Giant Baba Memorial Spectacular

The Giant Baba Memorial Spectacular was a professional wrestling memorial event produced by the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotions, which took place on January 28, 2001 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The event's Japanese name translates to "Kings Road New Century 2001" but it was commonly referred to in the Japanese and English language press as the "Giant Baba Memorial Spectacular." The event was themed around memorializing AJPW's founder Shohei "Giant" Baba, who had died in 1999. It was the second Giant Baba Memorial event and was subsequently followed by the Giant Baba Memorial Cup and the Giant Baba Memorial Six Man Tag Team Tournament a year later. Ten professional wrestling matches were held on the event's card, including one that featured AJPW and NJPW champions.[1][2]

Giant Baba Memorial Spectacular
Promotional poster featuring Giant Baba and Stan Hansen among various other AJPW and NJPW wrestlers
PromotionAll Japan Pro Wrestling
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
DateJanuary 28, 2001
CityTokyo, Japan
VenueTokyo Dome
Attendance30,000
Giant Baba Memorial chronology
← Previous
Giant Baba Memorial Show		 Next →
Giant Baba Memorial Cup

The main event was an inter-promotional tag team "Dream Match" that pitted New Japan's IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki and All Japan's Toshiaki Kawada against AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu and Hiroshi Hase, a one-time star for New Japan and then-member of the Japanese parliament. Another featured bout was a tag team "Legends Match" that saw Terry Funk team with longtime rival Atsushi Onita to take on Abdullah the Butcher and Giant Kimala; Funk and Onita were victorious. The event featured two additional inter-promotional matches on the undercard; New Japan's Jyushin Thunder Liger defeated All Japan's Masa Fuchi and NJPW's Keiji Mutoh beat AJPW's Taiyō Kea. In another prominent undercard match, the team of Johnny Smith, Jim Steele, and George Hines defeated Mike Rotunda, Curt Hennig, and Barry Windham (substituting for an injured Kendall Windham). The show also included the in-ring retirement ceremony for Stan Hansen, one of the most dominant gaijin heels in AJPW history.[1] The ceremony featured appearances from several All Japan and New Japan alumni including Pete Roberts, Seiji Sakaguchi, The Destroyer, and Mil Máscaras.[2]

The event was highly anticipated according to the professional wrestling section of the Canadian Online Explorer, especially the "dream teams" featured in the main event,[1] but later reported that it attracted "a disappointing crowd of 30,000 fans". The show was aired on Nippon TV two days after it occurred.[2]

Results
No. Results[3] Stipulations Times[3]
1 Dan Kroffat won by lastly eliminating Yuto Aijima Thirteen-man Battle Royal 26:14
2 Kim Duk and Shigeo Okumura defeated Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Nobutaka Araya Tag team match 14:33
3 Mil Máscaras and El Hijo del Santo defeated Arkangel de la Muerte and Blue Panther "Lucha Libre rules" tag team match 13:40
4 Masahito Kakihara and Mitsuya Nagai defeated Alexander Otsuka and Muhammad Yone Tag team match 11:39
5 Johnny Smith, Jim Steele, and George Hines defeated Mike Rotunda, Curt Hennig, and Barry Windham Tag team match 15:22
6 Jyushin Thunder Liger (NJPW) defeated Masanobu Fuchi (AJPW) Inter-promotional AJPW vs. NJPW match
NJPW: 1, AJPW: 0		 18:04
7 Terry Funk and Atsushi Onita defeated Abdullah the Butcher and Giant Kimala Legends match 08:26
8 "Dr. Death" Steve Williams defeated Mike Barton Singles match 14:47
9 Keiji Mutoh (NJPW) defeated Taiyō Kea (AJPW) Inter-promotional AJPW vs. NJPW match
NJPW: 2, AJPW: 0		 14:54
10 Kensuke Sasaki (c - IWGP Heavyweight Champion) and Toshiaki Kawada defeated Genichiro Tenryu (c - AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion) and Hiroshi Hase Non-title Dream match 23:48
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References
  1. Molinaro, John F.; Dan Lovranski (January 26, 2001). "All Japan Pro Wrestling's Giant Baba Memorial Spectacular". SLAM! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  2. Molinaro, John F.; Zach Arnold (January 28, 2001). "SLAM! Wrestling: 'Dream Team' comes out on top". SLAM! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  3. "Weekly Puroresu" 2/13/2001 Baseball Magazine
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