(TIGER MASK/SAYAMA) Emergency Alarm

1st April 1986

Weekly Pro (Issue No 136)

For Sayama, "Tiger Mask" was merely a step along the path toward pursuing authentic martial arts. He had accepted the role and performed it to his own satisfaction, but...what did Sayama say about the emergency? 

The popularity of professional wrestling has been declining compared to the momentum it had a few years ago. Why has it fallen? That is an important question for us. The days of complacency are over. The alarm bells are still ringing.

New Japan: Once a Treasure Trove of Talent

Here are two men. 

One reached the pinnacle of amateur wrestling, while the other rose to the top of professional wrestling.

They shared one thing in common: both hailed from Yamaguchi Prefecture. 

They both joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling and became professional wrestlers.

At the time they entered the promotion, Antonio Inoki was at the peak of his career. Most people who knocked on the dojo's door did so out of admiration or respect for Inoki. At that time, Inoki was in his early thirties and at the peak of his physical and mental strength. They grew as wrestlers, influenced by the powerful Inoki.

It was a truly fortunate time for everyone involved.

With Inoki at the centre, they vied fiercely with one another in pursuit of the possibilities of professional wrestling.

From their ranks, a succession of wrestlers with distinct personalities emerged. It was no exaggeration to call New Japan Pro-Wrestling a treasure trove of talent.

If there was any area where All Japan lagged behind New Japan, it was likely their failure to focus on wrestler development—specifically, the cultivation of talent at the grassroots level. At the very least, in terms of the energy and intensity within the dojo, New Japan definitely surpassed All Japan. With New Japan, the dojo was truly alive.  

As proof of this, the young Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada became far more engrossed in dojo training than in actual matches.

The person who ignited the passion of these hot-blooded young men was, of course, Yoshiaki Fujiwara. 

They came to value dojo sparring over actual matches, and this eventually led to the founding of a new promotion called UWF.

That is just how compelling the New Japan dojo was.

The popularity of the Tiger Mask was a glory built on illusion...

Let's get back to the main point. Riki Choshu reached the pinnacle of amateur wrestling, while Satoru Sayama reached the pinnacle of professional wrestling.

Sayama made his debut on April 23, 1981, at the Kuramae Kokugikan, while Choshu debuted on October 8, 1982, at the Korakuen Hall.

Tiger Mask made his debut a year before Choshu. Sayama blazed the trail, with Choshu following in his wake. Together, the two of them sparked a massive boom for New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Attendance figures saw a phenomenal surge. Yet, it is frightening to think that this explosion in popularity would ultimately prove fatal for New Japan.

Sayama was the first within New Japan to pick up on the warning signs. In a certain publication, he made the following statement:

"Back when I was Tiger Mask, I believed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling to a certain extent. Although the promotion was emphasizing the 'show' aspect at the time, I kept telling myself that the entire company would eventually shift its focus toward genuine combat sports. That is why I was able to accept—to a degree—the role of Tiger Mask, even though it wasn't a persona I had originally wanted to adopt."

This statement contains several key points. 

For Sayama, the Tiger Mask persona was merely a step along the path toward genuine combat sports; he had performed the role with a genuine sense of acceptance.

In short, Sayama viewed the massive craze and popularity surrounding the "Tiger Mask" persona as nothing more than a hollow, illusory glory. His true objective lay elsewhere.

The question, however, is just how seriously New Japan took the ideal direction Sayama envisioned.

The collapse began with Sayama's departure.

In that scenario, Sayama would surely have turned to Inoki, whom he respected, having resolved to pursue a martial arts-oriented path in tandem with him.

However, the "Tiger Mask" persona—initially intended merely as a transitional step—achieved success far beyond anyone's imagination, leading to an outcome that was deeply ironic for Sayama.

Riding the wave of commercial success, New Japan saw the glory of its fabricated image rapidly inflate. At the height of the economic boom, advocating a shift toward a more legitimate martial arts style was dismissed as mere nonsense.

"New Japan no longer holds any ideals."

Convinced of this, Sayama parted ways with Inoki and the Tiger Mask. Discarding the mask was easy; after all, he had worn it merely as a role and harbored no illusions about it whatsoever. 

What surprised him was the reaction of the Tiger Mask fans. To them, that tiger mask embodied dreams and romance. This placed Sayama in a tight spot; he found himself under fire from both the promotion he belonged to and the fans to whom he had given those dreams. 

As a result, Sayama was branded like a wanted man.

He was labeled with nothing but negative epithets: 

An "ungrateful man who quit the company on a whim" 

A "troublemaker who slandered the pro-wrestling world" A "traitor who shattered the fans' dreams."

Certainly, New Japan began to crumble after Sayama's departure in August 1983. Many people blamed Sayama for it. However, the promotion would have fallen apart even without Sayama's departure, this is because every scandal that occurred after Sayama’s time was essentially an internal dispute within New Japan.

If Sayama was a problem child or a dangerous figure in the world of professional wrestling, it was likely because he was overly obsessed with martial arts.

Sayama once caused a major commotion all on his own after hearing the sound of an emergency alarm. He was certainly no "Boy Who Cried Wolf."