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A LOOK AT THE LEGENDARY TIGER MASK

It is an unfortunate truth that many modern wrestling fans haven’t been exposed to the great figures and stories from the past. Along with the sit-com and scarce other examples, wrestling is one of very few art forms that strive to appeal not necessarily to the critics or the experts but to the masses (in fact, appealing to the critics has been considered anathema to many a wrestling promoter). The wrestling boom that started late in the 1990’s and continued into the beginning of the 21^st century exposed many a fan to the storylines, characters, and athleticism that is inherent to the wrestling business, but because of the unipolarity of the industry new fans have frequently been left in the dark concerning the great history of professional wrestling. The consolidation of the industry into a near monopoly with WWE at the fore-front has led to very interesting developments concerning the history of the business. In hearing from fellow wrestling fans, it is my experience that most of the so-called “hardcore” wrestling fans of today can trace their love of the business to two key points: the first time they watched wrestling, and the moment that they realized that there was more to the industry than what they were used to watching in their local territory or on their local TV station. I was a product of the late 80’s/early 90’s WWF boom, and it was with great delight that I discovered that besides the WWF there were countless other promotions out there, somewhere, each with their own characters, storylines, and unique brand of athleticism. At my local video store I could find the latest NWA videotapes. Later, I learned about ECW, and this was my gateway to the vast independent wrestling scene.

Finally, in my constant search for more wrestling, I was led outside of North America and into the past, as I discovered the great history of the business in Japan and the territorial days in the United States. My growth as a wrestling fan was linear – in my quest for entertainment, I was led directly from the WWF to the NWA to ECW and beyond. Today, there seems to be little quest to be undertaken. With the near-monopoly that WWE has enjoyed since 2001, the history of the business has often been distorted to match WWE’s needs. With WWE 24/7, WWE has, of late, seemed more willing to discuss the territories and personalities of the past. WWE, however, only tells a part of the story – the part whose video footage they now own. For every Superstar Billy Graham, Roddy Piper, or Ric Flair that is treated like the legends that they truly are, individuals like Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz, and the Funk brothers go virtually unnoticed. Every time a new fan turns on Raw, SmackDown, ECW or TNA, they are seeing the culmination of years and years of blood, sweat, and tears that have been shed by the greats of wrestling’s past. With that in mind, I would like to feature one of wrestling’s all-time greats, who has been given nowhere near the credit that he deserves for revolutionizing the wrestling industry and paving the way for the stars of today: Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask.

Many a casual or new wrestling fan will have never heard of Tiger Mask. His status in Japan in unquestionable, and he was even a relatively large star in the U.K., but he never spent much time in the United States. His impact on mainstream U.S. wrestling fans can be summed up in one match: August 30^th, 1982, when Tiger Mask and his greatest rival, the Dynamite Kid, brought the house down at Madison Square Garden. The match was short compared to their numerous meetings in Japan, but the moves that they were doing and the athletic ability that they were showing was light-years ahead of its time. For many a U.S. wrestling fan, this match proved to be a “gateway” to a love of the Japanese sport, as fans learned that puroresu was the equal to and in many ways superior to the brand of wrestling seen in the north-east at the time. Perhaps more importantly, however, this match was an announcement to the whole industry that times were changing. Back then as today, most wrestlers decided to undertake their particular vocation because they were themselves wrestling fans, and it seems that many a wrester was as impressed with Satoru Sayama as his fans were. While in Japan Sayama will go down in history as one of the greatest starts in puroresu history, is both Japan and North America Sayama should rightfully be recognized as a revolutionary figure and an influence on a whole generation of American, Canadian, Mexican and Japanese wrestlers. Every time a wrestling fan turns on a wrestling broadcast either in North America or in Japan, odds are that they are seeing someone in the ring representing the legacy of the Original Tiger Mask.

Sayama’s moveset was extraordinary. While he is often recognized as one of the first great high-flyers in wrestling history, he was also on of the first wrestlers to integrate real fighting techniques into his repertoire, in effect adapting mixed martial arts to the wrestling ring ten years before the term “mixed martial arts” had even been invented. Sayama was as comfortable diving from the top rope as he was applying a cross arm-breaker (a common Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Judo hold). Sayama used suplexes of all varieties, moonsaults, and dives to the arena floor before many of these moves even had names. His legendary series of matches with the Dynamite Kid redefined what was possible in terms of intensity and pacing in a match; the two competitors seemingly never stopped. They were a finely oiled machine. Sayama’s work with other opponents is similar: from the original Black Tiger to Akira Maeda, from Yoshiaki Fujiwara to Kuniaki Kobayashi, Sayama never failed to turn in an awe-inspiring performance. Sayama’s greatest fame came after adopting the Tiger Mask persona in New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1981. Based on a character from a popular Japanese comic book, many thought that a real-life Tiger Mask could never work. What the critics didn’t realize, however, is what others have come to appreciate: Sayama’s grace and skill made him look like a real-life superhero. The fans took to him quickly. From New Japan Sayama went on to the UWF, where he brought mat grappling to new heights. Since the late-80s, Sayama has only wrestled sporadically. However, in that time, students of Sayama began to pop up not only in Japan, but in places as far away as Calgary, Michigan, California, and Mexico.

