Mitsuharu Misawa – Death Of A Japanese Icon

Many thanks to Hisame (@Hi5ame) for her article on history of NOAH and tensions between All Japan and NOAH. Without her fantastic articles, this post would not be possible.

It was June 13th, 2009 and Mitsucharu Misawa teamed with Go Shiozaki against GHC Tag Team Champions Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith for the Championship at Hiroshima Prefectural Gymnasium. The crowd knew what to expect watching Misawa wrestle, he was synonymous for a hard-hitting style of wrestling, and his tag partner Shiozaki was a perfect match for him. The match was scheduled for a 37-minute time limit, and it began with a slow build-up and a reliance on his tag partner. Reportedly, Misawa was seen shaking his neck too much during the match standing in the corner and allegedly, he’d not slept the night before the match. Ten minutes before the end of the match, Misawa took a back Suplex from Saito, which Misawa never rose from. He lay on the mat motionless, the referee rushed over to him and the match was stopped. The crowd fell to an eerie hush, Yoshinobu Kanemaru went to the ringside and the ringside doctor entered the ring, Kanemaru also entered the ring. A heart massage had already begun on Misawa, by this time his complexion had turned to a deep blue and a defibrillator was used, paramedics had turned up, Misawa was put on a stretcher and taken to the Hiroshima University Hospital. Mitsuharu Misawa never regained consciousness and ultimately passed away.

But what events led up to this devastating event? To properly understand what happened, the history of Pro Wrestling NOAH, All Japan and Misawa’s career needs to be looked at in detail.

Mitsuharu Misa began wrestling in 1981 with AJPW and from ’84 to ’90 he became the second generation Tiger Mask II. Misawa constantly showed that he belonged in AJPW, he soon earned the name Kamikaze Misawa. The persona Tiger Mask was owned by New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1981 to attract younger fans of the anime of the same name. After the first Tiger Mask – Satoru Sayama retired from NJPW and the gimmick was put on hold until AJPW bought it from NJPW in 1984, where the gimmick was given to Misawa. Mitsuharu Misawa had some big shoes to fill, and fill them he did. Wrestlers like The Dynamite Kid, Chavo Guerrero Sr and Atsushi Onita all got to feud with Tiger Mask II, and Kuniaki Kobayashi (who was dubbed Tiger Hunter) became Misawa’s most notable of feud. Misawa even took the Tiger Mask name to the AJPW Heavyweight division, a first for the Tiger Mask name where he was taken under the wing of Jumbo Tsuruta.

In working with Jumbo Tsuruta, Misawa became primed to take over as the ace of AJPW once Tsuruta retired, Misawa re-debuted as himself dropping the Tiger Mask moniker, it was as himself, he finally defeated Jumbo Tsuruta. Misawa had developed a truly ruthless and hard-hitting style of wrestling which was deeply enjoyable to watch, his in-ring psychology and storytelling made his matches instant classics. Feuding with Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue and Jun Akiyama which became known as AJPW’s great era and Misawa became of the greats in wrestling. Throughout the ’90s, Misawa further solidified his greatness and upon the death of Giant Baba in ’99, he became president of AJPW and became in charge of booking for the company. May 28th, 2000, Misawa was unfortunately removed as president of the company by the executive board due to Giant Baba’s widow – Motoko. Misawa wanted to take AJPW in a new direction, Mokoto wasn’t interested in this however and was determined for the company to stay the same as it was under her late great husband. Neither one would back down and this is what resulted in Misawa’s termination.

A large majority of AJPW’s talent left with Misawa which was a gigantic blow to the company, only Toshiaki Kawada, Masanobu Fuchi and gaijin’s Stan Hansen and Taiyō Kea remained. Some of those who left held senior management positions within the company, twelve office workers also later left to follow Misawa and the others. June 17th 2000, during a press conference, it was announced that they had left to create a new modern style company called – Pro Wrestling NOAH with the name being derived from the biblical story of Noah and his ark. NOAH was based in the Differ Ariake Arena in Tokyo, this was the companies home for fifteen years. Due to the mass walkout, AJPW lost its television deal as company NTV decided not to broadcast them anymore, giving the slot (that AJPW held for twenty-seven years) to NOAH. Most of AJPW’s roster leaving, left a bitter taste in Mokoto Baba’s mouth, she stated that Misawa had acted inconsiderately towards the company, she also made no mention of Misawa anywhere moving forward.

AJPW and NOAH were at odds with each other. Both companies held dates at the same time in July of 2000, they ignored each other, with not even former friends reconnecting. Misawa was open to having gaijins in the company and he opened the companies doors to Ring Of Honor, xWx (Westside Xtreme Wrestling) and various promotions from Mexico. Misawa loved xWx so much, he created SEM in ’06 (named after Noah’s son) which was to showcase up and coming trainees, where it was televised and held in Differ Ariake to a small and intimate crowd. KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji were trainers and would often appear on TV with their trainees, with other NOAH and various outside talents appearing on the show too.

Misawa introduced the GHC (Global Honored Crown) Heavyweight Championship in which he became its inaugural Champion. For the first four years of the Championships tenure, it was only held by Heavyweight wrestlers, it was all shook up when the Championship was given to Takeshi Rikio. By 2005, Pro Wrestling NOAH had become one of the best wrestling promotions in the world with its high-class wrestling, outstanding shows and great quality shows, easily selling out large arenas like the Nippon Budokan and the Toyko Dome. But, cracks started to appear in NOAH’s happy times.

June ’06, NOAH’s top star Kenta Kobashi was unfortunately diagnosed with kidney cancer and Misawa had a neck injury resulting in delaying his retirement and treatment to sort his neck out just so he could carry the promotion onwards. This led Misawa to plan for the future. Misawa could tell that his demise would be inside of the ring, so he composed a letter addressed to the individual that would be the unlucky opponent in this, to him, inevitability. Misawa allowed KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji to produce their shows to prepare NOAH for a future without him at the helm. Misawa’s health was declining, his growing weight meant he couldn’t do what he used to and his muscles began to atrophy. With all the pain he was in, it took a vast of painkillers to put him to sleep, this also caused detriment to his already weakened health.

NOAH announced cost-cutting measures to try save the company, this involved; no full crew on tours, anyone not pulling their weight would not find themselves on the card for any shows and younger wrestlers would be left at the dojo to train.

Then Mitsuharu Misawa’s prediction of his demise tragically came to fruition. Misawa’s intensely hard-hitting style of wrestling and his stubbornness to step aside proved too much for his weakened body. NOAH meant so much to him that he died for it. If Misawa had lived on, NOAH would have further struggled financially but it’s unlikely they would’ve teamed with New Japan which almost crippled the company.

The legacy he left in NOAH was enormous and his passing was crushing to wrestlers and fans alike with NOAH running two memorial shows for Misawa. One of the memorials held was at Differ Ariake, where the number of people attending far succeded Differ’s capacity with many people lining the outside. Every year in June, NOAH holds a memorial show for their founder with a portrait of him present watching over everything.

Mitsuharu Misawa remains one of the greatest wrestlers to step into the ring which is a testament to his greatness.