History Wrestling / SatoruSayama

* LetsGetDangerous: In his MMA exhibition match with Yoshinori Nishi, Sayama was being bullied around by the bigger and more aggresive Nishi until he had enough and launched a brilliant flying leglock offensive. He did not manage to make Nishi tap out like he had done to Sayama earlier in the match, but it showed he was not a wuss neither.

* CaptainErsatz: He and most of the other "official" Tiger Masks regularly get ''Videogame/FireProWrestling'' representation.

* PowerTrio: El Triangulo Oriental in [[Wrestling/{{CMLL}} EMLL]] with Kung Fu and Kato Kung Lee. Despite the name, it was a multinational team as Fu was Mexican and Lee was from Panama (when Sayama was replaced with Black Man in LLI they became Los Fantasticos)

* PowerTrio: El Triangulo Oriental in [[Wrestling/{{CMLL}} EMLL]] with Kung Fu and Kato Kung Lee. Despite the name, it was a multinational team as Fu was Mexican and Lee was from Panama (when Sayama was replaced with Black Man they became Los Fantasticos)

* LostInImitation[=/=]UnbuiltTrope: The original Tiger Mask's aerial style barely looks like modern high-flyers's. This is due to Sayama -under Karl Gotch's influence- wanting to work matches which were spectacular but sufficently realistic at the same time, and hence Tiger Mask matches featured elements of realism which are pretty much lost in cruiserwight wrestling nowadays: flying attacks which failed by the opponent [[GenreSavvy walking out of the way]], convoluted moves which [[NoSell were reverted]] whenever a real opponent should be able to revert them, [[DeathByFallingOver stumbles and unspectacular falls]] out of the ring, wrestlers [[TapOnTheHead getting knocked out]] from simple kicks... It was the later wrestling generation who turned the high-flying scene into a world of [[ArtisticLicenseMartialArts infallible dives]] and [[ArtMajorPhysics magic physics]].

* OvershadowedByAwesome: After the UWF split, the greatest shoot-style exponents to Japanese eyes were Nobuhiko Takada from UWF International, Akira Maeda from RINGS and Masakatsu Funaki from Pancrase. Sayama was never counted as another one, due to Shooto being far less known and to him not having an active career on it.

'''Satoru Sayama''' (b. 1957) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er, promoter and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts trainer, best known for his work as '''Tiger Mask'''. He debuted in 1976 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, but he was sent abroad to Mexico, where he gained fame, and also trained with the legendary Wrestling/KarlGotch. Later he moved to Britain, where he learned other martial arts and wrestled as "Sammy Lee", with his gimmick being a cousin of Creator/BruceLee. After his return to Japan, he was chosen to play the ''Manga/TigerMask'' character, based in a manga. He redebuted under the masked and became the founder of the junior heavyweight wrestling, introducing the lucha libre style in Japan along his own abilities. After some years of stardom, in which he had legendary feuds with Wrestling/DynamiteKid and Kuniaki Kobayashi, he left New Japan in protest for Wrestling/AntonioInoki's irregular monetary management. He founded the Tiger Gym, a martial arts dojo, and shortly after was convinced by NJPW defectors to return to wrestling and join them in Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation. There Sayama adopted the "Super Tiger" moniker and helped to create the shoot-style wrestling along names like Wrestling/AkiraMaeda and Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara. However, he had a falling out with Maeda and some others wrestlers and left to form Shooto, the first UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts company in history. He acted as promoter and trained many future MMA stars, also doing a second return to pro wrestling by request of Inoki. After leaving Shooto, he freelanced in pro wrestling indies like Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling and UWF International, and collaborated with Inoki in his Universal Fighting-Arts Organization. He ended founding a martial art, Seikendo, which derived into his own promotion, Real Japan Pro Wrestling.

** In real life, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda. Their hosility started 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) each other's accomplishments. Currently, they seem to have regained a degree of respect between them.

* NoodleIncident: The reason he left Shooto in 1996 remains unknown. According to some, it was because his pro wrestling ties clashed with the rest of the Shooto members's martial mentality, and according to others, he left [[ButForMeItWasTuesday because he was bored and wanted to keep innovating]].
* OddFriendship: Sayama was friends with sumo legend Taiho Koki, whose son Yukio is currently training in RJPW.

* BigEater: Has quite of a SweetTooth. He used to send his cornermen to nearby vending machines to bought sweets during training pauses, and his trainee Naoya Ogawa recalls how Sayama once spent almost ¥10.000 in a coffee shop.

