| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1961-05-08)May 8, 1961 (age 64)[1] Chichibu, Saitama, Japan[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Akira Taue Tamakirin (sumo) |
| Billed height | 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 120 kg (265 lb)[1] |
| Trained by | |
| Debut | January 2, 1988 |
| Retired | December 7, 2013[2] |
Akira Taue (田上 明,Taue Akira; born May 8, 1961) is a Japanese retiredprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his runs inAll Japan Pro Wrestling andPro Wrestling Noah, where he worked for all of his career in both promotions.
A former sumo wrestler who went under the nameTamakirin Yasumasa (玉麒麟 安正,Tamakirin Yasumasa), he retired from sumo to make his debut in pro-wrestling, where he went under his real name. He is a formerTriple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a formerGHC Heavyweight Champion. He is one-half of theHoly Demon Army (聖鬼軍,Sei Ki Gun), alongsideToshiaki Kawada, where they won sixWorld Tag Team Championships and twoWorld's Strongest Tag Determination Leagues. In 1993, he was officially dubbed as one of the members of theFour Heavenly Kings (プロレスの四天王,Puroresu no shiten'nō) of AJPW, alongside Kawada,Mitsuharu Misawa, andKenta Kobashi.
| Tamakirin Yasumasa | |
|---|---|
| 玉麒麟 安正 | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | Akira Taue (1961-05-08)8 May 1961 (age 64) Saitama,Japan |
| Height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| Weight | 115 kg (254 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Oshiogawa |
| Record | 193-149-7 |
| Debut | January, 1980 |
| Highest rank | Jūryō 6 (January, 1987) |
| Retired | July, 1987 |
Last updated: Nov. 2021 | |
On the 8th of May, 1961 Akira Taue was born the eldest son of a construction worker, inSaitama, Japan. As a teenager and young adult in Kagemori Junior High School, Taue was quite active in various sports such asshotput,baseball andjudo. 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 theOshiogawa stable, and made his professional sumo debut, in January 1980. For the first six years of Taue's sumo career he went under his real name, until May 1986, when he was promoted to the rank ofjūryō, he was given theshikona ofTamakirin Yasumasa. He fought in the second highestjūryō division for seven tournaments before retiring from sumo in July 1987.
Taue made his debut on January 2, 1988 in a battle royal won byJohn Tenta. After his debut, Taue would mostly wrestle in the tag team division ofAJPW. During this time he along with Shinichi Nakano would win theAll Asia Tag Team Championship belts on June 5, 1990. After many from All Japan's roster would leave forGenichiro Tenryu's new promotion, theSWS, Taue would band withMitsuharu Misawa,Kenta Kobashi andToshiaki 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.
However, he became better known fortag team wrestling. He won his first championship, theAll Asia Tag Team Championship, with Shinichi Nakano on June 5, 1990. He won theWorld Tag Team Championship for the first time on March 4, 1992, teaming withJumbo Tsuruta. He formed a tag team withToshiaki Kawada, calledThe Holy Demon Army, a team which ended up holding the World Tag Team Championship6 times. The team split when Taue left AJPW forMitsuharu Misawa's newPro Wrestling Noahpromotion in August 2000, while Kawada decided to stay.
In Noah Taue continued tag team wrestling, teaming mostly withTakuma Sano. On November 5, 2005, Taue was able to defeatTakeshi Rikio with hisOre ga Tauefinisher to capture theGHC Heavyweight Championship, which he held into the new year before losing it toJun 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, andGenba Hirayanagi defeatedGenichiro Tenryu,Tatsumi Fujinami,Masao Inoue, andKentaro 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.
In June 2017, after studying withMitsuhiro 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 agastrectomy after discovering the cancer during an examination.[5]
| Year | January Hatsu basho,Tokyo | March Haru basho,Osaka | May Natsu basho,Tokyo | July Nagoya basho,Nagoya | September Aki basho,Tokyo | November Kyūshū basho,Fukuoka |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | (Maezumo) | East Jonokuchi #14 Sat out due to injury 0–0–7 | (Maezumo) | East Jonokuchi #30 6–1 | West Jonidan #87 6–1 | West Jonidan #22 6–1 |
| 1981 | East Sandanme #59 6–1 | West Sandanme #13 2–5 | East Sandanme #37 4–3 | West Sandanme #23 3–4 | East Sandanme #34 3–4 | West Sandanme #44 5–2 |
| 1982 | East Sandanme #21 4–3 | East Sandanme #10 4–3 | West Makushita #60 4–3 | East Makushita #48 2–5 | West Sandanme #13 6–1 | East Makushita #40 3–4 |
| 1983 | West Makushita #49 2–5 | East Sandanme #18 3–4 | West Sandanme #36 6–1 | West Makushita #53 5–2 | West Makushita #33 5–2 | East Makushita #19 3–4 |
| 1984 | West Makushita #27 5–2 | East Makushita #14 3–4 | East Makushita #21 2–5 | West Makushita #40 4–3 | East Makushita #29 3–4 | West Makushita #43 4–3 |
| 1985 | West Makushita #30 6–1 | East Makushita #11 2–5 | West Makushita #32 5–2 | East Makushita #19 3–4 | East Makushita #26 5–2 | West Makushita #14 5–2 |
| 1986 | West Makushita #6 5–2 | East Makushita #2 5–2 | West Jūryō #12 7–8 | East Makushita #1 4–3 | East Jūryō #13 9–6 | West Jūryō #9 8–7 |
| 1987 | West Jūryō #6 6–9 | East Jūryō #10 7–8 | East Jūryō #11 7–8 | West Jūryō #13 Retired 0–0 | x | x |
| Record given aswins–losses–absences Top division champion Top division runner-up Retired Lower divisions Non-participation Sanshō key:F=Fighting spirit;O=Outstanding performance;T=Technique Also shown:★=Kinboshi;P=Playoff(s) | ||||||
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,Internet Wrestling Database