00:04Yoshihiro Takayama
00:05Born September 19, 1966
00:08As a Japanese former professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, Takayama first became known for his toughness after he began
00:17competing in mixed martial arts, when he took part in one of the most famous fights in MMA history, at
00:23Pride 21 against Don Frye.
00:25Through his career Takayama had several career-threatening injuries, including a stroke after a match against Kensuke Sasaki in 2004.
00:34Takayama's career ended with a spinal cord injury in May 2017, which left him temporarily paralyzed from the shoulders down.
00:42A former rugby player, kendoka and lifeguard, Takayama started his professional wrestling career for shoot-style promotion Union of Wrestling
00:50Forces International.
00:51After UWFI's subsequent collapse he joined Kingdom, but after it also collapsed he joined All Japan Pro Wrestling as a
00:59free agent along with former UWFI comrade Masahito Kakihara.
01:03In the beginning, Takayama was put in a feud with Toshiaki Kawada. During the first few months of NOAA's existence,
01:11Takayama competed in the first ever GHC Heavyweight Championship tournament, but lost to Mitsuharu Misawa in the final match.
01:19He found continued success in NOAA, winning the new GHC Tag Team Championship with Takao Omori too.
01:26It was around 2001 that spurred by his old UWFI comrade's success in the Pride fighting circuit, Takayama decided to
01:34try his hand at mixed martial arts competition.
01:37He also competed in memorable NOAA matches during 2002, winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship from Yoshinari Ogawa on September 7
01:46before losing it to Mitsuharu Misawa later that month.
01:50In 2001, Takayama declared free agency from NOAA so he could pursue MMA.
01:55Takayama was injured at DDT's Toyonaka Love Story 2017 event on May 4th, 2017, when he landed on his head
02:04when attempting a sunset flip on Yasu Urano during a six-man match pitting Takayama, Kazusada Higuchi and Shunma Katsumata
02:12against Urano, Harashima and Soma Takao.
02:15The match was ended immediately and Takayama was rushed to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cervical spinal
02:21cord injury due to degenerative cervical spondylosis.
02:24For the following months, Takayama remained bedridden and was being taken care of by his wife and son, while the
02:31public was left unaware of the extent of his injury.
02:34On August 6th, it was reported that the injury had left Takayama paralyzed from the neck down, ending his pro
02:40wrestling career, with scarified his life as pro wrestler.
02:44Now he deserved to be in the ECW Hall of Fame class of 2026.
03:02Shuddersock Music
03:03Shuddersock Music
03:03You
