He exudes an aura of badassery that few wrestlers have been able to match. This stems from his reputation as being arguably the hardest hitting wrestler to ever step foot in a wrestling ring.
When one looks at the career of Toshiaki Kawada, there’s a second name that comes up right away: Mitsuharu Misawa.
These two were more joined at the hip as wrestlers than any other duo in puroresu history. And that’s because they share such a lengthy and convoluted history together.
Kawada and Misawa went to the same high school, and both did amateur wrestling as seniors. Misawa was a year older and played a key role in Kawada’s future.
It was Misawa that convinced Kawada to join AJPW’s dojo instead of NJPW’s upon graduation.