diff --git a/block/blk-core.c b/block/blk-core.c
index 213e9f01c6277ca784299510e882d9a428ef5fd9..18faa7e81d3bb3175f3431db2d077739c3670690 100644
--- a/block/blk-core.c
+++ b/block/blk-core.c
@@ -145,7 +145,6 @@ void blk_rq_init(struct request_queue *q, struct request *rq)
 	rq->cmd = rq->__cmd;
 	rq->cmd_len = BLK_MAX_CDB;
 	rq->tag = -1;
-	rq->ref_count = 1;
 	rq->start_time = jiffies;
 	set_start_time_ns(rq);
 	rq->part = NULL;
@@ -1272,8 +1271,6 @@ void __blk_put_request(struct request_queue *q, struct request *req)
 {
 	if (unlikely(!q))
 		return;
-	if (unlikely(--req->ref_count))
-		return;
 
 	blk_pm_put_request(req);
 
diff --git a/block/blk-exec.c b/block/blk-exec.c
index ae4f27d7944e9a662ddbb51464bd18e10f4707a4..6b18d82d91c57d6dd846a3194f69dc12e9fa73a2 100644
--- a/block/blk-exec.c
+++ b/block/blk-exec.c
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ static void blk_end_sync_rq(struct request *rq, int error)
 	struct completion *waiting = rq->end_io_data;
 
 	rq->end_io_data = NULL;
-	__blk_put_request(rq->q, rq);
 
 	/*
 	 * complete last, if this is a stack request the process (and thus
@@ -103,12 +102,6 @@ int blk_execute_rq(struct request_queue *q, struct gendisk *bd_disk,
 	int err = 0;
 	unsigned long hang_check;
 
-	/*
-	 * we need an extra reference to the request, so we can look at
-	 * it after io completion
-	 */
-	rq->ref_count++;
-
 	if (!rq->sense) {
 		memset(sense, 0, sizeof(sense));
 		rq->sense = sense;
diff --git a/include/linux/blkdev.h b/include/linux/blkdev.h
index f5c7596c93ddb4e3f01f0a57db5ef90ae0e3a7c7..0a8da96274c3541a46d886b5946233b768fe831e 100644
--- a/include/linux/blkdev.h
+++ b/include/linux/blkdev.h
@@ -160,8 +160,6 @@ struct request {
 
 	unsigned short ioprio;
 
-	int ref_count;
-
 	void *special;		/* opaque pointer available for LLD use */
 	char *buffer;		/* kaddr of the current segment if available */