- 06/21/2008 (8:58:11 pm)
- Georgiann Makropoulos
….
Great Kusatsu
(1942/02/13 - 2008/06/21)
| Real Name: | Masatake Kusatsu | ||
| Birth: | 1942/02/13 Kumamoto | ||
| Debut: | 1966/03/21 vs. Kazuo Homma (JWA) | ||
| Deatht: | 2008/06/21 Mishima, Shizuoka | ||
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After being a member of the Japan national rugby union team, Kusatsu joined JWA in 1965/08 and had his debut match on 1966/03/21. However, because of the dislike of the JWA management, he jumped to IWE in the same year.
He was the top Japanese star of the IWE, but he was knocked out during a match against TWWA World champion Lou Thesz on 1968/01/03 and lost by forfeit. The match was aired on IWE's first televised card of TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting), and it was said to have traumatized not only Kusatsu's career as a wrestler but also the direction of the organization itself.
Kusatsu would eventually "recover" and again become one of the main eventers though never was the top star of the organization.
In 1980/06, he had the achilles' tendon split, and while he was on the disabled list, IWE closed down in 1981/08, and Kusatsu retired as a wrestler. He worked as a sales manager for different non-wrestling companies afterwards thoguh he was briefly a TV commentator in the early days of SWS.
His son, Kenji, was also in the combat sport as he was a K-1 fighter under the name "Great Kusatu" for a short while.
Kusatsu was hospitalized due to the esophageal cancer spreading into lung and liver in 2007/05 and passed away at the age of 66 on 2008/06/21.
http://www.puroresu.com/personalities/kusatsu_great.html
