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47-414: Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Shohei Baba ( 馬場 正平 , Baba Shōhei , January 23, 1938 – January 31, 1999) , best known by his ring name Giant Baba ( ジャイアント馬場 , Jaianto Baba ) , was a Japanese professional wrestler , promoter , and professional baseball player . He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW),

94-654: A 1.94 ERA and 29 complete games, winning the ERA title and the Eiji Sawamura Award . At Aomori Stadium , in 1950 he pitched the first perfect game in NPB history. He was the winning pitcher in games 1 and 5 (the clinching game) in the 1951 Japan Series , as the Giants beats the Nankai Hawks 4-games-to-1. He picked up a win the 1952 Japan Series (as well as hitting a home run) as

141-449: A Japanese-record 19 shutouts and set the single-season mark for ERA at 0.73. In May 1943 he also pitched his first no-hitter, defeating Nagoya . Between August and September he threw a record six straight shutouts, going 61 + 2 ⁄ 3 innings without allowing a run, and 100 innings without allowing an earned run. In 1944, in addition to pitching and managing, Nakagami occasionally played outfield. (He also spent significant time in

188-462: A few others, their real name. One notable exception was made for David Otunga because of his real marriage to singer Jennifer Hudson at the time, which gave WWE some mainstream exposure. Low Ki used the alias "Senshi" during his second TNA stint to reserve his primary ring name for other use. A similar example is the team known as The Dudley Boyz in ECW and WWE and Team 3D elsewhere. WWE trademarked

235-412: A promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota , the sons of his mentor Rikidōzan . For the first 10 years of its existence, Baba was the top star of All Japan, while also serving as the booker, promoter, head trainer and president of the promotion from its inception in 1972 till his death in 1999. Baba was also responsible for recruiting much of the talent for All Japan, and

282-403: A schedule of eight tours a year travelling nationwide, and maintained this the entire time he was in charge. Baba remained an extremely popular figure among fans, and continued teaming with young wrestlers and veterans in opening matches into the late 1990s, maintaining a full-time schedule until December 1998. Under Baba's rule, All Japan Pro Wrestling reached unprecedented heights of popularity in

329-439: A signed contract, as he had a great reputation for keeping his word when it came to match finishes and payrolls. Because of this, many regarded Baba as the most honest promoter in the professional-wrestling business. Throughout 1998, it was becoming clearer and clearer that Baba's health was deteriorating. Despite this, he worked a full-time schedule throughout the year, touring the country and competing on most shows. However, Baba

376-430: A single booking, only breaking the cycle after he suffered a minor neck injury. While continuing to be the promotion's top star, Baba also put a focus on using foreign wrestlers, inviting the likes of Dory Funk , Bruiser Brody , Abdullah The Butcher and Stan Hansen to compete for All Japan from the very beginning. Baba also focused heavily on training the next generation of wrestlers, particularly Jumbo Tsuruta , who

423-751: A variation of it, sometimes modifying the spelling to better fit their gimmick , such as Dave Bautista becoming Batista (later reverting to his real name for his Hollywood acting career), Patricia Stratigeas becoming Trish Stratus , Jonathan Good becoming Jon Moxley , Bryan Danielson becoming Daniel Bryan (when he wrestled in WWE), Richard Fliehr becoming Ric Flair and Randall Poffo becoming Randy Savage . Others simply use part of their name, such as Bill Goldberg using Goldberg , Nicole Garcia-Colace using Nikki Bella , Mike Mizanin using The Miz , Cody Runnels using Cody Rhodes , and Michael Wardlow using Wardlow . Many female wrestlers go solely by their first name such as. It

470-454: A year at Budokan Hall . At the peak of the company, tickets for the next Budokan show would be sold at the live event and completely sell out that night. In 1998, Baba finally agreed to run the Tokyo Dome on May 1, and despite it being a few years since the company peaked, they still drew 58,300 paying fans. It became well known that as a promoter, Baba would rather use a handshake agreement than

