| Taka Michinoku |
| Taka Michinoku Height: 5'8" Weight: 187 lbs. Real name: Takeo Yoshida Hometown: Morioka, Japan Pro debut: 1991 Finishing move: Michinoku Driver II (Sitout scoop slam or sitout scoop slam piledriver) Other aliases: BLUE-K (AJPW) Career highlights: AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion, FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Champion (2), IWW Junior Heavyweight Champion, Strongest-K Champion, WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champion (w/Tomoka Nakagawa), Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (w/Dick Togo), UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Champion (w/Ryota Chikuzen), WEW Six Man Tag Team Champion (w/Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Gosaku Goshogawara), WWE Light Heavyweight Champion Trained by: The Great Sasuke 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 WWE 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 WWE, 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. 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 Taiy? 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. |
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