Keiji Mutoh resigns as All Japan Pro Wrestling president

The fallout from the circumstances behind All Japan wrestler Nobukazu Hirai's acute subdural hematoma have continued.  Hirai is still hospitalised from the serious brain injury that happened on the same day he was the victim of a backstage beating from fellow wrestler TARU, while Minoru, Masayuki Kono and MAZADA watched on.  The suspensions of the four wrestlers involved in the attack wasn't enough to stop the flurry of bad press that All Japan Pro Wrestling has suffered since the incident occurred.  As Zach Arnold has relayed, the consequence of this media backlash led by Tokyo Sports is that Keiji Mutoh has fallen on his sword and has resigned as All Japan Pro Wrestling president, being replaced by their director Masayuki Uchida.  To say this is a big shock may be an understatement, as the American equivalent would be Vince McMahon or Dixie Carter voluntarily resigning from their position as the head of their respective wrestling companies, given that when Mutoh became president on September 30th 2002 all of former owner Motoko Baba's stock transferred over to him.  Mutoh will continue to wrestle for the company, but his power will obviously be greatly reduced.

Unsurprisingly, according to Zach, All Japan is irate at Tokyo Sports' handling of the story:

The heat between All Japan & Tokyo Sports right now is nuclear because of the coverage Tokyo Sports has done on the story.  There is great strain right now given that Tokyo Sports was backing a three-promotion show in August at Nippon Budokan (AJ, NJ, & NOAH). 

Given how much heat exists between All Japan and Tokyo Sports right now the company may even pull out of the aforementioned Tokyo Sports' All Together show, but that would be a difficult move to make PR wise since the proceeds of that charity show will be going towards the continuing Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.