Toshiaki Kawada
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Toshiaki Kawada (川田利明; Kawada Toshiaki) is a professional wrestler who is most known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling. In 2005, he started freelancing in other promotions, including Pro Wrestling NOAH and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Career
In high school he practiced amateur wrestling, becoming a national champion in his senior year, defeating Keichi Yamada in the finals. He debuted in 1982 for All Japan Pro Wrestling, in a match against Hiromichi Fuyuki. Toshiaki Kawada was sent to North America for a year from November 1985. He had gained experience as a pro wrestler in Fred Behrend's Texas All-Star Wrestling (San Antonio, TX), Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling (Calgary), and Frank Valois' International Wrestling (Montreal).Kawada was billed as "Kio Kawata from Seoul, South Korea" in Stampede Wrestling for a very short time around June 1986. He was under adverse circumstances, and rarely has he talked about his days in American/Canadian wrestling.
In 1987 he joined his mentor Genichiro Tenryu's faction 'Revolution', which made him a breakout star. He reigned as All Asia Tag Team champion with Fuyuki three times, who had adopted the stage name Samson. In 1990 Tenryu left for Super World of Sports, which led Kawada to join Mitsuharu Misawa's stable. Kawada ended up winning the AJPW Unified World Tag Team championships with him twice.
In 1992 he formed a tag team with his former rival Akira Taue. They ended up holding the AJPW Unified World Tag Team championships together six times. He finally won the Triple Crown in 1994, when he beat Steve Williams. This title reign only lasted one 60 minute draw against Kenta Kobashi. In his second defense he lost the title to Stan Hansen.
In 1996 he publicly criticized AJPW's policy of not having interpromotional matches. New Japan Pro Wrestling was making big business at the time by having their workers wrestle for other promotions, and vice versa. He worked only one interpromotional match for UWF International (against Yoshihiro Takayama), but AJPW decided not to continue on this nor on the publicity Kawada had suddenly drawn.
His second Triple Crown victory came when he finally defeated Misawa for the title in 1998, in AJPW's first ever Tokyo Dome show. He had challenged Misawa for the title several times unsuccessfully. He was immediately defeated by Kobashi in his first title defence. In 1999 he faced Misawa again for the Triple Crown, who had won it from Kobashi. He defeated Misawa again (using the infamous Ganso Bomb in the process), but broke his arm during the match, and vacated the title the following day. He returned to action four months later, but was out action once again in three months because of an eye injury. He returned finally in January of 2000.
In mid-2000 most of AJPW's native wrestlers left with Misawa to his new promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kawada was the only top star to stay, along with senior wrestler Masanobu Fuchi. Tenryu was brought back and AJPW signed a co-promotional deal with NJPW. This led to Kawada beating the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki on October 9, 2000. However, the title was not on the line.
In 2003, he won the Triple Crown for the fifth time. Kawada embarked on a magnificent reign that saw him make 10 title defenses (thus breaking Misawa's record of 8 defenses during his third reign) and 2004 became only the second year when the Triple Crown did not change hands (The first was 1993, during Misawa's first reign), this 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 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.
Since losing the titles to Satoshi Kojima in February 2005, he's embarked on a tour of other major promotions, facing his old rival Mitsuharu Misawa in Pro Wrestling NOAH and competing in New Japan Pro Wrestling's prestigious G1 Climax tournament. Since then he has appeared for dragondoor, Dragon Gate, U-Style and perhaps most notably Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX where he wrestled against and tagged with young star Kohei Sato. Recently, there have been rumors that Kawada will be a surprise opponent for Brock Lesnar.
Following winning the Triple Crown on 3rd July, 2006, Taiyo Kea named Kawada as the first challenger for the title, this was later confirmed for All Japan's 27th August show.
Nicknames
- "Dangerous K"
- "Hustle K"
- "Monster K"
Finishing and signature moves
- Jumping high kick / Gamengiri
- Powerbomb
- Spike brainbuster
- Dangerous backdrop driver (High angle belly to back suplex)
- Stretch plum
- Ganso bomb (Used very rarely)
Championships and accomplishments
- *5-Time AJPW Triple Crown Champion
- *8-Time AJPW World Unified Tag Team champion with Mitsuharu Misawa (twice) and Akira Taue (six times)
- *3-Time All Asia Tag Team Champion with Samson Fuyuki (three times)
- *1992 Real World Tag League winner, with Mitsuharu Misawa
- *1994 Champion Carnival winner
- *1997 Champion Carnival winner
- *1996 Real World Tag League winner, with Akira Taue
- *1997 Real World Tag League winner, with Akira Taue
- *2000 AJPW World Tag Team Championship tournament winner, with Akira Taue
- *2003 Triple Crown tournament winner
- *Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him #42 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
References
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