35 Facts About Giant Baba

Shohei Baba, best known by his ring name Giant Baba, was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player.

Giant Baba is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling, a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota, the sons of his mentor Rikidozan.

Giant Baba was responsible for recruiting much of the talent for All Japan, and was the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime.

Shohei Giant Baba was born on January 23,1938, in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, the last son of Kazuo and Mitsu Giant Baba.

Nevertheless, Giant Baba excelled at baseball, becoming the top player at his local club.

Giant Baba was forced to give up baseball when he joined high school as he was continuing to grow at an incredible rate and no cleats could be sourced in his size.

Giant Baba 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 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.

Giant Baba was relegated to the second team for his first year, but eventually debuted in 1956 and performed well, earning 12 wins and 1 loss in his rookie year and 13 wins and 2 losses in 1957.

Giant Baba underwent craniotomy at the University of Tokyo Hospital on December 23,1957.

The success rate of the technology at that time was very low, and the doctor warned Giant Baba he was likely to lose his eyesight completely the operation was successful, and Giant Baba was discharged after a week.

Giant Baba returned to the camp with a bandage on his head in January 1958.

Giant Baba played for two more seasons, winning best pitcher for a third time in 1959.

Giant Baba first met Rikidozan while he was playing baseball, who told him he would do well as a professional wrestler.

In 1961, Rikidozan arranged for Giant Baba to wrestle and live in the United States for a few months.

Giant Baba 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.

Giant Baba 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.

Giant Baba held the NWA International Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, and won the World Big League a record six times.

Inoki attempted a hostile takeover of the JWA in late 1971, for which he was fired, whereas Giant Baba decided not to renew his contract in 1972.

Giant Baba won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship from Jack Brisco ending Brisco's year and a half run as champion on December 2,1974.

Giant Baba would regain the title in America from Abdullah The Butcher in 1979, making another 13 successful defences before dropping the title to Harley Race in 1982.

Giant Baba would go on to hold the title four times for a total of 3,847 days, or just over ten years.

Between his debut in 1960 and April 1984, Giant Baba wrestled 3000 consecutive matches and did not miss a single booking, only breaking the cycle after he suffered a minor neck injury.

Giant Baba focused heavily on training the next generation of wrestlers, particularly Jumbo Tsuruta, who was his first student after forming AJPW, and Atsushi Onita, with whom Giant Baba formed an almost parent-like bond.

Giant Baba ran his company with a schedule of eight tours a year travelling nationwide, and maintained this the entire time he was in charge.

Giant 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.

In 1998, Giant 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.

Giant 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.

Giant Baba was a heavy smoker who preferred cigars, but quit after his friend Gyutsu Matsuyama, another heavy smoker, was hospitalised with stomach cancer.

In January 1999, Giant Baba was taken in to a hospital and confined to a bed.

Nine days later on January 31,1999, Giant Baba died of liver failure from complications of colon cancer at approximately 16:04 local time in the Tokyo Medical University Hospital.

Giant 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.

Giant Baba's funeral was delayed due to the fact they could not find a casket large enough to fit his body.

Giant Baba's body was later cremated, and his tomb is located at Honmatsuji in Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture.