Professional wrestling may be scripted, but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. Even fatal. Who was the Japanese wrestling legend who died on a basic move? And what exactly happened to Owen Hart? Their stories and more ahead.
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00:00Professional wrestling is a dangerous job, and it's not uncommon for wrestlers to pass
00:04away before their time.
00:06For some of them, the end comes before they even leave the ring.
00:09Here are professional wrestlers who died in the ring, sometimes with an audience and sometimes
00:13without.
00:14Mitsuharu Misawa is one of the biggest names of all time in Japanese wrestling.
00:19He rose to fame in the 1980s as Tiger Mask, a character who, naturally enough, wore a
00:24tiger-themed mask.
00:26He was so popular that when he unmasked in 1990, his fame only increased.
00:31In 2009, he was a 46-year-old veteran who had been named Professional Wrestler of the
00:35Year three times and was still competing.
00:38The tragic match that cut Misawa's stellar career short occurred on June 13, 2009.
00:44One of his opponents gave him a back suplex, a fairly common move.
00:47However, what happened next shows that nothing in wrestling is truly routine, and even the
00:51most basic moves can turn into tragedies.
00:54Misawa didn't move after the impact.
00:57The match was immediately stopped.
00:59All the wrestlers surrounded the ring, and the crowd softly chanted Misawa's name as
01:03doctors and nurses tried to administer CPR.
01:06He was declared dead at a hospital, though he was likely already lifeless before he was
01:10moved away from the ring.
01:12The official cause was heart failure.
01:14Malcolm King Kong Kirk was a well-known British monster heel and a frequent tag team partner
01:19of the even more massive Giant Haystacks.
01:22This former rugby player didn't use a gimmick, as his 350-pound frame was more than enough
01:27to intimidate his opponents.
01:29On August 23, 1987, Kirk faced off against Shirley Big Daddy Crabtree, who said Kirk
01:34had the strength of three people.
01:36The match proceeded exactly as planned, right up until the end, when Big Daddy gave Kirk
01:41his finishing move, a big splash that saw him jumping on his prone opponent.
01:45Kirk never kicked out from that finisher.
01:47The 50-year-old powerhouse was left lying in the ring, but it wasn't the finishing move
01:51that killed him.
01:53An inquest of the incident discovered that Kirk died of a pre-existing heart condition.
01:57Big Daddy was cleared of all responsibility, and even Kirk's widow said she held no ill
02:01will against her deceased husband's final opponent.
02:04As long as I live, I'll never forget seeing him laid down there on the canvas, instead
02:10of on his feet raging and flying about.
02:13Wayne Van Dyke, aka Richard Delicious, was an independent wrestler working Florida's
02:18small promotions.
02:19He was just 29 years old when he suffered a series of heart attacks that started during
02:23a tag team match at an event arranged by the Ronin Pro Wrestling Promotion.
02:27He complained to his tag team partner that he wasn't feeling well, and suffered the first
02:31heart attack right after tagging himself out.
02:34After that, things went from bad to worse.
02:37The attempts to give him CPR on the scene left Van Dyke with at least one broken rib
02:40and a punctured lung.
02:42He then suffered a second heart attack on his way to the hospital.
02:46When he finally reached the facility, he had a third one.
02:49At that point, hospital staff had to put him in a medically-induced coma.
02:52Unfortunately, the damage was too much for his system, and Van Dyke's family soon confirmed
02:57the wrestler's passing on Facebook.
02:59Japanese wrestler Plum Mariko died in the ring after her opponent powerbombed her in
03:041997.
03:05It wasn't until after the match that the other wrestlers realized that she still hadn't moved
03:10and was now snoring, which was a sign that her brain was bleeding.
03:14She was rushed to the hospital, but surgery couldn't save her.
03:16The 29-year-old died of brain damage.
03:19Mariko had accumulated a collection of nasty injuries over the years, including multiple
03:23concussions and an undiagnosed brain abscess.
03:27Doctors believe she died because of the combined effects of these injuries, rather than a single
03:31one from the powerbomb.
03:33They also said that if she had been examined earlier, she likely would have lived because
03:36no doctor would have let her wrestle in her condition.
03:40Mariko's passing was the first in-ring wrestling death in Japan.
03:43What makes her fate even more tragic is that the signs of brain damage were there.
03:47Owen Hart was a member of the legendary Hart Wrestling Family.
03:51At the time of his death in 1999, his gimmick was a masked superhero character known as
03:55the Blue Blazer.
03:57For the May 1999 Over the Edge show, the WWF decided to give him an entrance befitting
04:02a superhero in which he would fly in.
04:04An elaborate system of wires was set up to lower him to the ring from the rafters above.
04:09But the system malfunctioned while he was 78 feet above the ring, sending him plunging
04:13down as he hit the top rope, and then bounced into the ring.
04:17Though the incident never made it to television, the 16,000 people at Kansas City's Kemper
04:21Arena witnessed the futile attempts by the medical staff to revive Hart, who died of
04:26internal bleeding.
04:27At first, some of the audience members thought the whole thing was a stunt and that the falling
04:31figure had been a doll.
04:33However, this impression wouldn't last long.
04:35The ring announcer soon informed the audience what had just happened was completely unscripted.
04:40Before the event was over, WWF commentator Jim Ross announced to the world that Hart
04:45was dead.