Pro Wrestling Ponderings

“American Dragon” Bryan Danielson is on his way to World Wrestling Entertainment. Say it out loud, right now. It still doesn’t sound right, does it? I mean, the first two words in the company’s name fit Dragon perfectly. He is “worldly”, honing his craft on every continent habitable, fighting within the borders of every country that truly cherishes this sport. And “wrestling”? For the last five years, on the independent circuit, he has been wrestling, perhaps the only legitimate coast-to-coast draw left in the indy business. But Bryan was more than just the best in the country. That ain’t how the nickname goes. It’s brazen, borderline arrogant…and as accurate as sun is scorching. “Best in the World”. World. This was not a man who settled upon dominating one country, oh no. He would travel to Europe with PWG as its world champion, infuriate the chant-crazed, diehard German über fans in wXw, and make the fans “oh” and “ah” on his biggest stage, Pro Wrestling NOAH. And it was in NOAH that he achieved some of his greatest moments: defending the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title, challenging for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles, and facing off against legends of puroresu such as Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi, Yoshihiro Takayama, and Mitsuharu Misawa. Here’s a look back at Dragon’s ride within the company, tour by tour.

……………Bryan Danielson’s first tour in NOAH can only be considered a success. After his confrontations with KENTA in Ring of Honor, during a three-way involving Samoa Joe and a ROH Title match in which Danielson, despite a severely separated shoulder, came out victorious, fans in Japan took notice of Dragon and treated him with uncommon respect for a debuting wrestler, let alone a debuting gaijin. Danielson spent a majority of the tour tagging with fellow gaijins and NOAH veterans Bison Smith and Eddie Edwards. His first match in the company saw the trio take on Akitoshi Saito, Ricky Marvin, and his international rival KENTA. He would go on to tap out Marvin in the match securing the win for his team. In the opening nine bouts on his first NOAH tour, Bryan would gain a total of six victories, five of which he earned himself with his feared Cattle Mutilation submission. His tenth and final match of the tour would be against KENTA in the Yokohama Cultural Hall. NOAH, perhaps sensing fan response growing for Dragon, declared the contest a “Special 45-minute Match”. Danielson would suffer his first and only fall on the tour after getting put down by KENTA with his Go 2 Sleep maneuver.

…………...Dragon’s second tour with NOAH started similarly to the previous one; he participated in a six-man tag, once again at the Korakuen Hall, once again gaining a victory, though he did not get the fall himself. In quite an odd pairing, Bryan teamed with Joe E. Legend and future WWE Tag Champion Ted DiBiase. It was Legend who got the pinfall that night, and Danielson would go on to tag with Joe E. and Ted in much the same frequency as he did Bison and Eddie on the previous tour. This tour would prove to be an up-and-down affair for Danielson; his record of 7-10 on this excursion was much worse than the 6-4 record from his previous tour, but unlike his first one, he took no falls. Furthermore, he participated in his first main event on a NOAH show, teaming with Bison and DiBiase in a losing effort against a trio lead by puroresu legend Mitsuharu Misawa. He would go on to main event three other shows that tour, all in six-man tag matches, all losses. His final match on the tour was his debut in the revered Nippon Budokan Hall, NOAH’s largest venue. Danielson’s triumvirate lost, but because he was never pinned or submitted, he lost no favor in the eyes of the Japanese fans.

……………Only two months later, Bryan began his third NOAH tour, this time as a participant in the NTV Junior Tag League Tournament. Once again, Danielson would take no falls on the entire tour. He and his partner, Davey Richards, would compete against some of the best junior tag teams in the world: Naomichi Marufuji and Kota Ibushi, Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin, fellow Ring of Honor roster members The Briscoes, and KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. Of the five tourney matches Bryan and Davey had, they had three losses. The two non-losses were against KENTA and Ishimori, which went to a draw, and Suzuki and Marvin, the latter of which Danielson pinned with a jackknife cut-back pin, Bryan’s first pinfall victory in NOAH. This would prove crucial, and would turn out to be the loss that cost Suzuki and Marvin the tournament, won in epic fashion by KENTA and Taiji after Suzuki and Marvin failed to beat the Brisoces before the match’s time limit expired. Danielson’s last match of the tour was contested at the Budokan and saw him team with Rocky Romero and ROH rival Nigel McGuinness. Once again his squad fell, this time to the team of Takeshi Morishima, Mohammed Yone, and Go Shiozaki.

