Pro Wrestling Game Creator Passes Away + Hero/EVOLVE

— The creature of an iconic wrestling video game franchise has passed away. Polygon reports that Masato Masuda, who created the Fire Pro Wrestling series, passed away at the age of forty-eight.

The news was revealed by Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi “Suda51” Suda, who posted the following on Twitlonger:

“The creator of Fire Pro-wrestling, Masato Masuda, has passed away. He was 48 years old, still young. I genuinely pray for his happiness in the next world. He was one of the greatest creators of video games and he was my direct teacher. Thank you for giving us our favorite Fire Pro-wrestling. You are the god of it.”

The Fire Pro Wrestling games were preceded by Pro Wrestling on the NES, which Masuda also created. The Fire Pro series was incredibly popular in Japan and crossed over to the US in a couple instances.

On behalf of everyone here on the website, we send our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mr. Masuda.

— WWNLive has announced that EVOLVE Champion Chris Hero will defend his title at today’s 2014: A Wrestling Odyssey iPPV. He will face former champion AR Fox in the first ever SPRINT match. The match is set for 20-minutes, and the man with the most falls won will win the match. If there is a tie, they will go into overtime. Here is the rest of the card for the show…

* CZW World Heavyweight Championship “British Rounds” Match: Champion Drew Gulak defends vs. Timothy Thatcher
* FIP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Champion Trent Baretta defends vs. FIP Florida Heritage Champion Lince Dorado
* SHINE Championship Match: Champion Ivelisse defends vs. Jazz
* SHINE Tag Team Championship Match: Champions The Lucha Sisters of Mia Yim & Leva defend vs. The S-N-S Express of Nevaeh & Sassy Stephie
* WILDKAT Heavyweight Championship Match: Champion Mike Dell defends vs. Steve Anthony
* The Bravado Brothers vs. Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae (Special Referee Maxwell Chicago)

You can order the show on iPPV at this link.

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