Luchasaurus On Which WWE Star Inspired Him To Wear A Mask

There aren't that many masked wrestlers around these days but Luchasaurus is an exception. He's been on the indie scene for the last few years but recently joined AEW where he has formed a partnership with Jungle Boy.

Luchasaurus drew the inspiration for his character from another masked wrestler in Kane. He talked more about that when he joined the Talk is Jericho podcast.

"Kane was actually the first guy I tape studied when I got the mask. I immediately went to Kane. My vision was to be the new-age Kane, where I had the hair out and I wanted to make it a face mask and open up the mouth because I did want to have impressions still," said Luchasaurus. "At first, the mask covered my entire face completely and I wanted my eyes more showing as well as my mouth so that I can do some selling that way. But watching the way he moves and acted with the mask and how it evolved over time and how he got better and better at it too, I studied all of that and studied him and X-Pac for how me and Jungle Boy work together and with some of the ideas that we have.

"He is definitely the guy that for me was the first thing that I was looking at because selling with the mask is very difficult. Especially with these masks, they move around a lot so it's hard to whip your head back, but the way he did it was so good where the moment he put it on was just something special."

While most people think wearing a mask would be uncomfortable, Luchasaurus actually gained comfort with it on. It helped him become more of his gimmick and further enhanced his Luchasaurus character.

"Ultimately, the mask can represent a lot of things, but ultimately it allowed me to feel comfortable, like, okay, I can be someone else now. I can be this monster who walks around and be a character. That was the first step to help me not feel so self-conscious and having to impress people and I realize that actually the look itself is impressive and I can kind of get away with that now. But then it's like, wait a minute, let me try and discover who I am beneath this and I found that the things that I am passionate about can be displayed if I am true to myself and feel what I am doing," said Luchasaurus.

"I started reacting in the ring more than overthinking and started to let it kind of come naturally. It started with the mask and now they are creating a backstory to the Luchasaurus and I am allowing my own personal life come out in the character like my educational background, things like that, which kind of go into things being more absurd going along with the mask. But essentially putting on the mask has been a freeing thing. It has let me feel freedom out there. To me, it is about constantly evolving as a person, performer and in life and then finding out what you are passionate about and constantly pushing that boundary and finding whatever it is and constantly focusing on that to become better and better at that and discovering more and more. It is art."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Peter Bahi contributed to this article.