Yoshihiro Takayama

[Ma Stump Puller]

Might have been one of the best wrestlers in the world in the early 2000's. Great atmosphere, over as fuck, a dominating essence all in all but could work and wrestle very well for himself. He's a great asskicking heel that can really play both a surprisingly good presence against the big stars, bumping and selling at just the right moments, but could also flick a switch and just send them to hell and back with his horrifically stiff knees and general offence. Even after the stroke and his years of hard-hitting caught up with him (and they did, as much as you'd hope it wouldn't) he was still a good hand that could be relied upon to fill almost any role as a freelancer act. Even some of his rare comedy stuff that he did on the indies is quite well done, surprisingly.

It's a shame that people only include his NOAH peak through. Yes, that's where most of his best material comes from, but his AJPW work had him pull out some bangers for a guy who'd barely gotten any match experience beyond shoot-style stuff. NO FEAR as a unit helped get him there faster with Omori and him having some great chemistry all in all. Even his early Triangle of Power work is actually fairly fun to check out. A small list of material from that era:

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW Super Power Series 09.06.2000)

Giant Kimala II & Jun Izumida vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW Excite Series 20.02.2000)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW New Year Giant Series 23.01.2000)

Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (New Year Giant Series 09.01.2000)

Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (October Giant Series 30.10.1999)

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series II 04.09.1999)

Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series 25.08.1999)

Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series 23.07.1999)

Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series 04.07.1999)

Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Super Power Series 04.06.1999)

Keep in mind this is just one year of ring work, not even including his extended UWF-I/AJPW Kawada feud and whatnot. No brainer for top 50.

 

[Troyvang]

Takiyama has been one of the guys I've been most surprised with as I begin to watch Japanese wrestling and other things like that for this project. He's awesome. I've mostly watched his stuff with Kobashi, but in all of the matches I've seen with him he's looked great. Big dude who can move and kick ass. I feel bad that I'm just coming around to him now.

[El-P]

I've been watching quite a bit of early to mid 00's stuff lately and :

On 2/22/2022 at 12:39 AM, Ma Stump Puller said:

Might have been one of the best wrestlers in the world in the early 2000's. Great atmosphere, over as fuck, a dominating essence all in all but could work and wrestle very well for himself. He's a great asskicking heel that can really play both a surprisingly good presence against the big stars, bumping and selling at just the right moments, but could also flick a switch and just send them to hell and back with his horrifically stiff knees and general offence.

He was indeed quite the big match worker at this time, really consistent too and could work with many kind of different guys and always make the most out of his own game. Him destroying a young Nakamura at the Dome in 2004 was an ace monster heel veteran performance. I was a fan back then, but re-watching him now (and more than I had previously seen), I've been enjoying him even more. Gonna watch some of his UWF-I stuff too eventually.

[Ma Stump Puller]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

I've been watching quite a bit of early to mid 00's stuff lately and :

He was indeed quite the big match worker at this time, really consistent too and could work with many kind of different guys and always make the most out of his own game. Him destroying a young Nakamura at the Dome in 2004 was an ace monster heel veteran performance. I was a fan back then, but re-watching him now (and more than I had previously seen), I've been enjoying him even more. Gonna watch some of his UWF-I stuff too eventually.

I'd stick to his pro-wrestling stuff. Just from my experience UWF Taka is mostly pretty dire from what I've watched. There's a few solid bouts I could recommend but a lot of it is just sub-par. Through he does get better with time (he has a pretty good match with Kakihara in the short lived KINGDOM promotion) it's a definite low in his career.

 

[El-P]

Well, I'm going through UWF-I anyway, so he's not a guy I'm gonna skip, but yeah, not looking for anything specific nor expecting some high quality stuff, although the very early stuff was kinda fun to watch (against quality opponent) with the hindsight of what he would become. Slim, in shape Takayama is pretty odd to watch !

[CheapPop1999]

Takayama will be in my top 15. He's got a solid list of really entertaining UWF-i matches, including a great draw with Kanehara from 94 that feels like the best Ultimate Fighter finale ever, just these two hungry young dudes going to war. There's also a Sakuraba match from 96 that feels really crisp and fresh. He's awesome as an invader of WAR with Yoji Anjoh, showing his dickish comedic chops. He's a great bruiser tag guy in All Japan against their main eventers and a great bully to their young guys. The 10/9/99 six man of No Fear/Fuchi vs Kobashi/Akiyama/Shiga is a standout example of that, along with the 2/28/98 tag of Takayama/Kakihara vs Akiyama/Kobashi. When given rope in All Japan in singles, he always delivered something interesting. The 97 singles with Kawada is a great invading shooter match, their 99 rematch is almost a simulated kickboxing contest. The 2000 sprint with Akiyama and the title match against Kobashi both deliver really fast-paced hard-hitting matches that pop in All Japan. He goes to NOAH and dyes his hair and the monster awakens. Basically every big match from 2000-2009 is must see and he works in a lot of different styles within them. He can come in and slaughter your top guy like in the Nagata, Kobashi and Misawa matches. He can work as a bully against KENTA, Ogawa, Suwama, Nakamura, and Sugiura. He can get some egg on his face and get confused by different styles against KENTA, Ogawa and Nishimura too. He bleeds well. He escalates violence well. He fits my kind of wrestling I like to watch perfectly; "stiff, thought-out, intense, fast, and a little angry." I have no idea why people don't have him higher. Greatest monster heel ever, for my money.

