Takao Yoshida (吉田 貴男, Yoshida Takao; born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name Taka Michinoku (TAKAみちのく; stylized as TAKA Michinoku), is a Japanese professional wrestler, trainer, and former mixed martial artist. He primarily appears for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He was a member of Suzuki-gun from 2011 until its disbandment in 2022. He was then a member of Just 5 Guys from 2023 until its disbandment in 2025. He established the promotion JTO in 2019.
Michinoku became known in North America for his work for the WWF (now WWE), where he was the inaugural WWF Light Heavyweight Champion. He is the founder and former head of Kaientai Dojo (now Active Advance Pro Wrestling), where he also primarily wrestled until 2019. Having held championship titles all around Asia, Europe, and North America, he is known for his long title reigns.
Michinoku held the FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Title for a combined duration of more than 15 months, the WWF Light Heavyweight Title for a record-setting 10 months, and the WEW Six-Man Tag Team Title for almost a year. He held the World Junior Heavyweight Championship, Michinoku Pro Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship, and Kaientai Dojo Strongest-K Championship simultaneously for almost 10 months.
Takao Yoshida was born in Morioka on October 26, 1973.
Yoshida was trained by The Great Sasuke and Gran Hamada. He adopted the ring name Taka Michinoku out of respect for The Great Sasuke, who was the owner of Michinoku Pro Wrestling and had also used "Michinoku" as part of his ring name. He debuted at a Wrestling International New Generations and Michinoku Pro Wrestling joint event on September 4, 1992, teaming up with The Great Sasuke in a losing effort against Super Delfin and Terry Boy. He would later move to Federacion Universal De Lucha Libre and debuted by teaming with Buffalo Chohe to defeat Mongolian Yuga and Shiryu. He debuted for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in a six-man tag team match at Summer Spectacular in 1993 and would primarily compete at MPW, UWF, and FMW in his early career.
His debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling came during Super J-Cup 1994 and was eliminated from the competition in the first round by Black Tiger. He competed in Best of the Super Juniors 1994 and only gained two points therefore losing the tournament. He also went up against Super Delfin for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship and had a J-Crown Title #1 Contendership match with Koji Kanemoto, both of which he lost.
Michinoku's first title reign came in the form of the FMW Independent Junior Heavyweight Championship, which he won by defeating Koji Nakagawa on May 5, 1996. He would lose the title to El Satanico after holding the title for one year and one month and defeating fellow young wrestlers Minoru Tanaka, Naohiro Hoshikawa and Hayato Nanjyo, he would later regain the championship two months later. He would vacate the championship to focus on the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1997, 1999)
Michinoku made his ECW and American debut on February 14, 1997, in a match where he teamed with Dick Togo & Terry Boy to defeat Gran Hamada, Gran Naniwa & The Great Sasuke. This three on three feud lasted until ECW Barely Legal 1997 Gran Hamada, Masato Yakushiji & The Great Sasuke would defeat the trio. This was also Michinoku's first pay per view appearance. After this Michinoku left the company to join the World Wrestling Federation.
In 1999 Michinoku would return at ECW Cyberslam 1999 defeating Papi Chulo. He also wrestled Super Crazy at Hardcore Heaven 1999. Other matches include two tag matches teaming with Yoshihiro Tajiri, a Hardcore Heaven rematch with Super Crazy ending In another victory for Super Crazy, a loss against Jerry Lynn & his last two matches for ECW was in the form of two wins against Mosco de la Merced.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (1997)
While competing in ECW and then in WWF, Michinoku also had a spell in CMLL in 1997, competing as a tecnico. In that period, two other Japanese wrestlers wrestled in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, namely Ultimo Dragon and Yoshihiro Tajiri. Michinoku fought between the others The Headhunters and Val Venis, at the time using the mask of Steele. In the summer of 1997, both Taka Michinoku and Yoshihiro Tajiri moved to World Wrestling Federation.
World Wrestling Federation (1997–2001)
Light Heavyweight Champion (1997–1998)
He made his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut on July 6, 1997, at the WWF pay-per-view In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede losing to The Great Sasuke but getting a huge reaction from the crowd. He lost a rematch to Sasuke the following night on Raw. Taka was part of the Light Heavyweight division. He was entered in the WWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament where the winner would become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, he beat Devon Storm in the quarterfinal, Aguila in the semifinal. On December 7, 1997, Michinoku defeated Brian Christopher at D-Generation X: In Your House to become the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion recognized by the WWF. Taka successfully defended the WWF Light Heavyweight Title at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House against Pantera, at WrestleMania XIV against Aguila and against multiple different opponents on Raw is War and Shotgun Saturday Night. After holding the title for more than 10 months, Michinoku lost the title to Christian at Judgment Day: In Your House on October 18.
Taka started to become "Americanised" and on Raw, he teamed with Bradshaw and segments where shown of Taka and Bradshaw doing generalised and stereotyped American activities. He was attacked by Kai En Tai for unknown reasons, and their alliance with Taka in Japan was not mentioned. Taka began feuding with Kai En Tai. Michinoku would team up with Bradshaw to take on Dick Togo, Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki at Over the Edge: In Your House only to be defeated. He would then also team up with The Headbangers to defeat Togo, Teioh & Funaki at King of the Ring. With Kai En Tai also feuding with Val Venis the pair teamed up to take on Togo and Funaki in a tag team match, Taka made a swerve, however, by turning against Venis, proclaiming that Mrs. Yamaguchi-San was his sister. Venis was dragged backstage by Kaientai to be castrated, though the audience did not see what happened next. A few weeks later Michinoku was involved in a gauntlet match with Togo, Teioh and Funaki to defeat Venis. Michinoku once again teamed up with Togo, Teioh and Funaki to go against The Oddities (Giant Silva, Golga & Kurrgan) at SummerSlam 1998 only to lose the match. With Kai En Tai in 1998 he had multiple chances to become a champion, going up against Christian and Duane Gill for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and X-Pac for the WWF European Championship.
After Togo, Teioh and both Yamaguchis left the WWF, Michinoku and Funaki began wrestling as a tag team using the name Kaientai. They were primarily comedy jobbers, best known for their "Indeed!" skits in which voices in English were dubbed by Bruce Prichard into their promos while they badly lip-synced. Their first tag team match together came in the form of a loss to the Hardy Boyz. At WrestleMania 2000 the pair were part of a hardcore battle royal for the WWF Hardcore Championship, Funaki even became the Hardcore champion for a small amount of time however Michinoku never held the title. Taka's biggest venture in WWF came when he challenged Triple H for the WWF Championship on the April 10, 2000 edition of Raw, coming up short despite interference on his behalf from Funaki and the Acolytes Protection Agency. In 2000 they had a chance to become the number one contenders for the WWF World Tag Team Championship in a number one contendership battle royal in which The APA won. In 2001 Kaientai took on the Dudley Boyz for the WWF Tag Team Championship but failed to capture them. In 2000 and 2001 Michinoku had multiple opportunities to become the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion taking on Dean Malenko, Jeff Hardy and others. In their last match together Michinoku and Funaki defeated Justin Credible and Raven on the October 20, 2001 edition of WWF Jakked. Michinoku suffered a shoulder injury and left the WWF in late 2001.