(born December 8, 1963) 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 2000–2005. Widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, his matches against Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama, and Kenta Kobashi in the 1990s are argued by many fans and experts in the industry as some of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all time. He is known for his extremely stiff wrestling style and martial arts strikes, which earned him the nickname "Dangerous K". He also has the distinction of having competed in 17 matches that were given a 5-Star Rating and one match which received a 6-Star rating by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (1982-2005) Early years (1982–1987) 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 Ashikaga University High school, which happened to be the same high school as Misawa, who was one year Kawada's senior. Towards the end of Kawada's last year of junior high school, he had made an introductory test at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling dojo, however his mother told him that it would be better for him if he graduated from high school, before beginning his pro wrestling career. Thus when Kawada was about to meet the end of his high school days, his close friend Mitsuharu Misawa who had already been recruited in the All Japan Pro Wrestling dojo, a year prior, advised Kawada to try out for the rival company, AJPW instead. Making his professional debut against Hiromichi Fuyuki on the 4th of October, 1982.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