Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.
Atsushi Aoki
Atsushi Aoki was a stand out amateur wrestler in high school, winning a championship in his weight class. After graduating, Aoki would continue to wrestle on the amateur level while serving in Japan’s army. In 2005, Aoki would enroll in Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Dojo and was trained by the legendary Jun Akiyama.
During his time in NOAH, Aoki won several tag team titles and tournaments. He was voted rookie of the year by the Wrestling Observer. Aoki would eventually leave NOAH and travel to Mexico where he competed for AAA. He would co hold the AAA tag team titles while touring there. In 2009, he was invited to New Japan’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament where he lasted until the semi finals.
Atsushi Aoki would really establish a name for himself when he joined All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2013. Aoki would win the tag team titles on 3 occasions and then focused his attention as a singles star. He won the World Junior Heavyweight title four times as well as a few tournaments. He garnred pin fall victories over other Japanese icons like the Ultimo Dragon and Yoshihiro Tajiri.
Aoki was on his fourth reign as the All Japan World Junior Heavyweight champion when tragedy struck. On June 3rd, 2019…Aoki was riding his motorcycle through a tunnel in Tokyo, when he lost control and crashed into the wall inside of the tunnel. He died from his injuries sustained in the crash. He was just two weeks away from defending his title against Hikaru Sato. Not only was Aoki the reigning Junior champion…he was also the head trainer at All Japan’s Dojo. Atsushi Aoki was just 41 years old at the time of his death.