10 Times Wrestlers Unified Titles

As the biggest man in All Japan since Giant Baba himself, the aptly named Jumbo Tsuruta was presented as a dominant powerhouse. As devastating as his offence and presence was, Tsuruta, like most of the main eventers in puroresu at the time, rarely won or lost clean.

Throughout the '80s, Japanese wrestling was marred by a fixation on no-contests and disputed finishes. The reasoning typically revolved around keeping top stars looking strong. Everyone from New Japan founder Antonio Inoki to foreign draws like Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen refused to show much weakness between the ropes.

Sensing a change in the air, Giant Baba decided it was time to move his promotion into a more logical win-loss direction. With a multitude of titles already littering the All Japan landscape, Baba moved ahead with a unification to grant his promotion a definitive World title moving forward.

Tsuruta shockingly beat the typically unstoppable Hansen in a ferocious bout for the PWF World Heavyweight, NWA United National and NWA International Heavyweight titles on April 18, 1989. His win made him the inaugural holder of the Triple Crown Championship, the top prize of All Japan to this day. Tsuruta's clean victory moved puroresu as a whole into cleaner, more sensible match finishes, revolutionising the industry as it entered its '90s boom period.