Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion ( FMW-E ) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (フロンティア・マーシャルアーツ・レスリング,Furontia Māsharuātsu Resuringu) ( FMW ). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989. In the late 1990s, FMW had a brief working agreement with Extreme Championship Wrestling , and as well had 14 DVDs released in the U.S. by Tokyopop . On March 4, 2015, FMW was resurrected under the name Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW (超戦闘プロレスFMW, Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW). With the resurrected FMW not holding any events since 2018, Onita announced in 2021 that he would be starting Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion (FMW-E) in which the promotion would specialize in exploding death matches .
128-729: The promotion was highlighted in the third season of the Vice TV 's pro wrestling docuseries Dark Side of the Ring in September 2021. The Atsushi Onita era of FMW originally consisted of a promotion that featured not only professional wrestling but the best martial arts fighters in the world. Onita would bring in American talent that were known in Japan like Jos LeDuc and Dick Murdoch , as well female talent and midget wrestlers. As
256-640: A Big Japan Pro Wrestling show, where he mimicked his idol Riki Choshu as Riki Ganshu and teamed with Riki Sensyu to defeat Abdullah Kobayashi and Poison Julie Sawada by disqualification. On July 29, 2007, Gannosuke, SUZKI and Yuji Hino defeated Alexander Otsuka , Devilman Mystery and Masked Mystery to win the GWC Six-Man Tag Team Championship for Guts World Pro Wrestling. They lost the title to Yuki Sato , Dick Togo and Ryan Upin on October 21. On May 1, 2008, Gannosuke announced that he would retire from professional wrestling at
384-498: A fan favorite by teaming with Jinsei Shinzaki to defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu Oya in the company's debut show The Independence Day . Gannosuke would initially feud with the Brand Double Cross faction . At Marvelous Days 1st , Gannosuke lost to Satoshi Kojima . On December 21, Gannosuke and Shinzaki took on Kuroda and GOEMON. The match ended in a no contest when Gannosuke turned on Shinzaki and became
512-411: A mask vs. hair match , which Hayabusa won. However, Hayabusa suggested to Gannosuke that he would not cut his hair if Gannosuke left Funk Masters of Wrestling and Hayabusa initiated a handshake but Gannosuke attacked him and ripped off his mask and attempted to blow a fireball on Hayabusa before Jinsei Shinzaki made the save. This led to Gannosuke, wearing a purple Hayabusa mask, attacked Shinzaki with
640-705: A one-time Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a two-time Independent Heavyweight Champion . He was also the winner of Over the Top tournament in 1999. He headlined many pay-per-view events for FMW including the company's flagship event Anniversary Show in 1998 , 1999 and 2001 . Masashi Honda was born in Nagasaki-shi, Nagasaki , Japan on June 20, 1968. He was a fan of professional wrestling since childhood and grew up watching New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Honda idolized Riki Choshu as his favorite wrestler and decided to follow in his footsteps and become
768-401: A street fight at ZEN 's first promoted show. Gannosuke's team lost the match, but they attacked ZEN after the match and Fuyuki-Gun joined Gannosuke's group in the assault and the two factions subsequently merged to form Team No Respect , with Gannosuke becoming the leader of the group. On January 16, Gannosuke, Kanemura and Jado defeated Hayabusa , Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya to win
896-673: A tag team with H . On December 1, H and Gannosuke defeated Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu Oya to capture the WEW World Tag Team Championship . In the meanwhile, Masato Tanaka became upset at H forgiving Gannosuke so easily and forming a team with him and did not celebrate with them after the trio defeated Team No Respect members Kintaro Kanemura , Koji Nakagawa and Gedo in a match on December 3. H and Gannosuke successfully defended their title against Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu Oya on December 11. On December 12, H and Gannosuke defeated Kuroda and Tanaka in
1024-476: A tag team match . Gannosuke pinned Gladiator by debuting his new finisher , the Gannosuke Clutch to gain a major upset win over Gladiator. In early 1994, Gannosuke was paired with his mentor Tarzan Goto in a tournament for the new Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship . They defeated Sabu and Damian in the quarter-final, a Barbed Wire Street Fight and the team of Mr. Pogo and Goro Tsurumi in
1152-510: A villain as he aligned himself with GOEMON and GOEMON turned on Kuroda and took him out of Brand Double Cross, with Gannosuke then replacing Kuroda and joining the group as the newest member. Gannosuke would then begin a rivalry with Shinzaki as well as WMF's ace Mammoth Sasaki. On February 15, 2003, Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya lost a tag team match to Shinzaki and Sasaki. On February 23, Gannosuke brought out Katsumi Hirano as "Hayabusa" and defeated Ricky Fuji and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. He then formed
1280-492: A 10% stake in Vice Media . On November 3, 2015, A&E Networks officially announced that Vice would "take over" H2 and re-launch it as a new service, Viceland , "as early as" February 2016. Vice Media CEO Shane Smith stated that the channel was the "next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global rollout of networks around the world", signifying that Vice would now be "platform-agnostic" with
