Akira Taue

Akira Taue (田上 明, Taue Akira) (born May 8, 1961) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. He is also a former AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and has had fourteen 5 Star Matches as awarded by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Akira Taue
Born (1961-05-08) May 8, 1961[1]
Chichibu, Saitama, Japan[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Akira Taue
Tamakirin (sumo)
Billed height1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)[1]
Billed weight120 kg (265 lb)[1]
Trained byGiant Baba

Jumbo Tsuruta

Kazuharu Sonoda
DebutJanuary 2, 1988
RetiredDecember 7, 2013[2]

Early Life and Sumo Career

On the 8th of May, 1961 Akira Taue was born the eldest son of a construction worker, in Saitama, Japan. As a teenager and young adult in Kagemori Junior High School, Taue was quite active in various sports such as shotput, baseball and judo. After graduating Taue would work as a part time auto-mechanic, while attending the Saitama Prefectural Chichibu High School. There Taue was sent a recommendation for the high school's sumo club. He joined the club in his second year of high school, and he won the third place in the national sumo high school championship.

Taue was then invited in the Oshiogawa stable, and made his professional sumo debut, in January of 1980.For the first six years of Taue's sumo career he went under his real name, until May of 1986, when he was promoted to the rank of Juryo, he was given the shikona of Tamakirin Yasumasa. He fought in the second highest juryo division for seven tournaments before retiring from sumo in July 1987.

Professional wrestling career

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1988–2000)

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After his debut, Taue would mostly wrestle in the tag team division of All Japan. During this time he along with Shinichi Nakano would win the All Asia Tag Team Championship belts on June 5th, 1990. After many from All Japan's roster would leave for Genichiro Tenryu's new promotion, the SWS, Taue would band with Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kawada to form the Super Generation Army. Soon after their formation, Taue would defect to Jumbo Tsuruta's stable, otherwise known as Tsuruta-gun. The ensuing rivalry between the Super Generation Army and Tsuruta-gun would produce all time tag team, and 6-man tag team classic matches. On September 30th, 1990, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter would award Taue and Tsuruta versus Misawa and Kawada, 5 stars.

However, he became better known for tag team wrestling. He won his first championship, the All Asia Tag Team Championship, with Shinichi Nakano on June 5, 1990. He won the World Tag Team Championship for the first time on March 4, 1992, teaming with Jumbo Tsuruta. He formed a tag team with Toshiaki Kawada, called The Holy Demon Army, a team which ended up holding the World Tag Team Championship 6 times. The team split when Taue left AJPW for Mitsuharu Misawa's new Pro Wrestling Noah promotion in August 2000, while Kawada decided to stay.

Pro Wrestling Noah (2000–2017)

In Noah Taue continued tag team wrestling, teaming mostly with Takuma Sano. On November 5, 2005, Taue was able to defeat Takeshi Rikio with his Ore ga Taue finisher to capture the GHC Heavyweight Championship, which he held into the new year before losing it to Jun Akiyama on January 22, 2006.

On June 27, 2009, following the June 13 death of Mitsuharu Misawa, Akira Taue was appointed as the new president of Pro Wrestling Noah. On May 12, 2013, Taue announced that he would be officially retiring from the ring in December.[3] On December 7, 2013, Taue wrestled his retirement match, where he, Takeshi Morishima, Takashi Sugiura, and Genba Hirayanagi defeated Genichiro Tenryu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Masao Inoue, and Kentaro Shiga, with Taue pinning Inoue for the final win of his career.[2]

Taue served as the Noah president until November 1, 2016, when the company was sold to IT development company Estbee, after which he was given the new role of an advisor.[4] He would resign from his position in February 2017.

Retirement

In June 2017, after studying with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Taue opened his own steakhouse in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, called Steak Izakaya Champ, where he personally cuts and cooks the steak, as well as greeting customers.

On August 22, 2018, Taue announced at a press conference that he was battling stomach cancer. The diagnosis came from when he was originally hospitalized from a fall at his home on March 2 that caused bleeding from the stomach, which required an emergency blood transfusion. He also revealed that on April 16, he underwent a gastrectomy after discovering the cancer during an examination.[5]

Championships and accomplishments

References
  1. "田上 明 (Taue Akira) (profile)" (in Japanese). Pro Wrestling NOAH. Archived from the original on 21 December 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  2. "Great Voyage 2013 in Tokyo vol.2～田上明引退記念大会～". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
  3. "「方舟新章」5月12日(日) 後楽園ホール大会 田上社長会見の模様". Noah.co.jp. Retrieved 2016-05-12.
  4. ノア正式発表 ＩＴ企業「エストビー」に事業譲渡. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 2016-11-01. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  5. Former Professional Wrestler Akira Taue talks Stomach Cancer & Rehabilitation Through Total Removal Surgery
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. http://prowrestlinghistory.com/
  8. "Nikkan Sports Awards - 2005". wrestlingscout. February 22, 2016.
  9. "Internet Wrestling Database - Akira Taue: Pro Wrestling Illustrated Ratings". www.profightdb.com. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  10. Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 100 Tag Teams of the PWI Years retrieved October 7, 2018
  11. "The Great Hisa's Puroresu Dojo: Puroresu Awards: 1990s". Puroresu Dojo.
  12. "【プロレス大賞：功労賞】田上「三沢さんが安心するノアにする」". Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 2014-12-09. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
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