Yujiro Takahashi

[4.0] "In my opinion extremely boring and not a great wrestler one of the worst I have ever seen and he's very bland not a fan at all"

[6.0] "Yujiro Takahashi is definitely a polarizing wrestlers, some like him, some hate him. I am of the former, I feel that his style really fits his sleazy pimp persona perfectly, which makes him entertaining and a cool heel. When he was with Tetsuya Naito under No Limit, he was definitely a good watch."

[4.0] "Yujiro Takahashi had some early promise but it's safe to say after watching him drift for a decade that he's long since made peace with strictly being an opening match guy. Let's just say I don't foresee him having some crazy late career revival. He's not terrible but he's not gonna leave a mark on you either. Best thing he's got going for him is his entrance theme and the Pimp Juice kneeling DDT."

[2.0] "Yujiro feels like a guy who just kinda stopped trying and has been slumming it ever since. He knows he'll never get an actual singles push so he's just here for the ride. Why bother putting in the effort if no one cares?"

[10.0] "A lot of people here fail to understand the difference between being bad and portraying a gimmick that makes you look bad. A real 100% heel, it's obvious that Yujiro isn't one of the best workers on the planet, but funnily enough he was primed to be a potential top star over a decade ago: under No Limit with Tetsuya Naito, they were a very strong tag team but even back then, Naito was the flashy and cool guy and Yujiro was the slower one, the heel. While he did obtain a PPV headlining match against Tanahashi for the IWGP title and was positioned as an almost upcard heel between 2012 and 2013, it's his TOKYO PIMPS persona that really defined him. And it's ok to be defined by a persona, which he portrayed and keeps portraying excellently IMO. The first ever Japanese member of Bullet Club, Yujiro continued to be a reliable hand but in some years he developed into a fall guy, when the roster kept getting more and more stacked. HOT was a career saver for Yujiro, who in a smaller unit was able to have a more important role. But we still can't understate the ability of Yujiro to actually play an underdog babyface when necessary, which is crazy for a de facto career heel. His G1 30 work and his performance against EVIL at Purge Night suggest that even at this stage of his career, Yujiro can capture the crowd with his antics."

[3.0] "Yujiro has never done much to impress me. He's been in the business for 20 years and hasn't had a good match with anyone other than Ishii and Ospreay. I haven't seen his stuff before he joined bullet Club but even then he hasn't shown much improvement."

[4.0] "This guy is as bland as it gets. The thing is he's not BAD per se, just extremely, painfully boring to watch."

[4.0] "Yujiro Takahashi is not a good worker in 2024, but I still enjoy seeing him occasionally on a NJPW card. He does his job well and while I am giving him a fairly poor score, I would not want to see him go away. He definitely showed far more potential in his earlier years than he lived up to, but he is a competent hand and plays the scumbag who gets his just desserts well."

[4.0] "I usually don't like given rating to wrestlers who have slowed down due to age, but in Yujiro's case, he actually never was really that good, and can be the absolute fucking pits at times. Yujiro Takahashi nowadays can best be described as pretty lazy and yet another example of NJPW's frustrating habit of still keeping out-of-shape guys right into the main spots in the card for the purposes of taking a pinfall, and whilst that is mostly something that we've grown to accept, Yujiro is probably the worst example of this right now. Admittedly, Yujiro was kinda cool once, his BULLET CLUB turn in 2015 was a good angle, and he worked well as a undercard heel. I also didn't care for NO LIMIT however, as that was nothing special when not considering Naito. Overall, Yujiro Takahashi may never go away, but if he's used sparingly, not much pain is caused, but still there's pain nonetheless."

