TWA Remembers Mitsuharu Misawa

Mitsuharu Misawa passed away on June 13, 2009, in Hiroshima, Japan when he lost consciousness after taking a backdrop in a tag team match. Misawa never came around and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 10:10 p.m. JST that night. Days later, his death was attributed to spinal damage caused by the move. He was 46.
Mitsuharu Misawa started his career as a promising amateur wrestler, placing fifth in his age group at the 1980 freestyle World Championships. Shortly after, due to his dislike of amateur wrestling, he pursued a career in professional wrestling, a growing sport in Japan. In 1978, he had visited Jumbo Tsuruta, a Japanese wrestling star, at the All Japan Pro Wrestling offices who told him to finish high school before joining the pro wrestling circuit. In 1981, he was trained by puroresu (name for pro wrestling in Japan) legend and All Japan Pro Wrestling owner Shohei "Giant" Baba and gaijin stars (foreign wrestlers in Japan) "The Destroyer" Dick Beyer and Dory Funk Jr. On August 21, 1981, he made his in-ring debut in Urawa, Japan, against Shiro Koshinaka. Then in 1984, he was awarded the Puroresu Award for Rookie of the Year. He continued to work on the Japanese circuit waiting for his break when he and Koshinaka were sent by AJPW to EMLL, the leading lucha libre in Mexico where he competed as Kamikaze Misawa on a tag team with Koshinaka who competed as Samurai Shiro. Later that year, he returned to All Japan where he was given a new gimmick, Tiger Mask II. The original Tiger Mask had left pro wrestling and Misawa was chosen as his predecessor when AJPW bought the rights to the character from rival promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling. The following year, he was moved to the heavyweight division by AJPW management, a move disapproved by many.
In 1990, top AJPW Genichiro Tenryu had decided to leave the company and left a void in the main event. With that Misawa had the opportunity of a lifetime. On May 14, 1990, he teamed with Toshiaki Kawada to face Yoshiaki Yatsu and Hiromichi Fuyuki. During the match he commanded his partner Kawada to unmask him, thus abandoning the Tiger Mask gimmick. Then a month later on June 8, he got his first major singles victory since his unmasking by pinning the Tsuruta, a top AJPW star. This was also the first match in which Misawa wore green, in tribute to one of his idols, the late German wrestler Horst Hoffman. In 1992, Tsuruta fell ill with severe liver problems caused by a Hepatitis B infection, and his career was virtually over, making Misawa the main star in All Japan. On August 22, 1992, he became the AJPW Triple Crown Champion, the company's highest honor, for the first tim when he defeated Stan Hansen in Tokyo, Japan.
Also during Misawa's rise to fame, he had formed a tag team with Toshiaki Kawada that resulted in several titles and accolaids, such as winning the World's Strongest Tag Team League. By 1993, though, the group had broken up. Their breaking-up and ineveitable feud lead to one of the biggest power struggles in puroresu's history. The feud would come to be between the Shitenno Puroresu, or Four Heavenly Kings of Pro Wrestling. Misawa, Kawada, Akira Taue, and Kenta Kobashi would take their feud all over Japan for many years. No one outside the Kings would hold the Triple Crown Misawa's second reign in 1995 until Vader's victory four years later. From 1994 to 2000, Misawa would win the Triple Crown five times for a total 1,799 days, a thousand days more than Kawada who has held it second most for 743 days.
On January 31, 1999, Giant Baba, owner, founder, and booker of AJPW, passed away and left Misawa the role of head booker. However, tensions began to arise that year between Misawa and Baba's widow Motoko. The struggle reached its climax with Misawa's decision to leave the company in April 2000 (every April, all AJPW contracts were up for negotiation). His decision to depart from the promotion was followed by his decision to open up his very own company. Once Misawa decided to leave All Japan, he was followed by all AJPW natives excluding Masanobu Fuchi and Kawada. His promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH, named for the wrestlers' exodus, debuted on August 5, 2000.
Since 2000, NOAH has grown to become one of the two biggest promotions in Japan along with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Misawa held the Global Honored Crown Heavyweight Title (NOAH's top singles honor) three times and the GHC Tag Team Titles twice with Yoshinari Ogawa. In 2007, Misawa made two appearances for Ring of Honor Wrestling in 2007. Earlier this year, Misawa, along with partner Go Shiozaki, won the Global Tag League in NOAH.
Misawa's death comes as a complete shock to the entire wrestling industry. With over twenty-eight years experience, he was still at the top of his game, competing for NOAH's top honors. In his journey through pro wrestling, Mitsuharu Misawa left a large mark on the business. His influence has been felt by wrestlers of all paths, espeacially those in puroresu, a sport he helped keep alive during its slow period in the 1990's. His impact will also be felt by anyone who recognizes the Pro Wrestling NOAH logo. He isn't known as the Standard Bearer of Future Generations for no reason. Rest in peace Mitsuharu Misawa. フレッシュな運命を楽しんでください.

