10 Wrestlers Who Died In Mysterious Circumstances

The godfather of professional wrestling in Japan, Rikidozan was nothing less than a national phenomenon in the 1950s.

However, in 1963, the same year he broke Japanese television records with his match with the Destroyer, Rikidozan was shockingly murdered, stabbed with a urine soaked blade in a Tokyo nightclub.

To this day, the circumstances of Rikidozan's death are shrouded in mystery.

Some have suggested Rikidozan immediately threw his assailant, a Yakuza member, Katsuji Murata, out of the club and carried on partying. Others claim that he went to seek medical advice and was told the wound was nothing to worry about. It was, and he died of peritonitis a week later.

Why Murata stabbed Rikidozan is still unresolved. Serving seven years for the crime, he never divulged his reasons behind the attack. The most popular hypothesis is that of his former opponent Masahiko Kimura, who claims Rikidozan was stabbed in retaliation for attacking him for real during their match.

Kimura claimed that he had received word that there were Yazuka on the way to kill Rikidozan that night, although his account is heavily disputed by author Toshiyo Masuda in his 2011 book Why Kimura Didn't Kill Rikidozan. We remain none the wiser.