AJPW on Nippon TV – June 2000 (Final)

Previously in AJPW…

Here we go, nice knowing you all!

Weekly Fight Magazine in Japan reported that this promotion would be splitting into two groups, as has been talked about inside for months as a possibility, after the next tour because Motoko Baba, who owns 85% of the company (the other 15 percent is owned by Nippon TV, none of the wrestlers own any stock in the company), and Mitsuharu Misawa, the company President, aren’t on the same page. Our own sources expect Misawa to resign as President at the end of May. Misawa’s complaint is that Motoko Baba never even comes to the shows anymore, but still won’t give up her decision making power. Misawa wants to start his new promotion in the summer and people expect it will get ugly. It is said that right now internally, every Japanese wrestler in the company with the exception of Mitsuo Momota, who has been with the company basically since its inception in 1972, is said to be siding with Misawa. The foreign wrestlers, because of their loyalty to Shohei Baba, have as a general rule been more siding toward Motoko Baba. However, when push comes to shove in wrestling, loyalties change. All you have to do is look at when 15-20 wrestlers were going to stick together to get Kevin Sullivan out as booker in WCW in January, and the number at the end ended up being six, one of whom then backed out by the end of the night because they promised him a push. When Misawa has been asked by the press over the past week about the story of a promotional break-up, his answer has been no comment.

Homer Simpson attempting comedy after the death of a dog: Are you ready for wrestling???

2000/06/07

Tag titles are still vacant so we’re doing a tag team tournament to decide the new ones. No doubt the winning team will re-establish the importance of the belts with a lovely long reign.

Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Jun Akiyama and Maunakea Mossman 05/31/00

Mossman starts off having to pretend Ogawa is his equal, and ends up shoved into Jun on the apron a few times so he wanders in to take a double dropkick from the knacker.

We clip ahead to Mossman’s unsubtle kicks being shoved aside by Misawa. This slows all the way down with extended headlocks which made you wonder why they left it in. Eventually Ogawa takes a spike piledriver on the outside to little reaction from the 1,100 in attendance. Misawa wanders in with little urgency to save his mate but does bust out an elbow suicida. Akiyama comes back with an exploder so Mossman can get a near fall from a diving headbutt while Ogawa just stands there. No heat for any of this so far and I can’t tell if we’re in the opening stretch or we’re near the end. Mossman accidentally takes out Jun with a wild kick, leading to Misawa/Ogawa land a missile dropkick/drop toe old combo. Mossman’s wild jumping flying DDT can’t get so much as a polite cough from this crowd as I can’t wait for this match to be over. Mossman absorbs a Tiger Driver and then a backdrop driver into a bridging pin smothers this match in it’s sleep at 16:08.

There was nothing here. I can’t believe how silent the crowd was or how little effort was on display here by the wrestlers. And this headlined the show! I can only presume the crowd was sick of seeing commercials and cameos from celebrities.

Stan Hansen and Johnny Smith vs. NO FEAR (Yoshihiro Takayama and Takao Omori) 05/31/00

JIP to Takayama getting worn out on the mat. Omori tags in but somehow ends up going through the middle rope and into the turnbuckle. Omori is now the one to get his arm worked over because of that miracle bump. Hansen and Smith very dullily apply arm submissions while the crowd sit on their hands as these tapings are not filling me with excitement. Johnny Smith (The Most “Your Dad’s Mate” Wrestler To Ever Exist) lands a missile dropkick followed by a kip-up. Smith and Takayama tease a strike exchange before No Fear decides to go for Hansen instead who clumsily takes a double shoulder tackle before wandering around afterwards. Omori’s Bombs Away knee drop is halted by Hansen but then he hits it and Smith kicks out anyway. Uh OK. Axe Bomba puts Smith away at 13:15.

Hopefully these exciting recaps are capturing how plodding and unexciting these matches are when the crowds are silent.

The Movement (Johnny Ace and Mike Barton) vs. Takeshi Rikio and Daisuke Ikeda

JIP to Bart landing a lariat on Ikeda to win at 7:59. No idea why they even bothered.

