Mitsuharu Misawa Dead

Toshiaki Koala · June 13, 2009

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/9617/

MISAWA PASSES AWAY AFTER BACKDROP IN HIROSHIMA MATCH

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.

His heart stopped beating in the ring. The cause of death may have been a heart attack.

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

While it is being reported that he passed away at the hospital, he may have actually passed away in the ring.

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.

RedJed · June 13, 2009

Wow, pretty blown away by this news. He was certainly one of the all time greats in my eyes, and his bouts with Kawada was easily the best pro wrestling feud as a whole I've ever seen in terms of pure wrestling quality.

What makes it even more tragic is that his death appears to have occured as a complete result of his style. Makes you question the worth of the puro style a bit in the long term when this goes down. At least in terms of being dropped on your head pretty much consistently.

I would imagine the remaining people on this board, more than not, probably don't know of him. All the same though, its extremely tragic to see a death of a legend happen in the ring like this.

vermilion · June 13, 2009

Wow, pretty blown away by this news. He was certainly one of the all time greats in my eyes, and his bouts with Kawada was easily the best pro wrestling feud as a whole I've ever seen in terms of pure wrestling quality.

What makes it even more tragic is that his death appears to have occured as a complete result of his style. Makes you question the worth of the puro style a bit in the long term when this goes down. At least in terms of being dropped on your head pretty much consistently.

I would imagine the remaining people on this board, more than not, probably don't know of him. All the same though, its extremely tragic to see a death of a legend happen in the ring like this.

The only thing I would say against the puro style being so dangerous is we haven't really truly seen any other deaths due to the head drops. I don't disagree with you, but it's hard to pass judgment when there's only been one case (that I know of, I could be way off).

Regardless, very sad news, I was incredibly shocked to see this. I don't know anyone that's seen his work that isn't a fan in some aspect.

Jingus · June 14, 2009

Now some preliminary reports are saying that it might've been a heart attack. Which is creepy in itself, since the movie The Wrestler opened in Japan that day.