Mitsuharu Misawa Passes Away

[Lupin the Third]

Seeing Kobashi cry really got to me as well. Then, I saw when Akitoshi Saito come out and that just really got to me. I feel for the man. He must be going through a lot of spiritual pain.

[mcmahonfan85]

Figure Four Weekly write-up:

Perhaps the greatest wrestler of all time has died.

Sometimes when a wrestler passes away people look back fondly on their career and remember them as being perhaps bigger than they actually were. When the day comes, for example, that Ric Flair dies, people will be writing the same thing, and you will find people who will state the same about Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart and Kenta Kobashi and others. Many said it about Lou Thesz.

The difference here is that if you look at Mitsuharu Misawa's stats, it's tough to argue otherwise. He wrestled 24 five-star matches between 1985 and 2003. Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted him Best Flying Wrestler twice, one half of Best Feud of the Year twice, awarded him five Match of the Year honors, Most Outstanding twice, Most Underrated once (which today seems impossible to believe), one half of Tag Team of the Year three times, and Wrestler of the Year three times. If nothing else, at the very least, he was the best wrestler of the 1990s. And while these are all Observer awards, I can tell you this. I don't follow a lot of Japanese pro-wrestling, at least on a weekly basis, but I'm often sent tapes, links or DVDs and told I must watch a certain match. In the last 15 years, the guy who was in the vast majority of those matches, maybe 75 to 80 percent, was Mitsuharu Misawa. He remains the best I have ever seen at building a match. I cannot tell you how many times I was told of this fantastic Misawa match, and 15 minutes or so in I thought to myself, "This is really good, but hardly a match of the year." And then, by the time it was over, I was sitting there in awe thinking, time and time again, "That was the best match I ever saw."

Misawa died on June 13th in the middle of a tag match in Hiroshima, Japan, at the Green Arena. He was teaming with Go Shiozaki to face GHC Tag Team Champions Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito. He was just shy of his 47th birthday. According to ringside observers, Misawa was behaving somewhat strangely, shaking his head throughout the match and looking listless. At about the 27-minute mark, he was hoisted into the air and given a backdrop suplex by Saito, said to be a seven on a scale of one-to-ten on the danger scale. He didn't get back up. The referee dropped down and asked him if he could move and he said no, and then his heart stopped beating. It is believed he probably died at that point, although he was not officially declared dead until 10:10 p.m. on the way to the hospital. They were unable to revive him in the ring with CPR, chest compressions and an automated external defibrillator. Police believe his spinal cord severed and caused a heart attack, and that it was basically an injury that had been waiting to happen due to years of accumulated injuries.

Video of the post-match scene is tough to watch, as Misawa's body lays there in the ring surrounded by wrestlers and ringside doctors trying to revive him. The 2,000-plus fans in the building, many of whom are crying, alternate between periods of hushed silence and chants of "MISAWA!" The wrestlers in the ring are surprisingly calm. At one point they take off their shirts to help wipe sweat off of his body to prepare him for the AED. Although doctors are giving chest compressions, which of course are necessary only when one's heart is not beating, there isn't the outright panic that perhaps one would expect in the situation. It almost seems like they are all extremely concerned, but also confident that this is Mitsuharu Misawa, the toughest man in the world, and of course he is going to get up in the end.

"The moments at ringside felt an eternity," noted ROH's Chris Hero, who worked the show. "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 f***ing 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."

The show was immediately suspended and all of the wrestlers were told to return to the tour bus. Shortly thereafter, they were informed that he had died.

It is tough to explain to American fans what an enormous story this is. Most fans of a decade or more will compare this to the death of Owen Hart, who fell from the rafters in a WWE PPV stunt gone wrong at the Kemper Arena on May 23, 1999. But the reality is that Owen is now only the second most high-profile wrestler to die in the ring. Misawa was by far the biggest Japanese star of the 1990s, perhaps comparable in the US to Steve Austin or the Rock. But more than that, he was also the owner and the lifeblood of Pro Wrestling NOAH, so you would have to imagine Rock or Austin doing what they did while simultaneously being the owners of the World Wrestling Federation. I guess if you can imagine Steve Austin, after suffering his neck injury in the match with Owen in 1997, taking over as owner of WWE after Vince McMahon died, and then taking another bad bump in the ring on a televised show and dying in the ring. But even this scenario doesn't take into account the worker that Misawa was.