Ah let’s face it, you weren’t paying attention to AJPW this month to care about the action, it’s all the other fun stuff airing on AJPW Backstage on Netflix:

In a week where the entire landscape of the pro wrestling industry is expected to change, the first tree to fall, All Japan Pro Wrestling, at least in the form it has been for the past 28 years, is no more.

Tokyo Sports confirmed on 6/12 that the long-rumored split talked about in this publication had started with Mitsuharu Misawa, the President and top star of the company, resigning on 5/28. The news was kept quiet by all parties until the end of the tour and they were hoping to keep it quiet for several more days in an attempt to present a smoother public transition. On 6/13 at an emergency meeting of the board of directors once the story had broken publicly, five more members, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Mitsuo Momota, Yoshihiro Momota (the oldest son of Rikidozan who is a retired pro wrestler who works in the front office) and Kenichi Oyagi (the Managing Director of All Japan) all formally resigned, confirming what was already known by insiders that virtually the entire company was leaving Motoko Baba.

While this is not official, it is strongly believed that Misawa will start his own promotion, probably around September. At one point Misawa had attempted to make for a smoother public transition, particularly due to the death of Tomomi Tsuruta, attempting to keep the All Japan name, attempting to get Baba’s public blessings rather than start a promotional war with the wife of Giant Baba, while starting a new company, thus attempting to preserve the history and legacy of Baba & Tsuruta. Motoko Baba refused the proposal or to give up any financial control of the company she owned 85 percent of the stock in (Nippon TV owns the other 15 percent) and that her husband built.

According to reports from various sources close to the situation, every wrestler in the company with the exception of Toshiaki Kawada and Masa Fuchi, have pledged loyalty to Misawa, and virtually the entire front office is going with him as well. It is believed the older wrestlers, Rusher Kimura, Haruka Eigen and Mitsuo Momota, would become house show promoters for the new organization. At the meeting on 6/13, the only board members that stayed loyal to Baba were Kawada, who will likely be announced as new company President by the end of the week, Sachiko Baba, the sister of the late Shohei Baba, and Masao Oba, the 76-year old Inspector.

Both Baba and Misawa are expected to hold press conferences on 6/16 to explain publicly their future plans.

Misawa and Motoko Baba have never gotten along in their respective roles as President of the company and Owner. Largely the problems stemmed from Baba wanting to keep the status quo in a company that wasn’t doing well at the box office, to keep expenses down. Misawa wanted to change the in-ring product as far as booking to push younger wrestlers. There was a major fight last year when Misawa booked a Budokan Hall show with Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori on last in the main event spot as a way to get the fans to accept the two as Budokan main eventers, but Baba fought it, feeling Budokan Hall due to traditional should almost always be headlined either by a tournament final or by a Triple Crown match, but Misawa got his idea of the five main event singles match show, put Akiyama and Omori on last, and the event sold out).

Misawa also wanted to modernize the contracts with the wrestlers, trying to get the wrestlers full medical coverage, contracted full pay while out with injuries, as well as (according to one report) the opportunity New Japan wrestlers have regarding stock options. Misawa also wasn’t authorized to give any of the native wrestlers raises at the end of the fiscal year on 3/31, which is why no new contracts were signed and all the talent are now free agents. There was talk, because of that, of the wrestlers, after the conclusion of the Champion Carnival tour in mid-April, not returning for the tour which ended on 6/9. Misawa strongly encouraged everyone to work the tour since line-ups had been announced and tickets had been sold and he felt it would be bad for business to leave at that point because the ticket buying public would have gotten screwed. All Japan has a tour from 7/1 to 7/23 announced, but none of the foreigners were announced nor have any of the matches been announced, so nobody is walking out on already advertised matches. It is believed at this point the tour will continue, with Kawada and Fuchi as the top native stars, as well as some foreigners and there is talk of getting help from New Japan, although publicly on 6/13, New Japan President Tatsumi Fujinami said that he hoped to meet with Misawa to be able to promote dream matches between the two groups, saying that he was sad he was never able to have the match with Tsuruta.

