WHICH TIGER DO YOU LIKE ?

Tiger Mask the first (Satoru Sayama)

Do you know there were two Tiger Mask in the wrestling world of Japan ? In fact there were more other tigers, but I need to refer the two Tiger Mask, the first and the second. Well, Tiger Mask was a famous Manga character in the 60's, and when the new Anime was created in the 80's, a young wrestler who was a pupil of Inoki, Satoru Sayama put on a mask of tiger. At first we made a fool of that plan, but when Tiger Mask appeared, we were surprised at his unbelievable movements.

Tiger Mask the first fought with Dynamite Kid, Kuniaki Kobayashi, and other Jr. heavy weight wrestlers, and he instantly made a big boom in Japan. Tiger kept WWF International Jr. Championship, and he wrested NWA World Jr. title from Les Thornton. But after that Thornton  was still fighting title matches as a champion in USA. (Why ?) However, Tiger Mask suddenly retired in 1983. They say there was a coup d'etat in NEW JAPAN and Tiger lost his passion for wrestling.

Tiger Mask the second (Mitsuharu Misawa)

In 1984, NEW JAPAN traded the mask of tiger to ALL JAPAN. A young wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa put on the mask, and Tiger Mask the second was born. The second was bigger than the first, and he could not jump like Sayama, but he used powerful Suplex and Elbow Butt as a heavy weight wrestler. It was very difficult that Tiger the second kept his tension getting much attention of fans of the first, but I think he was doing his best fights.

Tiger Mask the second challenged Kurt Henning, AWA World Champion, and he defeated Kurt on a count-out. (The title didn't move.) And he got PWF Tag Championship with Jumbo Tsuruta. He was active as a middle-level wrestler for six years, but in 1990 many wrestlers withdrew from the organization. ALL JAPAN had to make a new star, and Tiger Mask the second took off his mask on the ring. That was a shocking scene. And then, Mitsuharu Misawa fought against Jumbo Tsuruta many times, and Afterwards Misawa became the main prop of ALL JAPAN.