It would diminish how excellent Jushin Liger was to say that his success was based on the ageless nature of the character, wearing a full body-suit and a mask always made Liger feel timeless and ageless, his retirement, much like the Undertaker's, is a sad reminder that time, indeed, catches up with us all. Keiichi Yamada transcended professional wrestling and the Liger gimmick became more famous than the anime on which it was based. The level of respect and admiration for Liger within the wrestling industry is fully deserved and his recent induction into the WWE Hall of Fame echoes that, becoming only the third Japanese wrestler to be inducted (behind Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami). What can easily be forgotten was just how outstanding Liger was in the ring, his gimmick combined with his in-ring prowess truly made Liger one of the greatest of all time.

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Liger Was More Influential Than Tiger Mask Or Any Junior Heavyweight

When looking at the pantheon of outstanding Junior Heavyweight wrestlers most wrestling fans would point to the Tiger Mask, Dynamite Kid, and Kuniaki Kobayashi trio as the forebearers of the junior style. Their matches in the early 1980s were special, fans had never seen anything like the New Japan Junior Division before and they reacted with equal amounts of awe and enthusiasm. Although the match quality was clearly unparalleled there was nothing to compare it against, it stood alone as a mercurial exhibition of three of the greatest working their magic. Liger's generation had the impossible task of trying to best their predecessors, and with Tiger Mask leaving NJPW in 1983, Dynamite Kid changing his physique dramatically and working for the WWE, and Kobayashi quickly moving up to the heavyweight division in 1990, Liger and his cohorts would need to do it on their own. The true success of the Liger gimmick is how every single Junior after him has aped his style in some way, aside from Lou Thesz, Rikidozan, and Gorgeous George, no one can claim to have had such a profound impact on professional wrestling.

Randy Savage vs. Jushin Thunder Liger (NJPW Summer Struggle Day 19: WCW World in Sapporo, 8/3/1996)

Keiichi Yamada would become Jushin Liger in 1989, and defeat Kobayashi in his first-ever match as the character, he quickly became the stalwart of the Junior Division and would go on to be a constant force in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship scene. Along with Shiro Koshinaka, Naoki Sano, Koji Kanemoto, and a host of foreign talent - the Juniors became even more popular than the Heavyweight Division. The success of Liger can be summed up by the ill-fated attempt to create an evil version of the character in 1997, Chris Jericho was tasked with being Super Liger, he had one match working the gimmick and it completely flopped. Jericho was a super worker in the 90s but not even he could come close to capturing the magic of Liger in the 90s.

via youtube.com

Liger Popularized The Cruiserweight Style In America

The impact of Liger was also felt in America and especially with his brief feud in the early 90s with Brian Pillman in WCW, for those fans who had missed the Tiger Mask / Dynamite Kid matches in the early 80s, the Pillman / Liger matches were bringing the Light Heavyweight style to the mainstream of wrestling. This Light Heavyweight style would evolve into the Cruiserweight style which incorporated many different styles from luchador to puroresu. However, Liger's distinctive style persevered and many wrestlers today are still using some of his most famous moves. Perhaps the most famous is the Shooting Star Press, which may be one of the most dazzling moves within professional wrestling. At the age of 50, Liger made his WWE debut against Tyler Breeze for an NXT show. The match was excellent but what is even more surprising is that the WWE requested for Liger to be a part of the show, once again demonstrating that even in his twilight years, Liger was viewed as a major get for WWE.

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There will never be another like Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, a man who had a brain tumor in 1996 and was told he would never wrestle again who subsequently went on to wrestle until 2020. He not only popularised Junior Heavyweight wrestling, but he also made it what it was and became the hottest act in Japanese wrestling during the early 90s. His matches against the Great Sasuke demonstrate his outstanding ability as well as professional instincts that most wrestlers can only dream about having. The gimmick can never be replicated because the man behind the mask was, and still is, irreplaceable.