Line #162 Manga/TigerMask


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tiger_Mask_516.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250: [[TitleThemeTune ''Yuke... yuke! Taiga! (Taiga!) Taiga Masuku!'']] ]]
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6	''Tiger Mask'' is a Japanese manga series written by Creator/IkkiKajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji, which was serialized from 1968 to 1971 (starting out in ''Bokura Magazine'' and moving to ''[[Magazine/ShonenMagazine Weekly Shonen Magazine]]'' in 1970). It was later adapted into an anime series by Creator/ToeiAnimation, which aired for 105 episodes from 1969 to 1971.
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8	In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask was a feared {{heel}} wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. After returning to Japan, Tiger Mask joined the Japanese League headed by [[Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling Giant Baba]] and Wrestling/AntonioInoki (also RealLife wrestlers) who were then on the verge of kicking him out for his use of villainous techniques. Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was raised in an orphanage, and later joined Tiger's Cave (a criminal cartel whose main activity was to train young people to become Heel wrestlers) to become "Strong as a Tiger".
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10	To save the orphanage where he was born and raised, he decided to go against the main rule of Tiger's Cave (all wrestlers must give 50% of their income to the organisation) and as such he was marked a "traitor" and other wrestlers from the Cave tried to kill him in the ring (while hired assassins tried to do the same outside of the ring).
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12	When an orphan living in the same orphanage as Naoto started to take his heel persona as a life model, Tiger Mask decided to fight honestly in the ring, starting a series of confrontations that eventually brought him up against the BigBad, the master of Tiger's Cave.
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14	In TheEighties, the franchise had a short-lived (1981-1983) Kajiwara-penned sequel under the name '''Tiger Mask [[LegacyCharacter Nisei]]''', this time more influenced by current trends like [[PyramidPower occult fads]], [[MerchandiseDriven partnerships with toymakers]], and even the over-the-top ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}''[='=]s popularity. However, the biggest impact of the revival was partnering with wrestling promotions to create the massively popular real-life Tiger Mask persona, initially played by the then-unknown Wrestling/SatoruSayama. The gimmick outshone the revival, producing a legacy of other famous masked wrestlers like Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa, Wrestling/KojiKanemoto, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Mask_IV Yoshihiro Yamazaki]] or [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikuhisa_Minowa Ikuhisa Minowa]][[note]]In the early seventies, Samson Kutsuwada in Korea and [[Wrestling/TheBushwhackers Butch Miller]] in Japan did short-lived appearances as unlicensed Tiger Mask-themed characters[[/note]]... And that's not including the dozens of [[{{Expy}} expies]] and parodies, including the CanonImmigrant ''[[EvilCounterpart Black Tiger]]''.
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16	After the original writer Ikki Kajiwara's death, more remakes and sequels came out, none of them with the involvement of the original artist Naoki Tsuji: the 1993 DarkerAndEdgier remake '''Tiger Mask: The Star''', set in the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] and written by Kajiwara's brother Hisao Maki (and forcibly cancelled by Tsuji), the 2013 {{Toku}}-themed movie '''Tiger Mask''', the 2015 superhero-themed manga reimagining '''Tiger Mask: Shadow of Justice''', and the [[AlternateContinuity original anime's sequel]] '''Anime/TigerMaskW''' which premiered in 2016.
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18	Tiger Mask appears in the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover game, VideoGame/SundayVSMagazineShuuketsuChoujouDaikessen.
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21	!! This show provides examples of:
22	* AdaptationalBadass:
23	** Tiger's Cave executives: in the manga they're weaklings, and even Mr. X can get the drop on them (he did), but in the anime there are three masked executives that reveal to be [[ShroudedInMyth obscenely strong wrestlers wearing the mask of the Tiger and who were considered too strong to actually exist]], with the anime-only Big Boss being even stronger.
24	** Miracle 3: in the manga [[spoiler: he's three wrestlers with the same mask, one specialized in fine techniques, one in enormous feats of strength, and one in fouls]], but in the anime [[spoiler:there's only one wrestler with all their abilities]], and is the Big Boss. Also, when Miracle 3 defeated the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker he admits he almost failed, but in the anime he executes the same counter with ease.
25	** Tiger Mask himself: in the manga his first battle with Miracle 3 was a CurbStompCushion, getting in full CurbStompBattle after the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker is countered, but in the anime he puts up a much better fight and even ''wins''. Even if Miracle 3, now going as Tiger the Great, is stronger himself, this is {{Justified}} as Tiger Mask's fights with the other challengers were more spaced in time, thus giving him time to keep up his training and not being tired from the series of fights, Tiger the Great countering the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker much faster leads to Tiger Mask not having his legs tired, and Tiger the Great ripping Tiger Mask's mask just making him ''snap''.
26	* TheAtoner: Tiger Mask has shades of this, as part of his motivations is a will to make up for all the {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s he inflicted, to the point he becomes physically unable to use fouls unless his foe uses them first.
27	* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Mr. Question/The Great Zuma is this, having the ability to understand how to use or defeat ''any'' move by seeing it once. He shows the copying ability by using the Cobra Twist after seeing it in use once, and then defeated [[spoiler: Tiger Mask's first finisher]] with embarrassing ease after seeing it once.
28	** Mr. Question's apprentice Snow Singh has a similar but lesser ability, being able to intercept flying attacks after the second time they're used on him, following with grabbing the unsuspecting victim and either sending him flying or applying a ferocious MetronomicManMashing.
29	** Also, Miracle 3, is described as this by Mr. X: according to his manager, Miracle 3 could have revealed Tiger Mask every strength and weakness of the challengers for the Wrestling/{{N\|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Maskmen World Championship as he had seen them fighting. There's some truth in this claim, as before Tiger Mask finally accepts his challenge we see him observing Tiger Mask fighting to try and find a way to counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker, then he claims he can do so... And when they finally fight, he actually does it.
30	* BadassBoast: Many wrestlers have declared they'll defeat Tiger Mask and/or his FinishingMove. So far the only ones who succeeded are Mr. Question (who had promised [[spoiler:he'd make the Ultra Tiger Drop useless]]. Tiger Mask barely defeated him, but he still kept his promise) and Miracle 3 (who declared he'd [[spoiler:counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker]] and defeat Tiger Mask, and was successful on both accounts).
31	** An unusual example comes from Mr. X: in the period Tiger Mask had to defend his NWA Maskmen World Championship from various challengers, Mr. X boasted not his own strength but Miracle 3's.
32	** Again from Miracle 3: at one point in his first bout for the NWA Maskmen World Championship with Tiger Mask (reigning champion), Miracle 3 complimented Tiger Mask for his ability, worthy of the ''former'' Champion, speaking as if his victory was already decided. He then proceeded to defeat Tiger Mask.
33	* BadassCape: Tiger Mask wears a cape to the ring, but takes it off as he jumps in. In one occasion, the cape was even more badass by virtue of being filled with ''dynamite sticks'' (Tiger Mask expected to deal with gun-armed {{Mooks}}, and when that happened the dynamite forced them to ditch the guns, grab the knives and get [[CurbStompBattle mauled in the space of two panels]]).
34	* BadassNormal: The ability to receive punishment of the wrestlers is above real life normal human levels. Pretty much every wrestler is a BadassNormal since he can receive full force wrestling techniques (including falls from above) and survive. In the first episodes a wrestler (Black Python) kills a tiger bare handed breaking its neck.
35	* BadassCrew: A few:
36	** Of the seven main challengers to Tiger Mask's NWA World Maskmen Championship, Piranha, Devil Spider, Universal Mask, Golgotha Cross, Jekyll & Hyde and Viking Kid acted like a group.
37	** [[IAmSpartacus The Seven Tiger Masks]].
38	* BadLiar: Naoto is very bad at lying, at least when he's improvising. Luckily he usually lies to a group of children who think he's a UpperClassTwit, so when they spot the first lie he can 'admit' a lie better suited to his cover, and they fall for that one.
