Satoru Sayama

Professional wrestling and martial arts career Sayama grew up idolizing Antonio Inoki, which drove him to take up judo and amateur wrestling while in middle school. After winning a wrestling tournament, he dropped out of high school to join Inoki's promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Early career; New Japan Pro-Wrestling and excursion (1976–1981) After joining New-Japan Pro wrestling, Sayama trained under Kotetsu Yamamoto and Karl Gotch, who were famous for their harsh training regime and their emphasis in real fighting. They believed wrestlers had to be actually trained to fight before learning to work the predetermined style of professional wrestling. While sparring against taller opponents, Sayama realized he would struggle to grapple in a fight with strikes due to his short weight and reach, so he also joined a kickboxing dojo to compensate for it. Sayama routinely faced the fighters and martial artists who came to perform dojoyaburi in the NJPW dojo, defeating them all. According to Yamamoto, "Sayama was the only, aside from Inoki, who was skilled in breaking someone's arm with a smile in his face." The bout drove him to train even harder in real fighting. Around this time, Sayama trained in sambo under Victor Koga and kickboxing under Toshio Fujiwara.

World Wrestling Federation tours

In late 1982, while still a member of the NJPW roster, Sayama made at least two tours of the United States as part of the NJPW-WWF working relationship. He appeared primarily in the World Wrestling Federation, at the time a regional promotion in the northeast region of the country.

Sayama defended the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship by defeating Dynamite Kid at Madison Square Garden in New York City on August 30, and Eddie Gilbert at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on November 25. During his time as Tiger Mask, Sayama had faced mainly English and Mexican opponents, with styles complementary to his own. As a result, the match with Gilbert would be regarded as one of his higher-profile matches against an American-style opponent.

Sayama also made appearances at WWF television tapings during these tours, in which he had televised matches against José Estrada and Mr. Saito.

Joe McHugh, the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission-appointed ring announcer for WWF events in the state and nearing 80 years of age, mistakenly introduced Sayama during one of his appearances as "Timer Mask."

Departure from NJPW During a tag team match on April 3, 1983 he was injured by Dynamite Kid; two days later, he was forced to vacate the NWA World Junior Heavyweight title after it became clear that he would need time off to recuperate. However, once the determined Tiger Mask recovered, he regained his NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship by defeating Kuniaki Kobayashi on June 2, 1983, making him a simultaneous NWA/WWF Jr. champion for the second time.

By 1983, however, Sayama started feeling dissatisfied as he hated the politics behind-the-scenes. Executives found out Inoki had embezzled money from the company for his private business in Brazil with the help of Hisashi Shinma and Seiji Sakaguchi. Sayama was required to support to remove them from the company, but feeling in debt with Inoki and citing intrusions by the company in his personal life, he opted to announce his retirement from active competition on August 12, 1983. His last match occurred on August 4, facing Isamu Teranishi. It was a shock to the wrestling world, as Tiger Mask was going to retire while he was at the top of his game and as the holder of two Junior Heavyweight Championships. Both titles were declared vacant.

Universal Wrestling Federation (1984–1985) Sayama was inactive from the ring for nearly a year, which he invested in dedicating himself to martial arts with Inoki's blessing. He founded the Tiger Gym and created the combat sport known as Shooting, later known as Shooto, which would reflect all of his martial philosophy. Shoot is considered to be the first mixed martial arts promotion. Sayama also created a professional promotion by the same name to promote his martial art (as he had done to Shooto), which ran for three years and had five events before closing down in 2003.

In 2005, he founded a new promotion called Real Japan Pro-Wrestling and started to promote his old Super Tiger gimmick. However, with a career spanning over 30 years in addition to being actively involved in martial arts aside from wrestling, have taken its toll, with Sayama being fodder in singles matches for current stars aiming to become legends, such as Shinjiro Otani and Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Minoru Suzuki (the title was not on the line in their match).

He has also appeared in Tatsumi Fujinami's Dradition promotion, as well as Antonio Inoki's Inoki Genome Federation. Sayama is much heavier than he was in his younger days, and as a result, his style has changed; he focuses more on mat-based wrestling, though he still uses his trademark martial arts kicks.

Still training young wrestlers, Sayama endorsed a second Super Tiger, played by seikendoka and mixed martial artist Yuji Sakuragi. In 2010, Sayama picked Ikuhisa Minowa as the fifth Tiger Mask, but has not wrestled under the mask since.

At the March 20, 2015, Real Japan event, Sayama was defeated by All Japan wrestler Akebono following a splash from the former yokozuna. Afterwards, Sayama began experiencing chest pains, which forced him to pull out of subsequent matches. After multiple tests, it was determined that Sayama needed to undergo emergency heart surgery, which took place on May 22. Following the surgery, Sayama began suffering from angina, which forced him to pull out of Real Japan's 10th anniversary event on June 11. On June 5, Sayama held a press conference, stating that he was not thinking about retiring from professional wrestling despite his life being in danger prior to the catheter surgery. Sayama returned to the ring on June 23, 2016, battling Minowaman to a draw, but has not been back since then.

On July 7, 2026, Sayama made a rare appearance as part of the fourth Tiger Mask and protoge, Yoshihiro Yamazaki's retirement ceremony.

Other media In 1995, Sayama starred along Itsumi Osawa in the Toshihiro Sato movie Roppongi Soldier as Ken Washizu, a former kickboxer turned private detective. His partner Yoshiaki Fujiwara appears as well, portraying a fellow fighter.

He also had an appearance in the 2004 movie Shinsetsu Tiger Mask, a biographical film about Sayama's life in which he is played by Masakatsu Funaki. Sayama himself plays Tiger Mask's trainer.

Works (1984) (1986) (1989) (1989) (1998) - with Victor Koga (1999) (2000) (2001) (2002) (2010) (2014)

Championships and accomplishments

Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre NWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time) WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) New Japan Pro-Wrestling NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times) WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times) International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2021 Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #274 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 2006 PWI ranked him #37 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003 Real Japan Pro Wrestling Legend Championship (1 time) Tokyo Pro Wrestling TWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Yoji Anjo Tokyo Sports MVP Award (1982) Popularity Award (1981) Kakuto Nettai Road "A" League Tournament (1985) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best Flying Wrestler (1982, 1983) Most Impressive Wrestler (1982) Best Technical Wrestler (1982, 1983) Match of the Year (1982) vs. Dynamite Kid, August 5, Tokyo, Japan Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Luchas de Apuestas record

Winner (wager)Loser (wager)LocationEventDateNotesSatoru Sayama (hair) Alfonso Dantés (hair) México City Live event Tiger Mask (mask) Masked Hurricane (mask) Tokyo, Japan Live event

Kickboxing record Loss Marc Costello Kakutōgi Daisensō Tokyo, Japan Decision (unanimous) 6 2:00 0-1

Mixed martial arts exhibition record Draw

Yoshinori Nishi Technical Draw Lumax Cup - Tournament of J'95

Tokyo, Japan Win

Kuniaki Kobayashi KO (high kick) Shooto: Vale Tudo Perception

Tokyo, Japan Draw

Yuji Ito Technical Draw VTJ 1994 - Vale Tudo Japan 1994

Tokyo, Japan

Filmography Year Title Role 1995 Roppongi Soldier Ken Washizu 2004 Shinsetsu Tiger Mask Tiger Mask's trainer 2006 Waru 2006 Waru: kanketsu-hen