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[The Headliner]

Last night after a belly-to-back suplex, he was taken unconscious in an ambulance from the Hiroshima Green Arena, and was confirmed dead at the hospital that night.

Translation of Japanese report



For those who don't know him, here's his Wikipedia page, and I posted an explanation of how Pro Wrestling NOAH was formed here. He's been one of the biggest names in Japanese wrestling for many years.

I saw Misawa wrestle live in Coventry, England, twice. Most recently last year, and first in 2005 - that six-man tag was one of the best matches I've seen in person. RIP.


Edit:

Mitsuharu Misawa, one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all-time, was declared dead at 10:10 p.m. Saturday night at a hospital in Hiroshima after being dropped on his head in a tag team title match.

Misawa would have turned 47 on June 18th.

Misawa & Go Shiozaki were challening Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito for the GHC tag team championship in Hiroshima and Misawa was dropped on his head at about 8:45 p.m. and knocked unconscious.

According to eye witness reports, Saito gave Misawa a "routine" back suplex that was described as a "7" in danger on a scale of one-to-ten. He did not get up. It was chaos in the ring as they attempted to revive him using CPR and the crowd was hushed for a while, and began a "Misawa" chant. He turned purple in the ring and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

The wrestlers were told on the bus that he had passed away.

Misawa was the Japanese high school national wrestling champion at 187 pounds in 1980, and was recruited by Giant Baba into All Japan Pro Wrestling. He gained his first taste of stardom in 1984 when he was chosen to be the second Tiger Mask. After unmasking in 1990, he became an even bigger star after a series of singles matches with Jumbo Tsuruta.

He was Japan's biggest pro wrestling star of the 90s, and one could make a strong case for him as the top wrestler of the decade. He was the Wrestler of the Year in 1995, 1997 and 1999.

After the death of Shohei "Giant" Baba, Misawa wrestled a little over one more year for All Japan Pro Wrestling, while working as company president. After consistently butting heads with owner Motoko Baba, the widow of Shohei Baba, he and 90% of the All Japan roster quit the company to form Pro Wrestling NOAH.

[Illusion]

Holy crap.  I've seen maybe two matches of his ever, one on youtube and one when he went against KENTA in ROH but I know how big he is in Japan and how respected he is as a wrestler.

[Advocate]

STOP

DROPPING

PEOPLE

ON

THEIR

FUCKING

HEADS

!

[The Headliner]

Misawa-San
Current mood:disbelief

Words cannot express how deeply shocked I am. We're all just in utter disbelief. Stunned sadness.

The moments at ringside felt an eternity. Never, in my life, have I wanted the fighting spirit to jump into someone's being more than I wanted tonight. The fans chanted Misawa, Misawa, Misawa. They wanted their Hero to get up so fucking bad. Just get up. Come on! You're too tough for this. Too strong. I grabbed his boots and held onto them til they took him away.

My heart goes out to his family. His students. His peers. His friends. His fans. His opponents tonight and his partner. It was a freak accident. No one is at fault.

Rest in Peace Shacho.

[Fan]

Misawa was a true warrior and one of my all time favorite performers. His fighting spirit and superb psychology will be remembered as long as pro wrestling exists.

I've never had the pleasure of seeing Misawa wrestle, but it's always a sad day when something so unfortunately legitimate happens inside the squared circle.

[The Headliner]

Article on The Sun's website by British commentator/manager Dean Ayass.

It's probably a good thing Mr Kennedy won't be in the room when Randy Orton hears what happened.

Edit: Video made in 2006 (ie, not in response to his passing):

[yt=425,344]v8PLkjfwZvU[/yt]

[The Headliner]

The following Japanese news report shows footage immediately following the incident. Very sad and difficult to watch, hence the links instead of embedding. Click at your own risk.

- -

[Kraul]

Watching those videos and hearing that he died from a heart attack makes me think of The Wrestler.

Really something to hear a lot of the audience screaming and such.

[The Headliner]

Ironically, The Wrestler debuted in Japan this weekend.

NJPW are in the middle of their Best of the Super Jr finals show in Korakuen Hall, where they've had a tribute to Misawa:

Mitsuharu Misawa was never an acquaintance of mine but I felt like I knew him from watching many of his DVD's which were usually with men that I did know. Misawa was arguably the best in ring performer in the world in his prime. First of all, Misawa knew how to wrestle and how to wrestle physically. The fundamentals had been drilled into this legend as a young man who went on to become a Japanese National Amateur Champion. Several things stood out to me about Misawa. In addition to be a physical, fundamentally sound athlete, timing and toughness were two of his greatest attributes. Great timing is a gift that largely can't be taught. It's like ring psychology. Some of it can be taught but mostly it must be a learned trait and some people are in the business for years and never learn great timing or main event level ring psychology. Toughness is another trait that can be nurtured but generally can't be taught. Misawa was naturally tough and it showed. And his fans loved him for it. They also loved his passion and the emotional ride on which he would take them. That's what pro wrestling is, selling emotion.

Another significant piece of Japanese, wrestling history died this weekend. Mitsuharu Misawa apparently died in the very spot that he gained his incredible fame and resounding respect from wrestling fans around the Globe....inside a wrestling ring.

It's a damn shame that the vast majority of American wrestling fans won't give a second thought about the untimely death of "a Japanese wrestler." I encourage all fans to find DVD's of Misawa and watch him in his prime, in the 90's especially. If one is really serious about about being a highly skilled, pro wrestler, then study the late Mitsuharu Misawa.

