Atsushi Sakai is a Japanese professional wrestler better known under the ring name Kai. Best known for his work in the All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, Kai is an accomplished junior heavyweight wrestler, having won the World Junior Heavyweight Championship twice and the Junior League also twice, while he and Kaz Hayashi also won the 2011 Junior Tag League. In August 2012, Kai announced that he was ending his junior heavyweight days and becoming a heavyweight wrestler. After taking a seven-month break from in-ring action, Kai returned to All Japan in March 2013, now working as a heavyweight wrestler. However, the following July, Kai quit All Japan following a change in the promotion's management and joined the new Wrestle-1 promotion. In March 2015, Kai won the promotion's top title, the Wrestle-1 Championship. He went on to win the title two more times, before quitting Wrestle-1 in December 2016 to become a freelancer.
Kai holding the Wrestle-1 Championship belt in May 2016
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.
Giant Baba, the founder of All Japan and owner until his death in January 1999
Mitsuharu Misawa left All Japan in June 2000 to form Pro Wrestling Noah.
Keiji Muto in 2008 during the Pro Wrestling Love era. This was also his main attire in the era's early days.
Image: Jamal 2003