[[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jushinthunderliger_7207.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:202:As [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/noah/ghc-j.html Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion]]]]

Keiichi Yamada (born November 30, 1964 in Hiroshima, Japan) is a former {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er best known as '''Jushin "Thunder" Liger'''. He debuted in 1984 and, along with his work in Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, also competed for Stampede Wrestling and for All-Star Wrestling in England. He first wrestled under his own name before changing to '''Flying Fuji Yamada'''. He started the Liger gimmick in 1989. Over his career, he has also competed for Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE, Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}, Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH, Wrestling/DragonGate, Wrestling/{{WCW}}, Wrestling/DramaticDreamTeam, [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]], Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, Wrestling/RingOfHonor and many other promotions. Among his ''many'' in-ring achievements, he is an 11x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/newjapan/iwgp-j.html New Japan Pro Wrestling IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion]], a 6x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/newjapan/iwgp-j-t.html New Japan Pro Wrestling IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion]], a 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/newjapan/jcrown.html Octuple J-Crown Champion]], and was inducted into the ''[[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter Wrestling Observer Newsletter]]'' Hall of Fame in 1999.

Liger worked his retirement match on January 5, 2020 on the second night of NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 14 in the Tokyo Dome, and had his official retirement ceremony the following night at NJPW's ''New Year Dash!!''[[note]]Not a writing error, the actual title of the event includes the two exclamation points.[[/note]] He was also inducted as part of the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame class of 2020, in spite of working only one match for the company.
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!! "Jushin Troper Liger":
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: In TheNineties, he could not just get a win over his ArchEnemy Wrestling/TheGreatSasuke.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Kishin Liger adopted Wrestling/TheGreatMuta's tactics in an effort to beat him and get his revenge for Muta's cheating ways. Didn't work though.
* BigDamnHeroes: He and Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi at ''War Of The Worlds'' after Adam Cole used the ROH title belt to attack IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/AJStyles, Kazuchika Okada and Michael Elgin, who had, naturally, already beaten the hell out of each other.
* BookEnds: Liger began his career at the first ever Tokyo Dome wrestling show, which was also the first Tokyo Dome wrestling show of the Heisei era. He would end his career almost 31 years later...in the first Tokyo Dome wrestling show of the Reiwa era.
* CanonDiscontinuity: As far as New Japan Pro Wrestling is concerned, Jushin Liger was the Junior Heavyweight champion during his entire WCW run.
** New Japan also likes to pretend that the four years he wrestled unmasked and (usually) under his real name never happened.
* CaptainErsatz: ''Videogame/FireProWrestling'' tends to go with his "thunder" gimmick, just slightly tweaked.
* CostumePorn: He sometimes wore a BadassCape to the ring.
* CoolMask: Though it looks like it would hamper his sight, it doesn't seem to stop him from doing anything.
* CoolVersusAwesome: Wrestling/{{Sabu}} attended the Pro Wrestling Syndicate Super Card because of John Morrison and Jushin Liger. The sight of him lead to chants of "Triple Threat!"
* CrossThrough: Made a one-night appearance at the first [[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT Takeover: Brooklyn]] event, defeating Wrestling/TylerBreeze. This marked the first time Liger has wrestled in a Wrestling/{{WWE}} ring.
* DarkIsEvil: As a heel, he wears an all black version of his outfit.
* {{Determinator}}: Before he became a wrestler, he was initially rejected by New Japan because he didn't meet height requirements (another version says he never really applied because he knew he would be rejected by this reason), although he was still a teenager and was not likely done growing. He would start his training in Mexico instead, as there are not such requirements in Mexican promotions, and when NJPW officials Gran Hamada and Kotetsu Yamamoto made a visit and saw him literally starving while studying there, they allowed him to train at the New Japan Dojo. The rest is history.
* {{Face}}: In early WCW, Liger actually started out as the heel when feuding with Wrestling/BrianPillman, but he was such a natural face that the fans started cheering for him. He was a heel as the leader of CTU though.
* FacialMarkings: As Kishin Liger, after the Great Muta ripped his mask.
* FinishingMove: Liger Bomb, Shooting Star Press, Brainbuster.
* ForeignWrestlingHeel:
** Briefly demoted to this in WCW in late 1995, to fit ''Starrcade 1995'''s "World Cup of Wrestling" theme of WCW vs. NJPW matches. Liger, like all the NJPW guys, was stapled to sneering YellowPeril manager Sonny Onoo for the build, and when taping the Disney shows, WCW outright asked their audiences not to cheer him no matter how many awesome things he did.
** Liger was also an evil foreigner with Okumura, Naito and Yujiro as La Ola Amarilla in CMLL.
* ForgotFlandersCouldDoThat: Liger is so known for his cruiserweight and lucha libre ventures that everybody in the U.S. was surprised when he volunteered to replace Kensuke Sasaki in his UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts match against Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki; they had forgotten that Yamada was a high level freestyle wrestler and one of the last New Japan wrestlers who trained under Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara. Granted, it didn't matter very much given how the match [[CurbStompBattle turned out.]]
