The first time I watched Katsuyori Shibata wrestle a singles match was in January of 2016 at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo, where he defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the Never Openweight Championship. I knew right away that there was something special about this guy. He had a clear MMA background, and he used it to great effect in the ring, more so than most wrestlers with similar backgrounds. Unlike other MMA style pro wrestlers, Shibata blended the two styles seamlessly, unlike any wrestler I have seen before. The intensity with which he wrestles is also an appealing characteristic. He can almost make you feel as though it’s a life or death situation instead of a wrestling match with his intense stare.
Shibata character in New Japan Pro Wrestling was that of the prodigal son returning home. When he debuted in 1999 along with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura, the three were thought to be the future of NJPW, and for Tanahashi and Nakamura, this turned out to be true, with these two being likely the biggest names NJPW has produced this century. Shibata, on the other hand, took a different path, and left pro wrestling to become a mixed martial artist in 2005. It wasn’t until seven years later that he returned to pro wrestling and started to pick up where he left off. It wasn’t until nearly three and a half years after his return that he worked his way up to his first singles title when he defeated Ishii. His rise continued, despite losing the Never Openweight championship, he would go on to defeat Zach Sabre Jr for the British Heavyweight championship, and then later earn his first IWGP World Heavyweight Championship title match against Kazuchika Okada by defeating Bad Luck Fale and winning the 2017 New Japan Cup. I watched this match between Shibata and Okada with great anticipation, having seen them both put on excellent matches before. It never occurred to me that this would be the last time that I or anyone else would get to watch Shibata wrestle.
I wrote about this match in an earlier piece, but what I didn’t know at the time was that Shibata collapsed backstage after the match and had to have emergency surgery to remove a subdermal hematoma, which caused partial paralysis on one side of his body. During the match, he delivered huge headbutt to Okada, which caused blood to trickle down Shibata’s head. It was obvious during the match that this was not a staged cut, but Shibata continued, and the bleeding was minimal, so apparently no one thought anything of it at the time. We were all wrong. Following the surgery, it is now being reported that Shibata suffered Traumatic Brain Injury, and will almost certainly never be cleared to wrestle again.
Katsuyori Shibata was not the first wrestler to be taken down in his prime by injury, and he certainly won’t be the last. I doubt if I’ll do a tribute piece every time a wrestler’s career ends, but in the case of Shibata, he was a relative unknown to American wrestling fans, and his career was cut short before it he could become anything more. And since he no longer fits in my upcoming current Japanese wrestlers Top Ten list, this tribute will have to do.
Pro Wrestling Scribe 