Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: The Unmasking of Psicosis – WCW, 1999
History
Billy Kidman needed something to do. At Fall Brawl 99, his feud with Vampiro had been aborted after a botched shooting star press had broken Vamp’s nose and fractured his eye socket.
Fortunately, Chavo Guerrero Jr. was there to help.
On September 20th, Juventud and Psicosis were tagging against Rey Misterio Jr. and Billy Kidman. Psicosis got the win, and Kidman went nuts. He began pulling at Psicosis’s mask, trying to rip it off. That brought Chavo out to make the save, with Eddy soon behind him. Eddy tried to smooth things over between Psicosis and Kidman, but Chavo wasn’t willing to let things go. When Psicosis began ranting in Spanish, Chavo informed Kidman that Psicosis wanted a mask vs. hair match the following week. Psicosis didn’t like the idea, but Kidman did, so the match was set.
On Thunder, Kidman defeated Lenny. Psicosis was nowhere to be found.
The following Nitro saw the big match. Psicosis was ready. He had a can of shaving cream and scissors with him. Psicosis was losing ground when Chavo came out of the back and planted Kidman with a tornado DDT. Kidman got out of a pin attempt at two and began retaking the advantage. That brought Juvi out, who hit Kidman with the Juvi Driver. That also got two. Then Psicosis tried to powerbomb Kidman. Kidman reversed into a facebuster, nailed the shooting star press, and got the three.
After the match, Kidman started fighting with Psicosis’s mask when Chavo and Juvi hit the ring again. Kidman hit a tornado bulldog on Psicosis, and got the mask off.
And that was that. Any payoff came a week later on Nitro as Psicosis was handed the cruiserweight title following the decision of the WCW powers that be to pull the West Hollywood Blondes off the air. Psicosis defended it that night – and immediately lost it to Disco Inferno.
Analysis
And you thought that WCW didn’t do anything with Rey’s unmasking last week. This time it appears that WCW had decided that they liked how Rey’s unmasking had gone, so, true to form, they did it again! The entire angle felt like a rush job and made little sense (Psicosis and Chavo were on the same side, so why would Chavo put up Psicosis’s mask like that?). In addition, the entire schmozz wasn’t even a title match or on PPV. The entire thing happened in two weeks and ended on Nitro.
At least he got a cruiserweight title run out of the deal. Well, kind of.
Where are they now?
Psicosis left WCW in 2000 amidst a massive cut of all foreign wrestlers. By July, he had returned to ECW. He also worked with Rob Black’s XPW in California during this time. In 2002, Psicosis began working with the Australian World Wrestling All-Stars (where he won the WWA cruiserweight title), and had also returned to Mexico.
In Mexico, problems had arisen. Psicosis left the AAA promotion. Antonio Pena, the owner of AAA, owned the Psicosis gimmick so Psicosis switched his name to Nicho El Millionario (although he continues to use the name Psicosis in the United States) and began working for the competing CMLL. As for Pena? He stuck another wrestler under the mask and Psicosis continued competing in AAA. (On a side note, Pena has also done this with La Parka and Mascara Sagrada. Sagrada later fought Pena in court and won back the rights to his mask and name.)
Starting in 2002, Psicosis also made sporadic appearances for TNA, but never remained there very long.
In 2005, Nicho Psicosis returned to AAA, where he faced the current Psicosis in a cage match for the rights to the Psicosis name. In a bewildering twist of booking, the match was won by Histeria (AAA Psicosis’s stablemate in Los Vipers, and someone who wasn’t even in the match!).
In June of 2005, Nicho Psicosis returned again to the U.S., where he competed on the One Night Stand pay-per-view. He, Super Crazy, and Juventud were quickly signed and began appearing on WWE programming as the Mexicools.
Psychosis remains with the WWE today. He is on the Smackdown brand, and remains in the Mexicools with Super Crazy.
Next week
We take a look back at WCW’s first unmasking.
