A Look At All Japan Pro Wrestling's 1999

A Look At All Japan Pro Wrestling's 1999

April 11, 2025

By Ryan Porzl

Anyone who is an expert on wrestling history knows All Japan Pro Wrestling and that it's one of wrestling's greatest promotions. Having it's first show on October 21, 1972, the promotion was founded by one of Japan's greatest legends in Shohei "Giant" Baba and as of writing, has lasted over 52 years making it one of wrestling's long running promotions. In fact, with the exception of promotions such as the WWE, the Mexican based CMLL, and fellow Japanese promotion New Japan, almost no promotion has lasted as long as the house that Baba built. However, it hasn't always been smooth sailing to say the least. With a promotion that's been around for more than half a century, it has experienced many highs and triumphs to hosting legendary shows featuring many of the greatest wrestlers and greatest matches the sport as ever had. At the same time, the promotion has seen it's shares of setbacks and turmoil, specifically three exoduses which either damaged or damn near killed the promotion. Obviously, when it comes to the latter, people look at the year 2000 as that was the year everything hit the fan when top star Mitsuharu Misawa left All Japan and took almost everyone from talent to crew with him as well as their main Television time slot to start Pro Wrestling NOAH. However, as fascinating as 2000 is, we're going to take a look at the previous year. 1999 was almost as big and tumultuous as 2000. The year featured some changes with some young talent beginning to get opportunities while established names would sort of take a step back. Backstage, the promotion's founder and patriarch would pass away, one of the all time greats bid farewell to the ring as well as the promotion, and two important figures would start a power struggle that led to the eventual NOAH exodus.

Note: I don't own the picture. Credit to All Japan

Changes Backstage

It didn't take long into the new year for changes to begin as by March, All Japan would lose two men who were as big as it got in the promotion's history: Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta.

Giant Baba was, to say the very least, Mr. All Japan. He founded the promotion in 1972 and had been the boss since then. Along with being the founder, Baba did just about everything from scouting talent to helping train wrestlers to serving as the promotion's booker to being a wrestler. In the case of the latter, Baba was certainly a wrestler for All Japan as he served as the promotion's "ace" or top star for the first twelve or so years. By 1984, the 46 year old Baba began to phase himself out of the main event due to his age and passed the torch to Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu and his time on top would officially end in 1985 when his fourth reign as Pacific Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion ended at the hands of Stan Hansen which marked the final title reign of his career. From 1986-1995, Baba then became somewhat a special attraction for the promotion as he still took part in the yearly World Strongest Tag Determination Leagues while getting the occasional tag title shot. His position on the card would vary as he would spend a lot of the time doing multi-man comedy tags with fellow aging wrestlers such as Rusher Kimura, Haruka Eigen, and Mitsuo Momota but also would occasionally move up the card to take part in dream teams with Andre the Giant and Hansen. By 1996, Baba entered the final phase of his career as he was largely doing the old timer matches in the midcard while eventually relinquishing the booker position to top star Mitsuharu Misawa in October 1998 after Misawa demanded for things to change or he leave. 