[2.0] "I don't think anyone could argue much against the statement that Yujiro Takahashi is the worst wrestler in NJPW, and IMO it's not even a contest. I don't even know who the second-worst would be, discounting Young Lions. Does Jado count? When's the last time Yujiro had even a decent singles match? Ten years ago? Such a complacent, lazy, nothing wrestler who is so obviously going through the motions and doesn't give a shit. He very obviously could not care less about being there and does just enough to keep cashing his paychecks. It's kind of pathetic, honestly. Boring moveset, moves like molasses in the winter, absolute charisma vacuum. The only redeeming things about him I can think of is he hasn't ever seriously injured someone and his valet is ridiculously hot. I have absolutely no idea why this dude has a regular spot in the biggest wrestling promotion in Japan and the third-biggest in the world. It makes no sense."

[2.0] "I am being generous here by giving Yujiro a two because ever since I have been watching NJPW he has never ever done anything to impress me. I almost guarantee you that back in the day he was probably better and more charismatic for the cause but now it just seems he is there, gets paid and leaves, nothing else."

"Yujiro is one of the wrestlers in NJPW that I can not stand and have never liked even though when he actually wrestles clean (which is very rare as he is in the House of Torture) the move s actually look nice and some possible 3-4 star matches are still in the tank for him but if he keeps wrestling like this I will still hate him."

[6.0] "I have a soft spot for big Yuj. He's never really going to go above the lower midcard probably for the rest of his opinion, but he's a safe worker with a gimmick that's certainly hard to hate."

[2.0] "Yujiro Takahashi is a truly horrible wrestler. He used to be good however he stopped caring and became lazy and sedimentary after a while. At least other pin eaters in NJPW actually give a shit. I haven't cared about any of his matches for a long time now. He is only watchable when paired with EVIL. The worse case of HOT nonsense. Probably my least favourite wrestler"

[7.0] "Heavily disagree with the dominant opinion on Yujiro Takahashi. He's one of my favorite kinds of wrestler: was better than anyone else around him up until he realized that he didn't have to put nearly as much effort in as he was. I have to respect a dude who shows that he's really, really good and then just decides not to do that anymore."

[2.0] "Now and then he puts on a shockingly competent match, but these days he seems to just lay around the company and do as little as possible. I haven't enjoyed his work in years, he's inadequate even as a pin eater when there are guys like Chase Owens that at least appear to be making an effort still. Pieter was the the only reason I ever looked forward to him coming out."

[3.0] "Watching this guy back in the early 2010s made me sad, Because there is a good power wrestler underneath that surface but man does he just straight up suck. This man used to be a bulky son of a bitch, and now he's flabby and has no muscle. I'm not body shaming him but damn this man used to be a built for a short dude. His wrestling is just unappealing Bullet Club nonsense. He doesn't care and he doesn't try, what a waste of potential."

[3.0] "Sadly, Yujiro is starting to slow down and seems closer to retirement then ever... When he first joined Bullet Club, his gimmick was perfect, he wasn't the best worker but he did his gimmick and job well. He was also great with Naito in NO LIMIT. But sadly, he's getting older and slower and is honestly the weakest wrestler in House of Torture besides Togo. Let's just hope that he manages to ride off to the sunset without any difficulty."

[0.0] "Probably nobody cares about him. Could do more in the ring (I suppose) but just seems to not care for some reason. Hasn't been in any relevant storylines since joining the BC. There's also no reason to put him in the G1. If he doesn't care about his style of wrestling, I also don't."

[5.0] "We don't Need him. Generic, generic and generic; I have nothink to Say on this man apart generic. **1/2"

[3.0] "It has no place in New Japan. One of the poorest performances on the team. He has no business being there."

"I'm gonna give Yujiro a five. His earlier work as a part of No Limit with Naito was good, but after No Limit split, he was quickly revealed as the Jannetty of that team. Time went on, and somewhere down the line, he seemed to stop caring. He's a serviceable tag team/fall guy, but that's all. He moves so slow, and his moves look very weak. HoT is hot garbage in almost every aspect and Yujiro's gimmick doesn't work without the lovely Pieter by his side."

[4.0] "His older work was alright but has been very limited since joining BULLET CLUB, but NJPW needs stable fillers to suit their product and he's fine to fill such a role."

