History Wrestling / SatoruSayama

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sayama.jpg]]

* {{Acrofatic}}: Gained ''a lot'' of weight after his retirement in 1985, but he moves almost exactly like his former self.

* AntiHero: Sayama is a puroresu legend and one of the biggest contributors to the combat sports, but his fame as a bordering {{sadist}} in the dojo and his role in exposing pro wrestling's inner secrets have shadowed his figure to many eyes. He is a solid fan favorite nonetheless, but still not your usual pro wrestling hero.
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Hard to take it in real life, but this is how Wrestling/KarlGotch saw Sayama. Gotch initially called Satoru 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 Satoru only trained with him to get his knowledge and connections. He ended up appointing Fujiwara as his official heir and stated he was his best student instead of Sayama. Ironically, Sayama and Fujiwara have been close friends for years and are frequent coworkers nowadays.

** In real life, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda. Their hostility 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, but with sincerity) each other's accomplishments. Currently, they seem to have regained respect for each other.

* BadassGrandpa
* BadassTeacher: To people like Yuki Nakai, Noboru Asahi and all the senior trainers in Shooto (or, for that matter, everybody who stopped in the Super Tiger Gym).
* 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. To be fair, it was probably the best business decision, 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.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Sayama first met Wrestling/AkiraMaeda when he was coming from a pro wrestling training and saw Maeda and his karate coach training in a park. A perennial martial arts fan, Satoru went {{Squee}} upon seeing an especially spectacular kick and rushed to introduce himself to them. They trained together for a couple of days, and while Maeda thought this wacky, chubby guy who claimed to be a pro wrestler didn't look very dangerous, Satoru demonstrated his skill in their first open rules sparring: he immediately got a single leg and threw Akira on his ass.

* BruceLeeClone: His Sammy Lee gimmick was Creator/BruceLee's storyline cousin, even wearing the yellow suit made famous by Bruce in the film ''Film/GameOfDeath''. This turned him a fan favourite, being one of the first subversions of the ForeignWrestlingHeel in England. Wrestling/BretHart even refers to Sayama as the "Bruce Lee of wrestling".

* CastFromHitPoints: Tiger Mask's signature flying cross chops could take down even heavy opponents, but the recoil often knocked away Tiger himself as well, being a petite guy and such.

* CombatPragmatist: Despite being all heroic and kid friendly, Tiger Mask was certainly not dumb when wrestling. He often resorted to win by count-out, a tactic that is nowadays associated with heels, and also went for weak spots with fury. An example would be his match against Solar, in which the Mexican got kayfabely injured in his shoulder and Tiger capitalized on it by putting him in a shoulder lock until tapping him out.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Being lifted from the apron by Wrestling/DynamiteKid for a vertical suplex, then floating over him and reversing the move into a bridging German suplex for the pin, all in his Tiger Mask debut.

* EvilCounterpart: Black Tiger, also a character from the anime. Though not opposed him personally (but rather to his apprentice Tiger Mask IV), Masked Tiger in Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling.
* {{Face}}: One of the greatest ever. During his Tiger Mask tenure, the New Japan TV show had the rating higher than 25% when Sayama was on and every card with him sold out the arenas.

** As Tiger Mask, the bridging German suplex. In special occasions, he used his patented Tiger Suplex and Tiger Driver (a predecessor to the DDT).

** During his beginnings as Tiger Mask, before he debuted the Tiger Suplex, he finished opponents with simpler moves like tilt-a-whirl backbreakers and octopus holds.

* FromClonesToGenre: His aerial moves started being used only by Tiger Masks, but then extended to all cruiserweight wrestling. Until then, junior heavyweights in Japan had been esentially miniature heavyweights with almost the same style.

* InstantExpert: Downplayed in his UsefulNotes/{{Kickboxing}} debut against Marc Costello. Sayama only had undergone a kickboxing crash course in the Mejiro Gym some days before, while Costello was a national champion; the result was naturally Costello's victory, but Sayama managed to fend him off during the fight and actually was never KO'ed, just losing by decision. (He also used illegal takedowns to halt the course of the bout, but that is another thing.)
* InvincibleHero: Aside than DQ or count out losses, Tiger Mask was never pinned, singles or tag team match, during his New Japan days. It has been speculated he has a streak on the level of Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}.

