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Weekly Pro magazine publishes Misawa back drop photos
By Zach Arnold | June 16, 2009

Given that Samurai TV is airing Misawa’s last match in its entirety tonight, I suppose the boundaries don’t exist in terms of showing how he died. Here are the photos from this week’s Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine: here, here, and here.
As far as MMA content on the site goes, it will resume as scheduled shortly. I thank everyone for their patience here, as the Misawa story is by far the biggest story this year in Japan and one of the bigger stories to hit the fight scene there.
Topics: Japan, Media, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I don’t understand the problem with this guy. I had no idea who he was prior to this and still don’t. It’s not like he died in some sleazy hotel room after OD’ing on oxycontin or killing his family in a roid rage. He seems to have died honorably which is what the Japanese are all about anyway. Good to pay respects but in terms of actual importance to have exclusive coverage, to each his own I guess.
No worries Zach! Sometimes I’m among those who moan about the pro-wrestling stuff but in this instance, the potential parallels to MMA are stark enough to warrant bringing this into the larger discussion.
Man, it looks like he was still taking the bumps like it was AJPW 1995. I’m glad I got the opportunity to see him in Hayward, CA for the Pro Wrestling IRON shows.
i have been following you since the launch of puro power back in the day. the stiff style and work-shoots from battlarts back in the day got me into mma in the first place. thanks for covering this story since i cant read/speak/comprehend japanese.
Supposedly, Samurai won’t air any of the Misawa match.
It definitely goes along with the Japanese Fight Industry coverage, to those unfamiliar with it.
In America, pro wrestling is a joke, but in Japan it used to be on the front page of sports newspaper sections right next to boxing, kickboxing, judo and eventually MMA. While Misawa (and All Japan) never went for the MMA acceptance that Inoki did, by default he is linked to the Japanese fight industry. He was what Steve Austin was to America in terms of starpower in the 1990s.
I could see people being mad if Zach was giving Test’s death a while back the same coverage, but this does directly link to Japan’s fight industry, of which the coverage Zach gives it separates it from the American-only feel of the majority of MMA blogs.
Nikkan Sports interviewed Misawa’s best friend, who revealed that Misawa had been suffering from chronic neck pain for the past three years. It flared up about once every three months, but apparently it became worse from December of last year. He was often rubbing his neck and complaining that he grew tired in about as third as much time as usual. His blood circulation was poor, and his knee was so bad that when they went to an izakaya, he couldn’t stand without help. Apparently he had bags under his eyes after drinking for an hour.
His friend questioned him about retiring two years ago, but Misawa felt NOAH would go under without him. In February, the friend developed thyroid cancer. Misawa visited him in hospital and his friend urged him to have a full examination, which Misawa promised he would do.
The irony here is that Mutoh has come out and said that he and Misawa were in talks about starting a union and pushing for a license system similar to boxing. He also stated that Misawa wanted NOAH, All Japan and New Japan to merge into one promotion.
On a slightly better note, the Japan Transplant Support Association will honour Misawa for the work he did in the wake of Jumbo Tsuruta’s death. Misawa apparently raised one million yen through his volunteer work and helped raise the acknowledgment level of organ transplant in Japan.
Don’t be sorry about the coverage. I wish fightopinion could be MMA AND puro coverage. MAKE IT HAPPEN!