Shinjiro Otani made a special appearance at a ZERO1 event earlier on Saturday.
Otani suffered a very severe cervical spine injury when wrestling for the promotion on April 10th, 2022, in Tokyo.
He sustained the injury in a match with Takashi Sugiura after taking a German suplex into the turnbuckles.
The incident left Otani paralyzed from the neck down.
At the opening of a special ZERO1 show in his honor in Takadanobaba, he appeared in a wheelchair and received a bouquet of flowers from Sugiura.
He told Sugiura he would wrestle him again one day and win the rematch.
Otani told the crowd (machine translation from Japanese):
The hope that everyone who supports professional wrestling could see me moving forward has come true.
Since I was injured in April last year, many people have been encouraging me to do my best, not to lose, and to stand up. But I still think like this: the professional wrestlers who fight every day, as well as everyone who came to see us today, are clenching their teeth and working hard for someone important to them.
That’s why, let me send you a cheer. Let me send a cheer to everyone who works hard every day. Do your best. Let’s do our best, no matter what happens. I can’t stand losing.
Talking to the press after his public appearance, he added:
People may say various things, but I’m glad that Takashi Sugiura was my opponent last year at the ZERO1 anniversary tournament. To all the reporters, thank you so much for continuing to support professional wrestling. I will definitely come back in front of you again. Until that day, thank you for your support.
The latest publicly available medical update on Otani in November 2022 confirmed that he was still paralyzed from the neck down, but had experienced improved respiratory function.
