WWE History Vol. 5: Brothers in Paint

They come from Parts Unknown or the outer reaches of your mind. They're bizarre, dangerous, exotic, or just plain weird. They're the face painted wrestlers of the WWE, and this is their story. When face paint was first utilized in pro wrestling is unclear. When pro wrestling was still a carnival sideshow, some of the wrestlers would compete under masks or with make-up in order to appear like something otherworldly.

What is known is the time period when face paint became popular in pro wrestling, which was during the 1980s. Due to the success of the Mel Gibson film The Road Warrior, AWA and NWA wrestlers The Road Warriors ditched their leather-clad biker gimmick for a pair of face painted post-apocalyptic soldiers.

The Road Warriors were insanely popular, so much so that the WWE decided to create their own face painted wrestlers. We now begin a chronological history of the WWE Brothers in Paint, starting with one of the most celebrated tag teams of all time.

#1 Demolition

Ax and Smash, Demolition, as WWE World Tag Team Champions.

Due to the popularity of the Road Warriors, WWE attempted to get Hawk and Animal under contract. When this failed, they decided to create their own version of the team. WWE was just following wrestling tradition. Ric Flair was not the first Nature Boy, Hulk Hogan was basically a clone of Superstar Billy Graham, and don't get us started on how many Tiger Masks there have been.

Despite being a rip off of the Road Warriors, Demolition grew to be quite over in their own right. Ax and Smash were wily veterans, having worked the regional territories for years before joining WWE. Their smashmouth brawling and power style overwhelmed their opponents, even big-name teams like Strike Force and the Hart Foundation.

Demolition had a historic tag team title reign, lasting over four hundred and seventy-eight days. The record lasted until it was broken by the New Day in the modern era.

#2 The Ultimate Warrior

The Ultimate Warrior made his WWE debut in 1987 shortly after Demolition did. However, he was not a knock off of a different wrestling gimmick, but rather a continuation of a character called the Dingo Warrior. Vince McMahon loved the look of the Dingo Warrior, but changed the name to Ultimate. It was a great decision that increased Jim Hellwig's marketability.

The Ultimate Warrior was never a technical wrestling master. Instead, he overwhelmed his opponents with power moves, but the crowd loved him. Warrior's charisma was such that he is the only man in history to hold both the Intercontinental and World Heavyweight Championship in history.

The Ultimate Warrior spent some time on the outs with WWE management, but eventually was accepted back for a Hall of Fame induction shortly before his death from heart complications. While the Warrior will never be known as a great technical wrestler, he is still loved by millions of fans around the world.

#3 The Powers of Pain

The Warlord and the Barbarian, the Powers of Pain.

WWE had their own version of the Road Warriors with Demolition, but they were far from the only ones to copy the success of Hawk and Animal.

The Warlord and the Barbarian, known collectively as the Powers of Pain, were put together with the sole purpose of being villains for the Road Warriors to fight in the NWA territories. However, fate would intervene and the Powers of Pain would wind up working for the WWE.

Warlord and Barbarian took exception to be booked in dangerous 'scaffold' matches, in which the wrestlers would have to work a match on a twenty-foot high armature hanging over the ring. They got out of their contracts with the NWA and were eagerly signed by the WWE.

Initially, they were heels working for Mr. Fuji to dethrone the now babyface Demolition. Eventually, they were split up and worked as singles stars, usually as gatekeepers for the mid-card.

#4 The Legion of Doom

Hawk and Animal, the Road Warriors were known as the Legion of Doom in WWE to avoid copyright issues.

Animal made one appearance as Road Warrior Animal before being teamed with Hawk to form the Road Warriors.

The Road Warriors made their debut match as World Tag Team Champions. How was that possible? Because of contractual issues, the previous champions were no longer under contract. So, the NWA made up a fake tournament that the Road Warriors supposedly won.

The Road Warriors were also AWA Tag Team Champions during this period. The popular team bounced around the various territories but would wind up signing with World Championship Wrestling when Ted Turner bought out Jim Crockett Productions.