There are problems which could result in legal action. Misawa is said to have a non-compete clause in his contract as company President. There is also the possibility of Baba filing a lawsuit claiming Misawa had already started work to set up a new company while still employed as her company President. The final split took place when the All Japan Board of Directors had an emergency meeting on 5/28 after an afternoon show at Korakuen Hall to try and work out the problems and Baba didn’t come, and instead her lawyer arrived with a piece of paper saying she wasn’t coming to the meeting. The key piece of the puzzle is Nippon TV, which has broadcasted wrestling nearly on a weekly basis dating back to Rikidozan and the debut of major league Japanese pro wrestling 46 years ago. Many long-time fans see this situation as being very similar to what happened in 1972, when Baba himself left the old Japanese Wrestling Alliance, getting the Nippon TV contract, and the JWA, Rikidozan’s organization which for years was the dominant group in the country, struggled on without most of its top stars (Antonio Inoki had formed New Japan Pro Wrestling at about the same time), and folded seven months later. There has been talk over the past few days that NTV will cancel All Japan’s weekly show on Wednesday night’s, which was just moved in April, which as this has played out, been a move so the show would die a natural death, to from 1:45 to 2:15 a.m., perhaps as soon as this week or the end of this month, and would start broadcasting Misawa’s new promotion. When asked, NTV officials refused to say anything about the situation, which was taken as a sign they’d made the decision to go with Misawa, as had been rumored from the start of talks that there would be a split. Last year, in April, when the new TV season started and there were talks about a split because the two weren’t on speaking terms, NTV didn’t want to be seen as cancelling what the older generation would see as Baba’s television program so soon after Baba’s death but supposedly gave Misawa the impression they would side with him if the split came down the line. It is believed that even if NTV hadn’t sided with Misawa, that the Fuji Network, had sent feelers to Misawa in the event of a split.

Misawa and Baba had problems from the start, and the power struggles actually dated back before the death of Shohei Baba. Misawa got the booking position in All Japan from Shohei Baba by threatening to pull all the talent from the company and start his own group. Baba averted the problems at the time by making Misawa booker, probably recognizing his own health was failing and there was no point in fighting. After Baba’s death, Misawa and the wrestlers would have been unable to make the move, even though Motoko was notoriously unpopular within the wrestling community in Japan and among the native wrestlers as the legendary “Dragon Lady” of Japanese wrestling (a title which also makes Misawa the total babyface to the Japanese press in this situation because everyone has their Motoko stories), because of the perception as it pertained to the timing of Baba’s death. The major problems actually began almost immediately when Tsuruta was forced out of the company. Tsuruta, who had worked for the company for 27 years, got no severance package leaving, but as a member of the board, was able to wield enough influence before leaving the company to help way things for Misawa to get the title of President in the power struggle. Throughout the year there were bad feelings as Misawa had the title, but Baba controlled the purse strings and remained fiscally conservative as the company’s box office was overall weakening. According to those close to the situation, Misawa, in an attempt to keep harmony, and perhaps pay her to not interfere in his hands, then kept Motoko on a $500,000 per year salary, which was the same actual salary her husband drew as company President, but since it was her company and her money funding it, that didn’t change any of the dynamics.

Kawada, 36, who has known Misawa dating back to high school where the two were both superstars on the high school wrestling team that won national championships (Misawa wrestled one weight class higher and was one year older), is going to stay for a variety of reasons. Kawada and Misawa haven’t fully gotten along, perhaps due to Kawada recognizing he was never going to be able to get the top position in the company, as Misawa was going to hold it and when the time came for Misawa to retire, it was clear Kobashi was going to be the top star. Kawada suffered what should have been a career ending eye injury last year after multiple surgeries. He came back too soon (although his first match back in January against Kobashi was a Match of the Year candidate), and still has some double vision in his bad eye. At one point Shiro Koshinaka, one of New Japan’s assistant bookers, was sent to meet with Kawada earlier this year. There is the potential with Kawada as President that he could work as an outsider on Dome shows with dream matches against all new opponents, and revitalize New Japan’s big show business, in the role Genichiro Tenryu and Nobuhiko Takada drew huge money in for years. In exchange, New Japan could supply Kawada with talent to keep All Japan afloat, as they did to keep UWFI and WAR afloat at various points, although the end result of those dealings still resulted in the end of the smaller organizations. There is even the booking possibility of reforming a tag team with Tenryu & Kawada against the New Japan wrestlers.

