Various Tiger Mask questions?

Question

watching some puro lately.. I was curious.. How many Tiger Masks are there in total? And is it true that Antonio Inoki is their trainer?

As a general anime fan, Tekken fan AND puroresu fan, I'm really intrested on this character.. I'd youtube some matches, but if someone has seen him before, could you please recommend me some good, specific matches to search for? (or include links) TY

Answer 1

I believe there are four Tiger Masks. The first one is usually considered the best Tiger Mask, although the second, who was Mitsuharu Misawa, eventually developed into the better overall wrestler.

Tiger Mask I's matches against Dynamite Kid are a MUST. It shows both men's talents in one of the finest feuds of all time. His August 5, 1982 is definitely one of his best, and there are even more classics these guys put on. Looking it up, the dates for some of the better matches are 4/23/81, 7/23/82 and 4/23/83.

Tiger Mask II definitely wasn't in his peak at that moment and was overshadowed by Tiger Mask I, but he was quite athletic as the Tiger Mask and you could see flashes of Misawa's eventual genius. There's no standout match, so any one's good.

I don't know enough about Tiger Mask III and IV, but Tiger Mask IV was trained by TM1.

And I know Inoki trained TM1 as well.

Answer 2

I'm by no means an expert on the Tiger Mask lineage, but I think there were four tiger masks in all.  I recall seeing awhile back a lot of matches between Tiger Mask (god knows which variation) and Dynamite Kid.  Apparently there was a long standing feud between them in Japan, and from some of the matches I've seen, I'd reccomend anything you can find on youtube.

I notice that you mentioned Tekkan as a point of reference.  I assume you refer to the King character being like Tiger Mask.  In actuality, a lot of the backstory to King comes from a luchadore named El Santo.  The movie Nacho Libre also played off of Santo's life as well.  Just something I thought I'd like to point you toward.