History of the Triple Crown Championship | Part 4 | Exodus

As I mentioned last time, most of the roster and staff had left the company with Mitsuharu Misawa to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. The only people of note who stayed were Toshiaki Kawada, Jinsei Shinzaki, Taiyo Kea, and the long-time gaijin wrestlers. With no ability to build a new roster from scratch because of the massive walkout, AJPW had to go to rather drastic measures to survive. First, they brought back Genichiro Tenryu. Giant Baba had said Tenryu’s defection a decade earlier would mean he’d never be allowed in All Japan again. Well, this new defection trumped that one. Even with Tenryu, the July 2000 tour was paltry to say the least, so AJPW entered into a cross-promotional agreement with New Japan in August to stop some of the bleeding. They also relied on participation from Mexican wrestlers and Toryumon to fill in the gaps, something rather unheard of for the very insular All Japan.

As for the titles, they were all held by people who left for NOAH, so they all became vacant. The Triple Crown stayed that way for four months, until a tournament was held at the October Giant Series to crown a new champion. The field included Tenryu, Kawada, Shinzaki, Mike Barton, Johnny Smith, Steve Williams, New Japan’s Shiro Koshinaka, and a 51-year-old Stan Hansen. 

October 28, 2000 – Tokyo, Japan

Genichiro Tenryu def. Toshiaki Kawada {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
This was also AJ’s 28th Anniversary Show. As with most All Japan main events, I think they could have made the point they were trying to make in less time. That said, this match was brutal. Kawada would break down Tenryu with kicks, only for Tenryu to fire back with gnarly haymakers. Tenryu’s nose got caved in with a kick, knocking him off the apron. The result was gross. He came back with punches so hard that he had to take time to make sure his hand hadn’t been crushed. I loved that. In the end, the old man put Kawada down with Northern Lights Bomb at 26:38. ****¼ 

June, 8, 2001 – Tokyo, Japan

Keiji Mutoh def. Genichiro Tenryu {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. Tenryu held the title for ten months but only made one successful defense. He had defeated Mutoh for the IWGP title a year and a half earlier, so there’s some synergy here that I liked. Far be it from me to tell someone else why they liked a match that I liked less, but I feel like the gushing that folks have done over this match is nostalgia-fueled. I’ve never been the biggest Muta guy, so this match felt solid but decidedly unspectacular to me. I guess for me, All Japan main events are more aggressive than Mutoh ever really is, so his performance here didn’t blow me away. I think people were really excited to see Mutoh in a match where he clearly gave a shit, but that’s just not enough for me to lose my mind. He won the title with a moonsault at 23:24. A few months later, Mutoh defected to All Japan full time and brought Satoshi Kojima and Kendo Kashin with him. ***½ 

February 24, 2002 – Tokyo, Japan

Toshiaki Kawada def. Keiji Mutoh {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Excite Series. I liked this a lot more. It was a great mashup of the New Japan and All Japan styles. Mutoh tried to go strike for strike with Kawada. But when the Shining Wizard proved to be no match for Kawada’s kicks, he brought things to the mat and tried to put Kawada out with an extended Figure 4 Leglock. Kawada’s tree trunk legs withstood the assault. He came back with everything he had, eventually pinning a screaming Mutoh with three powerbombs (one Ganso) at 27:37. Kawada got hurt again and had to vacate the title again about a month later. ****

April 13, 2002 – Tokyo, Japan

Genichiro Tenryu def. Keiji Mutoh {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Grand Champion Carnival. Three days earlier, Mutoh won the Champion Carnival tournament. The title wasn’t up for grabs in the tournament because there were 30-minute time limits on tournament matches and title matches went 60 minutes. It seems the solution would be to allow the finals to go 60 minutes and then have the winner be forced to defend against anyone he had a draw with in the tournament. But instead Mutoh won (and in doing so became the first person to win the Carnival and the G1 Climax) and then just faced Tenryu for the title here. Tenryu mocking Mutoh with a Shining Wizard and pose was fun. The rest of the match was completely on par with the match from a year earlier. I did like Mutoh trying to kick his way out of the Northern Lights Bomb as it was happening to him, but still getting pinned at 19:38 regardless. A few months later, Mutoh was named President of All Japan and most of the company’s stock was transferred to him. ***½ 

