10 Insane Wrestling Stories Nobody Ever Talks About
1. Move Over, Undertaker...
...for there is an actual dead man in the crazed annals of pro wrestling history.
A rare journeyman in a puro industry marked by loyalty, it's fitting that Hiromichi Fuyuki - who wrestled for WAR, FMW, AJPW, SWS, and NJPW - went out in atypical fashion. There is little finality to pro wrestling; nobody ever really retires until their body demands it. Even then, guys like the Great Muta, with knees that are effectively dust at this point, continue to make cameo appearances in 2019. The Undertaker famously left his robe and stetson in the ring at WrestleMania 33, symbolising his retirement, only to say "It doesn't count, I'm still wearing my jock" when the Saudi riyal came calling.
The Undertaker, incidentally, is the Dead Man of professional wrestling. That's the gimmick, anyway; Fuyuki is the shoot Dead Man.
Sadly, Fuyuki passed away in 2003 after a long battle with intestinal cancer. He had planned to come out of retirement in a match against Shinya Hashimoto that year. Hashimoto still put over the deceased man, incredibly; during a ceremony in Kawasaki Stadium honouring Fuyuki, the New Japan legend clutched his f*cking urn and bumped into barbed wire, handing, again, a deceased pro wrestler one last win.
4/10, should have went out on his back per tradition.