1408-615: A Brief Brothers skit with Yukihiro Kanemura, during which the two began to bicker with each other. He would then make an appearance in Jinsei Shinzaki's outfit at Welcome to the Darkside pay-per-view on August 22, where he cost The Darkside of Hayabusa, a match against Koji Nakagawa, who had joined TNR during Gannosuke's injury. He made his full-time return on October 6 after Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Yukihiro Kanemura and began praying instead of shaking hands with Kuroda, which set up
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#17328010935651536-405: A No Ropes Barbed Wire Deathmatch on October 10, which Gannosuke lost and then Gannosuke appreciated Sasaki on his performance and added him to his FMW Legends Army faction. On December 27, Gannosuke promoted his retirement show, where he teamed with Jinsei Shinzaki and Mammoth Sasaki to defeat Masato Tanaka , Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Kintaro Kanemura in a street fight . After a six-year absence from
1664-457: A Pro-Wrestling A-Tean (Apache Army's successor promotion) event. After this he would come back as a wrestler having matches with Combat Zone Wrestling , Big Japan Pro-Wrestling , World Wonder Ring Stardom and DDT Pro-Wrestling . In 2021, Onita announced that he would be starting Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion , a promotion under the FMW name that specialized in exploding death matches,
1792-472: A Western audience as FMW could now be seen officially on VHS and DVD in the United States . They would go on to release 12 programs which were old FMW cards shortened down to feature the best matches or they were compilations of specific talent like Hayabusa. They also featured dubbed commentary from Eric Gellar and John Watanabe. Later releases would feature Dan Lovranski replacing Eric Gellar. As
1920-399: A changing of the guard as Onita would retire and Hayabusa would step up and be the face of FMW. Onita would go on and sell the company to FMW ring announcer, Shoichi Arai . The Shoichi Arai era of FMW would end up issuing changes to the promotion and gave the promotion a new look and feel. Arai would slowly phase out the deathmatches that Atsushi Onita would help popularize and what put
2048-468: A feud against Soldier, who brought his allies from International Wrestling Cartel (IWC). At Super Hardcore Night , Gannosuke teamed with Gosaku Goshogawara against Soldier and Balls Mahoney , which Gannosuke's team lost. At Kawagoe Decisive Battle , Gannosuke brought Kensuke Sasaki as his tag team partner against Soldier and Mahoney, with Gannosuke's team winning the match. Gannosuke began financing WMF personally after Laing, Inc. stopped financial support of
2176-583: A few appearances in Tokyo Pro Wrestling (TPW) during their time in IWA Japan in mid-1996. The ill-fated promotion closed down after producing its last event on December 7. On January 5, 1997, Mr. Gannosuke and Flying Kid Ichihara returned to FMW, confronting Hayabusa , upset that Hayabusa did not leave FMW with him in 1995. Gannosuke and Ichihara established themselves as villains and joined Terry Funk 's Funk Masters of Wrestling. This marked
2304-482: A goal for only 10 minutes of commercial advertising per-hour, and to leverage Vice's existing production capabilities and experience with native advertising to produce sponsored short-form content for advertisers to air in lieu of traditional commercials. The Walt Disney Company , which co-owns A&E Networks with Hearst Corporation , made a second 10% investment of $ 200 million in Vice Media to support
2432-439: A group called The GUN's with Hirano as Mr. Iwaonosuke and Ichiro Yaguchi as Mr. Rocknosuke and both men modelled each other after Gannosuke. Gannosuke defeated Shinzaki in a match at Marvelous Days 2nd . Gannosuke began a rivalry with Mr. Pogo , which led to a street fight between the duo on May 11, which Gannosuke won. He would then lose a match to rival Mammoth Sasaki on May 24. At Marvelous Days 3rd on July 25, The GUN's lost
2560-596: A lead for Tokyopop in a three-match series between FMW and Tokyopop with the ownership of FMW on the line. Later that night, Hayabusa lost the WEW World Heavyweight Championship to Kintaro Kanemura, which led to Tokyopop gaining the ownership of FMW. On September 5, Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki defeated GOEMON and Onryo to win the WEW World Tag Team Championship. On September 9, Gannosuke, Fuyuki and Kanemura lost
2688-505: A losing effort on the occasion of the promotion's second anniversary. On August 29, Gannosuke defeated Ikeda on the second night of the promotion's second anniversary. In the fall of 2004, Gannosuke participated in the WMF Round Robin Tournament, in which he qualified for the semi-final round by scoring eight points and lost to Mammoth Sasaki in the semi-final on February 20, 2005. Gannosuke would then represent WMF in
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#17328010935652816-518: A losing effort. Although portrayed on screen as longtime rivals, Honda and Hayabusa (Eiji Ezaki) were good friends with each other. Honda is also friends with Kintaro Kanemura . Their friendship suffered in 2002 after the demise of FMW when Gannosuke lured away half of the FMW roster for his Wrestlings Marvelous Future (WMF) and refused to compete in Kodo Fuyuki 's World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) and Kanemura remained loyal to Fuyuki. In 2004,
2944-513: A match against Chocoball Mukai on October 7 and against Gedo on October 29, leading to Arai allowing Gannosuke to compete in a match against Kuroda at Deep Throat , which stipulated that Gannosuke would be reinstated if he won but he would be forced to retire if he lost. Gannosuke would lose the match and retired in storyline . In reality, he needed time off due to the birth of his daughter. Gannosuke made an appearance on December 20 under his real name Masashi Honda and provided color commentary for