He was recruited by Shohei "Giant" Baba into All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1981 after being a Japanese high school national wrestling champion at 187 pounds. He was good enough early that within three years he was given the honor of playing the second generation Tiger Mask (Tiger Mask II), a super popular character from a manga cartoon of that time period. The first incarnation, which was played by the legendary Satoru Sayama, was one of the most famous wrestlers in Japanese history and had numerous incredible bouts with the likes of Dynamite Kid, tapes of which inspired an entire generation of lighter-weight wrestlers.

As Tiger Mask II he had a lot of great matches, including one five-star bout (meaning, I should note, that he was having five-star matches over a period of nearly 20 years), but didn't really get over as a major superstar. The unmasking took place on May 14, 1990, during a match in which he teamed with Toshiaki Kawada to face Samson (Hiromichi) Fuyuki and Yoshiaki Yatsu. At one point Misawa simply told Kawada to untie his mask, and then he ripped it off and the place went nuts and immediately began chanting "MISAWA!" In hindsight, it was one of the most important unmaskings in the history of wrestling, because it led immediately to him becoming a megastar following a series of incredible matches with Jumbo Tsuruta. In particular, his June 8, 1990 victory over Tsuruta was a symbolic passing of the torch to a new generation of superstars and changed the company forever. At the time, a new group called SWS had raided a number of stars from both New Japan and All Japan and Baba was pretty much forced to create a new superstar. The combination of Misawa's unmasking and win over Tenryu in a one-month period accomplished that so successfully that it has to be remembered as one of the greatest examples of superstar creation in Japanese history.

Misawa's tag matches with the likes of Kobashi and Kawada were among the best matches not only of the '90s, but of all time. His full list of five-star matches during the '90s alone were versus Jumbo on June 8, 1990; with Kawada & Kobashi vs. Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masanobu Fuchi on October 19, 1990; a rematch on April 20, 1991; a rematch on May 22, 1992; with Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa on July 2, 1993; with Kobashi vs. Taue & Kawada on December 3, 1993; with Kobashi & Baba vs. Fuchi & Kawada & Taue on February 13, 1994; with Kobashi vs. Taue & Kawada on May 21, 1994; versus Kawada on June 3, 1994; with Kobashi vs. Taue & Kawada on January 21, 1995; with Kobashi vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis) on March 4, 1995; versus Taue on April 15, 1995; with Kobashi vs. Taue & Kawada on June 9, 1995 (more than a few have called this the greatest pro wrestling match of all time); with Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Kawada & Taue & Tamon Honda on June 30, 1995; with Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue on May 23, 1996; with Akiyama vs. Williams & Ace on June 7, 1996; with Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue on December 6, 1996; vs. Kawada on June 6, 1997; with Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue on December 5, 1997; versus Kobashi on October 31, 1998; versus Kobashi on June 11, 1999; and with Ogawa vs. Kobashi & Akiyama on October 23, 1999.

He also had one final five-star match with Kobashi on March 1, 2003. Realistically, his five-year feud with Kobashi from 1998 through 2003 may have been the greatest in-ring feud of all time, with three singles and one tag team five-star match on big shows during the period.

But there is the tragic side. One of the hallmarks of all of those great matches was the spot where each guy would be dropped on their head numerous times. Some of them looked more dangerous than they actually were, with the guys tucking their heads safely. But many of them clearly caused irreparable harm. I always remember talking to people while watching these matches and they would ask, "How do those guys land on their heads like that?," and you knew the only answer was, "Well, they're really landing on their heads like that." It got worse during the late '90s as Kobashi and Misawa pretty much had one mega match a year, and each year's match built off the previous year's, meaning it was constantly a game of "can you top last year?" Somehow, they always did. But they paid the price.