517-637: Is a highly respected tradition in Mexican lucha libre for performers to hide their true identities, usually wrestling under masks, and revealing a luchador's identity without their permission is considered a serious offence with real-life consequences. Professional wrestlers are often referred to by their contemporaries by their ring name. In interviews, Bret Hart regularly referred to Mark Calaway, Curt Hennig, and Kevin Nash by their ring names ( The Undertaker , Mr. Perfect , and Diesel ). Ring names are often trademarked by

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564-448: Is also common for wrestlers of all genders to use a nickname in addition to their real name for marketability and other reasons. Ricky Steamboat is an atypical instance of a wrestler adopting a ring name to sound less intimidating, as his legal name of Richard Blood was considered unfitting for his babyface persona. Some (mostly independent ) wrestlers still go to great lengths to ensure that their real names are not publicly known. It

611-468: Is known about Baba's life outside the ring. A reserved and private man, he did not drink or carouse with other wrestlers after shows. Baba was highly respected by foreign wrestlers, as he always made sure that they travelled first class and stayed in the best hotels, and paid for all of their beer and food. Although not a heavy or frequent drinker, Baba was known to have an incredible tolerance for alcohol and consume it for hours without showing any effects. He

658-617: The PWF Heavyweight Championship and Giant Baba as its top star, with Baba winning the Championship in 1973 and holding it for 1920 days, making 38 successful defences before losing to Tor Kamata in 1978. Baba won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship from Jack Brisco ending Brisco's year and a half run as champion on December 2, 1974. A week later he dropped the title back to Brisco. Baba would regain

705-686: The Pacific War ). Fujimoto, born as Lee Pal-ryong, was born in Busan , Korea which was part of Japanese Empire at that time, moving to Japan at age eight. He attended Shimonoseki Shogyo High School and Meiji University . In 1943, he enjoyed one of the greatest seasons ever by a pitcher in Japan, winning the pitching triple crown . He won 34 games for the Kyojin, leading the league in wins, complete games (39), innings ( 432 + 2 ⁄ 3 ) and strikeouts (253). He threw

752-806: The United States for a few months. Baba became a popular villain in America, wrestling on the west coast as the fan favourite "'Big' Shohei Baba", and as the villainous "Baba the Giant" in New York. He wrestled the likes of The Destroyer and Buddy Rogers numerous times, as well as Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in Madison Square Garden in February 1964. While Baba

799-737: The World Big League a record six times. As the JWA continued to struggle going into the 1970s, Baba and Inoki agreed to go their own separate ways. Inoki attempted a hostile takeover of the JWA in late 1971, for which he was fired, whereas Baba decided not to renew his contract in 1972. The JWA would disband the following year. After leaving JWA, Baba and Inoki formed their own promotions. Rikidōzan's two sons followed Baba to his new promotion and helped co-found it. Baba's All Japan Pro Wrestling debuted in October 1972, backed by Nippon Television . AJPW established

846-482: The promotion that creates a character or gimmick for a performer. It is common to see one performer use a variety of ring names throughout their career, even if their overall persona remains similar. This is especially true in WWE , which has largely forced most wrestlers that have debuted since 2006 to use a WWE-owned ring name instead of a ring name that they used on the independent circuit or, such as with Daniel Bryan and

893-728: The "Dudley Boyz" name, leading them to have to change their name when they went to TNA. The members' individual names were also trademarked by WWE, forcing them to have to change their names. WWE partially repealed the policy in 2015, allowing wrestlers who were well known in other promotions such as Samoa Joe , A.J. Styles , Shinsuke Nakamura , Austin Aries , Bobby Roode , and Eric Young to use their long-standing ring names (or, in Nakamura's and Roode's cases, their real names) as well as wrestlers who sign "Tier 2" NXT brand contracts such as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa , who wrestle both on NXT and

