Masahito Kakihara retires

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but current NJPW junior heavyweight Masahito Kakihara announced his retirement from the world of pro-wrestling on 4/19/06 at the New Japan office, ending his 17 year career.
He never won any IWGP title belts while with NJPW, but he did win the 2003 Best of Super Juniors tournament, beating Koji Kanemoto in the finals and being the biggest highlight of his career there.

I became a bit of a fan for Kakihara while he was in AJPW as I think he was the first shoot-style wrestler I watched in Japanese wrestling, before I turned to watching NJPW. Good luck Kakihara, you'll be missed.