Chairshot Top 5: Most Impressive Wrestling Mustaches

From Ox Baker’s enormous handlebars to Hulk Hogan’s iconic blond horseshoe, these are five of professional wrestling’s greatest mustaches.

Professional wrestling has never been an industry where facial hair needs to be subtle. If a normal mustache works, wrestling naturally wants to know what happens when it becomes twice as thick, extends toward the ears or gets bleached until it matches somebody’s hair.

The great wrestling mustaches also tend to belong to performers who would look strangely incomplete without them. Remove Jake Roberts’ mustache and something seems wrong. Shave Rick Rude and suddenly part of the Ravishing One’s 1980s swagger disappears. Take the facial hair away from Hulk Hogan and one of the most recognizable faces in wrestling history becomes considerably less recognizable.

That makes this slightly different from simply ranking the largest mustaches. Size matters, but so do shape, longevity, character fit and the extent to which the facial hair became part of the wrestler’s overall presentation.

There is also an impressive amount of competition. WWE once devoted an entire historical ranking to wrestling mustaches, including everyone from Magnum T.A. and Iron Sheik to Rick Steiner, Ox Baker and the magnificently committed Big Bully Busick.

Only five can survive here.

These are the Top 5 most impressive wrestling mustaches.

#5 — Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan’s mustache stopped being facial hair and became branding.

There are larger mustaches in wrestling history. Ox Baker’s was more intimidating, Big Bully Busick’s required considerably more engineering and Magnum T.A. wore a more conventionally attractive version.

None became more recognizable.

Hogan’s horseshoe-style mustache extended from his upper lip down both sides of his mouth and was famously bleached blond to coordinate with the hair surrounding his increasingly exposed scalp. Add a bandana, enormous arms and a deep tan, and one of professional wrestling’s most identifiable faces was complete.

The look became inseparable from Hulkamania.

When Hogan exploded into mainstream popularity during the 1980s, children could imitate him with a yellow shirt, bandana and cheap blond mustache. Artists could caricature him using only a handful of recognizable features, and the facial hair would inevitably be one of them.

WWE’s own retrospective described the mustache as the final piece tying Hogan’s carefully cultivated appearance together. That assessment becomes even clearer when viewing photographs of Hogan without it.

He immediately looks less like Hulk Hogan.

The mustache also survived every major transformation of the character. Red-and-yellow Hogan had it. Hollywood Hogan darkened the facial hair as the presentation became more sinister, but the familiar shape remained. Later nostalgia runs restored the classic blond version along with the familiar colors.

Few wrestling stars have maintained one facial-hair identity across that many decades.

Even Hogan’s famously unusual hairline benefited from the mustache because the combination became so unmistakable that conventional standards stopped mattering. The overall look was not supposed to resemble anyone else.

It was supposed to resemble Hulk Hogan.

#4 — Rick Steiner

Rick Steiner spent much of his career barking like a dog while wearing amateur wrestling headgear.

A delicate mustache would have been completely inappropriate.

Instead, the Dog-Faced Gremlin grew something thick enough to look like another piece of protective equipment. His mustache extended heavily across the upper lip and toward the sides of his face, reinforcing the rough, slightly unhinged presentation that separated him from his younger brother Scott.

WWE’s own historical mustache ranking praised the thickness of Steiner’s handlebar and noted how naturally it complemented his rugged personality. That relationship between facial hair and character is precisely why Steiner belongs here.

Nothing about Rick Steiner was supposed to look polished.

He wore the University of Michigan-style headgear, barked at opponents, crawled around the ring and wrestled with an explosive amateur-based style that made him seem like someone who might genuinely become more comfortable the uglier a match became.

The mustache looked like it belonged to that person.

It also became increasingly valuable as The Steiner Brothers developed visually in opposite directions. Scott eventually experimented with long hair, short hair, chainmail, bleached blond looks and the dramatic transformation that produced Big Poppa Pump.

Rick remained Rick.

The mustache, headgear and slightly crazed expression gave him an instantly recognizable silhouette for years, even as professional wrestling changed dramatically around him.

A great wrestling look does not always need constant reinvention. Sometimes finding something that fits perfectly and refusing to mess with it is considerably smarter.

Rick Steiner’s mustache understood the assignment.

#3 — Big Bully Busick

Big Bully Busick did not have wrestling’s longest WWE career.

His mustache appears to have been preparing for one.

Busick arrived in WWE in 1991 wearing a bowler hat and red turtleneck, carrying himself like an unpleasant strongman who had traveled directly from the early 20th century. The presentation deliberately looked old-fashioned, and his extraordinary facial hair completed the illusion.

The mustache started thick across his upper lip before expanding outward into an elaborate handlebar that seemed determined to reach both sides of his head.

WWE later ranked Busick first on its own list of wrestling mustaches, praising a look so distinctive that his relatively brief run remained memorable decades later.

That is an impressive accomplishment.

Plenty of wrestlers spend years on national television without creating one visual feature fans can immediately identify. Busick managed it during a WWE tenure lasting only months because the bowler hat, clothing and facial hair formed such a specific image.

The mustache also carried far more personality than the character probably deserved.

Busick’s gimmick involved behaving like a stereotypical neighborhood bully, including antagonizing fans and occasionally destroying children’s balloons. Without the facial hair, the presentation could have looked like someone attending an unusually formal costume party.