[5.0] "Yujiro in the ring is good but is in a company where majority of the wrestlers are great or better. Plays his character decently. Feels like just a stable filler currently in NJPW who can put on good matches with his more talented opponents."

[3.0] "Yujiro bores me to death. He just doesn't feel like he cares much at all when he's in the ring. Even his gimmick feels like it's just part of going through the motions. There was a time and a place where he was important but that was a decade ago and it was very brief. He can work a match if it's dragged out of him but I've never seen a match of his worth anything more than a 6. Even in the G1 against some of the best in the world. Any hope for him to be anything else is long gone, especially when guys 10+ years older than him are consistently outpacing him in matches"

[4.0] "He can go when he really wants, but most of the time he comes across as sloppy and unmotivated. His gimmick is entertaining but a bit played out at this point. Just another Bullet Club lackey now."

[5.0] "A very average worker with a solid gimmick. He isnt the worst part in House Of Torture and is never really a hinderence to any match he's in."

[2.0] "I don't like Yujiro's gimmick at all. Haven't enjoyed his entrances in this year's G1. I think his in ring wrestling skills are lacking in that matches feel really slow, similar to that feeling you get watching Bad Luck Fale. When he gets hit, sometimes it's like you don't even get anything out of him. I think Yujiro needs to speed himself up, as it mostly just feels like he's going through the motions."

[3.0] "Yujiro is a strange case. What prompted him to become the man he is today? Bookers, perhaps? Perhaps but not only. Over a decade ago there was a very promising tag team with Naito, I watched them mostly in TNA, but they're a really solid team that I was eager to see. Well... We can see the success Naito has had - main event scene, great feuds and matches. But Yujiro... From the moment he joined BC he got worse and worse. I understand it's his gimmick, but you're a wrestler, aren't you? The audience should want to see you, enjoy your performance, shouldn't they? It feels like he has no respect for the fans who have bought a ticket or are watching live Pay-Per View. I can only see the girls accompanying him to the ring - apparently the highlight of his wrestling career so far. I don't even know what could save his career. Well, it seems to me, first and foremost, he must cut ties with BC. And then... Gotta win the audience back. Because every time Yujiro steps foot in the ring I know it's going to be abyssmal."

[5.0] "I actually like Yujiro Takahashi. He's got charm to him, and I've always liked his arrogance. For a long time he was just an undercard BC tag guy who took all the pinfalls in the filler tag matches. But for the last 2 years he's been pushed as a singles guy in the G1 Climax, and has since joined the House of Torture. Most of singles matches are really boring and skippable, but he'll show some signs of life sometimes. I think he's underrated as an underdog surprisingly. I really dug the little story of him trying to get wins in the G1 but failing almost every time. He fits into the House of Torture like a silk glove too. He's mostly a dull wrestler but what he's been doing over his career in the BC has clearly worked. Also, he's got the best entrance in all of modern wrestling. But that's only when Pieter is there."

[0.0] "My biggest problem with the guy is that his greatest asset is his entrance and I don't think I have ever actually seen him during his entrance."

[5.0] "Takahashi is quite slow in ring; His movements are okay for the most part but he can only wrestle at a slow pace. He can have good matches against the right opponents but can't carry a match by himself. Also I am not a fan of his gimmick. A very average wrestler."

[7.0] "Yujiro is alright, really, and is easily the most enjoyable member of House of Torture... In singles matches anyway. Despite being a dirty, cheating heel, I can actually get behind him as this woefully outmatched underdog. No, he's not amazing in the ring, average at best, but his run in both G1 30 & 31 were excellent. Hell, he was the highlight of G1 30 to me, continually getting better and more hyped up in the search of his one defining victory, and his performances in that tournament were all far, far better than expected. Yujiro can go when he wants to, but unfortunately, if he doesn't enter a G1 again, I feel he'll just be a forgettable part of HoT's god-awful tag matches."

