History Wrestling / AkiraMaeda

-->''"In the gym, when they would go for real, Maeda was the man. No one could touch him."''
--->--'''Wrestling/KenShamrock''' about Akira Maeda.

-->''"RINGS will declare the strongest man in the world."''
--->--'''Akira Maeda''', declaiming his promotion's philosophy.

* BigBrotherMentor: Towards Masakatsu Funaki.

** Proved at PRIDE 1 when the crowd gave him the biggest roar of the night just for being briefly featured in the titantron. During a event that had Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie, that is.

* GroinAttack: Delivered some to Satoru Sayama in their last match, or so said Sayama.

** Is the perpetrator of the most known traitorous kicks in professional wrestling, one to Satoru Sayama's groin and another to Riki Choshu's eye.

** In 2007, Maeda was appointed to present Kiyoshi Tamura the trophy for his match against Hideo Tokoro, but he instead violently shoved it into his chest, still angry for Tamura leaving RINGS in bad terms in 2001.

* RedOniBlueOni: The red to Nobuhiko Takada's blue. They even wore ring robes ColourCodedForYourConvenience while in NJPW.

* UnrelatedBrothers: When they wrestled for England's ''World Of Sport'', Satoru Sayama went as "Sammy Lee" and Maeda as "Kwik-Kick-Lee", being kayfabe brothers (and cousins of Creator/BruceLee, nothing less).

** Yoji Anjo was another enemy of his. In 1994, Akira was arrested for claiming he was going to kill Anjo out of rage for a failed working agreement, and two years later, he backfisted Yoji in the face for disagree him during a televised debate. Not surprisingly, some time later Anjo retaliated by knocking Maeda out cold with a sucker punch during an UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship event.
** Maeda also was enemies with Eiji Yamada, chief editor of the Full Contact Karate magazine who liked to critize RINGS and the Seidokaikan dojo for being "fake". They supposedly had an incident in a Kyokushin tournament in 1994 in which they brawled inside the women's toilet of the stadium. Details are unknown, but judging for Yamada's comments thereafter, Akira kicked his ass quite a bit.

** In general, Maeda doesn't have much simpathy towards Pancrase. He attacked its chairman Masami Ozaki (a non-fighter) at a hotel when he thought Ozaki was trying to convince RINGS member Jeremy Horn to jump to Pancrase. Ozaki later sued Akira for assault and won the trial, although according to Horn (who even testified for Maeda), Masami exaggerated the incident.

* GuileHero: Despite his general jerkness, Akira was good with people. He even convinced Masutatsu Oyama to allow karatekas Willie Williams and Masaaki Satake to compete in RINGS.

* IKnowKarate: A Kyokushin Budokai 8th dan black belt. He has a black belt in Shorinji Kempo too.

* RedBaron: "Kowashiya" ("Destroyer") and "Shin Kakuto O" ("The New King of Fighting"; the former being Inoki, of course). He was also refered by more creative journalists as "Kick no Senjukannon" ("The [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Multi-Armed God]] of Kicking"; yeah, a bit counter-intuitive).

* CombatPragmatist: When talking about self-defense, Maeda could rival Creator/BasRutten's ruthlessness, as shown in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKzG5gWfl6w short instructional]].

* AllTheOtherReindeer: His parents got divorced when he was in highschool and he chose to follow his father, who had a badly paid work. Maeda was often alone and with little money, and suffered bullying for being Korean. For this reason, his first years in the NJPW Dojo weren't much better.

* UnrelatedBrothers: When they wrestled in England, Satoru Sayama went as "Sammy Lee" and Maeda as "Kwik-Kick-Lee", being kayfabe brothers (and cousins of Creator/BruceLee, nothing less).

