"Sacrifice: The Tragedy of Mitsuharu Misawa and NOAH"

[HMARK Center]

YouTube user Kim Justice has made a 45 minute documentary about some of the factors that contributed to Misawa's eventual death in the ring at the age of 46, and the whole thing is pretty damn good.



Seems there are more puro-based documentaries and analysis videos popping up (even if Showbuckle and RealNeatPuro had to change their formats), but does anyone else have some favorite fan-made mini-films like this about wrestling? Obviously be careful what you post and avoid WWE-owned footage.

[Balesirion]

That was an excellent summary and analysis of how NOAH's situation and the decisions made about it led directly to Misawa's death. There is one thing I wish he had touched on when talking about the KENTA and Marufuji match not drawing in 2006: the fact that the show had one of the worst undercards in the history of the company up to that point. Up until the main event, it looks like your average set of filler multi-man tags that you could see on any house show. The company could have tried to compensate for the new and unproven nature of having juniors at the top of the card, but chose not to.

[HMARK Center]

Jul 13, 2019 20:14:47 GMT -5 Balesirion said:

That was an excellent summary and analysis of how NOAH's situation and the decisions made about it led directly to Misawa's death. There is one thing I wish he had touched on when talking about the KENTA and Marufuji match not drawing in 2006: the fact that the show had one of the worst undercards in the history of the company up to that point. Up until the main event, it looks like your average set of filler multi-man tags that you could see on any house show. The company could have tried to compensate for the new and unproven nature of having juniors at the top of the card, but chose not to.

That's a good call, would've been good to acknowledge. I think it was very fair to point out the legitimate challenges NOAH faced during that era in getting the next generation over enough to fully carry the torch from Misawa, Kobashi, and company, but some of the booking/planning they DID have control over didn't help matters, either.

Still, I appreciated the analysis of the outside factors that helped exacerbate the problem; I never really put NOAH's issues in that context, but it made a lot of sense (e.g. the various unfortunate injuries and illnesses, the global recession, etc.).

[Mozenrath]

Having not seen this yet, does it talk about the shitty situation Misawa's widow was put in with the aftermath? Dunno if I can handle that level of depressing tonight.

[Balesirion]

Jul 14, 2019 1:13:12 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Having not seen this yet, does it talk about the shitty situation Misawa's widow was put in with the aftermath? Dunno if I can handle that level of depressing tonight.

No, it's not mentioned at all. What happened with her?

[Mozenrath]

Jul 14, 2019 1:22:20 GMT -5 Balesirion said:

Jul 14, 2019 1:13:12 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Having not seen this yet, does it talk about the shitty situation Misawa's widow was put in with the aftermath? Dunno if I can handle that level of depressing tonight.

No, it's not mentioned at all. What happened with her?

I don't really know the specifics, but just remember a lot of talk that people basically fleeced her out of a bunch of money and took advantage of her when Misawa died.

[EyeofTyr]

Saw it a few nights ago, it does an admirable job of breaking everything down.

I always liked NOAH, but even at its height I was never the full fledged fanboy a lot of fans I knew were. And, I often pointed out the issues with it vs its contemporaries that weren't doing as good in the moment, but were making all the right moves to set themselves up for the future (or trying to) and most reacted like I was nuts. Including pointing out that Misawa had no business in the ring (which was usually met with "Yeah, okay, he's not in the shape he used to be and he can get gassed but he's still good!" missing my point entirely).

I can't tell you how many times I suggested NJPW would rise back up in time and NOAH would likely go the way of ZERO-1 and people thought I was cracked.

It's a shame. I loved Misawa as a wrestler and he deserved a better ending as a human being than the one he got (as did his family), but he was a rubbish booker that damn near took NOAH along with him and it was very much a choice he made himself. In no circumstances should it have ever gotten to the point it did (where Misawa died in the ring and Kobashi wouldn't have been far behind him if he hadn't paced himself better than Misawa did).

I've seen people romanticize and applaud Misawa's "I'll keep going until I die for NOAH's sake" mentality that was confirmed in the letter he wrote not long before his death but I find it gross personally and proof that Misawa was probably not mentally right in his later years from decades of concussions and head drops.

[Deleted]

and now they have a 22 year old heavyweight champ

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

This documentary is truly excellent. I knew nothing about NOAH or Misawa and was gripped.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Jul 14, 2019 18:49:45 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

This documentary is truly excellent. I knew nothing about NOAH or Misawa and was gripped.

Likewise. Beyond knowing that a Japanese wrestler with some notoriety had died in the ring this was my first exposure, and I’d actually like to seek out some of these matches now.