I was shocked and disheartened to learn of the death of NOAH top star/part owner Mitsuhara Misawa during a match last night at a television taping in Hiroshima, Japan.

Misawa, sadly, becomes the biggest pro wrestling star to ever die in the ring.

I rate Misawa among the top three of four wrestlers I've seen in thirty-plus years of watching the sport. He had everything a great wrestler needed. He was a tremendous athlete, with great dramatic timing and the bone toughness it took to excel at Japan's strong style pro wrestling. The matches may have been pre-determined, but his ability and resilience to portray the fighting spirit Japanese fans had come to expect was unsurpassed at his in-ring peak.

Misawa originally broke through as the second Tiger Mask. He has a tough act to follow, wearing the same mask as the man who changed the business in the early eighties, both in the ring and at the merchandise table – Satoru Sayama. As Tiger Mask, Misawa had stand out matches with, among others, NWA champions Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat.

It was when he took off the Tiger mask, though, that Misawa became one of the best wrestlers of his time. He went on an epic quest to gain and defend All Japan Wrestling's Triple Crown facing other all time greats like the late Jumbo Tsuruta, Toshiaki Kawada, Stan Hansen, and the late Terry Gordy.

As good as that period in the early nineties was for Misawa and All Japan Wrestling, it was his series of matches with Kenta Kobashi over that same Triple Crown championship that rates, along with Ric Flair versus Ricky Steamboat and Dory Funk, Jr. versus Jack Brisco as one of the three best in-ring wrestling series in the history of the business.

Misawa's death is a huge news story in Japan, akin to what might happen in the United States if Kobe Bryant or Dwight Howard died during a NBA Finals game.

The Japanese wrestling scene that Misawa dominated no longer exists, at least to the extent it did during his prime, a victim of the competition a more pure shoot Mixed Martial Arts scene delivered and the simple fact that no one could meet the standard he and Kobashi set for main events.

Misawa joins all-time greats of Japanese wrestling of the same era Jumbo Tsuruta, Terry Gordy, and Shinya Hashimoto in dying at an early age. His best rival and partner in the NOAH promotion, Kenta Kobashi, is in recovery from a serious bout with kidney cancer.

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