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Kawada Toshiaki (born December 8, 1963) is a Japanese retired Puroresu. He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), whom he worked for from his debut in 1982 up until 2008. In the promotion, he was a five-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a nine-time World Tag Team Champion, three-time winner of the Real World Tag League and a two-time winner of the Champion Carnival. He was also recognized as the ace of the promotion from 2000 to 2005.
A years-long contemporary of Mitsuharu Misawa, they made their debut in AJPW together in the 1980s. Kawada became the understudy of Genichiro Tenryu, one of the top stars of the promotion at the time, and was so until 1990 when the Revolution stable disbanded in the event of the . From then on, he became one of their top rising stars alongside Misawa and Kenta Kobashi, and would be the founding members of the Chou Sedai-gun. In 1993, he broke away from the stable and joined Jumbo Tsuruta-accomplice Akira Taue as a unit, coining themselves as the Sei Ki Gun. Their rivalry with Misawa and Kobashi was a huge turning point for AJPW in the 1990s, and the individual rivalry between Kawada and Misawa was considered the defining storyline of the 1990s in AJPW and Japan all-together. That same year, he had been coined as a member of the Puroresu no shiten'nō line-up, alongside Misawa, Kobashi, and Taue.
When Misawa ended his relationship with AJPW and formed Pro Wrestling Noah, Kawada stayed loyal to AJPW, and was then picked by Motoko Baba (the widow of Giant Baba, the company founder) to be the leading wrestler on the roster. He had the longest individual reign of any Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion in the 2000s, and was tied (with Kento Miyahara's fourth reign) for the most defenses of any individual reign with 10. In the midst of the division between AJPW and Noah, he made several appearances with other promotions, most notably New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he competed for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling World 2001 in the Tokyo Dome against Kensuke Sasaki. He became a freelancer in 2005, and made his first in-ring appearance for Noah at the Destiny 2005 pay-per-view, losing to Misawa. He also competed for Hustle, where he assumed many comedic roles.
He won his last world title, the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship, in October 2009, defeating Masato Tanaka and losing it to Kohei Sato the next year. After the death of Misawa in June 2009 in a freak ring accident, Kawada slowed down his role as a pro wrestler, and had his final match on August 15, 2010 during the G1 Climax XX tournament, unbeknownst to the majority of his contemporaries and fans. After his final match, he began to collaborate more with his contemporaries outside the ring, including Kobashi and Taue (the surviving Heavenly Kings), Jushin Liger, Katsuhiko Nakajima, and student Taichi.
Known by fans and his contemporaries as Denjarasu kei for his extremely stiff wrestling style and martial arts strikes, he is widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. His matches against Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue, and Kenta Kobashi in the 1990s are argued by many fans and experts in the industry as some of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all time. He also has the distinction of having three Tokyo Sports Best Bout awards, which too brought him the distinction of being nicknamed the Mei shōbu seizō-ki.
When Revolution stable mate Ashura Hara was expelled from All Japan in November 1988 for gambling debts, Kawada was promoted to team with Tenryu in that year's World's Strongest Tag Determination League, losing a memorable final match to Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy.
In July 1989, during a match with Shunji Takano, Kawada lost four front teeth in a freak accident. As Kawada gave Takano a German suplex, Takano's back landed on Kawada's face, causing his front teeth to break off and get stuck on Takano's back and several roots of his teeth were sticking out from his gums.
Kawada's greatest achievement to that point came when he won the 1994 Champion Carnival by defeating Steve Williams on April 16. Kawada followed by losing his third straight Triple Crown challenge against Mitsuharu Misawa in the June 3, 1994. Their 36-minute bout was highly acclaimed by journalists and magazines, being called the greatest match of the decade in later years. After Williams lifted the Triple Crown from Misawa, Kawada defeated Williams on October 22, 1994; his title reign lasted one successful defense, as he went to a one-hour draw with Kenta Kobashi in Osaka on January 19; it has been called the greatest one hour match in pro wrestling history by Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer. Stan Hansen ended Kawada's Triple Crown reign on March 4, 1995. Kawada pinned Misawa for the first time on June 9, 1995, when he teamed with Taue to face Misawa and Kobashi, but Misawa and Kobashi came back to defeat them in the Tag League Final in the last straight tag meeting of the two teams.
Following the June 2000 series, Misawa and all but two native talent in All Japan resigned from their positions and defected to the newly formed Pro Wrestling Noah promotion; Toshiaki Kawada and Masanobu Fuchi were the only two native talent to stay with All Japan Pro Wrestling. With the promotion gutted of top talent, Kawada's old mentor Genichiro Tenryu was brought back and an interpromotional agreement was struck with New Japan; the first key match against New Japan saw Kawada defeat IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki on October 9, 2000, in a non-title match. On September 6, 2003, he won the Triple Crown for the fifth time in a tournament final against Shinjiro Ohtani. This time, however, Kawada embarked on a magnificent reign with 10 successful title defenses against the likes of Genichiro Tenryu, Shinya Hashimoto, Eddie Fatu, Taiyō Kea, Kensuke Sasaki and Hiroyoshi Tenzan; as a result, Kawada broke Misawa's record of 8 defenses during Misawa's third reign. In addition, 2004 became only the second year when the Triple Crown did not change hands (the first was 1993, during Misawa's first reign), which included a successful defense against Mick Foley in the HUSTLE promotion; in Misawa's era, the title was not defended during the Champion Carnival and World's Strongest Tag Determination League tours, which were dedicated to their namesake tournaments. Kawada's reign restored dignity to the Triple Crown at the expense of the said tournaments.
