8 Biggest Talent Exoduses In Wrestling History

Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling dominated the puroresu scene in the 1990s.

Legendary matches between their Four Pillars (Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaka Kawada, and Akira Taue) and gaijin like Stan Hansen created a legendary run that’s still considered a benchmark by many wrestling fans today - but their decline was steep and devastating.

Baba passed away in January 1999 and his widow, Motoko, inherited control of AJPW. Misawa, the company ace, was appointed president, but he grew increasingly disheartened with Motoko’s proposed direction for the company. This ultimately led to Misawa departing to form his own promotion (Pro Wrestling Noah) in May 2000, taking the vast majority of the roster with him.

All but four members of AJPW’s roster followed Misawa to NOAH, and the new company prospered. NOAH became Japan’s second biggest promotion very quickly, and with AJPW floundering, Misawa’s company were seen as the true continuation of Baba’s legacy. Bolstered by a tremendous junior heavyweight division, NOAH was named the Wrestling Observer’s top promotion in 2004 and 2005, and drew an astonishing 62,000 to the Tokyo Dome for Destiny ‘05 (in contrast, NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 11 drew 26,000 earlier this year).

AJPW were eventually taken over by Keiji Mutoh, but their run on top was over. Misawa crippled them, and while NOAH hit their own decline with their founder’s death in 2009, AJPW have never truly recovered from the exodus.