Before getting his start in ECW (and later blossoming in the WWE stable Kai En Tai), Taka Michinoku tried his hand at mixed martial arts. It wasn't really the definition of a "success." The Japanese promotion Pancrase featured the one and only sanctioned fight with Michinoku at Pancrase: Alive 4 in 1997, which he lost via submission to Keiichiro Yamamiya. The match is pretty hard to watch, as most of the 7 minutes involved Michinoku getting his ass handed to him and spending a good deal of time curled up in the fetal position. Luckily, his appearances inside the wrestling ring looked much better, as Michinoku was able to script a few flashy kicks and chops into his matches without worrying about any real consequences. Today, he runs the Kaientai Dojo in Japan, which teaches a mix of technical wrestling and martial arts. So hopefully he's learned better technique and strategy in the last couple of decades.