In the 1980’s, Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling was a local and national phenomenon. By attracting top performers from around North American and, indeed, around the world, Stampede had become a melting pot of sorts for wrestling styles. Stu Hart, the patriarch himself, largely came from the school of hard-nosed amateur wrestling. The Dynamite Kid, Sayama’s great rival, brought from England a hard-hitting, high-impact style that would itself influence wrestlers like Chris Benoit for years to come. In the midst of this, however, the two greatest wrestlers of the Hart family were most influenced by the Japanese style. Bret himself has largely credited visiting Japanese stars with his in-ring training. And with Owen, Sayama’s influence is undeniable. In his early years, Owen flew from the top rope much like Sayama. With his work in Japan with the likes of Jushin Liger, Owen also proved that he could go on the mat with the best of them. Owen and Bret were indicative of the Stampede style: they were like sponges, absorbing bits and pieces of information from all sources. Including Tiger Mask. A number of years ago, I had a revelation. I had just become interested in puroresu and had recently watched many of Dynamite and Sayama’s classic encounters. Out of the blue, I popped in my tape of Wrestlemania X, which featured the brother vs. brother contest pitting Bret Hart against Owen Hart. This was probably the biggest match in either of their careers at that point, and many in the internet wrestling community consider it to be the greatest match in WWF history. I was sitting there, on my couch, when something caught my eye. There is a sequence in the match when one brother has the other in a waistlock, and they become pushed up against the ropes. Suddenly and with great agility, Bret and Owen go through a series of rapid waistlock reversals, ending in a bridging German suplex for a two-count. What is so special about this sequence, you may ask? It is lifted directly out of a Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask match. In the most important match of their lives, Bret and Owen decided to either pay homage to their heroes or utilize the sequence because they thought it was good for the story of their match. Either way, it is very high praise indeed.

Meanwhile, in Japan, Mitsuharu Misawa had come into his own. By 1994, the year of the Bret vs. Owen Wrestlemania tilt, Misawa was firmly planted as the star of All Japan Pro Wrestling, one of the two biggest promotions in Japan. In his younger days, Misawa had followed in the footsteps of Sayama as Tiger Mask II, the second incarnation of the Tiger Mask character. Misawa unmasked in 1990, but to this day one can see a Sayama influence in every match Misawa wrestles. The Tiger Suplex, one of Sayama’s greatest maneuvers, is frequently utilized by Misawa as one of his patented holds. Misawa, a much larger man than Sayama, even uses many of Sayama’s high-flying moves, including more than one variety of flip over or through the ropes in which Misawa (as Sayama did) theoretically tries to “psych out” his opponent by going through the motion of a dive to ringside but pulls up before actually executing the maneuver. Misawa is far from the only Japanese performer to be influenced by Sayama, however. Jushin Liger, the only other Junior Heavyweight in history to rival Sayama’s mystique, was largely influenced by Sayama’s work. And the Great Sasuke, who was a major star on the puroresu scene in the mid-1990’s and into today, is as close to a Sayama clone as we may ever see. His Space Flying Tiger Drop is a thing of beauty, and as its name indicates, it can be attributed to Sayama. Even the name Tiger Mask continues to carry weight in Japan, as Tiger Mask IV is currently one of the biggest stars for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Junior Heavyweight division.

Even today, Satoru Sayama’s influence on North American wrestling can be seen. The biggest stars of WWE’s SmackDown and ECW brands are arguably Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam, respectively. Van Dam frequently incorporates a mule kick into his match, in which he catches an opponent’s kick and flips to kick his opponent instead. This is a Sayama move. Likewise, Mysterio’s finishing move, the 619, can largely be attributed to Sayama. The essence of the 619, in which the wrestler grabs the top and middle ropes and swings through to land back inside the ring, was popularized by Sayama and is still used in its original form by Mitsuharu Misawa to this day. When he joined WWE, Mysterio adapted this fake-out maneuver into an offensive weapon, and the rest is history. Sayama’s influence on contemporary wrestling even reaches into Mexico, as Mistico, Lucha Libre’s newest and greatest star, often incorporates the 619 into his matches.

Because he was a Japanese performer and never truly became a star in the United States, Satoru Sayama likely will never receive the adulation that he truly deserves. His impact has been substantial on wrestlers all over the globe, including many of the top stars in the past twenty years of wrestling history. If there was such a thing as a universally-recognized Pro Wresting Hall of Fame, Sayama would be in on the first ballot. Not only was he himself one of the greatest in-ring performers in the history of the business, but he has blazed a path for the next several generations of wrestling to follow. My advice for new wrestling fans or long-time wrestling fans who have become tired of today’s stagnant product: find a Tiger Mask match, and discover (or re-discover) how great an art form professional wrestling can be. Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Mitsuharu Misawa, Jushin Liger, the Great Sasuke, Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, and countless others cannot be wrong.

You can write Andrew Simpson at andrew.simpson@mail.mcgill.ca.