would curse his opponents with hexes and perform wacky supernatural acts like make them vomit from afar. Unsurprisingly, Shango was loathed by many fans during that period and disappeared after about only a year in WWE.

Damián 666 is one of the most famous Mexican wrestlers to not wear a mask. Instead of following most of his fellow luchadors by donning a mask, he decided to wear face paint and adopt a macabre persona. This personality was presented to him while he was working in Japan, and was inspired by the following film:

In 1993, Doink the Clown was feuding with Bam Bam Bigelow in WWF/E. And since Survivor Series was approaching, they decided to settle things in a four-on-four elimination match at that event. To accomplish this, Doink enlisted two teams to help him achieve this goal. Who were they?

Aja Kong is one of the most famous women’s wrestlers in history. She was basically a women’s version of Vader: a heavyset monster that dished out brutal punishment and could take a monumental beating. Though she made a name for herself mainly in her home country of Japan, she has also wrestled internationally as well, most recently appearing for AEW in 2021.

WCW produced many interesting wrestlers during the 1990s. Some were great like Goldberg and its cruiserweight division. Others were silly and ridiculous, like The Ye-TAY and The Alliance to end Hulkamania. Then there was The Renegade, who had a flash-in-the-pan moment in the sun before fading into obscurity.

Most people recognize Jushin Liger as a masked cruiserweight legend. What few people might recall is that he has an evil alter-ego named ‘Kishin Liger’. When Kishin appears, Liger’s mask comes off and his face looks like a cross between The Great Muta and Gene Simmons from KISS. Kishin has only appeared four times in Liger’s 36-year career, as it has only appeared under the most serious of circumstances.