Then in November 1998, everything changed. Following a match during the 1998 World's Strongest Tag League tour on November 30th, Baba would come down with an illness and to the shock of everyone would miss the December 2nd and 3rd All Japan shows. Normally, these misses wouldn't be the end of the world especially since Baba was 60 years old at the time but Baba was famous for many reasons and one was his incredible attendance record. Baba almost never missed matches during his near 40 year career. In fact, from his debut in September 1960 to April 1984, he hadn't missed a single show during that near 24 year run and competed in over 3,700 matches before suffering a neck injury. Even as he got older, Baba rarely missed shows and usually went 6-7 years without a miss. At the time of the 1998 misses, Baba hadn't missed a show in six years. Because of this, rumors quickly spread that he was in bad health. All Japan would announce Baba was suffering from the flu but no one bought it. In an attempt to quell the rumors, Baba returned to the ring for the December 4th and December 5th shows with the December 5th show not only being the last show of the year but ultimately Baba's last of his career. Shortly after this, Baba would be diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery in the hope of removing it. The surgery appeared successful and Baba was giving a positive prognosis. However, due to Baba's private nature, wanting to protect everyone around him, and because cancer was considered taboo in Japan at the time, Baba would try to keep his condition secret from just about everyone. Due to this, Baba would be forced to cancel his usual December vacation as well as cancel an invitation to attend WWF's In Your House XXVI: Rock Bottom PPV in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada which was to see him have a meeting with Vince McMahon about continuing their business relationship. All Japan would announce Baba's cancellation was due to a recurrence of the flu which again, no one was believing. Rumors would continue to get stronger when it was then announced that Baba would then miss the entirety of All Japan's New Year Giant Series tour supposedly due to him still recovering from the flu and not thinking the buildings had good enough heat. The miss was big especially since Baba usually opened the January tour with a speech welcoming fans to a new year. Instead, Misawa would have to do it. 

On January 8th, things grew worse when a routine checkup found the cancer was still there and Baba would be rushed back to the hospital for a second surgery. Shortly after this, All Japan would announce Baba was back in the hospital but for an intestinal blockage and that it wasn't serious. Reportedly, the only people who were aware of Baba's health was his wife Motoko, his family, senior referee Kyohei Wada, and ring announcer Ryu Nakata who were Baba's closest friends. Despite his illness supposedly not being serious, the signs continued to get worse as Baba wouldn't allow wrestlers or the press to visit him. Another bad sign was on January 23rd when Baba would celebrate his 61st birthday which normally would feature a big party that Baba would spare no expenses for. However, only Motoko, Wada, and Nakata were allowed to see him at the hospital and the party was cancelled. Finally, on January 31, 1999, Baba passed away from liver failure brought on by colon cancer at the age of 61. He was surrounded by Motoko, Wada, Nakata, his older sister, and niece. While Baba's family attempted to keep things quiet for a period, rumors would quickly circulate until All Japan would finally have a press conference on February 1st where Baba's death was officially announced by Misawa, Tsuruta, and Momota. As a sign of how secretive things were, Misawa, despite being the promotion's top star, booker, and possible new boss, was actually only told of Baba's passing two hours before the press conference. Baba's death would not only send shockwaves throughout All Japan and the wrestling industry but throughout the entire country of Japan. Baba was not only a legend in wrestling but a pop culture icon in his country. The type where regardless of age or whether someone was a fan of wrestling, chances are the majority of the country knew who Baba was. Baba, along with Antonio Inoki, were to Japanese wrestling similar to El Santo and Mil Mascaras were in Mexico, Big Daddy was in England, Bret Hart in Canada, and Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and The Rock in the United States. After nearly 27 years, All Japan Pro Wrestling would no longer have it's founder, it's original top star, and the man who embodied the promotion.