News + Notes (4/4-4/10)

- After losing his Intercontinental Championship at Wrestlemania 25, JBL announced on Monday that he has wrestled his final match. It had been a rumor for weeks that JBL would be hanging up the boots. Also, John Layfield revealed that since his final match couldn't be against the late Eddie Guerrero, that he wanted to retire to Eddie's good friend Rey Mysterio Jr, the man who beat JBL for the IC Title on Sunday.
- When asked by the Baltimore Sun on if she would join TNA, Torrie Wilson responded, "No. Nothing against TNA, but WWE is where you would want to be in that industry." On her possible return: "...You know, I get anxiety going to visit my mom on a plane now because I was just traveling so much before [laughs.] So the thought of being gone even one day a week doesn't sound like something I'd want to do."
- TNA star Kevin Nash is reportedly angered over Eric Bischoff calling him "Big Lazy" in a recent interview.
- Ayako Hamada, Japanese female star and daughter of legend Gran Hamada, has signed on with TNA to join the Knockouts division. Hamada, a former protege of Joshi legend Aja Kong, has ARISON, AAA, the Ito Dojo, and briefly WWE. Her last match on the Japenese circuit is scheduled for April 19th.
- The death of Andrew "Test" Martin, former WWE and TNA star, has been ruled an accidental oxycodone overdose.
- Beginning tonight, Jim Ross will assume the color commentary role on Friday night Smackdown. This is ocurring becuase of Tazz's decision to not re-sign with WWE last week. On Tuesday, Josh Matthews took the play-by-play role on ECW which moves his predecessor Todd Grisham to play-by-play on Smackdown, the job JR had taken. These assignments could change after the draft on Monday. Nothing is official.
- Yesterday, Hulk Hogan returned to the courtroom. His plea was to ban his estranged wife Linda's boyfriend Charlie Hill from driving his vehicles. With evidence from a previous employer, Hogan cites the reason as Hill being drunk and stoned frequently. No verdict was reached.
- Sylvan Grenier is opening a wrestling school in Montreal.
- Although DirecTV lists him as the announcer for the new WWE program Superstars, former WWE employee Kevin Kelly denies involvement.
- TNA, as of last night, has started teasing the arrival of a former World Champion who has previously appeared in another company. I speculate it is either Tazz or Rob Van Dam.
- Ric Flair's reason for his recent ROH work as been confirmed as a deed of solidifying a spot for his son Reid in the promotion.
- It is now being reported top ROH draw Bryan Danielson will not be signing another contract with the company.
- Ratings:
4/2 Impact: 1.3 rating
4/3 Smackdown: 1.9 rating
4/6 Monday Night Raw: 3.9 rating, 5.9 million viewers
4/7 ECW: 1.26 rating
Hall of Fame Ceremony: 1.8 rating

