Nightmare Fuel / Tiger Mask

• The very existence of Tiger's Cave: it's a cult-like organization that takes orphans from the streets and subjects them to a terrifying Training from Hell, at the end of which the survivors have become powerful and skilled wrestlers trained in any and all fouls that will fight other wrestlers for the cause of evil and send the good guys either to the hospital or straight to the grave, and they have to pay half their wages to the organization's leaders. If they try to skirt on the payments for one reason or another and they're caught, their best hope is that they get a quick death...
  • Tiger Mask is considered their best pupil ever for a reason: his beatdowns are over the top even for Tiger's Cave standards, he once came up with a move so terrifying that another Tiger's Cave pupil, whose gymmick consisted in biting and drinking his opponent's blood while injecting him with a narcotic, was horrified, and to prepare himself with the rematch with Miracle 3 he willingly subjected himself to the same training Tiger's Cave inflicted on him (Mr. X thought he was nuts for it).
  • A story is told at one point of a wrestler who tried to dodge the half-wages payments by changing his mask and name. Tiger's Cave identified him immediately from his style and sent hordes of wrestlers after him with instructions to hit him only in the head. Eventually the brain damage got so bad that the wrestler threw himself under a train to stop himself hearing an imaginary noise. Another tale is told of a guy that asked to pay a smaller percentage, and Tiger's Cave's wrestlers murdered him on the ring.
• Tiger Mask's first on-screen fight, when he was still a heel. We see a wrestler on the ring bragging he'll crush him and avenge all his past victims, a previous victim bandaged and with a clearly broken arm, everyone wondering if Tiger Mask ran away... And then Tiger Mask comes out from under the ring, beats the crap out of his opponent, and thanks the referee for disqualifying him, as being disqualified for crushing his opponent was a badge of honor for him. He then reminds the public of his gimmick, that is being a greedy wrestler that horribly maims his opponents so more people will come to see his matches hoping in his defeat and increase his purse - and that even if they know they will do exactly as he said, as they just did for this match.
  • Right after Tiger Mask is done, a child, the son of the wrestler with the broken arm, comes out and attacks Tiger Mask in anger, with everyone thinking the obviously evil wrestler will attack him - but to everyone's relief, that's a line he's not willing to cross, and he instead sends him away and tells him to come back when he's an adult and has trained himself. Then an adult rushes Tiger Mask with a knife... And gets slapped in the throat hard enough he vomits blood, with Tiger Mask warning everyone that while he's not willing to hurt a child that attacks him adults are another matter entirely.
• Gorilla Man. He can easily tow three buses full of people, is so tough that most attacks don't even faze him, and has been trained by Tiger's Cave as a killer for everything. At one point he's tossed a live pig as a meal, which he proceeds to dismember while it's still alive.
• Tiger Mask's personal finishers. They're legal moves, but they clearly show he was trained by Tiger Cave... And the first one killed a bear:
  • Ultra Tiger Drop: simple Metronomic Man Mashing... While jumping from the third rope. This one can easily kill if the head lands wrong, as a certain bear can attest.
  • Fujiyama Tiger Breaker: it starts with a simple tomoe nage (and here those who know Tiger Mask realize something's wrong, as he's not a user of that technique), but instead of letting the opponent fly away Tiger Mask kicks him up again and again hitting his back, and then suddenly stands up, lets them fall on his head, and executes a variant of the backbreaker rack using the head and not the neck, leaving the victim in atrocious pain. When it was first seen in Japan, many of the public fainted in fear when they realized what had just happened, and the victim in that occasion compared it to being thrown down from Mount Fuji (inspiring the guy who named it). And the variants are just as bad:
    • The prototype version, improvised in Tiger's Cave's underground fighting ring: tomoe nage and multiple kicks on the crotch, and then, when Tiger Mask decided for a change of pace, he threw King of the Jungle on the ring post. He likely died... And it's noted that this is a weaker version, or at least easily countered by an experienced wrestler (they would make sure to land on their backs, thus getting kicked there and being hurt far less).
    • Bobo Brazil tried to counter it by landing on his hard head. Tiger Mask turned it into a piledriver.
    • Black V didn't fear the move, as he was immune to submission holds. He started crying in terror when he realized Tiger Mask was about to jump out of the ring and have him hit the concrete floor with Tiger Mask's head making the impact worse.
    • The Convict tried to counter it by tricking Tiger Mask in a chain deathmatch, with the chain keeping Tiger Mask from standing up for the backbreaker. Tiger Mask used Convict's own weight to make himself stand up (also tearing in the flesh of his own wrist), and the ring post for the backbreaker.