The loss of Baba would be massive enough but the losses didn't end there as the promotion would bid farewell to Jumbo Tsuruta. A former Olympian, Tsuruta signed with All Japan on October 31, 1972, ten days after All Japan's first show. After training in the States with Dory and Terry Funk, Tsuruta turned pro in 1973 and would spend his career with All Japan outside special appearances elsewhere. Despite Baba preferring the slow build for talent, Tsuruta would quickly shoot to the top as he became Baba's frequent tag team partner throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Tsuruta would take to wrestling very quickly and by the end of the 70s was already considered one of the best wrestlers in the world with rumors spreading that the National Wrestling Alliance even considering putting their world title on him. After Baba began phasing himself out in 1984, Tsuruta would be his successor and the promotion's top star from 1984-1992. At his prime, Tsuruta held his share of titles including becoming the inaugural Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and World Tag Team Champion while engaging in many matches and rivalries with a range of opponents. From fellow generational talent like Genichiro Tenryu to foreigners like Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody to the following generation like Mitsuharu Misawa. Unfortunately, Tsuruta's career would hit a huge snag in the summer of 1992 when he was diagnosed with Hepatitis B which eventually would affect his stamina. After working the October Giant Series Tour, Tsuruta would take a year off for treatment. He would eventually return in October 1993 but the illness took it's toll and he was never the same in the ring again. While he would wrestle for another five years, Tsuruta's matches became fewer and farther between. On top of that, he was mostly used in the aging comedy tag matches and would never compete for titles or tournaments again. Tsuruta would wrestle his last match on September 11, 1998 and three weeks after Giant Baba's passing would announce his retirement on February 20, 1999 with the announcement that Tsuruta would relocate to the United States to work as a research professor at the University of Portland. Tsuruta would eventually have a retirement ceremony at the March 6th Budokan show and left for Oregon. Sadly, Tsuruta's time proved short as he was eventually diagnosed with liver cancer and he would be back in Japan by early 2000. Due to Japan's strict laws regarding organ transplants, Tsuruta traveled to other countries, eventually finding a liver donor in the Philippines. Sadly, on May 13, 2000, Tsuruta would undergo the surgery but suffered from massive bleeding and he passed away at the age of 49 due to the complications.

With the loss of two huge names, specifically Baba, things would begin changing backstage. At the time, the thought was Baba's widow Motoko, who handled much of the business side of things, would quietly retire and Mitsuharu Misawa would become the man in charge. However, this didn't happen. As mentioned, Motoko Baba was Baba's widow and played an important role in All Japan's history not only on the business side of things but she and Baba ran All Japan on a good cop/bad cop style with Baba being popular amongst everyone and always delivered good news while Motoko would discipline anyone who needed it and deliver bad news. Because of this and because of her business practices, she was famously nicknamed "The Dragon Lady". Unfortunately, Motoko would not mellow out following her husband's passing and it would help set the tone of what was to come in 2000. Perhaps the best example was Jumbo Tsuruta's departure. Originally, it looked as though Tsuruta simply decided to call it a career and move on with his life. However, the real reason was far uglier. Following Baba's death, Motoko had wanted Mitsuo Momota, the son of "The Father of Japanese Wrestling" Rikidozan, to be the next president. However, Tsuruta insisted Misawa was the best choice and reportedly used his stroke to help Misawa into the role which resulted in Motoko basically forcing him out of the promotion without any golden parachute which only made everyone more angry at her.

In the end, the promotion would see two power players emerge as Motoko remained owner, boss, and majority stake holder in the promotion while Misawa would become president while retaining his roles as top star and booker. This would probably be the worst case scenario for All Japan. The first issue was Motoko and Misawa had different visions on how to run the promotion as they pretty much disagreed on just about everything. Despite celebrating it's 27th anniversary, All Japan in 1999 looked and felt like it did when it started in 1972. All Japan was always a bare bones run company in terms of production as unlike just about every major promotion in America and Japan, All Japan did not have fancy sets or lighting, no pyro, no smoke machines, and no big presentation. Meanwhile, the Japanese wrestling boom period of the 90s was pretty much done by 1999 and giving way to growing combat sports like MMA and kickboxing. Because of these and perhaps due to loyalty to her husband, Motoko insisted on All Japan continuing to run like it always had. As for Misawa, he felt the promotion needed to modernize and evolve if it was to survive. Misawa also wanted to bring health insurance for the wrestlers, possible stock options, and being paid in full during injuries. In the end, Motoko vetoed pretty much everything. Another issue was reportedly Misawa wanted to start pushing new blood to the top but Motoko was reportedly against it believing talent like Yoshinari Ogawa was too small while others like Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, and Yoshihiro Takayama were not ready despite each having seven years experience. This led to an incident on the September 4th Nippon Budokan show which featured several one on one matches that the fans got to vote on which would main event. Despite the fans voting Akiyama vs. Omori to main event and despite the Budokan selling out, Motoko demanded Misawa not go along with it as she felt they weren't ready to main event a Budokan show by themselves. In the end, Misawa ran it anyway resulting in a huge fight backstage afterwards. Along with the different approaches to running All Japan, Misawa and Motoko didn't care for each other personally. Reportedly back in 1990, Motoko was against Misawa's push to the top following Genichiro Tenryu's departure believing Misawa wasn't ready. Then in 1998, Misawa approached Baba and requested he tell Motoko to leave the company which ultimately didn't happen.

