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#2 Mitsuharu Misawa
Misawa is a pro wrestling legend. An 8-time world champion in Japanese promotions, he won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship 5 times and the GHC Heavyweight Championship thrice. In 1999, he took over as head booker of AJPW after the death of Giant Baba. Misawa was also one of the founders of Pro Wrestling Noah.
Misawa won Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Wrestler of the Year award thrice and had 25 5-star matches to his name.
Tragedy struck in 2009 as Misawa teamed up with Go Shiozaki to face GHC Tag Team Champions Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith. During the match, Misawa lost consciousness after taking a back suplex from Saito. He was taken to hospital where he later died. Cause of death was said to be cervical spinal cord injury that caused cardiac arrest. Misawa’s family later invoked a Japanese law due to which official cause of death was never released.
