Taka Michinoku

Takao Yoshida (吉田 貴男) (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name Taka Michinoku (Taka みちのく) (with his first name usually stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist.

He currently appears for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a member of the Just 5 Guys stable.

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 World Junior Heavyweight Championship, which was closed off to outside competition in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

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 Wrestling International New Generations and Michinoku Pro Wrestling joint event by teaming up with Great Sasuke, they lost to Super Delfin & Terry Boy.

He would later move to Federacion Universal De Lucha Libre and debuted by beating the team of Mongolian Yuga & Shiryu with Buffalo Chohe.

Then he debuted for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in a six-man tag team match at Summer Spectacular in 1993.

Michinoku would primary compete at MPW, UWF and FMW in his early career.

His debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling came during Super J-Cup 1994 and was eliminated from the competition in the first round by Black Tiger.

He competed in Best of the Super Juniors 1994 and only gained two points therefore losing the tournament.

He also went up against Super Delfin for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship and had a J-Crown Title #1 Contendership match with Koji Kanemoto, both of which he lost.

Michinoku's first title reign came in the form of the FMW Independent Junior Heavyweight Championship, which he won by defeating Koji Nakagawa on May 5, 1996.

He would lose the title to El Satanico after holding the title for one year and one month and defeating fellow young wrestlers Minoru Tanaka, Naohiro Hoshikawa and Hayato Nanjyo, he would later regain the championship two months later.

He would vacate the championship to focus on the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

Michinoku made his ECW and American debut on February 14, 1997, in a match where he teamed with Dick Togo & Terry Boy to defeat Gran Hamada, Gran Naniwa & The Great Sasuke.

This three on three feud lasted until ECW Barely Legal 1997 Gran Hamada, Masato Yakushiji & The Great Sasuke would defeat the trio.

This was also Michinoku's first pay per view appearance.

After this Michinoku left the company to join the World Wrestling Federation.

While competing in ECW and then in WWF, Michinoku also had a spell in CMLL in 1997, competing as a tecnico.

In that period, two other Japanese wrestlers wrestled in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, namely Ultimo Dragon and Yoshihiro Tajiri.

Michinoku fought between the others The Headhunters and Val Venis, at the time using the mask of Steele.

In the summer of 1997, both Taka Michinoku and Yoshihiro Tajiri moved to World Wrestling Federation.

He made his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut on July 6, 1997, at the WWF pay-per-view Canadian Stampede losing to The Great Sasuke but getting a huge reaction from the crowd.

He lost a rematch to Sasuke the following night on Raw.

Taka was part of the Light Heavyweight division.

He was entered in the WWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament where the winner would become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, he beat Devon Storm in the quarterfinal, Aguila in the semifinal.

On December 7, 1997, Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher at D-Generation X: In Your House to become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion recognized by the WWF.

Taka successfully defended the WWF Light Heavyweight Title at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House against Pantera, at WrestleMania XIV against Aguila and against multiple different opponents on Raw is War and Shotgun Saturday Night.

After holding the title for more than 10 months, Michinoku lost the title to Christian at Judgment Day: In Your House on October 18.

In 1999 Michinoku would return at ECW Cyberslam 1999 defeating Papi Chulo.

He also wrestled Super Crazy at Hardcore Heaven 1999.

Other matches include two tag matches teaming with Yoshihiro Tajiri, a Hardcore Heaven rematch with Super Crazy ending In another victory for Super Crazy, a loss against Jerry Lynn & his last two matches for ECW was in the form of two wins against Mosco de la Merced.

From 2011, he was a member of Suzuki-gun, until the faction's disbandment in 2022.

Michinoku also is the founder and regularly appears for Just Tap Out (JTO), which was founded in 2019.

He remains a beloved WWE superstar.

Michinoku is also known in North America for his work for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) where he had the first ever WWF Light Heavyweight Championship reign recognized by the promotion.

Michinoku is the founder and former promoter of Kaientai Dojo (now Active Advance Pro Wrestling), where he also primarily wrestled until 2019.

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 World Junior Heavyweight Championship, Michinoku Pro Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship and Kaientai Dojo (K-Dojo) Strongest-K Championship simultaneously for almost 10 months.