39	* BeyondTheImpossible: A wrestler that is good in strength, technique and fouls is stated in-universe to be impossible, as [[WeakButSkilled a fine technician needs to have reduced muscle mass that won't hamper the fast use of techniques]], [[UnskilledButStrong a strength-based wrestler is prevented from using the finest techniques as he's hampered by his own muscle mass and weight]], and a fine technician with enormous strength wouldn't have the time to learn the worst fouls (as shown by Mil Mascaras and El Sicodelico, physically very strong and masters of technique who bluntly admitted they are ''pathetic'' at fouls). Yet, Miracle 3 is one of the finest technicians of the series, in terms of strength he's inferior only to [[TheBrute Gorilla Man]] and a freaking ''yeti'', and, as a Tiger's Cave pupil, he's very good at fouls. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope It's later discovered he's actually three wrestlers with a similar build; one is a very skilled technician, one is ludicrously strong and one is among the foulest Tiger's Cave pupils in history]].]]
40	* TheBrute: A few heels are this, but Gorilla Man takes the cake in virtue of being the physically strongest wrestler in the entire series and the second of Tiger's Cave assassins (being sent out immediately after Black Python's defeat).
41	* BullyingTheDragon: Happens late in the manga, when, during the Fake Tiger Mask arc, Tiger Mask is thought to have returned a heel: when he goes to America to find the imposter and prove he's still a {{face}} fighting other wrestlers without fouls, American wrestlers attack him with fouls to get a first strike. Mr. K is initially lucky, as Tiger Mask doesn't reply in kind, but later he and another wrestler have a run-in with the imposter, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown who shows them exactly]] ''[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown why]]'' [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Tiger's Cave wrestlers are so feared]].
42	** El Sicodelico takes part to the Heel World Championship only to fight the foulest wrestlers in the world, provoke them into using fouls and learn them, using his technique to carry the day anyway. Then he fights Tiger Mask, and is initially winning without fouls, but as soon as he starts doing them Tiger Mask considers himself authorized to reply in kind, ''laughs'' and [[CurbStompBattle makes short work of him]].
43	** Two examples from the very first chapter: Tiger Mask is attacked ''twice'' by civilians after inflicting a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on another wrestler. The first attacker, being a child and the son of one of Tiger Mask's previous victims, gets the advice to try it again in ten years and on the ring, when he'll be stronger than his father. The second, being a knife-wielding adult, gets a karate chop on the neck as warning to anyone wishing to imitate that child.
44	** In a similar situation to the civilian above, the bouncers at Tiger's Cave underground fighting ring tried to take on Tiger Mask with knives and got massacred. In their defense, their lives were probably on the line given Tiger Mask was protecting a traitor they were supposed to kill, and most certainly freaking out because Tiger Mask had filled his cape with ''dynamite sticks'' to keep them from just shooting him.
45	* TheCape: Face wrestlers tend to this, but El Sicodelico more than the others. According to El Sicodelico, his brother Mil Mascaras is even more TheCape than him.
46	* CassandraTruth: Tiger Mask never revealed his identity to anyone. Thus when the Fake Tiger Mask appeared only his friends believed in his innocence, as they were with him when the fake first appeared but couldn't convince the journalists they were with the real one.
47	* CelebrityIsOverrated: Early on, Tiger Mask wins Mr. X's tournament to declare the world champion among masked wrestlers. At first it's treated mostly as an afterthought, as only the JWA recognized it, but then he gained more fame and the NWA recognized it... And as a NWA champion he quickly got multiple challenges he could not refuse, first The Convict ''on the same day the NWA recognized him as champion'', and after that was dealt with he got ''seven at the same time''.
48	* CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown: Horrifically {{Deconstructed}}: as mentioned by Naoto once, a past Tiger's Cave wrestler who didn't want to pay half his gains tried this but was quickly identified from his style, and Tiger's Cave wrestlers hit him only in his head until [[DrivenToSuicide he had himself ran over by a train to stop the noise he was hearing]].
49	** {{Averted}} during Tiger Mask's brief stint at FightClubbing: he didn't bother change masks, and later, under suggestion of New York's crime boss Rico Gold, [[RefugeInAudacity went wrestling at Tiger's Cave own underground fighting ring in Paris]], resulting in the staff laughing and getting him on the ring-at which point their own rules prevented him from unmasking him until he was defeated, thus stopping them from just gunning him down upon confirming his identity.
50	** Surprisingly PlayedStraight by Great Zebra, AKA [[spoiler:Giant Baba]], who managed to hide his identity thanks to a costume that covered his whole body, a mask that altered his voice, and not using his signature move (that would have been a dead giveaway). Tiger Mask ultimately realizes his real identity, but that's because [[DamnYouMuscleMemory he nearly used his signature move by reflex]] and that got the Tiger's Cave pupil to think about how he acted and his height.
51	** Played completely straight in the manga by the fake Tiger Mask, and {{Justified}}: without the mask Naoto and the fake's builds look so similar they're impossible to tell apart from behind (hence why Tiger Cave choose him to be the fake to begin with), and he trained hard to imitate Naoto's style and even ''voice''.
52	* CheapHeat: Used by a few heels. Most notably, Tiger Mask uses it twice before consciously walking into Tiger's Cave traps that could get him killed, [[CruelToBeKind so that nobody would weep him if he indeed died]], but he's so ''bad'' at it that the first time Baba saw through it as soon as he calmed down, and the second time ''nobody'' bought it.
53	* ChekhovsGun: Early on it's shown that Tiger Mask is quite proficient in the bridge position, the German suplex and the Tomoe Nage Judo throw. The Fujiyama Tiger Breaker includes a Tomoe Nage to start the move (and in fact he first had the idea when he used one and started kicking his foe because he knew a Tomoe Nage wouldn't be enough), and the manga-only Tiger V is the fusion of four different moves including the Tomoe Nage and the German suplex and need the ability to use the bridge position.
54	* ClarkKentOutfit: Naoto's outfits are one or two sizes too large to hide the fact he's built as, well, [[ShapedLikeItself a wrestler]].
55	* CombatPragmatist: Some of the greatest wrestlers are this, because, as explained by El Sicodelico, illegal manouvers interrupted before the referee ends counting to five are allowed. Tiger Mask becomes one after defeating El Sicodelico in a no-holds battle (that Sicodelico was actually winning when they weren't using illegal moves. Then Sicodelico started committing fouls and Tiger Mask replied in kind with his superior knowledge of those moves) and receiving this lecture.
56	** According to El Sicodelico, being unable to do them right is the only reason he and his stronger brother Mil Mascaras are unable to defeat Wrestling/DoryFunkJr. (then reigning [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/nwa/wordl/nwa-h.html NWA World Heavyweight Champion]]), Verne Gagne ([[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/awa/awa-h.html AWA World Heavyweight Champion]]) and Wrestling/PedroMorales ([[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-h.html WWWF World Heavyweight Champion]]). Dory Funk Jr.'s apparition seems to confirm this in-universe, as when Tiger Mask fought him for the championship [[spoiler: and was on the verge of defeating him he punched the referee, losing by disqualification but keeping the belt.]]
57	** Tiger Mask was no slouch even before meeting El Sicodelico, having won a fair number of matches by outsmarting his foes in a most painful manner (the commentator actually called him out on that once. The victim, [[{{Contortionist}} Black V]], was suffering too much to complain, and never showed up again), and applying his training in legal but still incredibly brutal ways (apart his {{Finishing Move}}s, there's that time he weaponized ''his cloak'', that had been set on fire by his current foe).
