#i haven't written an unhinged manifesto in so long I FEEL ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[doctapuella]

okay @keefsteef i was gonna send this in an ask but i got SO OUT OF HAND that i'm just putting it here so i can keep it organized!!! it's so many words i'm sorry!!!!!!!!! behold: my konosuke takeshita manifesto

i don't actually believe that you need to know or understand the rules of a match to get a lot out of it! they have a set time limit, and go until either they reach time (ending in a draw), or a wrestler can win either by covering and pinning the opponent (both shoulders flat on the mat for a count of 3) or submitting them (getting them in a hold they can't get out of, and the opponent physically or, if thats not possible, verbally taps out and gives in). everything else you can pick up as you go.

OKAY SO! sometimes it's difficult to find full matches for the bigger professional wrestling promotions (including AEW which is the one i've been mostly watching and the US-based one that takeshita is working with rn). the smaller/indie promotions (which he also wrestles with sometimes) often upload full matches to build hype, and those tend to be really intense and less cinematic and sometimes a lot cooler than televised matches. but! AEW does usually put up highlight clips, and those are really good for catching up on a storyline. so i'm dropping a few takeshita-focused links here for you to enjoy at your leisure:

this video i found is kind of a "who is konosuke takeshita?" mini doc, which is def a great starting point! it's about a year old and there's a lot of filler, but i learned a lot from it about the structure of japanese wrestling and the context of how wrestlers like takeshita have gotten to where they are. the takeshita-specific parts start around 6min.

[quick side note! you may have heard the whole 'wrestling is fake' comment before and really all that means is that outcomes are often predetermined, but the moves are all legit even if coordinated, and any good wrestler will say that their primary goal in any match is to make sure their opponent is safe. which i mention because some matches, especially indies, can get super violent. so for me, i'ts important to know and remember that they're highly trained not only in making stuff look cool but also in keeping both themselves and their opponents safe. some of the clips below include copious amounts of blood, but i didn't put anything with major legit injuries.]

some AEW highlight videos from the past 6 months or so, that give the overall trajectory of his current arc:

match vs bryan danielson (member of the 'blackpool combat club' faction), who was currently on a run to challenge for world champion title against mjf (current champion). couple weeks later, takeshita fought mjf and got real wrecked, and danielson came to help him out, nearly missing his own match in the aftermath, because his opponent's faction-mates trapped him in takeshita's locker room. (the takeshita vs mjf one was also the first match i watched live! so it has a special place in my heart.) (also mjf's character is a fucking dickhead to the extent that i feel the need to give a heads up for it.)

he then had some one-off matches that didn't really impact the story, and tbh i think they didn't have a good grasp on his storyline yet, but then!!!! a huge feud (that is still going on currently and i do not even understand all the layers of it) arose between two groups:

the elite (brothers matt and nick jackson, kenny omega, and later hangman adam page)

danielson's faction, the blackpool combat club (=bcc, also including jon moxley, claudio castagnoli, wheeler yuta)

there's also a manager figure, don callis, who has accompanied omega for years, but during this feud he started trying to lure takeshita into working with him and joining with the elite. he is trash. multiple people have called him a carnie piece of shit.

[almost everything from here on out is summarized in this video, but because i'm obsessive and extra, i added other links too. i do not myself know japanese, so i'm not sure who the guy at the end is or what he's adding in commentary, but from the backdrop it looks like he's with DDT, the japanese promotion takeshita works with and the ones who put together the video.]

at the end of an elite vs bcc match, callis got takeshita to come out and help the elite, more allying as the feud continues and he fights a match alongside omega. after it the bcc thought that, because of his history of respect with danielson, that he might help them. he refused.

then! callis turns on omega and attacks him in a match against another big figure of the bcc, jon moxley. everyone forgets about takeshita. then at the big pay per view event, big match between the two factions, omega is about to secure the win for the elite but then A MASKED FIGURE comes out of the crowd, vaults over callis (who is trying to interfere) and knocks omega to the ground. pulls down the mask to reveal that he's takeshita! working with callis, and now officially A Bad Guy (aka a heel). now he wears a leather jacket and all black gear, and glowers at the camera.

he hasn't gotten to do TOO much since, except this singles match against another awesome wrestler, bandido, then this past weekend he sided with the bcc (still hasn't joined officially) in a big match against the elite, which the elite won (the summary video above includes the announcement of the match, where moxley calls takeshita tall dark and sexy, but it doesn't have the footage of the match itself. i can't find any good clips).

i don't know whats next!!!

some cool indie matches where you can watch a whole match:

against speedball mike bailey in june 2022. bailey is another super unique wrestler (imo) and so it's really cool to see them together! it's one of my favorite matches and even from the first couple minutes you can tell it's a banger and that they're both going to make sure they highlight each other. they've teamed together in the past, so they know each other really well which makes it fun. (side note: mike's wife veda is a commentator on this one, which is also a fun element to this particular match!) i know that in this one, takeshita does one of his signature moves, the blue thunder bomb. it's such a cool, high-impact move. also uses his big finishing move, the german suplex, which he is a master of. and he talks a teeny bit at the end!

AND then this is a pretty recent one, at a lucha libre (mexican wrestling) street event in april. the organizers are a pair of brothers from mexico who also wrestle in AEW, so for them to have thought of takeshita when it came to putting together a lineup for this one-off event speaks very highly of him. i don't know this opponent that well, but the match is really cool, and i also think the setting is really unique and adds a lot as well.

oh my god this is so out of control i'm sorry thank you for your time