3072-476: A match against Gannosuke and Hosaka and then Oya joined Gannosuke's Outlaws and then received his title shot against Kodo Fuyuki for the Double Championship on March 19, where he failed to win the title. Gannosuke would then team with Oya to participate in a round robin tournament for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. They scored eight points in the tournament and were eliminated from
3200-458: A match and after the match, Tanaka refused to shake H and Gannosuke's hands while Kuroda shook their hands. On January 5, 2000, Gannosuke, H, Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji represented FMW against the ECW Japan team of Kodo Fuyuki , Kyoko Inoue , Balls Mahoney and Pitbull #1 , which FMW's team lost. On January 7, H and Gannosuke lost a match to Fuyuki and Inoue, setting up a title defense of
3328-549: A match between Gannosuke and Kuroda on November 20, where Gannosuke made his in-ring return and defeated Kuroda. After the match, Kanemura confronted Gannosuke on his allegiance to TNR but Gannosuke did not answer and simply walked away, thus quietly leaving Team No Respect. He then entered the Over the Top Tournament to determine the #1 contender for the Double Championship on March 19, 1999. Gannosuke defeated Koji Nakagawa in
3456-434: A match type in which Onita became famous for. The new promotion will have Hidetaka Kajiki serving as president. Onita stated he got the idea for the promotion after All Elite Wrestling 's 2021 Revolution PPV in which the event held an exploding barbed wire death match and seeing that there was still a market for these types of matches internationally in the pro wrestling world and with the popularity of online media streaming
3584-431: A match where a baseball player interfered on Kuroda's behalf. Later at the show, Gannosuke confronted FMW President Shoichi Arai on the direction that FMW was going through and had turned from a deathmatch wrestling federation to a joke for the sake of sports entertainment and after Arai refused to listen to him, Gannosuke attacked him, which led Arai to fire him from FMW. Gannosuke began feuding with Kuroda by costing him
3712-552: A nasty gash on his arm. Onita would take it one step further as he would go on to have the first ever exploding barbed wire match in August of 1990, as he challenged his rival, Tarzan Goto . As the years would progress further, we would see an influx of American & Foreign talent begin to appear in FMW with talent ranging from Chris Jericho , Lance Storm , The Original Sheik , Sabu , Damián 666 , Dr. Luther , Leon Spinks , Tiger Jeet Singh and so forth. During these years,
3840-545: A news-based lineup. Earlier that month, the company had also announced that Vice News Tonight , which aired on HBO from 2016 to 2019, would re-launch in 2020 on the network. At the end of the year, Viceland would change its name to Vice TV on December 2, 2019. In April 2021, American professional wrestling promotion Major League Wrestling (MLW) announced a television deal with Vice TV. A block of MLW programming, including reruns of flagship show MLW Fusion , began airing on Saturdays starting May 1. On September 17, it
3968-410: A no contest after Hayabusa handcuffed H to the corner and blew a firecracker inbetween his buttocks to cause it to explode. Honda would then go through an identity crisis in storyline if he was Hayabusa, Masashi Honda or Mr. Gannosuke. H and Hayabusa competed in the main event of the 10th Anniversary Show on November 23 in a match, in which Shawn Michaels served as the special guest referee. During
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling - Misplaced Pages Continue
4096-443: A professional wrestler. He joined Kumamoto University in 1987 and excelled in weight training, where he befriended Eiji Ezaki and the two trained for a professional wrestling career. Honda made his professional wrestling debut at a small independent show on November 2, 1987, teaming with Eiji Ezaki against three upper classmen. They would cut their teeth in the small independent circuit shows for four years, before applying for
4224-428: A restaurant with the help of Flying Kid Ichihara but Fuji would escape after Gannosuke made Ichihara incharge, who then left. On July 28, the team of Gannosuke, Kodo Fuyuki and Jinsei Shinzaki lost to Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya after Shinzaki turned on his team. Gannosuke renewed his rivalry with Hayabusa and the two competed against each other in a match on August 28, which Gannosuke lost. On September 15,
4352-417: A series in which Michael K. Williams explores underground economies around the world, the U.S. premieres of Cyberwar and Dead Set on Life , Party Legends — a show about re-enactments of entertaining party stories, WOMAN — a series in which Gloria Steinam features the lives of different women around the world, and VICE Does America — which Abdullah Saeed and two VICE co-workers explore forgotten places of
4480-473: A stick during Shinzaki's entrance before a match at a Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW) show on June 21. He then proceeded to burn Hayabusa's mask and also beginning to feud with Shinzaki. On August 5, Mr. Gannosuke won the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Funk Masters of Wrestling teammates Hisakatsu Oya and The Gladiator by defeating Hayabusa, Ricky Fuji and Koji Nakagawa in
4608-465: A street fight to Kintaro Kanemura , Mammoth Sasaki and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a match which stipulated that WMF would be forced to end if GUN's won. The loss marked the end of GUN's. Gannosuke formed a group called Apache Army with several fellow FMW alumni and various wrestlers from the Japanese independent circuit including Kintaro Kanemura, Hido , Taka Michinoku , Gentaro and Takashi Sasaki and
