5 Best Wrestling Masks Of The 1980s (& 5 Worst)

Highlights

The 1980s had many masked wrestlers, with some masks being generic and others well-designed to match the wrestler's persona.
The Killer Bees had fun and effective masks that were hard to tell apart, adding to their successful tag team gimmick.
Some masks in the 1980s, like the Midnight Rider and Stagger Lee, were poorly designed and unattractive, detracting from the wrestlers' act.

The 1980s had a lot of masked wrestlers around, although most of them were in the jobber category. This was the time when the weekend TV shows had the stars humbling lower talent, and a guy wearing a mask was a good way to take a pin without looking worse. Some wrestlers were able to stand out better, even if the majority of masks were rather generic.

Yet there were also some great masks in this period, many matching the guy’s persona and often very well-designed. Of course, there were quite a few poor ones with them not matching the worker and some pretty damn ugly to boot. Here are the five best and five worst wrestling masks of the 1980s to show how some guys looked better or worse, hiding their faces.

10 WORST: Midnight Rider

It’s a classic theme in wrestling: A guy gets suspended and then returns under a masked persona. It was Dusty Rhodes who popularized it in Florida as he lost a “loser leaves town” match and then the Midnight Rider showed up.

With a generic mask combined with a terrible gold-colored attempt at a Lone Ranger mask, it was bad enough before Dusty started talking and giving away who he was. Dusty used this a few times in his career but never changed the mask look, which didn’t help the act at all.

9 BEST: Killer Bees

B. Brian Blair and Jumping Jim Brunzell were one of the more underrated tag teams of their time. They got over well with their great skills and, in their later run, added a turn to things. With the ref distracted, the Bees would duck under the ring and put on masks, then use it for a win.

It was a heel move, yet it worked for them, and the masks themselves looked fun with the stripes, and truly hard to tell who was who. A shame they never got championship gold to go with the look, but it worked for them.

8 WORST: Stagger Lee

Yes, it’s the cliched “suspended and returning under a gimmick” angle, this time with Junkyard Dog. It was part of a pitched feud with Ted DiBiase, with JYD losing a bout but returning as Stagger Lee, named after a famous figure.

To be fair, it did a good job hiding JYD’s face. The only problem was, it was a garish mix of red and green patterns that looked awful and made it hard to root for him. Fans were more than happy to see JYD drop it, as it was staggering just how ugly this mask was.

7 BEST: Masked Avenger

It was only used once, which is a shame as it was one awesome mask. In the 1980s, WCCW American champion Jimmy Garvin made a big deal of only wrestling handpicked jobbers in non-title matches. He faced the Masked Avenger, who wore a pretty nifty mask designed like the state of Texas, bright red and stood out.

The Avenger pulled out some surprisingly good wrestling moves before hitting a familiar thrust kick to pin Garvin. He then unmasked to reveal himself as Chris Adams, demanding a title shot. It’s too bad the mask wasn’t used again, as a lot of work went into a one-shot deal.

6 WORST: The Ding Dongs

Ah, the Ding Dongs. One of the all-time worst gimmicks in WCW history, these masked wrestlers came to the ring in colored outfits with bells on them as Jim Herd was convinced this would make them stars.

He was very, very wrong as the audience booed them out of the building in their first appearance. The masks were just the topper to an act that never had a chance and only remembered for how wretched it was.

5 BEST: Blue Blazer

The late, great Owen Hart was a fantastic talent from the start who had a promising career ahead of him. His early WWF work failed to present him as Bret’s brother, instead giving him the identity of the Blue Blazer. Owen did his best, helped by a good mask that matched his high-flying character.

Owen just had the bad luck of being in the wrong time for a lighter guy in WWE, bouncing around before becoming his own guy. Sadly, the Blazer is known as the persona Owen had in his tragic death, but the original look stood out among

WWE wrestlers of the ‘80s.

4 WORST: Charlie Brown From Outta Town

Jimmy Valiant as Charlie Brown From Outta Town

At least Dusty and JYD’s masks made a decent attempt to hide their faces. Jimmy Valiant couldn’t do that when he had the “hide while suspended” angle. First, there was how the mask looked like a pair of trunks pulled over his head, the eyeholes constantly out of balance.

More importantly, Valiant made zero attempt to hide that ridiculously long beard, so everyone knew who he was. He actually won the TV title with the mask, but Charlie Brown was out of town pretty fast.

3 BEST: Demolition

Everyone focused on Demolition copying the Road Warriors in leather outfits, makeup, and more. But one spot where they differed was some pretty snazzy masks. They were like hoods but did a good job covering them up as they’d march to the ring and perfectly matched their outfits.

That led to a great bit of waiting until the cameras were on them before removing them to glower with their tongues. While their 1990 attempt at wearing masks all the time was bad, Demolition’s early masks did give them more of their own identity.

2 WORST: Lazer-Tron

A brief fad in the late 1980s was folks enjoying laser gun games. Jim Crockett Promotions tried to capitalize on that by having Hector Guerrero don the outfit of Lazer-Tron.

The outfit was already goofy with bits like a laser scanner on the chest, but that mask was ridiculous, looking like a fencing mask with mesh covering and odd red antenna sticking out of the silver top. He was the Light Heavyweight champion, but it’s probably best that this died with the fad, and Hector is happy to cover his face through it all.

1 BEST: Tiger Mask

A Japanese wrestling icon, a few men have worn the mask, but all are hugely popular. Based on a manga character, it passed through a few famous Japanese wrestlers like Satoru Sayama and Mistuhara Misawa for multiple championships.

Whoever it was wore one of the coolest masks in wrestling history, beautifully detailed like a tiger and always making its wearer look like a fierce animal in the ring. Eight men have worn that mask over the decades, but it was in the ‘80s that the legend began as Tiger Mask set a bar for masked wrestlers.

NEXT: What These Wrestlers Look Like Without Their Face Paint Or Masks