58	** Tiger's Cave wrestlers are this. They are so dirty that ''[[InfernalRetaliation setting them on fire means giving them another weapon]]''. The list of what they pulled (excluding little things as using folding chairs, brass knuckles and the journalists' bench):
59	*** wearing a rubber outfit with a thick 'neck' that housed the head and a fake head containing a ''cannonball'';
60	*** wearing a full-body suit with needles that inject the opponent with anestetic;
61	*** causing a black-out so the official opponent, wearing a skeleton outfit, will be free to punch the victim while his sidekick, a black guy in a black outfit, keeps the poor sod pinned without anybody seeing him;
62	*** using the legs to neck-strangle an opponent while keeping themselves out of the ring and over the ropes. Attacking the strangler results in the victim being strangled ''worse''. This was actually pulled by Tiger Mask (a Tiger's Cave pupil) on the two guys above in retaliation for their trick and [[BerserkButton punching Kenta]], [[EvenEvilHasStandards and was considered evil even for a Tiger's Cave wrestler]];
63	*** using an armoured mask with a powered bite;
64	*** dressing as a mummy and use the bandage to hide pepper and sleeping powder to throw at the victim (the one who pulled this was a trainer, the one teaching his pupils the dirtiest tricks). According to Tiger Mask, the pepper was a clear indication he wasn't being serious;
65	*** going to the journalists' bench and ''throw the journalists at the victim''. This is followed by breaking the bench in two and use the rough edges of the pieces as makeshift blades;
66	*** and the crowner, present only in the manga: [[spoiler: use three guys with similar builds and identical masks to simulate a wrestler capable of using respectively superior technique, overwhelming strength and the most disgusting fouls]]. When this was discovered not even Tiger Mask could believe it...
67	* CompositeCharacter: The anime-only supreme head of Tiger's Cave is a mix of the admins (his role as the head), Miracle 3 (his initial stage name as a wrestler, and has his namesake abilities of superior strength, technique and fouls [[spoiler: while the manga version is actually three wrestlers specialized in strong wrestling, technical wrestling and fouls]]) and the fake Tiger Mask (his outfit as Tiger the Great).
68	* {{Crossover}}: A stealth one with the baseball anime/manga ''Kyojin no Hoshi'' (also written by Kajiwara) during the Black V arc. It helps that Giant Baba had been a minor player for the Yomiuri Giants (the real-life baseball team featured in ''Kyojin no Hoshi'') before becoming a wrestler.
69	* CryLaughing: Naoto does this [[spoiler: in the final episode after Tiger the Great unmasks him]].
70	* {{Cult}}: Tiger's Cave has shades of a ReligionOfEvil, with the admins wearing the garbs of evil priests (and often acting the part) and the immense statue of a tiger with eagle's wings and a snake as a tail that hides the access to the headquarter being called the 'Devil God' ''and being treated as such by the admins and Mr. X''.
71	* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Happens three times. The first is when Great Zebra almost kicked in his one match and has to stop himself, as kicking would have been a dead giveaway to his real identity as [[spoiler: Giant Baba]]. Then there is Tiger Mask using the Super Tiger Drop on Freddie Blessie ''after'' Mr. Question countered it, resulting in Blessie dealing Tiger Mask the one defeat he never succeeded in avenging. Finally there is the match against Mr. Kamikaze, that Tiger Mask had decided to throw because Mr. Kamikaze's defeat would have resulted in Tiger's Cave killing his son, but, half stunned, executed the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker and ''won'' (he actually cried "Damn it!" when he recovered his senses and realized what he had done. He then proceeded to save Mr. Kamikaze's son anyway).
72	** Another instance happened during [[spoiler: the storming of Tiger's Cave]], when Tiger Mask executed the Tiger V on one of Tiger's Cave wrestlers but had forgotten he wasn't on the ring, and thus there was no rope to grab to avoid giving a headbutt to the floor. He immediately called himself an idiot for that.
73	* DeathByAdaptation: In the manga Mr. X and Tiger's Cave executives survives. In the anime the executives fight Tiger Mask personally and dies on the ring, and Mr. X dies in a last ditch attempt at killing Naoto before his match with Tiger the Great.
74	* DeathGlare: Tiger's Cave wrestler have rather formidable ones, as shown when a Yakuza boss, often compared to a SavageWolf for his own ferocity, was confronted by a furious Naoto and ''feared for his life''.
75	* {{Determinator}}: Pretty much all of Tiger's Cave wrestlers, but Red Death Mask takes the cake: his counterattack to Tiger Mask's breaking his leg is to ''[[GrievousHarmWithABody throw at him the reporters who were watching the match]]'', followed by breaking their bench and attack him with the pieces (Giant Baba admitted he would have surrendered if he got a broken leg).
76	* DidntSeeThatComing: Once in a while, a wrestler does something completely unexpected, but [[spoiler: the trainees of Tiger's Cave setting gorillas and leopards on the admins]] and the way Tiger Mask defeated Mr. Question takes the cake, the latter having ''Tiger Mask himself'' unable to believe it (he was following an apparently useless suggestion from Kintaro Oki out of respect, not really expecting it to work).
77	** Miracle 3's counter to the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker is quite deserving, as Tiger Mask had taken care to think of possible counters and had already neutralized three but hadn't seen that coming, principally because it was nearly impossible (and Miracle 3 had to admit that he nearly didn't pull it off).
78	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Wrestling/BoboBrazil studied the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker to counteract it, and realized that he could turn in mid-air to land on his head instead than back-first, hitting Tiger Mask's much less durable head with the most powerful headbutt in history. When he actually tried it he barely had time to cry [[OhCrap "No!]] [[BigNo ''NO!''"]] before Tiger Mask used the momentum that was making Bobo Brazil's headbutt the most powerful in history to execute on him the most powerful piledriver in history.
79	** Played straight and averted by the protagonist himself. It had been played straight for his first finisher, when, after revealing it to the public by ''obliterating'' Ursus Apollon, had to deal with his much more skilled brother Star who could counter it by keeping his legs closed and then with Mr. Question, who found a perfect counter that was quite embarrassing, and for the match with Gorilla Man, where his using the bridge position to counter the enemy's attack of jumping on a downed foe would have resulted in Tiger Mask's death due the enormous weight if Baba hadn't saw it coming and harmed his neck to stop him from the bridge (after the match, in which Gorilla Man ''broke the ring'' with that attack, Tiger Mask admitted it). Averted most of the times, as Tiger Mask has the habit of thinking ahead (and, after the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker, took care of researching ''any'' possible counter he could think of, as Bobo Brazil, [[KungFuProofMook Black V]] and [[TheBrute The Convict]] learned the hard way).
80	** A hell of an aversion happened in the manga version of Mr. Kamikaze Arc. When Tiger's Cave bouncers were about to execute Kamikaze's son for betrayal Tiger Mask told them to stop, and they invoked this trope while training their submachine guns. Tiger Mask showed them that his cloak was filled with ''dynamite'', and dared them to open fire as he moved to save the child. Then the bouncers played it straight, as they tried to kill Tiger Mask with knives in spite of being normal people.
81	** Subverted and played straight at the start of the World Heel Championship. The promoter Big Condor was having the tournament in Las Vegas and prepared a profitable betting ring, but he was having the matches happen every night, taking customers from the local casinos, who didn't appreciated. But when the bouncers arrived to threaten him into not having matches on Saturdays and Sundays he was quick to point out that the tournament would summon a lot of people who normally didn't bet, and that the enormous costs of the bets on the tournament would drive most of them and of the regular customers back to the casinos in the attempt to win enough money to return to the tournament, and that the casinos would actually profit more than normal. Then the bouncers still tried to threaten him into submission, at which point they were forced to face how helpless they were against Wrestling/FreddieBlassie, Wrestling/DickTheBruiser (who, as a former bouncer, scolded them for their idiocy) and Sky High Lee, and they couldn't even call for their fellow bouncers armed with guns as Blessie ''ate the phone when they tried''.
82	* TheDogBitesBack: In the anime, a few wrestlers from Tiger's Cave pull their own [[HeelFaceTurn Heel Face Turns]] in rebellion to Tiger's Cave methods. In the manga [[spoiler: the trainees of Tiger's Cave pull a spectacular one, getting the headquarter invaded by gorillas and leopards, when Tiger Mask and the JWA direct assault on the headquarter forces the admins on the defensive]].