Misawa of late was in horrible physical shape. He'd gained a ton of weight, almost certainly because his knees were completely shot and he couldn't get out there and run every day, or really do any form of cardio outside of matches in the ring. His shoulders and neck were shot. Unlike in the US nowadays when you can take a guy like Batista and pretty much rattle off all of his major injuries, the mindset is very different in Japan and Misawa was probably walking around with severe injuries nobody ever knew about. God knows what, if any, painkillers he was taking. He almost certainly had a broken neck, and it very well could have been a situation where his doctor, like Steve Austin's, told him his neck was in such bad shape that one bad bump could cost him his life. Unlike Austin, who retired in his late 30s and has no desire to ever come back, Misawa continued to roll the dice in the ring. He'd only wrestled a few minutes in each of the matches on this latest tour, relying on partner Shiozaki to do most of the work.

Baba died on January 31, 1999, of cancer. He had broken into wrestling under the tutelage of the greatest star in Japanese history, Rikidozan, alongside Antonio Inoki in early 1960. Rikidozan, whose early television battles against evil foreigners post-World War II made him a national hero in the country to this day, was murdered three years later, and Inoki and Baba went on to become top stars for his Japanese Wrestling Association. In 1972, Inoki split off and formed his own group, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and Baba shortly thereafter, with the backing of Nippon TV, split off and formed his own rival group, All Japan. Nine days before his death, Baba, who had seen as much live pro wrestling as pretty much any human being who ever lived, declared the Kawada vs. Misawa Triple Crown match on January 22 as the best pro-wrestling match he'd ever seen in his life. The match was notable for the fact that Kawada legitimately broke his arm just moments after it started and then finished the match, the two of them working it as if it was just part of the story and nothing out of the ordinary.

Following Baba's death, Misawa frequently clashed heads with Baba's wife Motoko, who had a reputation particularly amongst the foreigners as being a "dragon lady." Misawa, who had been chosen company president and had been booking since probably 1997 when Baba first fell ill, felt his creativity was being stifled and was upset that he wasn't being given a bigger ownership stake in the group. He gave her an ultimatum, she called his bluff, and he ended up bailing. At the time it was thought to be a death-knell for All Japan, particularly since Misawa took 90 percent of the roster -- All Japan was left with just Stan Hansen, Kenta Kobashi, Maunuakea Mossman (who later became Taiyo Kea) and Masa Fuchi -- and the TV station that backed the company from the day it was formed, NTV, pulled out in favor of Misawa's new promotion.

NOAH, as the new company was called, was Mitsuharu Misawa. He was the owner and the main booker and it was his creation all the way down to the green canvas, a tribute to his trademarked colored tights. He was their first champion, beating Yoshihiro Takayama in the finals of a tournament on April 15, 2001. He won the title from Takayama twice, the second time on September 23, 2002 after Takayama had won it from Yoshinari Ogawa. Most likely, the idea was to have Takayama constantly fail in title matches against him only to eventually pin him clean in the middle as a megastar-creating torch passing, the same way he'd become a megastar by beating Tsuruta a decade earlier. Whatever the plan was, Takayama's career suddenly screeched to a halt after he suffered a stroke in the ring due to the enormous amount of head trauma he'd suffered as an unsuccessful MMA fighter (although, ironically, his being on the losing end of great wars ended up being what helped finally push him over the edge as a superstar). Misawa's last great five-star match on March 1, 2003, saw him drop the title to Kobashi. Perhaps the idea at the time was that this was his last-ever title run. However, Kobashi ended up getting cancer, which pretty much ended his career as a top guy, and with NOAH reeling they took a chance on some lighter-weight wrestlers. Naomichi Marufuji, who probably weighed around 200 pounds at the time, won the title from Akiyama on September 9, 2006. The idea was to create a new megastar, but it didn't quite work out that way. Misawa ended up beating him for the title less than two months later. At the time it seemed like an incredibly short-sighted move, almost WWE-like in the attitude that Marufuji didn't become a megastar immediately and thus they needed to go back to the old formula. But from Misawa's point of view, he'd gone from a star to a megastar in 30 minutes in 1990, so what was taking so long?