ROH Report for April 9

- Tonight, Ring of Honor will tape another episode for their show Ring of Honor Wrestling which airs Saturday nights on HDNet. The show debuted on March 21, 2009, and this weekend's episode will be the fourth of the series. Matches slated for the show are Austin Aries Vs. Roderick Strong, Bryan Danielson Vs. Tyler Black, and Kevin Steen/El Generico Vs. Kenny King/Rhett Titus. The biggest event, though, will be Ric Flair's appearance, which will be his first in the company and at The Arena, tonight's taping site which is widely known as the ECW Arena. It has been rumored hat this is one of many scheduled ROH appearances for the "Nature Boy." Tomorrow night, tapings will continue when two more episodes will be filmed. Matches planned are ROH Tag Team Champions Steen/Generico against The American Wolves (Eddie Edwards/Davey Richards), The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs/Brodie Lee) vs. Necro Butcher/Delirious, and Chris Hero Vs. Eddie Kingston. Other than the wrestlers listed previously, also said to appear will be ROH World Champion Jerry Lynn, Nigel McGuinness, Jay Briscoe, Brent Albright, Colt Cabana, Claudio Castagnoli, Kenny Omega, and the Dark City Fight Club.
- This Saturday night on Ring of Honor Wrestling:
Austin Aries Vs. Kenny Omega, Delirious Vs. Ernie Osiris, a SHIMMER tag team match, and Jerry Lynn Vs. Brodie Lee in the main event.
- As reported by the Wrestling Observer, Bryan Danielson's contract with Ring of Honor ends in May. Once his contract does expire, he plans to travel to Thailand for extensive training. Recently, he has been training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas several hours a day.
- After taunting ROH Tag Champs Steen and Generico for weeks on the Canadian sports station RDS, Sylvan Grenier has confirmed the American Wolves as his partners to combat the Champions and their partner selection Bryan Danielson when ROH returns to Montreal on April 17th.
- ROH's "Buy 3, Get 1 Free" DVD sale continues on rohwrestling.com until Friday morning.
- Mike Quackenbush returns to ROH on May 8th in Boston and on May 9th in Edison.
- ROH will be in Dayton on April 24th. Matches include Chris Hero, and his "loaded elbow", versus Colt Cabana and ROH World Champion Jerry Lynn defending his belt against Roderick Strong. Also, just added, Claudio Castagnoli, Brent Albright, Matt Cross, and Rasche Brown will compete in a Four Corner Survival match.
- ROH returns to Chicago on April 25th. Matches include a three-way pitting Claudio Castagnoli, Jimmy Jacobs, and Roderick Strong against each other and another World Title defense when Colt Cabana, the hometown favorite, tries to dethrone Champion Jerry Lynn.
- Visit www.myspace.com/larrysweeney for ROH manager Larry Sweeney's repsonse to recent claims of his disappearance due to depression.
- For more news click on the ROH logo located in the sidebar.

ECW Review for April 7

Review:
-Show begins with Matt Striker and Josh Matthews who is returning to live broadcasts after Tazz left quietly last week. Apparently, Todd Grisham is temporarily on Smackdown with "Good Ole JR."
- ECW General Manager Theodore Long comes out (*Note: He should bring back his old catchphrase,"That's tabernacle" because well.....that's tabernacle!) He addresses Vickie Guerrero's decision to stay on RAW and the void as General Manager she leaves on Smackdown. As could be expected, he then said he was moving to Smackdown with his assistant GM Tiffany taking over the reigns on ECW. Out comes the new GM Tiffany followed by ECW Champion Jack Swagger. He basically says 'don't mess with me.' She says that he might not be here after the draft (how could she possibly know that), and that he should be worried about the next challenger for his ECW strap. Tiffany furthered by saying that an "elimination chase" would be conducted to determine his challenger at Backlash (*Note: the "chase" consists of a four way, three way, and one-on-one matches, each occuring in consecutive weeks with the loser getting eliminated, the winner of the final match is the challenger.) The "chase" compeitors are as follows: Finlay, Tommy Dreamer, Mark Henry, and Christian.
- The Colons (Carlito and Primo) and Evan Bourne def. Tyson Kidd, The Miz, and John Morrison in 14 minutes. Bourne hit the "Shooting Star Press" on Kidd for the win. It was a solid match and Bourne/Kidd is a nice match that you would actually expect to take place in ROH not WWE. Unified Tag Champs The Colons edged out Miz & Morrison for the third straight time.
- Main Event: "Elimination Chase": In around 10 minutes, Mark Henry was eliminated from the chase by Finlay who advances along with Christian and Dreamer. Finaly decked Henry with the shillelagh to get the pin. Decent match that served its purpose. A three-way will be the main event next week.
Reaction: Overall a nice, round show. Matthews' return on live vocals was quite good. They've got him with Striker who fits him much better than Bill DeMott did on Velocity years ago. ECW has some really nice talent, young and old. Everybody is treated like a main-eventer and rightfully so because there are very few rough spots on the roster, other than the new GM. Tiffany as GM isn't that bad, though as ECW General Manager is essentially an obsolete position. On a last note, it was good that they booked only the two matches which allowed them to run their due time. However, if the Wrestlemania recaps would've been nixed, another match could've fit easily. Their talent was really streched last night, though. The only stars not used were DJ Gabriel, Paul Birchall, and Ricky Ortiz.
Rating: As according to ECW standards, 3.5 out of 5.