--->--'''Akira Maeda''', declaiming his promotion's philosophy

'''Akira Maeda''' (b. 1959 as '''Go Il-myeong''' - he is of [[UsefulNotes/KoreansInJapan Korean descent]], but he kept it secret for a time, until he got naturalized Japanese in 1984) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts promoter, best known for his role in the Japanese shoot-style wrestling chronicle and posterior MMA boom. He debuted in 1978 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and revealed as a promising rookie, traveling to England to wrestle there under the name of "Kwik-Kick-Lee", in storyline Creator/BruceLee's cousin. Eventually he left with Wrestling/SatoruSayama, Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada and other wrestlers to form Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation, 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 Wrestling/AntonioInoki, 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.

** Yoji Anjo was another enemy of his. In 1994, Akira was arrested for claiming he was going to kill Anjo out of rage for a failed working agreement, and two years later, he backfisted Yoji in the face for disagree him during a televised debate. Not surprisingly, some time later Anjo retaliated by knocking Maeda out cold with a sucker punch during an Ultimate Fighting Championship event.

* [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Arrogant Shoot Wrestling Guy]]: He '''lived''' it. In fact, he got over among young fans thanks to his [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority rebel, hot-tempered persona]]. Still, UWF might still be going had Maeda just bit the bullet and agreed to showcase at least one other style of wrestling besides "shoot" or else find a way to get money at least two other non shoot promotions were willing to give.

* BadassBoast: Parodied once. At an interview for Weekly Gong, when he was being questioned about Rickson Gracie and his supposed 400-0 record, Maeda jokingly stated that he believed it because his own record was 10000-0. Nowadays, [[OverlyLongGag he is still claiming it is true]].

* BrokenBird: Akira has had quite of a difficult life. His parents got divorced when he was in highschool and he chose to follow his father, who had a badly paid work. Maeda was often alone and with little money, and suffered bullying for being Korean. His only solace was reading military literature, and originally wanted to join the JSDF, but he couldn't as he was not yet a naturalized Japanese.

* HeroesGoneFishing: Literally. Maeda likes fishing.

* IKnowKarate: A Kyokushin Budokai 8th dan. He trained in Shorinji Kempo too.

* RedBaron: Many. "Kowashiya" ("Destroyer"), "Kakuto O" ("The Fight King") and "Kick no Senjukannon" ("The [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Multi-Armed God]] of Kicking").

* UnknownRival:
** Like more or less everybody at the time, Maeda challenged Rickson Gracie several times, even proposing to create a new MMA event for them if Rickson didn't want to fight in RINGS, but the Brazilian turned all them down.
** During his adolescence, Maeda had some weird obsession for fighting Hiroshi Wajima (a former grand sumo champion turned pro wrestler, who also innovated the chokeslam), although he admitted that Wajima used to scare him as a child.

'''Akira Maeda''' (b. 1959 as '''Go Il-myeong''') is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese ([[UsefulNotes/KoreansInJapan Maeda is of Korean descent]], but he kept it secret for a time. He got naturalized Japanese in 1984) {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts promoter, best known for his role in the Japanese shoot-style wrestling chronicle and posterior MMA boom. He debuted in 1978 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and revealed as a promising rookie, traveling to England to wrestle there under the name of "Kwik-Kick-Lee", in storyline Creator/BruceLee's cousin. Eventually he left with Wrestling/SatoruSayama, Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada and other wrestlers to form Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation, 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 Wrestling/AntonioInoki, 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.

* IKnowKarate: A Kyokushin 8th dan. He trained in Shorinji Kempo too.
* {{Jerkass}}: Possibly the biggest example in puroresu.

* CaptainErsatz: ''Videogame/FireProWrestling'' started including these of him with Combination Tag in 1989.

'''Akira Maeda''' (b. 1959 as '''Go Il-myeong''') is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts promoter, best known for his role in the Japanese shoot-style wrestling chronicle and posterior MMA boom. He debuted in 1978 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and revealed as a promising rookie, traveling to England to wrestle there under the name of "Kwik-Kick-Lee", in storyline Creator/BruceLee's cousin. Eventually he left with Wrestling/SatoruSayama, Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada and other wrestlers to form Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation, 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 Wrestling/AntonioInoki, 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.

