Akira Yamada
"Everyone still likes to call me a Young Lion, but they know what I really am; the Rising Sun of the Wrestling World."5'10" - 215 lbs | Three Years of In-Ring Experience
|Birth Name|» Akira Yamada (山田 明, Yamada Akira)
|Hails From| » East Osaka City, Japan
» August 23rd (24)
|Fighting Style|» Akira is a student of modern day puroresu through and through. He has spent almost every waking day from the moment he graduated secondary school practicing his craft in the AJW Dojo in Kyoto. In particular, Akira has fully embraced the Strong Style of striking from his mentors within the Dojo.
While he spent the first two years of his career, and still heavily leans on, using the extremely basic repertoire expected of a Young Lion, the subsequent year or so before his arrival in the United States saw Akira begin to build his own unique move-set. This mostly involved dropkicks and snap suplexes mixed in with the typically stiff knee and elbow strikes of the AJW. One might say Akira's excursion to AWE is an experiment in seeing how an American audience responds to a decidedly Japanese style of wrestling.
|Signature Moves|»
Missile Dropkick»
Pele Kick»
Snap German Suplex (Occasionally bridged)
»
Boston Crab|Finisher|» Ivory Sunrise (
Running Bicycle Knee Strike or a
Springboard Tornado DDT who knows I'm open to suggestions, especially regarding names)
» Crimson Sunset (
Corkscrew Moonsault, yet to be debuted)
|Theme|»
Perpetual Burn|Gimmick|» Thanks to a groundbreaking business agreement between the Association of Japanese Wrestling and the Chairman of AWE, one of Japan's most promising young talents has begun his traditional excursion in the one promotion nobody would've thought to see him.
Although he initially came into AWE with the typical over-eagerness expected of a Young Lion, it soon became very clear that Akira came from a different realm of sports entertainment. He came from a realm of legitimate athletes, rather than the caricatures put on display by the Quinn family. He quickly found such competitors beneath a man of his skills, despite, in some cases, being many years his senior. In short, Akira has turned on the organization that opened their doors to help him grow as a competitor, and now he seeks to conquer the AWE in order to prove the superiority of his own brand of wrestling, as a so-called athlete in exile.
He has subsequently dubbed himself the "Rising Sun of the Wrestling World" and abandoned the traditional black tights and wrestling boots of Japanese rookies for a set of gear that blatantly evokes the Rising Sun motif.
Whether or not the superstars within AWE will earn his respect is yet to be seen.
|Face or Heel|» Heel
|Backstage Rep|» Due to the relatively short amount of time he has been a member of AWE's locker room, Akira has not yet garnered much of a reputation. Most of the people he has personally worked with seem to deem him competent and willing to follow the directions he's given. If you were to ask the man himself, he'd simply say his apparent humility is bred from a deep love and passion for the business, and understanding that he has yet to fully pay his dues.
However, beneath the surface beats the heart of a man who wants nothing more than to ascend as high as he possibly can, whether that be in Japan or the United States. His home promotion wouldn't of made such a fuss of sending him to America if he was to spend his time there toiling in the lower midcard. Everyone from his promotion to his trainers have placed great trust in his talent and abilities, and he fully intends to live up to such praise, even if some of the cagier veterans in AWE are a bit side-eyed at his arrival.
|Other|» Do let me know if I should alter the move-set to avoid too much "sameness" with any of the other characters.
» I'm more than open to switching him around a bit to be a completely fresh babyfaced import if needed/desired.
» FC: Kaito Kiyomiya (I think? Note that my Japanese isn't exactly good.)