Holy Demon Army

Last updated
Holy Demon Army
Tag team
Members Toshiaki Kawada
Akira Taue
Name(s)Holy Demon Army [1]
Billed heightsKawada:
1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) [2]
Taue:
1.92 m (6 ft 3+12 in) [3]
Combined
billed weight
233 kg (514 lb)
Debut1993
Disbanded2000 (full time)
2009 (reunion match)

The Holy Demon Army (HDA) was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue. The HDA competed in All Japan Pro Wrestling during the 1990s and is considered the most successful and dominant team in the history of All Japan [1] as they held the World Tag Team Championship a record six times, [4] as well as having won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League on two occasions. [5]

Contents

History

The Holy Demon Army first formed in 1993 after Kawada's team with Mitsuharu Misawa broke up and Taue's team with Jumbo Tsuruta ended when Tsuruta's full-time wrestling career ended due to Hepatitis B. [6] The team was given their first shot at the World Tag Team Championship on May 20, 1993 against The Miracle Violence Connection. The Army was successful and won their first championship. [7] The team held the titles for 3 1/2 months and made two successful title defenses against future nemeses: Misawa and Kenta Kobashi and a rematch against the Miracle Violence Connection before eventually losing the titles to Stan Hansen and Ted Dibiase on September 3, 1993. [7] Two months later, The Holy Demon Army entered the 1993 World's Strongest Tag Determination League hoping to regain the Tag Team Titles (that were vacated with the tournament winners becoming the new champions), despite it being their first tournament, the HDA finished 3rd with 11 points while Misawa and Kobashi won. [8]

A few months later on May 21, 1994, the Holy Demon Army were granted a title shot against Misawa and Kobashi; the match went over 40 minutes but the Army came up short. [9] Despite failing to win the titles, Kawada enjoyed success winning the 1994 Champion Carnival on April 16, 1994. [10] Six months later, on October 22, 1994, Kawada won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship from Steve Williams. [11] After the Triple Crown victory, the Army entered the 1994 World's Strongest Tag Determination League but once again came in 3rd with Misawa and Kobashi winning for the second time. [12]

On January 24, 1995, HDA got another title shot against Misawa and Kobashi but the match this time ended in a 60-minute time limit draw. [13] Things got worse on March 4, 1995 when Kawada lost the Triple Crown to Stan Hansen leaving the Holy Demon Army with no gold. [11] Despite the setbacks, HDA bounced back on June 9, 1995 when they defeated Misawa and Kobashi to win the tag team titles for the second time. [7] After winning the titles, The Army made three successful title defenses, defeating Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon, Johnny Ace and The Patriot as well as wrestling Misawa and Kobashi to a 60-minute time limit draw. [14] The team entered the 1995 World's Strongest Tag Determination League; they had their best outing yet as they ended up tying in first place with Misawa and Kobashi. The tie was settled on a final match to decide the winners of the tournament with Misawa and Kobashi winning for the third straight year. [15]

Entering the new year, HDA lost the tag titles to Stan Hansen and Gary Albright on January 24, 1996. [14] One month later, on February 20, 1996, the Holy Demon Army received a rematch and won the titles back for the third time. [14] During their third reign, Taue won the 1996 Champion Carnival. [16] On May 23, 1996 The Army lost the titles to Misawa and his new partner, Jun Akiyama. [4] 48 hours later on May 25 however, Taue got revenge for the Army when he defeated Misawa to win the Triple Crown. [17] After Taue lost the title to Kenta Kobashi on July 24, [17] HDA resumed their team. They entered the 1996 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and after coming close the three previous years, the Army finally claimed their first Tag League by defeating Misawa and Akiyama in the finals. [18]

Continuing their momentum, the Holy Demon Army defeated Johnny Ace and Steve Williams on January 17, 1997 to regain the title for the fourth time. [4] On April 19, 1997, Kawada won his second Champion Carnival, [19] but lost the tag titles to Kobashi and Ace on May 27, 1997. [4] After the title loss, the Army wouldn't challenge for the rest of the year but entered the 1997 World's Strongest Tag Determination League and once again emerged victorious as they once again defeated Misawa and Akiyama in the finals. [20]

On January 25, 1998, The Holy Demon Army won their fifth Tag Team Championship by defeating Kobashi and Ace. [4] This title reign was the team's most successful as they held the title for over 11 months and made four successful title defenses in that time. [21] During the title reign, the Army won more gold when Kawada defeated Misawa to win his second Triple Crown on May 1, 1998 at All Japan's first Tokyo Dome show but he would eventually lose the title one month later to Kenta Kobashi on June 12, 1998. [22]

The Army lost the titles on January 7, 1999 to Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama. [7] Following the title loss, two weeks later on January 22, Kawada defeated Misawa out of nowhere to win his third Triple Crown; [22] however during the match he broke his arm and would be forced to forfeit the championship on January 29. [17] For the rest of 1999, HDA had a quiet year as they rarely teamed up as Kawada spent most of the year injured.

