17 WWE & AEW Wrestlers Who Competed Both With And Without A Mask
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Professional wrestling has a long-standing tradition with competitors wearing masks to hide their identities. Someone entering the ring donning a mask isn't out of the ordinary, and it's an aspect fans of the sport have come to know and love, which has been a part of wrestling since the 1860s.
Primarily, wrestling in Mexico and Japan has latched onto the masked character gimmick much more than American wrestlers, and Mexico has built a whole culture around it. Throughout the years, wrestlers you're more than familiar with have at one point worn a mask or been unmasked during their careers, including a number of the biggest names to ever set foot in WWE and some of those currently signed to All Elite Wrestling.
Going through the wrestling history books, we've found 17 familiar--and not-so-familiar--faces who worked in the ring with and without a mask during the course of their careers. And some of these are a bit surprising. Check them out.
For more WWE facts and figures, check out the Craziest WWE Survivor Series PPV Teamups, WWE and Mattel's Axxess Diorama, and the 7 Greatest WWE Matches That Almost Happened.
Image: WWE
1. Suicide/Frankie Kazarian
Lots of people have portrayed the character Suicide. TNA's resident masked wrestler came onto the scene in late 2008; however, the character's debut was actually in the Midway video game TNA Impact! during that summer. Kazarian portrayed the character, after he kayfabe fell out of love with wrestling and left TNA. Kazarian was the first--but not the only--person to take on the role, and his tenure as the character lasted two years before returning to TNA as Kazarian once again.
For a brief time during 2009, Kazarian's longtime tag partner, Christopher Daniels, played the role of Suicide as well while Kazarian was injured. It's worth noting neither of them could pull off the gravity-defying moves Suicide performed in the game.
Image: Impact Wrestling & Being The Elite
2. Suicide (Manik)/TJP
The other most noteable wrestler to take on the role of TNA's Suicide was none other than TJ Perkins--TJP in WWE. Perkins took on the role in 2013 after the character's two-year absence. A couple months after the character's return, Suicide started going by the name Manik. Perkins remained in the role until 2015, when he removed the Manik mask for the first time on television.
Image: Impact Wrestling and WWE
3. Curry Man/Christopher Daniels
In 2007, Christopher Daniels was fired from TNA, but he returned a month later as Curry Man, a character he first developed in the late '90s. This character was a wild, comedic act that was everything Daniels wasn't. Just watch the official Curry Man intro. He was supposed to be a Japanese wrestler who didn't speak a lot of English. Curry Man ended up getting a pink slip during a bizarre briefcase match, and disappeared in late 2008. Daniels returned to being himself, which began his journey to teaming with Kazarian, and eventually being a part of All Elite Westling's SCU.
Image: Impact Wrestling & Being The Elite
4. El Generico/Sami Zayn
Before he became Sami Zayn in WWE, he worked the independent circuit as El Generico, a generic luchador who spoke very little English. His PWG promos, especially with Colt Cabana, were hilarious and many times, not safe for work. However, Generico really made a name for himself as the tag team partner of Kevin Steen (Owens in WWE), which ended up as an epic rivalry in later years. When he signed with WWE in 2013, the mask was gone, and so was El Generico. However, during one storyline in NXT, Zayn competed as masked wrestler El Local against Bo Dallas, which was a nice nod to Zayn's indy career.
Image: Ring of Honor and WWE
5. Super Eric/Eric Young
Moving forward with more TNA masked wrestlers is Super Eric. Eric Young took on the role of this superhero wrestler, while also denying on television that he was Super Eric. During an episode of Impact, Young left a match as himself and returned as Super Eric later on. The gimmick was eventually abandoned when Young joined TNA Frontline as himself with AJ Styles and Samoa Joe.
Image: Impact Wrestling and WWE
6. Rey Mysterio Jr.
Out of every person on this list, this was the most shocking. During the Monday Night Wars, Rey Mysterio was one of the many familiar (masked) faces in the cruiserweight division--the workhorse of WCW Nitro--and he was primarily known as a masked wrestler. However, in a hair vs. mask match against Kevin Nash at Superbrawl IX in 1999, Mysterio lost, which in turn meant he was unmasked. He remained unmasked up until 2002, when he signed with WWE.
Image: WWE
7. Psicosis
Continuing with WCW's war on masked wrestlers is Psicosis. The luchador was trained by Rey Misterio Sr.--Rey Mysterio Jr.'s uncle--and had early stints in AAA and ECW before landing in WCW's thriving cruiserweight division. After a run with the LWO, Psicosis lost his mask on an episode of Nitro to Billy Kidman. It wouldn't be until 2007, when Psicosis was in AAA that he put the mask back on.
Image: WWE
8. Juventud Guerrera
The final victim of the War of the Masks in WCW is none other than Juventud Guerrera. Son of famed masked wrestler Fuerza Guerrera, Juventud made a name for himself in AAA back in the early to mid '90s. In 1998, he was the WCW Cruiserweight Champion, but during this run, lost his title and mask to Chris Jericho. He continued to work unmasked for years afterwards, even in WWE. Today, he puts the mask on inside the ring, but has no problem showing off his face on social media.
