Mask collection retrospective: 2018

The mask retrospective continues into 2018. Entries for previous years are here: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017.

For 2018, I'll be looking at the following masks:

• Mexablood fusion mask
• Flamita
• Rey Horus

Mexablood fusion mask (Flamita's version, 2018-01-16)

Let me preface this entry by saying that one of the things about being a mask collector – and, really, this applies to collectibles in general – is that interests and value are highly subjective. I tend to have very personal reasons for collecting the masks that I do, and while there might also be perfectly objective reasons for wanting them, the personal reasons tend to be stronger for the masks that I consider special. And for this mask, that reason was that I had wanted for a while to be able to see Flamita work in Dragon Gate in Japan.

I got my wish in January 2018. His trip coincided with NJPW–CMLL Fantasticamania that year, so it made sense to cross both items off the bucket list at once. Even better, Dragon Gate conveniently came to Kōrakuen Hall a few days before Fantasticamania did. It's not an exaggeration to say that I predicated my trip to Japan on being able to see Flamita wrestle there. And because of the trip, I finally began to learn Japanese in earnest, an endeavor that is still ongoing.

Anyway, back to the mask itself. Flamita brought Bandido with him on this Dragon Gate tour, and they had special fusion masks made for their Kōrakuen Hall match. Technically, it could be considered slightly anachronistic to call this a "Mexablood" mask, since they hadn't actually yet given themselves that name publicly at the time, but it's very obvious that they saw this as a special match for them.

For a while, this was my absolute favorite mask in my collection, and it might still be in the top 5. (If you've been following me for a while, you know which mask superseded this one.)

As an interesting footnote, I found out who got Bandido's version of this mask because that person saw my version and contacted me privately. I had never considered that aspect of collecting masks that naturally come in a set.

Flamita (2018-08-25, 2018-08-30, 2018-09-14)

This all-white mask saw a lot of use in high-profile matches:

• a Triplemania ladder match that Mexablood won (August 25);
• the first edition of Mexablood vs. Lucha Brothers at AAW Destination Chicago (August 30);
• PWG BOLA 2018 Night 1, vs. Puma King in the first round (September 14).

(Triplemania XXVI Part 2 with the ladder match)

I was there live for the AAW and BOLA matches. I should note that I had also seen Flanita and Bandido team up in Mexico earlier in August, thus seeing them as a tag team live in three different countries during 2018. In the AAW match, they attempted to pull off a Spot of the Decade and failed. However, there is a happy ending to this story forthcoming in the next blog post.

Flamita had actually offered this mask to me after AAW. I initially declined, partly due to the expectation of spending lots of money at ExpoLucha. But after thinking it over, I figured that I could make it work and changed my mind. I didn't know at the time that he'd also use the mask at PWG in what would be his first BOLA win, so that was a nice bonus.

Rey Horus (2018-09-15)

I wasn't done at BOLA that year. Rey Horus had been on my wishlist for some time, and I had missed out on the opportunity to buy a mask from him at the previous year's BOLA because I had miscalculated how much cash I would need after buying standing room tickets for Night 2 at the door. This time, however, I pre-arranged to buy Rey Horus's first-round BOLA mask, used on Night 2. I was very happy to get this part of my collection filled.