Paralyzed Japanese Wrestler Reveals Former WCW Star Gifted Him His Original Championship Belt

In April 2022, Shinjiro Otani was injured after taking a German suplex from Takashi Sugiura into a turnbuckle during the main event of Zero1’s anniversary show. Reports at the time stated he was immediately left unable to move his arms or legs, and it’s understood that while he has undergone surgery, he remains paralyzed from the neck down.

However, despite his unfortunate condition, the Japanese star remains upbeat. To indicate this, a photograph of him with the WCW Cruiserweight Championship has been shared on X after Dean Malenko gifted him the physical belt. This is meaningful as Otani previously held the belt but dropped it to Malenko at a WCW Worldwide taping filmed at Universal Studios in 1996.

Otani is mainly known for his lengthy career in Japan, although he sporadically wrestled in the US, famously defeating Eddie Guerrero at WCW’s Starrcade event in 1995, and went on to become the company’s inaugural Cruiserweight Champion. Later, he also wrestled for ROH in 2002 and GCW in 2019. And while things certainly don’t look promising right now for Otani, hopefully, the 52-year-olds situation will result in other wrestlers changing their approach to suplexes involving turnbuckles.