[3.0] "I'll be honest, I didn't see much of him during his No Limit days, but I've been watching New Japan consistently since around 2016, and ever since Bone Soldier/Captain New Japan left he is the weakest link on the roster, at least in terms of full-time wrestlers. At least EVIL was a good brawler before his terrible booking since he joined Bullet Club, and Bad Luck Fale is fine in small doses as a big man. Yujiro's only asset is as a pin eater and that he doesn't seem to botch anything. His flaws are how he is incredibly bland, moves like he is always in molasses, and everything he does looks incredibly weak. I've never seen someone with limper looking lariats or DDTs in any major company. He also doesn't really have enough charisma to pull off his "Tokyo Pimp" character, and you'll notice that it only works when his manager Pieter is there, and completely falls flat when he is by himself. I do want to stress that although he isn't a botch machine or horrific in the ring, he is so, so boring. Every time he gets even a little opportunity in a bigger status match, he falls flat. Biggest examples are every one of his G1 matches and the World Tag League 2021 Finals."

[3.0] "He's bad. He wrestles almost in slow motion, doesn't have any particular cool, crowd popping move. There's really nothing about him that makes you excited. Boring as hell."

[7.0] "I am rating him counting his past years. Takahashi was a mega rookie who had a strong built during his early years, and also thinned out when he formed No Limit with Naito, but he had great wrestling abilities for a super powerhouse while Naito had the high flying skills. Years gone by and his transition to a "pimp" made him more attached to the gimmick rather than the wrestling. He did had great performances in his G1 return, so that proves he just isn't passionate anymore, but sticks around because his gimmick is popular."

[4.0] "I had never really been a big Yujiro Takahashi fan, but after watching all his G1 2020 matches, I can safely say he's one of the most painfully below average wrestlers in a major promotion. He doesn't even have outright bad matches very often, but he consistently has bland and uninspired but technically serviceable matches with some of the best wrestlers to ever do it. Not a bad wrestler, but certainly one of the least interesting to watch in a major promotion."

[4.0] "Yujiro is not especially bad, but he's not very good either. Has had a few decent matches in his career when being carried by great wrestlers. Aside from that, he really hasn't done much. He's honestly just not a good wrestler, as shown in his bizarre entrance in this years G1."

[5.0] "A performer who simply works out his program quickly and does not have time to get bored. Suitable for warm-up matches, no more. I don't know what to say about him anymore, so I'll just put 5 points."

[2.0] "Yeah, this guy is a bad wrestler, it takes somebody incredible to drag this guy to something watchable, and usually even somebody great can't do that, his gimmick is pretty boring as long with his bad in ring skills"

[4.0] "The best thing I could really say about Yujiro is "adequate" and well, this is the rating that's supposed to indicate that, so...... yeah. Despite his surprisingly long tenure at NJPW, he's really not gotten to any point where I'd say he was sensational in anything in particular, most of it is either filler 6 man matches where he gets pinned or pretty decent singles bouts (when he's with someone who can work around him anyway). Yujiro doesn't really stick out charisma wise and his heel work is outdated and usually represents the more worse aspects of BC antics. He just seems like he's uninspired and doesn't really care about standing out at all. In a way, he reminds me of Wataru Inoue: not a bad wrestler by any means, but he just couldn't put it together character wise and was extremely boring to watch as a result."

[7.0] "A very fun and charismatic wrestler. Ring wise, he's not the best in the world but his antics never fail to entertain me. I'm glad he's been getting a push recently."

[5.0] "Because of New Japan not having access to Jay, Kenta, Tama, Tanga, Fale, etc. Yujiro is now the second best (kayfabe) member of the BC. He pinned Hirooki Goto and layed out Kazuchika Okada. Jesus."

[7.0] "Every stable has his 'lesser' members, but Yujiro deserves better! His pimp gimmick is timeless and he has cool moves which he unfortunately is not allowed to show very often. When joining Bullet Club he made a big impact by betraying CHAOS and Okada, after which he got one forgettable run with the NEVER Openweight title, but never more than that. As one of the oldest Club members I hope to see the pimp back in the NEVER Openweight title picture soon."