As far as the foreign talent, nothing is truly settled. After the card on 6/7, the All Japan Geijin (foreign) bus driver told all the wrestlers to clean out the bus of their gear, CD’s, etc., which came as a shock to all the wrestlers who had heard rumors for a year but this was a total scare that they may not be brought back. The wrestlers also checked with the hotel in Tokyo they usually stay at if rooms were booked for the July tour, which is always done well in advance, and they weren’t, nor was anyone given official confirmation of their return dates. A lot of the foreigners were closer to Baba, since she paid them and there were never money problems dealing with All Japan, nor the stresses of dealing with office politics as in the United States and the touring was much easier with the company bus and the hotels taken care of by the office and with the time off between tours. Both Misawa and Baba heard from wrestlers who did their best to alleviate their concerns and not to worry although basically they were all left hanging. Steve Williams and Johnny Ace are the tightest with Baba on a personal level. Stan Hansen, who is the highest paid of the foreigners, is apparently staying out of the situation as he’s just about ready to wind down his career and has talked of retiring, as he’s saved his money, and becoming a Geography teacher and high school football coach.

2000/06/14

AJPW World Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Final Match

Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue) vs. The Movement (Johnny Ace and Mike Barton)

Ace takes immediate stereo big boots in the corner while Bart is dropped on his arse on the outside. Ace counters the follow ups but eventually takes a big boot to the noggin and chokeslam off the apron from Akira. This match is already up for the crap last episode. Bart finally recovers so he can land his kidney kick to Akira. Because of the Brawl For All, Bart’s basic strikes are very over. Bart and Ace land a Doomsday Device on Akira who wisely rolls outside to avoid a pin. Akira is getting taped up while Kawada bravely soldiers on by himself. Sidewalk Slam/Leg drop only gets two but Ace was able to shove Akira away when he went to save. Over the shoulder bodyslam off the second rope nearly ends it for The Movement but crowd is ecstatic when Kawada lands a kick to a diving Bart. Akira tries to carry on but Bart kicks him in the kidneys again. Amazing how over that move is for how basic it is. Chokeslam to Ace who only just kicks out to really get the crowd onto this. Sit Out Powerbomb is broken up by Ace so Bart takes a Double Powerbomb to remove him from the match. Ace Crusher is blocked so Johnny improvises and busts out the press slam into an Ace Crusher!

Kawada kicks out, leading to Bart go for Akira on the outside and leave Kawada open for Ace! Ace then completely whiffs on a moonsault he was supposed to land, with Kawada attempting to help by kicking him in the end repeatedly. Urghh. The hot crowd is laughing. The Movement attempt the Doomsday Device but Kawada wriggles out and lands his own Ace Crusher! For two. Kawada lands a full-on jumping kick to Ace’s face but he somehow kicks out to the disbelief of the crowd. Kawada’s Sex Pin Powerbomb also isn’t enough to stop the Ace. The sex and the ace must have cancelled each other out. Running Ace Crusher connects but Akira wanders back in to assist in kicking Ace’s head in to finally end it at 14:35.

A much more fun and interesting and (more importantly) over televised tag match.

Ace’s last match for four years as he’d leave for WCW after this and surprisingly give the company it’s last genuinely good months before Russo returned and fucked it all up.

AJPW World Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Final Match

Yoshihiro Takayama and Takao Omori vs. Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa

JIP to Misawa taking a big ol’ butterfly suplex courtesy of Takayama. Ogawa tries to break up the pin but Takayama ignores his offence in a good bit if it wasn’t a serious tag title semi final. Misawa absorbs one of those giant knees from Takayama and decides it’s time to tag out. Ogawa’s offence looks hilarious on Takayama, like a bear playing with it’s cub. That is somehow older than him.

