The Wrestling All-Star Battle or Giant Baba Death 20th Memorial show was a professional wrestling event promoted by Japan's biggest promotions; All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Wrestle-1 (W-1) on February 19, 2019 at the RyĆgoku Kokugikan to honor the 20th anniversary of Giant Baba's death and Abdullah the Butcher's retirement. In addition to AJPW, BJW, NJPW, Noah and W-1 wrestlers, various wrestlers from Dragon Gate, freelancers and legends also took part of the event. The event was broadcasted by Fighting TV Samurai. It also featured no storylines or championship matches, instead they were booked as "supercards", putting together combinations of wrestlers from the three promotions that fans would normally not see. This was the second and last Wrestling All-Star Battle held by Tokyo Sports magazine in the Heisei era.
Production[]
Background[]
On October 16, 2018, Tokyo Sports magazine announced the show would be held on February 19, 2019 at the RyĆgoku Kokugikan to honor the 20th anniversary of Giant Baba's death and would be held by Japan's biggest promotions; All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Wrestle-1 (W-1). The last Wrestling All-Star Battle had been held by AJPW and NJPW on August 26, 1979, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tokyo Sports, where Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba had teamed with each other for the last time defeating Abdullah the Butcher and Tiger Jeet Singh. In the following years, AJPW, NJPW and NOAH would promote two shows in 2011 under the name All Together in response to the March 2011 TĆhoku earthquake and tsunami, which the first show held on August 27, 2011 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, was a huge success, with representatives of the three promotions handing a check of „58,273,560, made up of ticket, PPV and merchandise sales, to Japanese Red Cross and a second show was held on February 19, 2012 at the Sendai Sun Plaza Hall in Sendai, Miyagi, which was the nearest major city to the epicenter of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and suffered major damage in it and the following tsunami.
On November 1, it was announced the first names for the event, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Tomoaki Honma from NJPW, Kento Miyahara, Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori and Masanobu Fuchi from AJPW, Daisuke Sekimoto and The Great Kojika from BJW, Naomichi Marufuji from NOAH and freelancers, Kazushi Miyamoto, Tomohiko Hashimoto and Taiyo Kea. On January 11, 2019, it was announced a partial card for the event as well legends such as Dos Caras and Mil Mascaras. The full card for the event was announced on January 31.
Results[]
| # | Results | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitsuo Momota won by last eliminating Masao Inoue[Note 1] | 12-man Battle Royale | 7:11 |
| 2 | Naoya Nomura, Ren Narita, Tomoaki Honma and Yuji Okabayashi defeated Daichi Hashimoto, Kazushi Miyamoto, Takuya Nomura and Tomohiko Hashimoto | Eight-man tag team match | 8:36 |
| 3 | Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, Hideki Suzuki and Kendo Kashin defeated The Great Kojika, Hikaru Sato, Mitsuya Nagai and Shuji Ishikawa | Eight-man tag team street fight bunkhouse deathmatch | 6:55 |
| 4 | Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Taka Michinoku and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) defeated Masanobu Fuchi, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Yuma Aoyagi | Six-man tag team match | 9:43 |
| 5 | Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI and SANADA) defeated Sweeper (Jake Lee and Koji Iwamoto) and Ayato Yoshida and Shota Umino | Three-way tag team match | 8:13 |
| 6 | Jinsei Shinzaki and Naomichi Marufuji defeated Mochizuki Dojo (Masaaki Mochizuki and Shun Skywalker) | Tag Team match | 10:02 |
| 7 | Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori and Taiyo Kea defeated Osamu Nishimura, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata | Six-man tag team match | 12:32 |
| 8 | Dos Caras and Mil Mascaras defeated Kaz Hayashi and Nosawa Rongai | Tag team match | 11:06 |
| 9 | Daisuke Sekimoto and Kento Miyahara defeated The World (Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu) | Tag team match | 24:24 |
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- â Order of eliminations: Kim Duk, Stalker Ichikawa, TARU, Masahito Kakihara, Ryuji Hijikata, Tamon Honda, Yasu Urano, Joel Deaton, Yuto Aijima, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Abdullah Kobayashi, Men's Teioh and Masao Inoue.