……………In late March of 2008, Dragon began what would become his longest tour for Pro Wrestling NOAH: a nineteen-match, month-long stay in Japan. His time away proved fruitful, as this was statistically Bryan’s best NOAH tour to date. Of the 19 contests Danielson competed in, he won 14 of them, getting 10 of the falls himself, including one pinfall and 8 contests in which he tapped his opponent to Cattle Mutilation. Of note was the fact that, for the first time in his NOAH career, he landed a submission win without using his signature move: against Atsushi Aoki, using a modified neck lock. Despite his impressive 14-5 record on the tour, including an 11-2 start, he did have his share of downs. For the second time Dragon would be pinned, this time tagging with Go Shiozaki against the team of KENTA and Marufuji. Marufuji picked up the win, becoming only the second man to beat Dragon in a NOAH ring. The match, lauded by the fans in attendance, has yet to see the light of day, and will probably remain so. The tour ended on an all-too-familiar note: Danielson’s partner taking the fall at the Budokan Hall, this time in a standard tag match.

…………...A couple of weeks later, Dragon would be back in NOAH, starting the expedition in fantastic fashion. First, he tapped Atsushi Aoki at the Korakuen Hall with a triangle choke, followed by a submission victory via the neck lock over BJ Whitmer the next night in Differ Ariake. But it was his third night that proved most eventful for Bryan. Once again at Differ Ariake, Bryan would see his first victory in the main event of a NOAH show. Bison Smith, along with Bryan and Akitoshi Saito, bested a team lead by Jun Akiyama with his finishing maneuver, the Bisontennial. Danielson would go on to once again take no falls and amass an 8-4-1 record, the draw being a highly-touted contest with tag partner Yoshinobu Kanemaru against KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. This would lead to a tour-ending GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title shot against KENTA & Ishimori at the Coventry Skydome in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, Bryan’s partner, Eddie Edwards, would succumb to KENTA’s Go to Sleep, once again ending a tour on a sour note.

…………...62 days later, on his sixth tour, it was once again time for the NTV Junior Tag League. With partner Davey Richards returning with Danielson, both men set out to make a much bigger splash than they had in their previous attempts to win the tournament. Facing several of the same wrestlers as the previous tournament, the duo found much more success this time around. They would not reach the finals, but they did amass a 3-2-1 tourney record, their only losses being to the young duo of Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kota Ibushi, and to the eventual tournament winners, KENTA and Taiji Ishimori. Despite getting statistically knocked out of the competition rather early on, Dragon would persevere, winning his final three NTV Cup matches, his last five matches overall and, with the help of Davey Richards, finally netted his first win at the Budokan. Davey got the pinfall victory over Kento Miyahara as Danielson held Kento’s partner Naomichi Marufuji at bay. Bryan would finally depart a tour with a win, but that would not be the story upon his NOAH return. Less than a week later, after a hellacious title match with Yoshinobu Kanemaru at Ring of Honor’s Tokyo Summit event, Bryan Danielson won GHC Jr. Heavyweight champion.

…………...Danielson’s first defense of the GHC Jr. Title came at Ring of Honor’s Glory by Honor VII event against the man that pinned Davey Richards and accounted for one of Dragon’s two tournament loses during the second NTV Junior Tag League: Katsuhiko Nakajima. Dragon was victorious, earning the right to enter his next tour with NOAH as one of its champions. This was another tour that had its share of ups and downs. Unfortunately for Danielson, the first challenger for his GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title was a man that knew him all too well: KENTA, still the only man at that time who had bested Dragon in a singles match in NOAH. A Go 2 Sleep later and Danielson was now a former champion and 0-2 against his rival. Shockingly, this would also be the first time that Danielson took more than one fall on a tour; Bison Smith, the man that tagged with Danielson so frequently when he started out in NOAH, pinned him in a six-man tag using the Bisontennial. Things picked up directly afterwards; Dragon would main event the next two shows, teaming with Nigel McGuinness and Doug Williams. For the first time, Dragon picked up the fall in both main events, tapping Atsushi Aoki and Ricky Marvin using Cattle Mutilation. Once again, his tour ended with a loss at the Budokan Hall. It would be almost nine months before Danielson would return to tour with Pro Wrestling NOAH. Unbeknownst to fans at the time, it would also be his last.