4736-573: A street fight, which Gannosuke's team lost. Gannosuke then got involved in Apache Army's feud with his idol Riki Choshu 's Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling . At Marvelous Days 7th , Gannosuke would team with Chocoball Mukai and GOEMON as the trio lost to Koichiro Kimura , Ricky Fuji and Yoji Anjo . In 2004, it was announced that WMF would be closed down due to financial loss and the promotion held its final show Marvelous Days 8th on February 11, where Gannosuke challenged Kensuke Sasaki for
4864-494: A successor promotion, Apache Pro-Wrestling Army , which continued the WEW titles until 2016 when Kanemura retired and closed the promotion. Today the WEW titles are administered by Tomohiko Hashimoto 's Pro-Wrestling A-Team promotion. On April 3, 2015, Hideki Takahashi, Hayabusa and Choden Senshi Battle Ranger held a press conference, announcing they were reviving FMW under the new name "Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW". Takahashi would serve as
4992-478: A tournament for the vacant GWC Tag Team Championship, in which they defeated Tsuneo Yoshie and Ultraman Robin in the quarter-final and Takumi Tsukamoto and The Winger in the semi-final and lost to Hattoshite Good in the final. On July 19, Gannosuke unsuccessfully challenged Daisuke for the GWC Single Championship. On March 22, 2016 Gannosuke defeated Tatsuhiko Yoshino to become the #1 contender for
5120-549: A tumor in December 2015. She would succumb to the disease in 2018, she was 36 years old. On March 3, 2016, Haybusa would pass away at his home from a brain aneurysm, he was 47 years old. On October 31, 2017, FMW founder Atsushi Onita retired after 43 years in the ring. The promotion held its most recent event as Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW in 2018. Although not officially closing once again the revival seemed to have been forgotten about. In 2018, Onita would come out of retirement at
5248-521: A villain. He then joined Fuyuki's new group Shin Fuyuki-Gun . Gannosuke kidnapped Ricky Fuji on June 6 and held him hostage in a forest and threatened to blow him if H and his partner did not defeat Kodo Fuyuki and GOEMON on June 16. H and his partner Hayabusa would win the match but the explosion still occurred and it was revealed that Gannosuke and Fuji had left the spot before the explosion. On July 28, Gannosuke kidnapped Ricky Fuji once again from
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling - Misplaced Pages Continue
5376-495: Is a Japanese retired professional wrestler . He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) under the ring name Mr. Gannosuke ( ミスター雁之助 , Misutā Gannosuke ) . Honda was quickly pushed as "Mr. Gannosuke" due to his resemblance to the actor Ashiya Gannosuke and he began competing as Atsushi Onita 's tag team partner in main event matches during his rookie year. He left
5504-640: Is a part of the Viceland family of television channels programmed by Vice Media . A joint venture with A&E Networks , Vice replaced H2 on most multichannel television providers in the United States. Vice originally operated under the creative direction of film director Spike Jonze , and had a focus on lifestyle-oriented documentary and reality series aimed towards millennials ; including new original series, and adaptations and reruns of existing Vice web series. Amid low ratings, Vice began to retool
5632-676: The Goodbye Hayabusa tour, where they would lose to the team of Hayabusa , Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda . Gannosuke dropped the Independent Heavyweight Championship to Masato Tanaka at Haunted House . The match was well received and voted FMW's Match of the Year of 1999. Two days later, at Hayabusa Graduation Ceremony , Gannosuke and Jado defeated Flying Kid Ichihara and Naohiko Yamazaki. Gannosuke would then wrestle Hayabusa at Last Match in
5760-490: The Governors Ball Music Festival . On February 24, 2019, the channel launched Vice Live , a two-hour live show airing Mondays through Thursdays at 9 p.m. The series was meant to anchor Viceland's primetime lineup and act as a replacement for Desus & Mero after that show's hosts moved to Showtime . Shortly after debuting, Vice Live was trimmed down to an hour and, due to low ratings,
5888-538: The Independent Heavyweight Championship to Gannosuke. Despite holding the title, Gannosuke's status dwindled from a main eventer to being Fuyuki's assistant along with the rest of TNR. He participated in a six-man tag team tournament with Yukihiro Kanemura and Jado for the new WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . The trio scored three points in the tournament, thus directly qualifying for the semi-final on July 31 pay-per-view during
6016-404: The WEW World Tag Team Championship . On June 8, Kodo Fuyuki announced that he had sold his stock to Tokyopop and wanted to sell FMW to Tokyopop and gave the FMW roster, a choice to side either with him or Shoichi Arai. Gannosuke opted to side with Fuyuki while Kuroda sided with Arai and turned face, leading to the breakup of Team Kuroda. Later that night, Gannosuke teamed with Kintaro Kanemura and
6144-733: The World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . Gannosuke began mocking Jinsei Shinzaki by appearing in his outfit and using Shinzaki's mannerisms and moves during his matches. On February 13, Gannosuke's team lost the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to ZEN's Atsushi Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. On March 29, Gannosuke and Kanemura lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to TNR teammates Kodo Fuyuki and Hido. On April 21, Gannosuke lost to Jinsei Shinzaki to end their year-lasting feud. The following week, Gannosuke lost
