All Japan Pro Wrestling was something of a revelation in the nineties for wrestling fans who had become disillusioned by the cartoony mid-90s American offerings. If the Dungeon of Doom or King Mabel had soured people on wrestling, the Four Pillars of All Japan opened up a whole new world for fans. It is fair to say that in terms of match quality and booking All Japan was so far ahead of every other major company that it truly became a transcendental experience for wrestling fans to watch their first Misawa match - never before had wrestling been that good and, for a lot of fans, it was never that good again.

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Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa

The Early Success Of AJPW Was Because Of Foreign Talent

After the death of Rikidozan, two of his students were tasked with carrying the JWA forward, Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. Baba would leave the JWA to form All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972 and Inoki would go on to form New Japan Pro Wrestling - these two men would go on to shape the Japanese professional wrestling landscape for decades. Baba, with the help of Rikidozan's sons, would use his connections to the NWA to bring in top-quality foreign talent that was unavailable to NJPW. This put All Japan in a very favorable position as they often had stars such as Dory Funk Jr, Terry Funk and Stan Hansen on the card. Baba also made sure that the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was defended regularly in All Japan to add prestige to his promotion. The approach that All Japan took was successful because the NWA was successful in the 1970s and early 80s, AJPW's top title was a regional title under the banner of the NWA, the PWF World Heavyweight Championship, and the major draw was often the foreign wrestlers or the big NWA title bouts - not the regional title defenses that so often included Giant Baba.

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The Funk Brothers: Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr.

The Boom Period For AJPW Began With The Collapse Of The NWA

With the NWA collapsing in the late 1980s, the WWE being often unwilling to send established talent that were being used on TV, and Japan and WCW having an agreement with NJPW, AJPW would need to focus on building their own stars both foreign and domestic. The result of this change was Baba focusing solely on his promotion and having wrestlers compete exclusively for All Japan. It also meant that the regional titles which were defended in AJPW would be unified to create one world title, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. These changes were also spearheaded with a change in style. Giant Baba's success as a booker may well come down to his acceptance that he could not be the star performer for his company and the booking philosophy of King's Road wrestling would place an emphasis on superior in-ring work and gradual character development.

This was most apparent in the booking of Kenta Kobashi, who would lose his first 63 matches but showed fiery underdog resilience in order to gain fan support. Aside from Baba's long-term booking, the success of All Japan relied heavily on the devastating matches that often main evented AJPW events. With the likes of Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, Stan Hansen, Toshiaki Kawada and other top-quality wrestlers competing for the Triple Crown, the wrestling superseded the angles. Booking became secondary to match quality towards the later half of the 1990s and physical limits were habitually broken by the men of All Japan. While match quality was outstanding, there was always the nagging feeling that this would not be sustainable.

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The Return To Form For All Japan Pro Wrestling

As it turned out, All Japan collapsed in much the same way as it began - with a mass exodus to form a new company. NOAH, led by Misawa, ended up taking almost the entire roster and continued on with the outrageous in-ring work until the tragic death of Misawa in 2009. All Japan was left for dead until Keiji Mutoh saved the company and led it back to being a decent-sized operation.

Kenta Kobashi vs Misawa AJPW 1990s

In the end, the story of All Japan is rather sad. It didn't fall apart because it became too extreme or the talent were unable to top their previous efforts. It collapsed because of the death of Giant Baba and the fall out between Baba's wife and Misawa. Even today, AJPW is very much a distant fourth promotion in Japan barely mentioned outside of hardcore wrestling circles. The success of All Japan was unparalleled however, and should truly be considered as the best promotion of the 90s.