Black Tiger (professional wrestling)
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Black Tiger has been the persona used by four different professional wrestlers in New Japan Pro Wrestling as opponents of the four incarnations of Tiger Mask. The character is drawn from the original Japanese Tiger Mask anime. The trademark of the character is to always wear a mask and tights in an almost identical design to that of his perennial rival only with entirely black and silver colouring.
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[edit] Origins
According to the storyline set forth by the original anime, Black Tiger is a wrestler trained and sent by a Yakuza-like organisation called the Tiger's Cave. The Tiger's Cave desire veangence upon the wrestler Tiger Mask, a former trainee of theirs, for publicly turning his back on them and no longer paying them monetary tributes. With the anime's protagonist translated by Antonio Inoki to actual NJPW wrestling events (in the form of Satoru Sayama) it was perhaps inevitable that his arch-enemy would also appear in the promotion.
The wrestlers portraying Black Tiger have always been gaijin, somewhat of a throwback to the days in which non-Japanese were portrayed as heels to fight against national heroes such as Rikidozan. In other countries this has varied. Black Tiger IV was a member of Team Japan during the TNA 2006 World X-Cup Tournament and during his CMLL career Black Tiger III was overtly portrayed as being Japanese.
[edit] Incarnations of Black Tiger
[edit] Black Tiger I
Mark Rocco, an established British wrestler, was the first to assume the persona in 1982 to oppose the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama. His pinnacle of success was defeating Gran Hamada in a tournament final for the vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship on May 6, 1982 and was defeated twenty days later by Tiger Mask for the belt. Sayama left NJPW in 1983 and the rights to Tiger Mask were purchased by All Japan Pro Wrestling the following year for the use of Mitsuharu Misawa. AJPW were not to create a Black Tiger counterpart.
[edit] Black Tiger II
In late 1993 Black Tiger made a return, this time portrayed by Eddie Guerrero. His Tiger Mask rival at this time was Koji Kanemoto whom he outlasted. Kanemoto unmasked in 1994, at which time Guerrero was winning the NJPW Junior Heavyweight Super Grade Tag League Title with the Great Sasuke. He came third in the 1994 and 1995 'Best of the Super Junior' tournaments and was victorious in 1996 giving him the most success of any of the Black Tiger incarnations.
[edit] Black Tiger III
Following the fall of WCW, alumnus César González, better known as Mexican star Silver King began wrestling for NJPW through their working relationship with his home promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Tiger Mask IV would not sign with NJPW until early 2003 and the highlight of Black Tiger III's Japanese run would be a failed attempt at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship alongside his real-life brother Dr. Wagner, Jr. before he devoted himself full-time to his CMLL career. González continued to use the Black Tiger name in Mexican independent companies even after CMLL repackaged him as "El Bronco" following NJPW unveiling Black Tiger IV in 2005. His final match under the persona came when he lost a Mask versus Mask match to L.A. Park on February 4, 2006.
[edit] Black Tiger IV
In 2005 John Rivera was repackaged as Black Tiger IV by NJPW and immediately thrust into a feud with Tiger Mask IV, facing him for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on May 14. After winning the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship on August 25 he defeated Tiger Mask for the his IWGP title on October 8, defending them until losing both to Tiger Mask on February 19, 2006. Black Tiger would join Jushin Liger's CTU faction and represent NJPW as a member of Team Japan in TNA Wrestling's World X-Cup.
[edit] The future of the character
Though he has used the Black Tiger gimmick as recently as January 19, 2007 for UWA Hardcore Wrestling, Rivera made his Pro Wrestling NOAH debut on March 4, under his Rocky Romero persona and is due to wrestle there in the future as well as being involved in Ring of Honor storylines. As NJPW is not a member of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance like the aforementioned two companies it is at present unclear whether Rivera will appear as Black Tiger IV again.
