AJPW
Misawa was a fan of puroresu from an early age, becoming enamored with All Japan and his idol Jumbo Tsuruta. He wished to drop out of high school in order to get a head start on his training, but a chance encounter with Tsurata led Jumbo to convince him to at least graduate high school in order to help his prospects if wrestling didn’t work for him.
Like Misawa would wash out.
Coming out of high school, Misawa was a distinguished amateur wrestler, placing 5th in the Junior group at the 1980 World Freestyle Wrestling championships. Now having a solid base to build upon, he was trained in the All Japan Dojo by top gaijin Dick The Destroyer and Dory Funk, Jr., as well as AJPW owner Giant Baba. Clearly, they saw something in him.
He debuted as a young lion in August of 1981 in a match against fellow young lion and future inaugural IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Shiro Koshinaka. He had a few more matches in Japan before AJPW sent him on a learning excursion to EMLL, now CMLL, to polish some high flying skills in the land of Lucha, where he did just that under the late La Fiera. Japanese promotions tend to send the prospects they have high hopes for to foreign countries in order to either get them skilled in different styles or to humble them before a big push, and for Misawa, it was probably both.
Upon his full time return to AJPW in 1984, Misawa was given the Tiger Mask from Satoru Sayama, who had left NJPW the previous year, leaving AJPW to purchase the rights to the character, and sticking Misawa under the legendary fuzzy mask, even as it’s source anime declined in popularity, and another anime character turned wrestler in Jushin Thunder Liger was becoming popular. After a few years under the mask, Misawa gained a bit of weight and graduated to heavyweight class, making him the only Tiger Mask to not stay in the Junior divisions. He began to shine around this time, with a time limit draw with Bret Hart making him a big name, despite Bret saying in his book (which is a fantastic read, by the way) that Misawa was “nothing close to the original, but in fairness to him, those were big shoes to fill.”
In 1990, Tiger Mask II commanded his partner Toshiaki Kawada to unmask him in the middle of the match, thus abandoning the gimmick, and finishing the match as himself, which he would remain for the rest of his career.
He was unmasked and returned to his real name at the order of Baba, who had decided to make Misawa his new top star in the wake of Genichiro Tenryu’s departure.
Just a month after his unmasking, Misawa defeated his idol Jumbo Tsuruta in the main event of a Nippon Budokan show, which is equivalent to Triple H beating Cactus Jack at the 2000 Royal Rumble in that it showed that Misawa could hang with the top guys and deliver an amazing match in front of the toughest crowds; defiant of what the critics may have thought, while also establishing him as a legitimate threat in the main event scene.
Misawa would win the hearts and minds of the wrestling world as he chased the AJPW Triple Crown title and the World’s Strongest Tag tournament titles, but to no avail, always being pinned in the finals of a tournament, or just unable to defeat sitting gaijinchampions like Stan Hansen (HEEEWWWWWW) or Terry Gordy. In the meantime, he would prove that his star making win over Tsuruta wasn’t a fluke, forcing the superstar to tap clean in the center of the ring in a tag match.
Finally, in August 1992, eleven years and a day removed from his debut, he defeated Stan Hansen to win the first of what would be five AJPW Triple Crown titles, with his first reign lasting over two years as Baba solidified his status as AJPW’s ace.
The ninties were Misawa’s decade, as he would win the Triple Crown four more times, have TWENTY TWO of his TWENTY SIX five star matches per Meltzer, winning Wrestler of The Year in ‘95,’97, and ’99, Most Outstanding Wrestler in 1997 and 1999, Feud of The Year against Tsuruta in 1990 and 1991, won Tag Team of the Year four times with three different partners: Toshiaki Kawada in 1991, Kenta Kobashi in 1995, and Jun Akiyama in 1996 and 1997, won six World Tag titles with the aforementioned men and once more with Yoshinari Ogawa, and a PWF Tag title with his idol Tsuruta, and two All Asia Tag champion runs with Kobashi and Ogawa, win the World’s Strongest Determination Tag League four times, three with Kobashi and once with Kawada. He was also an inductee in the very first Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame class in 1996.
Holy fuck, what a resume.
Pro Wrestling NOAH
After ruling the decade as likely the best wrestler in the world, the end of the old century and the turn of the new would bring about great change, both in Misawa’s career and the landscape of pro wrestling in the world.
Giant Baba, owner, head booker, and founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling, died of cancer on January 31, 1999. His ownership share of the company went to his widow Mokoto, while the titles of president of the board and head booker went to his protege Misawa.
