Profile of Takao Yoshida on Famous Like Me

Takao Yoshida a.k.a. Taka Michinoku (born October 26, 1973 in Japan) is a professional wrestler who has wrestled all over the world. He is most famously known in North America for his work for the WWF (now the WWE). He was the first-ever WWF Light Heavyweight Champion and the former tag team partner of current superstar Funaki.

In December 2002 Michinoku returned to Japan after more than two years of being severely misused by the WWF as well as a serious shoulder injury. He now promotes his own promotion, Kaientai Dojo (often shortened to K-Dojo) in small venues around the Tokyo area and often appears as a regular in All Japan Pro Wrestling cards, where he and Taiyo Kea lead the foreign-oriented faction Roughly Obsess & Destroy (RO&D for short).

Career

Taka Michinoku took his name as a sign of respect to his mentor The Great Sasuke, who was the owner of Michinoku Pro Wrestling. On December 6, 1997 Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher to become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion in the WWF. Then Taka Michinoku teamed with Shoichi Funaki as the Yume Kairudo (Dream Hunters).Taka was once a member of a faction, which he previously feuded, called Kai En Tai where Funaki was an older member before Taka joined. Taka Michinoku is skilled in High-Flying, Lucha Libre, Martial Arts and Technical wrestling. He has revolutionised the cruiserweight divisions of every promotion he has wrestled for.

Profile

• Height: 5 ft 9 in
• Weight: 185 lb
• Birthday: October 26, 1973
• Hometown: Morioka, Iwate prefecture, Japan
• Trained by: The Great Sasuke
• Professional debut: 1991
• Previous managers: Yamaguchi-san

Stage names

• Taka Michinoku
• TAKA Michinoku
• TAKA
• The Great TAKA

Finishing and signature moves

• Michinoku Driver II
• Michinoku Driver I (Double-underhook brainbuster)
• Michinoku Driver II-B (Inverted facelock into a Michinoku Driver II)
• Tornado DDT
• Springboard Missile Dropkick
• Twisting Asai Moonsault

Yoshida is the inventor of the Michinoku Driver II as well as the Michinoku Driver II-B. Contrary to popular belief, the Michinoku Driver I (which Yoshida rarely uses) was invented by The Great Sasuke. He also uses a variation of the Michinoku Driver II in which he drops his opponent directly on his head instead of on his back.

Trivia

• Taka Michinoku's name literally means "Hawk from the North-East".
• First English words he said on WWF TV were "You, Jackass!" to Jerry Lawler.
• First debuted in North America with ECW.
• His theme song is called "Yamato Suite #4".
• Has held titles in Japan, North America, Mexico and Europe.
• Is notorious for having very long title reigns. He held the FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Title for a combined duration of more than 15 months, the WWF Light Heavyweight Title for a then record-setting 10 months and the WEW Six-Man Tag Team Title for almost a year.
• Is the current AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Michinoku Pro Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion and Kaientai Dojo Champion of Strongest-K, effectively holding three title belts at the same time. Thus far, he has defended against both AJPW and independent circuit talent to increase his base of opponents, and thus has increased the reach of the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title which was closed off to outside competition in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

Championships and accomplishments

• 1-Time WWF Light Heavyweight Champion
• 1-Time AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion
• 2-Time FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Champion
• 1-Time Michinoku Pro Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion
• 1-Time Kaientai Dojo Champion of Strongest-K
• 1-Time WEW Six Man Tag Team Champion (w/Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Gosaku Goshogowara)
• 1-Time UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Champion (w/Ryota Chikuzen)
• 1-Time IWW Junior Champion
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 191 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.

Links

Taka Michinoku fan site

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Takao Yoshida