6272-590: The World Tag Team Championship . On December 9, Gannosuke and Goto defeated Jack and Tiger Jeet Singh in the final of a tag team tournament to win the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship and held both sets of tag team championships . Despite holding two sets of tag team titles, IWA Japan lost tons of money and suspended operations. Shin-FMW left the company in October 1996, forcing Gannosuke and Goto to vacate both titles. Shin-FMW also made
6400-413: The booker , he would put forth his vision on how FMW should be run as Arai would sign the checks and book the arenas for the promotion. During this time, Onita would return to professional wrestling and start a faction that would rival FMW and they were known simply as ZEN . This group was loosely based on World Championship Wrestling 's group known as The New World Order . Onita would run shows under
6528-694: The 18–49 demographic, down from 95,600 one year prior under H2). However, the median demographics of the network were beginning to skew younger than H2, and some premieres had achieved upwards of 100,000 viewers. A&E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc defended the numbers, stating that the network's goal was to "attract an audience that is not watching much TV," and that they were "trying to pivot the conversation away from just purely ratings"—noting that Viceland had already received several Emmy nominations for its programs within its first three months of operation. Year-over-year, Vice TV lost 42% of its viewership in 2017 compared to 2016. It lost another 10% in 2018. By 2021,
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#17328010935656656-643: The 30 original programs planned were produced in Canada, including Cyberwar — which focuses on cyberterrorism , and Dead Set on Life — an expansion of Matty Matheson's food-oriented web series Keep It Canada . A month after Viceland's initial launch, the network announced a second slate of shows, including Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch ‘Ancient Aliens’ —a series in which Action Bronson watches episodes of Ancient Aliens with guests whilst smoking marijuana, Black Market —
6784-428: The 70 million homes that already received H2, rather than having to build Viceland entirely from scratch and negotiate carriage with providers. A&E Networks handles the distribution and operations of Viceland, and assists in advertising sales. Vice holds a 49% minority stake and control of international expansions. Smith stated that the network planned to "test new and innovative monetization strategies", including
6912-522: The Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship against Jado and Gedo . On October 14, Gannosuke defeated Jinsei Shinzaki after attacking him from behind. During this time, he got over with the fans as the company's top villain due to getting heel heat after the departure of Terry Funk. On October 19, Gannosuke and Oya lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to ZEN 's Atsushi Onita and Yukihiro Kanemura . After losing
7040-554: The Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship with Onita by defeating Mr. Pogo and The Gladiator. They dropped the title to Pogo and Yukihiro Kanemura on March 7. Gannosuke and his mentor Tarzan Goto no-showed the April 22 event, and the following day, the two along with Flying Kid Ichihara announced that they were leaving FMW due to Goto's refusal of losing to Onita at 6th Anniversary Show . This also led Gannosuke and Katsutoshi Niiyama's scheduled match against Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji at
7168-413: The Double Championship to his rival Hayabusa at FMW's first pay-per-view event 9th Anniversary Show: Entertainment Wrestling Live on April 30. During the match, Gannosuke dislocated his knee, which required reconstructive surgery and to be out of action for six months and then Kodo Fuyuki took over as the leader of Team No Respect. Gannosuke made his first appearance since losing the title on May 25 for
7296-548: The Hawai'i Championship Wrestling (HCW) Kamehameha Heritage World Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort. He then turned fan favorite as he ended his rivalry with Mammoth Sasaki as the two embraced and hugged each other and they announced that WMF was not ending and going on a hiatus instead as it marked the end of the promotion's Chapter 1 and it would return in the summer of 2004. The promotion returned on August 7, where Gannosuke teamed with GOEMON against Seiji Ikeda and Garuda in
7424-511: The Marvelous Future Tag Team Tournament, in which they defeated Onryo and Yuko Miyamoto in the quarter-final but lost to Mineo Fujita and Kitten Kid in the semi-final. On April 14, Gannosuke announced that he would compete as a freelancer on the Japanese independent circuit and refused Soldier's challenge for a singles match and thus denounced himself as a WMF wrestler. However, Gannosuke appeared on May 19 as
7552-602: The Road— a series following skaters on Thrasher Magazine's annual scavenger hunt, States of Undress — a series focusing on fashion weeks around the world, the music documentary series Noisey , Vice World of Sports , and Weediquette — which focuses on the mainstream cannabis culture and industry. Blocks of existing short-form content from Vice ( Vice Lab ) are also featured, along with other, acquired content— such as Friday-night airings of cult films accompanied by Vice Guide to Film documentaries on their directors. 10 of
7680-583: The WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and GOEMON. The following month, on October 9, Gannosuke and Sasaki lost the WEW World Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. Gannosuke got involved in a feud between his on-screen girlfriend Mirei and Makiko over the affections of Gannosuke. On November 5, Gannosuke turned fan favorite by cutting a worked shoot promo in which he showed support for Hayabusa, who had been recently injured on October 22. On November 23, Makiko defeated Mirei in an evening gown match for Gannosuke. Later at