Taking A Step Back

1999 would also begin to see changes on screen as well as many familiar names began to take somewhat a step back that year for the most part. The first was All Japan's Four Pillars of Heaven which consisted of Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Akira Taue. The Four Pillars were All Japan's top stars and centerpiece throughout the majority of the 1990s with Misawa, specifically, serving as the top star or ace since 1992. The four dominated All Japan during the decade holding almost every honor a heavyweight could hold and were part of almost all of the promotion's greatest matches and moments in the 1990s. However, 1999 would begin to see these four titans somewhat take a step back and not perhaps be as dominant as they were in years past. Kawada would have a hard 1999 mostly due to injuries. He entered 1999 losing the World Tag Team Titles with Taue against Kobashi and Akiyama. He would defeat Misawa for his third Triple Crown but suffered a broken arm in the match, would eventually forfeit the championship a week later, and missed over three months including the yearly Champion Carnival. He then returned at the Baba Memorial in the Tokyo Dome and got another Triple Crown title shot against Misawa in July before an eye injury in August put him out for the rest of the year, thus missing the World's Strongest Tag League. 

Taue would also have a fairly quiet 1999 as he started the year losing the World Tag Team Titles to Kobashi and Akiyama. Following Kawada's arm injury, Taue would get one final shot at the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship when he took on Vader for the vacant titles on March 6th but came up short. Afterwards, Taue was largely on cruise control for the rest of year as he was out of title contention until making it to the finals of the World's Strongest Tag League.

Kobashi enjoyed good success in 1999 but largely in the tag ranks with his partner Jun Akiyama in the Burning tag team. He did win two World Tag Team Championships and the 1999 World's Strongest Tag League but singles success eluded him. He made it to the finals of the 1999 Champion Carnival but lost to Vader while he got one Triple Crown title shot against Misawa in June 1999 but came up short for that. In fact, 1999 marked the first year since 1995 in which Kobashi didn't hold the Triple Crown for an entire calendar year.

Finally, Misawa was sort of the exception. He did enjoy two reigns with the Triple Crown, a run with the World Tag Team Titles, and the All Asia Tag Team Titles while main eventing the Giant Baba Memorial Tokyo Dome show. However, Misawa's two Triple Crown reigns were his shortest of his five reigns with neither going a year while he failed to make a successful title defense with either tag title. Overall, Misawa's 1999 is hard to rate as for many wrestlers, it's still a great year but for Misawa, it was a downgrade given his previous dominance. 1999 would also mark Misawa's last year as a champion in All Japan due to his departure where he led the Pro Wrestling NOAH exodus in June 2000. In fact, Misawa was the only one of the four pillars who wouldn't hold a championship for All Japan after 1999.

Another legend who took a step back was legendary foreigner Stan Hansen. A longtime vet in the sport, Hansen began wrestling in 1973 and while he achieved success in America, his legend was mostly solidified in Japan first for New Japan and then All Japan. Hansen arrived in All Japan in late 1981 and for his nineteen year run spent most of it as the promotion's top foreigner. During his time, Hansen engaged in legendary matches with the biggest names from Baba to Tsuruta to Tenryu to the Four Pillars while forming legendary teams with Bruiser Brody and Ted Dibiase to name some. He's been a Triple Crown Champion, World Tag Team Champion, and one of the few to have won back to back Champion Carnival tournaments in 1992 and 1993. However, the man from Borger, Texas wasn't getting any younger. 1996 would see Hansen win his final title in the World Tag Team Title with Gary Albright as well as get his final Triple Crown Title shot. 1997-1999 would see the aging Hansen move down the cards no longer challenging for titles though he still competed in the yearly tournaments and formed a dream team with Vader in 1998. In 1999, Hansen turned 50 years old and it was clear the Lariat was in the twilight of his career. Along with not challenging for any championships, Hansen would also not participate in All Japan's Champion Carnival tournament after having done so every year since the tournament was brought back in 1991 (it wasn't held from 1983-1990). He would also become more a part timer only working half of the tours that year. Hansen's only notable highlight was teaming with Taue and going to the finals in the World's Strongest Tag League but it can be argued Hansen wouldn't have been part of the tournament if Kawada wasn't injured.