NOAH's show today saw Go Shiozaki (Misawa's partner in that match) win the Global Honored Crown, which had been vacated by Jun Akiyama due to injuries.

[The Headliner]

WWE acknowledges the news:

"On behalf of WWE, we were deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of Mitsuharu Misawa. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and fans. Misawa will be remembered as one of the all-time greats in Japan," said John Laurinaitis, WWE Executive Vice President of Talent Relations.

Johnny Ace spent a decade in All Japan, until retiring from wrestling when Misawa split from the group.


Edit:

Akitoshi Saito: "I will carry this heavy cross on my back forever."

[The Headliner]

The cause of Misawa's death has been confirmed, it seems:

It later turned out that the cause of his death was damage to his cervical spinal cord.

A 20-year-old spectator said: "He hit his head after the back suplex and was knocked unconscious. The EMTs were performing CPR for a long time. But even during the match Misawa kept shaking his head, and he looked to be in a bad way."

I state Misawa's name specifically, because in a horrible coincidence, another 46-year-old Japanese wrestling personality died this past weekend after collapsing at a show:

In more terrible news this weekend, Ted Tanabe suddenly collapsed after yesterday’s show and fell into a state of unconsciousness. CPR was administed and an AED was used before he was rushed to the hospital. As of 6:42am Japan time he is still unconscious.

Osaka Pro-Wrestling is scheduled to make an announcement of Ted’s condition later this afternoon.


Unfortunately, Ted Tanabe passed away at the hospital during the night.

He was 46.
46 like Misawa who also left us on almost the same day.
So now we know who’s the referee of the the Misawa-Tsuruta match taking place right now in heaven.

I only briefly met Ted Tanabe at this year’s free market in Osaka. In an environment where everybody is extra nice, I was still surprised by his gentleness as he smiled and asked about my home country.
Rest in Peace Tanabe-san.

This has been a horrible week-end …

Couldn't put it better myself.

[The Syckle of Damien]

Damn,that blows. I enjoyed the matches I seen of him and he was a wrestling god.

[The Headliner]

Clips from Sunday's event (the night after), on Samurai TV news: /

New GHC Champion Go Shiozaki:

[The Headliner]

Some links to Misawa matches:

August 26, 1984 vs La Fiera - Misawa's debut as Tiger Mask II:
March 8, 1989 vs Ricky Steamboat:
June 3, 1994 vs Kawada: /
May 14, 1990 with Kawada vs Yatsu & Fuyuki - Misawa removes his mask: / /
June 8, 1990 vs Tsuruta - Misawa becomes the new star of Japanese wrestling: / /
September 1, 1990 vs Tsuruta - The rematch: / / /
April 20, 1991 with Kawada & Kobashi vs Tsuruta, Taue, & Fuchi: / / / / /
July 2, 1993 with Kobashi & Akiyama vs Kawada, Taue, & Ogawa: / /
June 3, 1994 vs Kawada: / / /
June 9, 1995 with Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue - Kawada pins Misawa for the first time: /
October 31, 1998 vs Kobashi - Misawa ends Kobashi's reign: / / / /
January 22, 1999 vs Kawada - The last match Giant Baba ever watched: / /
March 2, 2001 with Akiyama vs Hashimoto & Nagata: / /
March 1, 2003 vs Kobashi - Kobashi pins Misawa for the GHC title:
October 31, 2004 with Mutoh vs Hase & Sasaki: / / /

The June 3, 1994 match with Kawada seems to be especially well regarded.

[The Headliner]

According to Tokyo Sports, Akitoshi Saito's home has been attacked by wrestling fans and he is now on suicide watch after allegedly attempting to kill himself.

Saito wasn't to know of Misawa's condition going into this match. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, executing a move that Misawa had taken many times before, with no indication that it could be life-threatening on this occasion. It sounds like some "fans" need to be aware of this, and hopefully Saito comes to terms with it as well, soon. One tragedy should not become two.

In less depressing news:

Hiroshi Hase, former pro wrestler and minister in the Japan Diet (Congress), is pushing forward legislation for regulations and a commission for all sports in Japan. Everything from Sumo, Boxing, MMA, Pro Wrestling, Baseball, Football/Soccer and such.

Also, it's interesting in that New Japan has a ringside doctor because of Hase. Hase had a heart attack after a match and was close to death. That scare caused New Japan to hire a doctor to be at ringside for all the matches. This legislation would cause all promotions to have a medical staff readily available at all times for all sports.

Hiroshi Hase (former pro-wrestler) and others in the LDP have invited the major players in pro-wrestling (Ryu Nakata of NOAH, New Japan’s President, a famous medical trainer, Keiji Mutoh, and a fifth person) to a political committee meeting to talk about Mitsuharu Misawa’s death. One person is being quoted in the press as saying that Misawa’s death is now a turning point.

Regarding yesterday's meeting, it appears that everyone was in agreement about forming a union and there will be a push to introduce a license system. There was also a lot of talk about preventing such accidents in the future, including training for refs and wrestlers about how to observe the physical condition of their opponent, ring doctors, yearly medical checks, mandatory retirement age and so on.

An Organ Transplant Law ammendment bill was also passed today, which Misawa was supportive of. The bill recognises brain death as legal death and scrapped the age limit for organ transplants, which had previously been 15 years old.