7808-544: The WEW Tag Team Championship against Fuyuki and Inoue on February 25, where H and Gannosuke lost the title. Honda would then take time off and returned to FMW on April 11 to team with H against ECW Japan's Masato Tanaka and Balls Mahoney. H was injured early in the match and then returned as Hayabusa by the end of the match but Gannosuke's team still lost the match. At 11th Anniversary Show: Backdraft , Gannosuke represented FMW against ECW Japan's Sabu and
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#17328010935657936-654: The WEW World Heavyweight Championship by hitting Fuyuki with a chair and turned into a villain. Gannosuke became a member of Kuroda's Team Kuroda group and aligned himself with Kuroda in his feud with Hayabusa and The Great Sasuke . Gannosuke made his in-ring return on April 15 by teaming with Mammoth Sasaki and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat The Great Sasuke, GOEMON and Onryo. Kuroda and Gannosuke competed against Hayabusa and Sasuke in an Exploding 15000 Volt Thunderbolt Octagon Cage Bomb Deathmatch at 12th Anniversary Show , which Kuroda and Gannosuke lost. On May 22, Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki unsuccessfully challenged GOEMON and Onryo for
8064-577: The WMF and feuded with the likes of Soldier and Kitten Kid throughout the year. On November 24, KHM Army defeated Kamui, Kankuro Hirano, Soldier and SYU in an elimination tag team match . However, KHM Army would lose a six-man tag team match against Kamui, Kitten Kid and Soldier on December 26. On February 17, 2008, Gannosuke announced that he was ending the KHM Army, which marked the end of the rivalry between KHM Army and WMF. Gannosuke announced his retirement at
8192-519: The ZEN label and these shows would feature FMW talent. Hayabusa would continue to be featured as the ace of FMW and would go on to feud with the likes of Mr. Gannosuke , Kintaro Kanemura , and, Tetsuhiro Kuroda . As the booker of FMW, Kodo Fuyuki also continued to wrestle and he would go on to help form the top heel faction known as Team No Respect . In 2000, FMW would sign a distribution deal with Tokyopop which would help get their product out to
8320-466: The addition of television to Vice's traditionally digital media -oriented strategy, and be capable of producing high-quality media. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Smith explained that, despite Vice traditionally being oriented towards digital content, "75 percent of the world's advertising budget" was being spent on television advertising, and that partnering with an established media company gave Vice access to A&E's infrastructure and
8448-409: The beginning of a historic and long-lasting rivalry between Gannosuke and Hayabusa. Gannosuke made his in-ring return to FMW on February 18 as he and Hisakatsu Oya defeated the team of Hayabusa and Ricky Fuji . Gannosuke went on a vicious streak, defeating other wrestlers and calling them victories over Hayabusa. At 8th Anniversary Show , Gannosuke wrestled Hayabusa in their first singles encounter,
8576-467: The cards and would be utilized as preliminary talents , being used to lose against more established stars. Honda picked up his first win in FMW against Ezaki on June 26. The duo competed against each other in the opening match of the 2nd Anniversary Show , which Ezaki won. The following month, on October 14, Honda picked up his first major victory by winning a thirteen-man battle royal by last eliminating The Gladiator . His battle royal win elevated him to
8704-442: The channel was reported to be in 60 to 70 million households. In May 2021, Vice Media launched a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel; it is drawn from former Vice TV series such as Huang's World , Noisey , and Vice Essentials . As of 2022, the channel is available on The Roku Channel , Samsung TV Plus and Tubi TV Mr. Gannosuke Masashi Honda ( 本田雅史 , Honda Masashi , born June 20, 1968)
8832-514: The channel's main goal was "trying not to be shitty". Viceland will focus primarily on lifestyle content; Vice News content will remain largely exclusive to Vice's existing joint venture with HBO. Jonze stated that unlike the HBO content, Viceland would be "far from objective [reporting]". Thirty different programs were developed for Viceland, including original series and expanded versions of existing Vice's web series. Original programs announced for
8960-635: The channel's programming in 2019 to focus more on news and documentary programming, and was brought under the Vice News division that August. The channel adopted its current name on December 2, 2019. As of November 2023 , Vice TV is available to approximately 45,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2015 peak of 74,000,000 households. In August 2014, A&E Networks (a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company ) acquired
9088-687: The company in 1995 with his trainer Tarzan Goto due to differences with Onita and worked in International Wrestling Association (IWA) for nearly two years. He returned to FMW in 1997 and became the main rival of Hayabusa for the next four years. He was the company's most popular villain from 1997 to 1998 and the second top villain from then onwards. He would be a member of villainous groups Funk Masters of Wrestling, ZEN , Team No Respect and Shin Fuyuki-gun . He held many titles in his FMW career including being