* LostInImitation[=/=]UnbuiltTrope: The original Tiger Mask's aerial style barely looks like modern high-flyers's. This is because Sayama -under Wrestling/KarlGotch's influence- wanted to work matches that were spectacular but sufficiently realistic at the same time. Hence, his matches featured elements of realism that are pretty much lost in cruiserweight wrestling nowadays: flying attacks that failed by the opponent [[GenreSavvy simply 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 which turned the high-flying scene into a world of [[ArtisticLicenseMartialArts infallible dives]] and [[ArtMajorPhysics magic physics]].
* MaskedLuchador: The first Japanese one along with Mach Hayato with lucha libre training under Diablo Velasco.
* MasterOfAll: Lucha libre, Western high-flying, shoot-style and even recently garbage wrestling. There are few wrestling styles in which Sayama cannot perform excellently.

* OutdoorBathPeeping: According to Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara, back when they were doing tours for NJPW, Fujiwara, Sayama and Don Arakawa used to peep in the women's bath of the hotels they were hosted in. According to Don Arakawa, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda would sometimes join in.
* OvershadowedByAwesome:
** Sayama's team with Kung Fu and Kato Kung Lee is not well remembered due to the two finding much more success with Sayama's replacement, Black Man. As in the three became the biggest draws in Mexico.
** After the UWF split, the greatest shoot-style exponents to Japanese eyes were Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada from UWF International, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda from RINGS and Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki from Pancrase. Sayama was never counted, as Shooto was far less known and Sayama never had an active career on it.

* 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 Great Tiger (his actual identity is not known, but it is believed to have been played by Yukio Naya and Takatoriki). He also has "Kamen Shooter" Super Rider (Yuichi Watanabe) [[ThePeteBest as perhaps his first mask gimmicked trainee]], though [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg he isn't mentioned along the same lines as the others]] and [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent is not a Tiger-related gimmick]].

* SadistTeacher: Is considered a cruel and harsh trainer even to Japanese standards (he openly supports corporal punishment to children, something is not as accepted in Japan as their cultural image could make you think), to the extent that there are clips of him beating students with a shinai cane. In fact, it's said that Sayama trainees literally get hit harder in training than in the ring. Wrestling/KarlGotch, who used to spoke of Sayama as his greatest student ever, supposedly remarked that Satoru was a glorified gym bully.

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

* UrExample: Is rumored to have devised the Phoenix Splash (Corkscrew 450° splash) before his retirement.

* CombinationAttack: He and Tatsumi Fujinami had a tag finishing move in which Tatsumi lifted the opponent by the legs spinebuster-style and Tiger performed a diving crossbody on him.

* KidAppealCharacter: Started as one, as the junior heavyweight star was Tatsumi Fujinami. Then Fujinami ascended to heavyweight and Tiger Mask got the spotlight.

* RealSongThemeTune: "Eye of The Tiger" by Music/{{Survivor}} in UWF.

!!! "Go, Go, Trope List"

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 on the protagonist of the manga series. 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 breaking up with Shooto due intern problems, 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.

* MaskedLuchador: The first Japanese one along with Mach Hayato.

* TrainingFromHell: He passed some under Wrestling/KarlGotch, Toshio Fujiwara and Victor Koga, and he dispensed some himself to his many students (see Sadist Teacher above).

* InstantExpert: Downplayed in his UsefulNotes/{{Kickboxing}} debut against Marc Costello. Sayama only had undergone a kickboxing crash course in the Mejiro Gym some days before, while Costello was a national champion; the result was naturally Costello's victory, but Sayama managed to fend him off during the fight and actually was never KO'ed, just losing by decision. (He also used [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty illegal takedowns]] to halt the course of the bout, but that is another thing.)

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

* 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 Great Tiger (his actual identity is not known, but it is believed to have been played by Yukio Naya and Takatoriki).

* BruceLeeClone: His Sammy Lee gimmick was Creator/BruceLee's storyline cousin, even wearing the yellow suit made famous by Bruce in the film ''Film/GameOfDeath''. This turned him a fan favourite, being one of the first subversions of the ForeignWrestlingHeel in England.

