Former WWE UK Champion Tyler Bate recently twitter out his best wishes to Japanese Wrestler Yoshihiro Takayama, who was severely injured during a DDT show on May 6th and appears to now be paralyzed from the neck down.
Takayama is one of the few people in Japan to have held all three major titles as he held the IWGP Heavyweight Title (For New Japan), The Triple Crown Title (For All Japan), and the GHC Title (For NOAH). A former Rugby player and practitioner of kendo, Takayama started in pro wrestling in 1992 for the shoot-style promotion UWFI under Nobuhiko Takada. He later wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling before moving to NOAH and New Japan as a freelance wrestler. He also dabbled in MMA fights in 2001 and 2002 for Pride fighting, where he had a record of 1-4. His most famous fight was against Don Frye in what many fans consider the greatest fight of the Pride Fighting Organization’s history.
Takayama has been with the DDT promotion since last year and was one-half of the KO-D Tag Team Champions when the injury occurred. As is very similar to Tomoaki Honma’s injury a few months ago, Takayama’s injury was from a bad landing off a DDT move. It has been announced that Takayama’s career is over and that his family is collecting donations to help with the 50-year-old’s care.
We at Allwrestling.com wish him and his family the best of wishes for the road that lies ahead.