History Wrestling / AkiraMaeda

* WouldHitAGirl: Aside from the wife beating above, some sources mention that he once dated Joshi wrestler Chitose Nagayo and even trained her for a brief time. Apparently she ReallyGetsAround because of her popularity and one day while out drinking, he got fed up and assaulted her, leading to them breaking up.

** Maeda also innovated the abisegiri or rolling wheel kick, which was later adopted by [[Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger Jushin Liger]] and Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki. This is disputed though as Wrestling/AntonioInoki was doing a similar move years before him and Inoki supposedly learned it from Koppo.

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

* 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 believed he would have been great in MMA.

* EveryoneOwnsAMac: He does at least and is said to be an ardent UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh evangelist.

* ThreeAmigos: Was said to be good friends and rivals with George Takano (aka The Cobra) and Junji Hirata (aka Super Strong Machine). Some even considered them the original Three Musketeers of New Japan before Chono, Mutoh, and Hashimoto came along.

** Maeda also innovated the abisegiri or rolling wheel kick, which was later adopted by [[Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger Jushin Liger]] and Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki. There is some debate on if he developed it himself, got it from his karate background or borrowed it from Koppo.

** Maeda also innovated the abisegiri or rolling heel kick, which was later adopted by [[Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger Jushin Liger]] and Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki.

* BigEater: According to himself, he is this and on one occasion, he had actors Shintaro Katsu and Akira Kobayashi treat him to a one million yen meal. [DoesNotLikeSpam He hates carrots and green peppers though.]]

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Feels that George Takano was this him, as he jobbed to him a lot when he was a young lion, having only one win against 35 losses and 15 draws, and even considered George the most talented wrestler New Japan had. Takano for his part, believed Maeda should have been made the ace of New Japan.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Jobbed a lot to George Takano in his early career, having only one win against 35 losses and 15 draws, and even considered George the most talented wrestler New Japan had. Takano for his part, believed Maeda should have been made the ace of New Japan.

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

* BigEater: According to himself, he is this.

* RedBaron: "Kowashiya" ("Destroyer") and "Shin Kakuto O" ("The New King of Fighting"; the old one being Inoki, of course), "Super Dangerous Hero", and "Sparkling Flash". He was also referred by more creative journalists as "Kick no Senjukannon" ("The [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Multi-Armed God]] of Kicking"; yeah, a bit counter-intuitive) and "Kurokami no Robesupiēru" ("The Black-Haired Robespierre").

* ArchEnemy: Has had many in real life.
** The main one, aside from Wrestling/RikiChoshu, is Wrestling/SatoruSayama. Their hostility started in 1985, when Maeda shot on Sayama during a match (or so Sayama claimed) and caused the fall of the original UWF. They continued badmouthing each other during years until 2006, when they were reunited in an interview by Hisao Maki and acknowledged (rather grudgingly, but with sincerity) each other's accomplishments. Currently, they seem to have regained respect for each other.
** He also had enmity for Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki, who badmouthed him for causing the closure of Newborn UWF in 1990. They reconciled in 2005 during the Big Mouth Loud project.
** Wrestling/YojiAnjo 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 disagreeing with him during a televised debate. Not surprisingly, some time later Anjo retaliated by knocking Maeda out cold with a sucker punch during an interview in the UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship UFC 23 event.
** He also had another in Yuko Miyato. In a 1994 magazine interview, Maeda said something to the effect of that if he fought Miyato, he'd beat him 200 times out of 200 and that if he caught him on the street he'd prove it and made some remarks about Miyato's family, which apparently resulted in some kind of civil action filed by Miyato and UWFI against Maeda. Though Maeda later made a public apology to Miyato, saying he was very sorry for his threats in the interview.
** Maeda also was enemies with Eiji Yamada, chief editor of the Full Contact Karate magazine, who liked to criticize RINGS, the Seidokaikan dojo and the U-system in general for being "fake". They supposedly had an incident in a Kyokushin tournament in 1994 in which Maeda chased him to the women's toilet of the stadium and they brawled a bit inside. Yamada would even claim to have escaped unscathed, which Maeda replied that then he wouldn't mind to repeat such a feat in a ring, but Yamada wisely didn't answer.
** There was a years long bad blood between Maeda and Pancrase's Kazuo "Yoshiki" Takahashi. It started when some Pancrase officers told Fuji TV that RINGS was a worked pro wrestling company. Even although it was mostly true at the time, Maeda took offense and claimed to the press that he was going to destroy Pancrase. Takahashi rapidly challenged Akira to a fight, but Maeda refused, instead wanting to face Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki. The affair didn't stop, because Maeda and him had a brawl in the Tokyo Dome parking at PRIDE 1 that had to be broken up by Wrestling/YoshihisaYamamoto, and Yoshiki later went to congratulate Yoji Anjo for his infamous aggression on Maeda at the UFC Japan. It took eight years and Wrestling/TsuyoshiKohsaka's intercession to get Maeda and Takahashi in good terms again.
** Maeda 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 greatly the incident in order to screw Maeda.
** In an interesting twist, Maeda and famous boxing champion Hidekazu Akai were leaders of enemy gangs back when they were teenagers in Osaka, and their feud, once was made public many years after, was the inspiration of the Creator/TakashiMiike film ''The Way to Fight''. The characters Takeshi Hamada and Kurata are directly based on Maeda and his karate teacher Shogo Tanaka.