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The story
Osaka Pro Wrestling announced on its official social media on September 22 that the championship belt for the “Osaka Puroresu Championship” was lost by current title-holder Tatsuya Matsubusa while he was carrying it. President Zeus apologized, saying, “Ultimate responsibility lies with me.” Thread reactions centered on how little real damage was done — jokes like “just make whoever finds it the new champion,” pointed-out contradictions in the belt’s listed price (“market value: 28,000 yen when new”), and comparisons to the old story of an Athens Olympics gold medalist who once left his medal behind at a payphone.
Sports Nippon
[September 23, 2026, 08:40]
Osaka Pro Wrestling updated its official social media on the 22nd, announcing that the championship belt for the “Osaka Puroresu Championship,” managed by the promotion, was lost by current champion Tatsuya Matsubusa while he was carrying it.
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
what a sloppy way to end this
same category as a fake mustache or a bald cap
Kind of like the Telephone Shocking bit on "Waratte Iitomo!" (a long-running variety show) — remember when they misdialed some random person and then invited them on as a guest the next day
How'd they turn it back into a celebrity segment?
After the wrong number, they still managed to reach the friend who was supposed to be introduced, so from the next day they ran the regular version and the "random person" version side by side. The random-person version ended after about three days once the friend's schedule stopped working out.
I remember them running the ordinary-person storyline alongside the celebrity one as a bit for two or three days
and it actually turned up again — gotta love Japan
That thing isn't solid gold anyway, so you can't sell it
right after it was found, I think Takada Junji went and bit down on it (a comedian known for that kind of gag)
bet the guy with the old belt crashes the ceremony right as the new belt gets unveiled
had a relative lend him money to cover it
turned out he'd just used it to pay off his own debt
probably faster to just check the pro-wrestling merch shops
"Market value (when new)" doesn't even make sense — those two things contradict each other
probably an exaggeration though
makes you wonder if it's really something you should be carrying around like that
wouldn't be surprised if someone splits off from Sendai Joshi to start their own promotion someday too
Background and points of discussion
Osaka Pro Wrestling is a long-running promotion founded in 1993, and it isn’t unusual for a marquee wrestler to personally carry the championship belt when heading out to a regional show. What made headlines this time was that the belt went missing during one of those trips. Where the thread split was over how to read the listed price, “28,000 yen (tax included, when new)” — since “market value” and “original retail price when new” are technically different concepts, several posters pointed out the contradiction. Other belts, like New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s original IWGP belt, studded with gems and rumored to be worth 100 million yen at market value, show that production costs and insurance treatment for “championship belts” can vary hugely between promotions even when they’re called the same thing. The thread also brought up the true story of an Athens Olympics gold medalist who left his medal at a payphone after the ceremony, but that was a different sport in a different era with no direct connection to this incident. It’s also worth noting that wrestling promotions misplacing belts isn’t unprecedented — other promotions have reported similar incidents before, so this isn’t a one-of-a-kind case.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Osaka Pro Wrestling] Current Champion Loses Championship Belt on Train… President Zeus Apologizes: “Ultimate Responsibility Lies With Me”.”
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