Wrestlers Who You Likely Didn't Know or Forgot Held A Title In A Promotion (All Japan Pro Wrestling)

Wrestlers Who You Likely Didn't Know or Forgot Held A Title In A Promotion (All Japan Pro Wrestling)
October 27, 2022

By Ryan Porzl

As I've shown in previous articles, 2022 is a milestone year for many promotions and one of the biggest is the Japanese based All Japan Pro Wrestling. Beginning in 1972, the promotion is best known for it's magical period of the 1980s and 1990s which featured talent and matches that are spoken in great awe. While it hasn't been as big as it was over the past 20 years, it provides another great product with great talent and matches that are actually on par with the top promotions. Over the decades, the promotion has had a who's who as champions including natives like Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu, The Four Pillars of Heaven, Keiji "the Great Muta" Mutoh, Satoshi Kojima, and Kensuke Sasaki along with foreigners or gaijins like Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Terry Gordy, and Steve Williams. However, there's plenty more where that came from as they are not only some notable champions but many you may have forgotten or had no idea they held a championship. We'll conclude our look back on milestone anniversaries this year by looking at All Japan with this article looking at wrestlers you probably didn't know or forgot held a champion.

Note: I don't own any of the pictures as I found them on Google and Puroresusystem.fandom.com.

Onita enters the Tokyo Dome

Off by a day but happy birthday to Japanese wrestling legend Atsushi Onita.

AJPW All Japan Theme (April 1998 - 2003) "STRIKER" aka "Fireballs" by Ei...

Happy 50th Anniversary to All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Kiss - I Love It Loud (Official Music Video)

I Still Love You

KISS - Creatures Of The Night (Promo 1982)

Happy 40th Anniversary to the KISS album Creatures of the Night. One of KISS' more famous and interesting albums in KISS' discography. Creatures would be the last under KISS' original label Casablanca Records while also paying tribute to Casablanca founder Neil Bogart who passed away around that time. It would be the final KISS album with make up until Psycho Circus in 1998. Perhaps the most famous note is despite appearing on the cover, guitarist Ace Frehley does not play a note on the album as he was on his way out at the time and only did promotional work. As a result, most of the guitar work was done by his eventual successor Vinnie Vincent while future Mr. Mister guitarist Steve Farris and blues guitarist Robben Ford also contributed to different songs.

Dr. No (1962) title sequence

Happy 60th Anniversary to James Bond film Dr. No and the James Bond movie series. Interesting note. In the gun barrel sequence, James Bond was actually played by stuntman Bob Simmons. Sean Connery didn't do the sequence until the fourth film Thunderball. Not sure why.