[GOTNW]

As a concept of a pro-wrestler, Yoshihiro Takayama is easily top 5 of all time for me. A big man is one of the classic great pro wrestling tropes, but here's one who came up through the UWFi schol and will just murder people with huge knee lifts, forearm smashes, big boots and suplexes, like a love child of a threesome between Gary Albright, Pat Roach and Akira Maeda. You can't beat that.

So I've been having a blast rewatching some Takayama, and found myself somewhat surprised looking back at the rankings for the last GWE list where Takayama only finished #123, with guys like KENTA, Great Sasuke, Masanobu Fuchi, Dick Togo, Keiji Mutoh, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Hiroshi Hase all ranking above him. That's not to say I don't think at least some of the mentioned aren't great, but they have all had vocal detractors. I think his rating is more of a reflection of the demographic of voters than the quality of his work, because if his peak had been from 1992-1994 instead of ten years later, I cannot imagine him not ranking at least thirty places higher. You would think Takayama would have pretty universal appeal which would allow him to score a good placement, but apparently not.

There wasn't much discussion for him originally, and even then most of it went along the lines of „yeah great peak, didn't last too long, what was he doing in All Japan are there any hidden gems there?“. And that's really not a good way of looking at his career and illustrating exactly what kind of a run Takayama had in the 2000s. Without thinking too much, I can put a pretty solid list of super-fun Takayama matches I'd absolutely recommend everyone watch (see below).

Takayama as a monster behind whom Minoru Suzuki is hiding rules. Takayama versus big charismatic personalities (Tenzan, Chono, Muta) rules. Takayama versus overenthusiastic young wrestlers (KENTA, Morishima) rules. Takayama working King Kong vs Godzilla monster clashes (vs Nakanishi, Rikioh, Yoshie) rules. Takayama being the Tom to the Jerry of Ogawa, Inoue or Hashi in cat and mouse matches rules. Takayama fighting versus the greats of the time (Kobashi, Misawa, Kensuke Sasaki, Nagata, Sugiura) not only delivers but usually ends up being the best match his opponents had had in those periods.

At his best, Takayama is a special wrestler. The kind of special whom I turn to when I ask myself which wrestlers make watching wrestling special. And as the list illustrates, there is a lot of Takayama at his best. And maybe the best part is that it really isn't a comprehensive list and that there's more out there in that time period alone. I could easily see myself putting him above Kobashi, Kawada and Taue. So Top 10 isn't completely out of the question, though it's more likely I'll put him Top  20-30. Still, Takayama absolutely rules.

 

Recommended matches:

vs Izumida (NOAH 2001/3/22)
vs Misawa (NOAH 2001/4/15)
vs Morishima (NOAH 2001/11/30)
vs Hashi (NOAH 2002/2/10)
w/Omori vs Rikioh & Morishima (NOAH 2002/2/17)
vs Nagata (NJPW 2002/5/2)
vs Nakanishi (NJPW 2002/6/7)
vs Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW 2002/8/3)
vs Nishimura (NJPW 2002/08/10)
vs Chono (NJPW 2002/8/11)
vs Ogawa (NOAH 2002/9/7)
vs Misawa (NOAH 2002/9/23)
vs Tenzan (NJPW 2002/8/4)

vs Kohsaka (NJPW 2003/1/4)
vs Masao Inoue (NOAH 2003/3/1)
vs Rikioh (NOAH 2003/4/13)
w/Ikeda & Sugiura vs Kobashi, KENTA & Tamon Honda (NOAH 2003/05/09)
vs Morishima (NOAH 2003/6/6)
vs Tenzan (NJPW2003/6/10)
vs Nakamura (NJPW 2003/6/13)
vs Yoshie (NJPW 20038/14)
vs Shibata (NJPW 2003/8/15)
w/Sano vs Misawa & Rikioh (NOAH 2003/11/1)
w/Minoru Suzuki vs Genichiro Tenryu & Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW 2004/3/28)
vs Kobashi (NOAH 2004/4/25)
vs Shibata (NJPW 2004/3/12)
w/Izumida vs Rikioh & Morishima (NOAH 2004/6/23)
vs KENTA (NOAH 2004/6/27)
w/Minoru Suzuki vs Takeshi Rikioh & Takeshi Morishima (NOAH 7/10/2004)
vs Nakanishi (NJPW 2004/8/7)
vs Kensuke Sasaki (NJPW 2004/8/8)

w/Minoru Suzuki vs Yuji Nagata & Kazunari Murakami (BML 2006/6/18)
w/Sugiura vs Rikioh & Morishima (NOAH 2006/9/9)
w/Sano vs KENTA & Akitoshi Saito (NOAH 2006/10/13)
w/Kohei Sato v Shinjiro Ohtani & Takao Omori 2007 (2007/2/18)
w/Sugiura vs Akiyama & Rikio (NOAH 2007/4/28)
w/Kobashi vs Akiyama & Misawa (NOAH 2007/12/2)
vs Minoru Suzuki (Suzuki Produce 2008/6/17)
vs Masao Inoue (NOAH 2008/12/14)
vs Great Muta (AJPW 2009/3/14)
vs Suwama (AJPW 2009/8/30)
vs Sugiura (NOAH 2009/10/3)
vs Nakamura (NJPW 2010/1/4)
vs Sugiura (NOAH 2010/7/10)
vs KENTA (NOAH 2011/1/15)
vs Go Shiozaki (NOAH 2011/9/23)

 

 

[mmcoor]

His peak was incredible. At one point he was arguably the best wrestler in the world, but i think his early career has started to become overrated. Will probably be hovering around my 50 spot