940-552: The 1990s, thanks to Baba's booking and the performances of Baba disciples Mitsuharu Misawa , Toshiaki Kawada , Akira Taue and Kenta Kobashi , dubbed the "Four Pillars of Heaven" by publications. With the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship as the focal point, All Japan sold out more than 250 consecutive shows in Tokyo throughout the early to mid-1990s, routinely drawing houses in the $ 1,000,000 range eight times

987-593: The Giants were again champions, defeating the Hawks 4-games-to-2. Nakagami won another game in the 1953 Japan Series , as the Giants defeated the Hawks for the championship for the third year in a row. After his playing career, he coached for the Giants and managed in the Japanese minor leagues, Later, he managed in the industrial leagues. He also worked as the Los Angeles correspondent for Yomiuri Shimbun . Fujimoto/Nakagami

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1034-546: The PWF Heavyweight Championship in America from Abdullah The Butcher in 1979, making another 13 successful defences before dropping the title to Harley Race in 1982. Baba would go on to hold the title four times for a total of 3,847 days, or just over ten years. Baba's runs with the title made him synonymous with it, and promoted him to a new level of stardom in Japan. Between his debut in 1960 and April 1984, Baba wrestled 3,000 consecutive matches and did not miss

1081-548: The attention of Nippon Professional Baseball scouts. In 1954, Baba met with Hidetoshi Genkawa of the Yomiuri Giants who invited Baba to drop out of high school and join the team full time. Baba accepted and began pitching for the Giants in January 1955 at #59. Although Baba joined the Yomiuri Giants in 1955, he did not play in the league at all in his first year with the team by recommendation of director Shigeru Mizuhara . Baba

1128-504: The camp with a bandage on his head in January 1958. Baba played for two more seasons, winning best pitcher for a third time in 1959. However, after Hideo Fujimoto , a coach who formed a bond with Baba and regularly advocated for him to start, left the team, Baba was released from the Giants in 1959 after five seasons. Fujimoto would leave for the Taiyo Whales , and invited Baba to a training camp in an attempt to get him signed in 1960. Baba

1175-405: The fifth grade, he began to grow at a rapid rate, and by the time he was in the ninth grade he was already 175 cm tall. It soon became apparent he was suffering from gigantism . Nevertheless, Baba excelled at baseball, becoming the top player at his local club. After graduating from elementary school, Baba enrolled in the department of mechanical engineering at Sanjo Business High School. Baba

1222-477: The independent circuit to keep their ring names (or, in Gargano's case, his real name). Gargano and Ciampa have since signed exclusive WWE contracts. "In-house" WWE wrestlers still use WWE-owned ring names. In rare cases, the rights to a wrestler's ring name may be owned by a company with little or no connection to professional wrestling, such as Marvel Comics ' ownership of the name Hulk Hogan until early 2003, which

1269-584: The liver; she was 78 years old. In January 1999, Baba was taken in to a hospital and confined to a bed. He saw his last wrestling match on January 22, as Toshiaki Kawada defeated Mitsuharu Misawa for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. Nine days later on January 31, 1999, Baba died of liver failure from complications of colon cancer at approximately 16:04 local time in the Tokyo Medical University Hospital . He

1316-547: The outfield in 1948.) Nakagami was a good hitter for someone who primarily played pitcher, hitting .245 with 15 career home runs (including 7 round-trippers in 1950). In 1946, Nakagami led the Japanese Baseball League in earned run average, with a mark of 2.11. Nakagami played for the Chunichi Dragons for one season in 1947, winning 17 games with a 1.83 ERA and 27 complete games. In 1949, Nakagami went 24-7 with

1363-677: The prefix "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Numerous boxers have used ring names or nicknames as their mode of identification during their professional boxing careers, particularly during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The ring name "Kid" was particularly popular, indicating the boxer's comparative youth. Since the mid 20th century, ring names for boxers have typically been less common, although nicknames have become more popular in recent years. Famous examples of boxers who used ring names include: Hideo Fujimoto As manager Hideo Fujimoto ( 藤本 英雄 , Fujimoto Hideo ) (also known as Hideo Nakagami ) (May 10, 1918 – April 26, 1997)

