Mitsuharu Misawa

debut = August 21, 1981 of AJPW, along with Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, and Akira Taue; the quartet's matches and ring-psychology would become the basis of the ōdō , or King's Road style of wrestling.

Debuting in 1981, Misawa became the second wrestler to assume the Tiger Mask persona, which he maintained until the end of the decade. After the departure of Genichiro Tenryu and his exodus, Misawa unmasked in May 1990 and began a rivalry with company ace Jumbo Tsuruta. At the behest of company president Giant Baba, Misawa would lead a team of young talents known as the , which saw many different variants throughout the 1990s, mainly involving Misawa and Kobashi. Following Misawa's victory over Tsuruta on June 8, 1990, AJPW sold out every Tokyo event they held into early 1996, Misawa then led a mass exodus of the promotion's talent to form Pro Wrestling Noah, which was successful in the first half of the decade; as business declined and top star Kobashi temporarily retired in 2006 due to kidney cancer, Misawa continued to work a full-time schedule despite mounting injuries for the company's survival. He sought to mentor Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, and Go Shiozaki to be flagbearers for the promotion in spite of his age. On June 13, 2009, during a tag team match in Hiroshima with Shiozaki against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith, Misawa died after a backdrop suplex from Saito, and his death was attributed to the numerous injuries he had accrued for years before his death.

Misawa is regarded by some as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, though the physical demands and consequences of the style in which he worked and the circumstances of his death have made his legacy (or at least that of ōdō) somewhat problematic. Misawa was an eight-time world champion and eight-time world tag team champion, having won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship five times and the GHC Heavyweight Championship (which he was the inaugural holder of) three times. Fifty-three of the sixty-nine events at the Nippon Budokan that Misawa headlined were sellouts, Despite never working in the United States during the 1990s, Misawa had a significant influence upon independent wrestling through the popularity of his work among tape-traders in predominantly English-speaking countries.

Misawa was named Wrestler of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) on three occasions (1995, 1997 and 1999), and at the time of his death held the record for most WON five star matches, with 25, including one as Tiger Mask. Several of his matches have been dubbed some of the greatest of all time, including his match with Kawada on June 3, 1994, his match with Kenta Kobashi on March 1, 2003, and his and Kobashi's tag team match against Kawada and Taue (the Holy Demon Army) on June 9, 1995.

Early life Misawa was born in Yūbari, Hokkaidō, but the family moved to Koshigaya, Saitama, as the coal mine where his father worked declined. Originally, his name was supposed to be Hideki, but was changed to Mitsuharu after his mother was denied honors.

Misawa had an older brother, Misawa had wanted to pursue a vocation as a professional wrestler since he was 12, (Misawa's amateur wrestling coach, Yamato Oshimo, also trained Kawada to a national championship in 1981 when he defeated Keiichi Yamada.) In April 1983, Baba held a round-robin tournament for AJPW's lower-ranked wrestlers called the Lou Thesz Cup, and Misawa entered the tournament alongside Koshinaka, Fuyuki, Mitsuo and brother Yoshihiro Momota, Sugawara, Kawada, and Tarzan Goto. Baba had intended to send the tournament winner on a foreign excursion, but while Misawa lost the match, he was perceived as the superior talent, despite Koshinaka being three years his senior, so Baba decided to send them both. Misawa debuted as the character at a July 31 show in the Kuramae Kokugikan, and in his first match he defeated La Fiera at the sold-out Denen Coliseum on August 26. Misawa would notably work with Jerry Estrada and Pirata Morgan over the rest of the year. The aerial style which Misawa had been made to adopt under the Tiger Mask II gimmick strained his knees. According to Masanobu Fuchi, Misawa was actually more interested in working a ground-based style, and years later, he would comment that it was more difficult to elicit crowd reaction when working under the hood. Nonetheless, since the audience expected the superhuman from the Tiger Mask character, crowds were more difficult to impress during this period than they were after his unmasking. Upon his return, the Tiger Mask-Kobayashi program culminated on August 31 when Misawa won the title from Kobayashi in a rematch, After a successful defense in Aizuwakamatsu against Chavo Guerrero Sr. on October 28, Baba graduated Misawa to the heavyweight class due to his knee problems, and the championship was vacated in March 1986. The next day, Misawa was taken to the AWA's WrestleRock 86 event by Stan Hansen, where he defeated Buck Zumhofe. Misawa transitioned into being Tsuruta's occasional tag partner as Tsuruta's feud with Genichiro Tenryu became AJPW's main program. In what was then "the biggest singles win of his career", according to Meltzer, For the 1987 WSTDL, Misawa entered alongside Shinichi Nakano, and the two tied for eighth place, with three wins, seven losses, and one double count-out.

On AJPW's first event of 1988, Misawa wrestled an AWA World Heavyweight Championship match against Curt Hennig. Misawa won by countout, but the title did not change hands. This was very controversial at the time, since titles frequently changed hands via countout in Japan. For that year's WSTDL, Misawa teamed with Jimmy Snuka, where they tied for seventh place with seven points. On March 8, 1989, in the penultimate match of a card at the Nippon Budokan, Misawa received an NWA title shot against Ricky Steamboat, which he lost. He ruptured his left anterior cruciate ligament during the match, and was inactive for the rest of 1989. On February 10, Misawa would wrestle for the first time inside the Tokyo Dome, though not in an AJPW event. NJPW president Seiji Sakaguchi asked Baba to help the company with their second Tokyo Dome show after plans with WCW fell through, and he agreed under the condition that the AJPW wrestlers would not be beaten or made to look weak. Misawa teamed with Genichiro Tenryu in a victory by countout against George Takano and Riki Choshu, in an event that sold out the Tokyo Dome with 53,000 people in attendance (the day after Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas drew 30,000 people). On April 9, Misawa and Kenta Kobashi won the All Asia Tag Team Championship from the Can-Am Express, and four days later, Misawa wrestled Bret Hart to a time-limit draw at the WWF/NJPW/AJPW Supershow in the Dome.

Later that month, top star Genichiro Tenryu abruptly departed AJPW. He disagreed with Baba's creative direction, especially the booker's resistance to shootfighting influence on the All Japan product. Tenryu received a lucrative offer from Hachiro Tanaka, executive of eyewear company Megane Super, who had been interested in building his own wrestling promotion (and had almost signed Keiji Mutoh instead, but was blocked by Sakaguchi). This was initially under the auspices of becoming an ambassador for the brand, but the actual intentions of this deal were made clear months later by the formation of wrestling promotion Super World of Sports (and a resultant exodus of talent in its wake). Since this departure left Jumbo Tsuruta as the only native main event star that the promotion had, Baba made the decision to turn Misawa into his new rising star. Misawa challenged his "childhood hero" Tsuruta to a singles match.

Feud with Jumbo Tsuruta and first Triple Crown victory (1990–1993)

The tour built up to the Misawa-Tsuruta match through a series of six-man tags in which Misawa and fellow young stars, later to be known under the faction name of the Super Generation Army (, Chosedaigun), wrestled Tsuruta's stable. According to a now-famous backstage story which has been recounted several times by Meltzer, Baba's decision to put Misawa over came during the event itself as, in the culmination of a trend that had been observed at house shows leading to this, Baba arrived at the venue to fans chanting "Misawa" outside, and noticed a significant boost in Misawa merchandise sales. This show had drawn about 500 people shy of a sellout, which was a rare attendance figure for All Japan. However, the momentum of Misawa's push led All Japan to sell out every event they held in Tokyo after this until early 1996. Misawa lost to Tsuruta in a rematch on September 1, which determined the number one contender for the Triple Crown.

In a match against Taue on January 26, 1991, Misawa won by debuting the Tiger Driver '91, a variation of his Tiger Driver (sitout double underhook powerbomb) wherein he kept the double underhook applied while Taue was in midair to cause him to land on his head and shoulders. Misawa then entered the 1991 Champion Carnival, held for the first time since 1982, Misawa challenged Tsuruta for the Triple Crown on April 18, in the main event of a Budokan show that set an attendance record, but lost to him for the second consecutive time in singles competition. On June 9, Misawa pinned former Triple Crown champion Terry Gordy during a singles match in what was considered an upset, and when Misawa and Kawada faced Satsujin Gyorai on July 24 for a second tag title match, he pinned Gordy again. The pair made their first defense against Tsuruta and Taue on September 4 at Nippon Budokan, with Misawa historically forcing Jumbo to submit to a standing variation of the crossface to end the match. They vacated the belts for the 1991 WSTDL, which they entered. On a tournament match on November 21 against Kobashi and Kikuchi, Misawa's eye was swollen shut after an elbow strike from Kobashi. Misawa and Kawada reached the finals despite this, wherein they lost to Satsujin Gyorai in 25:24. Misawa unsuccessfully challenged Triple Crown champion Hansen for the belts. In the 1992 Champion Carnival, which took place from March 20 to April 17, Misawa reached the finals for the first time. On the twelfth date of the tournament, April 2, he wrestled Tsuruta in what would be their final singles match, and the two went to a 30-minute time-limit draw. Reigning Triple Crown champion Stan Hansen, who had lost to Tsuruta in the previous Champion Carnival final, defeated Misawa for his first CC win. On June 5, Misawa and Kobashi challenged Tsuruta and Taue for the World tag titles, but Taue pinned Kobashi for a successful defense. Misawa injured his shoulder in July and missed a few small dates. However, Tsuruta was also absent from the tour, for what was initially reported as a knee injury, but was actually more serious, and AJPW did not want to lose both of their biggest draws for a whole tour. As a result, Misawa was forced back into action before he was ready, and worked matches while wearing a sling. In his first defense, on the final card of the October Giant Series tour, Misawa defeated Kawada at Budokan. He and Kawada would later win the 1992 WSTDL, defeating Taue and Jun Akiyama (who had only debuted that September) on December 4 and earning their second World Tag Team Championship as a result. They would again drop the belts to Satsujin Gyorai in their first defense on January 30 when Williams pinned Misawa. On February 28, however, Misawa successfully defended his Triple Crown title against Taue.

