Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, is a strong contender for the title of greatest junior heavyweight wrestler of all time. Achieving his biggest fame by portraying the cartoon wrestler Tiger Mask in the early 1980s, Sayamas lightening fast acrobatics, technically unparalleled ring prowess and martial arts inflexed moveset would go on to essentially re-write the wrestling playbook. Echoes of Sayamas skills can be seen in todays wrestling more so than ever. Recent or current stars such as Daniel Bryan, Low Ki, Rey Mysterio (Sayama innovated The 619, known then as The Tiger Feint), Ultimo Dragon, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Davey Richards and many others, all contain imprints of the Tigers far reaching, international influence. In the early 1980s, the bosses at NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) were looking to bring a younger audience to the matches. To this end, they decided to create a real-life version of the comic book wrestler known as Tiger Mask. Created by Ikki Kajiwara, the manga character had a mask that looked like an anatomically accurate tigers head and had become so popular that he even starred in his own cartoon show. Somehow, Satoru Sayama was given the Tiger Mask gimmick and set about imitating the hard hitting, gravity defying wrestling style employed by his cartoon counterpart. In so doing, he completely reinvigorated the sport of professional wrestling. The Tiger Suplex, The Tiger Spin, in fact, any move with the name tiger in it, was probably innovated by Sayama during this time. He is unquestionably one of the most creative minds in wrestling history... After engaging in a series of superlative bouts with British wrestler Dynamite Kid, which are definitely among the best matches of all time, Tiger Mask abruptly departed NJPW. Allegedly disgusted by the backstage politics and dissatisfied with his spot, Sayama vacated his NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship, as well as its WWF equivalent and retired from wrestling in order to train martial arts fighters... He returned to wrestling a year later, working as The Tiger and Super Tiger for the tearaway Japanese promotion UWF (Universal Wrestling Federation) but soon disappeared once again to train shoot wrestlers. Sayama was a perfectionist both inside and outside the ring and he was a difficult personality to work with by all accounts. As a result, the Tiger Mask gimmick continued in NJPW without his involvement and, to date, three other men have played the character. Currently, Yoshihiro Yamazaki, a protégé of Sayamas, portrays the character as Tiger Mask IV. Sayama still occasionally wrestles in the indies as Tiger Mask or The Original Tiger Mask and often teams with the current incarnation. In 1995, however, he returned to NJPW in order to face his old nemesis Antonio Inoki once more, where he worked one of his greatest gimmicks, the Tiger King. As Tiger King, the old master (who was every bit as good as ever) wore a gold version of his original costume and, in so doing, became a great influence on Namcos Tekken video game series (he is the obvious inspiration for both King and Armour King). Tiger Mask is probably the greatest cruiserweight or junior heavyweight wrestler of all time, as well as the finest high flyer and the most accomplished martial arts-themed wrestler to ever live. Not bad, for a cartoon character.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
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Latcho Drom,
- CQ
