Former WrestleMania VII Star Koji Kitao Passes Away

According to PW Insider, former Japanese sumo wrestler, professional wrestler and shooter Koji Kitao has passed away at the age of 55. Kitao actually passed away on February 10 but the news has only been made public today.

Kitao appeared at WrestleMania VII in 1991, teaming with Genichiro Tenryu to defeat Demolition (Crush and Smash) in under five minutes. The duo were on the show as part of WWE’s agreement with SWS, a wrestling promotion in Japan that was talent trading with WWE at the time.

Prior to that, Kitao had been a high level sumo wrestler before making the switch the pro wrestling. He wrestled a handful of matches for New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1990, including some matches against Vader, before switching allegiances to SWS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuHwcqeR2yc

Kitao was involved in a famous shoot incident with John ‘Earthquake’ Tenta a week later in which he stopped selling for QUake and began shooting on him. The match was abandoned and Kitao cut a promo on the audience, telling them that wrestling was fake. Unsurprisingly he was fired from SWS shortly afterwards.

Kitao moved onto WAR for a few years after that before finally departing the business for good in 1998. He switched to MMA, scoring a victory over WWE’s future Australian monster Nathan Jones on a PRIDE-1 card.

• Koji Kitao
• Died
• WrestleMania
• NJPW

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