RAW Review from April 6

Review:
- The show began, as expected, with a promo. However, it was not by Triple H as I would have guessed. Randy Orton was the one who began the show and started to argue that Triple H couldn't have beaten him without the sledgehammer. He added he would love to get his hands on another McMahon, maybe even Linda, Aurora Rose, or Murphy Claire. Soon enough, Vince McMahon interrupted and informed Randy that at Backlash, he would team up with his son Shane and son-in-law HHH to combat Orton and Legacy. Eventually, RAW's main event was set with Mr. McMahon squaring off against Orton himself.
- The Colons (Carlito and Primo) def. John Morrison and the Miz in over nine minutes to retain their unified WWE World Tag Team Titles (?). It was once again a nice lumberjack match. Both teams pretty much get over well. Would have been nice for the match to have been on the Wrestlemania card instead of on the DVD-exclusive pre-show. Expect Miz and Morrison to split at next week's Draft.
- Shane McMahon fought his Dad backstage over the Orton fight later on.
- Melina, Layla, Mickie James, Jillian Hall, and Kelly Kelly def. Natalya, Maryse, Maria, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres in five minutes. Pretty lame match. Seems to me they end up doing a brand feud every year with the divas for no reason at all. No one really cares. Natalya should be at the top of the Women's division.
- Shane tries to convince Triple H backstage to talk to Vince.
- Ricky Steamboat, Rey Mysterio Jr, John Cena, CM Punk, and Jeff Hardy def. Chris Jericho, Kane, Big Show, Matt Hardy, and Edge in about 16 minutes. Steamboat proved for the second night in a row that he is much younger than his actual age. He hit the most exciting spots of the match and took a monstrous slap from Show that left a giant handprint on his chest. Mysterio got the winning fall after he and Steamboat hit Jericho and Kane with aerial attacks (The Dragon hit his trademark Crossbody.) Rey is dropping some muscle which is great. Hopefully he'll get back to his natural weight as he was in WCW and won't be as sluggish in the ring. Punk stared at Cena as if he was going to cash in his Money in the Bank. Good match overall. It might be the end for Steamboat. Any real wrestling fan knows he still has it and should hope that wasn't his ultimate sendoff.
- Hunter and Vince had a brief bit backstage. Each boosting the other's ego.
- Vickie Guerrero, in a wheelchair, announced that, with the draft next week, she will remain as RAW General Manager permanently and placed Edge in a Last Man Standing match against Cena at Backlash for the title. She added a stipulation to the six-man tag at 'Lash already announced, too. Whoever's team wins, the WWE Title will go to the captain (HHH or Randy.)
- A Superstars ad, its debut: next Thursday on WGN.
- "Santina" started to talk when her "brother's" girlfriend Beth Phoenix came out. Eventually, a match was agreed to between them. After the commercial break, Santina def. Beth Phoenix in a little over a minute. Relatively funny comedy bit. Next week should be the last hurrah for "Santina."
- Main Event: Randy Orton def. Vince McMahon by DQ in 5 minutes. When Randy was going to win, Shane interrupted the pin. Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr.) came out soon thereafter, followed by Hunter Hearst-Helmsley. The brawl went on with the heels gaining the upper hand. Meanwhile, the crowd sounded as if they would have more interested with just about anything else, until.......Batista returned! Excuse the excitement. I'm not a big Batista fan, but anything would have got the fans going at that point. The feud was becoming quite boring. Dave is a new factor in the whole thing. Anyway, the faces chased out Legacy with Batista's aid. Vince, quite exhausted, then announced Batista would be taking his place at Backlash. Boring segment until the comeback.
Reaction: Better than average edition of RAW. The 10-man tag and Tag Title matches were nice. Can't say the same for the 10-Diva match or Main Event however. The "Santina"/Beth debacle was entertaining and provides for a short angle. Hopefully, Beth won't turn on Santino who would be the face. That would be akward. The announced 6-man tag is pretty useless. Seems like something Double J and Vince Russo would write as the main event at Slammiversary (*Note: TNA has used this angle once with Sting and AJ Styles.) The other Backlash match, Edge/Cena, should be good.
Rating: In RAW terms and what is expected, 3 out of 5.