October 27, 2002 – Tokyo, Japan

The Great Muta def. Genichiro Tenryu {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Royal Road 30 Giant Battle. My kingdom for a match without Mutoh. I could be mistaken but I think this was only the second ever appearance of lizard Muta. This match was Muta wrecking Tenryu with a shot with the ring bell, Tenryu coming back by misting Muta (sort of, really he just spit a thick stream of red water into his face. It was gross), and then Muta steamrolled Tenryu with moonsaults. Buried in here somewhere is a cool story about Tenryu trying to be Muta and failing because Muta is obviously better at being Muta. But the action wasn’t compelling enough to carry that. The action wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t much beyond competent. Muta won in 17:12 with a moonsault. ***

February 23, 2003 – Tokyo, Japan

Shinya Hashimoto def. The Great Muta {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Excite Series. Yikes, next thing you know they’ll bring in Masahiro Chono to the Triple Crown picture. Hashimoto didn’t bring much to the table here, except as a canvas for his own blood and Muta’s mist. Muta was more vicious and gruesome than maybe I’d ever seen him before, so that was cool. Hashimoto got a little comeback and then picked up the win with a brainbuster at 20:09. Points for the gore and some decent fun. A few months later, Hashimoto dislocated his shoulder and the title was held up again. ***¼ 

September 6, 2003 – Tokyo, Japan

Toshiaki Kawada def. Shinjiro Ohtani {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Summer Action Series II. This was the finals of a four man tournament also including Mike Awesome and Kojima. Not much of a tournament. Awesome attacked Kawada before this match and injured his leg. I didn’t know that ZERO1 had its tentacles so deep in All Japan in 2003. I had thought that Ohtani would look small compared to Kawada, but the truth is that Japanese main eventers aren’t all that big and Ohtani didn’t have to puff up much to look like a heavyweight. This was decent, but Ohtani didn’t go after the injured leg until late in the match. That makes no sense. You’re an outside up against the longest tenured guy in the company and you don’t go after his weakness? I guess that mistake cost him, as once Kawada escaped a leglock he just kicked Ohtani to pieces and got the win at 21:34. Kawada went on to have the second longest reign in the history of the title, after Misawa’s two-year stint with the belt. ***¼ 

February 16, 2005 – Tokyo, Japan

Satoshi Kojima def. Toshiaki Kawada {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Realize. I wrote this review in ’07, so it’s got way too much play-by-play. But I’ve still got a lot of ground to cover with this title so no time for a rewatch. They lock up to start and Kojima hits a cheap shot. Kawada puts on a wristlock but Kojima forces him to the ropes. They trade strikes in an exchange that Kawada easily wins. Kawada starts working the leg but Kojima gets to the ropes. Kawada hits a roundhouse kick to the face for 2. He puts on a surfboard stretch but after a long struggle Kojima counters the hold. Kawada slaps him across the ring and hits a bodyslam. He kicks Kojima around for 2. Kojima hits a running forearm and an elbowdrop. He hits another elbowdrop and goes to climb the ropes. Kawada knocks him off the apron with a Yakuza kick. Kojima gets back on the apron so Kawada kicks him down again. He follows him out and rams him into the barricade before kicking his face. He hits a powerbomb on the floor and rolls Kojima back into the ring for 2. He unloads with kicks and chops and then puts on a half crab. Kojima gets to the ropes. He tries to strike Kawada down and gets knocked on his back as a result. Kawada hits a Yakuza kick in the corner and puts Kojima down for 2 with a lariat. He puts on the Stretch Plum then switches to a half nelson. Kojima hits the Koji Cutter and a tiger driver for 2. Kawada hits an enziguiri and a backdrop driver for 2. He hits a clothesline but Kojima doesn’t go down. Kojima fights through another clothesline and hits a brainbuster. He hits another brainbuster for 2. He hits lariat but Kawada comes back with a big boot. They hit simultaneous clotheslines before Kojima puts Kawada on his back with a lariat for 2. He puts on the Koji MAX but Kawada gets to the ropes. He hits Emerald Frosion for 2. He goes back to Koji MAX and then releases to get 2. Kawada hits a jumping enziguiri for 2. Kojima ducks a kick to the face but Kawada catches him with another enziguiri. He hits a backdrop driver and a powerbomb for 2. Kojima blocks an enziguiri and hits a lariat for 2. He hits another lariat for 1 and Kawada fires up. Kojima hits two more lariats for 2. Kawada gets up slowly this time and Kojima hits a final lariat the win and the title at 27:03. I reviewed this back then more because it was part one of a two-part historical event (paired with the near-60-minute match against Hiroyoshi Tenzan for the IWGP title four days later) and not so much because it was a great match. That’s not to say it was a bad match, it just never maintained a great pace for more than a minute or two at a time. The finish was rather anticlimactic as well. ***½ 