* IKnowKarate: and UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, and sambo, and kickboxing, and UsefulNotes/MuayThai, and UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling.
* InstantExpert: Downplayed in his kickboxing debut against Marc Costello. Sayama only had undergone a kickboxing crash course in the Mejiro Gym some days before, while Costello was a national champion; the result was naturally Costello's victory, but Sayama managed to fend him off during the fight and actually was never KO'ed, just losing by decision. (He also used [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty illegal takedowns]] to halt the course of the bout, but that is another thing.)

* MultidisciplinaryScientist: Is trained in UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling, amateur wrestling, sambo, kickboxing and UsefulNotes/MuayThai. He is not simply nicknamed "Genius" for nothing.
* OddFriendship: Sayama was friends with sumo legends Taiho Koki, whose son Yukio works currently in RJPW, and Wrestling/{{Akebono}}, whom he taught kickboxing for his K-1 career.

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 breaking up with Shooto due intern problems, 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.

* {{Acrofatic}}: Gained ''a lot'' of weight after his retire in 1985, but he moves almost exactly like his former self.

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Hard to take it in real life, but this is how Wrestling/KarlGotch 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 Satoru 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.
* ArchEnemy: Wrestling/DynamiteKid, Kuniaki Kobayashi and Black Tiger. More recently, Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki and Atsushi Onita.

* AsHimself: Subverted. He did appear in his biographic film ''Shinsetsu Tiger Mask'', but not as himself, but as his personal trainer. His own role was played by Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki.

* 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.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Sayama first met Wrestling/AkiraMaeda when he was coming from a pro wrestling training and saw Maeda and his karate coach train in a park. A perennial martial arts fan, Satoru went {{Squee}} upon seeing a specially spectacular kick and rushed to introduce himself to them. They trained together for a couple of days, and while Maeda thought this wacky, chubby guy who claimed to be a pro wrestler didn't look very dangerous, Satoru demonstrated his skill in their first open rules sparring: he immediately got a single leg and threw Akira on his ass.
* BigBrotherMentor: Was one to Wrestling/AkiraMaeda in NJPW. He even was who contacted Hisashi Shinma and told him to check Maeda out to be a pro wrestler.
* 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 Wrestling/NaoyaOgawa recalls how Sayama once spent almost ¥10.000 in a coffee shop.
* BloodKnight: Back in the NJPW Dojo, Sayama was in charge to welcome ''dojoyaburi'' (challenging martial artists) and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown show them the exit]], and while stronger guys like Maeda or Fujiwara have also famously fulfilled this role, Sayama is known for taking a [[{{Sadist}} special pleasure]] in doing it. In Kotetsu Yamamoto's words, only Wrestling/AntonioInoki himself was better than Sayama in the art of breaking arms with a [[SlasherSmile smile in his face]].

* ChallengeSeeker: In May 2000, Sayama proposed a fight between his trainee Wrestling/KazuyukiFujita and him in PRIDE, in what would be Sayama's MMA debut. It probably was just a promotional stunt, as one has to wonder why would Sayama [[DavidVersusGoliath want to get killed in the ring]].
* CombatPragmatist: Despite being all heroic and kid friendly, Tiger Mask was certainly not dumb when wrestling. He often resorted to win by count-out, a tactic which is nowadays associated with heels, and also went for weak spots with fury. An example would be his match against Solar, in which the Mexican got kayfabely injuried in his shoulder and Tiger capitalized on it by putting him in a shoulder lock until tapping him out.

* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: During the Seikendo shows, Sayama used to dance in the ring while wearing his mask and along with Russian female dancers.
* DependingOnTheWriter: British wrestling sources often vary about who was the big brother and who the little one in the tag team of Sammy Lee and Quick-Kick Lee.

* {{Face}}: One of the greatest ever. During his Tiger Mask tenure, the New Japan TV show had the rating higher than 25% when Sayama was on, and every card with him sold out the arenas.
* FinishingMove: Bridging German suplex. In special occasions, he used his patented Tiger Suplex and Tiger Driver (a predecessor to the DDT).

* FreudianTrio: The [[TheSpock Superego]] to Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada's [[TheKirk Ego]] to Wrestling/AkiraMaeda's [[TheMcCoy Id]].

