10 Most Dangerous Wrestlers Under Six Feet Tall
4. Taka Michinoku
The 5'8" Taka Michinoku will always be best known in wrestling for a WWE run with admittedly mixed blessings, but his entire career reflects that of a grizzled and hardened wrestling veteran.
A student underneath future-proof Japanese icon The Great Sasuke, Taka braved NJPW and FMW in his early twenties before making a ginormous leap into North America via a legendary ECW Barely Legal six-man tag alongside Michinoku Pro colleagues Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Masato Yakushiji, Dick Togo and Terry Boy.
The latter pairing would follow him to WWE in 1998 to form Kai En Tai alongside Sho Funaki initially as rivals and later allies of the Light Heavyweight Division doyen. After the group became a Taka/Funaki tag team, Michinoku gained infamy for bravely sustaining an absolutely sickening head splat in the 2000 Royal Rumble. Jerry 'The King' Lawler's commentary trivialised what was otherwise a significant head injury.
Now well into his forties, Taka's toughness (and knowingly hilarious personality quirks) has endured throughout the decades, carving out an impressive decade-long run in NJPW that's recently seen him morphing into a Gedo-esque cheerleader for submission specialist Zack Sabre Jnr.