In Memory of Mitsuharu Misawa

By: John Pollock | Posted: Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 9:24 pm.

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June
13^th 2009 is a date that will unfortunately always be remembered in
pro wrestling history as the date that one of the legendary wrestlers of any
era – Mitsuharu Misawa – passed away in tragic fashion at the age of 46.

For
those that missed the news today, Misawa took a routine suplex today from
Akitoshi Saito in a match where Misawa was teaming with Go Shiosaki against
Saito and Bison Smith. During the landing, Misawa hit his head and was
immediately knocked out cold and officials began to attempt to revive Misawa
with the crowd completely hushed and the entire locker room coming out from the
back area. Misawa was turning purple in the ring and there are varying reports
of whether Misawa died in the ring or at the local hospital. In Japan it is being reported that he died at the
hospital at 10:10pm in Japan
but that may be inaccurate.

For
those unfamiliar with the legacy of Misawa and had only heard his name as a
talent out of Japan than no amount of words typed here could possibly do
justice to what he meant for Japanese puroresu style professional wrestling.

Misawa
debuted on August 21^st 1981 after transitioning from amateur
wrestling and was trained by Dick ‘The Destroyer’ Beyer (one of the most
popular foreign stars in Japanese history) and Dory Funk Jr. He was positioned
strongly right from the start as All Japan Pro Wrestling gave him the ‘Tiger
Mask’ gimmick, succeeding Satoru Sayama with the gimmick becoming ‘Tiger Mask
II’ and would compete under the hood until 1990. It was at this time that the
company decided to make a huge change with the declining health of Tomomi ‘Jumbo’
Tsuruta and had Misawa defeat Tsuruta in a passing of the torch style of match.
This coincided with a major philosophical change for All Japan Pro Wrestling
promoter Shohei ‘Giant’ Baba who focused on all clean finishes from this point
onwards and credible main events with Misawa being one of, if not the, focal
point of the heavyweight division. For any wrestling fan the golden period of
AJPW was during this 90′s period where Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Genichiro Tenryu
and Jun Akiyama took what professional wrestling was known in Japan to another level with some of
the most fantastic matches in the history of the industry, albeit with a very
taxing style.

After
the death of Baba on January 31^st 1999, Misawa became the president
of AJPW and ran the company with Baba’s widow, Motoko. Out of respect to the
death of Baba and how it would look to the Japanese public, Misawa worked with
Motoko despite major differences in philosophy when it came to running the
business. In August 2000 Misawa left AJPW and took 23 other performers from the
promotion along with the promotion’s NTV deal and formed Pro Wrestling NOAH in
a landscape changing deal in Japan.
The closest comparison to this deal would be when Konnan and Antonio Pena left
CMLL to form AAA in the early 90′s in Mexico.

Pro
Wrestling NOAH prospered in the climate and really stood on it own feet after
the March 2003 match between Misawa and longtime rival Kenta Kobashi, which won
that year’s ‘Wrestling Observer Newsletter Match of the Year’ (1 of 24 of
Misawa’s five star matches in the newsletter).

Misawa
held NOAH’s GHC championship three times with his latest reign lasting
16-months and ending in March 2008 where he lost to Takeshi Morishima and goes
along with five reigns as Triple Crown champion in AJPW, 2 Champion Carnival
tournament wins and numerous other championships.

Misawa
shall be remembered as a performer that revolutionized the style of
professional wrestling in Japan,
whose ripple effects carried over to North America
and the world over as evidenced by myriad workers today in promotions across
the world. He created a third major league promotion in Japan that created tons
of jobs and was able to sustain the promotion in a crowded market place through
booking that he learned directly from Giant Baba and held onto a disenchanted
wrestling audience that other promotions were having a difficult time appealing
to. His keen sense of moving the business forward always meant a focus on
younger talent and there was a strong push to elevate talent such as Morishima,
KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji to a main event level.  

The
future of Pro Wrestling NOAH is very much in question following this tragedy
and months after the loss of their NTV television deal and remaining on
satellite television in Japan.

The
future of NOAH can be discussed on another day because today is simply about
remembering a legend in every sense of the word and someone who advanced pro
wrestling far beyond the means most average men could possibly envision and the
industry is a stronger one because of the contributions of Mitsuharu Misawa.  

CATEGORIES:Editorial