Feud with Toshiaki Kawada and teaming with Kenta Kobashi (1993–1995) The Misawa-Kawada team would soon end. Jumbo Tsuruta's career, at least as a main-event wrestler, was over; he had abruptly left after completing the October Giant Series tour, and was diagnosed with hepatitis. Due to the void this left in the All Japan product, and Taue's specific need for a tag partner, Baba split Kawada from Misawa in the spring of 1993 to become his premier native rival in singles competition. In early March 1993, Kawada announced that he would no longer work as Misawa's tag partner after the advertised matches on the tour had been fulfilled. At the time he denied that he would join up with the remains of Jumbo's faction, who were being led by Akira Taue. Nevertheless, Misawa made a successful Triple Crown defense against Hansen on May 21 in Sapporo. and had told Nakata that he did not wish to work a farewell tour. They had two children, a daughter named Kaede and a son named Shizuma, who were reported to have been 20 and 17 years of age, respectively, at the time of his death. Misawa was very private about his life outside of wrestling, to the point that wrestlers who had known him for decades were unaware that he had children. Misawa said that the green attire and boots he wore were influenced by Horst Hoffman.

Death On June 13, 2009, Misawa teamed with Shiozaki against GHC Tag Team Champions Saito and Smith in a title match at Hiroshima Green Arena. The match was supposed to last 37 minutes, but around ten minutes before the scheduled finish, Misawa took a back suplex from Saito. The injury was specified and reported by Meltzer as a cervical fracture, which separated Misawa's first and second cervical vertebrae, known as atlanto-axial dislocation. However, highbrow newspapers and mainstream sources gave the event little coverage (NHK only devoted one minute to the story on their primetime newscast), since older editors did not consider wrestling major news due to its great decline in overall popularity. WWE wrestler CM Punk wrote 'MISAWA' on his wrist and forearm tape as tribute during the June 15 episode of WWE Raw. Also, Yoshi Tatsu wore a ring attire resembling Misawa's for some weeks as a tribute.

At a tour bus meeting after Misawa was taken to the hospital, Noah wrestlers were informed that he had died, but that the company could not afford to cancel the tour's remaining dates. Saito later admitted to suicidal ideation during this period.

A private funeral was held on June 18, with around 100 people in attendance. While much of the Noah roster could not attend due to a Nagoya show, many wrestlers still attended the ceremony, including Kawada, and Motoko Baba was also present. Kobashi, Taue, Ogawa, Shiozaki, Marufuji, Asako, Kotaro Suzuki, and Ippei Ota were the pallbearers. Despite the 27 °C (80.6 °F) temperature, this event, for which they had anticipated an attendance of 5,000 people, attracted a line of 26,000 people which stretched for 2.4 kilometers. Meltzer reported that this was the second most-attended public funeral for a Japanese athlete (only surpassed by the April 17, 1999, ceremony for Giant Baba at Budokan, attended by 28,000 people), and possibly (at the time) the fourth-most attended public funeral for an athlete in history.

Misawa's death caused several wrestling promotions to work toward a stronger approach to regulating professional wrestling in the country. On what would have been his 47th birthday, June 18, Hiroshi Hase organized a meeting towards this end with the heads of NJPW (Naoki Sugabayashi), AJPW (Keiji Mutoh), and Noah (business head Ryu Nakata) in attendance, as well as Yoshirō Mori, Kenshiro Matsunami, and Shinobu Kandori. While the unified regulating body favored by Mutoh did not come to exist, these talks did have some positive effects.

Championships and accomplishments