83	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The first anime's ending was [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]], with Tiger the Great's death finally bringing an end to Tiger Den's reign of terror, but Naoto Dante being unmasked and having to flee the country with the promise that someday he'll come back and visit the orphanage once more... But then, in the sequel series, minutes before the match for the NWA championship, Naoto gets run over by a car and dies. No one will ever know he was the great champion Tiger Mask, as he threw the mask in a nearby river to hide the fact. Made even worse by the fact that he had survived countless assassination attempts and lethal matches only to die in a ''totally random accident''!]]
84	* TheDragon: Mr. X is Tiger's Cave head manager, second only to the admins (and, in the anime, the big boss of Tiger's Cave).
85	* TheDreaded: Two of them. The first to appear is Mister Chi, who, while almost unknown, is terror incarnated for anyone who has seen him fight. The second one is Red Death Mask, Tiger's Cave HeroKiller and their foulest fighter at the time (when Tiger Mask realizes ''who'' has come for his head, he considers himself doomed).
86	** Red Death Mask ''is'' this trope: the mere sight of him caused a furious Dick the Bruiser (who is cruel enough to ''set an opponent on fire'') to calm down and walk away calmly to not risk angering him, and apologizes when he tries being friendly and he takes exception.
87	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Tiger Mask's {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s are considered over the top even by the other Tiger's Cave wrestlers. Red Death Mask's are much worse.
88	** Iron Tusk, Blassie's fictional apprentice, was ''banned'' from wrestling by all American promotions for his use of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin iron teeth]] in his matches. Blassie, who caused 92 fans to die from heart attack watching his matches, was never banned.
89	** Mr. X is absolutely ''disgusted'' by the things found in Tiger's Cave Parisian underground wrestling promotion and the customers. He also has a soft spot for children, allowing Naoto one last chance to pay his dues because his lateness in the payments had been to help an orphanage, and never acting against said orphanage in spite of knowing it's Naoto's weak spot (he eventually [[spoiler:kidnaps Kenta]] in the manga, but only because he knows this time he's going to die if he doesn't bring some result back and plans to release him once Naoto is dead).
90	* EvilCounterpart: Tiger's Cave wrestlers in general are {{Evil Counterpart}}s to Tiger Mask, as they are as he would be without an [[SavingTheOrphanage orphanage to save]].
91	** Inverted with Red Death Mask: Tiger Mask is the ''good'' counterpart. Both are Tiger's Cave alumni, both are been trained as Tiger's Cave {{Hero Killer}}s, and Tiger Mask was slated to succeeded Red Death Mask as Tiger's Cave strongest and foulest wrestler had he not performed his HeelFaceTurn.
92	** [[spoiler:Technician]] Miracle 3 in the manga is another. Tiger's Cave best pupil? Check. Very fast and capable wrestler capable of overwhelming world champion-level wrestlers with superior technique? Check. Above the world champion when it comes to fouls? He's a Tiger's Cave pupil, check to infinity. In fact Tiger Mask adopted the Romero Special (Miracle 3 favourite FinishingMove) as one of his own high school techniques.
93	*** Also his anime counterpart, especially after changing mask to Tiger the Great, when he becomes what Tiger Mask would have been had he remained a heel.
94	** The manga-only fake Tiger Mask brings it into the EvilTwin realm, as he's identical to the real deal in mask, corporature, weight and even voice (Tiger Mask himself can't tell the difference between their voices), and his technique resembles Tiger Mask's when you press his BerserkButton and he starts dishing {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s. He went so far to adopt Tiger Mask initial gimmick of ZeroApprovalGambit to lure more ''paying'' watchers hoping to see him defeated, and had a copy of the NWA Maskmen Champion belt.
95	* {{Expy}}: The motivation to save an orphanage through pro wrestling brings to mind Fray Tormenta.
96	* FightClubbing: Tiger's Cave maintains an underground fighting ring in Paris, and crime boss Rico Gold has another in New York.
97	* FinishingMove: What did you expect from a wrestling manga? Tiger Mask had to develop his own Finisher after some episodes, rather than starting with his own, after he realised that he is in a handicap against other wrestlers that got them. Then, after [[spoiler:Mr. Question]] made it utterly useless, he created another, taking care of creating variations in case he found someone that could counteract the basic version (as Bobo Brazil and Black V learned at their expense). And he created a ''third'' after [[spoiler:Miracle 3]] counteracted that too.
98	** Before inventing his own, Tiger Mask could still rely on the classical piledriver (that in one memorable occasion was fused with the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker) and German suplex. The latter was actually his signature finisher before he created his first personal one (and performs it liberally in the opening), and actually surprised everyone when he first pulled it on Black Python.
99	*** The German suplex is so associated to Tiger Mask that RealLife wrestler Satoru Sayama, the first to use the gimmick in real life, used it liberally, and the Tiger Mask of ''Tiger Mask W'' also uses it as one of his {{Signature Move}}s.
100	** Tiger Mask already had one before the start of the series, the Tiger Chokehold. He used it on-screen only once, as it's an illegal move due its lethality (the victim of his move had ''really'' pissed him, and only survived because Tiger Mask wasn't in the mood of killing him).
101	*** In fact Tiger Mask created his legal {{Finishing Move}}s to have a last resort that was not Tiger's Cave-style fouls. And Mr. Question making the Super Tiger Drop useless resulted in him reverting to the Tiger's Cave style at the first provocation.
102	* ForeignWrestlingHeel: A lot, [[TruthInTelevision many of them being actual wrestling heels of the Sixties]] and one being the protagonist himself at the start of the story (he was a Japanese heel in US).
103	** Mr. X is a ForeignWrestlingHeel ''manager'': not only all the wrestlers he sicked on Tiger Mask were not Japanese, but he once declared himself an American (specifically he said he didn't want to kill two fellow Americans when Dick the Bruiser and Mad Dog Austin [[BullyingTheDragon attacked Gorilla Man]]).
104	* GlassCannon: Tiger the Great. Turns out, years of annihilating any opponent through a combination of overwhelming strength, superior skills, and absolutely evil fouls didn't let him develop the pain resistance other wrestlers have, so when Tiger Mask starts successfully hitting him with his own fouls he goes down quickly.
105	* GrievousHarmWithABody: Once in a while a wrestler is sent flying on another, but the times where it was most impressive was when Mr. Question ended his CurbStompBattle against twenty opponents by throwing one of the last three on the other two, Tiger Mask receiving a MetronomicManMashing from Snow Singh and Red Death Mask throwing ''half a dozen journalists'' at Tiger Mask before attacking him with their bench.
106	* HeelFaceTurn: The protagonist, who also manages to convert some of the wrestlers from the Tiger's Cave.
107	** Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher: in the manga and the first anime he's a ForeignWrestlingHeel who wreaks havoc in the JWA, but in the second anime is an ally of the second Tiger Mask and helps the NJPW deal with the villains.
108	* AHeroToHisHometown: Tiger Mask was this when he started wrestling in Japan, as he was Japanese and fought only foreign heels.
109	* HeroKiller: In order of appearance we have: Gorillaman (the physically strongest fighter of the series), Lionman (Tiger's Cave head coach), Star Apollon (one of the best technical wrestler of the story), Mr. Question (in-universe, [[OldMaster the best wrestler in history]], that even with the handicap of being [[spoiler: over sixty years old]] [[CurbstompBattle curbstomped]] Tiger Mask for most of the fight and lost only due a DeusExMachina. In his prime he was practically invincible), Red Death Mask (Tiger's Cave designated HeroKiller), Mr. Kamikaze (the strongest fighter of Tiger's Cave underground fighting rings), Black V ([[KungFuProofMook a wrestler apparently immune to submission holds]]), The Convict ([[TheBrute a giant wrestler with enormous strength]]), Miracle 3 (Tiger's Cave greatest miracle, a wrestler with superb technique, immense physical strength and incredible ability with fouls. [[spoiler: He's actually three different persons: Tiger's Cave finest technical fighter, greatest strongman and foulest wrestler]]) and the fake Tiger Mask.
