Originally posted by MeltzerThe 39-year-old Kobashi was diagnosed with cancer when results of tests came back after a routine medical examination. The company made the announcement on a piece of paper in front of Differ Ariake in Tokyo, its home arena, where they have a show scheduled. Mitsuharu Misawa, the group's president, was interviewed on the NTV Network sports news at midnight earlier today, saying that Kobashi's pain was such that he told Misawa he can't wrestle right now.
He said that after Kobashi complained about severe pain in his waist at his examination, they gave him a CT scan last Thursday and the results showed a tumor on his kidney. Not much else is known but it is believed he will be undergoing surgery to remove the cancer.
Well, if you wanted to be a wonderful cynic about it, you could suggest that the suplexes didn't cause the cancer, but whatever he was taking to stay in the ring after taking their suplxes might have been a cause.
This stinks so much, and my prayers are with him. One of my great joys in wrestling was seeing Kobashi live when he came to Philly for an ROH show (I wasn't there in NY for Kobashi/Joe).
He was so amazing in 1993 in All Japan, and he was still going strong. Hopefully he beats this cancer just like he has beaten so many wrestlers.
Yeah this shocked and depressed me when I read it else where. I've been on a huge Puroresu kick over the last year and half to two years and Kobashi is probably my favorite heavyweight. The guy's performances at first kept me coming probably more than anyone(though I'm into a lot of other guys now too...Misawa, Jumbo, Tenryu). I have hope that he can beat it, but I feel so awful for him that its happened. Still, he's tough as hell and hopefully he annihilates the cancer with with deadliest Burning Hammer of all.