Former All Japan Pro Wrestling President Motoko Baba Passes Away

Former All Japan Pro Wrestling President Motoko Baba passed away on April 14th at the age of 78. The news of her passing was kept quiet until a couple of days ago.

Motoko was the widow of the legendary Shohei "Giant" Baba, who was one of the most important and influential stars in the history of Japanese Puroresu (professional wrestling). Giant Baba founded All Japan back in 1972, the same year that Antonio Inoki formed New Japan Pro Wrestling.

When Giant Baba passed away in early 1999, AJPW was taken over by Mitsuharu Misawa, but he ended up leaving in May of 2000. Motoko took control of the company by herself as its President for a while before she handed it over to Keiji "Great Muta" Mutoh in 2002.

All Japan has gone through many changes since then, including different management regimes. Former two-time AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama is currently the President of AJPW, and has been since the summer of 2014.