It seems to have been some time since I last found myself sitting down to write a few words about a pro wrestler who had died suddenly and well before their time. But now I find myself doing so under the strange circumstance of a death that was seemingly in no way related to the more common dangers of the profession such as addiction, chronic injury and mental exhaustion.

On Saturday 13th June 2009 in a tag match at the Hiroshima Green Arena, on a card for the promotion he built with his own talent, charisma and hard work, Mitsuharu Misawa failed to recover from a belly-to-back suplex. He had lost consciousness and was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead a 10:10pm of massive spinal damage.

It is a terrible shame that Japanese pro wrestling has never enjoyed the status in the West that it deserves. In a time when MMA style organisations are ever more popular in the mainstream the hard-hitting and blistering style that has been the staple of the Japanese scene for decades would prove once and for all that there's nothing tougher than the men (and women!) who wrestle in the Japan.

Misawa is one of the names that will live on in pro wrestling history amongst the likes of Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen and so mnay others who ellicit little more than a shrug from more casual fans, but who those that look a little deeper know brought so much to the world of wrestling.

You can beg the Rock to come back from Hollywood, shell out the cash to secure Hulk Hogan for one more WWE supercard or try to heal the wounds to get Bret Hart back in the fold...but I don't care for any of them.

I'll be one of those remembering the Emerald Flowsion and the pure talent of Mitsuharu Misawa.