July 3, 2006 – Tokyo, Japan

Taiyo Kea def. Satoshi Kojima {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Crossover. Kojima held the belt nearly as long as Kawada, and it’s kind of cool that Kea was rewarded for his loyalty by being the guy to end this reign. Unfortunately, Kea just wasn’t an elite level wrestler. He won the Champion Carnival to earn this shot. The crowds were starting to look real small. This straight up felt like it took place and was taped at a house show. If it were a house show and not a Gaora TV special, this would have been a reasonable main event (though the title change would have been a bigger surprise). As it is, it’s a perfectly acceptable TV-level main event that was saved by an action-packed second half. Kea won at 19:56 with the H5O. ***¼ 

September 3, 2006 – Sapporo, Hokkaido

Minoru Suzuki def. Taiyo Kea {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Summer Impact. Kea had legitimized his reign by beating Kawada a month earlier. I have a theory about what happened in this match. I think that after Kea and Suzuki went hard at each other in the opening minutes of the match and the crowd didn’t react, they decided to take it easy for the remaining half hour. What I wish they’d done would have been to just cut half of the match. Truth is, it looked and sounded like there were just very few people in the audience, relatively speaking. The match wasn’t outright bad, but it just moved along at the same middling pace forever. Eventually, Suzuki put on a rear naked choke for the win at 34:52. **½ 

August 26, 2007 – Tokyo, Japan

Kensuke Sasaki def. Minoru Suzuki {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Pro-Wrestling Love in Ryogoku Vol. 3. At this point, AJ was drawing under 5,000 fans to shows outside of Tokyo and between 8-10K in Tokyo. It wasn’t looking awesome. The sad thing is, these days they’d kill for a crowd of 8,000 even before the pandemic. Here, Sasaki becomes the fifth person to hold this title and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship after Vader, Keiji Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto, and Satoshi Kojima (who had them at the same time). The first twenty minutes of this match almost completely lost me. They were all on the mat and the dynamic didn’t change enough to keep me interested. Suzuki worked on Sasaki’s arm forever. But it was almost worth it for the look on Suzuki’s face when Sasaki went for a takedown and his arm gave out. Almost. The second half was slow but dramatic, with Suzuki trying to psych out Sasaki by taking his lariats and remaining standing. That bit him in the ass, as he got hit with one lariat too many and fell at 42:07. Frankly, it made him look kind of dumb in the end, but you could also argue that he was punch drunk. Anyway, this was way too long but certainly not bad. ***¼ 

April 29, 2008 – Nagoya, Aichi

Suwama def. Kensuke Sasaki {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Growin’ Up. Hiroshi Hase had replaced Stan Hansen as the president of the PWF, so it’s not surprising that Hase’s recruit Suwama got this push as the next great hope for the company only four years after his debut. He had just defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals of the Champion Carnival, and had fought to a draw with Sasaki during the tournament. Because they were playing up that these guys wrestle each other for thirty minutes before going down, the match sort of stayed at the same speed the whole time. It wasn’t slow so it wasn’t painful, but it never peaked in an interesting way. It also made the finish, where Suwama hit the Last Ride but only got two and then hit a frog splash for the win at 29:55, feel like it came out of nowhere. ***½ 

September 28, 2008 – Yokohama, Kanagawa

The Great Muta def. Suwama {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Flashing Tour. Muta came into this match as IWGP Heavyweight Champion. I was very bored by this. Muta seemed more interested in mugging to the crowd than in putting on a good show. Though truth be told, I don’t think much should have been expected of a 46-year-old Muta and it’s odd that he put himself in the position to be champion. There was one cool spot near the end, when Suwama went for the pin after a Last Ride and Muta escaped by misting him from his back. Beyond that this did very little for me. Muta hit the moonsault for the win at 24:52. So now the old man has both titles. Great. **½ 

March 14, 2009 – Tokyo, Japan
Yoshihiro Takayama def. The Great Muta {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Pro-Wrestling Love in Ryogoku Vol. 7. Muta had both titles for three months, losing the IWGP belt to Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom in January. In this match I learned that Muta’s mask was glued to his head, as it was ripped off here to reveal a bunch of it stuck to his scalp. Also a lot of blood. Both guys bled quite a bit here. The rest of the match was a slow brawl with no heat. They picked up the pace a (very) little bit toward the end. The finish saw Takayama hit his German suplex for the win at 13:42. In a cute touch, Muta spit the mist as he was being pinned, but because of the positioning it just dissipated pathetically into the air. Takayama became the second person to hold this title, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Sasaki had pulled off the feat the previous September when he beat Takeshi Morishima for the GHC belt. I’ll get to that one eventually. **¼ 

