51 Facts About Nobuhiko Takada

Nobuhiko Takada was born on April 12,1962 and is a Japanese former mixed martial artist, retired professional wrestler, actor, and writer.

Nobuhiko Takada competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Universal Wrestling Federation and the Union of Wrestling Forces International in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming one of the highest figures of the "shoot-style" movement.

Nobuhiko Takada founded and starred at the sports entertainment professional wrestling promotion Hustle from 2004 to 2008, and currently works as an executive for the Rizin Fighting Federation.

Nobuhiko Takada replaced the retiring Satoru Sayama in the event, and had his first worldwide match, defeating Athol Foley.

Nobuhiko Takada stayed with NJPW until April 1984, before switching over to the Universal Wrestling Federation by Fujiwara's invitation, and in June he was officially part of the new promotion.

Nobuhiko Takada started with a successful singles run; he defeated foreign wrestlers and had fought Fujiwara and Akira Maeda.

At the peak of his popularity, Nobuhiko Takada received the new nickname of Wagamamana Hikazoku for his hard, stiff kicking ability.

In March 1987, Nobuhiko Takada amplified the feud with Koshinaka to a tag team when he and Maeda defeated Koshinaka and Keiji Mutoh to capture the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship.

Nobuhiko Takada spent the rest of the year in tag team fights, except for a tenure in the Top of The Super Junior I and two challenges for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title before Kuniaki Kobayashi and Hiroshi Hase.

In March 1988, Nobuhiko Takada left NJPW with Maeda and most of the original UWF wrestlers to form the second incarnation of the UWF called UWF Newborn.

Nobuhiko Takada debuted in UWF Newborn in an exhibition match with rookie Shigeo Nakano, but he soon climbed the rankings to become the promotion's top wrestler second only to Maeda, who he defeated by TKO in their second match.

Nobuhiko Takada opened his run as the top star of the company beating Tatsuo Nakano, Yamazaki, and American wrestler Bob Backlund, whom he fought in a pair of publicized matches.

The first of them was controversial, as Nobuhiko Takada ended the bout in 1:15 when Backlund fell to a body kick, and it almost caused a riot in the stadium; it is believed that it was an accidental KO instead of a pre-planned match.

Immediately after his affair with Backlund, Nobuhiko Takada was put in a fight against boxing champion Trevor Berbick.

In 1992, Nobuhiko Takada was awarded an old NWA World Heavyweight title belt by Lou Thesz after defeating Albright, and was proclaimed the "Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion".

Nobuhiko Takada defended the title until Thesz withdrew the belt in 1995, losing the title once to Super Vader.

In 1995, Nobuhiko Takada returned to NJPW as the key figure in the landmark New Japan vs UWFI program.

Three months later, Nobuhiko Takada defeated Mutoh in a rematch to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, becoming the only wrestler to hold all three major New Japan titles at the time.

Nobuhiko Takada dropped the title to Shinya Hashimoto on April 29,1996, drawing a crowd of 65,000 and a gate of $5.7 million.

Nobuhiko Takada only participated in one of its events: an exhibition against Ryushi Kimiyama.

Nobuhiko Takada later left professional wrestling for mixed martial arts.

In 2004, Nobuhiko Takada was made the president of the Hustle promotion in Japan, created by a coproduction between Dream Stage Entertainment and Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE.

Nobuhiko Takada firstly appeared in a press conference previous to the first Hustle event along with fellow DSE directive Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who badmouthed professional wrestling to praise MMA, which angered Naoya Ogawa, who flipped the table and confronted them.

The next event, Nobuhiko Takada expanded his army and appeared as Generalissimo Nobuhiko Takada, a Yasunori Kato-esque character dressed in a military outfit and gifted with supernatural powers.

Nobuhiko Takada returned to the ring in 2006 as The Esperanza, a supernatural wrestling cyborg created by Generalissimo Nobuhiko Takada.

Nobuhiko Takada appointed Magnum Tokyo as the new director and shook hands with the Hustle Army members.

The dying Nobuhiko Takada disappeared, declaring that Hustle would live forever.

Nobuhiko Takada entered MMA when he joined Pride Fighting Championships, an event created to host a fight between him and Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Rickson Gracie.

The bout was highly anticipated since Gracie had defeated the UWFI wrestler Yoji Anjo in 1994, as Nobuhiko Takada was still expected to face Rickson in order to restore his late promotion's reputation.

However, although he had been believed to be a strong legitimate contender for most of his career, Nobuhiko Takada was not a qualified fighter.

Nobuhiko Takada had trained in submission wrestling and other disciplines in his various promotions, but after a 17-year professional wrestling career, he was already too far from his physical prime to transition into MMA.

For one thing, in legitimate fights Nobuhiko Takada was able to scramble up from beneath Mark Kerr, take down Igor Vovchanchyn, and indeed take the latter's notoriously powerful punches.

Nobuhiko Takada was likened to a war criminal to Japan by specialized press.

Nobuhiko Takada faced kickboxer Kyle Sturgeon at Pride 3, a match that was acknowledged as a fight fixed in order to attempt to rebuild Nobuhiko Takada's status for a rematch.

The latter agreed, claiming "I feel Nobuhiko Takada is a warrior and deserves the chance to try and redeem himself" in a subsequent interview, and the rematch was held at Pride 4.

Gracie opened the fight shooting for a takedown, but Nobuhiko Takada blocked it and held Gracie away from the ground with a tight clinch.

Nobuhiko Takada worked from the bottom, dismounting Gracie several times and transitioned into a heel hook attempt, but Gracie avoided it and applied an armbar for the win.

Nobuhiko Takada fought his next match at Pride 5 against Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament winner Mark Coleman.

Nobuhiko Takada opened it earning a yellow card when he grabbed the ropes to avoid being taken down, while Coleman had to abstain visibly from land strikes on the ground when he scored another takedown.

Nobuhiko Takada was then pitted against Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman's teammate, at Pride 6.

The American executed a single leg takedown, but Nobuhiko Takada escaped and returned to standing, where he started scoring quick low kicks.

At PRIDE 7, Nobuhiko Takada faced fellow professional wrestler Alexander Otsuka.

The match saw Otsuka landing a fisherman suplex before Nobuhiko Takada locked a rear naked choke for the tap out.

Nobuhiko Takada competed in the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round, where he was pitted against his second opponent in the Gracie family, Rickson's brother Royce, who returned from a hiatus after his career in Ultimate Fighting Championship.

At the beginning of the match, Royce immediately clinched Nobuhiko Takada and pulled guard, but action stopped right there, as none of the fighters followed with any action.

Nobuhiko Takada visibly limped to his corner, which was later explained as Nobuhiko Takada having fought the bout with a heel injury.

At Pride 17, Nobuhiko Takada faced Cro Cop, who was debuting in mixed martial arts; as such, the fight had six shorter rounds and no judges.

Nobuhiko Takada spent the rest of the match sitting on the mat, fruitlessly goading Cro Cop to engage him on the ground until the end of the bout.

Nobuhiko Takada's next fight was again against a kickboxer, Mike Bernardo, as part of Inoki's team in the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event.

Nobuhiko Takada stayed on in a management role at Pride and its parent company Dream Stage Entertainment until it was purchased by Zuffa in 2007.

In 2015, Nobuhiko Takada returned to mainstream MMA when he signed on as a spokesperson and matchmaker for the Rizin Fighting Federation, Nobuhiko Takada works alongside Nobuyuki Sakakibara and other former Pride employees.