16 Wrestlers Who Died In 2017
6. Mr. Pogo (23 June)
Tetsuo Sekigawa, better known under the alias 'Mr. Pogo', passed away in his home town of Gunma at the age of 66 this June. He suffered a cerebral infarction whilst undergoing surgery.
During his time at Chuo College, Sekigawa was varsity champion, where he crossed paths with classmate and future wrestling star 'Jumbo' Tsuruta. The latter would go on to compete at the 1972 Olympics after ousting his sparring partner from Japan's representation.
After missing out on his amateur dream, Sekigawa turned pro, joining Antonio Inoki's NJPW just two weeks after it was founded. His tenure with the nascent company was short lived; a year after his debut, Sekigawa made the trip across the Pacific to Canada, competing in Stampede as Judo Lee, and latterly across the US under the guise The Great Seki.
It was during a spell in NWA Western States that Sekigawa adopted the name Mr. Pogo - a response to magazines frequently mispelling his latest persona, Mr. Togo. He remained in North America until 1985, wrestling almost exclusively under the new appellation, before returning to Japan and forming a tag team with Kendo Nagasaki known as the Ninja Express.
It's Mr. Pogo's time as a death match specialist in the '90s that he's best remembered, working barbaric contests against the likes of Terry Funk and Atsushi Onita for W*NG and the latter's FMW promotion. One particularly scary incident occurred in 1996 opposite Funk, when a botched fall into a bed of barbed wire resulted in a broken neck for Pogo, causing temporary paralysis. Unaware of the injury, Funk blew fire towards his stricken foe, forcing the referee to step in and stop the match.
Retirement followed shortly thereafter, but like his great rival Onita, Pogo couldn't be kept out of the ring, and made frequent comebacks up until 2016. He also followed Onita's suit in wearing one as part of a bid for Senate, but unlike the deathmatch king, he failed to be elected.