5-Star BOOK Reviews: Toshiaki Kawada’s Autobiography, Part VII

When we last left Toshiaki Kawada he had just experienced one of the highest of highs and lowest of lows all within the span of seconds: he had just pinned Misawa clean again to win the Triple Crown only to realize he would have to vacate the title soon afterwards due to injury. But his own misfortune paled in comparison to what came about a week later: the death of Shohei “Giant” Baba. This was a news story that rocked Japan and started a chaotic whirlwind of change and drama…and poor Kawada would have to spend most of it on the sidelines.

You can check out parts 1 & 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here, part 5 here, and part 6 here.

Chapter 7: The Death of Giant Baba and the Split of All Japan

Kawada opens with his impressions of Baba as a person and said that he was considerate of others, adjusting his way of communicating to fit different people. To Taue, for example, he’d be direct; to Kawada, he’d be indirect and use a go-between. Baba also loved to practice and train but didn’t want others to see him doing so. He’d do small things like always take the stairs no matter what floor his hotel room was on. And because of Baba’s size and condition, a lot of work went on behind the scenes to make sure he was accommodated and taken care of. As someone who once served as Baba’s personal attendant, Kawada also notes that Baba appeared to be fond of people who made small blunders here and there but since Kawada “never made mistakes” then he presumes Baba found him unappealing. Ultimately he thanks Baba for allowing Toshiaki Kawada the wrestler to become the wrestler he was.

Kawada notes that the truth behind Baba’s condition was such a well-kept secret that not even Misawa, who was running much of the AJPW operation at the time, was fully aware of how bad things were. (APOD: I believe only four people actually knew of Baba’s condition: his wife, one of siblings, his personal secretary Ryu Nakata, and MAYBE referee Kyohei Wada). Kawada in particular was blindsided since he received flowers from Baba himself in his hospital room after having surgery on his broken arm. So when the announcement became public and all of Misawa’s reassurances were proven false, Kawada describes experiencing “immeasurable shock”. He also describes rushing to Baba’s apartment in Ebisu and it being swarmed by as many as 300 reporters, journalists, and photographers. Of course, getting emotional in the moment wasn’t in the cards but Kawada does describe “crying inside” at this revelation.

After Baba’s funeral, Kawada participates in the Giant Baba Retirement Show which is held in May 1999 in the Tokyo Dome. It’s a retirement show in name only and in practice is Baba’s memorial show but no one really wants to call it that, and for good reason. Baba was absolutely loved by his wrestlers and his fans so his death was still hard to accept. For his part, Kawada participates in the event despite not being fully healed.

“My arm was far from being in good condition, but I really wanted to participate. Normally, it takes time to fix things straight with bolts, followed by surgery to remove the bolts and then rehabilitation, but I wanted to return quickly, so I just wrapped it in a cast and forced it to heal. As a result of rushing, my elbow started making cracking sounds, and later on, I even had to undergo surgery on my elbow due to the effects of that time”, notes Kawada.

However, Kawada doesn’t get another main event slot against Misawa and instead finds himself facing Hiroshi Hase in a match that he describes as “a struggle against my own arm pain rather than against my opponent”.

Days later AJPW undergoes a change in management with Misawa being announced as president and Kawada as vice president. But Kawada doesn’t accept it because he doesn’t believe he could fulfill that kind of role while also maintain his usual commitments to in-ring professional wrestling. He echoes his experiences as a child struggling to balance his dedication to sports with in-class academics and admits straight away that the only way he could manage being a vice president would be if he were to quit the wrestling side. And it’s a good thing that he declines that role and its added responsibilities given what happens to him in the coming months.

Beginning in September 1999 Kawada starts experiencing such serious eye issues that it forces him to miss all of his matches for the rest of the year. It turns out that he had suffered a bilateral blowout fracture, meaning that the muscles that move his eyes were caught on broken orbital bones, leading to paralysis of those muscles. The first injury came a decade earlier (i.e. ~1989) when Yoshinari Ogawa’s toe hits him right in the eye, shattering his orbital floor. Worse, his injury breaks abnormally: instead of the fracture going downward, in his case it spread in all direction causing serious pain. What he first dismissed jokingly as terrible astigmatism was in fact something worse, especially given the concentration of nerves in the head.

Kawada: “I was in so much pain that I worried I might die, and it was not a situation where I could think about competing. However, I was in my prime and actively competing, so I couldn’t afford to take a break. I had no choice but to continue participating. In hindsight, I should have taken a break then to fully heal…”

The second injury allegedly happens “ten years ago” (meaning 1993) when he delivered a Brainbuster to Kenta Kobashi and Kobashi’s knee comes crashing down on Kawada’s eye, injuring both of them. (APOD: in an ironic twist, this exact same thing would happen to Kobashi in his March 2003 match with Misawa with Misawa’s knee hitting Kobashi’s eye, fracturing his orbital bone, allegedly, so badly that sneezing would cause Kobashi’s eye to swell like a balloon. But Kobashi comes back from that injury after only three weeks, because of course he does). Because Kawada doesn’t address these injuries immediately given his importance to the roster, he ignores them until he starts having double vision in both eyes. But by late 1999 it becomes bad enough for him to finally take time off for surgery.

