Noah's Yoshinari Ogawa, who Jun Akiyama described as "The greatest authority", was once a young man in tears after a left elbow injury 33 years ago
Yahoo.co.jp/East Sports Web
Talking of Pro Wrestling, the veteran photographer of this paper who has been watching the world of the Japanese mat from ringside for East Sports, has released treasured photos to the public! Whether it was a natural disaster or family troubles, I rushed to the venue and tried to pay close attention to the wrestlers. Let's take a look at the "Legendary Pieces".
Noah, who have refrained from live shows so far due to the spread of the Coronavirus, resumed their live box office on the 18th with limited audience capacity. Even though events are being held with a limited number of people, it has been a pleasure for the wrestlers to once again perform in front of the audience. Noah veteran, Yoshinari Ogawa, will celebrate the 35th anniversary of his debut this year.
Thirty six years ago, Ogawa, who entered All Japan in 1984, made his pre-debut in a Battle Royale with 14 wrestlers at the Abashiri event in Hokkaido on May 19th the following year (he was eliminated by the others as soon as he entered). On September 3rd he made his proper debut in All Japan against Shinji Sasazaki in Miyako.
One year after his debut, tragedy struck on January 30th 1987 in a match against Sasazaki at the Iwate\Hanamaki Civic Gymnasium. Ogawa had swung Sasazaki into the corner and went to jump on the rope, he turned round and aimed for a flying body attack, but the timing was off and he fell to the mat on his left arm. Holding his left arm, he found he couldn't move it. I couldn't bear to look, as the left elbow bones had popped out. A left elbow splint was fitted on Ogawa, and he was placed on a stretcher and taken to hospital via an ambulance (pictured).
Approximately two months later, on April 13th in Matsuyama, Ogawa had a return match against Mitsuo Momota, but his appearance was painful with a large bandage wrapped around his left elbow. After that he was repeatedly injured, he would miss time and then he would return. Still, Ogawa, who had states that "my goal as a wrestler is to be like Kabuki-san*, who can deal with any opponent", worked silently and was selected as Mitsuharu Misawa's tag partner in the latter half of the 1990s, and a bright light shone. After that, the evaluation of Ogawa, who had been so unlucky on the undercard, gradually increased.
Jun Akiyama, who transferred from All Japan to DDT, commented on Twitter "I should ask Ogawa-san to teach the DDT wrestlers. He's the greatest authority!"
It seems that the technology, cultivated in the undercard was not all bad. I will keep watching Ogawa in the future.
Picture credit: Yahoo.co.jp\East Sports
*The Great Kabuki
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