Toshiaki Kawada is one of the most popular and richest Professional Wrestler who was born on December 8, 1963 in Shimotsuga District, Japan.
Kawada was very active during his high school years in amateur wrestling, becoming a national champion in his senior year after defeating Keiichi Yamada (who later became Jyushin Thunder Liger in professional wrestling) in the finals. Kawada attended the same high school as Misawa, who was one year Kawada’s senior. Initially, he wanted to join the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, however, Misawa convinced him to try out for rival All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) instead. He made his professional wrestling debut at the age of 18 on October 4, 1982 for AJPW, competing against future tag partner Hiromichi Fuyuki. Kawada was then sent to North America for a year in November 1985, where he gained experience as a professional wrestler in Fred Behrend’s Texas All-Star Wrestling (San Antonio, Texas), Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling (in Calgary) and Frank Valois’ International Wrestling (in Montreal); despite having no Korean heritage, Kawada was billed as “Kio Kawata” from Seoul, South Korea in Stampede Wrestling for a very short time around June 1986. Reportedly unhappy with his time overseas, Kawada has rarely spoken about his experiences in America in subsequent years.
His first major break came in 1987 when he joined his mentor Genichiro Tenryu’s “Revolution” group. Kawada was paired with Hiromichi Fuyuki, forming a tag team known as “Footloose”. The duo held the All Asia Tag Team Championship on three occasions between March 9, 1988 and October 20, 1989; their standout rivalries were against Shunji Takano and Shinichi Nakano, as well as against the Can-Am Express (Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas). When Revolution stable mate Ashura Hara was expelled from All Japan in 1988 for gambling debts, Kawada was promoted to team with Tenryu in that year’s World’s Strongest Tag Determination League, losing a memorable final match to Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy.