Regardless of why decisions were made, he was never able to create a new megastar in the same way that he was created himself. To varying degrees he tried and failed with Yoshinari Ogawa, Takeshi Rikio, Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Takeshi Morishima, all the way up to the very end when he was trying to give the rub to Shiozaki in his last match in the finals of the Tag League tournament against the current champions. NOAH matches were still great, and in fact of late they may still be presenting the best cards top-to-bottom of any promotion in the world. But there was no new Baba, Misawa, Kobashi, etc.-level superstar on the horizon. Earlier this year, it all came full circle when they lost, symbolically after 37 years, their slot on NTV. Besides the issue of losing television, long-term it was going to make things even tougher in the sense that the biggest stars they had were the stars that were created and pushed on the masses when the NTV show was at its peak. It's hard enough creating stars at 2 a.m. It's impossible when there is no network TV to speak of. They still had a show airing on cable TV, but according to one source in Japan the rights fees for network TV could run as high as 200 million yen annually, and the rights fees for cable TV were zero. Misawa had been scrambling to try to raise money in the wake of losing NTV, and that stress also likely played a part in his physical deterioration. In a way, it's almost symbolic that Misawa died the way he did, doing what he loved, when he did.

NTV newscaster Kazuo Tokumitsu, who is the Japanese equivalent to a Walter Cronkite in America, spent a very emotional 20 minutes covering the story on his Sunday morning show. He is an NTV board member and large shareholder, and some even believe he might have been a partial owner of NOAH (his son is also a B-level wrestling announcer, described as "very flat"). Tokumitsu, 68, initially gained his fame as an announcer for Rikidozan matches and was one-third of a super highly-rated comedy show also starring Akiko Wada and The Destroyer Dick Beyer on NTV in the '50s. He was also the lead announcer for All Japan from its debut in the '70s through the early '90s. He was the one guy who stood up for pro-wrestling when NTV was threatening to drop them off the station, but he lost the battle. He talked about Misawa's life and career and asked fans to please continue supporting the company. Rival network NHK covered the story, but apparently only briefly (we heard of one 60-second news bit, and another source living in Japan had seen nothing), which made many hardcore fans extremely upset. It was the top story Sunday on Yahoo Japan and Google Japan, and amazingly it even made the front page of the ESPN.com Web site. WWE (through John Laurinaitis), TNA, ROH, and numerous other promotions posted condolence pieces, and a number of wrestling promotions around the world, including AAA in Mexico, observed moments of silence or applause for him before their shows this weekend.

In a surreal coincidence, he died the same day the movie "The Wrestler" opened in Japan. The film, which concludes with Mickey Rourke's character Randy the Ram apparently dying in the ring, was heavily advertised on the NOAH cable show. Also ironic is the fact that Misawa may be the only wrestler I have ever heard of who did a spot after particularly intense matches where he would roll out of the ring and have the doctor in attendance administer chest compressions to add more drama to the situation.

At press time, in a move many US fans will probably find shocking, we were told Samurai TV will be airing the entire Hiroshima event on Wednesday, June 17th at 11 p.m. JST, including Misawa's final match and the aftermath. There is a great deal of speculation as to what the future of the company holds. They ran a show the next day which did huge walk-up business and all future events are apparently still on as scheduled with no major announcements having been made. It should be noted that when Baba died and Misawa made his move, many people thought All Japan was finished for sure. They still survive nearly a decade later, although some would classify that as a miracle. They did not, however, have the major financial problems that NOAH is currently facing.

With his death, the two biggest Japanese headliners of the '90s are gone. Most of Misawa's greatest matches took place at Nippon Budokan, basically the Japanese equivalent to Madison Square Garden. Misawa headlined more successful Budokan shows than anyone else in history, and on the New Japan side Shinya Hashimoto headlined nine different successful Tokyo Dome events. Hashimoto died on July 11, 2005, of a brain aneurysm, just shy of his 40th birthday.

His death is even more tragic when you consider an interview done Monday by Ryu Nakata, the ring announcer and office manager for NOAH. He told the press that just four days before he died Misawa was talking backstage with his wife Mayumi about how he planned on retiring by the end of the year to go into a business in another field. He acknowledged that his body was broken down and that it was time for him to step away, and that there were discussions about starting a Misawa Sayonara Tour to say goodbye. Nakata said that Misawa was never one to go anything but all out, and even all out these days wasn't much, and that he should have retired two years earlier but he kept going because both Kobashi and Jun Akiyama, considered the number-three star in the promotion internally, were battling their own chronic health problems.

