The Ultimate Warrior showed how face paint could make a wrestler’s career back in the ‘80s for WWE. Various wrestlers have found massive success when coming up with an intricate face paint design to make them stand out. The colorful world of wrestling allows the performers to get creative when looking to showcase their personality and character.
Many of the best wrestlers only wore the face paint for special matches or unique gimmicks that didn’t last their entire careers. Others had it become their official look for all their matches since it worked so well. Find out just which performers had the best-looking designs that are still popular today. The following wrestlers had the coolest looking face paint in the wrestling industry.
10 The Ultimate Warrior
WWE would likely have not achieved as much success as they did with the Ultimate Warrior without his face paint. The unique and colorful look of Warrior’s face paint and tassels along with his entrance made him come off as a huge star before he even wrestled.
Warrior made WWE realize just how marketable the face paint look was. Other wrestlers tried to mimic his look, but it just didn’t work out the same. Warrior was ahead of the curve when presenting something new.
9 Kamala
The recent passing of Kamala led to many fans and wrestlers speaking about their memories of him. WWE used to go overboard with the outlandish characters in the early ’90s since it worked for the fans of the time.
Kamala was the perfect mysterious character to challenge The Undertaker when WWE needed new heels to feud with the legend. The face paint of Kamala along with some body paint made his gimmick one that instantly stood out at the time.
8 Luna Vachon
Luna Vachon was ahead of her time in the wrestling industry back when the women had fewer opportunities. WWE utilized Vachon in various roles from managing Bam Bam Bigelow to wrestling in the limited women’s division matches.
The face paint on the side of Luna’s face was always a great look for her heel character. Vachon’s character was more menacing and intimidating than her peers, so she made the paint work to find greater success with the odds against her.
7 Vampiro
WCW tried pushing Vampiro in 2000 as part of the New Blood storyline in a feud with fellow face paint wrestler Sting. The success from Vampiro in Mexico led to WCW signing him when wanting to further load up the roster with relevant names.
Vampiro’s face paint was associated with his entire WCW run and helped him get an instant look from the audience seeing him for the first time. Unfortunately, the booking of Vampiro doomed him even though he showed great promise.
6 Crush
The success of Crush in WWE featured him having a couple of drastically different characters. A stint in Demolition made the face paint important since they utilized it in their act. However, Crush changed his look up after leaving the group.
The singles push gave Crush his best run with a look that both stood out yet didn’t take away from his intimidating character. Crush eventually flopped and ditched the face paint when attempting to try new gimmicks moving forward like joining the Nation of Domination.
5 Goldust
Dustin Rhodes leaving WCW for WWE was a huge risk since his ties to WCW were stronger. Vince McMahon talked Dustin into coming to WWE with the new character of Goldust, needing the right wrestler to make it work.
Goldust was a huge hit thanks to Rhodes committing to an idea that many wrestlers wouldn’t have wanted at the time. Everything from the entrance to the gold gear to the blonde wig to the gold face paint made him unlike anyone else. Goldust had enough legs to still exist in WWE as recently as 2019.
4 Papa Shango
Charles Wright found his greatest success in WWE as The Godfather, but he had a few noteworthy gimmicks before then. The start of his WWE run featured the gimmick of Papa Shango to feud with the Ultimate Warrior.
Papa Shango’s face paint made him instantly interesting to the viewers. WWE wanted his character to practice voodoo with results like Ultimate Warrior getting sick and throwing up. Unfortunately, the gimmick didn’t have much long-term potential and Wright received the chance to ditch the face paint for a rebranding.
3 Jeff Hardy
Jeff Hardy didn’t need his face paint to get over, but it became a great part of his act in later years. The reputation of Hardy was already strong in the main event picture when he adopted the face paint look in the late 2000s.
WWE saw Hardy become the WWE Champion and World Champion with the paint. The TNA run of Hardy presented more freedom to experiment with new looks and they all came off great. Hardy doesn’t “need” the face paint as much as others, but his looks deserve a top spot for the cool concepts.
2 Sting
WCW found a diamond in the rough when Sting became the biggest star in the company. The unique look of the colorful face paint with his blonde hair made Surfer Sting a huge success to reach the top of the card.
Sting experimented with different face paint designs in his career like the Crow, Wolfpac, Joker, and various other color schemes. WCW witnessed Sting have a top run for over a decade. WWE is still making a lot of money off of Sting’s merchandise, thanks partially to all the cool face paint designs.
1 Finn Balor
Finn Balor found the ultimate success with the concept of making his face paint a special attraction. The New Japan run of Finn as Prince Devitt introduced a few new looks with the face and body paint before landing a WWE deal.
Triple H’s approach to NXT saw him wanting Balor to continue doing this since it became part of his identity. The Demon became the alter ego of Finn with the visually incredible of his face and body paint. Balor genuinely felt like a different side of him would come out in his matches when wearing the paint, but fans have not seen the Demon since Finn returned to NXT.
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