Wrestlemania XXV: The Good, The Bad, and The Tweeners

The Good
- Undertaker def. Shawn Michaels to advance streak to 17-0. Neither 'Taker or HBK have never had a bad Wrestlemania performance, when facing formidable opponents at least. The countless near falls kept the fans on the edges of their seats and their hearts at the top of their throats. The ending was also a hit as many 'Taker endings (how many ways can Undertaker reverse into a Tombstone!) Anyway, this match should have been booked as the main event; however, Triple H got himself in the main event instead, wonder how that happened? Five-star match. Bottom line.
- Chris Jericho def. Jimmy Snuka, Roddy Piper, and Ricky Steamboat, gets knockout punch from Mickey Rourke. Wow, a 56-year old Steamboat is better than most 26-year olds. "The Dragon" was the best performer in the match despite not having wrestled in an actual contest in over a decade. At his age, he was doing an effecient top rope "Crossbody" and taking leaps over the top rope to the outside. With J.R. on commentary and Ricky being a star of the show, you would think it was 1989 not 2009. I believe WWE fans or just wrestling fans for that matter should draft a movement for Steamboat to give it one last run before hanging up the boots (*Note: Steamboat never officially had a retirement match, he never returned from an injury in 1994.) Piper was better than expected to, espeacially when shouting obscenties at the beginning of the match. Snuka was 64. That pretty much sums it up, 64 isn't really a mobile age unless you're one of the Funks. Jericho took the knock-out punch from Mickey Rourke, a former boxer, after the match yo seal the deal. Flair, too!
- Jim Ross. He was on fire last night. Taking jabs at Cole, cursing, having a good time...the whole nine yards! When is JR ever bad?
The Tweeners
- Money in the Bank won by CM Punk. Punk claims the briefcase for the second consecutive year. The ending wasn't all that expected and not very accepted by the fans. There were a lot of boos for CM; it seems as the fans' fondess is starting to wear off as they've stuck Punk as a constant heel. Christian very easily should have won it. All in all, everyone got their spots, even Hornswoggle. On personal performances: Kofi Kingston- very athletic, Kane- too big for comfort in the match, Shelton Benjamin- energetic as always, Christian- very agile and on the top of his game, Finlay- spry for a 52-year old mat expert, CM Punk- good but not winner material, MVP- hidden most of the match, and Mark Henry- powerful.
- Extreme Rules: Matt Hardy defeats brother Jeff. I'm glad Matt won, this lets the feud progress. Do I really want that though? They didn't do a very good job in build for this bout. Too much of spot-to-spot to be good. Not bad enough to be bad. It was just there.
- John Cena defeats Edge and Big Show for the World Title. Average match. They shouldn't try to match the Wrestlemania triple threat that happened five years ago when Chris Benoit def. HHH and HBK. Big Show was pretty much obselete through the match's majority. He got tied up in the ropes and almost never got out. The match was only average. Hard to say where they will go with Cena as Champ, probably another Orton feud. John's leaving to shoot a film in a couple of months. Who knows? Plus it followed Taker-HBK which is a hard task.
The Bad
- 25 Diva Battle Royal. The most uncoordinated match ever booked. They completely skipped entrances of returning stars and came out during Kid Rock's performance of "So Hott." Returning stars like Sunny, Molly Holly, Torrie Wilson, and Victoria were basically cast aside in favor of 15+ minutes of a pointless mini-Kid Rock concert. Santina ended up winning, Santino dressed as his twin sister. He last eliminated girlfriend Beth Phoenix. Just plan sloppy. Next time WWE tries to bring back former stars maybe they should make the fans aware that they're even there. Plain wierd.
- JBL loses his IC Title in 21 seconds to Rey Mysterio, Jr. 21 seconds?! In apparently JBL's last WWE match and possibly his grand hurrah in pro wrestling, he gets made a fool of. It seems as though they'd give a bit more to someone who's stayed loyal to the company for over 10 years. Also, Mysterio couldn't have looked more ridiculous as he was poorly dressed as Heath Ledger's adaptation as the Joker. More poor booking. (*Note: JBL said if he couldn't retire to the late Eddie Guerrero, that he wanted to retire to his good friend Rey Jr.)
- Triple H def. Randy Orton to retain WWE Title. The ending sucked, the booking sucked, Triple H sucked. Not a Wrestlemainia main event. In Triple H's attempt to steal the show, the fans couldn't have been less excited. There were no run-ins even though Orton's Legacy and HHH's family, the now beloved McMahons, were just as crucial to the storyline. The ending was out-of-nowhere but it wasn't one of those unexpected endings that leave you completly shocked. It was one of those endings where the fans just sat on their fans and stared at each other saying, "That can't be it....That can't be it!!" Yes, Trips could have won if there would have also been a big angle such as Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley turning on her husband. Randy wasn't a showstopper, but Triple H wasn't either even though he thought he was. Maybe one of the worst Wrestlemania main events ever. Just bad booking by none other than....HHH and Stephanie.
OVERALL: Poorly booked show. It had its highspots though. Quick mention about "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's beer bash during the Hall of Fame inductees' intros. Good to see the ATV back. You can tell Steve and the fans are dying for one more match. Could have been better (WM 20) or worse (WM 11.)