September 26, 2009 – Yokohama, Kanagawa

Satoshi Kojima def. Yoshihiro Takayama {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Flashing Tour. Now this is more like it. Get Muta out of here, I say. Yeah, Takayama is also over 40 here, but he’s able to tell a cohesive story without a ton of stalling and posing. Basically, he beats the crap out of Kojima, who bumps around like a pinball for him. Kojima fights back through a broken nose and finds his spots to do damage to Takayama’s equilibrium. A few well-timed lariats later and Kojima is the champion again at 16:32. ***½ 

March 21, 2010 – Tokyo, Japan

Ryota Hama def. Satoshi Kojima {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Pro-Wrestling Love in Ryogoku Vol. 9. Okay, let’s talk about sumo wrestlers Hama and Akebono. I was obsessed with Dragon Gate from the first time I saw its wrestlers in ROH to when I took a break from watching wrestling in 2010. In 2008, Akebono showed up (yeah, the guy who had a sumo match with Big Show at WrestleMania 21) and got all involved in the Dream Gate and Triangle Gate pictures. I hated it. The guy couldn’t do anything and his immense size ran in massive contrast to the light heavyweights in Dragon Gate. Hama is shorter but almost as heavy and got into wrestling later than Akebono, yet he had a passionate if small following online with wrestling fans. That translated to him winning this title, though he was unsurprisingly a paper champion. As for the match, it solidified a new respect I have for Kojima. On so many occasions the guy showed he was really generous, putting the match before himself. Here, he put together a logical story, showing himself having trouble incorporating his typical offense because of Hama’s weight and relying more on Koji Cutters than his killer lariats. Hama was impressive too, not running out of gas in a longer match than you typically see from guys his size. I expected rest holds throughout, but there was only one and it was pretty brief. Hama paid tribute to his boss Mutoh with a (kind of bad) Shining Wizard and got the win with a Ryota Hammer at 20:15. The match didn’t quite make him feel like the main eventer he needed to be to win the titles, but it came close. I’m almost curious to see what Akebono’s upcoming title matches are like now. Almost, but not quite. ***

May 2, 2010 – Nagoya, Aichi

Minoru Suzuki def. Ryota Hama {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Growin’ Up. Suzuki won the Champion Carnival for the second year in a row to earn this shot. I realize while watching this that the change in production style under Mutoh did the product no favors. The crowd was barely visible because of the dark lights. Perhaps that was done to take attention away from the fact that the crowds were smaller. But not being able to see the fans is what made things seems smaller. So did the heavy reliance on ringside cameras over the hard camera. It gave the shows a really indie/house show vibe. I think it was meant to make us feel closer to the action, but it made the action feel smaller. Regardless, this match ruled. They told a really basic story that worked so well. Suzuki was confounded in the beginning, unable to get any momentum going against Hama. But eventually the leg kicks he’d been hitting throughout the match started paying dividends and Hama was unable to get any speed behind he avalanches and splashes. Suzuki also fell short because of his stubborn desire to hit a cradle piledriver, but eventually that too paid off and he hit it for the win at 21:44. And thus ended the shortest championship reign to that point that didn’t stop because of a drug overdose or injury. I’m shocked at how much I enjoyed his little title reign. ***¾  

August 29, 2010 – Tokyo, Japan

Suwama def. Minoru Suzuki {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From Pro-Wrestling Love in Ryogoku Vol. 10. Like other Suzuki matches, this was too long. But also like other Suzuki matches, he brings some excellent drama to the bout. I love that he becomes pretty much obsessed with a game plan and goes to great lengths to see it to its end. I also like that when he abandons that plan because of his pride he ends up losing here. He tried the whole match to choke Suwama out, often acting like a horror movie villain and popping up at surprising times behind Suwama to lock it in. But down the stretch he got into a headbutt war and wound up knocked out with lariats and a backdrop driver at 44:24. ****¼ 

During Suwama’s 14-month reign, Nobukazu Hirai was attacked backstage by TARU. He was badly injured and subsequently forced to retire from wrestling. Thankfully, he’s seemingly able to lead a completely normal life aside from not being able to perform. TARU was suspended indefinitely (as were others who stood by and didn’t stop the attack) and Mutoh took the blame as the president of the company. Mutoh resigned his position but remained a wrestler. He hung around in the midcard for two years, but then things got dramatic again. More on that when I come back for the next and final chapter in the Triple Crown title history.