r/PuroresuRevolution

Arguably the two biggest “draws”/stars of Shoot-Style, each man with complicated legacies, with both praise and criticism thrown both their ways.

Arguments for Maeda:

- the OG “star” of Shoot; massive popularity in the 1980’s and chunk of the 90’s, being able to sell out multiple buildings with his name alone.

- had an undeniable presence and intensity about him that few could match or replicate, imo; helped by the fact Maeda was a big man who had multiple occasions of fucking people up.

- with the creation of RINGS, responses for bringing multiple big name martial artists to Japan and to the forefront of MMA, names like Fedor, Nogueira, Overeem.

Arguments against:

- his terrible temper lead to multiple fallouts on both business and personal levels, with multiple wrestlers speaking vocal contempt for him, even people who were once allies or friends.

- tried to claim to be in full “shoots”, despite every one of his matches being clearly worked bouts.

Arguments for Takada:

- much more classic babyface star, who was able to fill out multiple big buildings in the 1990’s (with the only people selling out more being Shinya Hashimoto & Mitsuharu Misawa).

- helped train some of the best Japanese martial artists/shooters, particularly Kazushi Sakuraba & Kiyoshi Tamura; Takada was also praised for being a much more humane trainer than the Ike’s of Maeda & Satoru Sayama, not abusing his trainees and treating them like human beings.

- popularity caused the creation of PRIDE FC, one of the most popular MMA promotions of all time; despite losing his reputation, Takada actually competed in full “shoots”, unlike Maeda (even though some do Takada’s PRIDE fights would be criticized as being fixed).

Arguments against:

- was seen as some people as being somewhat “unfit” for Shoot-style, due to not having an actual martial-arts background (his original love being baseball), unlike Maeda and co.

- said to have “compromised” the vision/ethos of Shoot-Style, when he agreed to the NJPW/UWFi inter-promotional angle in the mid-90’s, that would see the NJPW guys steamroll the UWFi talent in the booking.