…………...Bryan Danielson’s final ride in NOAH was, fittingly, his third attempt to win the NTV Cup. This time, his partner would be Roderick Strong. He started the tour with a six-man tag in his final appearance at the Korakuen Hall. New partner Strong picked up the win for partners Dragon and Akitoshi Saito. Once the tournament began, Dragon and Roderick won their first match-up against the bizarre tandem of Genba Hirayanagi and Kikutaro. Unfortunately, that would be their only win of the tournament. The other two tourney matches, against the teams of Kota Ibushi and Atsushi Aoki and, of course, KENTA & Taiji Ishimori, were hard-fought loses, the KENTA & Ishimori match actually main eventing a show in Akita. Dragon, who had taken his team’s fall the night before to Takeshi Rikioh, took the fall in his tag match against KENTA as well, the first time he took falls on back-to-back shows. His last match in NOAH was a victory over a trio lead by Tsuyoshi Kikuchi; he did not pick up the fall. (Roderick did, using a powerbreaker.)

There’s a scene in the film Good Will Hunting where Ben Affleck’s character Chuckie explains to Matt Damon’s character Will, the mathematical genius, why he can’t work construction for the rest of his life like Chuckie and his friends. “It’d be an insult to us if you’re still here in 20 years,” Chuckie declares, “Hangin’ around here is a…waste of your time.” This has been a long understood truth about Bryan Danielson since…hell, since the first time he faced KENTA one-on-one in New York City. You just knew that if he somehow, someway didn’t move higher in this business, it’d be an absolute tragedy. In the film, Chuckie would go on to express his desire to show up at Will’s door one day, like every day, and instead of coming out the front door…Will would be gone, having moved on to bigger and better things. That’s what it felt like when I first read that Dragon had signed; it was a bittersweet sense of pride. We, the independent faithful, had the privilege of watching a budding legend long past gratuity. He never got the chance to get a pinfall or submission in the Nippon Budokan Hall. He never beat KENTA in a Pro Wrestling NOAH ring. And, if there is any justice in the world, he never will. The “American Dragon” has ascended. The sky’s the limit.

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As I was in the process of working on the comeback edition of “Stating My Case,” a column that was featured weekly on the old Cool Kids Table website, I learned of the untimely death of Mitsuharu Misawa while perusing the news updates at the Dragon Gate USA website. Initially, I attempted to work my feelings about Misawa’s passing into that column. But the more I wrote, the more I realized I had quite a lot to say about the subject. This is not “Stating My Case.” I have no case to state, and I have no need to limit myself to the amount of words necessary to sum up my feelings. In the end, I decided to dedicate a complete column to arguably the greatest wrestler in the history of Japan, Mitsuharu Misawa.

A wrestling tragedy.

To me, there’s something incredibly redundant about that statement. As a fan of the sport, I’ve come to accept the fact that wrestling and tragedy make frequent bedfellows. It doesn’t seem like we can go long enough for the scars to heal properly before we suffer fresh wounds. Between the pressure on young stars to perform at a much more accelerated rate and time catching up with the heroes of yesteryear, time has proven to be less kind to the world of professional wrestling. This isn’t just another one of those wrestling tragedies. An upper echelon mainstay for the past twenty years and elder statesman who was an ambassador for the sport has left us, and it happened under tragic circumstances.

