Anna Jay is #99 of the Dark Order. She appears on AEW Dynamite without a mask on, and everyone knows her face. It almost wasn’t that way at all.
Anna Jay spoke to Talk is Jericho where she discussed a mask that they were going to put on her. They had it bedazzled and everything, but those plans changed at the last minute.
AEW sent to have a masquerade mask bought, which is what Anna Jay wore instead.
“The original mask was actually one that you see all the other guys wearing. So the full on mask, the tie in the back and everything. I still have it at my house, they bedazzled it for me and everything, and then as soon as I went to wear it they were like ‘no, don’t do that, we’re gonna do a different one’. So then, I think Charlie Ramone went to some store to get me one of those cardboard masquerade masks. They bedazzled that for me, I wore that I think once to the ring, or twice maybe. I think Tony Khan ended up being like ‘no, this is not…’”
Chris Jericho noted that one of the original ideas was to introduce Anna Jay in a way unlike your typical “diva.” In fact, they were going to “shame Anna Jay for being a pretty girl.” That was set to be the reason for the mask.
“Yeah, no actually I did hear that, you’re right. And then they ended up doing a vignette that was kind of going along with that and me being the ‘typical Diva’ or whatever, and then they scrapped that. So it kinda ended up making sense for them to scrap the mask too, because it kinda went a different direction.
Anna Jay didn’t debut with a mask on, but at least she kept it around. It would be interesting to see that mask and wonder what could have been. A gimmick like that might have also driven a lot of controversy as well, so it was probably best to let the world see Anna Jay’s face.
Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the quote