YMMV / Akira Maeda

• Angst Dissonance: Maeda got his mega-hyped bout against Andre completely blown up when his opponent showed up drunken, hostile and openly unwilling to work the match. Even worse, he knew the thing had been probably planned by Inoki to punish him for his desire to climb up the ranks. The average modern Western fan's commentary? "LoL, that Maeda was so unprofessional for stiffing Andre, he was lucky Andre didn't crush him."
• Base-Breaking Character: Some think that Maeda doesn't deserve credit for anything due to the amount of crap he has left behind him, like the infamous Choshu kicking and his multiple feuds, while others believe he is one of the most unsung figure in the history of MMA (and kickboxing, and combat sambo) for his role in globalizing the sport and bringing it to remote places like Netherlands, Russia, Georgia and Australia. A third camp believes both things.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Both Andre and Akira refused to do the job, so Akira kicked Andre a lot. Then Andre threw Akira out of the ring. When Maeda got back in, Andre finally agreed to job to him but Akira refused. Then Antonio Inoki came out and demanded the match end. The crowd at the time had no idea what was going on, and a lot of time passed until they were told.
• Evil Is Cool: For the ambivalent crowds of Japan, being an unrepentant Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy is a popularity boost despite all the subsequent criticisms and bad views, and Maeda was no exception. During the Choshu match, right after Maeda delivered the kick, the crowds started chanting deafeningly for him.
• Jerkass Woobie: After reading Maeda's biography, especially his difficult childhood and teen years, it's hard not to feel sorry for him, even if his way to solve things was kicking people in the head.
• Just Here for Godzilla: RINGS's crowds were there for Maeda and just for Maeda. Even the broadcasting contract between WOWOW and RINGS specified that if Maeda didn't fight, no broadcasting fee would be paid.
• Memetic Badass: Was one among Japanese wrestling fans back in a time where the internet didn't even exist. Inoki might have been the greatest and Giant Baba his only rival, but Maeda had a kind of serious, badass fighter image that none of the two had. When Maeda's face was shown at the titantron after Takada's pathetical loss against Rickson, crowds were volcanic - for them, that was a guy who couldn't simply lose, even against Rickson, and who would avenge Takada's defeat if promoters let him.
• Memetic Loser: In stark contrast to the previous, western wrestling fans tend to believe that any of the wrestlers Maeda had heat with could have kicked his ass had they wanted - Inoki, Andre, Choshu or Masa Saito (who was admittedly a tough guy in real life), any of them would do. The fact that Maeda was a legit karateka and catch wrestler, significantly younger than any of them, and considered by Ken Shamrock and the RINGS guys to be a dojo supernova (further backed by possibly the best training partners he could have had at those points) is conveniently ignored in the process.
• Mis-blamed:
  • A good chunk of the IWC seems to believe that Maeda shot on André the Giant in their infamous match, despite it the fact that it is easy to see in recordings that Andre was the one who was being uncooperative and refused to work the bout. Even people who know the truth somehow believe Maeda was the offender, in many cases out of love for Andre.
  • The shoot kick on Riki Choshu has been immortalized as one of the most douchebag moments in professional wrestling, so it is not easy to ask a fan to suddenly change their perspective about it. While the kick was certainly stiff and charged with heat, Maeda claims it was actually a scripted spot that Choshu screwed by not turning his face away at Maeda's cue, thus receiving in his eye a strike conceived to land much less harmfully on the side of his head. Having also in consideration that Choshu had been visibly uncooperative through the match to screw Maeda, then you might come to think it may have really been just an accident caused by a bad working relationship rather than a vicious backstab.
• Moment of Awesome: His retirement match against Alexander Karelin.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: His bad boy attitude and violent feuds brought him a ton of popularity.
• Tough Act to Follow: RINGS fell out because Maeda's retirement left the promotion without its ace, and the most over fighters, Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, failed to meet the expectations set by their master.

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