#2 Giant Baba’s birthday – 23rd January 1938
Rikidozan was the founder of Japanese professional wrestling and the Japanese Wrestling Association (JWA) owner was on the lookout for a successor. He eventually decided on two youngsters – Kanji Inoki and a professional baseball pitcher Shohei Baba.
Starting out in 1960, the duo would be renamed as Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba respectively. They would bring laurels to Japan by winning the NWA International Tag team Championship four times. Baba would wrestle for Vincent J McMahon’s WWWF, challenging the likes of Bruno Sammartino and Buddy Rogers.
By 1972, JWA was on its last legs and Baba decided to form his own promotion – All Japan Pro Wrestling. It would compete directly with Inoki’s recent venture – New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was All Japan that took JWA’s place in the NWA and Baba’s sharp business sense saw many NWA wrestlers becoming popular in Japan.
Baba’s All Japan would regularly sell out the famous Budokan Hall, pocketing more than $1,000,000 multiple times a year. Baba, was also known as an honest promoter to whom a handshake was as good as a written agreement.
Giant Baba would die of cancer in 1999.