(APOD: If I’m reading this correctly then Kawada suffered his first orbital floor fracture in 1989 and a second in 1993, and then continued wrestling on a fulltime schedule with his eye muscles sitting on jagged broken orbital bones. So all throughout his prime in the 1990s, through all of those big moments and critically-acclaimed yet demanding matches, he was experiencing vision problems and doing it all while in immense pain…just, wow).

Kawada undergoes three different surgeries, one of which requiring special anesthetic eye drops. But because of the severity of his injury, the anesthetic’s effectiveness wore off halfway through so he had to endure the other half without it. Worse still, after the initial operation his cornea became dry and he found himself unable to see at first and the doctor told him there was a chance his eyesight wouldn’t recover at all. Ultimately it took him a month to regain his eyesight, but it was diminished compared to before. Because of all his time away from wrestling, both Kobashi and Vader make relatively quick work of him once he comes back in January 2000.

The NOAH Exodus

(APOD: There has been a lot written about this next part, much of it based on hearsay and secondhand accounts. Now we have Kawada’s own recollection of events, or as close to accurate as that is. Though we can choose to take Kawada’s comments at face value, we must keep in mind that this is still a Japanese wrestler we’re talking about. I’m not saying he’s dishonest or anything, but we must remember that he, like most others, still has that “don’t rock the boat” mentality and might still be concealing some details. Either way, this is about as close to the truth [from Kawada’s perspective anyway] that we’re going to get.)

Kawada brushes off initial reports in the magazines that a split was coming but then by June 2000 it becomes public knowledge. Kawada describes being summoned by Misawa alongside Masanobu Fuchi where Misawa matter-of-factly states “We are going to create a new company. The condition is that if even one person leaves, Nippon Television will not support us (will not broadcast), so we all have to move together.” Kawada responds to this by giving an indirect answer, stating, “It’s a bit lonely that the name All Japan will disappear.” He doesn’t explicitly join the company, isn’t explicitly asked or told to join, and doesn’t directly express interest in staying or leaving. But this answer is enough.

When Misawa puts together the press conference announcing his departure/exodus to NOAH, one by one individuals announce they are quitting. Kawada is particularly surprised at Kobashi having an amicable conversation with Motoko, only to announce he was quitting moments later. When all was said and done, the only ones left in All Japan were Kawada, Motoko, and a handful of executives (Fuchi was not there on that day due to a family situation but he had made his position known earlier).

But despite all of this, Kawada does not blame Misawa and his crew for leaving:

“From my perspective, the reason Misawa and the others left All Japan was that they wanted to wrestle freely and realize their own ideas. It’s true that more and more wrestlers were starting to freely pursue things like No Fear, and the conflicts between the wrestlers and owner Motoko were increasing accordingly. However, I believe it was more about their strong desire to pursue their own wrestling rather than just that being the cause. One thing I want to make clear is that I completely understand how Misawa and the others felt. They left not for money, but in search of freedom, and having worked together for so long, I can deeply empathize with those feelings.”

Furthermore,

“Here, I would like to summarize why I remained in All Japan Pro Wrestling. Many people have asked me this question, and I think those reading this book are also curious about it. In the end, I thought that if the name All Japan were to disappear, there would be no point in going.”

(APOD: And there you have it, Kawada’s honest take on the NOAH Exodus. You can believe him if you want but those are the facts from his perspective. He didn’t stay because he had another fistfight with Misawa, because he felt perpetually underappreciated, or out of protest of being under Misawa’s thumb had he gone to NOAH. He understood those wrestlers’ frustrations but ultimately found that he didn’t want his legacy and accomplishments to fade away).

Kawada continues stating he didn’t want to leave with Tenryu to SWS despite their close relationship. And considering how many new promotions rose and fell in short timespans, he thought that it would be “lonely and disappointing” that a company as long-established as All Japan would disappear overnight. As a final point on this, Kawada ponders if his attachment is to All Japan or to Baba-san, he isn’t sure if it’s one or the other (APOD: and here we are 25 years later: both NOAH and All Japan still exist, though both are FAR removed from their respective primes, yet still trudging along decently enough).

APOD: This was a short chapter but it covered some critical ground by providing his perspective on one of the most tumultuous and important periods in modern wrestling history. On one hand he gives what comes across as an honest account of what happened during the NOAH Exodus and gives a logical reason to stay behind, even if doing so leaves All Japan with a skeleton crew. On the other hand this might not be a complete answer in retrospect; Ichinose’s Four Pillars bio includes a passage noting that Kawada was, at least to some degree, critical of Misawa’s booking abilities and thinks that this might’ve played a role in AJPW’s attendance decline 1998-onwards. However, again, such direct criticism doesn’t seem to be Kawada’s modus operandi so we’re left to piece the complete picture ourselves based on a combination of secondhand accounts and incomplete firsthand accounts based on questionable accuracy and possible half-truths. While we might never know the full picture, at least this chapter gives us insight into what was on Kawada’s mind at the time…aside from the hellish pain.

Thanks for reading. Next time: the final three chapters.