Ogawa manages to avoid a lariat which leads to Takayama accidentally hitting Omori somehow. Crowd liked it anyway. Drop toe hold/diving elbow looks a bit clunky on Omori who has to noticeably stop to make sure he lands in the right place because of Ogawa’s straw-like limbs confusing him. Ratboy absorbs stereo lariats which leaves Misawa open to double teams. He avoids all their strikes but gets tricked into wandering directly into an Axe Bomba. Misawa rests outside while Ogawa is played with inside. Bomb’s Away Knee Drop misses the tiny get, but he still makes like his mentor and walks into an Axe Bomba from Omori to end at 16:05. I’m glad Ogawa didn’t win.

2000/06/21

Jumbo Tsuruta Funeral

It’s the last episode so let’s show more of Jumbo’s funeral because it was the biggest boost for the ratings in years. It’s not as if anything else important is happening this week.

Misawa and co. Press Conference confirming departure (NOAH exodus)

A suit-wearing Misawa explains to everyone what they already know.

Mitsuharu Misawa announced officially the formation of his new promotion, Nippon TV officially announced cancellation of the All Japan television show and Toshiaki Kawada talked about attempting to go to New Japan were highlights of the aftermath of the All Japan split.

Misawa held his press conference on 6/16 at Diffa Ariake, the new building in the Ariake suburb of Tokyo, which was built specifically for pro wrestling to replace Korakuen Hall as the small show mecca in the Tokyo area and which, ironically enough, has its first show on 7/1 booked by the All Japan promotion.

Misawa portrayed his split publicly using the 1972 analogy of when Shohei Baba left the failing Japanese Wrestling Alliance, which had been the dominant promotion for nearly two decades and was the group of Rikidozan, to form All Japan. He said he was unable to make changes from the traditional approach favored by Motoko Baba. He compared it to Shohei Baba attempting to modernize pro wrestling with the formation of All Japan.

The new group’s name, which has not been officially announced, but it is believed will be called “NOAH,” will debut with a show in August and run its first tour in October. As expected, virtually the entire roster of the All Japan promotion, both in front of and behind the scenes, as well as Nippon TV, were in Misawa’s corner in the split, which for all practical purposes was agreed upon going back probably as much as one year ago.

Toshiaki Kawada and Masanobu Fuchi Press Conference

Kawada is also wearing a suit. Even his Umbro fringe can’t hide his anger.

Besides Toshiaki Kawada and Masa Fuchi, only referee Kyohei Wada (who is the ref with the huge cult following that gets the huge pop at the start of every Budokan Hall main event), and two members of the Board of Directors stayed with Baba’s promotion. Kawada’s decision is believed to be largely due to two related factors. When word of the split started getting out, New Japan sent Shiro Koshinaka, who started his career with Kawada in All Japan in the early 80s, for a meeting with Kawada in February. Kawada, who is still suffering from double vision in one eye, was thought to have only a limited time left in his career under any circumstances, and thus working only a limited big show schedule would prolong his career and maximize his drawing power on the way out. Koshinaka proposed a Genichiro Tenryu like role for him, where he could work New Japan major shows as All Japan President and perhaps bringing the Triple Crown to New Japan Dome shows for dream singles matches against the top draws in the company like Keiji Muto, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto on Dome shows for huge paydays in the outsider role that both Tenryu and Nobuhiko Takada drew huge money with and that New Japan understands better how to promote than any promotion in the world. By 6/20, Tokyo Sports ran a front page story on the possibility of a Hashimoto vs. Kawada Dome match. When the dream singles program ends, they also could set up Tenryu & Kawada, who were a great tag team in the late 80s with All Japan, reuniting against various New Japan teams for more big matches. In return, New Japan may help All Japan at least struggle to remain alive, similar as they did for many years with Tenryu’s failing WAR promotion and to a lesser extent Takada’s UWFI. At this point it doesn’t look like that will be the case for the next tour. History also shows the end result of these alliances is the destruction of the smaller group, but in this case, that’s probably a moot point because the group for all real purposes at this point without network television would have nothing going for it but whatever interpromotional business can be drawn up.

