Hisashi Shinma, the former mastermind of Japanese wrestling with many revolutionary ideas, has died. He also played an active role in WWE and helped pave the way for the billion-dollar MMA business.
Only die-hard fans know his name, but his influence on the history of wrestling and, indirectly, on the sport of MMA was enormous.
Hisashi Shinma, Hall of Fame member of WWE and a key figure in the world of combat sports as the long-time mastermind of the Japanese wrestling scene, has died at the age of 90.
Mastermind of Japanese wrestling
Shinma was the boss and creative mind behind the scenes of the Japanese league NJPW in the 1970s and early 1980s, paving the way for numerous groundbreaking developments in this role.
The rise of Antonio Inoki to become the biggest star in Japanese wrestling and a personality known far beyond the industry was largely considered Shinma’s work – although there are differences of opinion among experts as to how much Shinma and how much Inoki himself was the driving force behind it. One thing is certain: Inoki, who died in 2022, and Shinma were close associates, and Shinma was also Inoki’s right-hand man when the latter entered politics.
Shinma’s creation of the Junior Heavyweight Division at NJPW was also groundbreaking, redefining the athletic level of the sport with stars such as Tiger Mask, Dynamite Kid, and “Rollerball” Mark Rocco / Black Tiger (later also: Jushin Thunder Liger, Owen Hart, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit) and shaping the style of NJPW and WWE to this day.
Shinma also arranged a collaboration between NJPW and the then WWF, where he even appeared on US TV as the fictional president of the league – as the predecessor of Jack Tunney, who was still well known to fans in the 1990s.
Shinma was a pioneer of the MMA boom
Shinma also played an important role by thinking outside the box: he hired stars from other martial arts for his wrestling shows and was also one of the masterminds behind the famous boxing match between Inoki and Muhammad Ali.
The crossover fights promoted by Shinma paved the way for the mixed martial arts phenomenon, which has since become a billion-dollar business thanks to the rise of the UFC. When Shinma left NJPW in the 1980s after a scandal – the league had embezzled funds from NJPW for other business ventures of Inoki – he continued to promote MMA by founding the UWF league.
Although the fights there were also staged like wrestling, their more realistic style bridged the gap between wrestling and MMA.
WWE inducted Shinma, who remained an “elder statesman” in Japanese wrestling until the end, into the “Legacy Wing” of its Hall of Fame in 2019, and has now published an obituary for Shinma and expressed its condolences to his family.
