Real Life
Shohei “Giant” Baba (dubbed as such because of his gigantism, which made him 6’10) was the founder of AJPW (All Japan Pro Wrestling) and would wrestle for his company for multiple decades until his death in 1998, only missing a single wrestling date due to illness in the 80’s. He was well regarded as one of the biggest figures in Japanese popular culture when it came to wrestling itself, only being perhaps surpassed by his mentor, Rikid?zan, and even in the present day is still regarded as a icon of the business itself, known for his trustworthiness and reliable nature.
Comic Appearances
Baba would inspire characters such as Mount/Boss Toba from Baki The Grappler (who also shared his likeness and size) and would be referenced indirectly by multiple anime programs that came out during the 90’s. Baba has also appeared as himself in the likes of the Tiger Mask manga and eventual anime program as himself alongside fellow wrestlers such as Antonio Inoki, despite most if not all of the other story elements being fictional: the strong popularity of Tiger Mask would lead to the real life wrestling stage as well when promoters would create a real life Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama).
Baba would also appear as apart of the Andre the Giant: Life and Legend graphic novel, which detailed the lifelong career of Andre the Giant. Baba in particular would appear during the latter end of the book, which detailed Andre’s final wrestling matches as apart of a tag team duo with himself in the AJPW’s tag division in 1990. Baba would also appear as himself in the The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling, a graphic novel which goes through the complete history of wrestling itself, with him being mentioned alongside Inoki and Rikid?zan as the founders of puroresu (wrestling) as the book refers to it as distantly due to the stylistic differences between them.