Pro Wrestling NOAH's Japanese sensation Takeshi Morishima looked like he could become the next big international star in the mid-2000s. A superlative worker, Morishima had some absolutely phenomenal matches, including some notoriously stiff brawls with Daniel Bryan (the YES man received a detached retina during one particularly gruesome bout). Morishima could go, wrestling long matches and performing moves that no other 320lb man would dare attempt (such as a suicide dive and a top rope front dropkick). The big man had two tryouts for WWE in August 2008, defeating Charlie Haas in three minutes before a Raw taping and then the next night rolling over Jamie Noble before Smackdown. So how did Morishima do, then? Not very well, apparently. Unsurprisingly, most of the negative reviews were due to his soft, round physique. WWE officials were not impressed by his baby fat, with some even going as far as to say that Morishima showed disrespect by turning up in the shape he did. Jim Ross wrote a blog about Morishima's tryout, saying that:
I haven't heard a word about how well his matches went. I watched his match in Moline and it was o.k. Not bad, not great. It looks like Morishima might want to focus on his athletic conditioning and hit the gym more frequently. I am not being negative here only realistic. Morishima has "something" that seems like it might be worth exploring. I like his timing and there is no doubt potential with this young man.
So far, not so good. Then it emerged that if Morishima were to join the WWE, they would have to deal with a number of political issues on NOAH's side, since they wanted to eventually bring him back back to the company once he became a star in America (so WWE couldn't make him look like a joke). Morishima retired in April 2015, as a result of diabetes.