[6.0] "A decent performer when the match calls for it, but sadly that? s very rare for Huge Yuje these days. Can you really blame him for not trying? The last time he got a singles title push was 2014 and ever since then he? s languished in Bullet Club multi-mans. I can? t even tell you the last time I remember him having a singles match. A shame, because he? s far from a bad wrestler and actually has one of the cooler gimmicks in New Japan, they just don? t know what to do with him."

[5.0] "It's so difficult to know what to do what Yujiro. He basically does absolutely nothing. The last time he did anything of relevance that I can think of was when he acted as the gatekeeper for Beretta when he moved up to heavyweight. Apart from that, Yujiro has just languished in Bullet Club multi-man tags for years on end. He certainly doesn't perform like the sort of person desperate to get a serious push or at least just escape the doldrums of the undercard, since he usually works at quite a lazy pace without any careful consideration to his technique. Despite this, there is still a bit of charm that I like about him. I had it pointed out to me a few years back that his laidback, cool 'playboy pimp' character is sort reminiscent of heels like Flair who were entertaining because of how arrogant and in love with themselves they were and how they incorporated that into their offence. Of course I am not in any way saying Yujiro is near Flair's level as an in-ring worker or character, but I have come to appreciate Yujiro cheeky character work in that same vein, and to this day I still enjoy seeing him act all arrogant and braggadocios despite having no real track record from which to be so confident. His offence also isn't too bad; he's definitely limited to what he can show since he only ever works tag matches, and even then, the offence he chooses to show isn't the most creative, but his fundamentals are solid and he even works in a bit of flashiness every now and then. I really hope Yujiro gets some sort of career resurgence in the next few years where he is at least allowed to get more relatively prominent singles matches. He would need to step up his game and start wrestling with more conviction in order to get that opportunity, which I don't really expect to see, but I hope it somehow happens, because I bet Yujiro could be a fun 'old guy' wrestler if he tried."

[5.0] "How could Yujiro Takahashi fall so low? In 2011 he had an excellent feud with his erstwhile tag team partner, Tetsuya Naito, which was designed to propel both men up the card. It worked for Naito, albeit he would reach true stardom only a few years later, but it didn't work for Takahashi, who has been constantly slipping down the pecking order, finally becoming the Bullet Club designated "fall guy". His gimmick is horribly lazy (the creative session probably consisted of somebody saying "Let's have a Japanese version of The Godfather! " with everybody else nodding in approval) and his look has gone from bad to worse, culminating in a period when he looked like he hadn't showered in weeks. While this can be blamed on the office, it must be noted that Takahashi, never a fast-paced worker, has become mind-boggingly slow in the ring. I don't know if this is a choice or if he was forced to slow so much by injuries but sometimes I have to ask myself "Is this the same guy who tagged along with Naito? ". Going from bad to worse, his career really needs a shot in the arm."

[6.0] "One of the more underrated performers in New Japan. His time in "No Limit" was rather exciting. He's a decent in-ring performer with a rather corny gimmick. NJPW does not treat Takahashi with enough respect and I would love to see a rekindling of his feud with Naito."

[3.0] "Exists exclusively to take part in Bullet Club's undercard tag matches these days, usually to take pins. Subpar worker, bad gimmick. Really don't see much reason why they're keeping him around at all to be honest."

[5.0] "To his credit, "Huge Yuge" can put out a good match when he wants to, but thats just the issue, the motivation just isn't there, he's more than comfortable "performing the hits" as Kevin Kelly so eloquently puts it, and as such, hes just kinda there, and it's not like he hasn't had his share of chances either, he was pushed along with Naito as a member of No Limit, he had a successful run as a member of that team, he turned on Naito and feuded with him for a while, even scoring a few wins, he challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, he held the NEVER Openweight championship but that all seems a lifetime ago. Theres still some time for Yujiro to salvage his career, but it might be too little, too late. All in all, he wont be anyone's favourite wrestler, but he won't be anyone's least favourite wrestler either."