Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that Yoshinari Ogawa has made the decision to retire from in-ring competition due to an injury to his neck. Ogawa’s final match took place on August 4th at NOAH’s N-1 Victory event, where he teamed with Daga, Super Crazy and Yu Owada to take on AMAKUSA, HAYATA, Tadasukee and YO-HEY.
During his career, Ogawa held the GHC Heavyweight Championship, the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship three times and the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship nine times.
You can check out the full announcement below:
Announcement of Yoshinari Ogawa’s retirement
Thank you very much for your continued support for Pro Wrestling Noah.
We are pleased to announce that NOAH wrestler Yoshinari Ogawa has decided to retire from active competition.
Since his debut in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1985, Ogawa Yoshinari has been active at the fortieth year of his career, winning numerous titles at the forefront of wrestling, including the GHC Heavyweight, GHC Tag, GHC Junior Heavyweight, and GHC Junior Tag.
In recent years, he has not only been at the heart of NOAH Junior, but has also been a pillar of NOAH in terms of technical aspects.
However, due to the neck injury, it has been determined that it will be difficult for him to continue playing, and so at his own request, Ogawa has decided to retire.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the support and encouragement you have shown to Ogawa so far.
Although he will be retiring from active play, he will be able to carry out his daily life without any worries, so we ask all his fans to rest assured.
In addition, at Ogawa’s own strong request, there will be no retirement press conference or ceremony. We ask for your understanding in this matter.