Misawa was an intensely private person and there were friends of his who knew him for years that never even knew he had a wife and children. His family didn't want his cause of death to get out and are planning a private funeral for later this week. NOAH is planning a public one for later on down the road, and already there have been discussions by many wrestlers in all the major companies of coming together at some point for a major tribute show. Nippon TV's G+ cable channel is also planning a Misawa TV special to air soon.

"My heart goes out to his family," Hero concluded on his blog. "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."

[Joekishi]

Jun 15, 2009 23:37:51 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

I have to admit, I am angry about this. Like, really angry.

A person... a human being, is dead because of PRO WRESTLING. He's dead because of pretending to fight people in teensy little spandex clothes. That's not all right. Like, seriously, that is just not okay.

He's dead because people in this business were insecure about REAL human cockfighting fighting becoming more popular, so they changed the style to slip realness into the fake stuff. They were like, "Okay, so we're not really fighting each other, but look: I just dropped that guy RIGHT ON HIS FREAKIN HEAD. I'm slapping him in the chest as HARD AS I CAN. You've got to be impressed by that!"
And so Misawa got really famous because he was very very good at making himself look really fake tough by getting really dropped on his real head in fake fights, and now he is dead because of it.

There is a false dichotomy between "safe and boring" and "dangerous and exciting." Clearly. It's just, people have this mentality, especially in Japan but also in US indies, that everyone knows what you're doing is staged, so the only way to impress anyone is with real danger and real pain.

It's just, it's truly appalling. Because nothing is going to change, and because it's already too late for lots of people anyway. Misawa clearly was very extreme in is workload and the damage he took, so he died in the ring. The guys who are a step below him will just spend their last thirty years nearly crippled.

I honestly fear for Saito's life, both in terms of retribution and possibly suicide. I think it's almost certain he'll be blackballed regardless. It's really not his fault, of course, more than it is anyone else's.

No one's going to learn anything. A hell of an important, talented entertainer died on camera in front of an audience, and no one's going to learn a thing from it. It's just appalling.

I APPLAUD YOUR POST

Jun 16, 2009 11:34:13 GMT -5 Chuckie Finster said:

Jun 16, 2009 2:39:49 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

I was refering more to boxing, shoot wrestling and Inoki's influence both indirect and direct, which you can't say have nothing to do with strong style. MMA's just the latest step.

Besides, it doesn't change anything. For whatever reason, wrestling, which ideally is a goofy fun dramatic spectacle, became all about "really" being tough. It's ruining people's bodies. It won't change.

I love how people are going off on Strong Style yet have no idea of what Strong Style actually is.

If Misawa's death is due to Strong Style, then I'm from the planet Mars.

It's not even strong style that he used. STrong Style doesn't focus on Head Drops, viscious bumps, and continual no selling of head drops. that's King's Road, which over uses the Fighting Spirit spots.

It always pisses me off when people call Puro Strong STyle, it's not. STrong Style focusses on limb psychology, taking out a body part, using submissions, timed strikes, and finishers. Strong Style is a lot like WWE's Safe Style, Strong Style is used primarily in AJPW and NJPW nowadays. Those 2 feds are more into matches with more drama and excitement through story telling, and psychology than from head drops.

[Solid Stryk-Dizzle]

Not to pull away from the conversation but I really want to see a huge tribute show with guys from other companies.

[Chuckie Finster]

Jun 16, 2009 12:14:06 GMT -5 Joekishi said:

Jun 16, 2009 11:34:13 GMT -5 Chuckie Finster said:

I love how people are going off on Strong Style yet have no idea of what Strong Style actually is.

If Misawa's death is due to Strong Style, then I'm from the planet Mars.

It's not even strong style that he used. STrong Style doesn't focus on Head Drops, viscious bumps, and continual no selling of head drops. that's King's Road, which over uses the Fighting Spirit spots.

It always pisses me off when people call Puro Strong STyle, it's not. STrong Style focusses on limb psychology, taking out a body part, using submissions, timed strikes, and finishers. Strong Style is a lot like WWE's Safe Style, Strong Style is used primarily in AJPW and NJPW nowadays. Those 2 feds are more into matches with more drama and excitement through story telling, and psychology than from head drops.