Mitsuharu Misawa may not have deeply impacted my personal life the way Bret Hart or Chris Benoit did, but I take this loss to heart just as much as any other. He played an integral part in the development of my wrestling fandom, as the name Misawa became synonymous to me with Puroesu. But to the Japanese fans, he was more than just a wrestler. He was wrestling period. In fact I would go so far as to say that he is a cornerstone in the history of the Land of the Rising Sun. This is a loss in the vein of Rikidozan, Jumbo Tsuruta, and Giant Baba, but perhaps even more so because of how Misawa helped to bring All Japan to the forefront of pro-wrestling in the early 1990s and continued that tradition when he founded Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000.

Watching Misawa wrestle is unlike anything I have ever seen as a wrestling fan - truly what I would call a one of a kind experience. There was nothing graceful about Misawa’s style, it was just sheer brutality. Even in the later years when his body had visibly begun to break down on him, he took the hardest hits and gave back twice as hard. Watching him waylay opponents with that cylinder block-like roaring elbow or drop his opponents with a Tiger Driver ‘91 was cringe-inducing. I had the privilege of seeing him live in person at Glory By Honor VI Night 2 at the Hammerstein Ballroom when he defended the GHC Title against KENTA in what was a respectable showing - a moment I will cherish even more now that he has passed on.

This is a double-edged sword of a situation, in that Misawa’s death could and couldn’t have been avoided. People always made comments in passing or at length in various articles about how broken down Misawa’s body had become. In late 2008, I did a piece on how Kurt Angle needed to retire not just for the sake of legacy, which was being tarnished by TNA, but for the sake of his personal well-being. The same could have been said for Misawa. Perhaps the saddest news to come forth in the wake of Misawa’s death is word from the front office that he had planned to retire sometime at the end of the year to focus on his entrepreneurial endeavors.

There’s something surreal about the notion of Misawa dying in the ring. In so many ways it’s tragic and kind of eery, but at the same time, it seems almost appropriate. It has something of a mythic quality to it, which in itself is tragic and eery. The parallelism between Misawa and the story of Randy “the Ram” Robinson in the movie “The Wrestler” is odd because it’s a case of life imitating art imitating life. It almost seems redundant (particularly in such a high contact sport such as this) to ask “how many more do we have to lose,” but you can’t help but ponder such a question.

It’s sad to think that Misawa will never get a hero’s sendoff. He will never wrestle one last singles match against Kobashi or Akiyama, or have the chance to truly pass the torch to Morishima or Shiozaki. It’s sad, I think most of all, because it’s anticlimactic. It was a career and, in this case, a life cut tragically short. Like Bret Hart or Eddie Guerrero, we as fans will never have the good fortune of witnessing one last dance, the kind of sendoff a hero and legend like Misawa was so deserving of. But obviously, the most important thing is that a life has been lost, and it didn’t have to end in such a fashion.

There are many things I will miss about Misawa. His ever-present stoicism. Hearing “Spartan X” and the explosive chant of “Mis-a-wa! Mis-a-wa! Mis-a-wa!” that always accompanied it. The pageantry of his ring entrance and the adoration shown night after night by his legions of fans. The roaring elbow. The Tiger Driver. Emerald Frosion. All those things are the kind of elements that define what wrestling is all about, but Misawa was truly a one of a kind figure who many the world over have since tried to imitate, but will never duplicate.

My thoughts are with the family of Mitsuharu Misawa in this time of mourning. My thoughts are also with the staff of Pro Wrestling NOAH, especially Akitoshi Saito - I hope you are at peace despite this terrible tragedy. I want to send a very special thank you to RD for running Green Destiny, which kept me abreast of the goings-on in NOAH for the three or so years that I followed the promotion. I know Misawa won’t be just another one of those wrestlers who died and will drift into obscurity, because he was just too big of a man for that to happen. But I hope we all continue to pay homage to him by watching his matches and remembering how much he gave to the sport.

