10 Famous Wrestling Gimmicks That Were Actually Inherited

Much like Tiger Mask, Black Tiger was introduced into professional wrestling as a spin-off of the Tiger Mask comic book. As in the comic version, Black Tiger was billed as the foe of Tiger Mask, positioned as opposition for the popular babyface.

Black Tiger made his debut in 1982 played by veteran English wrestler, Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco. After a successful run under the hood, the mask was passed down to fellow great Eddie Guerrero, who would hold the mask throughout his stays in NJPW in in the early '90s and continue the tradition of Black Tiger being portrayed by stellar in-ring workers.

Guerrero is perhaps the most well-known of all Black Tiger incarnations and his matches as Black Tiger in New Japan have even been previously released on WWE Home Video; including a notable appearances in the Super J Cup and Best of the Super Juniors tournaments.

Since then, Black Tiger has been played by five more people, including Mexico’s Silver King, Rocky Romero of ROH fame, New Japan’s Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Tomohiro Ishi, and Kazushige Nosawa. The Black Tiger character continues to appear to this day having found a new home in CMLL.