Aside from Kawada and Fuchi and one of All Japan’s four referees (Wada), who both signed new contracts with All Japan on 6/15, the only major star with the former All Japan office who wasn’t at the Misawa press conference was Hiroshi Hase, who is working in the Japanese Diet (Senate) but has aligned himself with Misawa as well.

We get clips of the 1992 Misawa vs. Kawada match. I’d have maybe aired one of their matches that had Kawada winning but that’s just me.

We are shown videos of the famous image of the new NOAH stable standing on a stairwell. This is nicely juxtaposed with Kawada and Fuchi posing next to an empty ring, all by themselves.

It’s a perfect way to show the different perspectives with the NOAH lads wearing big grins and feeling confident while the two remaining Baba Boys make it clear they’re all alone and things look grim.

We then get several minutes of footage of a night highway while sad violin music plays. I don’t know if that was something the TV network did for commercial purposes or if was supposed to underscore the sadness of what we’d just seen during the last episode.

watching the last episode of AJPW on Nippon TVi'm unfamiliar with how 2000s japanese tv worksis there a reason for the extended night highway footage

— maffew uhhh (@maffewgregg.bsky.social)2026-05-12T16:13:52.653Z

Either way it was appreciated.

(edit: people on BlueSky said it’s what networks would air as a placeholder for commercials. I prefer my way.)

AJPW World Tag Team Title Tournament Final Match

Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue) vs. NO FEAR (Yoshihiro Takayama and Takao Omori) 06/09/00

Here we go, the tournament final and it’s almost an afterthought after a month of build.

NO FEAR attack both foes before the bell ring so they can take out Kawada with Axe Bombs and Powerbombs. Akira is still wrapped up from earlier so he’s open for target practice from the much-scarier opponents. Kawada tags in to boot Omori in the face so he stops hitting his mate, finishing by wind milling strikes into his cheeks. Takayama attempts to German Suplex Kawada (even getting as far as lifting his whole body a foot off the mat) but he ain’t taking that. Flying enziguri is enough to tag in Akira who flies off with a big boot. That never gets easier to watch. Stretch Plumb and Abominable Stretches are locked into NO FEAR but they escape to land more strikes and Powerbombs. Axe Bomba threatens to end Kawada but he kicks out now that the crowd sound like an airplane engine during take off.

Omori’s Bombs Away knee drop meets Kawada’s extended boot, allowing Akira to chokeslam Takayama on the concrete. Omori tries to fight out of a backdrop suplex but doesn’t realise he’s fighting Kawada.

A second one for the hell of it sends Omori into the turnbuckle where Kawada continues to parry away at Omori’s head like it’s the bonus stage in Street Fighter III. Omori survives so Kawada really wrenches in the Stretch Plumb, so much so that he nearly lands outside so Kawada releases so he can pin Omori to win the vacant tag titles at 16:59! With a pin off a submission? No wonder this was the last AJPW TV match, Baba probably came back to life to cancel the contract after that finish.

Enjoyable match here with Kawada realising that Omori is at his best when being competitive, so thankfully the story of Akira being hurt and Kawada being Kawada created enough tension and interest here to go out on a bang.

That leaves The Holy Demon Army as the new winners of the AJPW World Tag Team Titles, their sixth reign as champions.

Their reign would last seven days before Akira left for NOAH. Not a lot AJPW could have done in this situation when the team were bollocks deep in a tournament.

AJPW wouldn’t bother creating new tag champions until January 2001, presumably because they didn’t know what tag teams they had access to. If I spent a month hyping up a tag team tournament only for 9/10 of the participants to bugger off immediately, I’d be hesitant too.

