Few rivalries in wrestling history can match the intensity, drama, and sheer brilliance of Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa.
Born from their shared journey through the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) dojo and shaped by years of mutual respect and simmering tension, their battles became legendary.
Together, they set the wrestling world ablaze, delivering some of the most iconic matches of the 1990s and elevating AJPW to unprecedented heights.
But the story of Kawada and Misawa goes far beyond the squared circle. It’s a tale of childhood friends turned fierce rivals, of backstage conflicts and professional struggles, and ultimately, of a bond that defined their careers—even as it fractured behind the scenes.
From their early days as tag team partners to their hard-hitting singles clashes, this is the story of two men whose intertwined destinies created magic in the ring while unravelling outside it.
Explore the journey of Dangerous K and the Emerald Warrior as we delve into the matches, the rivalries, and the legacy of Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa and how the latter’s death shaped the former’s life in ways he never expected
Misawa and Kawada Came Through The AJPW Dojo Together
Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa go back much further than most wrestlers.
The pair were high school friends and excelled at amateur wrestling when attending Ashikaga University High School. Misawa was a year above Kawada but they quickly became close friends, sharing a love of puroresu.
Kawada had an offer to join the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo before he finished school.
While his mother made him finish his studies before pursuing his dream it was Misawa who convinced him to turn down Antonio Inoki and instead join him in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Misawa and Kawada became tag team partners in 1990 in the Super Generation Army but they split after great success three years later. Kawada instead formed the Holy Demon Army with another of the Four Pillars, Akira Taue. This is where his legendary feud with Misawa would really take off in AJPW.
Kawada and Taue would battle with Misawa and Kenta Kobashi in some of the greatest tag team matches in history. This was the first of the Four Pillars of Heaven and first saw Kawada’s incredible chemistry in the ring with his long-time friend.
It was in these tag team matches that Kawada showed how good he was. He had a real intensity and fire when stepping into the ring with Misawa in these bouts and for very good reason.
He simply could not beat Misawa one-on-one and it was getting to him. He couldn’t even beat him in tag matches, with all of his wins coming when he pinned Kobashi instead.
Despite not being able to beat Misawa, their rivalry brought some of the best matches AJPW had ever seen. The first time we really saw how good they were together was June 6th 1994 clash at AJPW at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Neither man held back and the bout encapsulated eleven years of fustigation and rivalry.
Sadly, Kawada still couldn’t win. He gained the respect of the fans but couldn’t survive a hit from the infamous Tiger Driver ’91 super finisher.
Kawada pinned Misawa in a tag team match a year later, giving him hope to finally top his childhood best friend. He went 0-10 against Misawa and even when he did win the AJPW Triple Crown he did so against Steve Williams.
He finally beat him in the 1997 Champion Carnival before getting his greatest win at the Tokyo Dome in 1998. However, the pair’s relationship behind the scenes was starting to deteriorate.
Misawa and Kawada Had A Fierce Rivalry On Camera and Behind The Scenes
Despite being incredible opponents in the ring, Misawa and Kawada’s biggest fights took place behind the scenes.
The intense friendship the pair shared since they were teenagers in high school had turned into a professional rivalry and not a good one. Kawada was sick and tired of playing second fiddle to Misawa, constantly being unable to topple the company’s Ace in the ring or in the eyes of Giant Baba.
This led to tension backstage. The pair eventually stopped talking to one another, with Kenta Kobashi having to mediate any meeting being the two and ferry messages back and forth. While the hard-hitting bouts appeared to just be part of the storylines there was real animosity between the two stars.
They couldn’t share a locker room anymore without coming to blows, which did happen on occasion. Details are scarce of exactly what went on but reports suggest that Kawada got the best of Misawa in the instances this day duke it out behind the scenes.
The hatred mainly came from one idea – Kawada’s. However, Misawa and Baba did their best to stoke the tensions to make the matches as good as they could be. Baba would constantly compare the two and try to get under Kawada’s skin to make his matches more hard-hitting and real, which certainly worked from a purely in-ring perspective.
Sadly their relationship was unsalvageable for the majority of the rest of their careers, even seeing Misawa exclude Kawada from joining him when he created Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000.
Kawada Wasn’t Invited To Join Misawa When He Created NOAH
After Giant Baba’s death in 1999, a war began in AJPW. Baba’s widow Motoko Baba butted heads with Misawa after he was appointed the new president of the company.
Despite being president it was clear that she was in charge. Every decision had to go through her and any attempts to modernise the business were thoroughly rejected by his more traditional boss. She had never been a fan of Misawa going back to the early 90s and there was no chance of that changing.
