Nobuhiko Takada

[Necro]

Championships and accomplishments

• New Japan Pro-Wrestling
  • IWGP Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Akira Maeda
• Nikkan Sports
  • Match of The Year (1996) vs. Shinya Hashimoto on April 29[28]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 27 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1995[29]
  • Ranked No. 43 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003[30]
  • Ranked No. 13 of the 100 best tag teams during the PWI Years with Akira Maeda in 2003[31]
• Tokyo Sports
  • Best Tag Team of the Year (1986) – with Shiro Koshinaka[32]
  • Effort Award (1983)[32]
  • Match of the Year (1996) – vs. Genichiro Tenryu on September 11[32]
  • Wrestler of the Year (1992)[32]
• Union of Wrestling Forces International
  • Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
• Wrestle Association R
  • WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Naoki Sano and Masahito Kakihara
  • WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament (1996) – with Naoki Sano and Masahito Kakihara
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Best Technical Wrestler (1987)
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Theme



Vader vs. Takada. NWA Championship Match




Bob Backlund vs. Nobuhiko Takada UWF Japanese Wrestling




Nobuhiko Takada vs Masahito Kakihara 18.06.1995




Abdullah The Butcher vs. Nobuhiko Takada

 

[Josh Drake]

His MMA career is disappointing to say the least, but he his one of the most underrated workers of the business, because he barely got any time on the big stage.

 

[GARBAGE]

His MMA career is disappointing to say the least, but he his one of the most underrated workers of the business, because he barely got any time on the big stage.

Takada was, like, a really big star and was often in the main event of UWF by the late 80s, and almost always in the main event UWFi (the promotion he co-founded) throughout the 90s, and had crossover big matches with even boxers and American stars like Vader. His match with Mutoh in 1995 drew the single biggest attendance and gate in Japanese wrestling history at the time, and he only barely missed topping it vs. Hashimoto in 1996. He well and truly got time on the big stage.

 

[Josh Drake]

Takada was, like, a really big star and was often in the main event of UWF by the late 80s, and almost always in the main event UWFi (the promotion he co-founded) throughout the 90s, and had crossover big matches with even boxers and American stars like Vader. His match with Mutoh in 1995 drew the single biggest attendance and gate in Japanese wrestling history at the time, and he only barely missed topping it vs. Hashimoto in 1996. He well and truly got time on the big stage.

UWFi isn't exactly NJPW, hence why 'didn't get much time on the big stage'.

 

[GARBAGE]

UWFi isn't exactly NJPW, hence why 'didn't get much time on the big stage'.

I guess if you consider the big stage to be the biggest stage, but it still drew some really big crowds every now and then; like 40,000+ people. WWE don't even draw that outside of some Rumbles and WrestleManias. There's a reason pairing him up with Mutoh/Hashimoto drew that much interest to begin with. W-wait you know what I've never even liked Takada, carry on. o_o

 

[Josh Drake]

There's a reason pairing him up with Mutoh/Hashimoto drew that much interest to begin with.

It can't possibly be because of the NJPW stars that they brought in to draw interest, and if Takada was really that over, why didn't companies such as AJPW, WCW, or WWF ever consider hiring him? It wasn't like an Atsushi Onita type of deal where he was too controversial. You're overexaggerating things to the highest degree, and attendances don't prove much of anything especially when you consider the fact that promotions such as AJPW regularly book city gyms that are clearly beneath their stature. Does that make AJPW worse than UWFi? No. Because in the end, AJPW still has the finances. The same is pretty much true of NJPW, so just because UWFi on their best day can manage to draw 40,000 people with talent they borrowed from a far superior company does not make them a big stage. It's like saying CHIKARA is almost as big as WWE because they once booked Triple H on their show.

W-wait you know what I've never even liked Takada, carry on. o_o

And of course you resort to petty insults when professionally confronted with facts, just like Grim, no wonder I'm leaving this site after my WWF BTB is finished.

 

[GARBAGE]

(A) My point was Takada vs. Mutoh and Hashimoto drew record crowds and why would those matches even be booked on such a grand stage if Takada wasn't a big time performer? Hashimoto vs. Mutoh didn't even draw that much in 95, and Takada even sold out the arena facing Gary Albright. I have no clue what you're getting at by asking why WCW or WWF wouldn't have grabbed him. I mean I never said he was Hulk Hogan or anything but it's not like Vince looked at the crowds Hashimoto was drawing and said "we NEED that guy!" He'd be a super weird fit.

(B) If attendance isn't a big stage, then what is? Would it be a bigger stage if Takada worked in the seven minute opener of 2k crowd AJPW shows than 35k vs. Vader in the main event of a UWFi show? I never even said UWFi was bigger than AJ or NJ. They can all be big stages. Is AEW not a big stage currently?

(C) I was not even remotely trying to insult you...? I unironically have never liked Takada as a wrestler and don't really feel the need to actually defend the guy himself. But a star is a star and Takada was a star.

 

[Makai Club]

Takada was maybe the biggest star in the Japan in the 90s in one of the biggest promotions of the decade. He definitely was on a big stage. That's just a fact. It's not like 90s Japan was just New Japan drawing houses. Takada was selling out Ryogoku, Budokan Hall and other big arenas alongside New Japan.

And I'm pretty sure it was reported All Japan did have plans to bring Takada in when it looked like UWFi was dying. And I don't know why WCW is involved in this conversation. Until 96 (when Takada left wrestling), WCW weren't selling out their own shows unlike UWFi

 

[Chris]

Where was an insult lol

 

[Grimoire Lenin]

It can't possibly be because of the NJPW stars that they brought in to draw interest, and if Takada was really that over, why didn't companies such as AJPW, WCW, or WWF ever consider hiring him? It wasn't like an Atsushi Onita type of deal where he was too controversial. You're overexaggerating things to the highest degree, and attendances don't prove much of anything especially when you consider the fact that promotions such as AJPW regularly book city gyms that are clearly beneath their stature. Does that make AJPW worse than UWFi? No. Because in the end, AJPW still has the finances. The same is pretty much true of NJPW, so just because UWFi on their best day can manage to draw 40,000 people with talent they borrowed from a far superior company does not make them a big stage. It's like saying CHIKARA is almost as big as WWE because they once booked Triple H on their show.


And of course you resort to petty insults when professionally confronted with facts, just like Grim, no wonder I'm leaving this site after my WWF BTB is finished.

Keep my name out of your mouth from now on, son. You lied about me and everyone could see it plain as day, why do you think not even KIF argued that. So how dare you accuse me of insulting you when you insulted everyone's intelligence.

And I don't ever want to see you use being Autistic as a defense for acting the way you are ever again. I *am* autistic as well, and I don't go around acting like everything is a personal attack against me when you've never been named. So you wanna leave, fine, get the fuck out and never come back, because nobody is going to ever miss you.