Trivia / Satoru Sayama

• Fountain of Expies: As the first Tiger Mask, Sayama was the idol of almost all the modern (masked and not) junior heavyweight wrestlers in Japan and other countries. Último Dragón, Rey Mysterio Jr., Jushin Thunder Liger, The Great Sasuke, and even renowned MMA fighters like Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki and Ikuhisa Minowa were fans of him.
• He Also Did: Co-created with Yūji Toyoshima the shin guards (called "leggers" by the Japanese) made famous by UWF and its offshoots. Also introduced the fingerless gloves (possibly inspired by those used by Bruce Lee and/or the gloves used in Bōgutsuki Karate, basically karate with armor, which were modified themselves from kote gauntlets used in Kendo) and footguards used in Japanese MMA.
• Hostility on the Set: In real life, with Akira Maeda in 1985, when Maeda shot on Sayama during a match and caused the fall of the original UWF. They continued badmouthing each other during years until 2006, when they were reunited in an interview by Hisao Maki and acknowledged (rather grudgingly, but with sincerity) each other's accomplishments. Currently, they seem to have regained some measure of respect for each other.
• The Other Darrin:
  • When Sayama left NJPW, the gimmick was swiftly bought by All Japan Pro Wrestling and passed to Mitsuharu Misawa. Then it was passed to Koji Kanemoto, and finally to Yoshihiro Yamazaki. MMA fighter Ikuhisa Minowa got a variation of it as well.
  • The Super Tiger gimmick was passed to Yuji Sakuragi, while Último Dragón briefly used the The Tiger character.
• The Pete Best: Sayama's team with Kung Fu and Kato Kung Lee is not well remembered due to the two finding much more success (they became some of the biggest draws in Mexico) with Sayama's replacement, Black Man.
• Real Song Theme Tune: "Eye of The Tiger" by Survivor in UWF.
• What Could Have Been:
  • George Takano, also known as The Cobra, was originally a candidate to be Tiger Mask, and even developed the Space Flying Tiger Drop and moonsault press for it. However, according to Hisashi Shinma, Takano was passed over because he was too tall to convincingly play an underdog.
  • After leaving New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Giant Baba offered Sayama an absolutely exorbitant pay to wrestle in All Japan Pro Wrestling, but he refused and went to create the Tiger Gym.
  • Sayama, a fan of samurai culture, passed the auditions to play one in The Last Samurai. However, he had to back down due to scheduling problems.
  • Before he got called back to Japan from England for the Tiger Mask gimmick, he was supposed to be in a title match against future Black Tiger Mark Rocco.
  • Before he quit New Japan, he was expected to change his gimmick and ring name, with the change being announced before his last match against Isamu Teranishi and a quiz was prepared to ask fans to guess the new ring name. This was because Ikki Kajiwara, the original creator of the manga Tiger Mask, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting the editor of Kodansha, and the issue of changing Sayama’s ring name emerged due to its social impact.