Yoshihiro Takayama

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[dawho5]

Short run as a main eventer, but he made it into a really great run. Watching his matches from 2002-2009 I really started to love the guy. I can't say he'd be top 50, but he'd definitely have a shot at bottom half.

[Loss]

Takayama's pre-All Japan career is a bit underrated, I find. I enjoyed plenty of matches he had in UWFI as early as 1992. I'll come back and provide specific match recommendations.

[dawho5]

He does have some good stuff from 90s AJPW also:

 

Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Takayama/Kakihara 4/98
Kobashi/Ace/Hase vs. Albright/Takayama/Kakihara 7/18/98
Holy Demon Army vs. Takayama/Kakihara 10/31/98
Kawada vs. Takayama 7/17/99
Misawa vs. Takayama 9/4/99
Kobashi/Akiyama/Shiga vs. Takayama/Omori/Fuchi 10/9/99
Kobashi vs. Takayama 5/26/00

[Ditch]

I was the only real Takayama supporter in the SC vote. I stand by it. Some good matches in UWFi, more good matches in All Japan, and a hellllll of a 2002-2004 run before the stroke. Plus a few more strong outings since his return as icing.

[Timbo Slice]

For someone with such a short peak, he really did have some tremendous times as a top guy. Would have heard arguments for him as the best worker in the world in 2002. I'd have to think long and hard about him not making a Top 100, but it's gonna be close.

[Steenalized]

I was worried that Takayama hadn't somehow been nominated yet. I need to see more of his 90s work, but his matches in the first half of the 2000s get him a spot on my list. The guy was absolutely stellar, one of the best at making every move feel important.

[DylanZero]

I actually liked his NO FEAR run (But I'm also one of Omori's bigger supporters as well.) too even though there wasn't a lot of classics or anything. There were many great performances in Takayama's singles runs, also another point in his favor is that he has a lot of good in a lot of very different and companies and styles. Really such a fine wrestler in his younger days out of the all people nominated so far I would say a vote for Takayama is simply a vote for fun.

[Childs]

As I've watched a bunch of 2000-2009 puro, trying to get a ballot together for Ditch, Takayama has steadily climbed my theoretical GWE list. He reminds me of '80s Choshu in that any scene he entered instantly got better, whether we're talking G-1, NOAH main events or undercard matches pitting him against that pipsqueak KENTA. Hell, even PRIDE.

 

Around 2000-2001, he achieved a great understanding of what he brought to the table, along with that memorable look. And almost like Vader, he could plug himself into any context and produce something memorable. His absolute peak was short, I suppose, but the duration over which he produced entertaining matches was much longer, like 20 years. So that's plenty of meat.

 

At some point before we vote, I'll need to do a focused rewatch of his UWFI work. But he'll definitely make my list.

[WingedEagle]

How impressive is the 90s All Japan run? Watching some of the less touted matches from his NOAH era I'm wondering just how high I can place him. You've got the incredible Misawa & Kobashi matches in '00 and '01, respectively, and then a few years of excellence up and down the country across promotions. Hell, last night I watched his '03 match vs. Rikio that would've had Kobashi envious. Very much feels like an early-aughts Brock Lesnar.

[soup23]

90's All Japan stuff is fine but I think Takayama's best case for 90's work may be his early UWFI stuff as it has been incredibly entertaining to watch.

[Childs]

The overarching point with Takayama is that the old wisdom suggested he sucked ass until 2001. He didn't. So that gives him a solid base to go with his terrific peak and should help him in the voting.

[Jetlag]

Takayama was mostly jobbing in All Japan early on. There are some goodies though, just not the epics you want. There is a longish match against Misawa from 99 though which is a damn great one and he looks like the Takayama we all know in it.

[fxnj]

He didn't suck pre-2001, but he also doesn't have a whole lot of memorable stuff before then, the Misawa and Kobashi matches being the big exceptions. I'd argue the stuff post-2004 adds a lot more to his case. I'd go as far as saying that you could extend his peak all the way to 2010, since that year saw him having pretty much the 2 best matches of the year against Nakamura and Sugiura.

[dawho5]

He had a pretty great match with Kawada in either 98 or 99 as I recall.

[Loss]

As soup said, UWFI, not All Japan.

[WingedEagle]

Someone I'll have no clue what to do with. His run from 2000 - 2004 or so is so great I'd probably rank him top 5 in the world over that stretch. How to place that in GWE terms? No clue.

