Takao Yoshida

Takao Yoshida, 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 (now WWE) where he held the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

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. He first debuted in North America with Extreme Championship Wrestling. On December 6, 1997, Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher to become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion in the WWF (though the title was held by several wrestlers, mostly in Japan, before Michinoku won the belt, WWF does not recognize any champions prior to Michinoku). Then TAKA Michinoku teamed with Shoichi Funaki as the Yume Kairudo (Dream Hunters). He was once a member of Kai En Tai, which he previously feuded with.

In December 2002, Michinoku returned to Japan after 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).

In wrestling

Managers

Yamaguchi-san

Finishing and signature moves

Michinoku Driver II (Sitout scoop slam piledriver)
Michinoku Driver II-B (Inverted facelock into sitout scoop slam piledriver)
Michinoku Driver I (Double underhook brainbuster)
Just Facelock (Crossface hold to neck)
Dick Killer (Crossface, cobra clutch hybrid, named after Dick Togo)
Super K (Superkick with multiple variations)
Pyramid Driver (Cross-arm sitout powerbomb)
Tornado DDT
Spaceman Plancha (Running no-hands springboard plancha)
Spaceman Quebrada (Twisting moonsault plancha suicida)
Asai Moonsault
Springboard Missile Dropkick
Springboard Knee Drop
Hurracanrana
Overhead belly to belly suplex

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. 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

The TAKA Michinoku name literally means "Hawk from the North-East" in English.
The first English words he said on WWF TV were "You, Jackass!" to Jerry Lawler.
TAKA has held titles in Japan, North America, Mexico and Europe.
TAKA 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.
TAKA 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.
TAKA published his diary of his WWE days in December of 2002. In it, he detailed his thoughts on every important match he had on the organization, his gimmicks, as well as giving his opinions of many WWE stars.