Taka Michinoku

Taka Michinoku

Takao Yoshida (吉田 貴男, Yoshida Takao?) (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring 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 known in North America for his work for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) where he team up with Funaki they also form in stable name Kai En Tai. After losing at Backlash (2000) to APA. Vince MacMahon fired him and his partner funaki.

Professional wrestling career

Early Career

Taka Michinoku took his name as a sign of respect for his mentor The Great Sasuke, who was the owner of Michinoku Pro Wrestling and had been the first to use Michinoku as part of his ring name. He debuted in North America with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in a six-man tag team match at ECW's debut pay-per-view Barely Legal.

Moves

• Finishing moves
• Michinoku driver
• Michinoku Driver II, sometimes while using an inverted facelock for support — innovated
• Just Facelock (Bridging crossface)
• Signature moves
• Belly to back double underhook piledriver
• Hurricanrana
• Multiple kick variations
• Bicycle
• Drop, sometimes while springboarding
• Double foot stomp, sometimes while doing a back flip from the top rope
• Low drop
• Super
• Multiple moonsault variations
• Diving
• Springboard
• Springboard corkscrew,sometimes to an opponent outside the ring
• No–handed over the top rope suicide dive
• Powerbomb
• Springboard into either a dropkick or a knee drop
• Straight jacket sitout powerbomb pin
• Superkick
• Tornado DDT