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Post by tystates on Jun 25, 2009 15:31:01 GMT -5
Wrestling Observer Newsletter PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 July 1, 2009
To put into perspective the career of Mitsuharu Misawa, perhaps the best American analogy is not a pro wrestler, like Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels, contemporaries and the two names who may be his closest cultural equivalents in the ring. But neither had his importance overall to the industry because of his role as a promoter and leader, particularly in what figured to be a very rough period for the business.
It’s probably race car driver Dale Earnhardt, whose similarities only coincidentally include both passing away on their respective battle grounds. Earnhardt was arguably the best race car driver of the 90s, the same period Misawa was arguably the best pro wrestler. But both were more than that. They were larger than life in their sports, and carried an aura about them. But they were more than that. Both were still full-timers and past their prime when tragic accidents took place. But they were more than that. Both were Hall of Famers in their sports at a young age, Misawa at 34, Earnhardt at 40, and Hall of Famers of the no-brainer category in the sense that to even entertain the idea they weren’t worthy would be ludicrous. They both tested the limits, Earnhardt with man-built machines, and Misawa with his body. In the end, both continued to compete and their lives ended with tragic accidents that will never be forgotten in the respective histories of their professions. Those accidents both briefly caused outcries against those professions and created arguably innocent victims, Sterling Marlin in the Earnhardt death, and Akitoshi Saito in the Misawa death. But in retrospect, both were the living enduring symbols of their respective activities to a generation.
Just as questions were raised immediately that their respective endeavors had gotten too out of control, and too dangerous, in the wake of the deaths. NASCAR started an immediate investigation, and to its credit, many several changes designed at making the sport safer. In Japan there was some talk about how pro wrestling had gotten too dangerous, the natural reaction any sport is going to get in the wake of a tragic death directly related to it. But even in Pro Wrestling NOAH, nobody slowed down, and if anything, they worked even harder, feeling that was the best way to honor his memory.
On what would have been Misawa 47th birthday, on 6/18, the Japanese government’s Education and Science committee head, Hiroshi Hase, himself also a Hall of Fame wrestler, called a meeting with the heads of Japan’s three biggest pro wrestling promotions. Appearing at the meeting were Naoki Sugabayashi, the President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Keiji Muto, the President of All Japan Pro Wrestling, and Ryu Nakata, the business head of Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Also at the meeting were former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (equivalent to a Jimmy Carter or one of the George Bushes in our culture, well, if either of them at one point in their careers participated in a heavily publicized pro wrestling angle after leaving office and if they grew up attending many big All Japan and New Japan shows), Kenshiro Matsunami, a former amateur wrestling star who became a senator, and Shinobu Kandori, a well known judo star who became one of the top woman wrestlers in the world, and is now a senator.
Hase, who in 1990, had a heart scare after a match, noted that there was no commission or regulatory body for Japanese pro wrestling and encouraged regulation. Mori also called for a regulatory association for the entire industry. Matsunami talked about the potential of spreading HIV with all the bleeding in some promotions. He noted that in most sports when there is a lot of blood, they stop the action, but in pro wrestling, the fans enjoy the bloody matches but felt that the people running pro wrestling needed to change the way they think in that regard.
Muto said they should try and set up a regulatory body. Nakata said Misawa’s legacy should be to leading to major changes in he pro wrestling world. They all agreed to meet again next month, including setting up a system with licensing of wrestlers, referees and trainers, annual comprehensive medical exams and having doctors at ringside at shows.
Misawa passed away after getting a back suplex from Akitoshi Saito when Misawa & Go Shiozaki challenged Bison Smith & Saito for their GHC tag team titles on 6/13 in Sapporo.
Misawa, his body completely ravaged by 28 years of the most physical style of pro wrestling perhaps ever done, usually over the past few years worked tag teams and trios matches, and did little. He was still the most famous wrestler in the promotion, even though Kenta Kobashi surpassed him in 2002 and 2003 as the biggest drawing card and most popular. The younger wrestlers would work the bulk of the match and he’d tag in, do his trademark hard elbows, basically enough to where people didn’t feel ripped off since he was still one of the company’s two biggest drawing cards, but little more. If he was in a featured match on television, he’d do more.
One possessing a great athletic physique, his love for beer and sake left him with a large belly. In the 90s, it was less noticeable, even though the joke among the American wrestlers was that he was learning from Abdullah the Butcher, and each year he wore his tights an inch higher. His stomach got so large that the one-time junior heavyweight phenom, always billed at 110 kilos (242 pounds)l looked to be closing in on 270 or 280 pounds at his largest, although he had dropped weight this year.
On this night, he was in a tag team title match that was supposed to go 37 minutes. While his partner would do most of the work, he would have to do a lot. Earlier in the show, Jun Akiyama, the heavyweight champion, after his match, collapsed backstage in so much pain due to a herniated disc in his back. Later that night he would go to the hospital to check it out, but he was in so much pain he couldn’t get up to watch the main event on the monitor, nor, when Misawa was dying in the ring, he couldn’t even muster the energy to come to the ring with the rest of the wrestlers.
At one point in the match, Saito delivered a stiff enzuigiri, and the usually stoic Misawa grunted, as if that one really stunned him. Shortly after that, Smith delivered a claw slam. Misawa rolled out of the ring and didn’t get up. In many ways, Misawa was a man of mystery. The wrestlers in the ring and around the ring weren’t sure if he was selling or really hurt, but they assumed he was selling, because when it came time for the hot tag, he was standing in the corner ready. About ten minutes before the scheduled finish, Saito picked Misawa up for a back suplex. In a series of photos (the match itself did not air on television for obvious reasons), the move started out routine. Misawa was fully tucked into landing high on the shoulders when he was inches from the ground. Somehow, his head moved from the safe tucked position to a more dangerous bad angle. It was far from the worst move of the type he had taken, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The mystery is why did he drop his head out of the tucked position, but it may simply have been because it would pop the crowd bigger, like he had done so many times in the past.
At first Saito backed off, waiting for Misawa to get up. Misawa was motionless, creating an awkward moment. Then ref Shuichi “Shu” Nishinaga went and asked him if he could continue. When he couldn’t, the bell rang. The crowd was confused. They’d seem him take far worse for years and always get up. As time went on, they started to realize something had gone wrong. He quickly turned purple in the ring. The wrestlers came to the ring. At first, as after the doctor from the stands started performing CPR over and over, it appeared he was not going to make it. People in the ring thought the worst, but they were in front of a crowd and had a job to do, so most stayed calm and didn’t show that much emotion. When the EMT’s brought in the Automated External Defibrillator, suddenly there was a steady beep from the machine, although the body was getting more discolored. The beep was seen as maybe being a heartbeat and a good sign, but that was not the case.
While Akiyama couldn’t come to the ring, most of the other wrestlers stayed at ringside. Smith, however, left the ring to go backstage. This was a completely new experience for just about everyone on the show, but five years earlier, on June 20, 2004, Smith already went through this, being with Victor Rodriguez (Victor the Bodyguard) when he had a heart attack and passed away after a match in Puerto Rico.
After Misawa was rushed to the hospital, the wrestlers were put on the bus and taken to the hotel. Later that evening, they were all called and told there was a meeting on the bus. When they got there, they were told he had passed away. Later they were informed that with a struggling company, they couldn’t afford to cancel the few remaining dates of the tour.
