Taku Iwasa
| Taku Iwasa | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 15, 1977 Sendai-shi, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Taku Iwasa Takamichi Iwasa Michael Iwasa Iwasanto |
| Billed height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) |
| Billed weight | 94 kg (207 lb) |
| Trained by |
Último Dragón Jorge Rivera |
| Debut | September 2, 2000 |
Taku Iwasa is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for his work in Dragon Gate.
Iwasa graduated as part of the Toryumon T2P class. He initially portrayed Takamichi Iwasa, a Satanic character. Injuries derailed his career, and he soon ended up as a jobber to the stars. He was briefly scouted by the famous Crazy MAX stable, and they gave him a ten match trial series. CMAX was never truly interested in Iwasa, though, and he lost all 10 matches.
Following this, he joined forces with Raimu Mishima, who had been exiled from M2K for losing too many matches and general weakness. They petitioned to form their own unit, but were unable to do so. They then left for America to undergo "Warrior Training".
Upon returning to Toryumon, Iwasa and Mishima proclaimed themselves to be Americans. They changed their first names to Michael and Daniel respectively.
The Florida Brothers were a comedy team. Their routine involved spoofing American southern style wrestling, and winning matches by DQ. Iwasa carried a folding chair painted in a stars and stripes pattern to the ring, and the Floridas would throw the chair to their opponents, then fake having been hit with it. The referee would then DQ their opponents, and the Floridas would leap to their feet and put their hands over their hearts as The USA Nation Anthem played. Later, they would add Takayuki Yagi to their shtick. Yagi portrayed a partial referee, dressing in an American Flag motif shirt and wearing oversized sunglasses that he required to see.
Kensuke Sasaki joined the Floridas as a part-time member after losing to them via DQ, and called himself Kenskee whenever he teamed with them.
The Florida Brothers gimmick had run its course in 2006, and Iwasa and Mishima put the gimmick on the line in a match against Stalker Ichikawa. Ichikawa won the match. Iwasa and Mishima went their separate ways. Mishima would leave the company very shortly after, while Iwasa joined the cram school stable Tozawa-juku.
Akira Tozawa had earlier announced his intention to open a cram school based stable, Tozawa-juku, for wrestlers to get polish and become men. Iwasa was one of his first recruits.
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