Line #15 Wrestling/GiantBaba


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giant_baba.png]]
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3	Shohei Baba (January 23, 1938 – January 31, 1999), best known by his ring name Giant Baba, was a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{professional wrestl\|ing}}er and promoter. Baba is best known as a co-founder of Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota, the sons of Wrestling/{{Rikidozan}}. Along with being the top star of All Japan its first decade of existence, Baba was the promotion's booker, promoter, head trainer and president from its inception until his death in 1999. Baba was also responsible for recruiting much of the talent for All Japan, and was the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime. Considered one of the most beloved Japanese wrestlers ever, Baba was a national hero with a popularity in Japan comparable to Wrestling/HulkHogan in the United States.
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5	Among his many accomplishments, Baba was a record seven-time winner of All Japan's signature tournament, the Champion Carnival,[[note]]He won it every year from 1973 to 1982 except the 1976, 1979, and 1980 editions; the first two being won by Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher and the latter by Wrestling/JumboTsuruta.[[/note]] a four-time PWF World Heavyweight Champion, three-time Wrestling/{{N\|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA International Heavyweight Champion,[[note]]The two titles that, alongside the NWA United National Championship, were unified into AJPW's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.[[/note]] and a three-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion.[[note]]He is in fact the first Japanese wrestler to have won the title, although each of his reigns only lasted a week.[[/note]]
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7	!!Tropes associated with him include:
8	* AuthorAvatar: Along with being the top star of All Japan its first decade of existence and the public face of the promotion for much of his lifetime, Baba was the promotion's booker, promoter and president from its inception until his death.
9	* BerserkButton: Submission finishes. He was known during AJPW's heyday for deeply detesting them, which often led to his wrestlers having to rely on other forms of grappling to win and get over.
10	* BigGood: Baba increasingly became viewed as such for AJPW as his in-ring career wound down. It's been said that, despite pro wrestling being a notoriously cutthroat business, Baba's word could always be trusted. If you had a handshake with him, it meant that you had a done deal.
11	* CreateYourOwnVillain: It was rumored that the infamous one-night wrestler Raja Lion (who was billed as a Pakistani karate champion) was actually some tall guy Baba found working in a curry shop and brought in to have someone to compete against. This certainly would explain the subsequent match, in which his infamous total lack of skills, either at wrestling or karate (or any other kind of martial art for that matter) immortalized him on ''Website/{{Botchamania}}''.
12	* FinishingMove: Jyurokumon Kick (Big boot), neckbreaker drop.
13	* GameOfNerds: Baba was known to recruit fairly heavily from baseball. The fact that Baba himself was a baseball player before becoming a pro wrestler likely has to do with this.
14	* GentleGiant: Baba, the legendary and beloved late owner of AJPW. As Wrestling/MickFoley once stated, it looked like his moves couldn't break an egg, and the real person was said to be serious, but had nonetheless a gentle personality that extended to his in-ring persona.
15	* TheGiant:
16	** Well, it's in his ring name for a reason. Baba was 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), with only a few wrestlers during his time, such as Wrestling/AndreTheGiant, billed 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) being able to ''slightly'' surpass him in height. He's also one of the tallest Japenese men ''in recorded history'', with only Yoshimitsu Matsuzaka (1930-1962, 7'9") and Yasutaka Okayama (1954-present, 7'8") being confirmed taller. [[note]]It should be said though, that Andre was probably closer to 6'10 in his later years due to his bad back. There's also [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/69/ce/0169cee9c14b4c2d07470769998c2f58.jpg the famous picture he had with Wilt Chamberlain]] for ''Film/ConanTheDestroyer'', where Andre appears to be a bit shorter than the 7'2 (2.18 m) Chamberlain. Vince [=McMahon=] Sr. apparently did everything in his power to ensure that nobody should be able to see the photo.[[/note]]
17	** He's also infamous for booking the biggest guys possible as a promoter. It took Wrestling/AntonioInoki and Wrestling/GenichiroTenryu's success with junior heavyweights to make Baba put more thought into their usage and the average size of Japanese wrestlers has gradually shrunken following his death.
18	** His funeral actually had to be ''delayed'', since they couldn’t find a casket that could fit his body.
19	* GoodCounterpart: As the face of All Japan he was this to Antonio Inoki as the face of New Japan, deliberately by Inoki's design. Inoki was still a good guy, most of the time, but wanted everyone to know he was much meaner, more unscrupulous and willing to flaunt his money than Baba.
20	* HiddenDepths: He's mostly known as a tall man who slapped and kicked people, but Baba had extensive knowledge of joint locks and pinning combinations. It's just that the situation rarely called on him to use them.
21	* InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike: There's a very good reason, at least in Spanish-speaking media, and even more so in Mexico, to address him to either with his real name (Shohei Baba) or using his wrestling persona (Giant Baba) [[GratuitousEnglish in English exclusively]]: "Baba" either means ''Spit'', or even worse, in certain contexts, Giant ''Dumbass''. Just to take an idea how delicate this situation was in RealLife, this courtesy wasn't extended to another contemporary wrestler, Wrestling/AndreTheGiant, since his wrestling name was literally translated as "Andre el Gigante" in Spanish-speaking media. [[note]]On the other hand, in Filipino, "Baba" means "chin", which is a fitting description given Baba's, uh... [[LanternJawOfJustice chin.]][[/note]]
22	* InkSuitActor: Himself in his JWA days on the pages of ''Manga/TigerMask''.
23	* RedBaron: His appearances outside Japan had him called "The Giant of the East."
24	* RivalsTeamUp: Baba and Inoki's one-night-only reunion as B-I Cannon in 1979. It took a lot of work from Tokyo Sports to even get them to appear on the same card thanks to years of bad blood, but they managed to keep it together for as long as it took for the match to finish up. Their partnership broke down nearly immediately after when Inoki insinuated they would have a match together post-match, when Baba had promised no such thing.
25	* SignatureMove: The Coconut Crush, a headlock transitioned into a facebreaker knee smash. Also, anyone with a passing familiarity with 70s Japanese professional wrestling knows well the "Baba chops".
26	* TagTeam: BI Chou/BI Cannon with Antonio Inoki in JWA.
27	* TakeThat: During his late career comedy match period, Baba decided to send up Inoki's famous "wrestler vs. martial artist" matches by billing himself against Pakistani "karate champion" Raja Lion.
28	* TropeCodifier: Of serious, sports-based, matches-as-storytelling booking with as many clean finishes as possible; the "Kings Road" style of professional wrestling. Baba obviously wasn't the first to bring this to professional wrestling, and he wasn't even the first of his decade, given the Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation, but he is believed to be the best at it as a booker.
29	* TropeNamer: For GarbageWrestler. He called rival promotion Wrestling/{{FMW}} "garbage" since their wrestlers would mostly [[ImprobableWeaponUser use foreign objects]] in matches with regularity.
30	* UnstoppableForceMeetsImmovableObject: In 1987, Baba faced a fellow giant, Pakistani karateka Raja Lion, in a "different style fight." Baba won the fight by submission.

Context Wrestling / GiantBaba