A great tragedy in the world of professional wrestling went largely unnoticed outside of Japan. Mitsuharu Misawa, the man known as "The Standard Bearer For Future Generations", died in the ring during a tag team match pitting him and Go Shiozaki against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith at Hiroshima Green Arena. Misawa lost consciousness after receiving a belly-to-back suplex from Saito and was rushed to a nearby hospital. At around 10:10 p.m. Japan Standard Time (approximately 9:10 p.m. in Manila), he was pronounced dead from a cervical spinal cord injury.
Misawa leaves behind such a rich legacy that Pro Wrestling Illustrated has fittingly described him as "'Triple H', Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, and Shawn Michaels" all put together in one package. He held several titles in All Japan Pro Wrestling and in Pro Wrestling NOAH, including the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship and NOAH's GHC Heavyweight Championship. He was also honored several times for his matches with fellow Japanese stars Kenta Kobashi, Yoshinari Ogawa, Akira Taue, Toshiaki Kawada, and Jun Akiyama by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and had outstanding bouts with American stars Stan "The Lariat" Hansen and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams as well. Misawa was recognized as #2 in the 1997 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 rankings.
In the words of John Molinari of SLAM! Wrestling, "Misawa has been the best wrestler in the business over the past 11 years.
Bar none.
Since 1990, nobody, (repeat NOBODY), has had more five-star matches, has been a better in-ring performer and has achieved a consistent, higher match quality standard than Misawa.
What makes Misawa so special?
Misawa is not a performer. He's not a sports entertainer. He's not an action adventure series hero.
He's a wrestler.
Not only that, he is a wrestler in the most physically demanding wrestling promotion on earth, competing before the most knowledgeable and critical wrestling fans in the world."
Rest in peace, Mr. Misawa. Those who love the sport of professional wrestling will never forget you.
(Both online and non-online sources for this post may be found in the References section of Wikipedia's entry for Mitsuharu Misawa.)