WWE Releases

Early Friday, Linda McMahon announced several cutbacks would be made due to the struggling economy. One would be the release of many employees which she said would save the company $8 million for the quarter. These cuts and others will be made to save World Wrestling Entertainment $20 million in the year's first three months. The first set of cuts was announced Friday afternoon. Those cuts were developmental talent Kevin Keenan, Bam Neely, and newly returned veteran D'Lo Brown. Then, later on in the evening came a shocking release. After being with the company over a decade, Val Venis, who was injured much of 2008, was fired despite years of reported loyalty and respect for the company. Many times has his name been rumored for release, but he mainly stayed with WWE because of his long run there and good work ethic. Not long after that, Kevin Fertig, the man behind Mordecai and Kevin Thorn, was let go after a long hiatus from ECW. His release was followed by the firing of young ECW referee Mike Posey and veteran ref Jimmy Korderas, ending a 22-year run with the company. The most shocking release of the bunch followed when Tim White, a very respected former referee who has been recently working as road agent, was released from his job. White began his WWE tenure by aiding Andre the Giant on the road during the '80s. His most recent fame were the ill-fated and crticized WWE.com segments entitled "Lunch-time Suicide" which featured Tim White trying to take his life out of depression of not being able to referee anymore because of a career-ending injury in 2002. The last releases came with the firings of developmental talents Mike Kruel and Gavin Spears, who has been competing on ECW. WWE wishes the best to everyone who lost their jobs this release cycle. No word if more releases are coming.