Japanese Legend Mighty Inoue Passes Away

Japanese wrestling legend The Mighty Inoue has passed away. PWInsider reports that Inoue, real name Sueo Inoue, passed away on November 27th following a cardiac incident. He was 75 years old.

Inoue is most well known for his run in All Japan Pro Wrestling, which ran from 1981 through 2000 where he was a major part of the company’s Junior Heavyweight division. He made his pro wrestling debut in 1967 for International Wrestling Enterprise after being trained by Billy Robinson and Hiro Matsuda. Inoue worked for IWE for 14 years and defeated Superstar Billy Graham in October of 1974 to win the IWA World Heavyweight Championship, which he held for six months. During that time, Inoue also had three runs with the IWA World Tag Team Championship in a partnership with Great Kusatsu. He had two more reigns with the Tag Team Championships alongside Animal Hamaguchi, and a sixth reign with Ashura Hara.

Inoue joined AJPW after IWE folded and worked with Ashura Hara as the Japanese High Flyers, winning the All Asia Tag Team Championship in February 1983 and holding onto them for a year. Again, he would hold the tag titles multiple times with different partners; once with Animal Hamaguchi and twice with Takashi Ishikawa. He won the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship from Chavo Guerrero in February 1984 and held it for over a year, and held the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship in early 1989.

In the 1990s, Inoue was part of a legends stable alongside Haruka Eigen and Masanobu Fuchi and was primarily involved in tag team matches. He retired in 1997 and worked as a referee, joining Pro Wrestling NOAH when Mitsuharu Misawa left AJPW and formed the promotion. Misawa’s passing in 2010 led him to leave NOAH and he made occasional appearances with AJPW in the years that followed, working occasional matches. His final match saw him team up with teaming with Lowther and Yoshitatsu in July 22nd, 2023.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mr. Inoue.