That's my point.

[mcmahonfan85]

Jun 16, 2009 12:48:40 GMT -5 Solid Stryk-Dizzle said:

Not to pull away from the conversation but I really want to see a huge tribute show with guys from other companies.

Wrestling Observer Radio says there is already talk of doing that

[Solid Stryk-Dizzle]

Jun 16, 2009 12:54:23 GMT -5 mcmahonfan85 said:

Jun 16, 2009 12:48:40 GMT -5 Solid Stryk-Dizzle said:

Not to pull away from the conversation but I really want to see a huge tribute show with guys from other companies.

Wrestling Observer Radio says there is already talk of doing that

;D

[The Line]

I assume ROH will do some kind of tribute show. Maybe nothing huge. Night of Tribute II. Considering NOAH's relationship with ROH in the past, and that they had a tribute show for Eddie G.

[charlesmc206]

I like how by and by, this is becoming a thread trashing how Misawa wrestled. Why am i not surprised?

Jun 16, 2009 12:56:32 GMT -5 Solid Stryk-Dizzle said:

Jun 16, 2009 12:54:23 GMT -5 mcmahonfan85 said:

Wrestling Observer Radio says there is already talk of doing that

;D

It would certainly be appropriate. I sort of expected it, promotion crossovers happen all the time in Japan so I don't see why they wouldn't put something together for this.

And that was a great write up by F4W, It makes me wonder what NOAH's fate will be? Who is running the company now?

It's such a sad situation, its been several days and I'm still not over it. I feel awful for his famliy, his peers, and his fans. It still doesn't seem real.

[nerdinitupagain]

That Observer article really puts things in place, especially the bit about him and Kobashi dropping themselves on the head. You always hear Misawa had the neck of steel...

I just hope this gives a lot of wrestlers a big wake up call that if Misawa dies in the ring from a move he took thousands of times that paled in comparison to the Gonzo bombs and some of the moves he took landing directly on his head... that they should stay clear from some of the stupid one ups manship that happens much too often.

[Lupin the Third]

Jun 16, 2009 13:28:58 GMT -5 @charlesmc206 said:

And that was a great write up by F4W, It makes me wonder what NOAH's fate will be? Who is running the company now?

I wondered that as well, PSR. Hopefully, the higher ups at NOAH has something in order for just such an incident. I mean, their president was also an active competitor. You'd think they'd have something planned just-in-case.

[Galluchadore]

I'm sure Noah will go through a rough time for the next few months but they will hopefully bounce back. Noah's structure seems very different from say WWE or many other wrestling companies. Sure Misawa was the head guy but all the other top guys in the company had some behind the scene and creative/booking role. I forgot where I saw it but Kobashi, Akiyama, Taue, and I think Mitsuo Mimoto (Rikdozan's son) all have some type of executive level positions. So i'm sure one or more of those guys will step up and fill the spot.

[Joekishi]

Jun 16, 2009 12:56:32 GMT -5 Solid Stryk-Dizzle said:

Jun 16, 2009 12:54:23 GMT -5 mcmahonfan85 said:

Wrestling Observer Radio says there is already talk of doing that

;D

So Pretty much and SEM show in Koraken Hall?

[khali]

That was a nice bio by Alvarez.

If anybody is a subscriber on F4W, watch out for the new Observer coming up soon. Meltzer always does great lengthy bios when a wrestler dies, and I would think the Misawa one would be one of the best.

[mcmahonfan85]

Gabe Sapolsky's new blog:

Mitsuharu Misawa was a mythical figure when I first saw him by trading tapes in the early 90s. I had never seen anything like the skills and style he adroitly executed in the ring. His presence resonated off the TV screen. He almost didn't seem real since the wrestling was such a departure from what was available in the United States, and Japan was another world away in my youth.

Fast forward to July 2007 and one of the most surreal and incredible moments of my life. I was being led down the back halls of Budokan Hall to meet Mr. Misawa. I tried to keep myself composed, remain professional and keep that "mark out" look out of my eye as I entered his locker room. If you told me in the early 90s that my life would reach this moment I never would have believed it.

