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Brothers in Paint: Pro Wrestling's 10 Best Face-Painters

Posted: Jan 9th 2011 By: mikeiles

It's a dying art-form today, but some of wrestling's more colorful and charismatic characters have enhanced their persona's' with the application of some simple face paint. Join me as i take you on a tour of pro wrestling's 10 best face-painters!

As ever, I'm keen to hear your opinions and feedback, feel free to comment below and let me know who else you think should be on the list!

10. Bull Nakano
Bull Nakano was one of the most dominant women in pro wrestling history, making her name in All-Japan Women's Pro Wrestling and CMLL in Mexico (the promotion's first-ever women's champion), Nakano went on to enjoy a decent run in the WWF in the mid-'90s which included a notable feud with Alundra Blayze (WCW's Madusa).

I could be wrong, but i cannot recall another female wrestler donning the paint?that alone warrants recognition in this top-10 list.

Nakano is a professional golfer these days, I wonder if she still dons the paint.

9. Doink the Clown
Is there a creepier paint job than that of a clown? Doink was one of the many colorful heels in the WWF during the early to mid-'90s, his facepaint was simple, yet effective.

8. Goldust
It's hard to believe today, but when Dustin Rhodes morphed into Goldust in the World Wrestling Federation in the Fall of 1995, he was easily one of the most controversial and groundbreaking characters of all-time. His black and gold facepaint, along with the wig and feminine attire generated a lot of interest, confusion, hatred and down-right silly looks from the '90s WWF fan base

7. Vampiro
El Vampiro Canadiense, a virtual rock star in Mexico, made the Vamp look popular long before Edward Cullen. Vamp also enjoyed a relatively successful, albeit short, run in WCW during its dying days. Another case of simple, yet very effective face paint?Vampiro's paint will be remembered for a long time to come.

6. Demolition
They may have been the WWF's Road Warrior clones, but man was their face paint cool! The paint also reflected each character's persona as Smash had the smashed glass style design and Axe went with the Metallic paint with red axe-head designs.

5. The Great Muta
Muta is one of the true greats of professional wrestling and one of my personal favorites of all-time, but man, when I was a kid, few wrestlers scared me more than the Great Muta. Muta's paint added an eerie edge to an already mysterious character.

4. The Road Warriors
The Road Warriors are easily the most recognisable face-painted tag-team of all-time. Their face paint just added to the legitimacy of the feeling that at any given moment, these guys would issue a beat-down and enjoy doing it.

3. Jeff Hardy
For the two men who will rank ahead of him, there are few wrestlers in the business with a more impressive range and style of facepaint than the "Charismatic Enigma" Jeff Hardy. Hardy took a character which was largely an extension of his real life daredevil personality and enhanced it 10-fold with the addition of the paint.

The wild colors and garish designs truly reflect the wild and unpredictable nature of Mr. Hardy, who is your No. 3 on the list of top 10 face-painters in pro wrestling history.

2. Ultimate Warrior
Think face paint and the majority of wrestling fans will think of the Warrior. Ultimate Warrior could not be separated from his face paint, it was who he was. Take the prior entrant, for example, Jeff Hardy. His paint may excentuate the character, but he can easily go without it?it's hard to imagine the Warrior without the paint job.

1. Sting
Time for pro wrestling's No. 1 face-painter, and it's none other than Sting!

Sting has the key qualities of all his aforementioned brothers in paint, but he has gone even further. Sting has embellished and enhanced his character over the years and his face paint along with that.

Sting has used the paint to reflect each of those character changes and ultimately define them, from that blonde flat topped kid with the bright coloured "Warrior" style paint around the eyes; to the silent "Crow" Sting with the sombre and mysterious white and black figure which told an amazing story of mistrust and retribution and defined him as the silent, angel of justice.

And even his brief nWo Wolfpac run saw the Stinger come out of his shell mixing the mysterious crow style with the colorful red of the Wolfpac?symbolising his new-found outspokeness and spontaniety.

Long after he's gone, mention of face paint and pro wrestling will stir up images of the Stinger, for these reasons I bestow the No. 1 spot to Sting.

Tags: WWF, WCW, Doink the Clown, Smash, Ultimate Warrior, Sting