AJPW Legend Genichiro Tenryu Suffers Congestive Heart Failure
The 71-year-old puroresu icon was hospitalised on 19 March.
Genichiro Tenryu was hospitalised with congestive heart failure on 19 March.
Per the AJPW legend's official website (via Yahoo! Japan), Tenryu had been suffering from "palpitations, swelling of the legs, shortness of breath," and other issues since the beginning of March. Fortunately, it is noticed that while the situation was urgent and he will remain in the hospital for the time being, his condition has improved.
Tenryu's course of treatment will be discussed with his doctors.
The 71-year-old has postponed all planned public appearances, saying the following:-
"I'm sorry to have caused concern to all the fans and people involved. I was surprised at the suddenness, but I thought that I was told to live again! There is no choice but to take it positively. I think about the day I can spend with you again, and I will do my best to treat it. Above all, I regret having made a big hole in the event and work. But I think it's because I'm alive, so I'm fine. I will do my best so that I can show you! "
Renowned for his bruising, hard-chopping style of wrestling, Tenryu was an All Japan staple in the '70s and '80s, winning the company's Triple Crown Championship on three separate occasions.
Leaving in April 1990 to form his own Super World of Sports promotion, then Wrestling and Romance when SWS closed in 1992, Tenryu eventually returned to AJPW in 2000. He didn't retire until November 2015, when he lost to New Japan's Kazuchika Okada in a brutally stiff retirement match under his own Tenryu Project banner.
Tenryu's last major wrestling appearance was at a show dedicated to the 23th anniversary of Giant Baba's passing on 4 February.
All the best the one of the all-time greats in his recovery.