  • The Tiger V: when the opponent rushes at him, Tiger Mask executes a tomoe nage, continues with a suplex, and has their head hit the floor out of the ring while he forcibly opens their legs to form a painful V.
    • The training for this move is just as bad: it was Teppei trying to run Tiger Mask over with a car while Tiger Mask dodged with the bridge position, and when he felt he had mastered the timing Tiger Mask grabbed the back wheels and stopped the car. Teppei was rightfully freaked out, wondering what exactly this Tiger V was supposed to do and pitying Miracle 3 for being about to suffer it.
• Mr. Question. A masked wrestler completely covered in white that appears from nowhere and, while physically weak for a wrestler his size, is so incredibly skilled to be practically invincible, and will inflict his opponents beatdowns to rival the ones coming from Tiger's Cave wrestlers-without using fouls. He appears from nowhere to smack down the fouler wrestlers, starting from infiltrating a battle royal to decide the top contender to an unspecified World Heavyweight championship and single-handedly winning by tossing the wrestlers out and on each other, and is recognized as the fourth greaest wrestler in the world... Because he never cared to challenge the top three, so he may well be the best. Also, his one known pupil may or may not be a Yeti.
  • Becomes much scarier when his real identity is revealed as the Great Zuma-and his age as seventy. Tiger Mask recoiled in shock and fear when he saw he was old - and that was after their match, that Tiger Mask won. Because he realized that if his opponent had been younger, he would have won, and it was hard enough as it had been. That, by the way, is before the referee recognizes him, kneels in awe, and reveals his real identity - at which point Tiger Mask plainly admits his opponent was the greatest wrestler ever.
  • And just to drive home how good he was in his prime, and how scary he was, we are shown one of his matches in his prime: Stanislaus Zbyszko, then the world champion, came to India to challenge him, and the Great Zuma won - in ten seconds. Curb-Stomp Battle doesn't even begin to describe it.
  • Finally, to increase the scare, Zuma was based on a real wrestler: the Great Gama, an undefeated wrestler who beat every single one of his opponents and never lost a match. Even the match with Zbyszko (who really existed. He didn't have the title, but was still one of the biggest wrestlers of his time) actually happened, three times: the first time, in London, Zbyszko was quickly overwhelmed, and only managed to score a draw by throwing himself on the ring and staying up just long enough to not be counted down until the time expired, the second time Zbyszko was too scared to fight, and the third time in India, the one that inspired Zuma's fight with him, ended, depending on who you ask in 42 seconds, 30 seconds, or the 10 seconds as the manga match. Oh, and Bruce Lee followed his training routine.
• Red Death Mask, Tiger's Cave Hero Killer. He comes in the territory of a NWA member, hospitalizes the entire roster in ways over the top even for Tiger's Cave, and then leaves. Other heels, no matter how tough or terrible they are, shake in terror at his presence...
  • During their match Tiger Mask broke his knee. He came back for more, and his immediate reaction to that was to throw the journalists at Tiger Mask before breaking their bench and turn the jagged edges into weapons.
• The underground wrestling ring. You know something is horrible when Mr. X sees it and is disgusted and horrified.
• Aside for Viking Kid, the group of challengers for the Maskmen World Championship have only one thing in common: the terror their gimmicks cause. Golgotha Cross was so bad that the police intervened and banned the matches from being broadcast... And he wasn't the worst.
• Miracle 3: a wrestler who is a master of strength, advanced techniques and fouls... And he's from Tiger's Cave.
  • Gets worse in the anime: in the manga Miracle 3 was actually three different wrestlers, one incredibly strong, one incredibly skilled, and one whose fouls were worse than Red Death Mask's, but the in the anime he's the real deal. That, and his true identity is Tiger the Great, Tiger's Cave supreme boss.
• The fake Tiger Mask, both for his ability to ruin Tiger's Mask hard-earned reputation by existing and to mimic him and the horrific beatdowns he inflicts on his opponents.
• Aside for Tiger Mask and El Sicodelico, the contestants in the World Heel Championship. They're not from Tiger's Cave, but they're the kind of wrestlers who consider setting an opponent on fire as a viable strategy.
• In the anime, The unmasked Naoto snapping and beating Tiger the Great to death.
  • Naoto's Slasher Smile when Tiger the Great tries to react: this time he isn't just fighting using fouls to send the enemy to the hospital, he's trying to kill his opponent and he's enjoying it. Possibly the most terrifying moment of the entire series, both manga and anime.
  • Near the end of the fight, Naoto entangles Tiger the Great in his cloak to limit his ability to move and starts attacking, ending with Tiger the Great's death. Red Death Mask opened their fight with this very same move.