* FromClonesToGenre: His aerial moves started being used only by Tiger Masks, but then extended to all the cruiserweight wrestling. Until then, junior heavyweights in Japan had been esentially miniature heavyweights with almost the same style.
* GenreSavvy: He fell to the trick the first time, but Tiger became wary every time a Mexican rudo offered him a handshake in midst of the match. He typically dodged the cheapshot or chopped him first.

* IKnowKarate: and UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, and sambo, and kickboxing, and UsefulNotes/MuayThai, and catch wrestling.
* InstantExpert: Downplayed in his kickboxing debut against Marc Costello. Sayama only had had a kickboxing crash course in the Mejiro Gym some days before, while Costello was a national champion; the result was naturally Costello's victory, but Sayama managed to fend him off during the fight and actually was never KO'ed, just losing by decision. (He also used [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty illegal takedowns]] to halt the course of the bout, but that is another thing.)
* InvincibleHero: Aside than DQ or count out losses, Tiger Mask was never pinned, singles or tag team match, during his New Japan days.

* LostInImitation[=/=]UnbuiltTrope: The original Tiger Mask's aerial style barely looks like modern high-flyers's. This is due to Sayama -under Wrestling/KarlGotch's influence- wanting to work matches which were spectacular but sufficiently realistic at the same time, and hence Tiger Mask matches featured elements of realism which are pretty much lost in cruiserweight 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]].

* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Sayama believes there might be great fighters waiting to be discovered in Russia, and it is said he held several kumites and tryouts there during his seikendo starting.

* OddFriendship: Sayama was friends with sumo legend Taiho Koki, whose son Yukio is currently training in RJPW, and another sumo, Wrestling/{{Akebono}}, who he taught kickboxing for his K-1 career.
* OldMaster: Founded the Super Tiger Gym, where has taught countless fighters and wrestlers.

* OvershadowedByAwesome

** After the UWF split, the greatest shoot-style exponents to Japanese eyes were Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada from UWF International, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda 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 on it.

* 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 Yukio Naya and/or Takatoriki).
* PetTheDog: During the infamous 1.4 Incident, Sayama was the only UFO member who tended the referee Tiger Hattori after he got legitimately low blowed by Wrestling/NaoyaOgawa, and virtually the only man in the arena who tried to calm down the subsequent brawl.

* 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 Tres Fantasticos)

* SelfReferentialHumor: Sayama likes to joke about his weigh gain. For a time, the RJPW announcers used to introduce him as a ''superheavyweight'' to make the crowd laugh.

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

* TrainingFromHell: He passed some under Wrestling/KarlGotch, Toshio Fujiwara and Victor Koga, and himself dispensed some to his many students (see Sadist Teacher above).

* WritingAroundTrademarks: The Tiger Mask character was bought by Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling after his retire, so he renamed himself as "The Tiger", "Super Tiger", "Tiger King" and the like. He retained his name variations after adquiring the Tiger Mask trademark, as he passed it to his apprentice Yoshihiro Yamazaki.

* BadassTeacher

* BigBrotherMentor: Was one to Wrestling/AkiraMaeda.

* ChallengeSeeker: In 2000, Sayama proposed another of his trainees, Wrestling/KazuyukiFujita, 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 [[DavidVersusGoliath want to get killed in the ring]].

* CombinationAttack: He and Tatsumi Fujinami had a tag finishing move in which Tatsumi lifted the opponent by the legs spinebuster-like and Tiger performed a diving crossbody on him.

* 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 (especially the money politics). Unsurprisingly, he was not very popular among wrestling promoters after that.

* JackOfAllStats: A high-flyer and shoot-style wrestler able to hang with the best in and out the ring.

* MultidisciplinaryScientist: Is trained in UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, amateur wrestling, sambo, kickboxing, UsefulNotes/MuayThai and many a style of catch wrestling. He is not simply nicknamed "Genius" for nothing.

* SadistTeacher: Is considered a cruel and harsh trainer even to Japanese standards, to the extent that there are clips of him beating students with a shinai cane. In fact, it's said that Sayama trainees literally get hit harder in training than in the ring. Wrestling/KarlGotch, who used to spoke of Sayama as his greatest student ever, supposedly remarked that Satoru was a glorified gym bully.
** Sayama publicitly supports corporal punishment to children.

