Takao Yoshida

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Takao Yoshida
Statistics
Ring name(s)	TAKA Michinoku TAKA The Great TAKA BLUE-K PEPE Michinoku
Billed height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Billed weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Born	January 1, 1973 (1973-01-01) (age 34) Morioka, Iwate, Japan
Resides	Yotsukaido, Chiba, Japan
Trained by	The Great Sasuke
Debut	1991

Takao Yoshido ,Takao Yoshida (吉田貴男, Yoshida Takao, Yoshido Takao^?) (born January 1, 1973) better known by his stage name TAKA Michinoku (TAKA is written in all caps in Japanese script), is a professional wrestler who has wrestled all over the world. Michinoku is skilled in high-flying, lucha libre, martial arts and technical wrestling. He has revolutionized the cruiserweight divisions of many promotions. Michinoku is most famously known in North America for his work for the WWF where he had the first ever WWF Light Heavyweight Championship reign.

Having held championship titles in Japan, North America, Mexico and Europe, Yoshida is known for his 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.

Yoshida has held the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title, Michinoku Pro Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Title and Kaientai Dojo Strongest-K Title simultaneously for almost 10 months. During his reign, he has defended his titles 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.

1 Career
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

TAKA Michinoku took his name as a sign of respect for his mentor The Great Sasuke, who was the owner of Michinoku Pro Wrestling and had been the first to use Michinoku as part of his ring name. He debuted in North America with Extreme Championship Wrestling in a six-man tag team match at ECW's first pay-per-view, Barely Legal. He made his WWF debut on July 6, 1997 at a WWF Pay-Per-View entitled "Canadian Stampede." On December 7, 1997, Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher to become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion recognized by the WWF. TAKA successfully defended the WWF Light Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania XIV against Aguila.

TAKA ended up entering a feud with the Kai En Tai faction that he was once a part of in Japan, until he betrayed Val Venis in a tag team match and rejoined his friends against Venis. When all the members of Kai En Tai left the Federation except for TAKA and Shoichi Funaki, the two teamed up as Kai En Tai. Taka even challenged Triple H for the WWF Championship on the April 10th, 2000 edition of RAW, coming up short despite interference on his behalf from Funaki and the Acolytes Protection Agency. However, they were mostly limited to being comical jobbers for the rest of TAKA's time in WWF, during which many internet smarks felt he was not being used to his full potential (the first English words Yoshida said on WWF television were "You, Jackass!" to Jerry Lawler).

After departing from the WWE in early 2002, Michinoku returned to Japan to rehabilitate a serious shoulder injury. He later published his diary of his WWE days in December 2002. In it, he detailed his thoughts on every important match he had in the organization, his gimmicks, as well as giving his opinions of many WWE stars.^{[citation needed]}

He now promotes his own promotion, Kaientai Dojo (often shortened to K-DOJO) in small venues around the Tokyo area and often appears in All Japan Pro Wrestling cards, where he and Taiyō Kea lead the foreign-oriented faction Roughly Obsess & Destroy.

PEPE Michinoku (TAKA Michinoku), El NOSAWA Mendoza (NOSAWA-Rongai), and Miguel Hayashi Jr (Kaz Hayashi) formed a team during the AJPW Champion's Carnival called Mexico Amigos. Nobutaka Araya joined the team after Six-Man Action between Mexico Amigos and Araya/Fuchi/Hirai at the Carnival's final show.

After multiple bouts against Minoru Suzuki, Nosawa (NOSAWA Rongai) offered Suzuki a invitation into Mexico Amigos, to which he declined. This resulted in the group changing multiple assets. Their name was changed to Mexico Amigos Black, the previous worn Mexican Flag attire became Black and Gold attire, and Nobutaka Araya was kicked out of the group. The groups is currently in a heated rivalry with Mazada's Samurai New Japan group, Minoru Suzuki, and Voodoo Murders.

Finishing and signature moves

Michinoku Driver II (Sitout scoop slam piledriver) - Innovated
Michinoku Driver II-B (Inverted facelock sitout scoop slam piledriver) - Innovated
Michinoku Driver (Double underhook brainbuster)
Just Facelock (Inverted crossface)
Dick Killer (Arm trap bridging cobra clutch)
Pyramid Driver (Cross-arm lift dropped into a sitout powerbomb)
Spaceman Plancha (Running no-handed springboard plancha)
Spaceman Quebrada (Twisting moonsault plancha suicida)
Overhead belly to belly suplex
Asai moonsault
Springboard missile dropkick
Springboard knee drop
Hurricanrana
Superkick
Tornado DDT

TAKA Michinoku 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 TAKA rarely uses) was invented by The Great Sasuke.