Jun Akiyama and Maunakea Mossman vs. Kenta Kobashi and Kentaro Shiga 06/09/00

JIP to Akiyama exploding Shiga. Wow I bet that took a lot of effort. Jin mocks the smallness of Shiga by launching his remains at Kobashi, who surges in to plaster Jun’s neck with spinning chops. That was a very good idea mate. Mossman wanders in to take the same, leading to Kobashi sending Jun half way across the ring with a Half Nelson German Suplex.

We clip ahead to Shiga trying to take on Mossman. Shiga is so unimpressive looking that Mike Quackenbush would think twice about making him an Ant. Shiga gets sent over the guard rail courtesy of Mossman sneezing.

Clipping ahead to Mossman trying to stop Kobashi with his kicks. Nothing is fazing him. Shiga tags in to the crowd’s murmured concerned but he does manage a Tornado DDT to Mossman. The commentators sound more into Shiga than the crowd is. Jun knees Shiga right into his child-like face.

We clip even further ahead to Shiga getting abused. Kobashi no-sells everything from Mossman but takes Jun’s wonderful exploder suplexes. When Kobashi tries to hulk up, Akiyama’s low dropkicks take out his knees and stop him quickly. That ruled. Jun Tombstones Shiga with the greatest of ease to end at 17:14

I think all these matches did was make fans ask “when are we getting Akiyama vs. Kobashi?” and “why is Kobashi teaming up with Shiga?”

And with that, we say “Sayōnara” to AJPW on NTV.

At a press conference on 6/19, NTV announced that its final All Japan television show would be on 6/21 after broadcasting the show for 28 years. The show would be a 45 minute special which would include both All Japan matches and NTV’s explanation as to why it was cancelling the show due to the promotional split. While a shock to the general public, that has been known by insiders for as long as one year, and that Misawa’s starting his group was delayed for the past year largely due to NTV’s not wanting to cancel Baba’s television within a year of Baba’s death because it would look bad publicly after the 28-year affiliation because to many older fans, NTV and Giant Baba signify one and the same thing. They announced in the time slot starting on 6/28 would be a sports news show called “Coliseo,” which would concentrate on news about Misawa’s group to build for its debut, along with news about K-1, since NTV broadcasts that promotion as well and other martial arts fighting news. Misawa’s promotion is expected to get the weekly time slot when it starts running full-time in October. NTV, which began broadcasting pro wrestling in 1954 and drew some of the largest ratings in the history of Japanese television for Rikidozan’s matches against the likes of Lou Thesz, The Destroyer and Fred Blassie, and later in the 60s for Baba’s matches with the likes of Bobo Brazil, Bruno Sammartino, Gene Kiniski, Fritz Von Erich and The Crusher, made a similar call in 1972 when Baba, the biggest star of the JWA, left the promotion, which folded a few months later, forming All Japan.

And here’s even more copy/pasting from WON:

Motoko Baba claimed that Misawa didn’t work hard as company President over the past year and that he had been planning to leave for some time. She also talked about a $1 million loan Misawa had taken out, and then quickly repaid, for the company, saying the fact he repaid it so quickly at the time was also proof of his intention to leave. She invited the 26 people who were aligned with Misawa (Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, Akira Taue, Yoshinari Ogawa, Mitsuo Momota, Rusher Kimura, Haruka Eigen, Yoshihiro Takayama, Jun Izumida, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Masao Inoue, Tamon Honda, Satoru Asako, Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Masamichi Marufuji, Takeshi Morishima, Makoto Hashi, Takeshi Rikio, Kenta Kobayashi, Daisuke Ikeda, Masahito Kakihara, Hase and referee Mighty Inoue) to work the July tour and said the company wouldn’t announce the line-ups for the new tour until after hearing from Misawa. This was a political move, just as Misawa had made, to babyface the promotion in the fans’ eyes that even though the wrestlers left, she was trying to do everything to book strong cards for the July tour. Misawa said no comment about the proposal. On 6/19, Kawada changed the request only to have Misawa and company work four of the house shows on the tour (7/13 in Matsuyama, 7/15 in Nanao, 7/16 in Toyama and 7/20 at Hakata Star Lanes in Fukuoka), and not including the big Budokan Hall show, because they are sold shows to local promoters. Posters with Misawa’s photos advertising the shows are already around those cities and tickets for those events have started being sold. The company would be leaving with bad will since the local promoters when buying the show expected the full crew. Kawada also announced that for fans who had already purchased tickets to any of the July shows, if they wish to return the tickets based on the biggest stars not being there, even though none of the names were specifically advertised, people buying tickets would be under the under the impression they would be there, they can get a full refund.