The Warriors rankled under the leadership of Jim Herd, who also drove Flair away from the company. So Hawk and Animal jumped ship in 1990, where they quickly dominated their knock off team of Demolition. The LOD would win the WWE tag team titles twice.

The Road Warriors left WWE in 1992, but made another run in the late 1990s before Hawk's untimely death.

#5 Papa Shango

Charles Wright was literally tending a bar when a group of pro wrestlers came in for a drink. One of them was Mark Calloway, better known, and loved, as The Undertaker. Taker told Wright a man with his huge size and build could be a great pro wrestler.

Wright took Undertaker's advice and began training for the ring. He initially debuted for the WWE in 1991 as Sir Charles, a play on NBA star Charles Barkley, who was popular in that era.

But in 1992, Wright was repackaged as Papa Shango. Shango is a character from several mythologies, including the Voodoo practices which Wright's gimmick was based upon. However, the religious Shango was a positive force, while Papa Shango was very much a villain.

Shango often cursed enhancement talents, causing them to fall ill or even burst into flames. He had a memorable feud with the Ultimate Warrior where his Voodoo seemed to wreak havoc quite well.

Eventually, Papa Shango was phased out in favor of other, more 'realistic' gimmicks as the Attitude Era began. Shango would eventually become The Godfather, one of the more visible, and controversial, figures in the Attitude Era.

#6 Doink the Clown

Matt Osborne, the original Doink the Clown

In late 1992, a clown started appearing at WWE events, mostly playing pranks on the crowd and acting silly. This clown bore a striking resemblance to Krusty the Clown, a character from the popular long-running Simpsons cartoon series. The resemblance was no accident, as WWE writer Bruce Prichard pitched the idea of an evil clown to WWE officials based upon the Krusty character.

In 1993, Doink made his proper debut, wrestling mostly enhancement talents and often playing cruel pranks. The idea was that Doink had a happy and silly appearance but was really evil and sadistic. Doink even had a match against Bret Hart, if you can believe that.

Eventually, Matt Osborne was fired and a new man donned the Doink face paint, Ray Licameli. With Ray under the face paint, Doink was strictly a face and only played pranks on heel wrestlers. He also had a midget sidekick named Dink. Mostly, the character was played for comic relief.

Doink's final match in the WWE was a losing effort to Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the man who would go on to be The Game Triple H. The character has reappeared several times since, but always with a different man playing Doink and never for very long.

#7 Goldust

While it might sound like a great idea to be the son of a legendary pro wrestler like the American Dream Dusty Rhodes, there are other factors that tarnish the silver lining. For one, it can be hard to escape from your famous father's shadow. It's even worse when you strongly resemble your father in the face.

Dustin Runnels wrestled for years without trying to hide that he was Dusty's son, but eventually, he sought the chance to make his own mark in the wrestling industry. He and Vince McMahon developed the Goldust character based upon an Oscar statue.

Goldust went from playing off of homophobia to imitating his opponents to evolve into the Bizarre One. The gimmick worked and Dustin was no longer considered simply 'Dusty's son.'

While Goldust never won a world title, he had numerous other title reigns in WWE including a run with the Intercontinental Championship. His twenty-plus year career as Goldust has come to an end, but the world will never forget his name.

#8 The Boogeyman

Our next face painted wrestler had one of the best-realized gimmicks in wrestling history and yet failed to make a major impact during his brief career.

We are speaking of The Boogeyman. Martin Wright auditioned for the first season of WWE's Tough Enough program, and managed to make it through the first day's brutal eliminations. However, he had lied about his age to get accepted, being nearly forty years old rather than the twenty-four or younger the competition stipulated.

But, Wright impressed WWE enough that he was offered a contract with the company. Wright debuted as The Boogeyman on SmackDown and quickly distinguished himself with his chiseled appearance and poise, as well as his propensity for eating worms.

The Boogeyman feuded with mostly mid-card talent, though he did work a program with Booker T and JBL once each. Boogeyman lacked in-ring skills, and frequently hurt his opponents for real. This combined with his injury-prone status meant his career didn't last long, though he did sign a Legends contract with WWE in recent years.