* NoKoreansInJapan: Maeda is of Korean descent, but he kept it secret for a time. He got naturalized Japanese in 1984.

* GenreSavvy: Although no one in Japan knew the extent of Rickson Gracie's abilities, Maeda deduced that his best point was groundwork and warned his apprentice Yoshihisa Yamamoto, who had to fight Rickson at the Vale Tudo Japan, not to allow himself to be taken to the ground. Yamamoto ended losing the bout, but the advice helped him to resist Rickson's submission attempts for most of the fight, and actually become a superstar in RINGS thanks to this.

* BadassTeacher: He trained several wrestlers and fighters, like Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Wataru Sakata, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and more.

* [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Arrogant Shoot Wrestling Guy]]: He '''lived''' it. In fact, he got over among young fans thanks to his [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority rebel, hot-tempered persona]]. Still, one of RINGS's dormant periods would not have had to happen had Maeda just bit the bullet and agreed to showcase at least one other style of wrestling besides "shoot" or else find a way to get money at least two other non shoot promotions were willing to give.

* [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Arrogant Shoot Wrestling Guy]]: He '''lived''' it. In fact, he got over among young fans thanks to his [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority rebel, hot-tempered persona]].

* {{Face}}: For a time, he was the most popular wrestler in Japan. Like Wrestling/ShinyaHashimoto afterwards, Maeda could literally pack up an arena with just his presence at the event.

'''Akira Maeda''' (b. 1959 as '''Go Il-myeong''') is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts promotor, best known for his role in the Japanese shoot-style wrestling chronicle and posterior MMA boom. He debuted in 1978 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and revealed as a promising rookie, traveling to England to wrestle there under the name of "Kwik-Kick-Lee", in storyline Creator/BruceLee's cousin. Eventually he left with Wrestling/SatoruSayama, Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada and other wrestlers to form Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation, 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 Wrestling/AntonioInoki, 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.

** BadassTeacher: He trained several wrestlers and fighters, like Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Wataru Sakata, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and more.
** CulturedBadass: Likes reading the likes of {{Confucius}}, Paul Verlaine and Osamu Dazai.

** The main one is Wrestling/SatoruSayama. Their hostility started in 1985, when Maeda shot on Sayama during a match and caused the fall of the original UWF. They have continued badmouthing each other during years until 2006, when they were reunited in an interview by Hisao Maki and acknowledged (rather grudgingly) each other's accomplishments. Currently, they seem to have regained a degree of respect between them.

-->''"Pro wrestlers must be strong therefore you need to learn submission moves. NJPW would further develop in the future and would begin, not show-wrestling, but real fights."''
--->--'''Wrestling/AntonioInoki''', giving Maeda his first lesson

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: As the ace of both incarnations of UWF, his real fighting skills were said to be the highest among his fellow shooters. He could roll with the best sambo players in Russia, had prestige as a karateka, and Wrestling/KenShamrock of all people remarked that the guy was "untouchable" during the live trainings and that he would have been great in MMA.

* KickTheDog: In 2007, Maeda was appointed to present Kiyoshi Tamura the trophy for his match against Hideo Tokoro, but he instead violently shoved it into his chest, still angry for Tamura leaving RINGS in bad terms in 2001.

* BullyingADragon: Once Maeda came against four American soldiers from the Roppongi military base, who were sitting in Akira's car and started taunting him with racist slurs. Predictably, Maeda's response was wiping the floor alone with the four guys and make them swear not to make fun of Japanese people again.

* NeverBeHurtAgain: While in the New Japan Dojo, Maeda was often bullied by other students due to his Korean ancestry, until one day, after seeing him bullied by other students, his trainer [[Wrestling/AllenCoage Bad News Brown]] told him to fight back without doubt the next time he was harassed. He indeed took it for the rest of his career.
* NoKoreansInJapan: Maeda is of Korean descent, but he kept it secret for a time.

* UnknownRival: Maeda challenged Rickson Gracie several times, but he turned all them down.

* UrExample: He supposedly coined "sōgō kakutōgi", the term used in Japan for MMA.

