10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger

10. The Origin Of The Jushin Liger Gimmick

Jushin Liger wasn't always Jushin Liger.

The whole Liger shtick is a gimmick, of course, and it's one of the beloved gimmicks and characters in the history of professional wrestling. For the man behind the mask, Keiichi Yamada was already five years into his wrestling career before he was handed the life-changing gimmick of Jushin Liger.

Debuting in 1984, the grappler spent those first five years competing in NJPW, All Star Wrestling, and Stampede Wrestling under the names of Keiichi Yamada and 'Flying' Fuji Yamada.

When New Japan decided that they wanted to replicate the success of Tiger Mask - a wrestling persona adadpted from an anime character - Yamada was offered the role of Jushin Liger by NJPW. And the rest, as they say, is history.

From Go Nagai, the Jushin Liger animated offering would run from from March 1989 through until January 1990 - totalling in at 43 episodes - and Liger the wrestler would receive a new look and abilities to mirror his animated counterpart as time progressed.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 14th Jan 2020

In this post:

Jushin Liger