Black Tiger (professional wrestling)

The trademark of the character is to always wear a mask and tights in an almost identical design to that of his perennial rival only with entirely black and silver coloring.

With the anime's protagonist translated by Antonio Inoki to actual NJPW wrestling events (in the form of Satoru Sayama) it was perhaps inevitable that his arch-enemy would also appear in the promotion.

Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, an established British wrestler, was the first to assume the persona in 1982 to oppose the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama.

Sayama left NJPW in 1983 and the rights to Tiger Mask were purchased by All Japan Pro Wrestling the following year for the use of Mitsuharu Misawa.

Following the fall of WCW, alumnus César Cuauhtémoc González, better known as Mexican star Silver King began wrestling for NJPW through their working relationship with his home promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.

Black Tiger would join Jyushin Thunder Liger's CTU faction and represent NJPW as a member of Team Japan in TNA Wrestling's World X-Cup.

Takaiwa reprised his role as Black Tiger V in 2011 in Toryumon Mexico, where he lost the mask for the second time on May 14, 2011, to Último Dragón.

Black Tiger's eight generation (VIII) debuted with Team Filthy on NJPW Strong on episode 68 (November 28, 2021), where he attacked former Black Tiger Rocky Romero causing a DQ finish to a 5 vs 5 tag match, before being revealed to be Romero's former Havana Pitbulls team mate, Ricky Reyes.