110	* HeroicSecondWind: Happens when Tiger Mask thinks about the orphans that he is trying to protect and his friends.
111	* IAmSpartacus: Happens in the manga when Tiger Mask tries and storms Tiger's Cave. When he's captured and about to be unmasked after defeating a dozen of Tiger's Cave trainees, [[BigDamnHeroes six other wrestlers wearing the mask of the tiger appear, declare themselves Tiger Mask and make short work of the surviving trainees]]. They later unmask and reveal to be [[spoiler: [[TrueCompanions Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, Michiaki Yoshimura, Kintaro Oki, Great Kojika and Umanosuke Ueda]]]].
112	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Tiger's Cave wrestlers and the heels in general use everything as a weapon, with one foe using an umbrella, a belt stolen from a fan and a [[ThePenIsMightier pen]], while Red Death Mask has used the antennas of his insect-like mask as whips and attacked Tiger Mask with ''half a dozen journalists'' before brandishing their bench.
113	* KungFuProofMook: Played straight and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by Black V, who was trained by Bobo Brazil to aquire circus contorsionism-level of flexibility to be immune to submission holds like the infamous Cobra Twist or Tiger Mask's Fujiyama Tiger Breaker. He actually demonstrated the ability to reduce the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker to just a powerful but tolerable headbutt on his back, but then Tiger experimented on him a variant of the move and defeated him.
114	** Black V, Bobo Brazil and Kintaro Oki are nearly immune to attacks on their heads, as they have [[UseYourHead extremely resistants heads they love to hit their foes with]]. If you apply enough strength or they hit something harder they'll feel it, but it's very difficult to pull it off.
115	* LaserGuidedKarma: Flashbacks show that Naoto's TrainingFromHell had been made even ''worse'' by a sadistic trainer. At the Maskmen World League, Tiger Mask beat the utter crap out of Tiger's Cave wrestler King Satan... And discovered he was the same sadistic trainer.
116	* LargeHam: Mr. X ''loves'' to describe in vivid particulars how strong is the wrestler he's sicking on Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask himself was one when he was a heel, but he never reached his levels.
117	* LaughingMad / ManlyTears: Happens in the final episode of the anime, after Tiger the Great manages to [[spoiler: rip away the mask from Naoto]]. Tiger Mask starts laughing and crying before unleashing the worst NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of the series (both anime ''and'' manga), killing Tiger the Great and Tiger's Cave with him.
118	* LetXBeTheUnknown: the BigBad, Mr. X.
119	* LightIsNotGood: The BigBad and FinalBoss of the first anime Tiger the Great dons a white tiger mask.
120	* LighterAndSofter: The anime is much softer than the manga, changing Tiger Mask's stint as underground wrestler into a series of challenges with European wrestlers and omitting everything after Miracle 3.
121	** DarkerAndEdgier: The final fight of the anime: it's one episode and half worth of Great Tiger inflicting the worst NoHoldsBarredBeatdown seen so far in both the anime ''and'' the manga while the protagonist fought back as good as he could... And then Great Tiger unmasks Tiger Mask, at which point Naoto [[LaughingMad laughs]] and [[ManlyTears cries]] for a while before literally ''beating his opponent to death'' with a beatdown ''topping'' what he had just suffered in spite of being just five minutes long (he had already topped it three minutes in, when Great Tiger fainted for the pain. [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown Then he started hitting him worse with the obvious goal of just killing him]], while fending off Baba and Inoki attempts at stopping him). [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Naoto is suitably horrified when he recovers his senses]].
122	* MadeOfIron: Any and all wrestlers are this, thanks to their powerful training.
123	** Teppei Oiwa was noted to take quite a beating from Tiger Mask when he begged him to be taken as a pupil, thus passing his SecretTestOfCharacter. Notably, Teppei ''wasn't'' a wrestler yet, he was just that tough on his own.
124	** Tragically {{Averted}} in Mr. Kamikaze's backstory: he accidentally killed his best friend during a match specifically because, being a karateka, he hadn't trained his chest muscles to the point of taking one of his kicks, [[LampshadeHanging something that Tiger Mask remarks]] after surviving ''three'' of those kicks (they hurt like hell, but he remained standing). Kamikaze himself was nearly killed in his first wrestling match because of this, and is shown to have trained as hell after winning purely thanks to his rage upon his wife's death.
125	* ManBitesMan: Freddy Blessie (mentioned in the trope page) provides a [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]]. In his three matches we are shown how stupid it is: having a bite as the main attack against someone who has no problems trying to tear his teeth off (Tiger Mask did it with borderline legal moves, and stopped just short of actually tearing his teeth off); engaging a race to bite the forehead with a taller opponent (Red Death Mask. Had he used another move he could have escaped, but Red Death Mask had bitten him once and he didn't appreciate); biting a masked opponent who doesn't care for rules (Fantomas at the World Heel Championship had an iron plaque under the mask for his match with Blessie. Cue SoLastSeason).
126	* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Many heels, both from Tiger's Cave and indipendents, wear very nice and tasteful clothes (masked wrestlers will add their mask when they want to be recognized as such). Also, Mr. X almost always wear a tuxedo and top hat, and the admins wear the same nice suit as ''Tiger Mask himself''.
127	* MoralityPet: Kenta: Tiger Mask started fighting with legal moves because Ruriko had asked him to be his role model. Kenta has also hints of the MoralityChain: in the Maskmen World League Tiger Mask refrained from committing fouls (allowed by the rules) until a phone call from Kenta asked him why he was doing so even if the rules allowed them, at which point Tiger Mask unleashed a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on the Tiger's Cave wrestler that was about to kill him.
128	** In the manga-only World Heel Championship arc (set in Las Vegas) the role falls to Sonny, a black child who is betting on Tiger Mask for the tournament to earn the money to open a shoe shop: during Tiger Mask's fight with Guillotine Gaston it's Sonny who stops him from possibly killing his foe.
129	* MuggingTheMonster: Every single time Tiger Mask creates a new FinishingMove a foe will think he'll be able to defeat him easily, only to get hurt ''hard''. Among the 'muggers' we can count Ursus Apollon (first victim of the Super Tiger Drop after the bear it was originally tested on), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_M%C3%A1scaras Mil Mascaras]] (first public victim of the still nameless Fujiyama Tiger Breaker. To be fair the first round of the match had been a CurbStompBattle in ''his'' favor, and he still managed to draw), a ForeignWrestlingHeel of the Outlaws tag team (first victim in Japan of the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker. He helped naming it when he compared the experience to being thrown down from mount Fuji, inspiring the fan who actually named it), and [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable Miracle 3]] (first victim of the Tiger V).
130	* Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance: The series is set right after its heyday while JWA was one of their territories, leading to a number of important events:
131	** Tiger Mask moving to Japan, and later back to the US a few times, is allowed by this.
132	** A number of powerful US wrestlers come to Japan as part of the usual travels of NWA biggest stars, culminating with Wrestling/BoboBrazil. Tiger Mask's victory over him and his (fictional) stronger apprentice leads directly to...
133	** The NWA recognition of Tiger Mask as the World Maskmen Champion (complete with them sending him a champion belt), causing the challenges from the Convict and six of the series of seven challengers (the seventh, Miracle 3, is a Tiger's Cave wrestler, so he would have been there anyway).
134	** Indirectly, it leads to Tiger Mask getting to his best shape ever, as he realized he had grown (relatively) weak when he had to face the seven challengers into quick succession and he had to train himself up to reclaim his title from Miracle 3-and then he went overboard.
