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Tiger Mask (2018)

115 PTS.



If you’re a young punk looking to get your keister kicked, look no further than Tiger Mask. One of the longtime veterans of the New Japan roster and its junior division, the 48-year-old Tiger Mask dishes out his own brand of feline violence on the undercard to any wrestler who steps in his path. Typically he does so with fellow veteran (and species of jungle cat) Jushin Thunder Liger by his side, but unlike Liger, Tiger Mask is still competing in the annual Best of the Super Juniors tournament. This year Tiger Mask got off to a hot start with three straight victories right out of the gate. Unfortunately he must have gotten a thorn in his paw because he lost his remaining four matches in the block.

Tiger Mask’s biggest achievement of the year was when he and Liger defeated IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a non-title match at Destruction in Kobe in September, which earned them a title match at King of Pro-Wrestling. It was their first junior tag title match in over five years. They were unsuccessful in winning the belts. Liger and Tiger then teamed up again for the Super Junior Tag League. They only scored four points, but on both of those occasions, Tiger Mask was the one to gain the fall. In fact Tiger Mask scored a lot more falls than Liger did this year (19 to 2), which suggests that despite Liger having more prestige as a wrestling legend, Tiger Mask’s claws are a lot sharper than his. Okay I’ll stop with the cat analogies now.