This month's Puroresu video.

Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope it's a good one, eh?

This is the announcement for this month's Puroresu video, the first of 2021...it's going to be a heavy one. The video will cover 6 wrestlers who did not get to achieve their full potential, who had their careers cut short. Or indeed, their lives tragically cut short. 

The 6 wrestlers chosen are Naohiro Hoshikawa, Act Yasukawa, Kazuharu Sonoda, Plum Mariko, Hana Kimura, and Rikidozan. I suppose some might wonder why Rikidozan would be here considering that he is arguably the most popular star in the history of Japanese wrestling, but then the impact of his early death is somewhat difficult to overstate. What would Puro be like if he had not been murdered? 

The choices do not perhaps require much in the way of justfication, of course. It should be noted that not all of them are of death. Yasukawa and Hoshikawa were forced to retire through injury, inflicted in the ring. There will be a lot of emotions though, some tough subjects to deal with. 

I suppose, in fact know, that the decision to make a video like this is in response to recent events. The passing of Brodie Lee is still something that's tricky to process, even following the beautiful tribute that AEW put together for him last Wednesday and all the many respects that have been paid to him by his colleagues and fans. A video like this isn't necessarily going to bring a closure, but it's a way that I know how to deal with it on the personal fan level, who always hoped he'd get the top spot he deserved and like many, is so saddened for it to be taken away from him just when he'd got there. 

As ever, I'm aiming for the video to come out at the end of his month. I hope I can give these subjects the respect that's required.   

-Kim