Burning Hammer. Then, Misawa's fifth Triple Crown reign ended at Budokan on October 30, when he was defeated by Vader. In the 1999 WSTDL, Misawa and Ogawa scored nine points (4-1-2), achieving third place in a three-way tie. In a Budokan show on February 27, 2000, Misawa was pinned by Akiyama for the first time in singles competition during the semi main-event. Misawa then entered the 2000 Champion Carnival, which he changed from round-robin format to a single-elimination tournament for the first time since 1974. Reigning Triple Crown champion Kobashi defeated him in the semifinal, and went on to win his first Champion Carnival after ten consecutive appearances. Exodus (2000) While Misawa became company president in 1999, and had been head booker for several months before that, Shohei Baba's widow Motoko held eighty-five percent of AJPW's shares with Nippon TV holding the other fifteen. There were reports of a "quiet" power struggle between Misawa and Motoko in March 1999, and Tsuruta confirmed this when he left Japan for Portland, Oregon. In fact, the two had had professional tensions long beforehand. Motoko had opposed the decision to push Misawa in the wake of Genichiro Tenryu's departure in 1990. The two began conflicting as early as 1996. In the year before Shohei Baba's death, Misawa even asked him on behalf of the locker room to have his wife leave the company. He was somewhat successful in that she ceased to have any creative influence when Misawa began booking. Misawa attempted to keep her content by maintaining the same salary that she had been paid when her husband was alive (approximately $500,000), but since she was the majority shareholder this did not change the power dynamic. Misawa's wish to change the AJPW product, and to modernize its presentation, to address their box office troubles ran in direct opposition to Baba's intent to maintain her late husband's booking philosophy. Misawa was particularly intent on pushing the company's younger talent. In September 1999 he and Baba had a major fight over his decision to have Akiyama and Takao Omori headline a Budokan show (which sold out), although this match's placement had been decided by a fan ballot. Motoko's conservatism was partially due to her belief that the company, and Japanese wrestling as a whole, had fallen from its peak. Misawa was also angry with Motoko over fiscal matters, as he had discovered that much of