Tiger Mask

[7.0] "Hard agreement that he's the second best Tiger Mask behind Sayama. He was genuinely outstanding during his heyday in the early-mid aughts. That said, he's been jerking the curtain for the last decade plus and he really should have passed the gimmick on by now, if we're being honest. Can't fault the man for being successful."

[7.0] "The second best Tiger Mask ever (nobody can overshadow the original Tiger Mask imo.) Really liked his work in NJPW and a few stints in NOAH. Obviously has slowed down a fair bit now, but even back in the day he wasn't notorious for being a "crazy" junior heavyweight. Was able to put on solid performances but didn't have the ability to do the spectacular that some of the greats were able to do. Overall, solid wrestler. Second greatest to don the Tiger Mask."

[8.0] "He's my favourite wrestler to don the mask. I really enjoy his work and he can still move and perform pretty well even with his advancing age. He's always been a very solid worker overall. It will be a sad day for me when he eventually retires but he has already earned it tenfold."

[8.0] "Yoshihiro Yamazaki to me is TIGER MASK. His rate is so succinct to what the style of Sayama, built to become the most established jr heavyweight and the jr tag division belonged to him and Jushin Liger. His matchup vs Bryan Danielson transcended technical wrestling, his original matchup with the first Tiger Mask Sayama had a spark in Michinoku Pro. Go and check out 48 year old Tiger Mask combatant in combat in a slick 4 way at RevPro/NJPW Strong Style tour night 2 between David Starr vs ELP vs Taiji Ishimori. Tiger Mask is timeless."

[6.0] "I think we can all agree that this Tiger Mask is the best there has ever been. Uh huh. Tiger Mask is fine, throw him in on the undercard and you know that at least he is not going to the shit the bed even if you are unlikely to remember anything he has ever done. At least if you start off average, no one notices when you slow down."

[6.0] "Incredible longevity with the Tiger Mask gimmick but a considerable step down from the previous incarnations. He's a passable wrestler but nothing more really, decent technical skills and a decent flyer in his early years. Never really had a great singles match and coasts through matches way too much for someone who seemingly can't bust out a barnstormer when he needs to."

[8.0] "Tiger Mask IV is rated low because people tend to look at his current work, when he's mostly in tag matches because of his age, or because people compare him to the original Tiger Mask or the second Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) which is largely unfair because those two workers are some of the most revolutionary and world-class workers Puro has ever seen. Looking at Tiger Mask IV on his own, he is a very good worker who still tries very hard even now at fifty years old. He has innovated some Suplex variations ( Millenium suplex and the Tiger Suplex '09). A very underrated junior-heavyweight worker."

[5.0] "Fine but nothing really special in the long term. Even in his prime he had decent matches for the time but he was only really competent: nothing sticks out particularly when I think about his bouts, despite the wealth of matches he'd had over the years. He's more or less purely as the old guard in undercard matches now but he can pull some some nice moves for his age, so I'll give him props for that. Otherwise.... I really don't see much that stands out."

[6.0] "Tiger Mask IV has the adorable charm of being a veteran who is far past his prime yet still gives a really good effort in all his matches, even if they're usually always matches on the undercard. He will unfortunately get comparisons to the legendary original Tiger Mask, Sayama, which isn't fair because Sayama was one of the most wondrous and beautifully athletic wrestlers of all time who paved a historic new path in wrestling with his groundbreaking style; of course Tiger Mask IV cannot possibly compare to that. Tiger Mask IV was quite a good wrestler in his prime though, showing off his own brand of agility, speed, and smooth movement which was rather reminiscent of Sayama himself, though of course nowhere actually near his level. He's obviously not trying to even have ***1/2+ matches these days, but he still manages to entertain with his various kicks, his tiger drivers, and his general agile movement. Let's not give Tiger Mask IV a hard time, okay? He's a perfectly competent, entertaining wrestler, and he's usually one of the more interesting workers in the NJPW undercards."

[7.0] "A great in-ring worker with a surprising longevity since his fast, hard-hitting style is not exactly easy on the body, but the very definition of a charisma black hole."

[8.0] "Tiger Mask IV is not the best Tiger Mask just because of Misawa, but this dude is very good in the ring, he has a catchy theme song and always cut some good promos. I think he's a little bit underrated, so I would be very happy if NJPW gave him one last title run with one of the Junior Titles."

[6.0] "This incarnation of Tiger Mask used to be a pretty good junior heavyweight but at this point he's just not interesting to watch anymore."

[7.0] "The most "meh" of the Tiger Masks that I've seen. He's not a bad wrestler per se, but given the standard set by the previous Tiger Masks, and other juniors in general, he's just not that special."

[8.0] "The current and fourth Tiger Mask is without a doubt one of the most underrated and underutilized workers in the world today."