The legendary Tiger Mask recently spoke with the NJPW Press about his upcoming matchup at WrestleKingdom 16, where Tiger and Robbie Eagles will defend their IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team titles against the Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) and the Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero) in a triple threat matchup. Highlights are below.
Says Eagles didn’t impress him at first but he later saw what a solid competitor he was:
When he first came to Japan, me and Liger teamed up, and Liger was defeated by Robbie. At the time, he was still small and wasn’t that impressive. However, as I continued to work with him, I learned his highflyer moves, plus his kicks, and I realized again that he had solid skills.
Jokes that he should have teamed up with Rocky Romero again so Romero could have brought back Black Tiger:
But I also think that Rocky should have teamed up with Tiger Mask [as] Black Tiger (laughs). (laughs) Of course, I’m in a formal tag team with Robbie now, but without that, if Rocky became Black Tiger and teamed up with Tiger Mask, I think the fans would be excited, even though it’s not a festival, since this is the 50th anniversary of New Japan Pro Wrestling.