10 Wrestling Gimmicks Handed Down To Other Wrestlers

9. Black Tiger

This is a bit of a yarn.

Black Tiger was a gimmick created to war with fellow host-hopper Tiger Mask in New Japan. British star Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco was the first to go under the dark hood in 1982, and the gimmick had an even more adventurous history after that. Once Rocco was done with it, none other than Eddie Guerrero grabbed the mask in 1983.

Fast forward to 2003 and former WCW Cruiserweight Silver King was next to assume the role. He was followed by Rocky Romero, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Tomohiro Ishii (who didn't play the gimmick for very long) and Nosawa Rongai. If you're keeping score, that's seven generations of the same character since the '80s.

Black's rival, Tiger Mask, was predominantly played by four different men: Satoru Sayama, Mitsuharu Misawa, Koji Kanemoto and Yamasaki Yoshihiro. Ikuhisa Minowa also briefly introduced a fifth version of the mask in 2010, and modern-day Japanese hero Kota Ibushi fleetingly played ‘Tiger Mask W’, a character designed to tie in with the 2016 anime of the same name. Your head is probably spinning by now.