Sick of being unable to execute his vision while watching business get worse and worse, Misawa led 24 out of the 26 AJPW wrestlers in an exodus from the company. They jumped ship with a press conference on June 16th 2000 and announced the formation of Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Interested in the AJPW Exodus? Learn more about the formation of NOAH
Only two wrestlers held out and remained with Motoko Baba. Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada were the only wrestlers left, although that wasn’t really a choice. Kawada wasn’t asked by Misawa to join him in this new promotion after the struggles in their relationship in All Japan.
Kawada has said that he is glad Misawa didn’t ask him to join him in the exodus for a few reasons. He did not want to abandon All Japan Pro Wrestling, claiming he “can’t just throw away the name that Baba-san created”. He also was looking forward to forging his path independent from Misawa after being stuck in his shadow for so long in AJPW.
The pair eventually repaired their relationship enough for a final match together in 2005. Misawa defeated Kawada at NOAH Destiny 2005 although their friendship broke down as soon as they got it back. After the match, Kawada grabbed the microphone to cut a promo despite being specifically warned not to by NOAH’s broadcast partner.
This enraged everybody involved and further strained his relationship with the NOAH founder. This match was the final time Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa shared a ring together before the latter’s death in 2009.
Toshiaka Kawada Retired After Mitsuharu Misawa Died In The Ring
Mitsuharu Misawa’s death in 2009 was one of wrestling’s great tragedies. The man fought far longer than he should have, unable to let go while NOAH needed him in the wake of Kenta Kobashi’s cancer fight.
Despite neck injuries going back decades Misawa refused to give up. That ultimately cost him his life on June 13th 2009 in an infamous match. Akitoshi Saito hit Misawa with a standard belly-to-back suplex, the same one he had taken thousands of times.
Except this time Misawa did not get up. The referee stopped the match and the Emerald Warrior was pronounced dead just hours later. He was just 46 years old and his death caused an outpouring of grief throughout the wrestling world, especially in Japan.
[Want to explore the events surrounding Misawa’s tragic passing? Learn more about Misawa’s final moments and legacy.]
However, his death affected nobody more than his old enemy, Toshiaki Kawada. Dangerous K continued to wrestle in Hustle following Misawa’s death but returned to NOAH to take part in the Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial Show.
For one night only he teamed with Akira Taue and reformed the Holy Demon Army for the final time. They faced off against Jun Akiyama and KENTA, winning the battle in a clash of generations in honour of the Pro Wrestling NOAH founder.
This opened the door for Kawada to make more appearances and he entered the first-ever Global League, while wrestling in tag team matches on other NOAH shows in 2010. He ended his relationship with the promotion in October 2010 by wrestling his final matches for NOAH at the 10th Anniversary show.
His career was almost over. One match in New Japan Pro Wrestling at the G1 Climax 20th Anniversary event marked the end of Toshiaki Kawada’s career, although he never officially announced it. He quietly slinked off into the night and retired to the ramen shop that he still runs to this day.
Kawada was very quiet about his retirement. It is usual for Japanese wrestlers to announce it in advance and wrestle a series of matches leading up to their final bout. Stars like Inoki, Kobashi, Tanahashi and Liger all had that honour, something that Kawada simply refused.
The reason was simple; his passion for wrestling had died with Mitsuharu Misawa. Despite their battles inside and outside the ring, it was clear that Toshiaki Kawada needed Mitsuharu Misawa. He was a year younger than the Emerald Warrior and his passing had him grappling with his own place in the world.
“I haven’t officially announced my retirement yet, but I’ve been in the same world as Misawa-san since I was 15,” Kawada told Tokyo Sport. “When that senior was suddenly gone, I asked myself, ‘What am I going to chase after?’ And I felt like I had lost my goal. I only wrestled a few matches for a year after Misawa’s death.”
It appears all of the Four Pillars took Misawa’s death as a warning. Kawada retired one year later while both Taue and Kobashi hung their boots up in 2013. While they may have been worried about the health implications, Kawada was in much better shape than most and was only 47 when he retired.
He knew that there was no place for Kawada without Masawa despite how the pair had been separated throughout the years. The pair entered the business together at 15 years old and could not bear to experience the highs and lows of wrestling without the other.
Want to explore Misawa’s All Japan Pro Wrestling exodus that led to the creation of Pro Wrestling NOAH? Learn more about the AJPW Exodus and why Kawada wasn’t invited.
