Giant Gram 2000/Akira Taue

Introduction

Overview

One of the FOUR PILLARS OF HEAVEN in the world of AJPW, sumo wrestler-turned-pro wrestler 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. Real Combos Akira's 6A back turns on hit and allows him to combo into his high damage teppo (5AAAA) strikes, making him one of the game's strongest and truest combo machines. 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 Combo-Front Hold Options: Because of the 64T input, Akira can sneak in chokeslam attempts off of combo-front holds, in addition to having access to uniquely strong 5T/5A options from normal Front Hold. Great Back Hold Options: 3 of the 4 back hold throws Taue has are incredible. Unique Diving Top Rope Counter: Taue gets a (weaker) version of his chokeslam as a early mash counter vs. top rope diving attacks. Swinging Arm Parry: Taue gets a (only slightly weaker) version of his chokeslam as a unique parry vs. swinging arm attacks. This is strong in matchups where opponents have lots of unparryable attacks like laraits, clotheslines, etc. Think Hansen's western lariat, for example. Because this is ontop of his normal parry, this functions as a decent OS, as well, in situations where you need to choose between parry/hold.

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. If chokeslame is completely invalidated by the opponent's timing, Taue becomes much more strike reliant and predictable. 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. Mediocre Side Hold Options: While not the worst in the game, Akira's side hold options are by far his weakest, all either doing really low damage or just being escapable to mashing. Swinging Arm Parry Reversal: Taue's unique parry to "swinging arm" style attacks can be reversed. A 17 frame window late into the animation, the reversal is quire learnable and consistently executable for characters that rely on this move class.

Move List

Attacks

5A

5A
Punch ⭐

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	24	+9	-10	-	-
Primarily used for back turned combos. It's safe to hold retaliation if you stop here and walk backwards, and you could theoretically do 5A->throw on block to beat reversal non-2H hold attempts. It is, however, somewhat slow, and vulnerable to parries.

5AA - Teppo 1

5AA
Teppo 1

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	-	+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 if not spaced correctly

5AAA - Teppo 2

5AAA
Teppo 2

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	-	+7	-12	-	-
Primarily used for back turned combos.

6A

6A
Big Boot ⭐

	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
Slap ⭐

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

8A

8A
Overhead Chop

	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.

66A

66A
Dropkick ⭐

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	25	X	-68 (back turned)	Unparryable, unholdable, jumps	-
Basically, this is Giant Gram's DP equivalent. Unique recovery state has a small hitbox, meaning the opponent has to either properly time a punish or do specific moves that can hit Taue while he's on the ground/getting up. In addition to being a good panic button, it's a hard call out during your offense--if you know your opponent likes to 2/8H to punish your more unsafe attack strings (such as Teppo), you can do this to blow it up.

26A

26A
Jumping Kick

	Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Special Property	Meter Build
-	-	36	X	-18	Unparryable, unholdable, jumps	-
Akira's unique jumping boot also has a mini-sidestep during startup. It is somewhat less useful than dropkick due to its slower startup and late-to-start unholdable properties, and even with the additional block stun its basically always unsafe to any sort of hold attempt. However, it does an absolute dump truck of damage, and if the opponent is sloppy in turning back around from getting hit by 6A boot, might accidentally net you way more damage than your already high damaging combo would normally give. Can be used in a similar way to dropkick in attack strings to call out 2/8H after Teppo.

Throws

5T

5T
Body Slam

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	-	-	-	2-9 (H break only, lockout on wrong buttons) (vs. High Max mode, can also be broken by directions) (Vs. Max Mode, attack/throw buttons break)
Generic bodyslam. Small break window that works great early game and starts getting broken by everything as the match progresses.

5(T)

5(T)
Charged Body Slam ⭐

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	-	-	-	2-9 (H break only, lockout on wrong buttons) (vs. High Max mode, can also be broken by directions) (Vs. Max Mode, attack/throw buttons break)
Akira can charge his body slam, improving its damage with no extra cost to himself. If a direction is held while charging, Akira will walk forward up to three steps and, if he gets to the ropes before the charge ends, will perform the "Guillotine Whip" throw.

5(T)+Direction towards ropes

5(T)+Direction towards ropes
Guillotine Whip

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
, + 10% Neck Parts Damage	1	-	-	-	1st break: 2-9 (H break only, lockout on wrong buttons) (vs. High Max mode, can also be broken by directions) (Vs. Max Mode, attack/throw buttons break), 2nd break: 94-110 (H break only)
If a direction on the stick is held during Akira's walk towards the ropes he's walking in the direction of, he will drop the opponent onto the ropes neck first and deal some additional parts damage. Unlike the charged throw, this has an additional escape window, making it more of a liability than simply dropping them with a charged body slam. On the plus side, the second break has no Max Mode boost.

4T

4T
Samoan Drop

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
,	1	-	-	-	-
Though it has two break windows and the second one is fairly learnable, it's in an odd place that your opponent needs to know about. Alright damage, mediocre recovery.

6T

6T
Brainbuster

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
,	1	-	-	-	-
Two break windows and slow recovery makes this pretty bad.

64T

64T
Chokeslam ⭐

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	-	-	-	2-9(H only, wrong button lockout), 39-55 (H only, wrong button lockout)
While the second break window on this is generous enough to be unfortunate, it is nonetheless a big bomb of a 1-frame throw that only has to get thorough once to make a big impact on the match. Once 5T becomes escapable due to your opponent's Max Mode, this is probably the only throw you'll really go for.

Holds

Back Holds

B.H. 4T

B.H. 4T
German Suplex

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	-	-	-	Early (early produces "secondary" break window), Late, Secondary

Unique Counters

Backdrop Counter

"Backdrop" Counter
Elbow Stamp Rush

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	+19	-	-	-
Three elbow strikes to the back of the head. Typically works on the second/late break window of "Backdrop" category moves, typically from an opponent's Back Hold stance. The counter itself is relatively low damage, but is unbreakable and leaves Taue with enough frame advantage to link into throw/holds reliably.

Swinging Arm Parry

Swinging Arm Parry
Chokeslam

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	-	-	-	61-78 (Broken only by H. from when Taue locks his arm around the opponent to squatting down.)
A half-a-bar damaging chokeslam. Done by using a normal parry vs. moves that are considered "swinging arm" attacks, usually lariats. Can be reversed by a 17-frame late reversal window. The default reversal for this is a hip toss that throws Taue to the ground, dealing a very small amount of damage to him.

Diving Top Rope Counter

Diving Top Rope Counter
Chokeslam Counter

Damage	Startup	Hit Adv	Special Property	Meter Build	Reversal Window
-	1	X	-	-	-
Taue gets this unique counter if he mashes out of the first break window of a top rope move. On one hand, its a shame this doesn't do as much damage as his normal choke slam. On the other hand, it still does around 25% of a bar and is unbreakable (even versus Ogami, who has a chokeslam counter), so its hard to complain

Strategy

Matchups

Vs. Kongo Ogami -- Kongo Ogami is a rare possessor of a choke slam counter, which leaves him at +15 and grants him a little bit of meter. It doesn't do any damage to Taue, but it is nonetheless a specific flourish he has versus Taue in particular.