He would later move to Federacion Universal De Lucha Libre and debuted by beating the team of Mongolian Yuga & Shiryu with Buffalo Chohe.

He also went up against Super Delfin for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship and had a J-Crown Title #1 Contendership match with Koji Kanemoto, both of which he lost.

[11] Michinoku's first title reign came in the form of the FMW Independent Junior Heavyweight Championship, which he won by defeating Koji Nakagawa on May 5, 1996.

This three on three feud lasted until ECW Barely Legal 1997 Gran Hamada, Masato Yakushiji & The Great Sasuke would defeat the trio.

In that period, two other Japanese wrestlers wrestled in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, namely Ultimo Dragon and Yoshihiro Tajiri.

[12][13] Taka successfully defended the WWF Light Heavyweight Title at No Way Out of Texas: In Your House against Pantera, at WrestleMania XIV against Aguila and against multiple different opponents on Raw is War and Shotgun Saturday Night.

Michinoku would team up with Bradshaw to take on Dick Togo, Mens Teioh & Shoichi Funaki at Over the Edge: In Your House only to be defeated.

Michinoku once again teamed up with Togo, Teioh and Funaki to go against The Oddities (Giant Silva, Golga & Kurrgan) at SummerSlam 1998 only to lose the match.

In 2000 and 2001 Michinoku had multiple opportunities to become the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion taking on Dean Malenko, Jeff Hardy and others.

[20] Michinoku and Quiet Storm took on Ryuichi Sekine & Saburo Inematsu in a match for the Strongest-K Tag Team Championship and lost.

[20] On October 14, 2012, Michinoku celebrated his twentieth anniversary in professional wrestling with a six-man tag team match, where he, Cima and Funaki were defeated by Minoru Suzuki, Nosawa Rongai and Taichi.

[25] On November 10, he once again became a double champion, when he and Kaji Tomato defeated Kazma Sakamoto and Kengo Mashimo for the Strongest-K Tag Team Championship.

[34] Michinoku would go on to team up with D'Lo Brown to take part in World's Strongest Tag Determination League 2003 and gained a total of six points, not enough to progress to the next stage.

[35] Michinoku would team up with RO&D enemy Kaz Hayashi to take part in World's Strongest Tag Determination League 2006 but with only five points the pair didn't progress to the next stage.

After several defences against the likes of Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue, the pair finally lost the championships to Control Terrorism Unit members Prince Devitt and Minoru.

[38] In late 2010, Michinoku returned to New Japan and began teaming up with Satoshi Kojima, Nosawa Rongai and Taichi to form Kojima-gun in early 2011.

[41] At Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Michinoku and Taichi teamed up with Atlantis and Valiente to lose to Jyushin Thunder Liger, Kushida, Máscara Dorada and Tiger Mask.

[43] In August, Michinoku and Taichi began blaming each other for their recent losses, which led to the two agreeing to a match, where the loser would be expelled from Suzuki-gun.

[45] Taka and Taichi participated in Super Junior Tag Tournament 2012 and made it to the semifinal before losing to the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida).

[46] On July 20, Michinoku and Taichi received another shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by the defending champions, the Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero).

[47] On September 29 at Destruction, Michinoku and Taichi failed to earn another shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, when they were defeated in a number one contender's match by Time Splitters.

[48] However, when Alex Shelley was sidelined with an injury,[49] Michinoku and Taichi were given the title shot and, on October 14 at King of Pro-Wrestling, defeated the Forever Hooligans to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

[50] Michinoku and Taichi made their first successful title defense on November 1, defeating Gedo and Jado at their self-produced independent event.

[53] Michinoku and El Desperado won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on March 15 by defeating Choukibou-gun (Hajime Ohara and Kenoh) and No Mercy (Daisuke Harada and Genba Hirayanagi) in a three-way match.

[60] In November 2021, through the NJPW website, it was announced that Michinoku would return after 2 years and 6 months away to participate into the World Tag League tournament, with his partner being his "boss" and teammate Minoru Suzuki.

[62] On January 4, 2022, at night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16, Michinoku competed in the New Japan Rambo but failed to last till the final 4.

In December 2022, at the World Tag League & Best of the Super Juniors finals, Minoru Suzuki announced the disbandment of Suzuki-gun by the end of the year.

[65] The final match between the faction took place on December 23, where the team of Taichi, Sabre Jr, Kanemaru and Douki defeated Suzuki, Archer, Desperado and Michinoku.

[60] They held their first show on July 8, 2019, in Korakuen Hall, where Yoshida (still wrestling as Taka Michinoku) was defeated by Minoru Suzuki.

[67] Although the second and later rounds were delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, on August 14, 2020, Michinoku won the 'Only Give Up Tournament' by defeating Hayato Tamura.