1410-455: The wrestler's gimmick changes, either subtly or dramatically. After debuting in WWE as the " Connecticut Blueblood " Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Paul Levesque's character later morphed into Triple H . A more drastic change sometimes occurs when a wrestler turns heroic or villainous , such as when Hulk Hogan joined the villainous nWo (New World Order) and became "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. His new attitude

1457-463: Was 61 years old. Present at his deathbed were his wife, his older sister, his niece, Yukiko, All Japan ring announcer Ryu Nakada and senior referee Kyohei Wada . Baba had known about his cancer diagnosis for at least a year prior to his death but kept it a secret, not wanting to cause worry about his condition. Baba's three closest employees, Jumbo Tsuruta , Mitsuharu Misawa and Joe Higuchi , did not know about it until after he died. Baba's funeral

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1504-496: Was a Japanese baseball pitcher . He holds the Japanese records for lowest career ERA (1.90) and seasonal ERA (0.73), as well as best all-time winning percentage (.697). During his career, which spanned the one-league and two-league era, he played for the Tokyo Kyojin / Yomiuri Giants and the Chunichi Dragons . He was the player-manager of the Giants in 1944 and part of 1946 (the league cancelled all games in 1945 because of

1551-461: Was a heavy smoker who preferred cigars, but quit after his friend Gyutsu Matsuyama, another heavy smoker, was hospitalised with stomach cancer. On September 16, 1971, he married Motoko Kawai (born January 2, 1940) in Hawaii , a place Baba enjoyed and regularly visited. Knowledge of their wedding was not widely publicized until almost ten years later, when they announced it at a press conference. A ceremony

1598-536: Was a record seven-time winner of the Champion Carnival , a four-time PWF World Heavyweight Champion , three time NWA International Heavyweight Champion and a three-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion . Shohei Baba was born on January 23, 1938, in Sanjo , Niigata Prefecture , the last son of Kazuo and Mitsu Baba. For most of his early childhood, Baba was one of the smallest children in his class, however, around

1645-1053: Was delayed due to the fact they could not find a casket large enough to fit his body. A memorial service was held publicly on April 17, 1999, at the Nippon Budokan the day after the 1999 Champion Carnival final. Over 28,000 people attended, including the entirety of the All Japan Pro Wrestling roster, as well as Baba's wife and family. His body was later cremated, and his tomb is located at Honmatsuji in Akashi City , Hyogo Prefecture . Ring name Ring names are much more common in professional wrestling than any other sport; famous examples include Terry Bollea becoming Hulk Hogan , Michael Shawn Hickenbottom becoming Shawn Michaels , Roderick Toombs becoming Roddy Piper , Dwayne Johnson becoming The Rock , Christopher Irvine becoming Chris Jericho , and Phillip Jack Brooks becoming CM Punk . A number of wrestlers adopted their real name or

1692-596: Was due to Hogan being advertised as " The Incredible Hulk Hogan" early in his career, while Marvel owned the trademark for their comic book character. Sometimes, a wrestler will buy the rights to their own ring name; for example, Steve Borden owns the rights to the name Sting and licenses it to the musician of the same name . The wrestler formerly known as Test took this one step further and legally changed his name to "Andrew Test Martin". Jim Hellwig, known as The Ultimate Warrior , had his name legally changed to simply "Warrior". In many cases, ring names evolve over time as

1739-595: Was enhanced by changing his costume color scheme from his famous red and yellow to nWo's black and white. Steve Williams adopted the ring name Steve Austin to avoid confusion with the then-more established performer "Dr. Death" Steve Williams . Austin would wrestle under that name for several years before signing with the WWF and being given the name "the Ringmaster". This gimmick failed to catch on, and Austin reverted to his established name, reaching his greatest level of success with

