Tiger Mask
Tiger Mask, Máscara de Tigre, 타이거 마스크
Tiger Mask (タイガーマスク) began as a Japanese manga in 1968 and was later adapted into a successful anime series in 1969. In real life, the name has been used by a succession of Japanese professional wrestling characters as a gimmick.
In the manga and anime, Tiger Mask (whose real name was Naoto Date) was a feared heel wrestler in America who was extremely vicious in the ring. However, he became a face after returning to Japan when a young boy said that he wanted to be a villain like Tiger Mask when he grew up. The boy resided in an orphanage, the same one that Tiger Mask grew up in during his childhood. Feeling that he did not want the boy to idolize a villain, Tiger was inspired to be a heroic wrestler.
The main antagonist in the manga and anime was Tiger's Cave, a mysterious organization that trained young people to be villainous heel wrestlers on the condition that they gave half of their earnings to the organization. Tiger Mask was once a member of Tiger's Cave under the name "Yellow Devil", but no longer wanted anything to do with them, instead donating his money to the orphanage. This infuriated the leader of the organization and he sent numerous assassins, including other professional wrestlers, to punish him.
(Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. "Tiger Mask")
