Just the day after Mitsuharu Misawa died, Tetsuo "Ted" Tanabe passed out after an Osaka Pro card. He remained to be unconscious at hospital and passed away at 12:23pm on 2009/06/15.
Tanabe (no relation to me, by the way) debuted as a referee in 1987 with the old Japan Women's Pro Wrestling. When Gran Hamada and he Shinmas started the Universal Pro-Wrestling, the first "lucharesu" organization, in 1990, Tanabe joined them. Between 1992 and 2006, he was the senior referee for Michinoku Pro-Wrestling. He had been working for Osaka Pro since 2006.
Ironically, Tanabe was the same age as Misawa.
RIP.
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