The Tiger Mask character has been a staple in Japanese wrestling since the early 1980s. The character is based on a 1968 Japanese manga, tiger mask, written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. In the manga, Tiger Mask was a fearsome badass who became a babyface after returning to Japan and meeting a boy who idolized him. The boy lived in the same orphanage that Tiger Mask grew up in, and not wanting the boy to idolize a villain, he became a babyface to take on Tiger’s Den, the villain organization that trained him. The manga was adapted into an anime in 1969 that ran for 105 episodes.
In a time of life-imitating art, New Japan Pro Wrestling purchased the license and brought in Tiger Mask to boost their junior heavyweight division and attract more young fans to the promotion. Since 1981, there have been four main wrestlers who have donned the famous tiger mask, so let’s go beyond the stripes and take a look at the character’s rich legacy.
Tiger Mask I — Satoru Sayama (1981-1983)
Satoru Sayama was selected by NJPW to be the inaugural Tiger Mask in 1981. Sayama had been competing in NJPW since 1976, but was sent on a jaunt to England and Mexico to get more flavor and gain more size. He returned as Tiger Mask and surprisingly pinned Dynamite Kid in his first match, sparking a legendary rivalry between the two. They had incredible chemistry in the ring and worked at a frenetic pace rarely seen in those days. Dave Meltzer awarded five stars to the final of his seven matches at NJPW Big Fight Series II 1983 despite it being a double countout.
Tiger Mask mixed the wrestling style from Mexico and the style from England and quickly became one of the top stars in NJPW’s junior division. He also toured America multiple times appearing in the WWF when it was still a regional territory. Tiger Mask was a two-time WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion, which included a title defense against Dynamite Kid at Madison Square Garden in 1982. He became the first man to simultaneously hold the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship and the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship. However, Tiger Mask retired at the height of his career in 1983 due to him hating behind-the-scenes politics. He resurfaced in the UWF in 1984, but at the time, NJPW sold the rights to the character to All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Tiger Mask II — Mitsuharu Misawa (1984 – 1990)
Yes, the legendary Mitsuharu Misawa, one of the greatest and most influential fighters of all time, played the character of Tiger Mask… for six years! Tiger Mask II continued the rivalry with Dynamite Kid, but the high-flying style began to strain Misawa’s knees, and he was eventually elevated to the heavyweight division. As Tiger Mask II, Misawa won the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship, the Asian Tag Team Championships, and the PWF Tag Team Championships. After Genichiro Tenryu left AJPW in 1990, AJPW President Giant Baba pinned Misawa as his next star, and dropped the gimmick: unmasking himself during a match. Baba certainly made the right call there, as Misawa would go on to defeat his mentor Jumbo Tsuruta and go on to become the most popular star in Japanese wrestling, and the founder of Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000.
Tiger Mask III — Koji Kanemoto (1992 – 1994)
Following Misawa’s unmasking, the Tiger Mask character returned to NJPW and was given to young junior heavyweight Koji Kanemoto. Kanemoto had debuted for NJPW less than two years before taking on the Tiger Mask gimmick. Unfortunately for Kanemoto, the previous years saw a massive rise in popularity for another masked junior heavyweight in NJPW: Jushin Thunder Liger, to whom Kanemoto lost a “Mask Vs Mask” match, effectively ending his time as Tiger Mask. It ended up being the least impactful iteration of Tiger Mask, however Kanemoto’s career would soar after the mask as he would become one of NJPW’s most decorated and popular junior heavyweights, winning a total of 18 titles. , all after removing the mask.
Tiger Mask IV — Yoshihiro Yamazaki (1995 – present)
That brings us to our current and oldest Tiger Mask (IV), played by Yoshihiro Yamazaki, who was initially officially trained and endorsed by Satoru Sayama (Tiger Mask I). Yamazaki began competing as Tiger Mask at Michinoku Pro in 1995, before making the jump to NJPW in 2002, where he has remained a fixture ever since. He has won a total of 14 titles in his career, including the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship six times, and was a tag team champion with Kanemoto in Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2010. Tiger Mask IV was the first man to win the prestigious Best of the from NJPW. Super Juniors in consecutive years (2004-05), which was broken this year after Hiromu Takahashi won his third tournament in a row. He is still wrestling at age 51 and is currently the AJPW Jr Heavyweight Champion.
While these four men are the four main characters in Tiger Mask, there have been other iterations, most notably Kota Ibushi as Tiger Mask W in 2016-17, which was created in conjunction with the launch of the new Tiger Mask W anime series. . . One would have to think that Yamazaki would hang up the mask sooner rather than later, so who will become the next Tiger Mask?