⚫🟡 Toshiaki Kawada compilation (AJPW All Japan TV 2003)

Consider my 4 uploads tonight my Thanksgiving special, I've been wanting to upload these before but I had to research the copyright status on them. The 3 previous AJPW episodes I just put my usual Donbass charity stuff, which tends to help with copyright too.

This comp has rather long Kawada matches from 2003, primarily from PPVs, TV specials & home video. This was right after Mrs. Baba's sale of AJPW to Keiji Muto (75% stake) and Gaora TV (25% stake), where Gaora today owns most of the AJPW video archive from 2003 to 2013, with only few shows from Mrs. Baba's era (Feb 1999-Jan 2003). Her time frame tends to be the safest to upload because her stuff broadcasted on various channels in Japan, not a sole TV & PPV deal like post-sale AJPW.

These Kawada matches are the ones not officially uploaded on Gaora TV's official Youtube channel, so it's all safe and Gaora TV is rather generous like the WWE Network is.

Btw, Kawada is my Japanese girlfriend's (Nini) favorite wrestler and I always thought Kawada (also Kobashi) was the perfect rival for Dr. Death. I think it's on part with the Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels saga if I were to make an American analogy. When Kawada reached his prime, AJPW often depicted him as "the guy Doc could never beat", and there was legit jealousy between each other at the time. Doc being the wacky pothead, and Kawada the brawling drunk. I always thought Kawada drank with Andre The Giant, but Kawada in a recent interview said he never saw Andre drunk. 😂

Part of the jealousy was that Kawada held, exceptions being Andre and Stan Hansen, a partial grudge against gaijin white people because of the way he was treated in mid 1980s territories, where they gave him weird Asian gimmicks. A ninja, a masked kung fu caricature, and making him South Korean IICR. They didn't let Kawada be himself, which ruined his chances of getting hired by the WWF. According to Taiyo Kea, Kawada spoke English enough decently so I think he could get by in promos. Kawada has done sports-entertainment style stuff as well in Japan. The territory experience essentially ruined his resume because I would've loved to see Kawada throughout the later Hulkamania Era, New Generation, Attitude Era & beyond knowing Kawada's longevity (retired in 2010). He'd be in the HOF in that case, easily.

So in 1994 when Giant Baba went all-in on the Dr. Death train (the era I started watching) 😊, Kawada wasn't happy that an American was "owning the place", although Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa welcomed Doc as one of their own. In the very early 90s, Doc did beat Kawada a couple times but Kawada didn't quite peak yet, so it only added to the jealousy. Giant Baba from what I understand had to be the babysitter between Kawada and Doc. One time, Kawada even knocked out Doc's front teeth at a house show. 😮

However over time, Kawada gradually started to respect the white wrestlers, and after Giant Baba passed away, Doc and Kawada were equally upset by his passing (Kawada shed tears at Baba's tribute show). That, along with them being the only two main eventers leftover of the "Four Pillars era" after the NOAH exodus, carrying the entire main event scene, they gradually buried the hatchet. 🤝 They weren't best friends, but Doc and Kawada were cordial and used to go out to bars, parties, etc. with Bart Gunn and Taiyo Kea. In the early 2000s, Kawada was known by everyone in the locker room to be a nice guy who started changing his ways, and Doc and Kawada started saying nice things about each other.

When Doc became sick with throat cancer in 2004, both Doc and Kawada were in IWA Japan. The promotion held a tribute "get well soon" show for Doc, which Kawada main-evented defeating Keizo Matsuda in Doc's honor. It was quite heartfelt. Prior to that at an AJPW special ("Only My Royal Road"), when Doc wrestled a very sickly match (too sad for me to upload) he cut a promo with Tenryu by his side backstage, saying proudly but like Donald Duck because he was very sick, "I'm gonna come back & finally beat Kawada".

If Doc became healthy in the mid 2000s, I personally think Kawada would've let Doc get his win on main event TV after 10 years, as Kawada got old around that time as well like Doc (slow, weight gain & simple moveset). When I follow Japanese interviews, ever since then Kawada always says positive things about Doc, leaving their past issues behind. Likewise, Doc later in his life spoke positively of Kawada.

Fun fact: In IWA Japan, they couldn't keep Kawada around because the promotion was lacking money. When Kawada left, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan was IWA champ. Sadly a match between them never happened as planned. 🙁 When Kawada left, shortly after Jim Duggan left because he was feeling homesick & didn't like Japanese food. Had the match happened, it would've been a lot of fun seeing Duggan fight one of the "Four Pillars" (never crossed paths with any) with both being stiff strikers. 😁