RIP Akebono Taro

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

mezamashi.media/article/15226381

On April 11, 2024, it was announced that former Yokozuna Akebono Taro passed away from heart failure in April.
His funeral will be held in private, with only his family members present. He was 54 years old.
Akebono has been fighting his illness ever since he collapsed in Kitakyushu seven years ago. Akebono was admitted to a hospital near Tokyo.

Akebono best known to WWE fans for his sumo match with Big Show at Wrestlemania 21

[Spider2024]

RIP

54's too damn young.

[The Rick Jericho]

That was a fun little match he and The Giant had at Wrestlemania 21.

[Mozenrath]

He's been hurting for years now, so this is unfortunately unsurprising.

Him in HUSTLE as Great Muta's... "son" was pretty damn wild.

[Sephiroth]

Apr 10, 2024 20:26:50 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

He's been hurting for years now, so this is unfortunately unsurprising.

Him in HUSTLE as Great Muta's... "son" was pretty damn wild.

That whole promotion was an experiment in madness

[rainandlava]

Damn. This hurts, especially since I remembered hearing about him from my Grandfather in my younger years when he watched Sumo matches on KIKU (the Japanese station down here in Hawaii) as well as watching his matches in Japan & against Big Show.

[ChitownKnight]

This is the same Akebono that faced Big Show at mania 21 right?

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

Rest in power Big Guy

[魔界5号]

RIP Bono. I always respected his willingness to work hard and learn pro wrestling, while he could have treated it like a mere later career cash grab, he fully dedicated himself to trying to become as best as he could and, whatever you thought about it or not, the guy worked his way to being Triple Crown Champion a decade after he debuted in prowres, it definitely wasn’t handed to him, he earned it.

I know he’d been sick for a long time, I feel like I remember reading about him taking ill and being moved into hospital around 2018/19, don’t think he’d been back out since. Rest in peace big man.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

The first non-Japanese sumo to ever reach the rank of Yokozuna.

Not bad as a pro wrestler, either. I remember he had a fun match at the first All Together fund raiser show.

Rest in peace, sir.

[Convoy]

I'll always think of his HUSTLE run as Muta's son first. Aside from that, I admired his run overall, since he was given a lot of opportunities but you could always tell he genuinely loved the business. I remember Western fans not loving his position on cards, but to me he performed better than most gave him credit for. Plus I never heard a bad word about him, and if he wanted to, he could've used his status to be a real pill. RIP Monster Bono.

[Mozenrath]

Apr 10, 2024 21:44:15 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

This is the same Akebono that faced Big Show at mania 21 right?

Yes, same guy.

Man, thinking about it, Yokozuna had a way better attitude about wrestling than Koji Kitao did, Of course, Akebono was a more accomplished yokozuna than him, too, in addition to being much less of a prick.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Akebono's been around forever so it genuinely shocks me he was only 54

His storyline where he was Great Muta's son in Japan will always stand out to be lol

[Alexander The So-so]

Oof, this is sad to me, not just because of his involvement in pro wrestling, but because I lived in Japan when I was a little kid (moved because of my dad’s job) and we watched sumo wrestling on Japanese TV, and this was the period in the mid-1990’s when Akebono was in his prime and absolutely THE MAN in sumo. He was huge, and we heard his name all the time. RIP

[Johnny B. Decent]

Apr 11, 2024 14:09:56 GMT -5 Alexander The So-so said:

Oof, this is sad to me, not just because of his involvement in pro wrestling, but because I lived in Japan when I was a little kid (moved because of my dad’s job) and we watched sumo wrestling on Japanese TV, and this was the period in the mid-1990’s when Akebono was in his prime and absolutely THE MAN in sumo. He was huge, and we heard his name all the time. RIP

Sadly, his fiascos in PRIDE and K-1 kind of overshadow how he was one of the best rikishis ever. And the first-ever foreign Yokozuna, no less.

[salz4life]

Apr 10, 2024 20:18:07 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

That was a fun little match he and The Giant had at Wrestlemania 21.

I liked it as well. RIP

[Jaws the Shark]

Apr 11, 2024 14:09:56 GMT -5 Alexander The So-so said:

Oof, this is sad to me, not just because of his involvement in pro wrestling, but because I lived in Japan when I was a little kid (moved because of my dad’s job) and we watched sumo wrestling on Japanese TV, and this was the period in the mid-1990’s when Akebono was in his prime and absolutely THE MAN in sumo. He was huge, and we heard his name all the time. RIP

I remember watching it on Eurosport in the late nineties when he was huge, I had read about him in the Guinness Book of Records so he was the only one I actually recognised.

[thirteen3]

Him and Ryota Hama had a great feud with Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Kobayashi back in 2011 All Japan. A big reason why the latter won Tokyo Sports Tag Team of the year then.

RIP.

[johnnyk9]

Shame saw he had lost a lot of weight RIP