is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

and

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...

, primarily working for

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. History Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasak ...

(BJW) in the Deathmatch division. Takeda also competes as a freelancer for Freedoms and occasionally,

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

(AJPW).

Early life

While in junior high school, Takeda discovered

deathmatch wrestling Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow the use of numerous items, inclu ...

and mixed martial arts, becoming a huge fan of both. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the U-File Camp, training for a career in MMA. After receiving some pro wrestling training from Jun Kasai, Takeda debuted as a wrestler for Style-E in January 2007.

Professional wrestling career

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (2008–present)

Takeda debuted in BJW on May 23, 2008, teaming with Kankuro Hoshino in a loss to Craig Classic and

Masada Masada ( he, מְצָדָה ', "fortress") is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dea ...

. In October of that year, he competed in his first ever deathmatch, teaming with

Shuji Ishikawa is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, World Tag Team Champion and the winner of the 2017 Champion Carnival. Ishikawa is also known f ...

and

Ryuji Ito (born April 8, 1976) is a Japanese professional wrestler currently competing in Big Japan Pro Wrestling in the Deathmatch division. He is well known for his death match style of wrestling. Career Big Japan Pro Wrestling (1999–present) It ...

in a loss to Saboru Inematsu,

Jaki Numazawa is a Japanese professional wrestler best known by his stage name . He currently wrestles for Big Japan Pro Wrestling in the Deathmatch division, where he has held the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship on one occasion. Personal life Numazaw ...

and mentor Jun Kasai. In early 2009, Takeda teamed with

Isami Kodaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Pro-Wrestling Basara (Basara). He originally started his career in the Kaientai Dojo (K-Dojo) promotion in July 2002, but later left the promotion to become a freelancer, before signing w ...

in the Maximum Tag League, winning his first deathmatch on March 26, when he and Kodaka defeated Numazawa and Kasai. The two finished first in their block with 6 points, allowing them to advance to the semi-finals where they defeated Block A runners-up Ryuji Ito and Shuji Ishikawa. In the final, Takeda and Kodaka wrestled Takashi Sasaki and Yuko Miyamoto to a draw in a Fluorescent Lighttubes Tower Of Death Match, but defeated them in overtime to become the new BJW Tag Team Champions. Takeda and Kodaka held the championships until July, dropping them to

Daisuke Sekimoto (born February 9, 1981) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He is also known for his appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max. He is a three-time BJW World Strong Heavyw ...

and

Yuji Okabayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He has been working in BJW since his debut in June 2008. He is best known as part of a tag team with Daisuke Sekimoto, with whom he ...

in their first defence. That same month, Takeda won the D-Dash Tournament, defeating Shinya Ishikawa in the final, and unsuccessfully challenged Yuko Miyamoto for the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship in a scaffold deathmatch. In December, Takeda teamed with Takuma Obe in the D-Dash Tag Tournament, making it to the semi-finals before being eliminated by Ryuichi Kawakami and Shinya Ishikawa. Takeda again challenged for the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship in July 2010, this time losing to Ryuji Ito in a glass and fluorescent light tubes alpha deathmatch. In early 2011, Takeda participated in the Ikkitosen Death Survival Tournament, finishing first in his block with 6 points, but losing to Takashi Sasaki in the final. Takeda received his third opportunity at the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship in February 2012, losing to Abdullah Kobayashi in an Open Finger Gloves Spike Nail Deathmatch. Takeda made his debut outside of Japan in June 2013, losing to

Combat Zone Wrestling Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is an American independent wrestling promotion. In 1998, John Zandig and five of his students, Ric Blade, T.C.K, Lobo, Nick Gage and Justice Pain, along with trainer Jon Dahmer, began to run professional wrestling sh ...

(CZW)'s

Drake Younger Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

in a deathmatch in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Takeda unsuccessfully challenged for the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship for the fourth time on June 30, losing to Shuji Ishikawa. In February 2014, while riding his motorcycle, Takeda was involved in an accident, injuring his ankle and missing 4 months of action. He wrestled his return match on June 14, losing to

Danny Havoc Grant Amos Berkland (May 19, 1986 – May 31, 2020), better known by his ring name Danny Havoc, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his work in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), and was noted for mixing his technical style wi ...

in the first round of the 2014 Tournament Of Death for CZW in the United States. Takeda received his 5th opportunity at the Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship in August, losing to Yuko Miyamoto. In early 2015, Takeda again participated in the Ikkitosen Survival Tournament, finishing first in his block with 8 points but losing to Abdullah Kobayashi in the final. On August 19, 2017, Takeda defeated Masaya Takahashi to win the

BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship The is a title contested for in the Japanese promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audien ...

for the first time in his career.

