New Japan Pro Wrestling
After his series of highly regarded matches, Rocco was contacted by New Japan Pro Wrestling to wrestle a series of matches against Lee/Sayama in Japan. Wrestling under the name Black Tiger, against Sayama's Tiger Mask character, Rocco and Tiger Mask's matches were some of the highest rated in Japanese television history. The success of this series of matches between the original Black Tiger and original Tiger Mask would be followed with later incarnations of wrestlers to have competed under both the Black Tiger and Tiger Mask names in later years.
The rivalry between the two Tigers would continue throughout 1982, as the two feuded over the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship after Rocco defeated Gran Hamada in a tournament final for the title in Fukuoka, Japan on May 6 before losing it back to Tiger Mask less than a month later in Tokyo, Japan on May 26, 1982.
Rocco would make further return vists to Japan in the late 1980s where he and Keichi Yamada would recreate their UK feud. In 1989, as Black Tiger, Rocco fought with Yamada's own superhero alter ego, Jushin Liger.
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