This year has been full of mourning for The Pro Wrestling Industry as ever since January there have already been several unfortunate deaths that have been reported and that have shocked the entire industry. Just recently, another unfortunate news has been reported as according to Jimmy Suzuki, The President Of Tokyo Championship Wrestling, Wally Yamaguchi, better known as “Yamaguchi-san” in WWE, has recently passed away at the age of 61. It is unclear at the moment what the cause of death was, but Yamaguchi had been reportedly dealing with health problems since suffering a stroke in 2017. Jimmy Suzuki also said that he will be holding a memorial show for Wally Yamaguchi on March 13th.
Yamaguchi would join The WWE as Yamaguchi-san in March Of 1998 alongside his stable, Kaientai (Dick Togo, Mens Teioh & Funaki). Their most memorable moment reportedly came during their most heated rivalry in WWE which was with the company’s resident Porn Star, Val Venis. On an episode of Monday Night RAW, a video was shown to Yamaguchi that featured his wife sleeping with Venis, causing an outrage and even threats that he would punish them both.
Mrs. Yamaguchi-San was then rescued by Venis prior to Yamaguchi following through with his promise and threats of having his revenge on her. The next week however, after Venis would finish his match, Yamaguchi & Kaientai would appear and would have a large salami placed on a table brought with them. Yamaguchi was then shown chopping the salami while shouting to Venis, “I choppy choppy your pee pee!”
You can check out the tweets about Yamaguchi’s passing below:
My best friend Wally Yamaguchi (Yamaguchi San)passed away .
He had stroke about one year ago. Had hart problem as well and he was on bed for about one year. I’ll have my show on March 13 as TCW Wally Yamaguchi Memorial Show. R.I.P. pic.twitter.com/bSkErjS9wm
— Jimmy Suzuki (ジミー鈴木） (@JimmySuzuki1) March 9, 2019
Just got word that Wally Yamaguchi passed away. What a damn shame. He was a great ambassador to pro wrestling. The world is a sadder place without him. #kaientai
— アンドリュー・ケトン・ストウエル (@AkiraMichinoku) March 9, 2019