On June 9, 2000, the Holy Demon Army faced NO FEAR (Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama) for the vacant World Tag Team Titles. [23] The Army made history as they won their record-setting sixth tag team title. The title reign wouldn't last. On June 16, 2000, the Holy Demon Army was stripped of the titles [23] when it was announced Taue would be one of many wrestlers that would leave All Japan and follow Mitsuharu Misawa to Misawa's new promotion: Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kawada would be one of three native talents (along with Hiroshi Hase and Masanobu Fuchi) to remain with All Japan. Now in different promotions, The Holy Demon Army were no more.

Aftermath and Reunion

After breaking up, Kawada would continue to be a top star in All Japan winning the Triple Crown two more times [17] and the Unified World tag Team Title once more with Taiyo Kea. [4] In 2005, Kawada became a freelancer but would continue to wrestle for All Japan until 2008. After becoming a freelancer, he began wrestling various promotions including New Japan Pro-Wrestling where participated in the 2005 and 2008 G1 Climax, [24] [25] Pro Wrestling NOAH where he main evented the Destiny 2005 Tokyo Dome show wrestling Misawa one last time. [26] He also began wrestling for HUSTLE and Pro Wrestling ZERO1. In HUSTLE he won the 2008 HUSTLE GP and in ZERO1 he won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2009. [2]

Taue meanwhile, largely has phased himself out of the main event and into the midcard due to age and injuries. His only highlights include main eventing the first NOAH show on August 5, 2000 [27] and having one reign with the GHC Heavyweight Championship in 2005. [28] In 2009, following the death of Mitsuharu Misawa, Taue became president of Pro Wrestling NOAH.

On October 3, 2009, The Holy Demon Army reunited for one match at the Mitsuharu Misawa Osaka Memorial show. [29] In the main event, the Army defeated Jun Akiyama and KENTA. [29]

Having been inactive since August 2010, Kawada appeared at Taue's official retirement ceremony in December 2013, but only to greet him. [30]

Championships and accomplishments

Related Research Articles

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, with many more joining the following year when JWA folded. From the mid-1970s, All Japan was firmly established as the largest promotion in Japan. As the 1990s began, aging stars gave way to a younger generation including Mitsuharu Misawa, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Kenta Kobashi, Gary Albright, Toshiaki Kawada, Mike Barton, Akira Taue and Jun Akiyama, leading to perhaps AJPW's most profitable period in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitsuharu Misawa</span> Japanese professional wrestler (1962–2009)

Mitsuharu Misawa was a Japanese amateur and professional wrestler and promoter. He is primarily known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and also for forming the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion in 2000. In the early 1990s, Misawa gained fame alongside Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Akira Taue, who came to be nicknamed AJPW's "Four Pillars of Heaven", and whose matches developed the ōdō style of puroresu and received significant critical acclaim. Despite never working in the United States during the 1990s, Misawa had significant stylistic influence upon American independent wrestling, through the popularity of his work among tape-traders in the country. Misawa is regarded by some as the greatest professional wrestler of all time. However, the physical demands and consequences of the style in which he worked and the circumstances of his death have made his legacy, or at least that of ōdō, somewhat problematic.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kikuchi idolized and patterned his style after the Dynamite Kid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenta Kobashi</span> Japanese professional wrestler

Kenta Kobashi is a Japanese former professional wrestler. He started his career in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1988, where he became one of the promotion's top stars, holding the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship three times, and winning the Champion Carnival in 2000. Kobashi left All Japan in June 2000, taking part in a mass exodus led by Mitsuharu Misawa, which led to the formation of Pro Wrestling Noah. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Kobashi worked for Noah for thirteen years, and became the longest reigning GHC Heavyweight Champion of all time, holding the championship for 735 days between 2003 and 2005, a record that stands to this day. He was a four-time world champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jun Akiyama</span> Japanese professional wrestler (born 1969)

Jun Akiyama is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was the president, representative director, co-head booker, and an in-ring performer. In AJPW, he is a former two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, while also being a six-time overall professional wrestling world champion.

