Tiger Mask (disambugation)

Tiger Mask began as a Japanese manga in 1968 and was later adapted into a successful anime series in 1969. In real life, the name has been used by a succession of Japanese professional wrestling characters as a gimmick. The Tiger Mask persona is instantly recognizable by its trademark mask, designed to look like a tiger's head, as well as the combination of high flying attacks and martial arts in the ring. The anime ended in 1971, but continued to be so popular that New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion licensed the character and created a real-life Tiger Mask in 1981, and has been since passed down to three other wrestlers. Tiger Mask II has been the only Tiger Mask to not wrestle in NJPW, instead All Japan Pro Wrestling leased the name from NJPW. Originally Tiger Mask IV only wrestled the Best of the Super J's for NJPW but he came to NJPW in 2003 and stayed there ever since. He was given the mask from his trainer, the Original Tiger Mask.

Generation	Name	Year Started	Year Ended
Tiger Mask I	Satoru Sayama	1981	1983*
Tiger Mask II	Mitsuharu Misawa	1984	1990
Tiger Mask III	Koji Kanemoto	1993	1994
Tiger Mask IV	???	1995	Current