Others Step Up

With many taking a step back in 1999, others would begin to rise up the cards that year and be granted more opportunities. In the case of the natives, several would step up that year. The first was Yoshinari Ogawa. Ogawa, who turned pro in 1985, took the long road as he worked as an undercard junior for the first decade of his career though he was a member of stables like Tsuruta-Gun and the Holy Demon Army. By 1995, Ogawa would finally taste gold in the Junior Heavyweight Championship and by 1998, would be on his third run with the title and basically be All Japan's top junior. As this was going on, Misawa's tag team with Jun Akiyama had ended and a new partner was needed for him. Originally, Misawa wanted Masahito Kakihara to be the man. Kakihara was a former shoot style wrestler who competed for promotions like UWF-i and Kingdom before entering All Japan in 1998. However, Giant Baba vetoed it reportedly due to Kakihara's size and the fact he was still fairly new to the promotion. Baba wanted Mannukea Mossman (the future Taiyo Kea) to be the partner but Misawa vetoed this due to Mossman being green as Mossman was just four years into his career and just graduated to the heavyweight division. Eventually, the two struck a compromise and Ogawa was chosen. The Misawa/Ogawa team would see Ogawa get a chance to move up in the heavyweight division as he would compete in his only two World Strongest's Tag Leagues in 1998 and 1999 with Misawa. Ogawa would also win more gold as he captured both the World Tag Team Championship and All Asia Tag Team Championship on August 25, 1999 from the team of NO FEAR. While the title reigns proved brief as the AA were vacated to end the tag team monopoly while they made no successful defenses with the World Tag Team, it was still a step up for Ogawa. Much of Ogawa's 1999 would be important in his career after Misawa formed NOAH as he would enjoy a run with NOAH's GHC (Global Honored Crown) Heavyweight Championship while and he and Misawa enjoyed two runs with the GHC Tag Team Championships.

Another wrestler to step up was Tamon Honda. Honda was a former Olympian who competed in the 1988 Olympics before turning pro late at 30 years old in 1993. He won the Asunaro Cup (All Japan's Young Lion's Cup) in 1996 before beginning to step up in late 1998/1999 as he would capture All Japan's midcard tag titles the All Asia ag Team Championship two times with Jun Izumida and Masao Inoue. Like Ogawa, this would be a sign of things to come as Honda would eventually find success in tag teams in NOAH winning the GHC Tag Team Championship twice with Kobashi while also winning World Entertainment Wrestling's Tag Team Championship with Naomichi Marufuji.

Finally, there were the tag team NO FEAR consisting of Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama. Both would turn pro in 1992 with Omori trained by legendary wrestler and trainer Animal Hamaguchi while Takayama was trained by wrestling legend Nobuhiko Takada. Omori debuted in All Japan but outside winning the All Asia Tag Team Championship and holding it for three years (1995-1998), he wasn't giving many chances to move up the cards. As for Takayama, he did time in shoot style promotions like UWF-i and Kingdom while also working for WAR before heading to All Japan by 1998. After Misawa became booker, the two would be paired up and become NO FEAR. NO FEAR would become a top team and boost the stock of both Omori and Takayama. On June 4th, NO FEAR would capture the All Asia Tag Team Championship from Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki. Then on July 23rd, they defeated Johnny Ace and Bart Gunn for the World Tag Team Championship thus making them the first team to hold both belts simultaneously. While neither reign was very long as they lost both belts to Misawa and Ogawa on August 25th, it was still saw both Omori and Takayama take big steps in their careers. Again, it was a sign of things to come with NO FEAR enjoying a run with the GHC Tag Team Championship in NOAH later on and both Omori and Takayama both went on to Hall of Fame worthy careers.

