Former All Japan & NOAH wrestler Ryuma ‘Jun’ Izumida passes away
Former All Japan and NOAH mid-level wrestler Ryuma “Jun” Izumida passed away more than one week ago at the age of 51.
The news was released by the NOAH promotion and Naomichi Marufuji on Facebook. No cause of death was released but the death was at the end of January, and he passed away in his home in Kanagawa and he recently had his funeral.
Izumida was a former sumo who worked in the 90s as a regular in the mid-card comedy match that would involve Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura, often as their partner, often against Haruka Eigen, who also recently passed away.
His specialty was head-butts. He wrestled under his real name, and later had modifications including Ryukaku Izumida, Junji Izumida, Izu and Jun Izumida.
He started as a pro wrestler in 1992 in All Japan, and went, with most of the talent, to NOAH in 2000 where he worked full-time through 2009. He was released at that point due to cost cutting measures when NOAH started having financial problems, and did some independent wrestling through 2012.
His only major title win with All Japan came on October 6th, 1998, when he teamed with Tamon Honda, a regular partner, to beat Johnny Smith & Wolf Hawkfield and win the All-Asia tag titles, which they lost in an interpromotional angle to Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki.
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.