Ryu Takatsu

**Ryu Takatsu** is a Cruiserweight on the NPWN roster.

## Early Life

Before becoming a wrestler, Ryu used to play in local post hardcore bands and hold part time jobs at numerous manga shops and arcades in Tokyo and Akihabara until he got kicked and fired from almost all of them. It wasn't long until his father, who was a legendary wrestler in the 80s and early 90s, decided to train him and his sister the sport of professional wrestling. Their training took 6 long grueling months and by graduation, they excelled in their training.

## Wrestling Career

Ryu made his in ring debut for his father's promotion, TCPW in mid 2015 against his former tag team partner turned rival, Zacky X (NKA Zack Autrey). He would later go on to win the TCPW World Openweight, Tag Team and Gen X Championships during his tenure in TCPW. He even got to compete in the US, UK, Europe and Canada for various promotions. He was also a member of the faction simply known as X alongside Zacky X and Kaori Ishida in both TCPW and its partner, Neo-1. Together, they won the Neo-1 Trios Championships a record breaking 2 times until they split after TCPW and Neo-1's shutdown. After the shutdown, Ryu now rode solo and began competing all over the globe including the US, UK, Europe, Australia, The Caribbean, and even other parts of Asia. He would win both solo and tag gold in numerous indie promotions. However, it wasn't long until he was scouted by Cameron Bash and Jinder Mahal in mid 2023. After he had competed in London based promotion, MCW, he received a phone call from Cameron Bash himself who told him to meet him at the iconic 02 arena in London to talk business the next morning. The next day, Ryu sat in a conference room with Bash and Mahal in which they presented Ryu a JaM contract and the opportunity to be apart of the first JaM show, In Your House. In April 2023, he was one of the first batch of signees to JaM where he would make his debut in the 6 man over the top rope battle royal where he would be the first eliminated. He would then be apart of a 16 man tournament to crown the inaugural Lionheart Champion. He would defeat John Awesome in the first round and would unfortunately be knocked out in the second round by Andre Delano due to a pre match attack by AW\*L. He would later decide to align with Alex Mercer to enact revenge on AW\*L by jumping them on the Halloween edition of Redemption laying them out on the stage, thus making their tag team match official at JaM's 1st PPV, Unleashed where they would be defeated by AW\*L. However, the partnership of Takatsu and Mercer still continued as they would be announced as one of the 8 teams in another tournament. But this time to crown the inaugural JaM Tag Team Championship. They would defeat AW\*L in a rematch due to a distraction causes by William Parker. They were set to face The King's Court in the second round of the tournament, but it also was around JaM announcing that they would be going on hiatus and Ryu alongside Marcus Vendetta and Xavien Crace were released in September 2023. After his time in JaM abruptly ended, he would go on to compete for multiple companies around the world including LWE, TSW, FWD, and Madness just to name a few. In 2022, he competed in PCW's Rumble of Power where he would be eliminated by Kidd Bandit. He would go on to have matches with The Bob Parks, R-Dub, Drake Dresden, Sean Fox, Kaleb James, and Cedric Young just to name a few. In 2023, he was announced as part of PWN's revival as an entrant in the Intercontinental Championship tournament where he will face Cristian Montes at California Love. Also in 2023, he won a triple threat at PPW Warzone: Burying Brightness to qualify for a match against Will Vintage to crown the inaugural PPW Heritage Champion. He is set to face R-Dub in a rematch at Zipangu: Run Indy-MC. He recently won the RDPW Underground Championship after pinning Hunter Knight. He was recently announced as a competitor in PCW's 2nd annual Tournament of Power.

## Notable Achievements

* 4x NPWN Cruiserweight Champion
* 1x NPWN Tag Team Champion
* 1x NPWN Hardcore Champion
* 3rd Place Finish in the The Foundry Junior Heavyweight Invitational (Lost to Yuma Yoshida)
* Once got pummeled to death by James Hudson (LWE)
* Was part of the first ever FWD Galaxy Championship match. (Lost to Prince (JC) Martinez)
* Placed 18th in The Movement's 2021 CAW Contest
* Had a shoot fight with Matt Grey (FWD)
* Was part of JaM's first ever Tag Team Match at Unleashed in 2021 (2024 in JaM's Universe) (Teamed with Alex Mercer and lost to Act Two) (Benjamin Harland and Jack Knudsen)
* Once got his head and nose broken by Matsuda Tanaka and Lennon Walsh
* 1x OTR Abyss Champion
* 1x TCW Cruiserweight Champion
* 1x RDPW Underground Champion

## Stats

**Finishing Moves**

* Kitsune Spike (Gourdbuster GTS)
* Valkyrie Attack (Double Knee Facebreaker)

**Signature Moves**

* Stray Cutter (Twist of Fate)
* Limit Breaker (Butterfly Lungblower)

**Nicknames**

The StrayAway, The Reject, The Unknown Anti Hero, Mr. Worldwide, The DeathWolf, The WolfHeart, The X-Kid

## Promotions

Ex-JaM, Ex-LWE, Ex-TSW, NPWN, Ex-BWF, Ex-FWD, Ex-EWC, OTR, TCW, Neverland, NJCW, CAW All Stars, Madness, PPW, AWE, AWF, Ex-NXTWCW, AWC, Ex-SVR (FKA Arrival Pro), Ex-ASW, XVPW, AWR, PWN, Ex-LGS, WWA, RDPW, Evolution Pro, Freedom Pro, Zipangu