135	** Dory Funk Jr., then-reigning NWA Heavyweight Champion, coming to Japan specifically to challenge Tiger Mask, again as part of the NWA's usual travels of their biggest stars.
136	* NiceToTheWaiter: Tiger Mask is unfailingly polite with anyone who isn't the wrestler he's currently fighting (or Mr. X).
137	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Tiger's Cave wrestlers are masters of this, and in fact the very first thing Tiger Mask does is unleashing one on a wrestler stupid enough to face him. He still tend to unleash them when Tiger's Cave conditioning gets the better of him or someone is stupid enough to hit one of his {{Berserk Button}}s.
138	** During the Maskmen World League, Skull Star and Mr. Shadow double-teamed him, with Mr. Shadow kicking Kenta for revealing everyone the double teaming and biting him. Tiger Mask didn't care of the double teaming, but avenged the kick with a beating that was well over the edge ''even for Tiger's Cave standards'', stopping only when Mr. Shadow was withing an inch of his life and [[EvenEvilHasStandards creeping out both Skull Star and the Tiger's Cave wrestler who had served as the referee]] (Skull Star being creeped out doubled as OhCrap, as he recognized the signs that Tiger Mask was pissed and knew he was next).
139	** Red Death Mask is [[EvenEvilHasStandards terrifying even for Tiger's Cave wrestlers]], and the first thing he does on screen is to scare Tiger Mask with a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on ''three'' wrestlers.
140	* NonchalantDodge: Great Zuma, as Mr. Question, used it as his main defense, as, while [[WeakButSkilled unmatched in technique, he was far physically weaker than his opponents]]. Being by far the most skilled character in the series, his NonchalantDodge has the habit to let an overeager opponent hit a wall, the ropes or the ring post.
141	** In his match against Black V, Tiger Mask took a page from Mr. Question's book, and defended himself from the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Missile Headbutt]] by dodging and letting Black V hit the ring ropes (and kick him while he was tied up) or the ring post, before stepping up the game and ''drop kicking'' the Missile Headbutt (Tiger Mask landed on the journalists' table. Black V on concrete and ridicule).
142	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Wrestling/AndreTheGiant is mentioned having taken part in the World Heel Championship tournament. Tiger Mask won the tournament with eleven victories and one draw (against Guillottine Gordon, who managed to hit him with his FinishingMove when Tiger Mask decided to not kill him but fainted due the NoHoldsBarredBeatdown he had been handed before that). Unless someone else put him in hospital before they fought, ''Tiger Mask defeated Wrestling/AndreTheGiant''.
143	* OhCrap: A common reaction when a wrestler realizes he's about to receive a ''really'' powerful FinishingMove. One of the best happened when Bobo Brazil tried to counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker by hitting Tiger Mask not with the back but with [[UseYourHead his immensely tough headbutt]] but saw Tiger Mask dodge and change the move in the most powerful piledriver in history (Bobo Brazil's head hurt him so much that he could barely walk for a while).
144	* PantheraAwesome: He's called ''Tiger'' Mask, after all.
145	* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Villainous version, as Tiger Mask was the best of Tiger's Cave apprentices and already on his way to become Tiger's Cave strongest wrestler when he pulled his HeelFaceTurn (hence Tiger's Cave giving him the mask of the tiger as a sign of this superiority).
146	* {{Pirate}}: The manga-only character Viking Kid has a viking pirate gimmick, and nearly defeated Tiger Mask in a death match held in a floating ring in the middle of the ocean.
147	* ProWrestlingIsReal: Oh yeah. All heels are totally evil, all Tweeners are {{Blood Knight}}s and all faces are TheCape. The only exception ever is the protagonist who was actually playing the heel to substain the orphanage (though he was also putting all his frustration against his harsh life in his fights).
148	** There are at least three other subversions: in the first chapter we have Iron Bear (a loving father who plays the heel on the ring) and Hurricane Hill (a known heel and a friend of Iron Bear), and later in the series there's Mr K, another heel who is also a loving father and husband.
149	* PunchClockVillain: Mr. X is one in the manga: when he first appears he mentions all the horrible tortures and deaths inflicted to Tiger's Cave wrestlers who even ''ask if they can pay less than 50%'' (that one died on the ring when Tiger's Cave assassins finished destroying his internal organs), but then gives him a last chance to pay his dues to Tiger's Cave, and when he fails he simply sends Tiger's Cave assassins to give him a (relatively) swift death on the ring, and when Tiger Mask won the Maskmen World League he paid the promised $10,000 when he could have easily cheated his way out of it. His later KickTheDog moment, where he [[spoiler: kidnaps Kenta]] and forces Tiger Mask to endure a gauntlet that will kill him slowly, happens only when, with the defeat of Miracle 3, he has [[YouHaveFailedMe failed one time too many and is gonna get murdered if he doesn't do anything]] (and still implies he'll [[spoiler: free Kenta without a scratch]] once Tiger Mask is dead).
150	** The manga-only character Big Condor is another. He may have been the one who organized the World Heel's Championship to execute Tiger's Cave final attempt at killing Tiger Mask, but made clear he had no animosity toward our hero and was doing it for the enormous gain he got in the process. And when Tiger Mask won the tournament he complimented him for it and for finally being a wrestler with champion-level skills in both legal techniques and fouls, and paid him the ''one million dollars'' of the prize (one million dollars of the seventies).
151	** Black Python, Tiger's Cave first assassin, is another one, who plainly admits he's not thrilled by having to kill Tiger Mask and that he's doing it only because failure would mean ending on Tiger's Cave shit list and was promised to be freed from the dues if he succeeded.
152	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Tiger Mask was prevented from winning real life championships with various plots justifying him quitting, missing or losing in four World Big League tournaments. Also he could only draw against Mil Mascaras when he tried to win the NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship and while he won against Dory Funk Jr. for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship he did so by disqualification, with Funk keeping the championship.
153	* RedBaron: Many wrestlers had such names, like Star Apollon (The Two Thousands Moves Man), Great Zuma (India's Sun King) and Tiger Mask himself (the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Yellow Demon]]). All of them are justified in some way: Star Apollon loved to brag of knowing two thousands wrestling moves (and he used on screen ''nineteen'' different moves, many of which extremely difficult), Great Zuma was practically invincible, and Tiger Mask had sent dozens of wrestlers to the hospital with the right combination of fouls, brain and brutality.
154	* RefugeInAudacity: During his stint as an underground wrestler (made LighterAndSofter in the anime version), Tiger Mask's promoter convinced him to go to Paris and fight with his mask in ''Tiger's Cave own underground fighting promotion'', because they would never think to check beforehand if he was the real one (and in fact the gunmen who kept security there actually laughed at the sheer improbability of it), and once he was on the ring their own rules said that you couldn't unmask a masked wrestler until he was defeated (Mr. X actually never fell for it, but he was too late to check), even after ''everything else'' had identified him as the real Tiger Mask.
155	* RightUnderTheirNoses: Mr. Question first appearance in a flashback is this: Baba was observing a battle royal for a prize of 100,000$ when he spotted him jumping on the ring ''without anyone else noticing''. That was immediately followed by the then-nameless Mr. Question, when he established himself as TheDreaded and the fourth most powerful wrestler of the world by [[CurbStompBattle single-handedly throwing out of the ring all the other wrestlers]].
156	* SadisticChoice: During the manga version of the Mr. Kamikaze arc Tiger Mask was winning when the bouncers of Tiger's Cave underground wrestling arena announced that Kamikaze's son had tried to rattle them to the police, and that they would kill him unless Kamikaze won. Tiger Mask decided to throw the match and his life, but [[DamnYouMuscleMemory won by accident]] and had to save Kamikaze's son the hard way.
157	* SavingTheOrphanage: The reason Naoto Date/Tiger Mask betrays the Tiger's Cave and starts to get hunted by them is to save the orphanage where he was raised and to make the life of the orphans (who he sees as his family) better.
