⚫🟡 Toshiaki Kawada compilation (AJPW All Japan TV 2002) + big matches by Gaora linked

A small comp because Kawada had a small 2002 due to a bad knee injury in late March that year. It was the same type of injury that Marc Mero had in December 1998, ending his WWF run and forcing him to retire. Thankfully, Kawada healed well enough to continue wrestling on a somewhat regular basis.

Ever since 2002 up until he retired, Kawada went on a somewhat part time schedule. He'd appear on all of the important AJPW TV episodes and pay-per-views, but doing less of the house show circuit. Also after his injury, Kawada freelanced in other promotions & on the indies. But sometime in the 2000s, age seriously caught up to Kawada and he was a shell of his former self especially in the later half of the decade (chubby & sloppy in the ring). Even in an interview, Kawada considered his 2005 match against Satoshi Kojima his last good match, and he was embarrassed by his most of his matches after that, giggling & making fun of himself (humbly) saying something like "Don't watch that time of my career, watch me when I was good". 😋

Also, I'm rather angry at Youtube. As of early today, I can't make videos with links now, like where I help promote the Donbass children's charity & expose the political games on all sides surrounding that war. And with that, I can't even link to any external site even if it's just wrestling. 😨 The big wig $oro$ people at Youtube tried to censor me unless I give them 30 second video facial ID (!!!) and my driver's license to make external links (my thoughts on that = 🍺😠🖕), but thankfully my Donbass charity description in all my other videos is okay.

I got Orwell 1984'ed for my future uploads with external links, so I must be doing something right speaking to power. 😅 As you see in my comp, the only links I can even use in my video descriptions are links to other Youtube videos. And in future uploads if I post a wrestling related link, it will be in the comments. Just wanted to warn any "truth teller" types who happen to be watching my videos what happened to me; they'll try censoring your future description uploads like they did with me. It might be a recent feature (not a bug) YT did as a result of the upcoming 2024 election as well as Israel vs. Palestine, which is what I predict the reasoning.

Anyway, my ramble aside, this is what Kawada considers his last good match:

   • 三冠継承の重圧を跳ねのけ感動へ…川田利明(Toshiaki Kawada) VS 小...  

And here are all of the Kawada matches I can find from 2002 (4 in total). 2 of them are already on YT officially published by Gaora, while 2 others are from my collection.

Kawada vs. Hiroshi Hase
   • 川田利明(Toshiaki Kawada) vs 馳浩(Hiroshi Hase)《...  
(AJPW TV 01 14 2002)
This is uploaded in high quality on Gaora's official YT channel

Kawada vs. Keiji Muto
   • 6冠王者・武藤から三冠奪還へ 武藤敬司(Keiji Muto) VS 川田利明(To...  
(AJPW PPV 02 24 2002)
This is uploaded in high quality on Gaora's official YT channel

00:00
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Tomoaki Honma
8:27
Honma promo after match
(AJPW syndicated TV 03 23 2002, taped 02 09 2002)

9:46
Appearance for Championship Carnival trophy intro by Stan Hansen
14:34
Kawada vs. Arashi
20:32
Kawada promo after match
(AJPW TV 03 23 2002, aired live)

It's hard for me to hear what Kawada is saying after the match with how quiet he is & the blaring music, but the way I deciphered it, it's about how he's champion in the Korakuen Hall, and (I think) going to different arenas as champion. That ultimately didn't happen as he vacated the title 3 days later after two house show dates from that promo.

I heard 違う (chikan) meaning "different", which corresponds with Hungarian "separate" (külön). Also "champion-de" and "korakuen-de", meaning he's champion and in the Korakuen Hall. The "de" suffex is mutually intelligible with Turkic "de", and in Hungarian it's "ben". So some Japanese in certain cases is mutually intelligible for me. Ural-Altaic languages. 😂