Masked and painted wrestlers often take a special place in fans' hearts. Every young kid can remember seeing a heroic luchador or painted monster come down the ramp at their first live wrestling show. Impact Wrestling and TNA before it was built and carried by talented performers who chose to hide their faces throughout the years. While each tradition within wrestling places different importance and meaning on these shrouded performers, they appear worldwide.
Some masked and painted wrestlers take their persona very seriously, making finding their natural faces difficult. With some digging, though, you can find others that have had longer careers with and without a mask, especially with Impact, so their faces are around for everyone to see.
10 Rellik
John Hugger was without a home in the wrestling industry in 2007. After being released from the WWE in 2004, he bounced around independent promotions. In 2007 though, he took his masked maniac REDRUM character and rebranded to Rellik. The Rellik gimmick looked cool but was a flop in practice.
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The gimmick was supposedly inspired by the Great Muta, who Hugger had played once for a rivalry in Japan. The look came with the red most around the mouth and a black and steel-colored mask that did look intimidating. John Hugger spends most of his time without a mask these days, as he now lives a private life away from the ring and works in banking.
9 Rosemary
Rosemary is one of TNA Impacts' most prolific characters, appearing as a staple of the Knockouts Division almost immediately in 2016, and remains one of the company's most reliably over-stars. Even before her appearance in the Impact Zone, the performer Holly Letkeman kept her face painted as part of her various personas across Shimmer, NCW, and other independent wrestling promotions.
Rosemary has appeared in several movies, but she typically appears as ghoulish creatures in the films and is heavily made up. However, in the 2012 wrestling comedy movieThe Beat Down, she appears on camera without her usual ring gear and face paint.
8 Sting
The icon Sting has had a long career, serving as the face of both WCW and TNA/Impact throughout his time with both companies, and has done it every time with his signature painted scowl. The many iconic Sting looks in TNA and beyond have almost entirely included face paint.
Now that Sting is fast approaching his mid-60s, becoming one of the oldest active wrestlers in the industry, he is far more willing to appear without his makeup, even when his in-ring persona is sporting one. Steve Borden, the legendary performer behind Sting, has always had the look of a professional wrestler, coming up in an era where that was successful. Still, it is hard to think of Sting without his black and white look.
7 Manik
Manik was a short-lived name change for an Impact mainstay, a character called Suicide. The Suicide/Manik character originated as an original character in TNA's 2008 video game. While the character has been brought to life by a long list of excellent wrestlers, the bodysuit and masks were handed to TJ Perkins, who changed his name to Manik.
TJ Perkins has competed unmasked worldwide, winning championships in WWE and even on Impact without the Manik character. So his reveal as Manik was a bigger surprise for fans who all know Perkins from his usual gimmicks.
6 Rey Fenix
Before Rey Fenix moved with his real-life Lucha brother Pentagon Jr to AEW, the international superstar was featured prominently on Lucha Underground and had a great run on Impact. His time on the brand was short, but he wrestled the entire run wearing his signature mask.
As a newer star within the industry, Fenix doesn't have too many photos out of character. However, he did unmask to show fans the importance of mask-wearing recently at a grocery star, in an image that made the rounds on Reddit among fans of the luchador.
5 Black Reign
Dustin Rhodes has had an excellent career that typically involves innovative looks and face paints. The eldest son of Dusty Rhodes has traveled around quite a bit as a performer, including a rather lousy and forgettable run on Impact as Black Reign.
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Black Reign was not involved in any good storylines, and Rhodes didn't look nearly as good as he does now. For fans of Rhodes and TNA at the time, an unmasked Dustin may have been a better decision. While he has appeared numerous times since leaving TNA without the Black Reign gear, it is a bit jarring to see the talent AEW fans know and love in the Black Reign gear.
4 Abyss
Abyss is an Impact Hall of Famer and was an understated mainstay of the promotion until his retirement. While the many iterations of Abyss did include a few maskless moments, he is best known for his initial gimmick and the accompanying mask.
The Impact Zone's resident monster made his masked visage the main event performer despite long odds, competing with the likes of Sting, AJ Styles, and Kurt Angle. However, the giant Abyss looks far less intimidating outside his ring gear. When pictured without his mask, Christopher Park looks to be just a regular man, despite being an Impact wrestling legend.
3 Vampiro
Vampiro did not have a long career with Impact, but he was one of the earliest additions to the roster. In those early years of Impact, TNA fans saw brutal matches against the likes of Raven from the WCW midcarder. Vampiro had a striking appearance akin to his fellow WCW alumnus and rival Sting.
Vampiro was not as protective of his signature painted face as his colleague Sting partly because his extreme matches wiped away the paint. However, the face-painted look did add to the overall gimmick and took a generic-looking wrestler and created a memorable character.
2 Crazzy Steve
Crazzy Steve is a newer member on Impact and still competes on the active roster. The Canadian-born performer has a striking ring presence, which stems from his unique face and body paint to match the "crazy' gimmick. When he was brought into the Decay faction his look added to the group's aesthetic and revitalized his career.
While he plays an evil character on Impact each week, Steven Scott looks like a relatively friendly and unassuming guy when the paint comes off. It is rare to see the character out of gimmick, but as one of the newest "painted" performers, the pictures circulate for curious fans.
1 Pentagon Jr
Pentagon Jr is a former Impact World Champion and was one of the promotion's most talented wrestlers and competitors on the roster. Part of what made Pentagon an absolute Star when he first appeared on the enigmatic Lucha Underground was his hard-hitting style; the other is his dark character work. In addition, the samurai-style luchador mask stands out even in a world where the most significant stars are masked, particularly for American audiences.
Pentagon seems to be very protective of his mask and gimmick overall, so he does not appear unmasked. He has, however, lost his mask and shown his face as part of a storyline on AEW, so fans of the former Impact star have had a brief look at the man behind the mask.