9216-639: The company on the map and would bring in a more "sports entertainment" look and feel for the promotion that would be almost similar to that of the WWE . In a nod to the WWE, the old Brass Knuckles and Independent championships were abandoned and replaced with new titles, the World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) championships. Arai would enlist the help of professional wrestler , Kodo Fuyuki as both men would usher in this new era. Having Fuyuki as
9344-477: The company's top main event star. On January 6, 1998, Gannosuke defeated Masato Tanaka to win the FMW Double Championship (the unified Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and the Independent Heavyweight Championship ) to claim his first world championship reigns. A day later, Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido took on Atsushi Onita , Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in
9472-538: The company's top villains . Gannosuke and Tarzan Goto also made an appearance for Wrestle Association R 's 3rd Anniversary Show , where the duo defeated Jado and Gedo . At IWA Japan's Kawasaki Dream , Gannosuke participated in the well received King of the Deathmatch tournament , losing to Tiger Jeet Singh in a Barbed Wire Board and Chain Deathmatch in the quarter-final round. On October 1, Gannosuke and Tarzan Goto defeated Cactus Jack and Tracy Smothers to win
9600-413: The company. On July 31, Gannosuke defeated Mammoth Sasaki in a street fight to end their rivalry. In the fall of 2005, Gannosuke began feuding with Soldier and his new group New Generation Army, which aimed at eliminating old veteran wrestlers from WMF and giving place to new and young wrestlers and the two groups feuded with each other throughout 2006. In 2007, Gannosuke teamed with Soldier to participate in
9728-511: The crowds continued to decrease, the amount of debt became too much for Arai, as he finally decided to announce that he has filed for bankruptcy and FMW would go on to have their final show on February 4, 2002. As 2001 came to a close, it was stated that Arai owed the sum of what would be the equivalent of one million US dollars to yakuza due to the money he would constantly borrow but never pay back. Running out of options, on May 16, 2002, Shoichi Arai would commit suicide so his family could collect
9856-441: The duo defeated Hayabusa and Kuroda in the night's main event. Gannosuke would then be allied with Fuyuki and feud with Hayabusa and the FMW team. On July 2, Gannosuke introduced his new on-screen girlfriend Mirei to FMW. On July 30, Gannosuke, Kodo Fuyuki and Kintaro Kanemura defeated Hisakatsu Oya, Ricky Fuji and Flying Kid Ichihara to capture the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On August 11, Gannosuke defeated Kanemura to gain
9984-473: The duo felt deserved to be the main event of the show and it led to a heated argument between Gannosuke and Onita. Gannosuke and Kanemura successfully defended the title against Hayabusa and Shinzaki. On the final day of the tour on December 22, the team of Onita, Gannosuke and Kanemura took on Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki and Masato Tanaka in a WarGames match , during which Gannosuke and Kanemura showed tactics of dissension with Onita and turned on Onita after Onita
10112-404: The end of the year and decided to end the WMF promotion and then quit the company. He returned to WMF for only one match against Kamui on July 27, which Gannosuke won. This was his last match in the WMF and he closed the promotion a month later on August 31. After the closure of FMW, Honda primarily wrestled for its successor WMF, but also competed in the Japanese independent circuit. He was one of
10240-470: The end of the year. During this time, Gannosuke reunited with various FMW wrestlers and was able to compete in the Apache Army promotion as well due to Kintaro Kanemura being expelled from Apache Army due to a sexual harassment scandal. He formed a stable with fellow FMW alumni Tetsuhiro Kuroda , Koji Nakagawa and Ricky Fuji called FMW Legends Army and the group feuded with the Apache Army stable. This rivalry led to Gannosuke taking on Mammoth Sasaki in
10368-483: The event to be cancelled. Upon leaving FMW, Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke and Flying Kid Ichihara joined the upstart deathmatch wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), where they debuted on May 30 with a win over Kendo Nagasaki , Giant Korean and Kim Soppo. They soon left BJW and joined International Wrestling Association of Japan in July, where the trio formed a stable Shin-FMW and were heavily pushed as
10496-518: The event, Honda closed Guts World Pro Wrestling and retired from wrestling. Although primarily wrestling for Guts World Pro Wrestling, Mr. Gannosuke also wrestles on several independent promotions and promotes his own wrestling events under the Kishindo banner as well. He debuted for Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS on May 1, 2015 as a member of Kamui's reformed WMF Army by teaming with Onryo against Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Toru Sugiura. Gannosuke and Onryo won
10624-730: The fall of 1991 and returned to FMW on January 5, 1992, losing to Kevin Sullivan . Gannosuke suffered another injury on July 28 and was sidelined for the rest of the year. He returned on January 5, 1993, where he lost to Koji Nakagawa in the opening match of the show. A third injury ensued during a tag team match on April 23 when he and Atsushi Onita lost to Big Titan and The Gladiator after Gladiator punched hard in Gannosuke's jaw, thus breaking it. He returned to FMW on June 15 by defeating Eiji Ezaki. At Summer Spectacular , Gannosuke teamed with Sambo Asako to take on Big Titan and The Gladiator in