With it, Busick looked like a man who might challenge someone to a bare-knuckle fight behind a saloon.

That is the power of proper wrestling facial hair.

The character disappeared quickly, but the mustache refused to be forgotten.

#2 — Ox Baker

Some mustaches decorate a face.

Ox Baker’s appeared capable of attacking independently.

Baker already possessed one of professional wrestling’s most intimidating appearances. He was enormous, bald and blessed with eyebrows that seemed determined to travel vertically while his mustache expanded in the opposite direction.

The result looked almost designed rather than grown.

His handlebars extended well beyond the corners of his mouth, creating long, bushy sections that curved downward toward his chest. Combined with the eyebrows, Baker’s entire face developed an exaggerated symmetry that made him instantly recognizable in an era filled with rugged-looking heavyweights.

That appearance helped support one of wrestling’s great territorial villains.

Baker promoted the Heart Punch as a devastating finishing move and embraced a reputation built around hurting people. His shirts frequently carried similarly welcoming messages about enjoying violence, while his facial expression made the claims seem considerably less theatrical than they probably were.

The mustache was essential to the intimidation.

Modern wrestling fans encountering an old photograph of Baker do not need a match, promo or biography to understand that he was probably not the babyface. The face tells the entire story before anything else happens.

That is particularly impressive considering how many wrestling villains from the territory era dressed relatively simply. Baker did not require elaborate gear, face paint or an entrance spectacle to stand out.

He had eyebrows, a mustache and the appearance of somebody whose hobbies probably included frightening small towns.

WWE’s historical ranking placed Baker second among its greatest mustaches, and it is easy to understand why. Few wrestlers ever grew facial hair that contributed this much to their immediate intimidation factor.

Honorable Mention — “Ravishing” Rick Rude

Rick Rude may have possessed professional wrestling’s most appropriately handsome mustache.

Everything about the Ravishing One’s presentation revolved around vanity. He entered the ring in elaborate airbrushed tights, insulted supposedly unattractive men in the crowd, flexed his physique and made absolutely certain everyone understood how highly he regarded his own appearance.

The mustache completed the package.

Unlike Ox Baker or Big Bully Busick, Rude did not need facial hair to make himself look more bizarre. His was thick, carefully maintained and perfectly suited to the late-1980s image of a man convinced that every woman in the building should immediately become interested in him.

It became as recognizable as the tights and hip swivel.

WWE has specifically described the mustache as an important part of Rude’s persona, which is telling considering the number of other visual elements competing for attention whenever he appeared.

Rude misses the main ranking only because his mustache enhanced an already complete look rather than dominating it.

That may actually be the greatest compliment available.

#1 — Magnum T.A.

Magnum T.A. looked like professional wrestling had discovered its own Tom Selleck.

That comparison was hardly accidental. Terry Allen adopted the Magnum T.A. name partly because of his resemblance to Selleck, whose Magnum, P.I. television character had helped turn the thick, carefully groomed mustache into one of the defining looks of the early 1980s.

Allen completed the resemblance with one of wrestling’s cleanest examples.

This was not an enormous handlebar or intentionally bizarre facial-hair experiment. Magnum wore the kind of thick, symmetrical mustache that looked like someone had sketched the ideal version before placing it onto his face.

It fit the rest of his presentation perfectly. Magnum was young, athletic and ruggedly handsome without looking overly manufactured, giving Jim Crockett Promotions a babyface who could appeal simultaneously as a serious wrestler and a star.

That distinction mattered during his rise in the mid-1980s. Magnum was positioned as one of the promotion’s potential franchise performers, winning the United States Championship and developing a career-defining rivalry with Tully Blanchard before an automobile accident in 1986 ended his in-ring career.

The mustache became frozen alongside that version of Magnum.

There was never a long period where fans watched it gradually gray, disappear or become replaced by an entirely different look. Images of Magnum T.A. at his peak almost invariably include the same thick mustache, making it part of wrestling’s visual memory of a career interrupted far too early.

Other wrestlers on this list achieved greater facial-hair excess.

Magnum achieved facial-hair perfection.

Professional wrestling rewards anything capable of making someone recognizable from the cheap seats, and few industries have historically provided mustaches with a better environment to flourish.

Magnum T.A. used his as part of a clean-cut superstar appearance, while Rick Steiner’s thick handlebar reinforced everything rough and unconventional about the Dog-Faced Gremlin. Big Bully Busick and Ox Baker pushed facial hair much further, turning their mustaches into dominant features before either wrestler even opened his mouth. If Hulk Hogan’s mustache is removed, his whole persona changes.

Rick Rude demonstrated another possibility. His mustache did not overwhelm his presentation because it did not need to; it simply made someone already calling himself Ravishing look even more committed to the part.

The greatest wrestling appearances become combinations of features audiences never consciously separate. Steve Austin has the bald head and goatee. The Undertaker has the hat and coat. Randy Savage had the glasses, colors and bandanas. Magnun has the mustache.

Research included archival and historical material from WWE.com covering its ranking of wrestling’s greatest mustaches and profiles of Hulk Hogan, Rick Steiner, Rick Rude, Magnum T.A., Ox Baker and Big Bully Busick.