The Wrestling Bard 06.22.09: In Memory: Mitsuharu Misawa

Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 06.22.2009

What the Japanese Legend meant to me.

The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity - designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man. ---Ernest Becker

There is no mourning here. No grieving, no lamenting, no sorrow. Death is inevitable, as much a part of life as breathing. Everyone must die. When others pass, those who were touched by them feel a great loss. That loss seems even greater when the dearly departed were full of life, because they made ours better. Truly, the greater the life, the greater the sense of loss caused by death. So it seems to me, that if the wrestling world feels a great loss with the passing of Mitsuharu Misawa, then it is safe to assume that his life made ours better.

And that is something to celebrate. I am here typing, not to weep over Misawa's death, but to remember and honor his life. So I will share my memories of Misawa, and what he meant to me.

*****

As a wrestling fan, you have to resign yourself to certain things. One of those is that fandom is not a smooth ride. Just like every other aspect of life, wrestling has its ups and its downs. Sometimes, the quality of work in the business just isn't as good as it used to be. Matches may not be as exciting, storylines might range from dull to ridiculous, and old favorites retire or pass away. Not to mention that wrestling seems to be a lifestyle for some and a fad for most. Those who watched wrestling in the attitude era probably didn't fell nearly as alone in their fandom as those of the current product. Another thing you have to accept is that wrestling will never be universally respected.

And if you're a "smart" fan, the ugly side of wrestling is made even more apparent. The politics, the personalities, and all the dirty laundry somehow manages to show up on wrestling news sites. Not to mention you get exposed to a new world, a new culture, with its own lingo and its own values. I won't even bother to extrapolate on the negatives of elitism, but suffice to say it can be pretty unsettling when your wrestling "friends" all act like a bunch of spoiled children when their favorite company isn't having two **** matches a show. Not to mention that every wrestling site is run by opinionated writers who have little REAL knowledge of the business and are beyond full of themselves (points to self), who write the opinions as facts so that slightly less literate but equally opinionated readers with little REAL knowledge of the business and are just as full of themselves can post their opinions as facts. It's mindboggling to think that a society that functions like that can even consider themselves a community, but that's what the C in IWC stand for. It can get to be a little overwhelming at times.

Sometimes, the bad outweighs the good so much that you wonder why you even watch it in the first place. And once you ask that question, you better reach an answer fast, or you aren't going to be a fan much longer. For me, one of those moments was the death of my all-time favorite wrestler, Eddie Guerrero. To say I was distraught at his passing would be a huge understatement. I was crushed, and part of me never wanted to watch wrestling again. Now, consider the fact that I've been watching wrestling for as long as I've been watching television, that it was what I wanted to grow up to be when I was a little kid, and that I could usually tell the day of the month based on how many days it was until the next WWE PPV, and you will see just how big it would be for me to completely give it up.

Perhaps I should, and perhaps someday I will. But not today.

And not back then. At the time, I was 16, and really started to get more involved in the IWC, especially here at 411. Columns like Ask 411, The 3 R's, and In Defense Of… really caught my eye. One of the first real big things that I was following was "The 50 Greatest Tag Teams" feature, where I was introduced to four wrestlers that would have a huge impact on my fandom: Akira Taue, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Mitsuharu Misawa.

Kobashi was a name I knew from reading J.D. Dunn's Top Ten Matches of 2005 column, as he had named Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi the match of the year. I already enjoyed Samoa Joe, but that recommendation got me involved in two companies that have became an absolute joy to watch: ROH, where the match took place, and All Japan Pro Wrestling, the old stomping grounds of Kenta Kobashi. I read that Kobashi-Misawa vs. Kawada-Taue was the greatest tag team match of all time. Initially, I was just looking on Youtube for anything of Kobashi's I could find. As I was introduced to him, the other three wrestlers starting get some more of my attention.

I've always been impressed by Kobashi, because the guy can literally do it all, and he has some of the best body and facial expressions I've ever seen. Taue I've admired because he isn't an amazing athlete, but he works hard and has a brilliant grasp of psychology. And Kawada's style was so different from anything I'd ever seen before, so vicious and hard hitting, that he commanded my respect. Initially, I always thought of him as an evil, dastardly villain. But later, as I started to realize that he was always "second best" as it were to Misawa, I started to admire him a bit and see him more like an anti-hero. And no disrespect to any of these great wrestlers, but nobody captured my imagination like Mitsuharu Misawa.

