Shinjiro Otani appeared at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Legacy Rise event for a brief address in front of the audience at Korakuen Hall.
Otani entered the arena in a wheelchair with the assistance of Naomichi Marufuji, noting that it had been several years since he had been to Korakuen Hall. He stated that NOAH reached out to him, and the former wrestler will be launching a YouTube channel.
Otani professed how much he loved professional wrestling, and he is working hard daily so that one day he can stand in the ring again.
📢 Shinjiro Otani shows his pro wrestling “textbook”!
“I truly love pro wrestling!”
Now streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE
▶ https://t.co/LiCLB9X6Sa#noah_ghc #wrestleUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/NhfHljrnRm— PRO WRESTLING NOAH (@noahglobal) February 11, 2026
Otani was paralyzed from the neck down after sustaining cervical spinal injury in an April 2022 match.
The 53-year-old began wrestling in 1992 and became one of New Japan’s top junior heavyweights throughout the ‘90s. Otani would leave NJPW and join Zero-One in the promotion’s infancy in 2001.
His final occurred on April 10, 2022, where he took a German suplex into the buckle and was paralyzed