[InYourCase]

Someone I'll have no clue what to do with. His run from 2000 - 2004 or so is so great I'd probably rank him top 5 in the world over that stretch. How to place that in GWE terms? No clue.

Mid-30's guy for me. Part of that is due to the fact that I really enjoy him in UWFi, but his early 2000's run is unreal to me. He has been the star of early NOAH in my eyes. The Misawa matches, the Ogawa stuff, a few awesome squashes vs. Hashi and Kikuchi. Huge fan of what he did in New Japan around the same time period, also. Super high peak with the Kobashi match and his stuff with KENTA. Short peak and longevity isn't on his side, but factoring in UWFi to his insane early 2000's run and he suddenly has a super strong case.

[gordi]

Some very sad news today

 

If I understood correctly what my friend was trying to tell me (and, sadly, I am pretty sure I did) there was a story in the news over here yesterday that Takayama is now paralyzed from the neck down. He took a bad bump off of a Sunset Flip back in May and has been hospitalized since then. Apparently he can still talk, but he can't move anything below his neck.

[rainmakerrtv]

I read the same thing. Heartbreaking news

[KB8]

I had Takayama at 95 in 2016, and when I look at his body of work and what I actually value in wrestling, that feels stuuuupid low. The fact his peak is short doesn't bother me, because wrestlers with short peaks that also happen to be completely awesome peaks did well on my list then, and will do well on it in 2026. The UWFi run has been mentioned already but it really was a bunch of fun, especially his tag team with Yoji Anjoh (they were called Golden Cups!) where they'd wrestle WAR lumpies like Kodo Fuyuki and spend half the match mocking them for being fat and having scraggly ring gear. The 2000-2004 stretch is an all-timer. I don't actually love the NOAH match with Kobashi but the 2000 All Japan match is terrific. One of the greatest ever at just flicking the switch and absolutely whomping motherfuckers. The Nagata match where he about knees him to the moon is still the best Nagata match I've ever seen. He was still a wrecking ball after coming back from the stroke, with the KENTA matches that are a couple of the best ever monster v belligerent underdog matches, and the amazing Zero-1 tag with Sato against Ohtani and Omori where he's basically Godzilla and everyone in Korakuen Hall is petrified that they get caught up in his rampage. My god he was amazing. Why did I have him at 95, fer chrissakes?

 

YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Kenta Kobashi (All Japan, 5/26/00)

v Yuji Nagata (New Japan, 5/2/02)

v Mitsuharu Misawa (NOAH, 9/23/02)

v Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, 4/25/04)

w/Kohei Sato v Shinjiro Ohtani & Takao Omori (Zero-1, 218/07)

[Clayton Jones]

God I love that short lived Zero 1 run. The 2000 Kobashi match absolutely floored me when I watched it for the first time a few years back. Where had it been all my life? Some No Fear stuff leaves me a little flat but other matches like VS HDA or Shinzaki/Hayabusa are everything I want from them. Then peak Tak is really an all-time peak. I expect he'll do well for me.

[elliott]

I watched that Zero 1 Tag match w/Kohei Sato v Shinjiro Ohtani & Takao Omori (Zero-1, 218/07) that KB8 recommends above and it was awesome. Fantastic selling from Takayama getting his ass kicked and still able to come across like an absolute killer. Takayama is an outlier for me in that I'm generally not a fan of the time & place he worked during his peak but I'm a big fan of him within that landscape. In a comparison of big tough ass kickers who could sell and come across as a monster and excelled in big time spectacles, Takayama smokes Brock Lesnar. 

[MichaelZ]

I watched the 5/26/2000 match vs Kobashi while I was on the bike this morning and I was really impressed. Great heeling it up with the attack before the belll and the cocky covers, and then targeted limb work, and finally some really good staggering selling. I got a sense of his character right away and everything had a purpose.

And then after that a match vs KENTA popped up and I really enjoyed watching Takayama toss him around. I didn't notice the date, but it was exactly what I would have wanted.

I'm excited to check out some of the recs above. And I have only seen a handful of Anjoh as well, but that sounds like the most enjoyably dislikable team possible.

[Troyvang]

This is a guy I've watched now in a few matches as I'm starting to watch wrestling in a larger scope and I am really digging what I'm seeing. I just love how he works and I'm a sucker for guys who make moves look like they hurt (probably because in most cases, they do).