Can Something As Simple As Wearing A Mask Get You Over In The WWE?

[WWEvsJosh]

As odd as this sounds I actully think this could work. I think wearing a mask is a way to get over. Not like a cody rhodes mask but a sin cara mask. I think wearing a mask can help get wrestlers over because it does the simple thing that most wrestlers can't do in the WWE and that's stand out. I think the mask makes people wonder a little.

Do you think a mask can help get people over?

 

[SD619]

To put it in simple words, Talent gets a wrestler over. Not a mask, not a kimono, TALENT.

WWE could put a mask on anyone, but unless that wrestler has talent, he will not be over. Don't believe me? Ask Hunico.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

What do Kwang, Aldo Montoya, Ultimo Dragon, Golga, and countless other masked WWE wrestlers over the years have in common? That the mask did nothing to help them get over. Character gets someone over, bottom line.

I've seen guys that can work like Shelton Benjamin or John Morisson never get to the top because they lacked in the character department.

On the flip side, there are guys who, while fully capable in-ring performers, let's just say they're no Angle or Hart, such as Batista or Zack Ryder recently who's character is able to get them over despite not being the best worker.

So in short, a mask may get you noticed, and may even somewhat help to compensate for lack of in-ring talent, but if you have no character you won't be around long.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

No, but it may be in a wrestlers best interest to wear a mask if their look and facial expressions fail to impress people. This kind of goes hand in hand with mic skills. It may be best for a guy to never speak (Steele, Link, Zeus, Umaga, Moondogs, Kamala, Swagger ). If they can't produce on the mic, it may be in their best interest to be a menacing silent monster/behemoth/juggernaut. It may keep you from ever being the top guy but it doesn't expose you as having a major weakness.

To contradict SD619's comment about talent. Talent alone is not going to get a guy over with the WWE audience. Look, size, pyro, legacy and costume are other aspects that may prevent a guy from succeeding even if they are good in the ring and on the mic.

 

[JJ15776]

There's only one way to get over in the WWE, and it's actually quite simple. The only way to get over is to get the Universe to react when they see you. To make the Universe want to see you so they can boo or cheer you. When the Universe wants to see somebody, the WWE shows them to them.

A mask doesn't make people want to see you. It might make them notice you, but you still have to do something when you have their attention, otherwise their attention is going to go somewhere else. Just like being huge will make people notice - but, again, you have to do something with that attention. That's why Big Show lasted so much longer than, say, Giant Gonzales (RIP). Same with great characters/gimmicks...that's why Undertaker lasted so much longer than Mordecai.

It doesn't matter if you have a great look or no look, if you have a great gimmick or a terrible one, an awesome name or a horrible one...when you're in the ring and/or on the mic, do something to make the crowd want to see or hear you again. At the end of the day, that's all that will matter. Do that, and everything else will take care of itself.

 

[GI Cake]

Masks can only do so many things for a wrestler, and by many things I mean, only two. And those two things are adding something unique in appearance and get you noticed to the younger crowd. But how would a mask help elevate someone like a Evan Bourne or a Kofi Kingston? A mask doesn't install character into a Wrestler, the wrestler installs the character into the mask.

Let's take CM Punk for a perfect example. Back in his Straight Edge Society days, after being shaved by Rey Mysterio, he wore that silly black mask. He didn't need the mask, he used the mask to help put him over with the crowd as a heel. He used te overlaying common message of the mask to hide something. Punk gave his mask a meaning, which made it all the sweeter when Big Show unmasked him. And Rey Mysterio's character is in his love for his culture as a Lucha Libre. He lives and breaths his heritage and shows the importance in his mask. And the fans eat it up, and rightfully so. But in no way does the mask make Rey who he is and what he has done in his career.

So in short, no you can just throw a mask onto a wrestler and that would suddenly get them over with the crowd. If that were the case, you could throw a mask onto Trent Barretta, Tyson Kidd, and Yoshi would all be wearing masks in order to get over with the crowd.

 

[OneTooManyPunts]

Well, I think Del "The Patriot" Wilkes, The Shockmaster, The Yeti, Max Moon, Sin Cara, Ultimo Dragon DURING his WWE run, and countless others would tell you a mask is by no means a guaranteed way of getting over. If anything, it can be the exact opposite. Being a masked wrestler immediately garners a wrestler attention, and if they can't back it up in the ring, they aren't going to get over. Today's wrestling fan simply isn't as amazed by masks and outfits as previous generations may have been. In the era of Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Davey Richards...you have to get it done in the ring.

 

[UFOcalling]

I can't think of a lot of masked wrestlers who really had a lot of success in the first place. The ones that come to mind right away are Kane, Rey Mysterio, Abyss, Mankind & Vader. Are there really any more masked wrestlers that enjoyed a great career while wearing a mask that I'm forgetting?

Mankind shouldn't really count, although you could argue that Mick Foley won the title as that character. It wasn't the mask though, Mankind would have been a great character with or without the mask. Also -- If Mick Foley had only wrestled as Cactus Jack/Dude Love/Mick Foley (as himself), and never implemented the Mankind character/mask, he still would have had a stellar career to look back upon.

Kane worked quite well without his mask as well. One could even argue that Kane had a better run without the mask...although the jury's still out on that, since he just brought the mask back.

There are countless others who have worn masks, who didn't amount to jack squat. Guys like Juventud Guerrera, La Parka, Glacier, Mortis, Psychosis (he wore the mask in WCW), and there are many more that didn't achieve the small level of success that these guys had. There were some masked wrestlers that achieved a small amount of success with ECW and WCW's Cruiserweight Division, but not much more.

It's like others have already said, it's a combination of the wrestler's gimmick and the wrestler's ability (both in the ring & on the mic) that get a character over in wrestling...not to mention their size, or "look". It's not the wrestler's ring attire, or a piece of fabric/leather that they pull over their heads. They also need that "X-Factor". All in all, the sob stories definitely outweigh the success stories when it comes to masks...at least when it comes to Professional Wrestling in North America.