Giant Gram 2000/Akira Taue

Introduction

Overview

One of the FOUR PILLARS OF HEAVEN in the world of AJPW, Akira Taue has a pretty despicable combination of normals—6A for turn around combos, 8A for unholdable staggers, 2A stomach kick crouch stun, and a drop kick panic button just cuz. He also has some reasonably strong throws, namely his 64T chokeslam.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Chokeslam: Chokeslam (64T) does a ton of damage and can easily swing the match back into Akira's favor. He can also chokeslam against the turnbuckle and on the apron for massive damage. The turnbuckle chokeslam is particularly interesting because the input is 66T-> meaning it OS's, sort of, with your ring out toss. Great Strikes Akira has some of the most premium high reward normals in the game between 6A big boot, 2A stomach kick, 26A jumping attack, and 66A dropkick. Safety isn't entirely his thing, but he does also have 4A slap to keep the opponent in check, giving his move list a solid grounding. No Submission Weakness: While submissions are a rare part of the game, it is handy to know that Taue does not take any extra "parts" damage from any move in the game, and can likely play while ignoring this mechanic most of the time. Great Hammer Throw Options: Great Front Hold Options: Great Back Hold Options: 3 of the 4 back hold throws Taue has are incredible.

Chokeslam Reversal: Chokeslam unfortunately does have a fairly learnable reversal window (25 frames divided among two breaks, one of which is fairly late in the animation), so while not entirely useless, Taue needs to be crafty to get it to hit versus an opponent paying attention. Limited Submission Options: While Taue does have a submission on anything considered back/body (which gives him a potential optional win condition in the Hase/Akiyama/Ogami matchups) he only has a few moves to actually target that part, and in general has a much easier time simply not going for a submission at all. Weak Side Hold Options:

Move List

Attacks

5A

5A

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	24	+9	-10	-	-
Primarily used for back turned combos. It's safe to attack retaliation if you stop here and walk backwards, and you could theoretically do 5A->throw on block to beat reversal hold attempts. It is, however, somewhat slow, and vulnerable to parries.

5AA - Teppo 1

5AA

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	24	+8	-13	-	-
Primarily used for back turned combos. Taue shows off his sumo background and starts a series of thrusting strikes unique to this auto-combo string. Makes up the bulk of his back turned damage. Relatively safe to retailiation strikes but tends to get punished by 8/2H no matter what.

6A

6A

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	25	X	-13	Back Turned Combo Starter, Unparryable	-
Akira's big, big combo starter. Only a frame slower than his jab, and it turns around on hit -and- is relatively safe as long as you aren't in 2/8H range.

4A

4A

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	19	-11	-19	-	-
Akira's fastest attack.

8A

8A

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	50	+13	-11	Stagger Stun, Unparryable, unholdable, jumping	-
Akira's big jumping strike might have a long list of unique properties, but the range is poor and the attack itself is extremely slow, and the startup of the jumping/unholdable property is so late that it doesn't even get you safely out of some guaranteed-for-the-opponent hold situations, such as after a blocked 4A slap or 5AA teppo. You're generally better going for a different reversal-type move to beat holding attacks.

Throws

64T

64T

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Strategy