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Cobra


Last updated by Chris George on October 18, 2015

Title History

  • (Stampede) British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight title defeating Bruce Hart (September 2, 1983);
  • NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) World Junior Heavyweight title defeating Davey Boy Smith (November 3, 1983);
  • WWF (World Wrestling Federation) World Junior Heavyweight title defeating Black Tiger (December 28, 1984);
  • WWF (World Wrestling Federation) World Junior Heavyweight title defeating Hiro Saito (July 28, 1985);
  • NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) World Junior Heavyweight title defeating Hiro Saito (July 28, 1985);
  • (Stampede) British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight title defeating Gama Singh (December 20, 1985);
  • IWGP (New Japan) Tag Team titles w/Super Strong Machine defeating Masa Saito & Riki Choshu (March 16, 1989);
  • SWS (Japan) Tag Team titles -as George Takano- w/Shunji Takano defeating Yoshiaki Yatsu & King Haku (April 16, 1992);

Career Highlights

  • 1985: Cobra was featured on the “Best of the WWF Volume 1” tape defeating Black Tiger for the WWF Junior Heavyweight title..
  • 1986: Cobra retired the mask, but continued to wrestle under his real name (George Takano)..

    darkthrone (via the KM Message Board) wrote: Started in 1976 with New Japan and debuted one year later. In his rookie years was sent to Mexico, Stampede and I believe even did a few WWF shots. Once heard a story that he trained in California with the Muhammed Ali Boxing Club, but not really sure if it´s fact or just a kayfabe story. After Tiger Mask retired in 1983, New Japan put Takano under the hood as The Cobra, kind of a replacement for Tiger Mask and got a huge push. His first matches were good, but fans really didn´t get into him, as they saw him just as a cheap copy of Tiger Mask that the promotion pushed down their throats. But he had a few excellent matches and won the NWA Jr. & WWF Jr. belts, even holding them at the same time, I believe. In 1986 he retired the mask, and continued to work under his real name. I think he got married and kind of disappeared for a while. After his comeback, he won the IWGP tag belts with Super Strong Machine as his partner. In 1990 he left New Japan for the new SWS, but his work had declined at that point and nobody cared about the SWS group anyway. There, he teamed with his brother Shunji. So the next few years he worked for different smaller indy companys like NOW, PWC (a group headed by his brother Shunji), etc. No idea if he´s still around these days. In the mid-80s, he was considered a really good worker, but was never able to escape the shadow of the original Tiger Mask.