Takeda
Profile
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History
Takeda is a Juarez legend, most notable in the late 90s and early 00s.
Early Life
Takeda was born on August 29, 1969 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, raised in military bases in the United States. He was adopted by a United States soldier. As a child, he lived in an American military base in Germany. His mother noticed, he was a very interactive child. A the age of 8, she inscribed him at a Kempo Karate Academy, with Roberto Nava in El Paso, Texas. He attended the academy for four years and by the age of 12, he earned a black belt 2nd dan. He also practiced boxing with Ricardo "Pajarito" Moreno at Boys Club in El Paso. He won a medal in a youth Golden Gloves tournament.
After his parents' divorce he moved to Ciudad Juarez. He did not know anyone and barely could speak Spanish. Helped his mother with the house expenses, he could not find a job in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. One night, there was a Lucha Libre event at Gimnasio Josué Neri Santos. He had no money, entered by an open window to see the show. The young man fell in love again of the sport he watched as a child. That experience made him decide to become a luchador to earn money and help his mother and little brother.
The Training
Went to train at Gimnasio Sajid where he met Babe Sharon, who was the instructor of Olympic wrestling and Lucha Libre. Still underage, he used a fake credential to donate plasma in El Paso and get money to pay his classes. He believed that telling to Sharon about his black belt in Karate would be an advantage for him to debut faster. Sharon on the other hand, believed his trainee was showing off and did not believe his trainee did not speak Spanish well. For this reason, he received a beating to not come back again, but he came back on the following day and received another beating even worse than the previous, and he kept coming back. After several days of enduring beatings, Sharon finally accepted him in his class.
Fortunately for him, Babe Sharon spoke English. Years later his maestro told him: "I charged you for the Lucha Libre classes, but I forgot to collect the fee for Spanish classes." Babe Sharon was regarded as a very strict instructor. The young wrestler passed his exam with Rocky Star to get his credential as professional wrestler.
Creating Takeda
In despite of working as a Karate instructor, he could not afford to make a mask and wrestling gear. Sharon introduced him Juan Salvador Campos (Chavita) a renown mask and gear designer. He saved money for a whole month to pay for the gear. When he received his ring name, Sharon made him study about his gimmick. His character's name and image were inspires on the historical character Takeda Shingen, a prominent daimyō in feudal Japan with an exceptional military prestige.
When Chavita and he saw the mask and gear design, they did not like it. They decided to make changes until they got the current design. Takeda's mask color is golden resembling the Asian color skin. The gold color would also represent the category of the famous Shingen Takeda. Moreover, the novice wrestler always wanted to use a golden mask. Unfortunately, Chavita ran out of golden cloth for the first mask and he used a mustard color instead. The hair resembling the samurai hair cut was made of real hair, in fact it was his mother's hair when she was young.
El Ninja's Debut
Sharon presented him to Ing. Kuckle, the owner of Promociones del Pueblo.
Takeda's myspace page claims he's held championships which are not listed above and are generally ignored. It's only a small part of his career, but is a reoccurring on this page.
He lists the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, explaining he won the a match for the title against El Dandy but was never given the belt due to a problem with the commission. El Dandy was champion in 1995 and 1996, but there's no record of a title change, and it's be unlike CMLL at that time to have a unaffiliated luchador to win one of their championships. It's very likely there was a championship match between the two and Takeda was given some visual win in what ended up being a disputed finish. It is unlikely, but possible, that Takeda got the win with the promotion and Dandy agreeing it'd be ignored outside of Juarez.
Takeda also claims having won the Mexican National Atomicos Championship with Maravilloso, Enigma and Samuary, which he then lost to Los Vatos Locos and Los Vipers in a cage match for AAA TV taping. That cage match does appear to have taken place on the March 21, 1999 in Chihuahua. However, detailed histories of this championship have been published, and there is no record of Takeda's team defeating Vatos Locos for this championship, as claimed. Vatos Locos are recorded as defending the titles as recently as two weeks before that cage match, which would leave only a little time for a title match. Takeda's team being included in the match suggests they were involved with the titles during that period at that time (none of them were AAA regulars), but there's no record of them being champion.
Luchas de apuestas record
Gallery
Takeda's debut as El Ninja
as El Ninja
renamed as Takeda
mask vs mask against Brazo de Platino
caption=winning Brazo de Platino's mask
winning Coco Amarillo's mask
