Last month, a new city councilman was elected in Oita, Japan. He calls himself “Skull Reaper Aji” and the reason he is being mentioned in this blog is that he wears a wrestling mask all the time. Even at meetings with the other politicians in suits, Aji shows up fully masked. I love that the people of Oita Japan have elected a masked man to public office!
I would totally vote for a local politician who wore a mask, especially if he also has a sexy name like “Skull Reaper.” I might even start showing up for city council meetings if he would attend wearing trunks and boots.
Maybe this is the beginning of my prediction (or fantasy) that wrestling masks will become a common fashion accessory for men, something to pull on when you’re having a break-out, or a bad hair day, or just feel like concealing your face or making a bold fashion statement. Seeing a man in a wrestling mask makes you think of wrestling him, and thinking about wrestling is sure more fun than thinking about budgets or policies or zoning decisions.
But the story sadly doesn’t end there. Now the city council has banned poor Skull Reaper Aji from attending their very serious, very important meetings until he removes his mask. So he stands right outside the chambers, refusing to submit to their tyranny.
Damn it, if a man wants to wear a wrestling mask, let him! Everybody knows that masks are sexy in a kinky sado-masochistic way. And the people of Oita elected Skull Reaper Aji knowing full well that he loved wearing masks — so give the people what they voted for!
The Skull Reaper himself has said that he is a different man without the mask, devoid of his confidence. Stripping him of his mask is akin to castrating his power, thereby ruining his political career.
This ban imposed by the council reminds me of the classic pro wrestling scenario where a wrestler could be forced to leave the territory if he loses, or banned from ringside for cheating, and the bad-ass wrestler boldly shows up anyway. So I just want to thank Skull Reaper Aji and the Oita City Council for fueling my wrestling fantasies.
In honor of Skull Reaper Aji and his refusal to submit, here are some images of other masked men bravely resisting the efforts of their opponents (of society) to force conformity by stripping them of their beautiful masks.
(By the way, if the guy in the pink shirt watching in the background wants to re-enact this rough, kinky unmasking scene, he should shoot me an e-mail…)
In the USA, it has traditionally been the villains who wore scary masks like monsters. It was up to our fresh-faced young athletes to extinguish these kinky beasts by exposing their faces (which was rarely successful.)
While wrestling fans from other countries have celebrated and cheered for the rebellious masked man, the outlaw, the bold bandit under the hood, in conservative America we have felt more fear than support for the dudes from Parts Unknown.
This caption describes Tommy Rich as the “only hero” — playing off our sympathy for the loner or underdog. Certainly Skull Crusher Aji is also an underdog in his effort to fight City Hall.