Misawa and Taue would indeed work those last AJPW July shows because the rule in Japan is: if you’re advertised for the show then you’re making the show. Both men would wrestle in the mid card, far away from Kawada and Fuchi, and also get different buses and hotels than the remaining AJPW crew. Which is a shame as there must have been plenty of room. Their last match for AJPW would see Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa defeating Akira Taue & Masao Inoue in a mid-card match. It wouldn’t air.

All Japan has also asked Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobutaka Araya, Shigeo Okumura, Gedo, Jado and Jinsei Shinzaki to join for the next tour. Kawada on 6/19 announced he would be joining with New Japan and that Shinzaki of Michinoku Pro and independent wrestler Okumura, who had worked some prelims for All Japan in the past, had agreed to work but the others hadn’t as of press time. All Japan is hopeful of running shows with 16 wrestlers, and at press time had 11 confirmed. He also said that Mossman, who is a native Hawaiian but who has worked from right out of high school with All Japan, would work on the Japanese side.

Mossman would in fact stay with AJPW. He’d have a good run of it once Muta joined in 2002.

Inoki in Tokyo Sports suggested that Shinya Hashimoto start wrestling for All Japan to help save the group. He said at this point there is no point in doing All Japan vs. New Japan matches because All Japan has so little

Thanks for your help Inoki.

There has been no talk at all about the title situations and it appears they are basically all done with. Kobashi had the Triple Crown, and he’s done with the promotion so he’ll never lose it. Kawada & Taue held the Double tag titles and even though both are working matches on the tour, they can’t work with each other since they’re with different companies so they can’t lose the belts in the ring. Ogawa holds the jr. strap but can’t drop it to Fuchi since the two sides aren’t working together. Inoue & Honda hold the tag titles, and Honda is injured now anyway. Clearly, by not announcing a Budokan Hall show at all, they are scampering for something that can be a headliner

It’s never a good time to announce all your belts are vacated but here we are. Respect to Baba for still going with a Budokan show in a month’s time when you’ve got nothing. Card would turn out interesting, to say the least. It’s almost like the company had one last card to play:

Overall: Fascinating seeing a company survive certain death, lose it’s TV station and still be around decades later. Especially when so many people seemed to know what was going to happen before it happened.

Sorry I ran out of things to type about and settled for massive copy/pastings from Dave but it’s necessary context. Then again, it’s one of the most famous moments in the history of Puro so I can’t imagine there’s many people on here finding this with no knowledge or opinion.

Also, can you imagine being a casual fan and tuning in to see this week’s episode of AJPW and finding out all this information like this? I didn’t know about WCW being bought-out until I tuned into Smackdown to see Vince bragging about it so it’s possible.

Highlight Of The Month: Holy Demon Army’s last stand was grand but I’m tempted to say The Movement’s match because of how impressive Ace was. Oh wait he missed that moonsault and he’s a wrong un, fuck him go NO FEAR.

More AJPW reading on the BOD: Kobashi, Kawada, Taue and Misawa talk about the last days in their autobiographies. Thanks again Alex for inspiring me to watch the last days of this era.

Phrederic regularly checks out modern day AJPW, and Mike Fitzgerald just looked at the abridged 2001 Tokyo Dome Show if you wanted to see how this little company ended up in a few months time.

I’ve been Maffew. Thanks for joining me in this weird travel through a company’s supposed dying days.

I may revisit this fascinating rebuilding time but next week I’m checking out something more important: ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin on Dilbert.