2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling mass exodus
Under Baba, the promotion enjoyed much success and reached new heights in the 1990s thanks mostly to the performances of Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Akira Taue--dubbed "The Four Pillars Of Heaven" by magazines and reporters.
[6] Disagreements with Motoko Baba arose even before the transition was made public, as reports of a "quiet" power struggle saw print in March 1999,[5] and Tsuruta confirmed these when he left Japan for Portland, Oregon.
[4] Misawa's wish to change the AJPW product, and to modernize its presentation, to address their box office troubles ran in direct opposition to Baba's intent to maintain her late husband's booking philosophy.
[13][14] At some point, Misawa approached Nippon TV with his plans to leave AJPW to start a new promotion, and told them that nearly everyone in the locker room would follow him.
[17][18] Adding to the situation was that, as of the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2000, all the promotion's talent were working as free agents, since Misawa was not authorized to give the raises he intended to award all native workers; Misawa had also wanted to modernize their contracts, providing wrestlers with full medical coverage, full injury pay, and possibly stock options (which NJPW's contracts offered).
With over 100 reporters and news outlets in attendance, Misawa announced that everyone surrounding him would be leaving All Japan Pro Wrestling after finishing their last committed appearances in July, and that they would be forming a new promotion together.
[15] NTV also announced that they would carry weekly tapings of Misawa's new Noah promotion, with the title of the program being called "Colosseo", in the place of All Japan's former 30-minute timeslot on Sundays at midnight.
Baba announced he would team with Toshiaki Kawada to face Maunakea Mossman and Stan Hansen on July 23 on the final show of the Super Action Series Tour in Nippon Budokan.
[23] On July 20, 2000, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Takeshi Morishima, Naomichi Marufuji, Kentaro Shiga, Takeshi Rikio, Mitsuo Momota, Rusher Kimura, Haruka Eigen, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Kenta Kobayashi, Takao Omori, Yoshihiro Takayama, Jun Izumida, Masao Inoue, Yoshinari Ogawa, Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama and Mitsuharu Misawa competed in their last matches for All Japan Pro Wrestling at the sold-out Hakata Star Lane in Fukuoka.
Mrs. Baba later appointed Stan Hansen as the new Chairman of All Japan's Pacific Wrestling Federation title governing body, replacing Lord James Blears.
All Japan returned to the Tokyo Dome for the first time since the exodus on January 28, 2001, with appearances from Keiji Mutoh and Jushin Thunder Liger, as well as a main event featuring Kensuke Sasaki teaming up with Toshiaki Kawada to defeat Genichiro Tenryu and Hiroshi Hase.
