Why the decline of face-painted wrestlers?

[wildojinx]

Why is it that wrestlers painting their faces seems to be a lost art? In the 80s-early 90s, guys like the Road Warriors, Demolition, Ultimate Warrior, Sting, etc got hugely over for painting their faces, but it seemed to die out during the attitude era and now the only face-painted workers currently are the usos with their tribal makeup. Why did the trend die out?

[willywonka666]

Changing times I guess-it's an old school thing that would be lost on fans today.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

It's a pain in the ass to do every night.

[wildojinx]

It almost seems like tattoos are the "new" face paint.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

I've been saying that we need a new LOD/Demolition style team forever.

[Apricots And A Pear Tree]

Apr 29, 2014 9:35:13 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave is Correct said:

I've been saying that we need a new LOD/Demolition style team forever.

[Just call me D.j.m.]

Give it time. It'll come back for ironic purposes right after indy wrestlers are through with the ironic zubasz/fanny pack phase and the ridiculous beard phase.

[Deleted]

We tend to see our wrestlers, for better or for worse, as regular guys these days. They have names that people could actually have in real life and they dreamed about being a wrestler.

I can't imagine that, in their prime, the Road Warriors would be part of a dvd where they talk about how they dreamed about being pro wrestlers growing up.

[auph10imitated]

They had quite a few teams over the past few years that could have benefited from being packaged up as an LOD/Demos type team.

[The Scuba Guy]

Prince Devitt is doing it now.

Same w/ I believe Bad Luck Fale. And Doc Gallows, in a way.

Basically, you would love the Bullet Club.

[Amazing Kitsune]

I think it largely had to do with the fact that several extremely popular wrestlers had face paint as their gimmick around the same time. The Road Warriors and Sting and Warrior (Which has its origins in being Road Warriors knock-offs, if I'm not mistaken. These guys were so famous, so influential, and so iconic that using face-paint for a long time was seen as either an homage to them or a blatant rip-off.

Give it about five to ten more years and I think it'll be a think again.

[Jazzman]

Don't discount the rise of the Mask in American Wrestling as well, much easier and more permanent than face paint to create a cool identity.

[Mondai Rogue]

Joe Coffey has some cracking face paint. Apologies in advance about the picture size.

 

[Deleted]

I'd guess that a lot of the guys in the 80s grew up as KISS fans and that played into it as well.

[rowdy426]

I know they're WWE, but no love for the Usos? They've been doing the war paint on for a while.

[Mondai Rogue]

Apr 29, 2014 16:06:34 GMT -5 rowdy426 said:

I know they're WWE, but no love for the Usos? They've been doing the war paint on for a while.

They are mentioned in the OP.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Apr 29, 2014 9:54:21 GMT -5 Just call me D.j.m. said:

Give it time. It'll come back for ironic purposes right after indy wrestlers are through with the ironic zubasz/fanny pack phase and the ridiculous beard phase.

There will always be at least ONE wrestler with a ridiculous beard.

[Mozenrath]

Apr 29, 2014 16:29:53 GMT -5 Mondai Rogue said:

Apr 29, 2014 16:06:34 GMT -5 rowdy426 said:

I know they're WWE, but no love for the Usos? They've been doing the war paint on for a while.

They are mentioned in the OP.

While Goldust oddly wasn't.

[Mozenrath]

Apr 29, 2014 12:51:12 GMT -5 Jazzman said:

Don't discount the rise of the Mask in American Wrestling as well, much easier and more permanent than face paint to create a cool identity.

Plus, you can sell replica masks. You can't really sell face paint specific to you. If you have an iconic enough design like Warrior's, you can sell shirts with it on it, maybe, but you can also sell shirts with masks on them.

[Mr T L Wolf]

But you CAN sell masks of the facepaint so that the wrestler can do sneak attacks with his face on his face.