Image: WWE
9. Mortis/Kanyon
While Chris Kanyon was another WCW wrestler who lost his mask, it had nothing to do with what I've jokingly called WCW's war on masks. During a 1997 storyline, Kanyon came to the ring in a mask, under the name Mortis. The mask and gimmick were dropped in 1998 when Kanyon began to feud with Raven and The Flock. He later wrestled in WWE, still as Kanyon, but did a few house shows as Mortis.
Image: WWE
10. La Sombra/Andrade "Cien" Almas
Andrade: 100 Souls (Which is an amazing ring name, and I'm still bummed WWE cut down his name) had a much different appearance before coming to NXT. He gained notoriety in NJPW under the name La Sombra (The Shadow). Seriously, this wrestler has the best in-ring names. A few months into his tenure with NXT, Almas debuted under the "Cien" Almas monicker, sans mask. During a few Takeover events, Almas would wear a mask during his entrance, paying homage to his lucha roots.
Image: NJPW and WWE
11. Dos Caras Jr./Alberto Del Rio
Real-life son of the famed masked luchador Dos Caras, the wrestler who is now known as Alberto El Patron spent years in the Lucha scene, working in AAA and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre under the ring name Dos Caras Jr. In 2009, we signed with WWE, and after working a short stint in FCW--WWE's developmental territory at the time--Caras debuted on Smackdown, unmasked as Alberto Del Rio. Even though he's not working with WWE anymore and has changed his name to Alberto El Patron, he still wrestles without a mask.
Image: CMLL and WWE
12. Kane
At one time, Kane was The Undertaker's brother (technically, half-brother) who was left to burn alive in a fire at their family's funeral home, according to storylines from 1997. Wrestling! For years, Kane was masked and didn't speak. Then, he started talking with the help of a device, saying things like, "Suck it." What is life? Then, in 2003, Kane was given a title shot with the stipulation that if he lost, he would have to remove his mask. Kane lost, and fans around the world got to see the hideous, charred, mangled face behind the iconic maskā¦ and it looked perfectly fine, with a few coal smudges here and there and a bad haircut to make him look "disfigured." He wrestled unmasked for years, up until 2011 when he donned a new mask before losing it again--and gaining it back again. Eventually Kane left WWE in 2018 to be the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.
Image: WWE
13. Imposter Kane/Luke Gallows
Luke Gallows is a part of one of the greatest modern tag teams, which is criminally underused. Gallows made his WWE television debut in 2006 wearing a mask though and one of the worst wigs in WWE of all time. He played the part of Imposter Kane and was involved in a feud with the real Kane--who was unmasked at the time. The feud didn't last long, after Kane beat him up and removed his mask. After a memorable stint in NJPW as part of the Bullet Club, Gallows returned to WWE with tag partner Karl Anderson.
Image: WWE
14. The Hurricane/Shane Helms/Gregory Helms
Stand back, there's a hurricane coming through. Gregory Shane Helms wrestled in WCW as a member of 3 Count, a boy band parody. This has nothing to do with wearing a mask, but I want to remind people of that stable because it was a ton of fun. Helms stayed with WCW until WWE bought the company out. A few months after debuting on WWE programming, Helms got repackaged as the superhero character The Hurricane. During this five year run as the character, Hurricane provided a lot of laughs and entertaining matches. However, in 2006, Hurricane turned on his superhero sidekick, Rosey, and began wrestling as the unmasked Gregory Helms. He still makes the occasional appearance on WWE as Hurricane, but Helms is currently seated in a backstage role with the company.
Image: WWE
15. Prince Puma/Ricochet
The man known as Ricochet has worked on and off with a mask. During his Chikara days, he wore a mask as the character Helios, as well as wrestling as Ricochet but he really made a name for himself in Lucha Underground as Prince Puma in 2014. After the third season of the series ended, he eventually landed in WWE back under his indy ring name--before Lucha Underground--Ricochet.
Image: Lucha Underground and WWE
16. Black Tiger/Eddie Guererro
For a brief time, legendary wrestler Eddie Guererro wore a mask in the ring. While in NJPW, he took on the mantle of Black Tiger, and was the second man to do so. He performed as the character for three years, all while also working at ECW, AAA, and WCW at the time. Guererro parted with the Black Tiger mask and went to WCW full-time in 1996.
Image: NJPW and WWE
17. The American Dragon/Daniel Bryan
While Daniel Bryan is a household name, at one point in time, he was briefly a masked wrestler overseas. During his 2001 run with NJPW, Bryan went under the moniker as American Dragon, wearing a red, white, and blue mask. He didn't wear the mask very long, but during his time in NJPW, he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with someone else on this list, Curry Man.
Image: Texas Wrestling Academy and WWE