Your favorite paint jobs (face paint)

[LODemolition]

This seems to be almost a lost art in wrestling these days, other than a select few. As a kid, I'd always gravitate to the wrestlers who wore face paint because they just stood out and looked more interesting/cartoonish maybe. Just wondering what are your favorite face paint designs in wrestling history? Here's a few of mine:

Smash of Demolition: Ax's was far too plain and Crush's never did it for me, but Smash had a great face paint design that really stood out with the jagged lines of red, white and yellow covering his entire face.

Papa Shango: This was an excellent design that I appreciate more and more with age because of it's "Dia de la Muerta" inspiration. As a kid, I just thought it looked cool. As an adult I still do, but even more so because of the meaning behind it.

Ultimate Warrior: 2 reasons I liked this. The design always reminded me of the Batman logo and he always kept it fresh with different colors for every match.

Road Warrior Animal: Hawks' design was very simple, but Animal's was pretty intricate. With the different colors he used and the spider on the forehead, it looked excellent.

Jeff Hardy: The guy literally never looks the same twice. It looks like he just flings paint around in a covered room in the back or maybe even does it with his eyes closed to create a great abstract look every time.

Sting: As a huge fan of the movie The Crow, I loved when he went with the simple white and black look to look eerily similar to the movie character Eric Draven. As simple as it was, it might still be my favorite to this day. If WWE were to ever sign him to face Taker at Mania, they'd be crazy to not have him return to this look.

 

[Dirk]

Jeff Hardy walking with his painted eyelids to the ring, then opening his eyes for real always gets a great pop from me.

I believe Hardy's unique look helped him to et over a LOT and now he's in TNA, he gets more freedom to express himself.

He's not Da Vinci, but he's kind of a renaissance man in his own way - wrestling, visual art, his band.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Goldust's amazing paint job should go down as one of the best example's of how a superstar can stand out among the ranks. He was a walking Oscar, and his acting made you believe it.

 

[Tom]

I was always a fan of Stings Wolfpac faint paint. It looked awesome, the shine the red gave off too, looked awesome.

The Great Muta was unique in many different ways, the way he changed his appearance with the times and his facepaint.

I also loved Road Warrior Animals face paint. It was done to perfection each time.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I've never liked Jeff Hardy's face paint, I much preferred his look before he coated himself in ink and paint.

Sting's "Crow" facepaint was fantastic, the change from his "surfer" style to his darker look was so drastic and totally different from anything he had done before. Even though I am still surprised WCW didn't get done for copyright or something as it was blatantly ripped off from the Eric Draven character I thought it was so cool. I don't like his Joker style paint though, or the red/black Wolfpac version.

Vampiro has had alot of great facepaint over the years, similar to Sting's in a way but not quite as good. He has always looked pretty cool though, and I had always wanted WWE to bring him in, but unfortunately they never did.

As others have mentioned, Animal and Hawk looked great too. Demolition looked nowhere near as cool in my opinion.

 

[The Butcher]

Ultimate Warrior is my all-time favorite. It was distinctive and always matched his gear, plus that gimmick just wouldn't have worked as well if the guy wasn't painted up. Also, the fact that his face paint doubled as his logo added to the gimmick by branding it. Any fan of wrestling in the late 80s/early 90s would immediately recognize that logo.

I was a fan of The Boogeyman's face paint. His overall look walked the razor's edge between goofy and eerie, but I thought his paint helped push it toward the latter while his hair and missing teeth screamed the former.

Face paint was crucial to Doink the Clown's gimmick, of course, but it was well done. It was the kind of clown paint that freaks out coulrophobes and gets across that evil clown gimmick. The paint worked in concert with Matt Bourne's facial expressions and overall demeanor to make the evil clown incarnation of Doink the best one.

 

[Slash-LN]

Crush when he turned heel. It was subtle and kind of plain but I think it made him look pretty bad ass.

Ultimate Warrior. Pretty much for the same reasons already stated. It was colorful and iconic. It pretty much personified him.

Demolition Smash. I always thought he looked cooler than Ax. It was just more appealing.

Sting. I liked the surfer Sting face paint for the same reasons I liked Ultimate Warrior. The transition into the "Crow" face paint was awesome and it came around the time I was becoming a teenager so it was kind of cool to leave the bright colorful Sting behind and get the new darker Sting. Like Triple Naitch I wasn't a fan of the red and black Sting and don't care for the Joker Sting.

Damien 666 and Halloween. I haven't seen much Mexican wrestling but anytime I've seen these two guys I thought they looked awesome. Damien 666 more so than Halloween.

The Great Muta and The Great Kabuki. I haven't seen too much Japanese wrestling either but these two definitely stood out to me.

I like Animal's Legion of Doom makeup over his Road Warrior face paint. It's more detailed and uses more color.

I like the face paint that Yoshi Tatsu added. Though I haven't seen him lately and don't know if he still has it.

 

[shalliin]

I liked and hated Animal's during the 80's and early 90's. I have a terrible fear of spiders and as a kid, watching this guy walk to the ring with a spider painted on his face terrified me, but I also thought it was cool. Hawk's was a little plainer but still pretty good.
I liked all of the Demolition paint jobs, can't really say one was better then the others.
Anything Ultimate Warrior showed was great as a kid. Sting was similar, and since they actually worked as a tag team for a while it made sense that they matched.
I hated and continue to hate Sting's Crow face paint. I've always felt it was disrespectful to Brandon Lee and the Crow character and the creator/owner should have sued sting and WCW for the entire gimmick.
Not mentioned and probably not often considered but Undertaker and Paul Bearer being painted up to look paler and bloodless was always amazing when they first premiered.

 

[HBsam31]

Smash from Demolition is one of my favorite face paints. To me it just made him stand out the most on the team.

Kamala's face paint always made him that much more scary looking to me as a kid.

Goldust probably wouldn't have been what he was had it not been for the face paint.

Road Warrior Animal. Perfectly done, and it just made him look even more like an ass kicker.

 

[Alex]

I've been a fan of Jeff Hardy's face on face paint jobs. They just have a surreal look and feel about them especially with his eyelids painted to look like eyes and then he opens them. Before that they just seemed a bit crap really. He'd have the odd good one but they just seemed slap dash really.


Goldust's is also a good one. The amount of effort it must take to do it is admirable. I like how he's used black a bit more as his career's gone on, for whatever reason it looks great.

 

[Matty~!]

I thought Goldust's paint job at Battleground last night was pretty cool he was like a golden Darth Maul.... My serious favourite would be the evolution of Great Muta over the years though.

 

[CeramicDuck]

Jeff Hardy is very very hit or miss for me, when it is just thrown on it looks kinda dumb, but some of the more artistic versions have been good.

I HATED all Sting variations except a small window at about the end of "Surfer" Sting, I do like the newer, Crow plus a but of red paint, the joker paint is stupid though...

Smash, as some have stated, was great but the indy demolition face paint of the last couple years is just pretty laughable and kind of ruins the images of them in their heyday.

I thought Umaga's paint really added to the character, and is pretty under rated

 

[King Patrick Star]

I loved Sting’s Crow and Joker face paint. I also loved Sting’s half Crow / half Joker face paint. I thought it was a great way for Sting to reinvent himself and it worked perfectly in my opinion.

 

[CeramicDuck]

I guess I feel like sting is always late to the party with his facepaint ideas, he steals movie paint jobs but not even when the movie is relevant, as if he only watches movies when they make it to basic cable finally and thinks the ideas are fresh and hip, the joker, really? cmon sting, your better than that