Today kicks off part one of our next major profile legacy series, which focuses on Shohei Baba, known widely as Giant Baba. In this dense first episode, Fumi & Justin first talked about Baba’s experience growing up in Niigata and and the onset of his acromegaly. Later on, they went over how he and Motoko Baba met; Motoko would become his wife from when she was in her late teens until he passed, but not before years of successful promoting whom he’d later co-promote AJPW with him. 

After pitching for the Yomiuri Giants for five years, Baba then became one of Rikidozan’s first disciples (alongside the younger Inoki) for JWA. Baba became Rikidozan’s “Golden Ace,” and soon sent him over to the Great Togo to work all over the US and Canada regulalrly in the early 60s. We talked about Baba vs the likes of Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz, Fred Blassie, etc., and Baba as the barefoot heel “Baba the Giant” who’d go on to work 16 consecutive MSG shows back in the day. We also talked about his important relationship with Fred Atkins in Toronto. 

Questions or comments? Hit the guys up on Twitter:

Fumi Saito: @fumihikodayo 

Justin Knipper: @justinmknipper

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