* FinishingMove: Bridging German Suplex, Tiger Suplex and Tiger Driver (a predecessor to the DDT).
** As Super Tiger, he used the Crossface Chickenwing and other shoot-style submissions like armbars and the Kimura.
** During his beginnings as Tiger Mask, before he debuted the Tiger Suplex, he used the Tilt-a-Whirl Backbreaker and the Octopus Hold as finishers.

* ChallengeSeeker: In 2000, Sayama proposed another of his trainees, Kazuyuki Fujita, to fight him in what would be Sayama's MMA debut in PRIDE Fighting Championship. It probably was just a promotional stunt, as one has to wonder why would Sayama want to [[DavidVersusGoliath get killed in the ring]].
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: [[PurpleIsPowerful Purple]] as Super Tiger and black under his real name.

* EvilCounterpart: Black Tiger, also a character from the anime. Masked Tiger in Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling

* LegacyCharacter: Probably the most known in pro wrestling.
* {{Leitmotif}}: "Boys Be A Tiger"

* LostInImitation[=/=]UnbuiltTrope: The original Tiger Mask's aerial style barely looks like modern high-flyers's. This is due to Sayama -under Karl Gotch's influence- wanting to work matches which were spectacular but sufficently realistic at the same time, and hence Tiger Mask matches featured elements of realism which are pretty much lost in cruiserwight wrestling nowadays: flying attacks which failed by the opponent [[GenreSavvy walking out of the way]], convoluted moves which [[NoSell were reverted]] whenever a real opponent should be able to revert them, [[DeathByFallingOver stumbles and unspectacular falls]] out of the ring, wrestlers [[TapOnTheHead getting knocked out]] from simple kicks... It were late wrestlers who turned the high-flying scene into a world of [[ArtisticLicenseMartialArts infallible dives]] and [[ArtMajorPhysics magic physics]].

* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Sayama believes there might be great fighters waiting to be discovered in Russia, and it's said he held several kumites and tryouts there during his seikendo starting.
* MultidisciplinaryScientist: Is trained in judo, amateur wrestling, sambo, kickboxing, muay thai and several styles of catch wrestling. He is not simply nicknamed "Genius" for nothing.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: After the UWF split, the greatest shoot-style exponents to Japanese eyes were Nobuhiko Takada from UWF International, Akira Maeda from RINGS and Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki from Pancrase. Sayama was never counted as another one, due to Shooto being far less known and to him not having an active career.

* PassingTheTorch: Currently, there are three wrestlers who carry Sayama's torch: Tiger Mask IV (Yoshihiro Yamazaki), Tiger Mask V (Ikuhisa Minowa) and Super Tiger II (Yuji Sakuragi). The latter's EvilCounterpart, Tiger Shark (Kozo Urita) can be considered another torchbearer, as well as the recently debuted Great Tiger (his actual identity is not known, but it is probably Takatoriki Tadashige or Yukio Naya).
* PetTheDog: During the infamous 1.4 Incident, Sayama was the only UFO member who tended the referee Tiger Hattori (who got legitimately low blowed by Naoya Ogawa) and virtually the only man in the arena who tried to calm down the subsequent brawl.

* TrainingFromHell: He passed some under Karl Gotch, Toshio Fujiwara and Victor Koga, and himself dispensed some to his many students.

* WeakButSkilled: Mainly due to his lack of size, Sayama never was very much of a fighter in comparison with other shooters, but his submission acumen was deceptive.

* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: During the Seikendo shows, Sayama used to wear his mask and introduce Russian female dancers into the ring to work a dance.

* FinishingMove: Bridging German Suplex, Tiger Suplex and Tiger Driver (a predecessor to the DDT). As Super Tiger, he used the Crossface Chickenwing and other shoot-style submissions.

* LostInImitation[=/=]UnbuiltTrope: The original Tiger Mask's aerial style barely looks like modern high-flyers's. This is due to Sayama under Karl Gotch's influence wanting to work matches which were spectacular but sufficently realistic at the same time, and hence Tiger Mask matches featured elements of realism which are pretty much lost in cruiserwight wrestling nowadays: flying attacks which failed by the opponent [[GenreSavvy walking out of the way]], convoluted moves which [[NoSell were reverted]] whenever a real opponent should be able to revert them, [[DeathByFallingOver stumbles and unspectacular falls]] out of the ring, wrestlers [[TapOnTheHead getting knocked out]] from simple kicks... It were late wrestlers who turned the high-flying scene into a world of [[ArtisticLicenseMartialArts infallible dives]] and [[ArtMajorPhysics magic physics]].

