Originally published at Jun Akiyama comments on Tetsuya Endo's concussion, discusses his own past head injuries
Tetsuya Endo is out of action for the foreseeable future with a concussion.
On Sunday, June 12th, CyberFight Festival took place and the fourth match from the main event was an interpromotional six person tag match that saw DDT’s Jun Akiyama, Tetsuya Endo and Kazusada Higuchi take on NOAH’s Katsuhiko Nakajima, Atsushi Kotoge and Yoshiki Inamura.
The match was thrown out early as a result of Endo suffering a concussion. He got into a striking exchange with Nakajima and was dropped to the mat as a result of a hard strike to the head. Akiyama approached Nakajima when the match was called off.
Tokyo Sports was able to get a few comments from Akiyima about the situation at hand and he is sorry for how the match ended. Akiyama did play a role in training Tetsuya and feels he may have made a mistake in not properly teaching him about defense in cases such as what occurred at CyberFight Festival.
I felt bad for those who were watching. It’s not anyone’s fault.
I think that’s what we’ve always done in NOAH . I know that. In DDT, where I serve as a coach, I always tell the younger kids to be careful about slapping or doing anything that could cause brain damage. I’ve always told them that the human face has kryptonite points that can shake the brain, so if they’re going to do it, they should take off the kryptonite points. However, I may have made a mistake in not properly telling Endo about defense, etcetera.
Nakajima gave Tetsuya Endo a FIRST CLASS TICKET to the SHADOW REALM at today’s CyberFight Festival (06.12.2022) pic.twitter.com/ZoHzCv0zyd
— Puroresu Flowsion (@PuroresuFlow) June 12, 2022
Akiyima opened up about his past head injuries and how he suffered three early in his career. He added that he’s fortunate he’s able to celebrate that he’s been healthy over the years but things could have been worse and he does not want that to be the case for young wrestlers.
In the second or third year of my debut, I had three consecutive bouts with concussions. The first time, a strike went into my jaw, and the next day I took the strike normally, but my brain was shaking more easily. Then, after a day of inactivity, I lost my memory completely and found myself in an ambulance. It’s unthinkable now. In my case, my parents gave me a strong body, and fortunately I was able to celebrate 30 years in good health. But this could have been a miracle, or perhaps I could have had a cerebral hemorrhage and been ruined. I definitely don’t want that to happen to young people.
As a result of Tetsuya Endo being out of action, he had to relinquish the KO-D Openweight Championship.
DDT will crown a new champion through the 2022 King of DDT tournament that begins on June 16th. Akiyima told the publication that he wants to win the belt and defend it against Endo when he returns.