Akira Taue is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is also a former All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and has had fourteen 5 Star Matches as awarded by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoshihiro Takayama</span> Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter

Yoshihiro Takayama is a former Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. Debuting for UWF International (UWFI) in the 1990s, Takayama joined All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1997 after UWF-i folded. In 2000, he joined Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah), and later became a mainstay in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) where he arguably achieved his greatest success, holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and NWF Heavyweight Championship simultaneously in 2003. He is one of only five men to hold all three puroresu major heavyweight titles, the others being Kensuke Sasaki, Keiji Muto, Satoshi Kojima, and Yuji Nagata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toshiaki Kawada</span> Japanese professional wrestler

Toshiaki Kawada is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), whom he worked for from his debut in 1982 up until 2008. In All Japan, he was a 5 time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a 9 time World Tag Team Champion, three time winner of the Real World Tag League and a two time winner of the Champion Carnival. He was also recognised as the ace of the promotion from 2000 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taiyō Kea</span>

Maunakea Mossman is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, better known under his stage name Taiyō Kea (太陽ケア). Best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), he is the only wrestler in AJPW's history to have held the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, the World Tag Team Championship and the World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akitoshi Saito</span> Japanese professional wrestler (born 1965)

Akitoshi Saito is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah).

Takeshi Inoue known by his stage name Takeshi Rikiō, is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, who worked for Pro Wrestling Noah. He is also a former sumo wrestler.

Kentaro Shiga is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer. He returned from a two-year hiatus due to injury in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masanobu Fuchi</span> Japanese professional wrestler

Masanobu Fuchi is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is also a director and the co-head booker. Fuchi has exclusively worked for All Japan since his debut in 1974, and holds the record for the longest World Junior Heavyweight Championship reign at 1,309 days. Fuchi became a freelancer in 2009, but officially re-signed with AJPW in 2013 as both a director and wrestler, making him the longest tenured member of the All Japan roster.

Richard Aslinger is a retired American professional wrestler, known by his ring name Richard Slinger. Slinger was a long-time mainstay of All Japan Pro Wrestling and later Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was one of two gaijin heels to compete in the promotion. He is also one of several Noah wrestlers to be featured in the Japanese video game King of Colosseum II.

No Fear was a professional wrestling tag team that consisted of Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama. During their history, the team competed in All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah.

Wild Burning is a tag team composed of Japanese professional wrestlers Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori. Although Akiyama and Omori have been using the team name since 2013, their team goes back almost to the era of their debut in All Japan Pro Wrestling in the early 1990s. The name is a portmanteau of their previous stables Burning (Akiyama) and Get Wild (Omori).

The Champion Carnival is a professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The tournament is also known by the nickname Haru no Saiten and is sometimes abbreviated to CC. Created by AJPW founder Giant Baba, the tournament has been held annually since 1973 and is the longest-running singles tournament in professional wrestling, while also ranking as the most prestigious event in the AJPW calendar. It is considered a successor to the World League, held by Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) between 1959 and 1972, predating the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) G1 Climax tournament by a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Departure (2004)</span> 2004 Pro Wrestling NOAH event

Departure was a major professional wrestling event produced by Pro Wrestling Noah. The event took place on July 10, 2004 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, and marked Noah's first ever show in the arena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling mass exodus</span> Incident in Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling

The 2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling mass exodus was an incident in the Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) professional wrestling promotion that took place throughout May and June 2000, and culminated in 24 of the 26 contracted native wrestlers leaving the promotion. Led by Mitsuharu Misawa, they later formed their own promotion, Pro Wrestling Noah.

This is a list of Japanese professional wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa's championships and accomplishments. Misawa (1962-2009) debuted for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1981, and began work as the second incarnation of the Tiger Mask gimmick in 1984. He achieved some success as the character, but when he unmasked mid-match in May 1990, Misawa was pushed to the top of the company, and became one of AJPW's most decorated wrestlers of the 1990s. When he led a mass exodus to start his promotion Pro Wrestling Noah, he continued to have great success until his death in an in-ring accident. Misawa also received significant critical acclaim from domestic and international publications throughout his career.

References

  1. 1 2 "Holy Demon Army". Puroresucentral.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  2. 1 2 "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  3. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "All Japan World Tag League Championship". Puroresucentral.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  5. "All Japan Real World Tag League Page 3". Puroresucentral.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  6. "Jumbo Tsuruta". Puroresucentral.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  8. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  9. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  10. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  11. 1 2 "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  12. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  13. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  14. 1 2 3 "PUROLOVE.com".
  15. "PUROLOVE.com".
  16. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "All Japan Triple Crown Championship". Puroresucentral.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  18. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  19. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  20. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  21. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  22. 1 2 "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  23. 1 2 "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  24. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  25. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  26. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  27. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  28. "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  29. 1 2 "Purolove.Com". Purolove.com. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  30. "Great Voyage 2013 in Tokyo vol.2~田上明引退記念大会~". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2013-12-07.
  31. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 25, 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  32. 1 2 "The Great Hisa's Puroresu Dojo: Puroresu Awards: 1990s". Puroresu Dojo.