The Matches
These, in my somewhat limited knowledge of Puro, are five of the essential Misawa matches. Of course, a list of twenty matches would still be an incomplete list, but these are five that stick out in my mind that anyone and everyone who considers his or herself a fan of wrestling should see before they die.

vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, June 8th, 1990 - This is the match where young Misawa became a superstar (the All Japan equivalent of Hart vs. Austin from Wrestlemania 13). The torch was passed this night as the smaller Misawa put up an incredible fight against Tsuruta and came out on top in a tremendous effort from both.

vs. Toshiaki Kawada, June 3rd, 1994 - This is the one match that people who know nothing about Puro talk about. It is generally looked upon as the greatest match in the history of Japan and one can easily see why. One of the stiffest, most hard-hitting matches you will ever see.

with Kenta Kobashi vs. Kawada & Akira Taue, June 9th, 1995 - Four legends of wrestling. Two iconic teams. One title. Any words I can conjure up wouldn’t adequately describe such an unrequited classic. I can safely say in all my years of watching wrestling and all of the matches I have seen that this is not only the greatest tag team match of all time, but one of the greatest matches ever.

vs. Kobashi, June 11th, 1999 - My favorite of all their title matches, and the last (at least until their match in NOAH) in a string of annual title matches between the two that left my absolutely breathless. If Misawa hitting the Emerald Frosion on Kobashi at the end of this epic marathon to retain the title doesn’t make you pop, nothing will.

vs. Kobashi, March 3rd, 2003 - The start of Kobashi’s legendary two year title run, this was the last of their one on one matches, though this time for the GHC Title. If you thought Misawa and Kobashi were too old and broken down at this point, wait until you see what they do to each other off the entrance ramp.

Domo Arigato Misawa-san, and may you live on forever in our memories and our hearts.

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Some sad news to start the day as Mitsuharu Misawa, one of the greatest professional wrestlers in the history of Japanese wrestling, died at the age of 47 earlier today. From Figure Four Online:

“Mitsuharu Misawa, one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all-time, was declared dead at 10:10 p.m. Saturday night at a hospital in Hiroshima from an apparent heart attack after being being given a back suplex in a tag team title match.

Misawa would have turned 47 on June 18th.

Misawa, the president of Pro Wrestling NOAH, was teaming with Go Shiozaki in a match challenging Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito for the GHC tag team championship in Hiroshima.  Misawa was given the move at about 8:45 p.m. and knocked unconscious.

According to eye witness reports, Saito gave Misawa a “routine” back suplex that was described as a “7″ in danger on a scale of one-to-ten.  He did not get up.  It was chaos in the ring as they attempted to revive him using CPR and the crowd was hushed for a while, and began a “Misawa” chant.  He turned purple in the ring and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

His heart stopped beating in the ring.

The wrestlers were told on the bus that he had passed away.

While it is being reported that he passed away at the hospital, he may have actually passed away in the ring.

Misawa was the Japanese high school national wrestling champion at 187 pounds in 1980, and was recruited by Giant Baba into All Japan Pro Wrestling.  He gained his first taste of stardom in 1984 when he was chosen to be the second Tiger Mask.  After unmasking in 1990, he became an even bigger star after a series of singles matches with Jumbo Tsuruta.

He was Japan’s biggest pro wrestling star of the 90s, and one could make a strong case for him as the top wrestler of the decade.  He was the Wrestler of the Year in 1995, 1997 and 1999.

After the death of Shohei “Giant” Baba, Misawa wrestled a little over one more year for All Japan Pro Wrestling, while working as company president.  After consistently butting heads with owner Motoko Baba, the widow of Shohei Baba, he and 90% of the All Japan roster quit the company to form Pro Wrestling NOAH.”

His most recent appearance in the United States came in Ring of Honor back in November 2007 at the Glory by Honor VI weekend. Chris Hero is a current member of the roster and had recently been using an elbowpad that was said to be “passed down by Misawa.” He has made frequent appearances for Pro Wrestling NOAH in recent years and was touring with them this weekend. Here’s his blog.

“Misawa-San
Current mood:disbelief
Words cannot express how deeply shocked I am. We’re all just in utter disbelief. Stunned sadness.

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.”

Misawa-San
Current mood:disbelief
Words cannot express how deeply shocked I am. We’re all just in utter disbelief. Stunned sadness.

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.”

Everyone here at “Pro Wrestling Ponderings” send out our condolescences to Misawa’s family, friends, and his fellow wrestlers. This is one of the most tragic incidents in the history of wrestling, and it really appears to be a freak accident.

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