Black Tiger Revived Permanently After NJPW Accepts Magnus Request

Black Tiger IX has been made permanent after New Japan Pro-Wrestling granted a request from CMLL's Magnus, and the luchador will portray Black Tiger in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.

NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi appeared on Tuesday's edition of CMLL Informa to make the announcement that Magnus would be Black Tiger IX on a permanent basis. On the show, Magnus then transformed into his Black Tiger mask and he was confirmed as Black Tiger IX.

Magnus began wrestling as Black Tiger during the NJPW x CMLL Fantasticamania tour earlier this year. Black Tiger ended the tour with a loss to Tiger Mask.

The Black Tiger gimmick first emerged in 1982 and has primarily been a foil to the generations of wrestlers who have competed as Tiger Mask across Japanese wrestling. The first Black Tiger was Mark "Rollerball" Rocco between 1982 and 1990. Black Tiger was then revived in New Japan Pro-Wrestling from 1993 until 1996 with Eddie Guerrero under the mask.

Black Tiger III was Silver King, who performed as Black Tiger in CMLL and NJPW in the early 2000s. Rocky Romero then debuted as Black Tiger IV in New Japan and he utilised the gimmick until 2009, when he was defeated by Tiger Mask IV in a Title vs. Mask Match.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa became Black Tiger V in February 2009 and, despite losing his mask on multiple occasions, he has continued to wrestle as Black Tiger to the present day. NOSAWA Rongai also performed as Black Tiger VII between 2012 and 2020, primarily for All Japan Pro-Wrestling.

The shortest time under the Black Tiger mask was Tomohiro Ishii as Black Tiger VI. He continued to perform under his real name while wearing the Black Tiger mask for a short time in 2011 as part of his feud with Tiger Mask IV.

Prior to Magnus, the most recent usage of Black Tiger in New Japan Pro-Wrestling saw Ricky Reyes don the mask as Black Tiger VIII to feud with Rocky Romero in NJPW STRONG, using the gimmick between November 2021 and April 2022.