* PassingTheTorch: Currently, there are three wrestlers who carry Sayama's torch: Tiger Mask IV (Yoshihiro Yamazaki), Tiger Mask V (Ikuhisa Minowa) and Super Tiger II (Yuji Sakuragi). The latter's EvilCounterpart, Tiger Shark (Kozo Urita) can be considered another torchbearer, as well as the recently debuted Great Tiger (probably Takatoriki Tadashige).
* PetTheDog: During the infamous 1.4 Incident, Sayama was the only UFO member who tended the referee Tiger Hattori (who got legitimately low blowed by Naoya Ogawa) and virtually the only man in the arena who tried to calm down the consecuent brawl.

* SignatureMove: Various kicking combinations including a step high, Tiger Bomb

* WeakButSkilled: Mainly due to his lack of size, Sayama never was very much of a fighter in comparison with other shooters, but his submission acumen was very deceptive.

'''Satoru Sayama''' (b. 1957) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er, promoter and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts trainer, best known for his work as '''Tiger Mask'''. He debuted in 1976 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, but he was sent abroad to Mexico, where he gained fame. Later he moved to Britain, where he learned martial arts and wrestled as "Sammy Lee", with his gimmick being a cousin of Creator/BruceLee. After his return to Japan, he was chosen to play the ''Manga/TigerMask'' character, based in a manga. He redebuted under the masked and became the founder of the junior heavyweight wrestling, introducing the lucha libre style in Japan along his own abilities. After some years of stardom, in which he had legendary feuds with Wrestling/DynamiteKid and Kuniaki Kobayashi, he left New Japan in protest for Wrestling/AntonioInoki's irregular monetary management. He founded the Tiger Gym, a martial arts dojo, and shortly after was convinced by NJPW defectors to return to wrestling and join them in Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation. There Sayama adopted the "Super Tiger" moniker and helped to create the shoot-style wrestling along names like Wrestling/AkiraMaeda and Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara. However, he had a falling out with Maeda and some others wrestlers and left to form Shooto, the first UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts company in history. He acted as promoter and trained many future MMA stars, also doing a second return to pro wrestling by request of Inoki. After leaving Shooto, he freelanced in pro wrestling indies like Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling and UWF International, and collaborated with Inoki in his Universal Fighting-Arts Organization. He ended founding a martial art, Seikendo, which derived into his own promotion, Real Japan Pro Wrestling.

* EvilCounterpart: Black Tiger, also a character from the anime.

* TagTeam: With fellow U-spirit shooter Yoji Anjo. This was his only team, as Sayama has went predominantly solo.

!!! "The trope list seeks his prey"

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Hard to take it in real life, but this is how Karl Gotch saw Sayama. Gotch initially called Satoru as his greatest student ever, but he always considered him to be too much of a bully, and later in their life he changed his opinion and claimed Sayama only trained with him to get his knowledge and connections. He ended appointing Fujiwara as his official heir and stated he and not Satoruyama was his best student. Ironically, Sayama and Fujiwara have been close friends for years and are frequent coworkers nowadays.

!!! "Tropes Mask":

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Hard to take it in real life, but this is how Karl Gotch saw Sayama. Gotch initially called Satoru as his greatest student ever, but he always considered him to be too much of a bully, and later in their life he changed his opinion and claimed Sayama only trained with him to get his knowledge and connections. He ended appointing Fujiwara as his official heir and stated he and not Sayama was his best student. Ironically, Sayama and Fujiwara have been close friends for years and are frequent coworkers nowadays.

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Hard to take it in real life, but this is how Karl Gotch saw Sayama. Gotch initially called Satoru as his greatest student ever, but he always considered him to be too much of a gym bully, and later in their life he changed his opinion and claimed Sayama only trained with him to get his knowledge and connections. He ended appointing Fujiwara as his official heir and stated he and not Sayama was his best student. Ironically, Sayama and Fujiwara have been close friends for years and are frequent coworkers nowadays.

* BloodKnight: Back in the NJPW Dojo, Sayama was in charge to welcome ''dojoyaburi'' or challenging martial artists and show them the exit. In Kotetsu Yamamoto's words, only Inoki himself was better than Sayama in the art of breaking arms with a [[SlasherSmile smile in his face]].
* BruceLeeClone: His Sammy Lee gimmick was Creator/BruceLee's storyline cousin.