1786-497: Was forced to give up baseball when he joined high school as he was continuing to grow at an incredible rate (190 cm at the age of 16) and no cleats could be sourced in his size. He soon joined the art club instead, but this didn't last long as the school ordered custom cleats and Baba was invited to join the baseball team. Baba continued to impress, recording 18 strikeouts during a practice game, which led to tabloids reporting on "Sanjo High School's giant pitcher" and Baba garnering

1833-460: Was forced to take time off for surgery when it was discovered he had developed a brain tumour. Baba underwent craniotomy at the University of Tokyo Hospital on December 23, 1957. The success rate of the surgery at that time was very low, and the doctor warned Baba he was likely to lose his eyesight completely, however, the operation was successful, and Baba was discharged after a week. He returned to

1880-428: Was held in 1983. Baba and his wife had no children fearing the child could also suffer from gigantism. Baba and his wife instead developed a close relationship with Baba's student Atsushi Onita who Baba considered like his own child; Baba and Motoko considered adopting Onita at one point. Onita has said "I learned the most important things as a human being from Mr. Baba". Motoko died on April 14, 2018, from cirrhosis of

1927-401: Was his first student after forming AJPW, and Atsushi Onita , with whom Baba formed an almost parent-like bond. After losing the PWF Heavyweight Championship for the final time in 1985, Baba stepped back from the main event and instead focused on running the company while competing in lower-level matches, pushing Genichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta as his successors. Baba ran his company with

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1974-597: Was in America, his trainer Rikidōzan died, and the JWA began to struggle, and Baba returned to Japan full time in 1966. He formed a popular tag team known as "B-I Cannon" with Inoki, and the two won the NWA International Tag Team Championship from Tarzan Tyler and Bill Watts in 1968, going on to hold the titles four times in total. Baba also held the NWA International Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, and won

2021-482: Was invited for a tryout by Goro Taniguchi and eventually hired, requiring him to move to Kawasaki , however, just days after moving, Baba fell in the bathroom of his new apartment and crashed directly into the glass door of the shower, which required 17 stitches in his left elbow and led to Baba losing feeling in his hand for a while. Despite the injury not being serious, Baba retired from baseball shortly after and moved back to Niigata. Baba first met Rikidōzan while he

2068-665: Was playing baseball, who told him he would do well as a professional wrestler. With his baseball career over, Baba decided to pursue professional wrestling. Meeting with Rikidōzan again in April 1960, Baba began training in the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) dojo along with Kanji "Antonio" Inoki , a Japanese emigrant whom Rikidōzan met during a trip to Brazil. Baba and Inoki debuted on the same show on September 30, 1960, with Baba beating Yonetaro Tanaka in his first match. In 1961, Rikidōzan arranged for Baba to wrestle and live in

2115-493: Was relegated to the second team for his first year, earning 12 wins and 1 loss in his rookie year and 13 wins and 2 losses in 1957. Both years, Baba won the Nippon Professional Baseball second team league's best pitcher award. However, at that time, professional baseball in Japan did not hold official games between the second team, and this career seems to be a lie. Baba began suffering eyesight problems in 1957 and

2162-409: Was slowly losing a tremendous amount of weight, and looked much more pale and weak compared to his previous self. His final match, prior to being confined to a hospital bed, occurred on December 5, 1998, at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, where he teamed with Rusher Kimura and Mitsuo Momota to take on Masanobu Fuchi , Haruka Eigen , and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, bringing his career total to 5,769 matches. Little

2209-492: Was the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime. Considered one of the most beloved Japanese wrestlers ever, Baba was a national hero with a level of popularity in Japan comparable to that of Hulk Hogan in the United States. The 2006 Top 100 Historical Persons in Japan survey ranked Baba the 93rd greatest person in the history of Japan , as voted for by the general public. Among his many accomplishments, Baba

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