Overflowing Crowd Attends Mitsuharu Misawa’s Memorial Ceremony in Tokyo

Today at Differ Ariake in Tokyo, a public memorial was held in tribute to Mitsuharu Misawa who died in Hiroshima on June 13th. The memorial ceremony was styled in a similar fashion to Giant Baba’s memorial ceremony in February of 1999 at Nippon Budokan. A super-large portrait picture of Mitsuharu Misawa wearing the GHC Heavyweight title belt was placed alongside row after row of flower bouquets. The NOAH green ring was set-up in the middle of the arena, surrounded by tables with flowers surrounding the ring. The event was a two-part ceremony (first part for the wrestlers, second part for the fans). Asahi Shimbun reported that fans started lining up for the event yesterday (Friday) at 4 PM. Conservative estimates were that 10,000 fans showed up, but the number being floated around as the day-long memorial service took place was more along the lines of 25,000 fans.

Video of the memorial service can be seen here and here.

There was a ten-count gong, then Misawa’s “Spartan X” theme song played, then a ring call was done for a final time introducing him coming to the red corner at 250 pounds, then his name announced.

source: fightopinion.com