He also founded and starred at the sports entertainment professional wrestling promotion Hustle from 2004 to 2009, and currently works as an executive for the Rizin Fighting Federation.

After training in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo under Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Takada made his professional wrestling debut in 1981 against Norio Honaga.

As is customary for professional wrestling newcomers, Takada spent his first year as a jobber, though he scored occasional victories against other rookies.

Among them, he feuded with Kazuo Yamazaki, and their matches were so well received that TV Asahi included one of them as part of the NJPW show, something unheard at the time.

[7] The victory granted a rank increase for Takada, and he was made part of the 1984 WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship league, facing wrestlers like Bret Hart, Dynamite Kid, and Davey Boy Smith.

He stayed with NJPW until April 1984, before switching over to the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) by Fujiwara's invitation, and in June he was officially part of the new promotion.

At the peak of his popularity, Takada received the new nickname of Wagamamana Hikazoku (Egotistical Kneecap) for his hard, stiff kicking ability.

Takada opened his run as the top star of the company beating Tatsuo Nakano, Yamazaki, and American wrestler Bob Backlund, whom he fought in a pair of publicized matches.

The first of them was controversial, as Takada ended the bout in 1:15 when Backlund fell to a body kick, and it almost caused a riot in the stadium; it is believed that it was an accidental KO instead of a pre-planned match.

[9] Like the Berbick situation, it improved Takada's reputation with the audience, but also changed Kitao's professionalism to a better avail, as the two shook hands afterwards.

On October 9, 1995, Takada's match against Mutoh drew 67,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, drawing the largest crowd and gate in Japanese wrestling history at the time.

He returned for one night on New Year's Eve 2000 teaming with Keiji Muto defeating MMA fighters Don Frye and Ken Shamrock at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye in Osaka, Japan.

In 2004, Takada was made the president of the Hustle promotion in Japan, created by a coproduction between Dream Stage Entertainment and Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE.

The night ended with Ogawa being pinned by Monster Army member Bill Goldberg, giving the first victory to Takada.

The same night, Generalissimo Takada announced his retirement, revealing that his true goal was to leave an eternal mark in professional wrestling, which he had accomplished thanks to Hustle.

The bout was highly anticipated since Gracie had defeated the UWFI wrestler Yoji Anjo in 1994, as Takada was still expected to face Rickson in order to restore his late promotion's reputation.

[5][14] His placement in the main event scene also forced him to only fight high-level opponents, which included several of the greatest fighters of the period, like Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Kerr, and Mirko Cro Cop.

The latter agreed, claiming "I feel Takada is a warrior and deserves the chance to try and redeem himself" in a subsequent interview,[16] and the rematch was held at Pride 4.

[17] Despite outweighing Takada by 40 pounds,[6] Coleman was chosen as his opponent because his previous losses to low-ranked fighters would make the result more credible.

Takada opened it earning a yellow card when he grabbed the ropes to avoid being taken down, while Coleman had to abstain visibly from landing strikes on the ground when he scored another takedown.

[19] The American executed a single leg takedown, but Takada escaped and returned to standing, where he started scoring quick low kicks.

Takada competed in the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round, where he was pitted against his second opponent in the Gracie family, Rickson's brother Royce, who returned from a hiatus after his career in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Having trained especially for the match with his own trainee Kazushi Sakuraba and K-1 veteran Masaaki Satake,[25] Takada was acknowledged to have improved his performance.

[26] At Pride 17, Takada faced Cro Cop, who was debuting in mixed martial arts; as such, the fight had six shorter rounds and no judges.

[27] He spent the rest of the match sitting on the mat, fruitlessly goading Cro Cop to engage him on the ground until the end of the bout.

There was both story and controversy between them, as Tamura had challenged Takada several times without an answer, and then walked out of UWF International in 1995 to work for Fighting Network Rings.

[29] Tamura dropped Takada with a leg kick, but the match was paused when he landed an accidental heavy low blow.

[29] The bout was followed by a reconciliation between Takada and Tamura, the latter of whom cried and stated: "Thank you for giving the people their dream and hope for twenty-two years.

"[29] Takada's proper retirement ceremony was hosted after the main event between his other student Kazushi Sakuraba and Gilles Arsene.

Former UWF wrestlers like Tamura, Yamamoto, Yoshihiro Takayama, and Anjo attended the ceremony, along with Pride fighters like Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Wanderlei Silva and Gary Goodridge.