158	* SaveTheVillain: In an early story arc, Dick the Bruiser and Mad Dog Austin decided to show off and [[BullyingTheDragon attacked Gorilla Man]], reasoning that, without fighting techniques, he would be an easy pick. Giant Baba then performed the trope, saving their lives in the nick of time (then Tiger Mask had to save Baba).
159	* SecretIdentity: Tiger Mask and pretty much all masked wrestlers. Most have some SecretKeeper (usually their family and TrueCompanions), but Tiger Mask tries and hides his identity even from Ruriko, something that bit him back in the ass when the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fake Tiger Mask]] started wrestling when he was busy or somewhere else and [[SpotTheImposter nobody could truly say if the imposter was the evil Tiger Mask or the one Baba could vouch for]].
160	* ShoutOut: The Tiger Mask of the 2017 sequel ''Tiger Mask W'' uses a number of moves also used by the RealLife wrestlers that used the Tiger Mask gimmick, most notably the first one Wrestling/SatoruSayama.
161	* TheSmartGuy: Baba isn't just strong, he's ''smart''. Enough to see through Tiger Mask' {{Zero Approval Gambit}}s, give useful suggestions on how to defeat a much more skilled wrestler and recognize high school fouls that escape everyone else's notice.
162	* SoLastSeason: Happens to Freddie Blassie, real life wrestler (in)famous for his tendency to ''bite'' the foreheads of his foes who had actually defeated Tiger Mask early in the series: when he fights against the French masked wrestler Fantomas (no, not [[Literature/{{Fantomas}} that]] one) in the World's Heel Tournament his well known bite is ineffective, as his opponent had an iron plate under the mask exactly for this occurrence (Fantomas kicked his ass while he was pained by the broken teeth).
163	* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: The wrestlers sent by Tiger's Cave to kill Tiger Mask are progressively stronger and more lethal. It started with the less talented but more experienced Black Python (who could kill a tiger bare-handed) and progressed all the way to the top of Tiger's Cave 'legal' roster (meaning they fought on legal promotions), then their HeroKiller, then the champion of their underground fighting circuit, and then ad-hoc solutions like the admins (anime only: in the manga they're weaklings), Miracle 3, [[spoiler: who in the manga is actually ''three'' different masked wrestlers with similar builds, one being a skilled technical fighter capable to find out how to counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker, one being the third physically strongest fighter in the series (the second is a presumed yeti, and first is the gigantic Gorilla Man) and the third a master of fouls, exchanging roles according to needs]], and a fake Tiger Mask who was actually a match for him, culminating in suckering him into taking part to a tournament with no rules and filled with the worst heels of the world and [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg El Sicodelico]].
164	* SpotTheImposter: Late in the series there's a fake Tiger Mask, who imitated the real one in body build (down to the weight), combat style, outfit, [[ThisIsUnforgivable belt of NWA Masked World Champion]] and even the voice (Tiger Mask himself is unable to tell his own voice from the imposter's imitation). After Tiger Mask loses control and starts cheating, the only one who can tell the difference is the promoter of their match, who noted that the mask of the real Tiger Mask had plastic fangs while the imposter's had ''steel'' ones ("The proof of the real Tiger... Is the fake fang!", as he put it).
165	* SuperiorSuccessor: Twice:
166	** Naoto was supposed to become this to Red Death Mask as Tiger's Cave most formidable fighter, hence why he was give the mask of the tiger. He indeed surpassed Red Death Mask... ''After'' leaving Tiger's Cave.
167	** Miracle 3 was presented as Red Death Mask's superior successor... And actually managed to succeed where Red Death Mask had failed: ''defeating Tiger Mask''. [[spoiler:Even if he was actually three people with identical build but different specialties, the technician was indeed that good, completely annihilating Tiger Mask fair and square during the first round of the first fight (though Tiger Mask wasn't in his best form), coming up with the technique the strongman used to counter the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker, and, once Tiger Mask came back fully rested and [[TookALevelInBadass strongest than ever]], ''still'' defeated him fair and square in the first round of the rematch]].
168	* TrainingFromHell: Apart from a normal fighting training taken to the extreme, some of the methods of Tiger's Cave include wrestling with big cats, spending a night tied to a rope under a bridge, whipslashes, the pool of tan and oil and ''being set on fire''. No wonder you get to be a Badass if you survive.
169	** The training to create the Tiger V included Tiger Mask having his apprentice trying to ''run over him with a car''. Notable because this was ''entirely Tiger Mask's idea''.
170	** It's not a Tiger's Cave exclusive. In his younger days, Baba had been subjected to a harsh training that included one of the same exercises used by Tiger's Cave (a less horrible version, as it replaced the risk of death with a master ready to beat the crap out of you at every screw up), and Baba himself decided that the best way to teach Tiger Mask how to dodge Black V's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Missile Headbutt]] was to ''throw baseballs at him with all his strength and with the highest rate of launch he could manage'' (a ''very'' fast rate, given that Baba had been a professional baseball player before switching sport). Both exercises worked: the exercise Baba had been subjected to was supposed to increase his leg strength and his kicks were devastating, and after Baba's torture Tiger Mask actually ''ridiculed'' the Missile Headbutt with {{Nonchalant Dodge}}s with ''painful'' side effects (like hitting the ring post).
171	** Teppei Oiwa is subjected to this as Tiger Mask's student, with Tiger Mask giving him, among other things, one of the same exercises Tiger's Cave had inflicted on him, just replacing the risk of a messy death with himself ready to [[LiteralAsskicking kick him in the ass as hard as he can]] to motivate him. He actually takes care to explain his reasoning: their sport is so incredibly tough one needs hellish exercises to actually compete, and fear of either death or extreme pain is an excellent motivator to get through said training.
172	* TrueCompanions: The fighter of the Japan Pro-Wrestling Alliance are this. Best shown in the manga when [[spoiler: Tiger Mask was forced to go at Tiger's Cave headquarter and they rescue him while wearing tiger masks as a declaration of war against Tiger's Cave]].
173	* UnskilledButStrong: Gorilla Man is the biggest (300 kg) and strongest fighter in the series by a long shot, but has absolutely no skill, and ends defeated by Tiger Mask because of this.
174	** Dick The Bruiser is physically stronger than Tiger Mask, and won many matches by committing fouls and taking anything his opponent unleashes, but has little real skill. He ends humiliated and HoistByHisOwnPetard ''twice'' when he tries and cheats in a no-holds-barred match against Tiger Mask, who, being from Tiger's Cave, is much more skilled at fouls (and had actually been ''set on fire'' during training, so he [[InfernalRetaliation knew exactly what to do when Dick did the same in their match]]).
175	** When Tiger Mask described that the physically stronger wrestlers tend to be less skilled than their smaller counterparts, the manga used a picture of Bruno Sammartino as example.
176	* UpperClassTwit: Naoto fakes being one, saying he discovered having a rich relative and inherited from him.
177	* UseYourHead: That's the shtick of real life wrestlers Kintaro Oki and Bobo Brazil: hitting their foes with devastating headbutts. Black V brought it up a notch thanks to Bobo Brazil training him to be a stronger version of himself.
178	* WeakButSkilled: Mr. Question/The Great Zuma is this, being [[spoiler:over ''seventy'' years old]] and, according to Tiger Mask, clearly physically weaker than the other competitors in the pan-Asian tournament, but at the same time can use ''perfectly'' almost all pro-wrestling move in existence, and his AwesomenessByAnalysis allows him to copy the ones he doesn't know and counteract them after seeing them ''once'', as best shown when he [[spoiler:counted Tiger Mask's first finishing move with embarrassing ease]].
179	** As a general rule, the most skilled wrestlers are relatively weak in terms of brute strength, as bigger and stronger muscles tend to make them slower and hamper the fast moves and change of techniques they use.
180	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the manga Mr. X and Tiger's Cave executives are last seen doing a runner in a helicopter.