“When I heard Misawa passed away, I thought I had to leave NOAH,” said Saito. “I thought I would kill myself. I was thinking that I did a back suplex to Misawa-san and he passed away. I was thinking in my brain that I killed him. I was thinking that until the Hakata (building name in Fukuoka the company ran the next night) show. I was thinking to kill myself. But I must continue to apologize to Misawa until he answers and he tells me it’s okay. So I’ll have to say I’m sorry forever.”
While Saito was mentally tormented by the death, although one those on the tour said he did not seem as bad off as those comments would have indicated, his family, living in Nagoya, was being harassed in the wake of the much-publicized death. The wrestling fans seemingly understood his plight, and he was heavily cheered at every show for the rest of the tour, particularly on the final night of the tour in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.
“My family was getting phone calls from people saying, `Your son killed Misawa,’” he said. “People were going to my parents house and yelling, `Your son killed Misawa.’ They were doing this to my family. The next night in Hakata, the fan response was very warm and they made me very happy.”
Exactly what killed Misawa will never be certain. Logic would say it was the accumulation of damage over the years, and continuing to wrestle when he should have retired. He was taught at a young age to never complain and to ignore pain, and that you don’t miss matches. His mentor, Baba continued to wrestle even though he couldn’t do hardly anything physical, likely while he knew he was dying of cancer, and never let anyone know about it until his death. The culprit in this case is most likely not the overall physical style, but the head drops. But make no mistake about it, the physical style has destroyed many of the stars of that era.
Kobashi is 42 and in considerably worse shape than Ric Flair at 60, with knees of a man probably closer to 80. While there is no indication Kobashi’s cancer is wrestling related, and the throat cancer that nearly killed Steve Williams almost surely wasn’t, nearly every star from that era ended up suffering significant problems. Doug Furnas is battling an early form of Alzheimer’s while still in his 40s, Phil Lafon (Dan Kroffat) saw his body wrecked. Terry Gordy’s career was largely done at 32 after overdosing a few times and died of a heart attack at the age of 40.
It was a match with Williams and Kenta Kobashi that popularized the head dropping back suplex, a more dangerous version of the backdrop driver Williams had been using as a finisher, or the Lou Thesz Greco-Roman back drop that became a fixture of Japanese wrestling in the 50s that this all came from. The place became unglued, and the pop in wrestling is a tougher addiction than heroin. Soon it became a staple of big matches. It was never necessary. Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi were having the best matches in wrestling long before they added those moves to their repertoire. Dory Funk, who was in the last years of his All Japan tenure when the head dropping was getting popular, was always negative, noting that you couldn’t protect yourself.
“There is nothing routine about the move,” he told Slam! Wrestling. “I saw that people were calling the move a seven, which is just ridiculous. The move itself is never a seven.”
“It’s a very dangerous move in wrestling. It’s a move I don’t train and discourage to my students.”
The company held private ceremonies on 6/18 and 6/19, for family, close friends, and those in the wrestling industry. Approximately 200 wrestlers attended the service, about twice as many as expected, with news clips airing on the NTV nightly newscast. NOAH wrestlers Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Naomichi Marufuji, Kotaro Suzuki, Ippei Ota, Go Shiozaki and Yoshinari Ogawa, along with retired wrestler Satoru Asako, were the pall bearers. Jinsei Shinzaki was there, wheeling Hayabusa, who nearly died and was left wheelchair bound when he landed on his head doing a quebrada (known as the lionsault in WWE) many years back. Toshiaki Kawada came, as did Motoko Baba. There were only three Americans there from the tour, Smith, Chris Hero and Bobby Fish. Misawa was cremated after the funeral.
As far as changing the style of wrestling in a significant manner, it is unlikely to happen.
“I must continue to do very hard fights for Misawa,” said Kenta Kobashi, who along with Akira Taue and Akiyama are Pro Wrestling NOAH’s last links to the glory days of All Japan Pro Wrestling at Budokan Hall. “I won’t change. My fights won’t change.”
Misawa was largely a private person. Many wrestlers who had known him for decades weren’t even aware if he had a family. In 1988, he married a Japanese movie actress, and they had two children, a daughter, Kaede, 20, and a son, Shizuma, 17.
On 6/22, both Tokyo Sports and Nikkan Sports, the country’s two biggest national sports newspapers published special Misawa issues.
At the time of his death, Misawa and Nakata had talked with Leave Life 21, a rental home company which is the promotion’s best known sponsor, and a company known for its comedy television commercials featuring Misawa and some of the other NOAH wrestlers singing the company jingle, to start a new company. Misawa recognized that wrestlers couldn’t go on forever and the idea was to start a company where the wrestlers could work and transition into regular jobs after their wrestling days were over.
Leave Life 21 company president Kazuhiro Sato said the company would continue to broadcast its commercials featuring Misawa. At the time of his death, Misawa was also teaching a college class at Teikyo Heisei College in Tokyo on the subject of starting and building a business.
“I wanted to fight Misawa this year,” said Masakatsu Funaki, who left traditional pro wrestling in 1993 to form Pancrase. “It’s unbelievable. I wanted to do a hard match with Misawa. He’s really the best worker (of my era).”
Mitsuharu Misawa was born June 18, 1962 in Yubari, a small city on the island of Hokkaido. His parents divorced when he was young and he grew up in Koshigaya, near Saitama, just north of Tokyo.
He started watching All Japan Pro Wrestling on television in the 70s, with his first favorite wrestler being German star Horst Hoffman, who always wore emerald green trunks, and was best remembered for his matches with Dory Funk. This explains Misawa’s trademark emerald green long tights, and NOAH’s emerald green ring.
After being encouraged by Jumbo Tsuruta to take up amateur wrestling, at Ashikaga Kogyo High School in Saitama, he worked under coach Yamato Oshimo.
In the history of Japanese pro wrestling, only two men have died directly from injuries suffered in matches. The odds of them both coming from the same high school would have to be astronomical.
Oshimo, a well-renowned high school wrestling coach, produced three high school champions who went on to pro wrestling. Misawa won the high school national championship at 187 pounds in 1980. Kawada won the national championship at 165 pounds in 1981.
In 1990, Masakazu Fukuda was a high school champion who four years later placed second in the country’s overall national wrestling championships at 180 pounds. But instead of trying to make the 1996 Olympic team, he decided to join the RINGS organization. He never did a match for them, and instead started working as an independent wrestler, and got a good enough reputation that New Japan brought him in for the 1998 Top of the Super Juniors tournament. He impressed company officials with his moves, and in something very rare at the time, New Japan signed him even though he didn’t go through their camp, in January 1999. He was the only wrestler on the New Japan roster at the time who came through the Japanese indies.
On April 14, 2000, Fukuda, then 27, wrestling on the first night of New Japan’s Young Lions tournament, never got up after Katsuyori Shibata used an elbow drop on him. He was supposed to kick out, but instead began snoring in the ring.
Fukuda had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1999 while wrestling for New Japan, and underwent brain surgery. He had been fully cleared and checked out by numerous doctors and given the green light to return to wrestling. The match in Kessenuma was his first match back. He was booked to do well in the tournament, and use as a springboard to be put in a shooters club gimmick with three other former national caliber amateur stars who were on the roster, Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Yutaka Yoshie.
Fukuda never took any bumps near the head during the match and took nothing more than a few stiff elbows, the likes of which a normal Japanese opening match would contain. Both the referee and Shibata thought there was something wrong with Fukuda before he passed out. Fukuda underwent his second brain surgery after the match, remained in a coma for a little over four days, and passes away from a cerebral hemorrhage.
“It’s very sad,” said Oshimo, now 70. “My boys, Misawa and Fukuda both passed away. I’m very sad.”
After winning nationals, Misawa eschewed college and went directly to All Japan’s camp, starting training in March 1981. Giant Baba picked him to be his personal protege. He fulfilled the typical young boy duties, which included taking off Baba’s boots after his match and washing his back. He would train all afternoon, wrestle preliminary matches, and then come back out in his company warm-up outfit and kneel by the ring to watch the main eventers up close and how they worked. He saw the physical style up close in matches involving Terry Funk and Bruiser Brody, later expanded to include other wrestlers, particularly when Stan Hansen joined the company. He’d later take that physical style to a greater level, and in the end if played a part in his death. His main training was done by Kazuharu Sonoda and Akihisa Mera, known then as Akihisa Takachiho. They would become famous in the U.S. as The Magic Dragon and the Great Kabuki.
All Japan was at the time the weaker of the two major promotions, since New Japan had caught fire, particularly with kids, after introducing a new character called Tiger Mask, and with the popularity and charisma of Antonio Inoki, who had gained a reputation as this super all-around fighter after beating the judo stars, karate stars, boxers and other martial artists in what were billed as mixed martial arts matches.
Misawa’s first match was uneventful, as on August 21, 1981, he lost to Shiro Koshinaka in the opening match on an outdoor show in Urawa. His first match in Tokyo, at Korakuen Hall, was the next night, as he lost the opener to Mitsuo Momota in 4:44. He lost his first 17 matches until the October 9, 1981, show at the old Sumo Hall, where he teamed with Momota to beat Hiromichi Fuyuki (who passed away from cancer in 2003 at the age of 42) & Nobuyoshi Sugawara. Four nights later, he scored his first singles win, over Sugawara in Furuno. While usually on the losing side, he was made a fairly regular tag team partner of Koshinaka, and the two started having entertaining matches. His first high profile singles match was a loss to NWA International jr. heavyweight champion Atsushi Onita on March 25, 1983, at Korakuen Hall.
Onita was being pushed as All Japan’s top junior heavyweight star, doing a feud with Chavo Guerrero, but he suffered serious knee injuries that threatened his career. The next year, Misawa passed Onita by, as he later would virtually everyone.
The next month, Baba highlighted his prelim wrestlers with the Lou Thesz trophy tournament. All his young wrestlers would do a round-robin tournament, with Thesz refereeing, and the winner would be sent to a foreign country to learn a different style of wrestling and come back as a star. Misawa, Koshinaka, Mitsuo Momota and brother Yoshi Momota, Sugawara, Fuyuki, Tarzan Goto and Kawada made up the tournament. By this point Misawa and Koshinaka were the stars of the field as Baba’s two best younger wrestlers. Even though Goto in particular was a big heavyweight and traditional Japanese thinking at that time wouldn’t put a 185 pound guy over a 260 pound guy, Misawa went 5-1-1 in the tournament, finishing second behind Koshinaka..
Koshinaka was three years older, and had started wrestling in 1978. Also a skinny junior heavyweight, he was given the tournament win based on seniority. But in the championship match, on April 22, 1983 from Sapporo, in Misawa’s first ever television match, it was clear Misawa was the better wrestler of the two. When the match was over, Baba announced that Misawa impressed him so much in the tournament that he was sending both men to Mexico in 1984. The showing led to Misawa’s first championship match on May 20, 1983, in Izumisano, as Misawa & Koshinaka lost against All-Asian tag team champions Mighty Inoue & Ashura Hara.
Misawa’s stay in Mexico was short. Arriving on March 16, 1984, the tag team of Samurai Shiro and The Kamikaze, or sometimes, Kamikaze Misawa, both did well from the start. He had only been in Japan for three weeks before he headlined Arena Mexico, losing on April 5, 1984, to El Satanico when challenging for the NWA world middleweight championship, his first major singles championship match.
He was scheduled to stay in Mexico for a year, but after Sayama quit New Japan in 1983 over a money embezzlement scandal involving Inoki, New Japan dropped the Tiger Mask character. Baba, who was a character in the original Tiger Mask comic strip and cartoon television series, contacted created Ikki Kajiwara, and made a deal to obtain the rights to the Tiger Mask gimmick in pro wrestling. By this point Misawa had surpassed Koshinaka and was offered the role as Tiger Mask. Koshinaka quit to join New Japan and it was nearly two decades before they saw each other again.
“I read about him passing away in the morning newspaper,” said Koshinaka, 50. “I usually don’t wake up early but I woke up early that morning. I couldn’t go back to sleep. I grabbed the morning paper and opened it up and I saw the news. 46 years old is too young. We didn’t see each other for years. I met him five years ago at Differ Ariake. I had found a videotape of us together in Mexico so I gave it to Misawa as a present. He said that when we both retire, let’s get together and watch the videotape.”
Misawa was asked who he felt was the best wrestler in Mexico at the time, and he said the best guys were La Fiera and Jerry Estrada. Baba announced that the new Tiger Mask would appear on July 31, 1984, at a Sumo Hall show. He came out to the theme from the Tiger Mask television series, and did the same standing on the top rope that Sayama had made famous under the same mask. They announced his debut for August 26, 1984, at the Denen Coliseum, where he pinned Fiera, and worked for the rest of the year with Estrada, as well as Pirata Morgan, and then surprisingly, four of the top stars of New Japan’s junior heavyweight division were lured over, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Isamu Teranishi, Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith. The former three were all major rivals of Tiger Mask.
The truth was, he was somewhat in over his head and was put in an impossible position. He was a great high flyer for the time, and became a genuine star. But no matter what he did, he was always the guy doing the Tiger Mask gimmick who wasn’t as good as the original.
Sayama was an incredible athlete who, before being given the gimmick in 1981, had in very short order become a sensation in the United Kingdom under the name Sammy Lee. In just one year wrestling in Mexico under his real name, he was so sensational that even decades later the name Satoru Sayama would regularly be brought up during commentary by Dr. Alfonso Morales when talking about who the greatest foreign wrestler ever was.
Baba, as part of his aggressive tactics to win what was probably the most heated wrestling promotional war ever in Japan, went after all of New Japan’s best young talent.
Dynamite debuted when he attacked Tiger Mask and unmasked him. But because Dynamite signed with WWF, and even though the deal allowed both he and Smith to continue wrestling in Japan, where the pay was better in those days than WWF, he had problems getting the time off for most Japan tours. So Kobayashi ended up as Misawa’s most well remembered opponent in his Tiger Mask days. Their February 1, 1985, match in Sapporo saw Kobayashi rip up his mask, run him into the post and make him bleed for the first time, ending in a double disqualification. A March 9, 1985, rematch at Sumo Hall in Tokyo was a double count out.
Their most famous match was June 21, 1985, which along with the debut match with Fiera were the two matches under a mask that were the most talked about in the wake of his death. Reason number one is that it was Misawa’s first match ever at Budokan Hall, the arena he set box office records and had some of the greatest matches in wrestling history in. Reason number two is it was his best match of the Tiger Mask era.
Kobayashi had just beaten Dynamite Kid to become the NWA International jr. heavyweight champion, and it was largely figured that it was to Tiger Mask could beat Kobayashi, and then bring back the marquee value of the already legendary Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid feud, even if it was a different Tiger Mask, for the belt. However, Misawa blew out his knee before the match, and on a knee that needed surgery, still put on a great performance. Kobayashi won the match with his trademark fisherman suplex. After undergoing knee surgery, Tiger Mask returned on August 31, 1985, at Sumo Hall, using his new Tiger suplex 85, pinning Kobayashi and winning the title. After retaining the title against Chavo Guerrero on October 28, 1985, in Aizuwakamatsu, he vacated the title to move to the heavyweight division
As a small masked heavyweight, Baba protected him, but he would lose to the big stars. A dream match to start a program with Mil Mascaras was such a letdown as there was a cooperation problem and it played a part in Baba stopping to book his once most popular foreigner. With the program dead, and the Dynamite Kid program being pulled by WWF, he ended up doing some matches against Kabuki in a teacher vs. .student match. Baba teamed with him during the 1986 World Tag League tournament. But his role was to lose the falls when they faced the star teams of that year, Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu, Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu, The Funk Brothers and Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase.
After Tenryu & Tsuruta started feuding as the main program, Tiger Mask moved to being Tsuruta’s regular partner. He also got to challenge AWA world champion Curt Hennig (winning via count out on January 2, 1988, at Korakuen Hall in what was a very controversial match at the time since in Japan, titles would change hands frequently via count out and fans thought they had seen a title change, a rare American style screwjob finish) and NWA champions Ric Flair (losing on March 9, 1987 in Takasaki) and Ricky Steamboat (losing on March 8, 1989, at Budokan Hall, as part of a double main event, marking his first main event at the arena).
His first heavyweight title win was on July 3, 1987, when he and Tsuruta beat Hansen & DiBiase to win the PWF tag team title, but lost it back eight days later. But this led to Tiger Mask pinning DiBiase on July 19, 1987, at the time the biggest singles win of his career.
In 1987 and 1988, he had more career firsts. On October 6, 1987, at Budokan Hall, he first wrestled the returning Brody in a trios match. On December 10, 1987, on the undercard of that year’s tag team tournament final, it was the first time Misawa and Kawada ever wrestled in Budokan Hall, in a tag with Tiger Mask & Takashi Ishikawa over Kawada & Fuyuki when Tiger Mask pinned Kawada with a Tiger suplex. His first ever match with Kobashi was November 24, 1988. Kobashi was 21, and had only been wrestling seven months, but everyone was raving about him. In that bout, Tiger Mask & Jimmy Snuka beat Kobashi & Ishikawa.
After losing to Steamboat, he underwent elbow surgery and was out of action for nine months.
On February 10, 1990, New Japan booked its second event at the Tokyo Dome, with Ric Flair vs. Keiji Muto for the NWA title as the main event. However, problems with Flair, WCW and New Japan surfaced, leading to Flair pulling out. Seiji Sakaguchi, in an attempt to save the show, went to Baba, and asked if they could make it a joint show, which would be the first time the groups had worked together in more than a decade. Ticket sales exploded with the announcement that Tsuruta, Tenryu, Yatsu, Hansen and Tiger Mask would appear and it sold out immediately. While not in the main event position, at the time the real main event and most anticipated match was Choshu & George Takano of new Japan against Tenryu & Tiger Mask from All Japan. The next night in the same building, one of the most famous heavyweight boxing matches of all-time, Mike Tyson’s first career loss, dropping the heavyweight title to Buster Douglas, drew barely half of what the wrestling show did.
His last big matches as Tiger Mask where a Budokan Hall win over Kobashi, and then forming a tag team with Kobashi and winning the All-Asian tag team titles from Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas, followed by a draw with Bret Hart (nothing special as a match) on April 13, 1990, at the Tokyo Dome as part of the only joint show in history with All Japan, New Japan and WWF together.
Three days after unmasking, the team of Misawa & Kobashi, which would become a legendary combination once they became regular partners in the main events three years later, beat Davey Boy Smith & Johnny Smith on May 17, 1990, in Hiroshima to retain the All-Asian belts, but then vacated the titles.
After his win over Tsuruta on June 8, 1990, one of the great attendance streaks in history began. All Japan sold out 33 straight events at Budokan Hall, with Misawa in 28 of the main events.
It is an unprecedented streak at an arena of that size, and while nobody should ever confuse Misawa with the great drawing cards in history, the fact is he did something that none of them were ever able to do. It was not like Jim Londos or Bruno Sammartino, where Misawa was the singular big draw, as was proven the few times he didn’t main event, but he was clearly the biggest draw during the streak.
His first Triple Crown title shot was by accident. Terry Gordy was to defend against Hansen on July y27, 1990, in Matsudo. But Gordy overdosed and was hospitalized, and Hansen beat Misawa to win the vacated title. He also lost to Tsuruta on April 17, 1991, after Tsuruta had won the Triple Crown. The first big title win of the new guard was July 24, 1991, in Kanazawa, as Misawa & Kawada beat Gordy & Williams to win the tag team title, and followed it up on September 4, 1991, at Budokan Hall beating Tsuruta & Akira Taue. In that one, Misawa made Tsuruta submit for the first time, using the facelock, to establish the facelock as Misawa’s top submission finish. Even though it was a simple move, designed to allow Misawa not to have to bang himself up so bad doing spectacular moves as finishes, over the years, people stopped buying it as a finisher and he stopped using it.
The final Misawa vs. Tsuruta match was a 30:00 draw in the 1992 Champion Carnival tournament, which Hansen beat Misawa in the final. But a few months later, on July 21, 1992, Misawa finally won the Triple Crown title, and scored his first career win over Hansen. The win fully established him as the promotion’s top star. He beat regular tag partner Kawada in his first defense, and then Misawa & Kawada beat rookie Jun Akiyama & Taue to win the tag team tournament at the end of the year.
Highlights of 1993 was a feud with Hansen. Hansen beat Misawa to win the Champion Carnival and set up a rematch for Misawa’s title. Misawa won that one, and later won the rubber match, although to keep Hansen strong, they said he had broken Misawa’s ribs in the match. Baba also broke up the Misawa & Kawada team, putting Kawada with Taue and Misawa with Kobashi, which turned into a several year program filled with singles, tags and trios matches. Kawada & Taue won a tag title match, to set up a Triple Crown singles match. But Misawa & Kobashi won the titles in the year-end tournament.
In a match more symbolic than anything, on March 5, 1994, Misawa & Kobashi beat Hansen & Baba in 35:11 when Misawa pinned Baba using Baba’s own flying neckbreaker drop as the finisher.
In the 1994 Carnival tournament, Baba did unique booking. He didn’t want Misawa, his champion, losing. But he didn’t want him winning the tournament either. Early in the tournament, Misawa was to injure himself. In a match with Furnas, he took a Frankensteiner on the top of his head. He came back to win, but then it was announced he suffered a severe neck injury and would be out the rest of the tournament.
He showed up the next night wearing a neck brace, and was having a hard time moving. Furnas, in particular, was down because he hurt the company’s big star, and worse because Hansen and the rest of the locker room were all over him for doing so. The young boys got Furnas and brought him into Misawa’s dressing room. Misawa, sitting in a chair, looking like he could barely move, signaled for everyone to leave the room. He got up, took off his neck brace, moved his neck around and smiled, then put it back on and told Furnas to leave.
Back in the foreigners dressing room, as Hansen continued to lay into him, Furnas pulled Hansen aside and told him what had just happened. Hansen got even madder, yelling at Furnas for making up stories to cover himself after he knocked the top guy out of the tour and ruined Baba’s careful booking, known at the time as the Rubik’s Cube booking because the win, losses and draws were carefully planned out as to tell a story with all the key matches building for long- term meaning. This as not parity booking, but the top guys were left in the hunt until the end, but there was a careful pecking order and big stars didn’t lose unless there was a reason. Even though it seems the same, it’s actually a completely different style than the current tournament methods of just having people randomly beat each other, having no standouts and just booking for parity, and trying to keep as many people alive on the last two days.
Perhaps the ultimate match of that period was Misawa’s win over Kawada on June 3, 1994, at Budokan Hall.
Misawa’s 23 month run as Triple Crown champion ended when Williams pinned him on July 28, 1994, at Budokan Hall using a backdrop driver. Misawa won the 1995 Champion Carnival tournament, his first Carnival win, beating Taue in the finals. In that one, Misawa really was injured. He suffered a broken left orbital bone from a Kawada kick to the eye. And he didn’t miss a match, and had a classic in the final.
Misawa regained the title on May 26, 1995, in Sapporo, beating Hansen. Kawada’s first pinfall on Misawa came on June 9, 1995, show at Budokan Hall. Kawada & Taue beat Misawa & Kobashi when Kawada pinned Misawa in 42:37 after a power bomb. This led to a Triple Crown title defense over Kawada, and a defense over Kobashi, the first time Misawa vs. Kobashi headlined a Budokan Hall show. The sellout streak was broken on March 2, 1996, when a Misawa title defense against the late Gary Albright, who also would die in the ring, drew 14,000 fans.
When it came time for Misawa to lost the title for the first time to a Japanese rival, it was Taue, not Kawada or Kobashi, who did it on May 24, 1996. There was a reason, largely because there was more money in Kawada and Kobashi winning, and also, at the time, Baba was booking a big four, not a big three. Misawa was the top star and booked as such. But Taue was the one who needed the most booking help to hang, as Kawada and Kobashi were going to be over no matter how many times Misawa beat them because the matches were always so great.
Kawada’s first Budokan Hall win over Misawa was on April 19, 1997, but it was done to where there was still a mountain to climb and that he really didn’t accomplish it the right way. Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi all tied in the Champion Carnival. A three-way playoff saw Misawa vs. Kobashi first, a 30:00 draw, where Misawa was hanging on at the end. Kawada then pinned Misawa in 6:09, and pinned Kobashi, also tired from his longer first match.
The second major Budokan Hall sellout streak was from February 23, 1998, until Misawa left All Japan more than two years later. This was the period Misawa was booker, but he didn’t push himself as much as Baba had pushed him. Of the 15 straight sellouts, he was only in eight main events. But he headlined two Tokyo Dome shows, with Kawada’s first Triple Crown title win coming on the first All Japan show there which drew 48,000. Even though the biggest run of popularity was 1990 to 1995, Baba never booked a Tokyo Dome show during that period. The argument he made was that every Budokan Hall show was the biggest of the big, and as soon as you book the Tokyo Dome, then Budokan Hall becomes secondary. It took until 1998 for him to change his mind. The second, the Baba Memorial show, which sold out with nearly 55,000 fans, saw Misawa beat Vader on May 2, 1999, which was how it had to be, with Baba’s greatest protege winning the championship Baba created.
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Post by tystates on Jun 25, 2009 15:31:53 GMT -5
MITSUHARU MISAWA
CAREER TITLE HISTORY
ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING TRIPLE CROWN: def. Stan Hansen August 22, 1992 Tokyo; lost to Steve Williams July 28, 1994 Tokyo; def. Stan Hansen May 26, 1995 Sapporo; lost to Akira Taue May 24, 1996 Sapporo; def. Kenta Kobashi January 20, 1997 Osaka; lost to Toshiaki Kawada May 1, 1998 Tokyo; def. Kenta Kobashi October 31, 1998 Tokyo; lost to Toshiaki Kawada January 22, 1999 Osaka; def. Vader May 2, 1999 Tokyo; lost to Vader October 30, 1999 Tokyo
GLOBAL HONORED CROWN: def. Yoshihiro Takayama in tournament final April 15, 2001 Tokyo to become first champion; lost to Jun Akiyama July 27, 2001 Tokyo; def. Yoshihiro Takayama September 23, 2002 Tokyo; lost to Kenta Kobashi March 1, 2003 Tokyo; def. Naomichi Marufuji December 10, 2006 Tokyo; lost to Takeshi Morishima March 2, 2008 Tokyo
ALL JAPAN DOUBLE WORLD TAG TEAM: w/Toshiaki Kawada def. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams July 24, 1991 Kanazawa; vacated titles before annual World Tag League tournament; w/Toshiaki Kawada def. Akira Taue & Jun Akiyama December 4, 1992 in finals of 1992 World Tag League tournament; lost to Terry Gordy & Steve Williams January 30, 1993 Chiba; w/Kenta Kobashi def. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue December 3, 1993 Tokyo in finals of 1993 World Tag League tournament; Vacated titles prior to 1994 World Tag League tournament; w/Kenta Kobashi def. Stan Hansen & Akira Taue and won titles by points December 10, 1994 Tokyo in 1994 World Tag League tournament; lost to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue June 9, 1995 Tokyo; w/Jun Akiyama def. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue May 23, 1996 Sapporo; lost to Steve Williams & Johnny Ace September 5, 1996 Tokyo; w/Yoshinari Ogawa def. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama August 25, 1999 Hiroshima; lost to Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama October 23, 1999 Nagoya
PACIFIC WRESTLING FEDERATION WORLD TAG TEAM: as Tiger Mask w/Jumbo Tsuruta def. Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase July 3, 1987 Tokyo; lost to San Hansen & Ted DiBiase July 11, 1987 Yonago
GLOBAL HONORED CROWN TAG TEAM: w/Yoshinari Ogawa def. Vader & Too Cold Scorpio November 30, 2001 Sapporo; lost to Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama December 9, 2001 Tokyo; w/Yoshinari Ogawa def. Yuji Nagata & Hiroshi Tanahashi January 10, 2004 Tokyo; lost to Too Cold Scorpio & Doug Williams January 23, 2005 Kobe
ALL-ASIAN TAG TEAM: As Tiger Mask w/Kenta Kobashi def. Doug Furnas & Dan Kroffat April 9, 1990 Okayama; vacated title when Tiger Mask unmasked
NWA INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT: As Tiger Mask def. Kuniaki Kobayashi August 31, 1985 Tokyo; vacated title March 1986 when moving to heavyweight division
WORLD STRONGEST TAG LEAGUE TOURNAMENT
1986 - as Tiger Mask w/Giant Baba tied for 6th place 1987 - as Tiger Mask w/Shinichi Nakano tied for 8th place 1988 - as Tiger Mask w/Jimmy Snuka tied for 7th place 1990 - w/Toshiaki Kawada tied for 3rd place 1991 - w/Toshiaki Kawada 5th place 1992 - w/Toshiaki Kawada 1st place 1993 - w/Kenta Kobashi 1st place 1994 - w/Kenta Kobashi 1st place 1995 - w/Kenta Kobashi 1st place 1996 - w/Jun Akiyama tied for 1st place; lost finals to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 1997 - w/Jun Akiyama tied for 1st place; lost finals to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 1998 - w/Yoshinari Ogawa 5th place 1999 - w/Yoshinari Ogawa tied for 3rd place
CHAMPION CARNIVAL TOURNAMENT
1991 - 2nd place A block 1992 - Won A block, lost to Stan Hansen in finals 1993 - Tied with Stan Hansen for first place; lost to Hansen in finals 1994 - 9th place (eliminated early due to worked injury) 1995 - Tied with Akira Taue for first place; beat Taue in finals 1996 - Tied for 3rd place 1997 - Tied with Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi for first place; Kawada beat Misawa and Kobashi after Misawa and Kobashi had a 30:00 draw on the final night 1998 - Tied with Jun Akiyama for first place; beat Akiyama in finals 1999 - 3rd place 2000 - lost to Kenta Kobashi in semifinals of single elimination tournament
GLOBAL TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT
2008 - w/Yoshinari Ogawa tied for 2nd place 2009 - w/Go Shiozaki 1st place
AWARDS AS WRESTLER
Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame - 1996 (original class)
Wrestling Observer Wrestler of the Year - 1995, 1997, 1999
Match of the Year - June 12, 1985 Tokyo as Tiger Mask vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi; June 7, 1996 Tokyo w/Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace; October 31, 1998 Tokyo vs. Kenta Kobashi; June 11, 1999 Tokyo vs. Kenta Kobashi; March 1, 2003 Tokyo vs. Kenta Kobashi
Most Outstanding Wrestler - 1997, 1999
Tag Team of the Year - 1995 w/Kenta Kobashi; 1996 w/Jun Akiyama; 1997 w/Jun Akiyama
Feud of the Year - 1990 vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, 1991 vs. Jumbo Tsuruta
Best Flying Wrestler - 1985, 1986 (as Tiger Mask)
Most Underrated Wrestler - 1988 (as Tiger Mask)
Tokyo Sports Most Valuable Wrestler - 2007
AWARDS AS PROMOTER
Promotion of the Year - 2004, 2005 Best Weekly Television show - 2003 Best Major Event - July 10, 2004 Tokyo Dome; July 18, 2005 Tokyo Dome
AWARDS PLACINGS AS WRESTLER
Wrestler of the Year - 1990 5th place, 1991 6th place; 1992 3rd place; 1993 6th place; 1994 8th place; 1995 1st place; 1996 3rd place; 1997 1st place; 1998 2nd place; 1999 1st place; 2000 7th place; 2004 8th place, 2007 7th place
Most Outstanding Wrestler - 1990 5th place; 1991 14th place; 1993 9th place; 1994 12th place; 1995 7th place; 1996 7th place; 1997 1st place; 1998 3rd place; 1999 1st place; 2000 7th place
Best Babyface - 1990 5th place, 1991 5th place; 1992 3rd place; 1993 5th place; 1994 10th place; 1995 6th place; 1996 6th place; 1997 9th place
Best Box Office Draw - 1998 4th place; 1999 6th place; 2004 11th place
Feud of the Year - 1990 1st place vs. Jumbo Tsuruta; 1991 1st place vs. Jumbo Tsuruta; 1992 2nd place vs. Jumbo Tsuruta; 1993 2nd place vs. Toshiaki Kawada; 1994 3rd place vs. Toshiaki Kawada; 1995 5th place vs. Toshiaki Kawada; 1996 14th place vs. Toshiaki Kawada; 1998 vs. Toshiaki Kawada 13th place; 1999 vs. Vader 11th place; 2003 vs. Kenta Kobashi 16th place
Tag Team of the Year - 1990 7th place w/Toshiaki Kawada, 1991 1st place w/Toshiaki Kawada; 1992 7th place w/Toshiaki Kawada; 1993 4th place w/Kenta Kobashi; 1994 2nd place w/Kenta Kobashi; 1995 1st place w/Kenta Kobashi; 1996 1st place w/Jun Akiyama; 1997 1st place w/Jun Akiyama; 1999 4th place w/Yoshinari Ogawa; 2000 8th place w/Yoshinari Ogawa; 2004 6th place w/Yoshinari Ogawa
Most Charismatic - 1992 10th place; 1993 9th place
Best Technical Wrestler - 1990 12th place. 1991 10th place, 1994 11th place; 1997 5th place; 1998 7th place; 1999 14th place
Best Flying Wrestler - as Tiger Mask 1984 2nd place; 1985 1st place; 1986 1st place; 1987 3rd place; 1988 2nd place, 1990 8th place
Most Underrated - as Tiger Mask 1988 1st place
AWARDS PLACINGS AS PROMOTER
Promotion of the Year (as company president) - 1999 All Japan Pro Wrestling 3rd place; 2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling 7th place; 2001 Pro Wrestling NOAH 6th place; 2002 Pro Wrestling NOAH 7th place; 2003 Pro Wrestling NOAH 2nd place (first in pro wrestling); 2004 Pro Wrestling NOAH 1st place; 2005 Pro Wrestling NOAH 1st place; 2006 Pro Wrestling NOAH 4th place; 2007 Pro Wrestling NOAH 4th place; 2008 Pro Wrestling NOAH 7th place
Best Weekly TV show (as company president) - 1999 All Japan Pro Wrestling 30 3rd place; 2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling 30 6th place; 2002 Pro Wrestling NOAH 3rd place; 2003 Pro Wrestling NOAH 1st place; 2004 Pro Wrestling NOAH 2nd place; 2005 Pro Wrestling NOAH 4th place; 2006 Pro Wrestling NOAH 4th place; 2007 Pro Wrestling NOAH 7th place; 2008 Pro Wrestling NOAH 8th place
Best Major Event (as company president) - 1999 All Japan Pro Wrestling 7th place, 9th place,11th place; 2000 - All Japan Pro Wrestling 9th place; 2002 - Pro Wrestling NOAH 9th place, 11th place; 2003 - Pro Wrestling NOAH 3rd place, 5th place, 7th place, 13th place, 17th place; 2004 - Pro Wrestling NOAH 1st place, 7th place; 2005 - 1st place; 12th place; 2007 Pro Wrestling NOAH 11th place
Promoter of the Year - 1999 - 7th place; 2000 - 4th place; 2001 6th place; 2002 8th place; 2003 3rd place; 2004 2nd place; 2005 3rd place
Booker of the Year - 1998 4th place; 1999 - 7th place; 2000 - 4th; 2001 - 5th place; 2002 10th place; 2003 3rd place ; 2004 3rd place; 2005 3rd place
MISAWA HISTORY AT BUDOKAN HALL
6/21/85: lost to Kuniaki Kobayashi (11:29) for NWA Int. jr. title - 12,000 12/12/85: w/Haru Sonoda no contest Kuniaki Kobayashi & Nobuo Honaga - 10,600 3/13/86: lost to Riki Choshu (12:20) - 12,500 6/12/86: w/Mighty Inoue & Rocky Hata lost to Harley Race & Mil Mascaras & Shunji Takano - 11,500 7/31/86: beat Great Kabuki - 11,000 12/12/86: w/Toshiaki Kawada beat Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shinichi Nakano (8:58) - 12,700 3/12/87: w/Giant Baba & Takashi Ishikawa beat Rusher Kimura & Ashura Hara & Goro Tsurumi (14:03) - 12,900 6/9/87: pinned Brady Boone - 10,000 8/31/87: w/Giant Baba beat Hiroshi Wajima & Takashi Ishikawa (15:38) - 12,100 10/6/87: w/Shinichi Nakano & Isao Takagi lost to Bruiser Brody & Moondogs Spike & Spot (8:02) - 11,800 12/11/87: w/Takashi Ishikawa beat Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki (18:25) - 13,200 3/27/88: w/Great Kabuki beat Tommy Rich & Austin Idol (11:03) - 11,500 6/10/88: w/Shinichi Nakano & Takashi Ishikawa lost to Ashura Hara & Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki (19:18) - 11,800 8/29/88: w/Shinichi Nakano lost to Jimmy Snuka & Johnny Ace (10:10) - 16,300+ 12/16/88: w/Jimmy Snuka beat John Tenta & Shunji Takano (10:39) - 12,700 3/8/89: lost to Ricky Steamboat for NWA world heavyweight title (13:47) - 14,400* 3/6/90: beat Kenta Kobashi (15:42) - 15,900+ 6/8/90: pinned Jumbo Tsuruta (24:06) - 14,800* 9/1/90: lost to Jumbo Tsuruta (24:50) - 15,300*+ 12/7/90: w/Toshiaki Kawada beat Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue (22:54) - 15,600*+ 4/17/91: lost to Jumbo Tsuruta for Triple Crown (23:17) - 15,960*+ 6/1/91: pinned Terry Gordy (21:18) - 15,960+ 9/4/91: w/Toshiaki Kawada beat Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue to retain Double World tag team titles (26:34) - 15,650*+ 12/6/91: w/Toshiaki Kawada lost to Steve Williams & Terry Gordy for vacant Double World tag team titles and Real World Tag League championship (25:24) - 16,300*+ all-time building attendance record 3/4/92: lost to Stan Hansen for Triple Crown (19:12) - 16,300*+ 6/5/92: w/Kenta Kobashi lost to Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue for Double World tag team titles (27:12) - 16,300*+ 8/22/92: pinned Stan Hansen to win Triple Crown (24:04) - 16,300*+ 10/21/92: pinned Toshiaki Kawada to retain Triple Crown (29:52) - 16,300*+ 12/4/92: w/Toshiaki Kawada beat Akira Taue & Jun Akiyama to win vacant Double World tag team titles and Real World Tag League championship (23:52) - 16,300*+ 2/28/93: pinned Akira Taue to retain Triple Crown (22:33) - 16,300*+ 6/1/93: w/Kenta Kobashi lost to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue for Double World tag team titles (29:12) - 16,300*+ 7/29/93: pinned Toshiaki Kawada to retain Triple Crown (25:53) - 16,300*+ 9/3/93: pinned Steve Williams to retain Triple Crown (23:06) - 16,300*+ 10/23/93: pinned Stan Hansen to retain Triple Crown (22:10) - 16,300*+ 12/3/93: w/Kenta Kobashi beat Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue to win vacant Double World tag team titles and Real World Tag League championship (23:24) - 16,300*+ 3/5/94: w/Kenta Kobashi beat Giant Baba & Stan Hansen (35:11) - 16,300*+ 4/16/94: w/Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama beat Giant Baba & Stan Hansen & Takao Omori - 16,300+ 6/3/94: beat Toshiaki Kawada to retain Triple Crown (35:50) - 16,300*+ 7/28/94: lost Triple Crown to Steve Williams (27:39) - 16,300*+ 9/3/94: w/Giant Baba & Tamon Honda beat Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Takao Omori (30:59) - 16,300+ 10/22/94: w/Stan Hansen beat Kenta Kobashi & Akira Taue (28:22) - 16,300+ 12/10/94: w/Kenta Kobashi beat Stan Hansen & Johnny Ace to win Double World tag team titles and Real World Tag League tournament (25:05) - 16,300*+ 3/4/95: w/Kenta Kobashi beat Steve Williams & Johnny Ace to retain Double World tag team titles (36:07) - 16,300*+ 4/15/95: beat Akira Taue to win Champion Carnival tournament (27:03) - 16,300*+ 6/9/95: w/Kenta Kobashi lost Double World tag team titles to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (42:37) - 16,300*+ 7/24/95: pinned Toshiaki Kawada to retain Triple Crown (24:16) - 16,300*+ 9/10/95: pinned Akira Taue to retain Triple Crown (20:50) - 16,300*+ 10/25/95: pinned Kenta Kobashi to retain Triple Crown (35:51) - 16,300*+ 12/9/95: w/Kenta Kobashi beat Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue to win Real World Tag League tournament (24:04) - 16,300*+ 3/2/96: pinned Gary Albright to retain Triple Crown (14:20) - 14,000* 4/20/96: w/Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama lost to Toshiaki Kawada & Gary Albright & Johnny Ace (19:47) - 16,000 6/7/96: w/Jun Akiyama beat Steve Williams & Johnny Ace to retain Double World tag team titles (30:09) - 15,000* 7/24/96: w/Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda beat Giant Baba & Giant Kimala II & Ryukaku Izumida (17:24) - 15,000 9/5/96: w/Jun Akiyama lost Double World tag titles to Steve Williams & Johnny Ace (28:47) - 14,500* 10/18/96: w/Jumbo Tsuruta & Jun Akiyama lost to Giant Baba & Dory Funk & Akira Taue - 14,000 12/6/96: w/Jun Akiyama lost to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue for Real World Tag League championship (31:37) - 16,300*+ 3/1/97: beat Steve Williams to retain Triple Crown (27:52) - 16,300*+ 4/19/97: drew Kenta Kobashi 30:00 and lost to Toshiaki Kawada 6:09 as part of one-night three-way for Champion Carnival finals won by Kawada - 16,300*+ 6/6/97: beat Toshiaki Kawada to retain Triple Crown (31:22) - 16,300*+ 7/25/97: beat Akira Taue to retain Triple Crown (20:25) - 16,300*+ 9/6/97: beat Jun Akiyama to retain Triple Crown (24:57) - 16,300*+ 10/21/97: beat Kenta Kobashi to retain Triple Crown (32:55) - 16,300*+ 12/5/97: w/Jun Akiyama lost to Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue for Real World Tag League championship (30:52) - 15,500* 2/28/98: beat Johnny Ace to retain Triple Crown (33:54) - 16,300*+ 4/18/98: beat Jun Akiyama to win Champion Carnival tournament (22:05) - 16,300*+ 9/11/98: beat Maunukea Mossman (Taiyo Kea) (7:34) - 16,300+ 10/31/98: beat Kenta Kobashi to win Triple Crown (43:22) - 16,300*+ 12/5/98: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Masahito Kakihara beat Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshihiro Takayama (17:11) - 16,300+ 3/6/99: w/Yoshinari Ogawa lost to Double tag team champions Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama (30:49) - 16,300*+ 4/16/99: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Masahito Kakihara beat Akira Taue & Jinsei Shinzaki & Masao Inoue (20:59) - 16,300+ 6/11/99: beat Kenta Kobashi to retain Triple Crown (43:40) - 16,300*+ 7/23/99: beat Toshiaki Kawada to retain Triple Crown (21:58) - 16,300*+ 9/4/99: lost to Vader (7:21) - 16,300*+ 10/30/99: lost Triple Crown to Vader (12:12) - 16,300*+ 12/3/99: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Satoru Asako lost to Vader & Johnny Smith & Maunukea Mossman - 16,300+ 2/27/00: lost to Jun Akiyama (23:40) - 16,300+ 4/15/00: beat Yoshinari Ogawa (13:21) - 16,300+ 6/9/00: w/Yoshinari Ogawa lost to Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (16:05) - 16,300+ 4/18/01: w/Takeshi Rikio beat Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami (6:40) - 13,000* 7/27/01: lost GHC title to Jun Akiyama (24:11) - 16,500*+ 2/17/02: w/Kenta Kobashi lost to Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata (26:49) - 16,500*+ 9/23/02: beat Yoshihiro Takayama to win GHC title (23:50) - 16,000*+ 1/10/03: w/Masahiro Chono lost to Kenta Kobashi & Akira Taue (22:19) - 12,000* 3/1/03: lost GHC title to Kenta Kobashi (33:28) - 16,700*+ (set building attendance record) 6/6/03: beat Takuma Sano (15:21) - 16,300+ 9/12/03: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue lost to Akira Taue & Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone - 16,300+ 11/1/03: w/Takeshi Rikio beat Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama (12:27) - 16,000+ 1/10/04: w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yuji Nagata to win GHC tag team titles (29:41) - 16,300*+ 3/6/04: w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone to keep GHC tag titles (29:28) - 16,200+ 4/25/04: w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji to keep GHC tag titles (28:39) - 16,700+ 9/10/04: w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat Masao Inoue & Akitoshi Saito to keep GHC tag titles (30:44) - 12,500 1/8/05: w/Takeshi Rikio beat Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka (15:53) - 16,700+ 3/5/05: w/Kotaro Suzuki lost to Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (18:02) - 13,100 4/24/05: w/Kotaro Suzuki lost to Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji (20:00) - 15,800 9/18/05: lost to GHC champion Takeshi Rikio (22:10) 16,500*+ 11/5/05: beat Genichiro Tenryu (14:27) - 16,600*+ 1/22/06: w/Mushiking Terry (Kotaro Suzuki) & Takashi Sugiura beat Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Mushiking Joker (Ricky Marvin) (17:53) - 16,800+ 3/5/06: beat Takeshi Morishima (18:35) - 16,600+ 4/23/06: w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat Minoru Suzuki & Suwa (14:45) - 14,200 6/16/06: w/Jun Akiyama beat Yoshihiro Takayama & Kensuke Sasaki (22:30) - 16,500+ 9/9/06: w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat Bison Smith & Keith Walker (12:47) - 13,600 10/29/06: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki lost to Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & Takashi Sugiura (25:57) - 11,500 12/10/06: beat Naomichi Marufuji to win GHC title (25:32) - 16,800*+ 1/21/07: beat Takeshi Morishima to retain GHC title (20:05) - 12,000* 3/4/07: beat Takashi Sugiura (23:51) - 9,000 4/28/07: beat Takuma Sano to keep GHC title (16:38) - 8,000* 7/15/07: beat Akira Taue to keep GHC title (16:44) - 8,000* 9/9/07: w/Go Shiozaki lost to Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura - 10,000 10/27/07: beat Samoa Joe to keep GHC title (17:14) - 7,000* 12/2/07: w/Jun Akiyama beat Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama (27:07) - 17,000*+ (all-time building attendance record) 3/2/08: lost GHC title to Takeshi Morishima (20:22) - 14,000* 4/27/08: w/Yoshinari Ogawa lost to Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito for vacant GHC tag titles - 8,000* 7/18/08: w/Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura beat Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama & Katsuhiko Nakajima (17:46) - 9,500 9/6/08: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Takashi Sugiura beat Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio & Atsushi Aoki (12:44) - 9,000 10/25/08: w/Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin lost to Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi (16:13) - 10,000 12/7/08: beat Katsuhiko Nakajima (9:15) - 7,500 3/1/09: w/Yoshinari Ogawa & Shuhei Taniguchi lost to Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito & Doug Williams (21:12) - 14,200 5/6/09: w/Go Shiozaki beat Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima to win GHC tag team tournament (22:53) - 7,300*
Singles match record at Budokan Hall 34-13-1
Total Tokyo major arena singles match record: 40-14-4
Total Budokan Hall main events: 68 (all-time record)
Total Tokyo major arena main events: 78
Total Budokan Hall sellouts as main eventer: 52 (all-time record likely for any wrestler
in any similar sized arena)
Total Tokyo Dome sellouts of 50,000 fans: 6
Total Tokyo major arena sellouts as main eventer: 61 (likely all-time record for any wrestler when it comes to multiple major arenas in one city)
Most consecutive main event sellouts in 15,000 seat arenas in one city: 28 (1990-95 - all-time pro wrestling record)
OTHER MAJOR SHOW MATCHES
10/9/81 Tokyo Sumo Hall - w/Mitsuo Momota def. Nobuyoshi Sugawara & Hiromichi Fuyuki 4/5/84 Mexico City Arena Mexico - lost to El Satanico for NWA world middleweight title* 8/26/84 Tokyo Denen Coliseum - beat La Fiera (8:37) - 13,000+ 3/9/85 Tokyo Sumo Hall - no contest Kuniaki Kobayashi (11:22) - 11,000+ 8/31/85 Tokyo Sumo Hall - beat Kuniaki Kobayashi to win NWA Int. jr. title - 10,500 10/21/85 Tokyo Sumo Hall - w/Dory & Terry Funk beat Chavo Guerrero & Terry Gordy & Billy Robinson via count out (11:30) - 10,900 4/19/86 New Orleans Superdome - w/Giant Baba def. Jimmy Garvin & Black Bart; lost to Ron Garvin & Magnum T.A. in Jim Crockett Memorial Cup (9:58) - 13,000 4/20/86 Minneapolis Metrodome - beat Buck Zumhofe - 16,000 3/9/87 Takasaki - lost to Ric Flair for NWA world heavyweight title (13:53) 2/10/90 Tokyo Dome - w/Genichiro Tenryu beat Riki Choshu & George Takano via count out (18:59) - 53,900*+ Set all-time Japanese attendance and gate record 4/13/90 Tokyo Dome - drew Bret Hart (20:00) - 44,000 4/2/95 Tokyo Dome - w/Kenta Kobashi & Stan Hansen drew Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Johnny Ace (30:00) - 50,000*+ 5/1/98 Tokyo Dome - lost Triple Crown to Toshiaki Kawada (28:15) - 48,000* 5/2/99 Tokyo Dome - beat Vader to win Triple Crown (18:07) - 55,000*+ 12/23/00 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum - beat Vader (14:28) - 12,000*+ 3/2/01 Tokyo Sumo Hall - w/Jun Akiyama beat Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata (19:10) - 11,000*+ 4/15/01 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum - beat Yoshihiro Takayama to become first GHC champion (21:12) - 12,000*+ 5/2/02 Tokyo Dome - drew Masahiro Chono (30:00) - 52,000*+ 7/10/04 Tokyo Dome - w/Yoshinari Ogawa beat Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea (21:46) - 50,000*+ 7/18/05 Tokyo Dome - beat Toshiaki Kawada (27:04) - 52,000*+
*Denotes main event match +Denotes sold out arena
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