Mitsuharu Misawa was born on June 18, 1962 in Koshiyaga, Saitama, Japan. He had a passion for wrestling right from the beginning as he joined his high school amateur wrestling team. In 1980, he was the Japanese High School National Wrestling Champion and placed fifth at the World Championships in freestyle amongst the junior age group. Shohei “Giant” Baba saw potential in him and immediately recruited him into the All Japan Pro Wrestling dojo.

Trained by Baba along with Dick “The Destroyer” Beyer and Dory Funk Jr., Misawa would make his debut on August 21, 1981. All Japan would purchase the rights to the Tiger Mask gimmick from New Japan Pro Wrestling and in 1982 chose Misawa to inherit the mask. To take on the role of Tiger Mask after Satoru Sayama, who was by that point a legendary figure in wrestling for having been Tiger Mask, was without question a daunting task. Misawa managed to hold his own and find success under the mask, cemented by a rivalry with Kuniaki Kobayashi in 1985. During his time as Tiger Mask II, Misawa made trips to the United States and even competed in the first Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup in 1986 teaming with Giant Baba. They made it all the way to the semi-finals, where they lost to Magnum TA and Ronnie Garvin.

On May 14, 1990, during a tag team match with Toshiaki Kawada against Hiromichi Fuyuki and Yoshiaki Yatsu, Misawa commanded Kawada to unmask him. He would wrestle the remainder of the match as Mitsuharu Misawa, having abandoned the Tiger Mask gimmick right then and there. This would be the first step in establishing arguably one of the greatest wrestling careers. Weeks later on June 8, he challenged Tomomi “Jumbo” Tsuruta to a match. This match was seen as a turning point for All Japan and professional wrestling in general from then on.

Misawa would engage in legendary feuds and matches with Tsuruta, Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Masanobu Fuchi, Jun Akiyama, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, Johnny Ace, and Yoshinari Ogawa that were of the highest caliber. He helped launch the strong style aspect of wrestling into the forefront and All Japan as the elite promotion in the country. During his career, Misawa was the innovator of spectacular moves used today such as the Tiger Driver and a standing version of the Emerald Flowsion.

On January 22, 1999, All Japan president Shohei Baba was confined to a hospital bed, dying of cancer. He watched Toshiaki Kawada defeat Mitsuharu Misawa for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship and declared it the greatest wrestling match he had ever seen. It would be the last as he would pass away nine days later at the age of 61. Shortly afterward, Misawa would inherit the position of All Japan president. It would not be a smooth run as he often clashed with Baba’s wife Motoko. Their differences were set aside only temporarily when Tomomi Tsuruta passed away on May 13, 2000 at the National Hospital in the Phillippines due to complications from a kidney transplant he needed after being diagnosed with kidney cancer. Following Tsuruta’s funeral and memorial show, Misawa was removed as All Japan president by a majority vote of the executive board on May 22.

On June 13, 2000, Misawa resigned from his position on the All Japan board during a regular meeting. He was not alone as Mitsuo Momota, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Kenichi Oyagi, and Yoshihiro Momota all resigned with him. All were members of directory, Taue was also chairman, and Mitsuo Momota was co-vice president. This marked the beginning of a mass exodus of wrestlers of All Japan who felt that their careers were being hampered by Motoko Baba and others. Adding to the concept of what was transpiring, Misawa would create a new wrestling promotion named Pro Wrestling NOAH. The first show of the new promotion was held on August 5 and 6 in Tokyo under the name “Depature.”

Since the creation of NOAH, Misawa had mostly backed off from being the focal wrestler unless it was necessary for him to do so, instead deferring to Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, and later Takeshi Morishima and Naomichi Marufuji to carry the company in the ring. He would instead spend more of his time behind the scenes running the company in a manner that was seen as a contiuation of the promotional system during his era in All Japan. The slight modifications included allowing outside participation even from other Japanese promotions, an act which Baba forbid, and an evolution of the junior heavyweight division through the likes of Marufuji, KENTA, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

On June 13, 2009, Misawa teamed with Go Shiozaki to challenge Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith for the GHC World Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in Hiroshima. At around the 8:45pm Japanese time mark, Saito gave Misawa a basic, standard back suplex. Misawa hit his head on his way down. He didn’t get up. The match was immediately stopped as chaos ensued in the ring with attempts being made to revive him using CPR. The 2,300 in attendance where in a hushed silence at first before chanting “Misawa” in the hope that it would help bring him back to consciousness. He was immediately carried out and rushed to the nearest hospital. Reports were that he suffered a cardiac arrest upon taking the move.

At 10:10pm, he was pronounced dead at the hospital. He was 46, five days shy of his birthday.

Misawa’s death is the lead story at virtually every Japanese news outlet as well as the wrestling news sites on the Internet. Newspapers that were just about to go to print when the announcement of his death was made immediately redid their papers to include the tragic report.

Many wrestlers from the United States have posted their comments upon hearing the news.

Matt Hardy: “Just read that Mitsuharu Misawa passed away while performing in Japan on Saturday night. A very sad thing to hear.”

Jeremy Borash: “Shocked to hear of the passing of Mitsuharu Misawa. Was lucky enough to meet him at last year’s Tokyo Dome show. What a sad tragedy.”

Matt Morgan: “Horrible news today guys. Just heard Japanese legendary wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa passed away. Misawa was always a class act towards me.”

Gangrel: “Had some great matches with Misawa. So sad. What a loss to our sport.”

Eddie Kingston: “Thank you very much for the matches and the moments, that shaped many of us to step into the ring.”

Reigning Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Heavyweight Champion Chris Hero is currently in Japan, about to embark on his most recent tour in NOAH, when he got word of the news. He posted the following on his MySpace page:

“Words cannot express how deeply shocked I am. We’re all just in utter disbelief. Stunned sadness.

“The moments at ringside felt an eternity. 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 fucking 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.

“My heart goes out to his family. 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.”

The future of Pro Wrestling NOAH is very uncertain. They had lost their television deal not too long ago and there hadn’t really been a lot of considerations for who would succeed Misawa in running the promotion. One thing for sure is that there will be a huge shift in the direction of presentation of professional wrestling in Japan, much like there was when Baba passed away in 1999. There is also a very eerie coincidence moment as “The Wrestler” opened in Japan on the day Misawa died. Given the final scene of the film, it is sure to be looked upon in more haunting light.

Mitsuharu Misawa leaves behind one of the greatest wrestling legacies in the business. Five-time AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, six-time AJPW Unified World Tag Team Champion, NWA International Junior Heavyweight Champion, PWG World Tag Team Champion, two-time Champion’s Carnival winner, four-time World’s Strongest Tam Team League winner, three-time GHC World Heavyweight Champion, two-time GHC World Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, Global Tag League winner.

Dan Short
dan@ifight365.com