181	* TheWorfEffect: Happens quite often to show how dangerous was the newest threat, starting with an actual tiger being killed by Tiger's Cave first killer who had decided to show off. It's handled fairly well, as even worfed characters remain {{Badass Normal}}s and capable wrestlers (a good example is Dick the Bruiser, who got massacred by Gorilla Man's unrivaled strength early in the series but still gave the late series Tiger Mask a run for his money in the Heel World Championship).
182	** A strange example is Bruno Sammartino: he never appeared in person, but managed to get worfed ''twice'' during the Pan-Asiatic tournament, when Tiger Mask remarked that Snow Singh's brute force was superior to Sammartino's (the highest of regular wrestlers at the time) and then admitted he could tell it because he had actually fought him to a draw before the HeelFaceTurn.
183	** The post-Heel World Championship arc plays it straight twice: where Inoki was a match for a non-fouling Tiger Mask for most of the series and Mad Dog Austin could actually beat him when he was still getting used fighting without fouls, in the final arc Tiger Mask utterly [[CurbStompBattle curbstomped Inoki in a spar]], and his match with Mad Dog (where Tiger Mask's legal moves completely outclassed anything Mad Dog could come up with, and he still used very effective fouls when Mad Dog tried them) was so one sided that Baba likened it to a battle between an actual dog and an actual tiger, and ended with Tiger Mask using Mad Dog's own FinishingMove to win.
184	** [[EvilCounterpart Miracle]] [[TheRival 3]] played it straight in his two not-Tiger Mask fights. The first time he used Killer Karl Kox to show off his superhuman strength (and defeated him on July '''3''' in '''33''' seconds to show off even more), and then humiliated ''Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher'' with high school techniques, concluding with the Romero Special.
185	* WorfHadTheFlu: Happens a few times:
186	** The draw between Tiger Mask and Mil Mascaras is owed to this on ''both sides'': in the third round, Mil Mascaras was too weakened by being the second victim of the still unnamed Fujiyama Tiger Breaker in the second round to do more than escape, and Tiger Mask was unable to catch him due being still fatigued by his stint as an underground wrestler.
187	** When he first fought Miracle 3, Tiger Mask wasn't in his usual combat form as the series of challenges for the World Maskmen Championship had left him very little time for training. This becomes ''very'' evident during the rematch, when Tiger Mask had the time to retrain himself and fought on his same level.
188	** Tiger Mask's subpar performance against Cyclone Gaston was due he subjecting himself to Tiger's Cave-like TrainingFromHell in preparation for the rematch against Miracle 3 and fighting him without resting. The characters realized it when Tiger Mask fought Miracle 3 and, differently from the first match, fought on his same level of abilities.
189	* WorldsStrongestMan: Played with. In terms of pure strength Gorilla Man is unrivaled, but was handily defeated by Tiger Mask when he was still unexperienced in fighting fairly. The series shows that skills are more important than pure strength, well evidenced by Tiger Mask losing a round against the technician [[spoiler: Miracle 3]] and, a couple minutes later and still tired, [[CurbStompBattle curbstomps]] the much stronger but less skilled [[spoiler: Strongman Miracle 3]], and the string of victories that Mr.Question (physically the weakest fighter in the series) achieved against physically stronger foes, including ''the best Korean wrestler in history'', before handing Tiger Mask his ass on a silver platter and losing only due [[DidntSeeThatComing a truly unexpected development]].
190	** Interpreting the trope as 'best wrestler around', the series has the following World's Strongest Wrestlers: Mr. Question/The Great Zuma in his prime (by the time he appears he's the fourth due him being [[spoiler: over seventy years old]]), Wrestling/LouThesz (real life wrestler with enormous strength and formidable skills. Before passing his prime, the strength of a wrestler in-series was measured by how long it took for Thesz to win), Wrestling/BrunoSammartino (real life wrestler, he's shown as one of the physically strongest and a fine technician to boot, thus being mentioned as the strongest in many occasions after Thesz passed his prime), and Dory Funk Jr. (real life wrestler and final adversary to Tiger Mask. ''Drawed with Thesz when he was still in his prime''). Tiger Mask qualifies at the end of the series, actually defeating Dory Funk Jr. (the manga actually says that he was the strongest in the world as he held Funk in a Cobra Twist).
191	* WorthyOpponent:
192	** Initially averted by Tiger Mask, who admitted he didn't even ''understand the concept''. It was only after his victory against Star Apollon that he understood it, with both complimenting the other for the magnificent match.
193	** El Sicodelico: after fighting Tiger Mask and suffering a [[CurbStompBattle very fast defeat]] as soon as he [[BullyingTheDragon started using fouls so that Tiger Mask would show him Tiger's Cave repertoire]] he congratulates him for the victory, thanks him for leaving him the mask and gives him the motivation and the means to overcome Tiger's Cave conditioning for good.
194	** Invoked mixed with BadassBoast by Miracle 3: during his first title match with Tiger Mask he complimented him and admitted he was worthy of being the ''former'' champion. He then proceeded to win the match and the title.
195	* {{Yakuza}}: They have a brief but very important part in the series, as the orphanage owed money to ''them'', and Naoto paid that debt with the money he owed to Tiger's Cave.
196	* YouHaveFailedMe: It's stated early on that Tiger's Cave who fail in the attempt to defeat Tiger Mask will be killed by Tiger's Cave, but the only one actually confirmed is Red Death Mask (plus Rico and Rocky in the anime), while the others may have escaped and Gorilla Man is confirmed as living.
197	** Mr. X narrowly averts it thrice in the manga. The first time was after Red Death Mask's defeat: Mr. X begged to not be thrown on the execution ring where Red Death Mask had just been murdered, but the executives [[FelonyMisdemeanor first berate him for daring to assume they'll give him the death of a wrestler]] and then announce that, having done everything he could and succeeded in the secondary goal of making Tiger Mask resort to fouls, he'll be given another chance. The second time is after Miracle 3's defeat: this time the executives were ready to have him killed, but Mr. X returned with a kidnapped [[spoiler: Kenta]] to bait Tiger Mask into going back at Tiger's Cave, and the executives decided to wait and see (when Tiger Mask actually showed up Mr. X was spared again). Finally, after Mr. X's last plan fails due to the TrueCompanions storming Tiger's Cave with Tiger Mask, they decide to let him get killed by the beasts supposed to kill the attackers, but [[spoiler: [[TheDogBitesBack Tiger's Cave trainees opened the gate so that the beasts would invade the main base]], saving his life (last we see him he's holding the executives at gunpoint as they run away in s helicopter)]].
198	* ZeroApprovalGambit: Tiger Mask is quite fond of these. As a heel his gimmick was that of the foreigner who beat the crap of everyone and intentionally called for the fans' hate, so there would be more people watching his matches in the hope to see him defeated. As a face he did it three times he was expecting to die (first he abandoned the World Big League tournament and insulted Baba to try and win the Maskmen World League, then he beat the crap out of aspirant wrestler Teppei Oiwa to supposedly vent the frustration of having to fight [[KungFuProofMook Black V]], and then insulted the whole JWA roster before having to try and storm Tiger's Cave) so that his loved ones wouldn't suffer (plus Teppei Oiwa's beating doubled as a SecretTestOfCharacter), but every time someone saw through it: when he quit the World Big League [[spoiler: Baba]] thought about it and realized that Tiger Mask wanted the first prize to [[spoiler: pay a surgery to heal a blind girl]] and, with the identity of Great Zebra, helped taking down Egyptian Mummy and Lionman; Teppei immediately recognized it was a test of character and told so to Ruriko (who, for once, had actually fallen for it); when Tiger Mask insulted the JWA roster Baba, who remembered the past experiences, immediately called him on it, and when Tiger Mask insisted he [[spoiler: [[TrueCompanions followed him to Tiger's Cave with the rest of the roster]], [[BigDamnHeroes saving his life]] and helping taking down Tiger's Cave]].

Context Manga / TigerMask