'''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 breaking up with Shooto due intern problems, 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.

* IKnowKarate: and UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, and sambo, and kickboxing, and muay thai, and catch wrestling.

* MultidisciplinaryScientist: Is trained in UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, amateur wrestling, sambo, kickboxing, muay thai and many a style of catch wrestling. He is not simply nicknamed "Genius" for nothing.

* OddFriendship: Sayama was friends with sumo legend Taiho Koki, whose son Yukio is currently training in RJPW, and another sumo, Akebono Taro, who he taught kickboxing for his K-1 career.

-->''"Seeing Tiger Mask for the first time as a kid had an amazing impact on my heart. Jumping and flying, all his movements were so beautiful... I was completely blown away."''
--->--'''Wrestling/KazushiSakuraba''' about his chilhood hero Sayama

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Being lifted from the apron by Dynamite Kid for a vertical suplex, then floating over him and reversing the move into a bridging German suplex for the pin, all in his Tiger Mask debut.

* FreudianTrio: The [[TheSpock Superego]] to Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada's [[TheKirk Ego]] to Akira Maeda's [[TheMcCoy Id]].

* IKnowKarate: and judo, and sambo, and kickboxing, and muay thai, and catch wrestling.

* 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 sufficiently realistic at the same time, and hence Tiger Mask matches featured elements of realism which are pretty much lost in cruiserweight 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]].

* MultidisciplinaryScientist: Is trained in judo, amateur wrestling, sambo, kickboxing, muay thai and many a style of catch wrestling. He is not simply nicknamed "Genius" for nothing.

* RealSongThemeTune: "Eye of The Tiger" by Music/Survivor in UWF.

* SignatureMove: Various kicking variants, among them the Tiger Wall Flip, and especially the jumping ''sobatto'' or spinning sole kick. He also used a Tombstone Piledriver followed by a diving headbutt, probably inspired by Dynamite Kid.

* {{Badass}}: A high-flyer and shoot-style wrestler able to hang with the best in and out the ring.
** BadassCape: Wore one during his entrance.
** BadassGrandpa
** BadassTeacher

* RealSongThemeTune: "Eye of The Tiger" by Survivor in UWF.

* 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 Satoru 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.

* BigBrotherMentor: Was one to Akira Maeda.

* 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 [[DavidVersusGoliath want to get killed in the ring]].

* 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 sufficiently 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]].

** 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.

* PetTheDog: During the infamous 1.4 Incident, Sayama was the only UFO member who tended the referee Tiger Hattori after he got legitimately low blowed by Naoya Ogawa, and virtually the only man in the arena who tried to calm down the subsequent brawl.

* SadistTeacher: Is considered a cruel and harsh trainer even to Japanese standards, to the extent that there are clips of him beating students with a shinai cane. In fact, it's said that Sayama trainees literally get hit harder in training than in the ring. Karl Gotch, who used to spoke of Sayama as his greatest student ever, supposedly remarked that Satoru was a glorified gym bully.

* TheRival: Dynamite Kid and Kuniaki Kobayashi.
* TrainingFromHell: He passed some under Karl Gotch, Toshio Fujiwara and Victor Koga, and himself dispensed some to his many students (see Sadist Teacher above).

* SignatureMove: Various shoot kicking combinations, among them the Tiger Wall Flip. He also used the Tombstone Piledriver and the Diving Headbutt.

* WrestlingPsychology: His has been praised for decades.

* FinishingMove: Bridging German suplex, Tiger Suplex and Tiger Driver (a predecessor to the DDT).

** During his beginnings as Tiger Mask, before he debuted the Tiger Suplex, he finished opponents with tilt-a-whirl backbreakers and octopus holds.

* InstantExpert: Downplayed in his kickboxing debut against Marc Costello. Sayama only had a kickboxing crash course in the Mejiro Gym some days before, while Costello was a national champion; the result was naturally Costello's victory, but Sayama managed to fend him off during the fight and actually wasn't KO'ed, just losing by decision (he also used [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty illegal takedowns]] to halt the course of the bout, but that is another thing).

* 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 showed his sambo skills with a flying leglock offensive.

* PintSizedPowerhouse: At least in his beginnings. He is not pint-sized anymore.