All Japan Pro Wrestling (2016–present)

Beginning in May 2016, Takeda began making appearances for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). On May 25, Takeda unsuccessfully challenged

Atsushi Aoki was a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as a wrestler, president of talent relations and head trainer at their dojo. Aoki began his career in Pro Wrestling Noah in 2005, where he went on to become a two ...

for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. In August, Takeda gained his biggest win in All Japan to date when he teamed with Nextream (Jake Lee and

Kento Miyahara is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is the current six time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. He was trained by Kensuke Sasaki and started his career in his Kensuke Office promotion ...

) to defeat

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

(

Suwama is a Japanese professional wrestler better known simply as . He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a former record eight-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and a seven-time World Tag Team Champion. He is also ...

and Aoki) and Super Tiger. On October 15, Takeda and Atsushi Maruyama unsuccessfully challenged Evolution (Aoki and

Hikaru Sato is a Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, better known by the ring name . Sato started his MMA career in February 2000, fighting for Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling. During the next eight years, Sato fought, on average, five time ...

) for the

All Asia Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team title in Japanese promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). It was created on November 16, 1955, in the Japan Wrestling Association (JWA) when King Kong Czaya and Tiger Joginder Singh defeated JWA founder ...

Mixed martial arts record

Championships and accomplishments

** Jr. Tag Battle of Glory (

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

) – with

Atsushi Maruyama is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). He previously worked for Osaka Pro Wrestling under the ring name . His ring name and original wrestling attire were inspired by the Hanshin Tigers baseba ...

(1 time) ** BJW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with

** Saikyo Tag League (

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

) – with Isami Kodaka *Dotonbori Pro Wrestling **WDW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with

*Desastre Total Ultraviolento **DTU World Extreme Championship (1 time) *Guts World Pro Wrestling **

GWC 6-Man Tag Team Championship The is a six-person tag team title established in 2006 by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion . After the promotion folded in 2018, the titles moved to Ganbare☆Pro-Wrestling, a sub-brand of DDT Pro-Wrestling. In June 2021, the tit ...

( 3 times) – with Masato Shibata and Kotaro Nasu (1), Daisuke and Kankuro Hoshino (1) and Daisuke and Bungee Takada (1) *

Game Changer Wrestling Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), formerly known as Jersey Championship Wrestling (JCW), is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in New Jersey. The promotion was originally founded by Ricky Otazu in 1999, it was rebranded un ...

** GCW Ultraviolent Championship (1 time) **GCW Nick Gage Invitational 3 *Japan Indie Awards **Best Bout Award (2017) vs. Masaya Takahashi on December 17 *Pro Wrestling A-Team **

WEW Tag Team Championship The WEW (World Entertainment Wrestling) World Tag Team Championship is a tag team professional wrestling championship formerly contested in the Japanese promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and World Entertainment Wrestling and currently co ...

(1 time) – with

Tomohiko Hashimoto is a Japanese professional wrestler and former judoka and mixed martial artist, best known for his time with Dramatic Dream Team (DDT), where he competed as a mainstay from 2000 to 2006. After working as a freelancer on the Japanese independent c ...

Pro Wrestling Freedoms often stylized in capital letters as FREEDOMS is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. Founded by Takashi Sasaki in 2009, the promotion lets wrestlers choose their own fighting style, having the "freedom" of ch ...

King of Freedom World Championship The King of Freedom World Championship, also referred to as the , is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Freedoms. It is the top title of the company and is usually disputed in death ...

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) **King of Freedom Tag Team Championship (1 time) **Jun Kasai Deathmatch Tournament (2013) *

Pro Wrestling Zero1 (stylized as Pro Wrestling ZERO1), formerly known as Pro Wrestling Zero-One and Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max (stylised in all capital letters) and often referred to simply as Zero1, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2001. I ...

** Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with

Yuko Miyamoto is a Japanese professional wrestler. He originally started his career in Wrestling Marvelous Future in August 2003, but later left the promotion and in 2004, signed with Dark Pro-Wrestling 666 (666). Miyamoto has since appeared in Big Japan Pro W ...

*Style-E **Style-E Openweight Championship (1 time)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Takeda, Masashi Japanese male professional wrestlers Living people 1985 births Japanese male mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing wrestling 21st-century professional wrestlers WEW World Tag Team Champions BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champions BJW Tag Team Champions