NAME: Hida Yakamo (Yakamo Hidaka)
NICKNAMES: "The Asian Wonder," "The Beast from the Far East"
HEIGHT: 173 cm (5'9")
WEIGHT: 86 kg (188 lbs)
HOMETOWN: Chiba Prefecture, Tokyo, Japan (currently resides in Vancouver, B.C.)
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: In his younger days, Hida drew comparisons to a pint-size Masahiro Chono. Hida has aged much more gracefully than Mr. G-1, and maintains his matinee idol looks. He wears his black hair long once again, though streaks of grey have started to mix in, much to his dismay. The well groomed mustache and goatee remain as impeccable as ever. Hida is a sartorial example to all outside of the ring, though he favors timeless fashion over more recent trends. In the ring he wears long black tights with various trademarked white designs, incorporating his various popular catchphrases. They all have his name in Kanji or katakana down his right leg. He wears black pull-on boots with white, cricket bat embossed kickpads, and plain black elbow pads. For bigger matches he will sometimes wear an ornate black and white kimono with his family crest and a black samurai mempo to ringside. He has surgical stars on both rotator cuffs and across his left deltoid. His left arm is usually further taped up as he is still recovering from a broken arm at the hands of Promo. As always, Hida carries his cricket bat ("Yakamocito") and his general distaste for humanity at all times.
ENTRANCE MUSIC: "Hiroshima Comes to Disneyland" by Hugh Blumenfeld
ENTRANCE DESCRIPTION: Hida's music plays. He strides to ringside confident in his impending victory. That confidence is rarely misplaced. He doesn't usually bother to interact with fans unless he is feeling particularly mischevious.
WRESTLING STYLE: Strikes/Submission-oriented Technical wrestling. Will toss in a high risk move every once in a while, more once in a while now, given his physical deterioration.
FINISHER: The HIDADRIVER! (Oh the humanity!)- A running black tiger bomb, and the most over manuever in wrestling past or present (tm).
For opponents to large for him to effectively deploy this move, Hida uses the LOTUS BLOSSOM IV (A shining wizard into a triangle choke).
OTHER MOVES:
LOTUS BLOSSOM I-III
I: Standard Romero Special
II: Romero Special + Dragon sleeper
III: Guillotine choke with body scissors
Avalanche style brainbuster
Michonoku Driver II
Tiger Suplex Hold
Roaring Elbow
YAKAMO NO KNEE (A Tsruta style jumping knee, often used to set up the LOTUS BLOSSOM IV)
Still has a mean tope suicida and moonsault, but generally only busts them out when his adrenaline is running high.
Otherwise, Hida was strong style before strong style was cool, using a lot of strikes, suplexes and submissions, focusing on the neck and upper back, as well as chokes.
And of course, Hida will also cheat whenever he can get away with it.
On special occasions will still bust out the Yakamo Stomp (moonsault into a missile dropkick.) and the Kamikaze Senton (450 Senton).
MAJOR STRENGTH: Hida has long had a reputation as being one of the finest technical wrestlers in the world. He can wrestle a multitude of styles effectively, and is a great in-ring psychologist and gameplaner. Famous for his head games leading up to and during matches. Arguably the smartest man in wrestling.
MAJOR WEAKNESS: Hida was able to survive as a junior heavy in a big man's sport for so long due to his impeccable physical conditioning and his youthful obliviousness to pain. This has caught up to him and he is now a physical wreck. While he keeps himself in tip-top conditioning, his body has started to betray him more and more lately. Hida is aware of this, but he refuses to actually acknowledge it, and it can get him into trouble in the ring. He can be pushed around by bigger opponents and seems to no longer have the physical resiliancy he once had.
ALIGNMENT: Hida is a heel. He has been around long enough and has enough notoriety that he can be a default face (the fans will cheer him based on his style and name recognition, think CHEAT TO WIN ERA Eddy), but he doesn't really play to the fans, and only cheats because he is a dirty, dirty bastard. Generaly a loner, but will join groups if there is something in it for him.
QUOTES: Hida speaks five languages, was educated at Oxford, and is well-versed in Metaphysics, Western Philosophy and the Classics. He needs no Pavlovian catchphrases to entertain the masses. Though he has trademarked "Oh the humanity" and "Fear the cricket bat," but that is just sound business.
TITLE HISTORY/AWARDS WON:
MBE World Heavyweight Champion (2)
MBE North American Champion (3)
MBE Tag Team Champion (3)
MBE Television Champion
PbPro Quintuple Crown Champion (3)
PbPro Global Tag Champion (2)
A1E Triple Star Champion
HISTORY: Once upon a time, Hida Yakamo was arguably the greatest wrestler in the world (back when it meant something). His name was synonymous with epic matches and insane, daredevil antics. He presided over the golden era of MBE with a handful of equally legendary superstars. Those days are long behind him. This is something that does not sit well with the Asian Wonder. Never one to fade into retirement gracefully or take on an elder statesman role. Hida once more fires into the breach of professional wrestling superstardom. He has nothing left to prove except to himself, and that makes him a dangerous man. Hida's greatest opponent now, though, may be himself. And as he will be the first to tell you, he is a damn tough sucker to beat.
Eternally a man of contradictions: the intellectual, well-dressed sadist; completely untrustworthy, yet fiercely loyal to his family and few friends; a wrestling savant and technical marvel, who enjoys nothing more thoroughly than to bend the rules till they break, then urinate on them, and get away with it all; and of course, a well-decorated, first ballot hall of famer, who is never satisfied with his own accolades (even as he trumpets them to anyone who will listen). The only question left for Hida is will jWo be the next stamp on his passport of wrestling godhood, or will it leave his fans saying that he should have hung it up years ago?