Misawa immediately rose from his seat as we entered the room. He emitted an aura. He was a wrestling God. He was also humble and soft-spoken as he thanked us for booking NOAH talent and asked if he could come wrestle in the United States. The fact of the matter is that he was the one that gave the ok to everything and made the ROH/NOAH relationship happen. He was the leader, but he didn't need to act like it.

I never said much more to him than "hello" and "thank you" in the few moments I was in his company. I can't speak personally on what kind of man he was, but what tells the entire story is the company he led. As president and founder of NOAH, the promotion is a direct reflection on who Mitsuharu Misawa was. I have had an extensive amount of experience with other members of the NOAH office and roster. As an extension of Misawa, they are unselfish, cooperative, professional, trustworthy, respectful, loyal and completely by the book. This is the example that Misawa set.

Misawa led to the way for the fans of the United States to see some of NOAH's best. He provided an incredible place to work for not just NOAH talent, but several American independent workers, which allowed them to base a living off their wrestling careers. When he came to ROH, and he only did the "Glory By Honor" weekend because he wanted to, he battled through a bad case of the flu to put on two great matches because he did not want to disappoint the fans. I actually felt terrible for Misawa that weekend because the trip to Philly and Manhattan was something he was looking forward to, but I don't think he enjoyed it that much since he was so sick. He still gave it his all to make sure the fans saw him at his best. That speaks volumes on his character.

All our sympathies and thoughts need to go to his friends and family. I can't even imagine how they are coping in NOAH now. Many people in that organization have been friends and confidants with Misawa for at least 10-20 years. Their loss is incomparable.

The world has lost a true warrior. RIP Misawa.

[Chuckie Finster]

This is not for the weak at heart, at all.

Weekly Pro Wrestling's Japanese issue came out and showed the backdrop suplex in a few frames. Some Japanese site scanned the pages.

The links go to the pics, so click at your own risk. The first one shows the millisecond before impact. The second one shows a few more frames before and right after impact.

kakutolog.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/06/17/090617wp2.jpg

kakutolog.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/06/17/090617wp3.jpg

[Supersmark is a Troll]

Jun 16, 2009 20:23:52 GMT -5 Chuckie Finster said:

This is not for the weak at heart, at all.

Weekly Pro Wrestling's Japanese issue came out and showed the backdrop suplex in a few frames. Some Japanese site scanned the pages.

The links go to the pics, so click at your own risk. The first one shows the millisecond before impact. The second one shows a few more frames before and right after impact.

kakutolog.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/06/17/090617wp2.jpg

kakutolog.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/06/17/090617wp3.jpg

Hopefully Misawa was dead, or that was a botch, still a freak accident.

[BRAINFADE]

Jesus, i come back from holiday to see THIS?!

His wars with Kobashi are some of the most extraordinary displays of athleticism i have ever seen. RIP Misawa. To say that you will be missed is the biggest understatement in the history of pro wrestling.

[Kick Your Face]

Some interesting stuff has come out from Japan about all this.

Nikkan Sports interviewed Misawa's best friend, who revealed that Misawa had been suffering from chronic neck pain for the past three years. It flared up about once every three months, but apparently it became worse from December of last year. He was often rubbing his neck and complaining that he grew tired in about as third as much time as usual. His blood circulation was poor, and his knee was so bad that when they went to an izakaya, he couldn't stand without help. Apparently he had bags under his eyes after drinking for an hour.

His friend questioned him about retiring two years ago, but Misawa felt NOAH would go under without him. In February, the friend developed thyroid cancer. Misawa visited him in hospital and his friend urged him to have a full examination, which Misawa promised he would do.

The irony here is that Mutoh has come out and said that he and Misawa were in talks about starting a union and pushing for a license system similar to boxing. He also stated that Misawa wanted NOAH, All Japan and New Japan to merge into one promotion.

On a slightly better note, the Japan Transplant Support Association will honour Misawa for the work he did in the wake of Jumbo Tsuruta's death. Misawa apparently raised one million yen through his volunteer work and helped raise the acknowledgment level of organ transplant in Japan

[Supersmark is a Troll]

JWA is coming back? That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing.