But people forget that Baba's style wasn't always dated and for years in many aspects of wrestling, All Japan was the promotional leader in the industry, in booking, presentation, product quality and treatment of the talent. When it came to booking tournaments, no company has ever done so as meticulously and seriously, and thus All Japan tournaments have stood the test of time at the box office and many finals are clearly remembered by a national audience for more than a decade. People think of entrance music as something Gorgeous George did and was then forgotten until Michael Hayes showed up playing "Freebird," 25 years later, and that Vince McMahon took credit for it years after that. In actuality, it was Baba and All Japan in the early 70s who popularized entrance music for the big stars, and merchandising entrance music albums and tapes which hit the pop charts a generation before WWF: The Music, Volume One. All Japan was also the promotion that pioneered merchandising t-shirts and souvenirs also in the early 70s, long before McMahon Jr. saw wrestling operating on that level at a New Japan show and brought the concept to the United States. And while All Japan didn't create what would be called hardcore wrestling, it popularized it on a major league stage in the mid-70s for the Funk Brothers battles against The Sheik & Abdullah the Butcher. While Antonio Inoki is generally credited with the mixed martial arts gimmick, it was actually Baba who did it first, signing judo legend Geesink of recent Olympic scandal fame and booking him against the top wrestling talent of the day. Baba was also the first promoter to regularly feature a foreigner, Destroyer, as a regular top babyface in the early 70s, and did what would be considered a modern angle, except it was done 26 years ago, when Destroyer had become the first foreigner to wrestle full-time in Japan and became a crossover television star in the top rated prime time comedy program on Japanese television, and while filming a live episode, was attacked on stage by Abdullah, starting a heated program. He was the first to book foreigners on the "Japanese" side in feuds, first Destroyer, and later the Funks, breaking the traditional Japanese vs. Geijin mentality when it came to the main events. He created the concept of the acrobatic masked man aimed directly for a childrens demographic with Mil Mascaras, that New Japan took to the next level years later with the first Tiger Mask. And recognizing in 1988 that the second incarnation of the Universal Wrestling Federation had become the hottest wrestling company in the world and his business was starting to have to play catch-up, Baba totally overhauled his booking philosophy. He'd spent 16 years of having frequent and predictable double count out finishes in the big matches to protect egos and unbeatable reputations for the top stars, and by 1990 had gone to an all clean finish format, eliminating DQ's and COR's. In his mind, and he repeated it to those close to him, this was his most successful change of all. It led to the hottest period of business in company history--a concept Terry Funk gave to Paul Heyman, not so much clean finishes as going to winners and losers rather than easy-out DQs as a way to differentiate his own product from the pack a few years later.
But the question that must be asked is, where does it go from here? Baba had long since laid the foundation that when the inevitable occurred, the new President of the company would be Misawa, who had already taken over as booker in a power play late last year and has been the company's top star for nearly this entire decade. Misawa, 36, is now placed in the unenviable position of trying to continue a legacy both inside and outside the ring that few in wrestling history have even come close to approaching.
Shohei Baba was born on January 23, 1938 in Sanjyo, a small city near Niigata, in Central Japan. He was the ace of the Sanjyo High pitching staff known for having an overpowering fastball, and gained enough local notoriety that he was scouted by the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants, the national's Major League baseball powerhouse. He was signed at the age of 16 while early in his junior year of high school, causing him to drop out of school in November 1954 to train for the Japanese big leagues. His major league career was the proverbial cup of coffee, more notable because he was no doubt the tallest man ever up to that point to play major league baseball in Japan. While legend may have him as the 50s version of The Unit, the reality was he played only three games, while still a teenager late in the 1957 season, finishing with an 0-1 record, and was sent back down to the minors for more seasoning. One of his teammates was Shigeo Nagashima, the current Giants manager and easily the most popular baseball player in the history of the country, who was all over he media this week talking about his brief experiences taking batting practice against Baba in a baseball uniform. The Giants dropped his contract after the 1959 season and he signed with the Taiyo Whales for the 1960 season, but as legend has it, before the season started, he slipped and fell in the bathtub, destroyed nerves in his arm and his baseball career was history.
There was interest in making him a television or movie star, being that in those days, there simply were few if any Japanese, certainly none that had any name recognition and that kind of physical presence, that were 6-9, to play the role of an monster villain. However, Baba shunned the offers, not wanting to play those type of roles, and instead wound up being sent in the direction of Mitsuhiro Momota Sr. (Rikidozan), by this time a national hero, and owner of the Japanese Wrestling Association. Rikidozan was already established as a national legend for beating huge foreigners, particularly Americans, in a new sport theater that had become a huge hit on Japanese television called puroresu. Rikidozan was starting to get to the age where he realized to keep his business strong, he'd have to start grooming a successor to his throne. In April of 1960, Baba entered Rikidozan's dojo as one of his two hot prospects for future superstardom, the other being a high school track star of huge renown that was of Japanese descent who had been living in Brazil named Kanji Inoki. The two trained together under Rikidozan, and made their debuts on September 30, 1960 at the old Daito Ku Gymnasium in Tokyo where Baba beat Yonetaro Tanaka and Inoki, called Antonio Inoki to give him a more mysterious air, lost to Korean star Kintaro Oki. Over the next few months they wrestled on several occasions, always with Baba winning--and in fact, Baba never lost a match to Inoki--before Baba went sent to the United States to gain experience to be brought back as a headliner a few years later.
A funny thing happened. Unlike other Japanese wrestlers, who usually worked as part of salt throwing tag teams and never got over past a certain level, although some Hawaiians billed as Japanese such as Duke Keomuka, Mr. Moto and later the likes of Toru Tanaka and Kinji Shibuya were significant regional stars, Baba was the biggest true Japanese star ever in the United States almost from the moment he got off the plane in July 1961. Training under Fred Atkins, a surly old shooter from Toronto, and being booked around the country by The Great Togo, and being billed as the largest Japanese native in the world, billed at 7-3 and more than 300 pounds (at the time he was probably about 260 pounds), he became an immediate freak attraction because of his size and a heel because American wrestling fans were still being sold on World War II angles, following the lines of other freak attractions in wrestling such as Primo Carnera (who facially greatly resembles today's Giant Silva) and all the French and Swedish Angels that had an eerie presence and were big draws in their day but generally couldn't work a lick. He was the Andre the Giant of the early 60s, and unlike his "freak" predecessors, Baba at this point in his life was an agile athlete who could wrestle a little, although clearly his success was more due to his unique size and structure. Togo got him into every major territory as a headliner and he was one of the biggest draws during another rebuilding period of wrestling interest. While big money was earned, Togo apparently got the lions share. American wrestlers of the era, such as frequent opponent Freddie Blassie, were horrified watching Togo violently beat up Baba in the dressing room after matches with his wooden shoes as a Japanese custom of learning respect. Baba himself recalled getting $25 a night while headlining the biggest arenas, and surviving on one meal a day of bread sandwiches and he never looked at his run as an American superstar as a happy time. However, his fame in the U.S. in his first year already outshined that of Rikidozan, who was never an American star outside of Hawaii and Southern California, and became a perpetual thorn in the side of rival Inoki, who was never able to achieve anywhere close to the same level of stardom.
Under the name Baba the Giant, he became a big attraction in the Northeast, including many heel vs. heel main events in 1962 against NWA world champion Buddy Rogers throughout the area. He generally worked as the heel either on top, or underneath Rogers against the top faces of the day such as Bruno Sammartino, Johnny Valentine, Bearcat Wright, Argentina Rocca and Edouard Carpentier. Sammartino's first ever loss at Madison Square Garden (and first loss in a singles match to anyone but in world title matches challenging Rogers), on a count out, came on November 13, 1961 to Baba as the semifinal to a Rogers vs. Rocca match that drew 20,253 fans and an amazing for that time gate of $62,000. His feud with The Destroyer over the WWA world title sold out the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Togo sent Baba back to Japan in March 1963 for the annual World League tournament amidst great fanfare, wrestling to a 45:00 draw with Killer Kowalski in his first match back in Japan on March 24, 1963 at Sumo Hall, causing Rikidozan to remark to many that the successor has been found.
Probably the best example of his American stardom came at the end of his U.S. run, in February 1964. During that month, he faced and since he was soon to be leaving the country, put over Lou Thesz for the NWA world title in both Detroit and Cincinnati, Sammartino for the WWWF world title in Madison Square Garden before 14,764 fans, and finished the month challenging Blassie for the WWA world title at the Olympic Auditorium (which is remembered as being a poor match which drew a poor house). Few, if any wrestlers in American history probably ever challenged for all three at the time major world titles during the same month. By this point in time he was earning substantial money in the U.S. when the JWA, in danger of closing shop, wanted him back. Business being what it was, the JWA could make no promises he'd be able to earn what he'd been making in the U.S. Togo told him to stay, but he didn't listen, ending their business relationship, and returned home.
He literally saved the business. After the death of Rikidozan on December 8, 1963, a gangland style night club stabbing murder, investigations into the death of the national idol revealed a heavy mob influence in the pro wrestling business. The image of the sport darkened and most major arenas refused to even allow the shows in. Baba is best remembered by people who followed Japanese wrestling in the mid-60s as the perennial International heavyweight champion, whose quiet charisma and lack of any known scandalous ties, a reputation that stayed clean in wrestling over four decades, cleaned up the image of the profession, wearing the same belt Rikidozan made famous by beating Lou Thesz. Baba beat all the top foreign stars of the day such as Sammartino, Blassie, Fritz Von Erich, Thesz, Bobo Brazil, Gene Kiniski, Kowalski, Don Leo Jonathan, The Destroyer, dikk the Bruiser, The Crusher, Wilbur Snyder and so many more, eventually bringing the business back to where his big matches starting in 1966 began to draw sellouts at the biggest arenas. His baseball stadium International title vs. NWA world title challenge to Kiniski on August 14, 1967 at Osaka Baseball Stadium, which ended as a 90:00 draw, the longest title match ever in Japanese wrestling history, drew in excess of 25,000 fans, and was the match when looking back, Baba always considered the greatest match of his career. Earlier that year, on March 7, 1967 in a WWWF title vs. International title match, he had gone to a 60:00 draw with Sammartino at Sumo Hall. But his most amazing stat during that time period came on January 24, 1968 with the Japanese version of Raw vs. Nitro for the first time ever. A rival promotion, headed by Thesz, got a network special and billed a Thesz vs. Danny Hodge main event, a rare at the time meeting of top foreign scientific stars, billed as for Thesz' original world title belt that it was claimed was the same belt that dated back to Frank Gotch and Strangler Lewis. JWA countered with its own live broadcast of a Baba title defense against Crusher. The publicity at the time for the prime time war was enormous, with the Baba-Crusher match drawing a 48 rating while the Thesz vs. Hodge match drew a 26 rating, without question the largest combined audience for pro wrestling probably at any time in history in the world up to that point.
The first challenge to the JWA was Tokyo Pro Wrestling, formed by Toyonobori, the former President of JWA booted out over squandering company money on booze, broads and ponies, with help from Hisashi Shinma, using Inoki as the top star. The group debuted on October 12, 1966, and lasted less than one year, with Inoki returning to the fold.
The period from 1967-71 is best remembered for the Baba & Inoki tag team, and was one of the legendary periods for the Japanese wrestling industry with nightly sellouts and huge television ratings. As International tag team champions, Baba & Inoki first captured the titles on October 31, 1967 in Osaka from Bill Watts & Tarzan Tyler, and over the years beat such teams as Kiniski & Johnny Valentine, Fritz & Waldo Von Erich, Crusher & Bruiser, The Funks, Snyder & Hodge and Sammartino & Ray Stevens.
. I felt like he was sending a message to bullet club 