316. Nobuhiko Takada

Despite how much respect that many American wrestling fans have towards Japanese grapplers, it is hard to get noticed if you remain exclusively in Japan. For many wrestling fans, Nobuhiko Takada may be the best wrestler from Asia that they never heard of.

A legitimate shooter whose style was too stiff even for Japan, Takada was part of the movement to more realistic wrestling matches and formed his own promotion. After it folded, Takada returned to New Japan and would become the Heavyweight Champion there and drew many fans in the process. After dabbling in Mixed Martial Arts, Takada did a complete 180 and became the president of the cartoonish HUSTLE promotion performing as the evil General Takada, which actually favored entertainment over wrestling.

Should Nobuhiko Takada be in the Hall of Fame?

Definitely put him in! - 6.3%

Maybe, but others deserve it first. - 6.3%

Probably not, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. - 25%

No opinion. - 6.3%

No way! - 56.3%

The Bullet Points

Other Aliases: General Takada
Billed From: Yokohama, Japan
Key Championships Held: IWGP Junior Heavyweight
IWGP World Tag Team w/Akira Maeda
UWFI World Heavyweight (2)
IWGP World Heavyweight
Why they will get in: Japanese shootfighting anyone?
Why they won't get in: Japanese shootfighting?
Five Greatest Matches/Moments: 1. Defeated Shiro Koshinaka for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title (5/19/86)
2. With Akira Maeda, won the IWGP Tag Team Belts (3/26/87)
3. Defeated Super Vader in front of 40,000 in his UWFI promoiton (12/5/93)
4. Won the IWGP World Heavyweight Title from Keiji Mutoh at the Tokyo Dome (1/4/96)
5. Lost the belt at the Dome to Shinya Hashimoto (4/29/96)