A year and a half later, after much bickering and many heated exchanges over their differing directions for the company, Mokoto and Misawa had their ultimate separation, as Misawa was removed from his position as president by a majority vote of the executive board on May 28, 2000, which Misawa was not a part of.
However, Misawa was a part of the regular board, and on June 13, 2000, he and fellow board members Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Kenichi Oyagi, and Yoshihiro Mamota resigned from their positions within the board, the active wrestling roster, and the company altogether, effective immediately.
Mokoto Baba released a statement smearing Misawa, stating that he “took no responsibility and abandoned his duties.”
Three days later, Misawa was joined by 24 of the 26 Japanese wrestlers on the AJPW roster and announced that they would be leaving immediately and joining Misawa’s then unnamed promotion, with it’s first show to be the next month. In the end, all but two Japanese wrestlers: Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada(Misawa’s former tag partner and bitter enemy) , and two foreigners: Stan Hansen(who would retire shortly after the exodus) and Maunnakea Mossman(Taiyo Kea) would depart Baba’s world and join Misawa.
Misawa named his new promotion NOAH, after the story of Noah taking two of every animal into his ark before the flood that destroyed the world came. A damning critique of Makoto Baba. NOAH’s logo of a dove holding an olive branch near an ark reflects it’s Biblical origin. And perhaps some sort of peace for the talent now free of Mokoto’s clutches? I don’t know.
All Japan has never been the same, and after another exodus due to disputes with management, the most recent being Mutoh’s Wrestle-1, it seems Misawa was the first shot in a volley that is slowly sinking the once mighty All Japan.
Misawa did return for a few matches in AJPW, only after Baba relinquished control of the company and gave the reigns to Mutoh.
On August 5th and 6th, NOAH held their inaugural shows, titled DEPARTURE, setting off a series of shows that would see NOAH rocket to the first place spot in the Japanese Wrestling Wars, as a near dead All Japan and an Inoki MMA heavy and fan shortened New Japan were faced with stiff competition from the top wrestler in Japan, if not the world.
During NOAH’s run, ROH and NOAH agreed to trade talent, leading to Misawa making some of his only appearances in the US.
A tournament was held a year after NOAH’s formation, in April 2001, where Misawa ran the table and became the inaugural GHC (Global Honored Crown) Heavyweight Champion, which he would go on to win twice more, and still stands at the second longest combined reign, even six years after his death. He would also team with his most consistent tag partner Yoshinari Ogawa to win the GHC Tag Team titles. He had a series of feuds with his friend and number two Kenta Kobashi, and found a protege out of NOAH’s Sem Dojo in Go Shiozaki, who became Misawa’s new tag partner and looked to become a huge star as Misawa’s career wound down as he approached middle age.
Death
Unfortunately, Misawa never got to see his protege win the GHC Heavyweight title, or transition out of the ring and behind the scenes to see his promotion settle nicely into the number two spot in Japan.
As we all know, the puroresu style in Japan is extremely different from US style, mainly in that strikes and throws are often legitimate and stiff, but not with the intention to harm or any malice, it just is. Even if Inoki was right and Baba’s style was more showman style, AJPW was still Strong Style.
Misawa wrestled like that as a top face for nearly thirty years, and as he approached his mid forties, his body began to break down. Misawa had gotten noticeably fat, as a knee injury had slowed his ability to work out and burn the fat away, along with some seemingly minor knocks and bruises from repeated stiff blows and hard slams. But those little rain drops don’t seem significant until the dam breaks and no one can fix it.
On June 13, 2009, Misawa was tagging with his padawan Shiozaki were wrestling in a tag match against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith. After taking a routine, properly executed belly to back suplex from Saito, Misawa lay motionless on the mat, not responding in any manner. The ring was quickly swarmed by paramedics as the crowd alternated between hushed silence, chanting Misawa’s name, and nervous chatter. Misawa was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Misawa’s family invoked a Japanese law that forbade the hospital from publicly releasing the cause of death, but it is generally postulated that Misawa’s years of hard back bumps and refusal to change his style or work lighter had weakened his neck and spine, and that the back suplex was the final straw, his spinal cord was severed, and he died unconscious from a heart attack.
Mitsuharu Misawa was mourned the world over, with NOAH holding a tribute show, NOAH’s top rival New Japan holding a tribute show, AAA holding a minute long standing ovation, ROH holding a ten bell salute, and of course being eulogized by his number one fan Dave Meltzer in the WON.
In a sort of finishing of the circle of his career, an elbow throwing wrestler in popular anime Space Dandy was very clearly supposed to be Misawa, bringing a tribute to a man who became popular initially because he played an anime character come to life.
MIS-A-WA, MIS-A-WA, MIS-A-WA.
