Arena. The match was supposed to last 37 minutes, but around ten minutes before the scheduled finish, Misawa took a back suplex from Saito. Misawa was motionless, and referee Shuichi Nishinaga stopped the match. A doctor in attendance attempted to perform CPR, but was unsuccessful, and Misawa's body discolored as emergency medical technicians attempted to revive him with an automated external defibrillator. Misawa was taken to the Hiroshima University hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:10pm JST, at age 46. Although Misawa's family invoked a Japanese law that requested the police not publicly release the official cause of death, it was speculated in the official police report to have been a cervical injury, and the Hiroshima Prefectural Police Central Office stated the night after the accident that the "diagnosis was cervical cord transection". The injury was specified and reported by Meltzer as the separation of Misawa's first and second cervical vertebrae (atlanto-axial dislocation). Aftermath Misawa's death was the leading story amongst the Japanese sports press. Nikkan Sports and Tokyo Sports printed special memorial issues on June 22, and Weekly Pro Wrestling printed photographs of the maneuver which killed Misawa. However, highbrow newspapers and mainstream sources gave the event little coverage (NHK only devoted one minute to the story on their primetime newscast), since older editors did not consider wrestling major news due to its great decline in overall popularity. An exception to this trend was NTV broadcaster Kazuo Tokumitsu, who devoted twenty minutes of his morning program to Misawa. Tokumitsu, a figure of great influence in NTV who once worked as AJPW's head announcer, had reportedly opposed the network cancellation. Wrestling promotions across the world opened their shows with ceremonial ten counts in tribute, and WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling both posted memorial messages on their respective websites. WWE wrestler CM Punk wrote 'MISAWA' on his wrist and forearm tape as tribute during the June 15 episode of WWE Raw. Also, Yoshi Tatsu wore a ring attire resembling Misawa's for some weeks as a tribute. At a tour bus meeting after Misawa was taken to the hospital, Noah wrestlers were informed that he had died, but that the company could not afford to cancel the tour's remaining dates. The next day, they proceeded with a Fukuoka show. Vice President Momota did not reveal Misawa's cause of death, as was requested by his family (this was before the Hiroshima