Tiger Mask

Tiger Mask is the name of a masked Japanese professional wrestling character in an eponymous manga series, also adapted into a televised anime series in 1969, and later a gimmick used by a succession of real-life pro wrestlers. The Tiger Mask persona is instantly recognizable by its trademark mask, designed to look like a tiger's head, as well as the combination of high flying attacks and martial arts in the ring.

Manga and Anime

In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was a feared heel wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. However, he became a face after returning to Japan when a young boy said that he wanted to be a villain like Tiger Mask when he grew up. The boy resided in an orphanage, the same one that Tiger Mask grew up in during his childhood. Feeling that he did not want the boy to idolize a villain, Tiger was inspired to be a heroic wrestler.

The main antagonists in the manga and anime was Tiger's Cave, a mysterious organization that trained young people to be villainous heel wrestlers on the condition that they gave half of their earnings to the organization. Tiger Mask was once a member of Tiger's Cave but no longer wanted anything to do with them, instead donating his money to the orphanage. This infuriated the leader of the organization and he sent numerous assassins, including other professional wrestlers, to punish him.

Most of the environment and characters were fictitious, but real-life pro wrestlers Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba were included in the manga and anime as well.

Professional Wrestling

Main Tiger Mask character

The anime ended in 1971 but it continued to be so popular that the bookers in the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion licensed the character and created a real-life Tiger Mask in 1981, originally portrayed by Satoru Sayama. Sayama played the role until 1983 when he left New Japan due to his hatred for the backstage politics of pro wrestling in general and eventually became one of the first mixed martial artists in the world. As Tiger Mask, Sayama feuded with Kuniaki Kobayashi, and Englishmen Dynamite Kid, the original Black Tiger (see below), and Steve Wright, as well as Mexico's Fishman.

In 1984, the rights to the Tiger Mask gimmick were bought by All Japan Pro Wrestling, and given to Mitsuharu Misawa. Misawa also feuded with Dynamite Kid and Kuniaki Kobayashi, as well as with Chavo Guerrero, Sr. and Atsushi Onita, but then he moved up to the heavyweight division to feud, albeit unsuccessfully, with Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu. Misawa was the only Tiger Mask to move to the heavyweight division using the persona. In 1990, after Tenryu left All Japan, Misawa gave up the mask to wrestle as himself.

New Japan's Koji Kanemoto became the third Tiger Mask in the early 1990's, but was unsuccessful, namely because of the dominance of Jushin Liger. Kanemoto was never able to win a title as Tiger Mask and eventually lost the mask in a mask-vs-mask match against Liger in 1994.

Since 1995 the name Tiger Mask has been held by Tiger Mask IV, who was trained directly (and is officially endorsed) by Sayama, and whose real name has not yet been made public. Tiger Mask IV, originally based at Michinoku Pro Wrestling, entered New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2001, and since then he's been one of the top candidates (alongside Minoru Tanaka) to replace the now-aging Liger as the top star of New Japan's junior heavyweight division.

Some pundits credit All Japan Pro Wrestling mid-carder Samson Kutsuwada (who died in 2004) as the first true Tiger Mask, as he used the gimmick in South Korea in the mid-1970's, but since he was a heel and never used the persona in Japan, Sayama always gets the "Original" billing.

Related characters

The evil twin character Black Tiger (using a black costume with yellow stripes) was created by NJPW to oppose the man who portrayed Tiger Mask at the time, although he did not have to have the existing Tiger Mask as his exclusive antagonist. Black Tiger has always been portrayed by foreign wrestlers: Mark Rocco (British), Eddie Guerrero (Mexican-American), Silver King (Mexican) and Rocky Romero (Cuban-American). As Black Tiger, Rocco also feuded with The Cobra (George Takano), and Guerrero also feuded with Jushin Liger.

When Tiger Mask IV was in the Japanese independents, he was briefly opposed by The Masked Tiger, a character portrayed by Battlarts wrestler Takeshi Ono.

Recently Último Dragon, as a temporary break between gigs in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), adopted the name and character Second Tiger, modeled after the original, Satoru Sayama, who was his childhood idol.

Sayama himself used the Super Tiger (in the original UWF) and uses the Tiger King and Original Tiger Mask characters in special appearances since 1996, as a means to differentiate himself as being the original.

Sayama also gave brief authorization for a female version of the character, called Tiger Dream, to be played by female wrestler Candy Okutsu in the mid-1990s. He and Tiger Mask IV also provided her with training. However, Okutsu being injury-prone and having to take several sabbaticals from the ring, the character was easily forgotten by the fans and eventually abandoned.

Others

The Tigers' Mask character wrestler currently competing in Osaka Pro Wrestling is an unrelated character, as his gimmick is based on the local Hanshin Tigers baseball team. There also have been several unrelated clones of Tiger Mask in obscure independents in Japan, Mexico, and North America over the years.

Tiger Mask in popular culture

Although the manga and anime ended in the early 1970s, Tiger Mask remains a popular character in Japan. The Tekken series of video games has a character named King who is modelled after the Tiger Mask from the anime. This is evident by the fact that they are both masked professional wrestlers (though King wears a jaguar mask) who used to be orphans and who were played by more than one person.

Also in the Sailor Moon Musicals series a wrestler appears in the Ai no Sanctuary musical by the name of Sensational Jaguar Mask. This is thought to be a homage to Tiger Mask.

Championships and Accomplishments

Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him #37 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.

External links

Japanese professional wrestlers | Manga and anime characters | Professional wrestling gimmicks | Shunsuke Kikuchi

L'uomo tigre | タイガーマスク

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