#9 Jeff Hardy

Most pro wrestlers don't face paint as a way of hiding their true identity or making themselves seem mysterious. Jeff Hardy was already a well-known name and well-known face in pro wrestling when he started using face paint in the early 2000s.

Following The Hardy Boys' split, Jeff went to SmackDown and began climbing the ladder to the main event. To distinguish his new singles career from his time teaming with Matt, he started using face paint.

Jeff Hardy is an accomplished artist outside the ring as well as inside it, and his face paint is often aesthetically pleasing yet disturbing. This is an example of a wrestler using his face paint to enhance an existing character, rather than trying to transform into a new one.

Jeff Hardy still breaks out the face paint when the mood strikes him, as seen during recent runs on SmackDown Live.

#10 Umaga

Edward Smith Fatu was born into the famous Anoa'i family from Samoa. Most of the Anoa'i family worked as pro wrestlers at one point or another. Fatu was cousins with The Rock and Nia Jax and an uncle to The Usos.

Fatu initially debuted under his real name as part of the Three Minute Warning stable. After the stable crashed and burned, he was repackaged as the Samoan Smashing Machine Umaga.

Umaga went on a tear, mostly squashing opponents and having a long undefeated streak. He captured the Intercontinental championship rather quickly only to lose it to Santino Marella's debut match.

Umaga also faced Bobby Lashely at WrestleMania 23 in the infamous hair vs. hair match between Vince McMahon and Donald Trump.

Umaga's untimely death left a void in the wrestling world. Though he never quite broke out into the main event scene, he still left a mark on the WWE's ruthless aggression and PG eras.

#11 Finn Balor

Finn Balor is so insanely talented, he could come out with no gimmick at all and put on tremendous shows. But the fact is, the former Prince Devitt of Bullet Club is just that much more compelling as The Demon character.

The Demon draws from the darkest nightmares of wrestling fans, and yet he is a force for good. Finn Balor doesn't wrestle heel when he uses The Demon character, and with good reason. It might be the single most marketable character WWE has ever utilized.

Balor goes one step further than the face-painted warriors on our list, because he takes the time to paint his entire body. His wild illustrations are as compelling as they are disturbing, giving Balor the look to complete his fine wrestling talent. Finn Balor is a great wrestler, but The Demon is a great wrestling character.

#12 Sting

Steve Borden was a bodybuilder and good friend of Jim "Ultimate Warrior" Hellwig during their days competing on the Muscle Beach circuit. They were scouted by wrestling promoters, who quickly put them into a tag team despite having no training in pro wrestling. After a rocky start, Sting and Hellwig received their proper training and became the Blade Runners.

Then their careers diverged. Hellwig would go to WWE and portray the Ultimate Warrior, while Sting joined the NWA. He would remain with the promotion through thick and thin until its demise in 2002. Many credit Sting and Ric Flair for putting the NWA on the cultural map due to their match at the first-ever Clash of the Champions.

Many believed that Sting would never wrestle for WWE. This was due in part to Borden's aging and the fact that he didn't like the WWE's raunchy attitude era product. But, when WWE switched to PG programming, they finally brought in Sting for a dream match with Triple H.

Sting still has a legends contract with WWE, though his in-ring career is officially over. Sting held many titles in his heyday, including the WCW World championship.

Dishonorable Mention: The Ascension

Viktor and Conner of the Ascension. Or was that Conner and Viktor?

Now that we've enjoyed a stroll down memory lane of WWE's greatest face painted wrestlers, it's time to address the elephant in the room; The Ascension. The Ascension was envisioned as modern-day successors to teams like The Road Warriors and Demolition. However, they fall far short of that benchmark.

Hawk and Animal had tons of charisma and brutal size and strength. Ax and Smash were great talkers and had the strut of true veterans. Conner and Viktor don't have any of these attributes.

Despite the face paint and heavy metal music, the WWE Universe just can't be bothered to care about The Ascension. There are many factors to blame, but the main one is that the wrong men are trying to use this gimmick.

Here's hoping that new face painted wrestlers will emerge to erase the stain left by the Ascension in WWE. There you have it: the history of WWE's face painted wrestlers. Questions or comments? Please leave them below and as always thanks for reading!

Edited by Israel Lutete