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Once again, a young wrestler dies in the prime of life, of unknown causes. Through the pages of the well-known overseas site, PW Insider, we learn of the untimely death of Ryan Sakoda, a Japanese wrestler, naturalized American, who at one point in his career had also worked in WWE, alongside the more famous Tajiri and by Akio, who later became Jimmy Wang Yang in the WWE rings.
At the moment the cause of death is not yet known, although the athlete died very young, at the age of only 48. The news has already been around the world and would have been confirmed by multiple authoritative sources within the web wrestling, a sign that what we are reporting, unfortunately, is not fake news.
Ryan Sakoda: A great career in wrestling
Ryan Sakoda's parable was very similar to that of many other former WWE wrestlers, with the young athlete who had started from Japan, with a good school of puroresu, to then land in America, where it was everyone's dream, to succeed to enter the WWE rings, which Ryan was able to do.
In a brief juncture of his career, Ryan was also able to become part of one of the most interesting storylines of Friday Night Smackdown, alongside the lightweight champion, Tajiri. Before joining WWE, the athlete had also played in the UPW and ZERO-ONE rings, where he had cut his teeth with the American style of wrestling.
After being fired from WWE in the early 2000s, the athlete also continued to work in Wrestling Society X, for some time, only to move to other independent federations, until his death. Note, Ryan Sakoda was one of the wrestlers who denounced the WWE for the continuous concussions suffered in the company's rings, the athlete was part of the class-action suit filed against the McMahons in recent years that was led by Kostantine Kyros.
From the WorldWrestling editorial team, our deepest condolences go to Ryan's family and loved ones for his untimely death.