* FinishingMove: Cross Armbar, Capture Suplex, Kneebar, and Kick to the Head.

** Yoji Anjo was another enemy of his. In 1994, Akira was arrested for claiming he went to kill Anjo out of rage for a failed working agreement, and two years later, he backfisted Yoji in the face for disagree him during a televised debate. Not surprisingly, some time later Anjo retaliated by knocking Maeda out cold with a sucker punch during an Ultimate Fighting Championship event.
** There was a years-long bad blood between Maeda and Pancrase's Kazuo "Yoshiki" Takahashi. It started after the PRIDE 1 event, when Maeda had a brawl with Takahashi in the Tokyo Dome parking and Yoshihisa Yamamoto had to go to break it up. After that, Yoshiki challenged Akira to a fight in Pancrase, but Maeda refused, instead wanting to fight Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki. Yoshiki didn't forget it, and he even shook Yoji Anjo's hand after his attack on Maeda at the UFC.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: As the ace of both incarnations of UWF, his real fighting skills were said to be the highest among his fellow shooters. Wrestling/KenShamrock of all people remarked that Maeda was nigh untouchable during the trainings and that he would have been great in MMA.

** CulturedBadass: Likes reading the likes of {{Confucius}}, Paul Verlaine and Osamu Dazai, and is friends with writer Amy Yamada.
* BadassBoast: Parodied once. At an interview for Weekly Gong, when he was being questioned about Rickson Gracie and his supposed 400-0 record, Maeda jokingly stated that he believed it as his own record was 10000-0. Nowadays, [[OverlyLongGag he is still claiming it is true]].

* FinishingMove: Cross Armbar, Capture Suplex, and Kick to the Head.

* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: Maeda thought it, so he brought sambo fighters to Japan, and the fighting world rejoiced.

* NoKoreansInJapan: Maeda is of Korean descent, but he normally keeps it secret.

* RedBaron: Many. "Kowashiya" ("Destroyer"), "Kakuto O" ("The Fighting King") and "Kick no Senjukannon" ("The [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Multi-Armed God]] of Kicking").
* RedOniBlueOni: The red to Nobuhiko Takada's blue. They even wore robes ColourCodedForYourConvenience while in NJPW.

* UnstoppableRage: Whether you are a wrestler, a fighter, a reporter or even his wife, accept our advice: if Akira Maeda gets angry on you, run away and don't look back.
* UrExample: Was the first on coining "sōgō kakutōgi", the word used in Japan for MMA (according to others, however, it was Satoru Sayama the one who coined it).
* WorkedShoot: Maeda has a MMA record in Sherdog, but he actually never did legit MMA, as he was too broken down and too important for RINGS' image.

* BullyingADragon: Once Maeda and some pals (among which was Kengo Kimura) came against four North American soldiers from the Roppongi military base, who stopped them and verbally assaulted them with racist insults. Maeda's response was wiping the floor alone with the four guys and make them swear not to make fun of the Japanese people again.

* NeverBeHurtAgain: While in the New Japan Dojo, Maeda was often bullied by other students due to his Korean ancestry. His only friends were his colleague Sayama and their trainers Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara and [[Wrestling/AllenCoage Bad News Brown]]. One day, after seeing him bullied by other students, Brown told him to fight back next time he was harassed. He indeed took it for the rest of his career.

* ArrogantKungFuGuy: He '''lived''' it. In fact, he became hot among young fans thanks to his [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority rebel, hot-tempered persona]].

* NeverBeHurtAgain: While in the New Japan Dojo, Maeda was often bullied by other students due to his Korean ancestry. His only friends were his colleague Sayama and their trainers Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara and Bad News Brown. One day, after seeing him bullied by other students, Brown told him to fight back next time he was harassed. He indeed took it for the rest of his career.

** BadassTeacher: He trained several wrestlers and fighters, like Kiyoshi Tamura, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Wataru Sakata, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and more.

* OneOfUs: Is an avid manga fan, and cites ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' as his inspiration to pursue a career on fighting.