(NOAH) "While I was resting in the locker room, Taiji Ishimori came in and said, "The President has collapsed and isn't moving." (Akira Taue Series #17)

15th September 2026

Tokyo Sports

(Turning Points in History as Told in the "Four Heavenly Kings" of All Japan Pro-Wrestling: Akira Taue – Proving the "Royal Road")

"I lost my final match against Mitsuharu Misawa, the GHC Heavyweight Championship bout at Nippon Budokan in July 2007. I had hoped to land one last parting shot, but instead, I ended up on the receiving end of one. I never want to take that final move, a brainbuster-style Emerald Flowsion, ever again; there’s simply no way to take a proper bump for it.

2008 marked my 20th anniversary in the business. Looking back, I remember how desperate things were when we, (Misawa and I), left All Japan Pro-Wrestling. Four or five years later, the company’s situation had improved somewhat, and we were finally in a position to pay out bonuses. Kenta Kobashi had also made his return in December 2007, and I felt a renewed determination to make a comeback of my own.

When Misawa passed away, he was in the middle of a title match. 

I had just finished my own match and was resting in the locker room when (Taiji) Ishimori came in and said, "The President (Misawa) has collapsed and isn't moving." 

I went to the ring and found other wrestlers gathered there. An ambulance arrived, and (Satoru) Asako was performing CPR. While I was wondering, "Is he okay? What happened?" the rest of us wrestlers were told to leave the venue and wait at the hotel.

A while later, word came that the president had died. I was so stunned that I couldn’t even shed a tear. I knew he’d had neck issues for some time, but since I wasn’t the one suffering, I had no idea just how severe they were. It struck me—is it really possible for someone to pass away so suddenly? It was truly frightening. But with another show scheduled for the following day, my mind immediately shifted to the question: "What do we do now?"

An emergency board meeting was held to discuss how to proceed with the upcoming series. But I wondered—if we were to cancel the matches, would that really be what Misawa wanted? I even thought that if I had been the one to die, Misawa would have likely continued the series. In the end, we decided to go ahead with it. I was in such a state of shock that I couldn't even begin to consider how the fans might react. I gave my all in every match, but throughout the entire series, my heart remained heavy and dark. It truly took time to recover. At the funeral, memories came flooding back, and I couldn't help but get teary-eyed.

A few days after Misawa passed away, his wife, Mayumi, asked me to take over as the next president of Noah. I couldn’t decide right away, so I asked for some time—a week or two—to think it over. But with people around me also urging me to do it, I finally made up my mind and accepted."

Translated from Tokyo Sports

Picture credits: Tokyo Sports