Akira Maeda
(0 users) Thumb
Image Source: Unknown report
Data Complete 70%
Born
1959 (67 years old)
Osaka, JapanPosition
Wrestler
Status
Active
Ethnicity
Asian
Team Number
Height
1.92 m
Weight
115 kg
Outfitter
Kit
Wage Year
Player Cutout
Player Cartoon
Full Body Render
Sport
FightingTeam
RINGS Japan
2nd Team
League
RINGS
Creative Commons Artwork
No
Description
Akira Maeda (前田 日明, Maeda Akira) is a Japanese Professional Wrestler and Mixed Martial Arts promoter, best known for his role in the Japanese shoot-style wrestling chronicle and posterior MMA boom. Formerly a Kyokushin Karate competitor, he debuted in 1978 for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and revealed as a promising rookie, traveling to England to wrestle there under the name of "Kwik-Kick-Lee", in storyline Bruce Lee's cousin. Eventually he left with Satoru Sayama, Nobuhiko Takada and other wrestlers to form Universal Wrestling Federation, pioneering the realistic shoot movement. However, he caused the fall of the promotion when shot on Sayama during a match due to an early disagreement. Upon their return to New Japan, he and Takada became the young leaders of a shoot invasion, gaining the IWGP Tag Team Championship with him and fellow shooter Osamu Kido. Maeda gained extreme amounts of popularity and was even considered to replace main star Antonio Inoki, but Inoki vetoed the idea and Maeda left again, not without shooting on another wrestler. After another failed incarnation of UWF, Maeda contacted Russian sambo fighters and Dutch kickboxers and created Fighting Network RINGS, a shoot-style company who derived into full MMA over time. Maeda is currently retired from competition and figures as the head of the resurrected RINGS and an amateur MMA company called The Outsider.
Icons
TableTrophies
 IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champion |  RINGS Japan | 1987 | |
| IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champion | RINGS Japan | 1986 |
Milestones
| No records found |
Former Youth Teams
| No records found |
Former Senior Teams
 New Japan Mens | 1978-1984 | Permanent | - | - | |
| Universal Wrestling Federation Mens | 1984-1985 | Permanent | - | - | |
| New Japan Mens | 1985-1988 | Permanent | - | - | |
| Universal Wrestling Federation Mens | 1988-1990 | Permanent | - | - | |
| Universal Wrestling Federation Mens | 1988-1990 | Permanent | - | - | |
| RINGS Japan | 1991-1999 | Permanent | - | - |
Former Club Staff
| No records found |
Contracts
| No records found |
Fanart
Player Poster
Banner
News Reports
None found...
Collections
None found...
Statistics
Other Links
 |  WikiData |