[1999-02-13-AJPW-TV] Giant Baba tribute

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Giant Baba has passed away. We see quite a few wrestlers mourning (and having a tough time) while Motoko enters a limo proudly holding up his picture. Misawa, Jumbo, Kawada, Kobashi and Taue stand side-by-side in a studio with the AJ announcer to reflect on Baba. It closes out with the ring announcer in tears doing Baba's intro. Holy cow. This is immaculate. I thought this was very tasteful and was a pretty emotional clip despite the language barrier. Everyone should see this.

[Tim Evans]

This was really well done. Nice to see all the big guns of the 90's stand side by side to honor Baba. Then the announcer does the Baba intro and that was tough to watch. Sad that this was basically the end of All Japan as we knew it.

[soup23]

Touching tribute. Everything from the hierarchy to the lighting and music was note perfect. The announcer almost breaking gave me chills. Baba was truly a legend.

[Zenjo]

I loved how they had the Four Corners and Jumbo there to pay tribute. Aside from Tenryu they were his five greatest students. Then the choked up ring announcer giving the great man one final introduction. RIP to one of the true legends of the sport. As a combined wrestler, promoter and booker he was the best. By the standards of wrestling promoters he was pretty much a saint as well.

[PeteF3]

So goes one of the 5 or 6 most influential people in the history of the business. As the saying goes, a handshake from Baba meant more than a contract from most other promoters. With the Big Two becoming what they were in '99, the deaths of Sam Muchnick and now Baba in the span of a few weeks seemed like a final symbolic death knell for classic wrestling as an "art."