* ForScience: He and a New Japan referee did an experiment to see if pro wrestlers would kick out while sleeping. The answer is yes, except for Tomoaki Honma, who couldn't so much as get a shoulder up while awake. Presumably he was the control group.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: He got his start in the NJPW Young Lion cup and was its eventual winner.
* GoodIsNotNice: Despite his superhero gimmick and being a natural babyface, Liger wasn't always the nicest of guys in his Japanese runs, often defined by his arrogance. To say nothing of [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Kishin Liger]]...
** In 1999 and 2000, Liger felt that there was no competition within the junior heavyweight division, becoming more aggressive as a result of his aggravation. In 99, Liger announced he was leaving New Japan while still IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion to find competition elsewhere. He returned in 2000, destroying Koji Kanemoto in less than four minutes in the Tokyo Dome.
* HandicappedBadass: He can't hear in one ear because of a surgery to get rid of a brain tumor.
* IKnowKarate: Is apparently trained in koppo (a martial art that allows kicks, grappling and more notably features hand strikes that doesn't use the fist). The art's own founder Masashi Horibe was in his corner when Liger wrestled Don Nakaya Nielsen in a different style fight in 1988.
* InformedAbility: Many sources state that Yamada learned multiple martial arts, but it's untrue: his only fighting background was amateur wrestling while on high school (and he was pretty good in that, as he placed second in a national championship). He later learned koppo, though.
* LightningBruiser: Specially during his prime. Has shades of PintsizedPowerhouse as well.
* MadeOfIron: Though he Jushin Liger lost the match, he popped back up after taking starship pain on a camera angle that made it look like Wrestling/JohnMorrison landed on his head! This was at the April 5th 2013 PWS Super Card 2, which meant he had already been in a match with Wrestling/StevieRichards and well over a year later he was still going in Ring Of Honor and New Japan style pay per view matches.
* MaskedLuchador: Though in a twist, his Mexican debut (which would have made him the purest example of the trope from the start) was postponed by Japanese wrestlers who urged him to return to his native land and was only pursued in the first place because the Japanese dojos would not train him for being too short. He would thus not get his mask for awhile and would not start in Mexico for another 18 years.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: [[http://www.cagematch.net/?id=23&nr=funny_lygerbowling Lyger bowling!]]
* OldMaster: To Cheeseburger in Ring Of Honor, whom the other wrestlers so nicknamed because of his less than impressive size ([[Wrestling/TheWorldsGreatestTagTeam Charlie Haas]] saying he needed one), something Liger can relate to.
* PowerStable:
** Control Terrorism Unit (CTU)
** Legend, led by Masahiro Chono
** Dragon Bombers
** (in CMLL): ''La Ola Amarilla''
* RedBaron: "Thunder"
* RingOldies: He was '''55''' when he worked his final match.
* TheRival: Claims his closest rivals were Wrestling/NaokiSano and Wrestling/ChrisBenoit.
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: Black Tiger was a gimmick created to challenge Tiger Mask, but while the Tiger Masks have feuded with three different Black Tigers at most, Jushin Liger has feuded with six official Black Tigers in succession... though he has also teamed up with some of them.
* SacrificialLion: Or maybe just lamb. Regardless, Jushin Liger knew he wouldn't be able to beat Minoru Suzuki in a mixed martial arts bout, especially not post brain surgery, but willingly entered into one anyway so New Japan could save face with Pancrase. This was presumably also the reason why he opted to throw a wild AwesomeButImpractical kick and pay the price instead of fighting conservatively and possibly humiliating himself even more by failing at that.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Has worked as a booker.
* ShoutOut: His whole persona is this to the anime ''Anime/JushinLiger''
* SignatureMove: Rolling Koppu Kick, Surfboard (Romero/ceiling hold), ''Shotei''.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: [[https://www.facebook.com/212043558814035/photos/a.213726345312423.57609.212043558814035/281838958501161/?type=1 Lyger works too]]
** The official romanization that New Japan uses for his name is J'''y'''ushin Thunder Liger.
* {{Superhero}}: His whole gimmick, as it is based on an anime character. "Thunder" is actually the powered up form.
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: His dark, unmasked (but facepainted) alter ego ''Kishin Liger'' is his, used only in the rarest of circumstances to the point he's only ever called on him 4 times in his career, and always against the most ruthless heels in the most heated feuds. [[CurbstompBattle The feuds... tend not to last long after that.]]
* TagTeam: The Unbeatables, with Koji Kanemoto
* TournamentArc: Beat Wrestling/LaSombra in the 2010 CMLL Universal Championship after Shigeo Okumura interfered, [[DownerEnding establishing La Ola Amrilla's dominance]].
* UrExample: First to do the shooting star press, though his version had his legs wider spread and less tucked in than Wrestling/BillyKidman's, who most wrestlers imitate when they do the move. Liger himself said he got the idea from ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar''.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Wrestling/TheGreatSasuke.
* WorthyOpponent: Wrestling/BryanDanielson, Wrestling/SamoaJoe and Wrestling/LowKi in Ring of Honor. He was going to consider Adam Cole as well, but Cole was too much of an ass. Averted with Wrestling/AustinAries, who he was quick to pronounce "an asshole" upon their face to face meeting.
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