RIP Mitsuharu Misawa: 1962-2009
Soruce:Bloggs.mirror.co.uk
Some passings in pro-wrestling don't come as a shock.
There's guys who you expect to be on the deathwatch list.
There's guys who aren't on the list, but when you hear of their passing, it doesn't necessarily surprise you.
And then there's the real shocks. The ones that you hear about offhand that you can't quite believe are true, so you go check the news sites and the forums, as many credible sources as you can until you can get your brain around the fact.
Today (Saturday), at 2.10pm, the legendary Japanese wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa was pronounced dead after suffering an apparent heart attack in the ring. He was 46 - just five days short of his 47th birthday.
The iconic former All Japan star was taking part in a tag-team match in Pro Wrestling NOAH, the promotion he founded nine years ago.
He was teaming with Go Shiozaki to challenge Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito for the GHC heavyweight tag titles at the Hiroshima Green Arena. Reports from Japan suggest he suffered a heart attack taking a back suplex from Saito, around 27 minutes into the bout.
Resuscitation efforts took place in the ring to try and revive Misawa, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital in the city later that night.
Misawa was widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of his generation, and perhaps the greatest wrestler of the 1990s.