While great workers such as these can have always have a great match, sometimes it's the dynamics of the characters involved that just make it work. Kawada was the evil villain who would do anything and everything to beat his rival Misawa. Taue was his hired muscle. Kobashi was the young, up-and-coming, heroic babyface that was standing up for his hero Misawa. And Misawa…Misawa was Superman. There's just no other way I can think to describe it. People often say that John Cena gets a superman push, but he's not a patch on Misawa.

Whereas Kobashi would wear his emotions on his sleeve, Misawa rarely showed any emotion outside of a grimace of pain. Kobashi would get angry. He could get insulted and could be manipulated by Kawada and Taue. But Misawa just seemed to take it all in stride. He was always calm, cool, and collected. And no matter what kind of vicious damage Kawada and Taue would do to Kobashi, I knew that once Misawa was tagged in, he would save the day. And I'm not saying that as a "smart" fan who's mocking the tag formula. I'm saying it because that's how Misawa presented himself, and I bought into it.

Misawa made me a mark. An unabashed, innocent, "golly-gee-whillikers" mark. And I'm not afraid to say it. What Hogan was to kids in the eighties, what Bret Hart was to so many in the nineties, and what John Cena is to so many young kids these days, Misawa was to me when I was 16. At the time, my favorite wrestler was dead, I had just got through a nasty break-up that isolated me from a lot of friends, and I was struggling to find my place in the world. God knows I needed a hero. Misawa turned out to be that hero. If I'd been born in Japan and watched Misawa instead of Bret when I was a kid, I would be the World's Biggest Misawa Mark, because I totally bought into his act. And if Misawa can turn this cynical smart fan into the "young and dumb" mark that he turned me into when I was 16, you know I would have bought into it even more at age 4 or 5.

I'm sure there are some of you who have forgotten what it's like to mark out. Those of you who remember will understand just how important it is to do so on occasion. I hadn't marked for a very long time after Eddie's death. The first time was watching these four men, and specifically, being convinced by Misawa's act. It was just pure, unbridled joy. I thought I'd gone to wrestling heaven.

Misawa always played a nigh invincible man in the ring. Undertaker would be jealous of his win-loss record. In the last year or so, I've said a few times that I don't particularly care for Misawa's superman act continuing despite his age and the fact that he's slowed down. There comes a time when you have to start putting other people over, and I do believe that Misawa didn't job as often as he should. I will maintain that the only problem I have with Kawada-Misawa from 1994 is that Misawa won the match. While I never bought into the "Evil Green Emperor" talk, I did recognize that as own of Misawa's faults. But even when I criticized this aspect, it was always with the greatest admiration and respect. And frankly, if Misawa did job more often, it would ruin the "Superman" gimmick that I love so much about him.

One positive to come from this "never jobs" criticism is that it gave me a reason to root for his opponents. Yeah, I know Kawada is an evil, sadistic S.O.B., but if you can't feel for the guy who always seems to lose to this one man no matter how hard he tries, you're a little heartless. If you can't relate to Kobashi's quest to prove that he is as good as Misawa, I don't know what to tell you. It took a lot for me to root against Misawa, but I've been in that situation a few times. But even when I was rooting against him, it was out of support for the other guy and not hatred at him. I didn't want "just anybody" to beat Misawa, but I did want to see those who earned it get their big victories.

A lot has been said about in the last week about the quality of Misawa's work. He had 24 ***** matches from Dave Meltzer, three time wrestler of the year, blah blah blah, etc. etc. etc. As a critic, I will say that Misawa's was perhaps the best pure wrestler of all time. He was a brilliant storyteller and he could flat outwork almost anybody. While I don't buy into the 24 ***** matches that Meltzer and a lot of people do (I think many are in the ****-****1/2 range), he has participated in some of the best matches I've ever seen. The match I believe to be the best match of all time is Misawa-Kobashi vs. Kawada-Taue from 1995, where Kawada finally got some vindication with a long overdue pinfall victory. From a critical standpoint, there is an argument to be mad that Misawa was the best in-ring worker, ever.

But frankly, I don't give a damn about all that. I don't care how many five-star matches he had, how many times he's one Wrestler of the Year, or how many people think he's the best ever. It's certainly not what I think of when I think about Misawa. Match quality, awards and "best ever" talk can be debated and is always subjective. There's an argument to be made that Misawa is NOT the best in-ring worker ever as well. But you know what? That Japanese Superman in the green and white pants, and the cast of characters who served as his rivals and partners, made me a mark again. He convinced this cynic that wrestling was REAL again, at least for twenty-thirty minutes. And that has to count for something.

Rest in Peace Misawa. Thank you for all that you did. I will always be grateful to you. ARIGATO!