In July 2006, All Japan officially ended their relationship with FEG. Kawada immediately expressed interest to work in his home promotion once again, and finally made his long-awaited return on July 30, 2006, defeating D'Lo Brown. Following his win of the Triple Crown on 3 July 2006, Taiyo Kea named Kawada as the first challenger for the title, and the match was held at the inaugural Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku event on 27 August. However, Kawada was unsuccessful, falling to his own finishing maneuver (the powerbomb). Kawada continued to compete in both All-Japan and HUSTLE, as well as defeating Shinsuke Nakamura at the All-Japan/New Japan "Wrestle Kingdom" supershow on January 4, 2007, with a running kick to the face. At Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku, Vol. 2 (on February 17, 2007), Toshiaki Kawada and Taiyo Kea defeated RO'Z and Kohei Suwama for the World Tag Team Championship; this win gives Kawada his ninth reign with the championship, as well as Kea's 5th reign. During March 26–30, 2007, Toshiaki Kawada competed in the year's Champion Carnival tournament, going all the way to the finals where he fell to Keiji Mutoh; Kawada finished the tournament with 5 points (2 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw). During the Hold Out Tour on April 22, 2007, Toshiaki Kawada lost to Vampiro, after the Great Muta had interfered and sprayed mist in Kawada's eyes. Muta and Vampiro later challenged Kea and Kawada for the World Tag Team Championship at Pro Wrestling Love in Nagoya (on April 30), but Kawada and Kea were successful in their defense of the belts. On June 24, 2007, Satoshi Kojima turned his back on All-Japan Pro Wrestling and aligned himself with All-Japan's nemesis, the Voodoo Murders group; this angered Kawada, who had left Kojima to lead All-Japan when he lost the Triple Crown in 2005. On August 26, 2007, at Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku, Vol. 3, Kawada and Kea lost the World Tag Team Championship to Satoshi Kojima and Yoshikazu Taru. On September 16, following the conclusion of the opening show for the 2007 Flashing Tour, Kawada issued a challenge to Kensuke Sasaki for the Triple Crown Championship; Sasaki accepted, and Kawada challenged for the title at All-Japan's 35th Anniversary Pro Wrestling Love in Yoyogi show on October 18, 2007. Kawada also teamed with Ryuji Hijikata to challenge Sasaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima on September 29, 2007, at the final show of the Flashing Tour. Kawada competed in Block A of the 2008 Champion Carnival in April, where he most notably wrestled Hiroshi Tanahashi to a draw, and pinned Keiji Muto in what would be his final All Japan match on April 9, 2008.
On October 3, 2009, at the Mitsuharu Misawa memorial show, Kawada and Akira Taue reunited the Holy Demon Army for one night and defeated Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobayashi. Three weeks later, he defeated Masato Tanaka to win the Zero1 World Heavyweight Championship. Kawada returned to NOAH in late February 28, 2010, trading victories with Takeshi Morishima. Two weeks Later, Kawada would be announced as a part of NOAH's inaugural Global League. On April 11 he lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Kohei Sato. In the Global League, he earned second place in his group and thus did not compete in the final.
On August 15 he participated in the last card of New Japan's G1 Climax tournament for the year, teaming with mentor Tenryu and Tiger Mask to defeat Riki Choshu, Junji Hirata and Akira Nogami. This turned out to be the last match Kawada has wrestled to date. Although at the time, Kawada had not announced a formal retirement, he admitted that the death of his rival Misawa in 2009 diminished his passion for the sport. In 2013, he attended Kenta Kobashi's own retirement ceremony and greeted his also former rival; however, he refused to participate in Akira Taue's retirement match later in the year, although he similarly attended the ceremony and greeted Taue.
During his visit to Japan for the 2023 G1 Climax, Eddie Kingston visited the shop and spoke to Kawada, paying his respects. The two reconnected at Starrcast that year, with Sonny Oono providing translation. At both meetings, Kawada teased Kingston about his use of the Northern Lights Bomb as a finisher, suggesting that he should instead use a powerbomb. Eddie agreed, and used the move to defeat Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor championship a few weeks later at AEW Grand Slam.
Freelance (2005–2010)
After losing the titles to Satoshi Kojima on February 16, 2005, Kawada signed a contract with Dream Stage Entertainment, the parent company of PRIDE Fighting Championships. Kawada made the sports entertainment based HUSTLE promotion his new home, and immediately turned heel in 2005; he turned his back on his young student Taichi Ishikari and friends Shinjiro Ohtani and Naoya Ogawa of the HUSTLE Army to join the dastardly Monster Army, led by Nobuhiko Takada and swimsuit model Yan Yinling. Due to the way Kawada's contract with DSE was structured, he was free to work where he pleased (including New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Noah, and other various independent groups). However, when All Japan reopened relations with FEG to begin running WRESTLE-1 shows again in 2005 with the parent company of PRIDE's biggest competitor in Japan (that being the K-1 fighting group, run by FEG), DSE requested that Kawada not work for All Japan any longer because of the conflict of interest. On July 18, 2005, at the Tokyo Dome, Kawada wrestled one final 27-minute classic against his old rival Mitsuharu Misawa.
Personal life
Outside of professional wrestling, he has owned and managed a ramen shop in Tokyo entitled "Men-gerous K".
Championships and accomplishments
External links
Categories: 1963 Births, Japanese Male Professional Wrestlers, Living People, Professional Wrestlers From Tochigi Prefecture, Stampede Wrestling Alumni, All Asia Tag Team Champions, World Tag Team Champions, Triple Crown Heavyweight Champions, Champion Carnival Winners, Zero1 World Heavyweight Champions, 20th-century Male Professional Wrestlers, 20th-century Japanese Professional Wrestlers, 21st-century Male Professional Wrestlers, 21st-century Japanese Professional Wrestlers, 20th-century Japanese Sportsmen, World's Strongest Tag Determination League Winners
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