Native talent wasn't the only success stories as some foreign talent also rose in 1999. First was Bart Gunn. Turning pro in 1991, Gunn worked the Florida independent circuit for his first two years. He then achieved success in the WWF from 1993-1999 specializing in tag teams. He first enjoyed success as part of the Smokin' Gunns with fictional brother Billy and became three time WWF Tag Team Champions. After a lull as a singles, he then teamed with Bob Holly as the New Midnight Express (the fourth incarnation of the group) where they won the NWA World Tag Team Championship. However, it would be towards the end of his run that perhaps made Gunn legendary. In the summer of 1998, Gunn entered the infamous toughman contest the Brawl For All where he not only shockingly won but on the path to victory would brutally knock out newcomer and tournament favorite "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. While the BFA didn't enhance Gunn's career in the WWF outside of a Wrestlemania XV payday where he was fed to boxer Butterbean in what some would consider punishment for winning, it did catch the eye of All Japan. Williams was not just a legend in Japanese wrestling but specifically for All Japan so they were well aware of Williams' legit toughness. So while the WWF had no interest, All Japan did and Gunn would eventually make the transition to them beginning in late 1998. Gunn would spend late 1998 to mid 2000 mostly in a tag team with Johnny Ace (future WWE executive John Laurinaitis) and it was there where Gunn returned to championship gold. On June 9th, Gunn and Ace defeated Kobashi and Akiyama to win the World Tag Team Championship. Gunn and Ace would hold the titles for a month before losing them to NO FEAR on July 23rd. While Gunn (later renamed Mike Barton) wouldn't win another All Japan title, he would be an important foreigner during the post NOAH exodus including a Tokyo Dome encounter with Williams and making it to the finals of the 2002 Champion Carnival. While Gunn was merely a memory in the eyes of the WWF in 1999, he would find a new beginning, revival, and meaning in All Japan.

Finally, the last person to step up was perhaps the biggest of them all and the man who perhaps had the best 1999 in all of wrestling: Vader. Vader turned pro in 1985 and spent his first two years working in promotions such as AWA in America and the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany. After joining New Japan in 1987 and taking the character of Big Van Vader, his legend grew. From 1987-1995, he was among the best in wrestling especially among big man playing the strong yet agile bully to a T. During that period, Vader would tear through New Japan, CWA, Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico, UWF-i in Japan, and WCW engaging in big matches and feuds with Tatsumi Fujinami, Nobuhiko Takada, Sting, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan. From 1996-1998, Vader found himself in the WWF and while he had his moments there, his run is often considered one of the most disappointing in WWE history despite seemingly being a perfect fit for WWE. A combination of injuries, weight issues, and backstage politics saw him never achieve his true potential and by the end, it was bad enough to the point where many believed he be better off retiring. However, Vader would change all that upon entering All Japan in November 1998. In 1999, he engaged in some of his best matches against the likes of Misawa, Kobashi, and Taue. He won the Triple Crown Championship twice and the 1999 Champion Carnival. He also main evented the Giant Baba Memorial Show at the Tokyo Dome that May against Misawa. Along with this, Vader's Triple Crown wins made him the first wrestler to have won Japan's top two men's titles in New Japan's IWGP Heavyweight Championship and All Japan's Triple Crown Championship. Meanwhile, his CC win made him only the second wrestler (after Baba) to have won the Carnival in his first try. Vader's 1999 is one of the best examples of a career rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

All Japan has had many great moments and memorable years over the last 50+ years. However, few years were probably as memorable as 1999 from behind the scenes drama to the established names taking a step back to new names stepping up including an amazing career revival.