* DramaticUnmask: Subverted for a MaskedLuchador. He nonchalantly unmasked himself in a TV show and proceeded to vilify pro wrestling, as he was tired of "fake" fighting and its politics. Unsurprisingly, he was not very popular among wrestling promoters after that.

* RedBaron: "Yon Jigen Yaho" ("The Four-Dimensional Assassin"), "Densetsu no Tora" ("The Legend Tiger") and "Tensai" ("Genius").

* TrainingFromHell: He passed one under Karl Gotch, Toshio Fujiwara and Victor Koga, and himself dispensed some to his many students.

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Hard to take it in real life, but this is how Karl Gotch saw Sayama. Gotch initially named Satoru as his greatest student ever, but he always considered him to be too much of a SadistTeacher, and later in their life he changed his opinion and claimed Sayama only trained with him to get his knowledge and connections. He ended appointing Fujiwara as his official heir and stated he and not Sayama was his best student.

* {{Badass}}

* BadBoss: Supposedly the reason his colleagues ousted him from UWF was that he was egotistically using his position to book himself over the rest of the roster, which made him impopular among them.
** To be fair, it was probably the best decision for the promotion, as he always got the biggest cheers regardless the opponent he was facing. Even Maeda and Fujiwara, who were solid draws at the moment, were in second place when Super Tiger was on the ring.

* EvilCounterpart: Black Tiger.

* HurricaneKick: Uses it mainly as a feint.

* LegacyCharacter: One of the best known ones in pro wrestling.

* TheOtherDarrin: When Sayama left NJPW, the gimmick was swiftly bought by Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and passed to Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa. Then it was passed to Koji Kanemoto, and finally to Yoshihiro Yamazaki. MMA fighter Ikuhisa Minowa got a variation of it as well.

* PassingTheTorch: Currently, there are three wrestlers who carry Sayama's torch: Tiger Mask IV (Yoshihiro Yamazaki), Tiger Mask V (Ikuhisa Minowa) and Super Tiger II (Yuji Sakuragi). The latter's EvilCounterpart, Tiger Shark (Kozo Urita) can be considered another torchbearer, as well as the recently debuted Great Tiger (Takatoriki Tadashige).

** Sayama publicitly supports corporal punishment.

* ShoutOut[=/=]{{Homage}}: His Sammy Lee gimmick to Creator/BruceLee. He was his storyline cousin.

* TheRival: Dynamite Kid, Kuniaki Kobayashi.

'''Satoru Sayama''' (b. 1957) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er, promoter and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts trainer, best known for his work as '''Tiger Mask'''. He debuted in 1976 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, but he was sent abroad to Mexico, where he gained fame. Later he moved to Britain, where he learned martial arts and wrestled as "Sammy Lee", with his gimmick being a cousin of Creator/BruceLee. After his return to Japan, he was chosen to play the ''Manga/TigerMask'' character, based in a manga. He redebuted under the masked and became the founder of the junior heavyweight wrestling, introducing the lucha libre style in Japan along his own abilities. After some years of stardom, in which he had legendary feuds with Wrestling/DynamiteKid and Kuniaki Kobayashi, he left New Japan in protest for Wrestling/AntonioInoki's irregular monetary management. He founded the Tiger Gym, a martial arts dojo, and shortly after was convinced by NJPW defectors to return to wrestling and join them in Universal Wrestling Federation. There Sayama adopted the "Super Tiger" moniker and helped to create the shoot-style wrestling along names like Wrestling/AkiraMaeda and Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara. However, he had a falling out with Maeda and some others wrestlers and left to form Shooto, the first UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts company in history. He acted as promoter and trained many future MMA stars, also doing a second return to pro wrestling by request of Inoki. After leaving Shooto, he freelanced in pro wrestling indies like Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling and UWF International, and collaborated with Inoki in his Universal Fighting-Arts Organization. He ended founding a martial art, Seikendo, which derived into his own promotion, Real Japan Pro Wrestling.

* ArchEnemy: Wrestling/DynamiteKid, Kuniaki Kobayashi and Black Tiger. More recently, Minoru Suzuki and Atsushi Onita.

* BadBoss: Supposedly the reason his colleagues ousted him from UWF was that he was egotistically using his position to book himself wins over the rest of the roster, which made him impopular among them.

* ColorCharacter: His Super Tiger persona.

* JapaneseSpirit: Has a preference for traditional Japanese martial imagery and ideals, as evidenced for his seikendo style and the ceremonials used in RJPW.

* NoodleIncident: It is not known why he left Shooto in 1996.