Jushin "Thunder" Liger is joining WWE's Hall of Fame. He follows in the footsteps of Japanese legends like Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Funjinami. Liger is the newest member of the 2020 class to be announced. At first blush, he's also the strangest.

Liger was a member of the New Japan Pro Wrestling roster for his entire 36  year career, which recently ended at Wrestle Kingdom 14. He made numerous appearances worldwide on learning excursions and with New Japan's partner promotions, but he never wrestled in a main roster WWE ring. His sole WWE appearance was at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in 2015.

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That said, his spot in WWE's Hall of Fame is well deserved. He helped create and refine a style of junior heavyweight/cruiserweight wrestling that has evolved into the kind of hard hitting, athletic wrestling we see worldwide in pro wrestling today.

From the smallest indies to WrestleMania, wrestlers today owe a huge debt to the standards Liger set in the '90s as New Japan's Junior Heavyweight Ace. Here are five must see matches from his career, in the U.S. and Japan:

Vs. Brian Pillman, WCW Light Heavyweight Championship, WCW SuperBrawl II

To say this match was ahead of its time is an understatement. It gave birth to the cruiserweight style in North America. What it made it all the more impressive is that this was Liger and Pillman's first televised singles match, when Liger was essentially unknown  in America.

Liger appeared at the Starrcade '91 pay-per-view, in a tag team match opposite fellow Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page, but hadn't been featured on television otherwise. Liger came into the SuperBrawl match as Light Heavyweight Champion after beating Pillman at a house show on Christmas Day. They had three other non-televised matches under their belts when they squared off on PPV.

The match featured so many things that are common place today (the fast pace, dives to the outside, stalemate sequences) but were unseen in American wrestling at the time. Pillman defeated Liger to regain the title, but the division would falter after Bill Watts took over WCW and banned top rope moves. The title was ultimately vacated and the division deactivated by the end of 1992.

WCW would eventually resurrect the Cruiserweight Division during the Monday Night Wars. Those matches, featuring future WWE Legends like Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, were unlike anything WWE had to offer. They followed a blueprint created by Liger and Pillman. With that in mind, it's fitting that Liger and Pillman had the first match in WCW Nitro history. Great Cruiserweight wrestling was as much a part of Nitro's success as Hulk Hogan or Lex Luger.

Vs. Rey Mysterio, WCW Starrcade 1996

Liger would only face off with his North American counterpart in a singles match once. While Liger had already established himself as a top international star, Mysterio was still making a name for himself. He  was 21 years old and had only been in WCW for a few months. He only had one Cruiserweight Championship reign to his name at the time. Mysterio was the equivalent of someone like Ricochet today; he was a big name on the indie scene (Mysterio wrestled in the original ECW) who had achieved some success in the big leagues but was still establishing himself.

While Rey was still in his prime as an innovative high flier, Liger's style had changed since the Pillman match. He worked a more deliberate pace. Liger only hit one move off the tope rope, instead relying on signature moves like the Dragon Screw Leg Whip and the Liger Bomb. While some of that had to do with his natural evolution as a performer, he also had a serious medical reason for changing his style. Liger had undergone brain tumor surgery in August 1996. The fact that he performed at all, much less at such a high level, was a miracle.

Vs. Great Muta, NJPW Kobe Show

Liger wrestled the majority of his career in New Japan's Junior Heavyweight Division, but that didn't stop him from having memorable encounters with heavyweights. A match with the Great Muta led to the creation of a separate, rarely seen identity for Liger.

Muta had his own split identity. As Keiji Mutoh, he was a polished technical wrestler. As the Great Muta, the face painted identity he wrestled under in WCW and TNA, he was a vicious brawler. He also liked to spit various shades of mist in his opponent's face. Liger endured an onslaught from Muta, including a piledriver on a table, until Muta tore his mask off. That caused Liger to snap and reveal his own face painted, mist spewing alter ego, Kishin Liger.

Liger would return to the Kishin persona on special occasions when he was pushed to his limits by a rival. Fittingly, his last appearance as Kishin was at the 2019 Destruction in Kobe show, after Minoru Suzuki removed his mask and Liger responded by trying to stab him with a spike.

Vs. El Samurai, Top Of the Super Juniors

This is the second of three Best of the Super Junior Tournaments Liger won in his career. The "Best of.." tournament is that division's equivalent of the annual G1 Climax, and establishes a top contender for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Other multi time winners include Prince Devitt (WWE's Finn Balor) and Will Ospreay.

Liger took home the tournament trophy along with another prize; it's the only match in Liger's career that the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer rated 5 stars. His opponent, El Samurai, was one of the top junior heavyweights of the era. He and Liger are two of the five men to hold the J-Crown, a unification of eight junior heavyweight championships from around the world (including the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship).

Samurai was the aggressor early on in the match, at one point delivering a tombstone piledriver on the floor. Liger responded by powerbombing Samurai on concrete. After a brutal back and forth match, Liger was able to finish off Samurai with a Super Frankensteiner for the win.

Vs. Tyler Breeze, NXT TakeOver Brooklyn

Liger's sole match in WWE was a memorable one, facing off with Breeze at NXT's first arena show. Liger appeared as a special guest on loan from New Japan. That's a rarity in WWE. It's also something that may never happen again, considering WWE poached stars like A.J. Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura from NJPW just months later.

Liger has had an absolutely spectacular career, and no one list could do justice to all of his accomplishments. Although he only wrestled for the WWE once, Liger is in the same class of wrestlers as lifers like Batista and the Bella Twins, proving sports entertainment's most popular brand isn't necessarily the only one that matters.

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