Wrestling Legend Mach Hayato Passes Away

Mach Hayato, who helped bring Lucha libre to Japan, has passed away. PWInsider reports that Hayato passed away on November 8th due to kidney-related issues at the age of 70.

Hayato was one of the first Japanese wrestlers to take on Lucha style and work the style in Japan. He got his start at the NJPW dojo in June of 1973, but his small build wasn’t what the company was looking for at the time. He travelled to Mexico in 1975 and trained there, making his debut in EMLL (now known as CMLL) in March of 1976 as Karate Hayato.

He would work for EMLL for a couple of years, and returned back to Japan in 1979 to wrestle for IWE. He took on the name Mach Hayato at that point and would often work against the luchadors that IWE brought in.

When IWE closed its doors in 1981, he began to travel the world again and competed in promotions in Mexico before going to Stampede Wrestling in 1982. He would return to Japan to work for AJPW for a couple of months in 1984, before going to UWF where he finished out his career, culminating in a retirement match on April 25th, 1985 where he and Super Tiger defeated Talvar Singh and Caswell Martin.

Hayato eventually moved to the US and gained citizenship, living in Huntington Beach, California.

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