8 Awesome Wrestling Stars You've Never Even Heard Of
4. Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco
One of the most inspirational and influential men in modern professional wrestling, far too few people recognise Mark Rollerball Rocco for the legend that he is. Rocco became perhaps more famous under a mask, as Satoru Tiger Mask Sayamas nemesis Black Tiger in Japan but meant more to the industry than just providing a villain for the original Tiger Mask to define himself against.
Sayama saw what he was doing in the UK when he was wrestling there under the name Sammy Lee, and brought the hard-hitting style back to Japan with him, where he would himself inspire a generation of wrestlers.
Rocco was a major, if not the major, influence on the cruiserweight style that would be popularised in the US by the Dynamite Kid and Eddie Guerrero, amongst others. You can trace the intense, high-flying high-kicking style of wrestlers like Prince Devitt/Finn Balor back to Rollerball Rocco.