10752-522: The feud. On December 21, Gannosuke teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda to participate in a tournament for the vacant WEW World Tag Team Championship. They defeated GOEMON and Onryo in the quarter-final, Sabu and Yoshihito Sasaki in the semi-final and Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki in the final to win the tournament and the vacant title. On January 6, 2002, Gannosuke teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mammoth Sasaki to take on Kodo Fuyuki's foreign alliance of The Sandman , Balls Mahoney and Vic Grimes . During
10880-571: The first round, Yukihiro Kanemura in the quarter-final, Hido in the semi-final and Hisakatsu Oya in the final round of the tournament on January 5, 1999 to become the #1 contender for the titles and earn the title shot. Following his tournament victory, Gannosuke formed a group with Hideki Hosaka and Super Leather called Gannosuke's Outlaws, which became the top villainous group in FMW due to Team No Respect turning into fan favorites. Gannosuke gained his first singles win over Hayabusa on February 21. On February 27, Hisakatsu Oya turned on Hayabusa during
11008-600: The founding members of Apache Army group, along with Kintaro Kanemura and several other wrestlers. Apache Army invaded Pro Wrestling Zero-One and the two sides battled each other during the fall of 2003 and early 2004. On December 25, Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Jun Kasai and Tengu Kaiser to win the vacant All Asia Tag Team Championship . They lost the title to Great Kosuke and Shiryu at an All Japan Pro Wrestling show on January 2, 2004. In 2004, Apache Army began an interpromotional rivalry with Riki Choshu 's Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling , which led to
11136-584: The group making appearances in WJ. Gannosuke was removed from Apache Army due to differences with Kintaro Kanemura and would then continue to focus on reviving his WMF promotion. He made frequent appearances in Kings Road, Muga World Pro Wrestling , Ice Ribbon , Dramatic Dream Team , Fuyuki Army Promotion, Guts World Pro Wrestling and also promoted his own shows under the "Kishindo" banner, named after his FMW theme song . On January 10, 2005, Gannosuke appeared for
11264-430: The group would compete in various independent promotions. At WMF's 1st Anniversary Show , Gannosuke, Hido and Kanemura defeated Ikeda-kun, Mammoth Sasaki and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. At Marvelous Days 5th , the team of Gentaro, Kanemura and Gannosuke defeated Yuko Miyamoto , Mineo Fujita and Seiji Ikeda. At Marvelous Days 6th on November 20, Mammoth Sasaki brought Genichiro Tenryu as "Hayabusa" against Gannosuke and Hido in
11392-536: The initial slate included Thomas Morton 's Balls Deep , Flophouse — a series where Lance Bangs follows the lives of up-and-coming comedians at underground stand-up events, Fuck, That's Delicious — a television version of the food-oriented web series starring Action Bronson , Gaycation — a series in which Elliot Page explores the LGBT cultures of different regions, Huang's World — featuring Eddie Huang "exploring identity using food as an equalizer", King of
11520-743: The last match of Eiji Ezaki's Hayabusa character , challenging Hayabusa for the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship . Hayabusa retained the title and it would be the last match for the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship as the title, along with the Independent Heavyweight Championship would be retired in favor of the new WEW Single Championship . On August 27, Hayabusa debuted his new character H in an elimination tag team match against Team No Respect, during which H injured Gannosuke's knee, reminiscent of Hayabusa injuring him
11648-418: The life insurance to pay back the money owed to the yakuza. The talent divided into two promotions: Kodo Fuyuki's World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW), the name of FMW's title governing body since 1999, and Mr. Gannosuke 's Wrestlings Marvelous Future (WMF). Some of the talent also made appearances on Onita's special shows. Following Fuyuki's death in 2003, most of the WEW talent under Kintaro Kanemura formed
11776-439: The main event match along with the injured Hayabusa. In the meanwhile, Tetsuhiro Kuroda had turned heel and joined Shin Fuyuki-Gun. Honda returned to FMW on April 1, 2001 and introduced his protégé Banji Takada, who would lose to Yoshihito Sasaki. Honda shook hands with Sasaki and teased a face turn, which led Shoichi Arai to reinstate him as a wrestler. Later that night, Gannosuke helped Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat Kodo Fuyuki for
11904-613: The match ended in a no contest after Gannosuke blew a fireball on Sabu. Gannosuke would shortly after injure his leg and wore a cast and a crutch on his leg. On May 28, Gannosuke competed against H and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a three-way dance to determine the #1 contender for the WEW World Heavyweight Championship , with champion Kodo Fuyuki as the special guest referee. Gannosuke turned on H by hitting him with his crutch after H eliminated Kuroda and then Gannosuke defeated H, with Fuyuki's help and turned into
12032-533: The match, Gannosuke broke his both ankles after Grimes delivered a Moonsault on Gannosuke through a table. With both Hayabusa and Gannosuke out of action, FMW closed a month later on February 15 due to bankruptcy. Gannosuke made his comeback to the ring for Hayabusa 's new promotion Wrestlings Marvelous Future (WMF) at the pre-debut show on August 18, where he teamed with Garuda, Onryo and Ikeda-kun to defeat Ricky Fuji , GOEMON , Mammoth Sasaki and Soldier in an eight-man tag team match . He established himself as
12160-408: The match, Hayabusa had enough of the identity crisis and he removed his mask to compete as Gannosuke. H won the match and after the match, H and Hayabusa finally made peace by making friends with each other and ending their rivalry and as a result, Gannosuke turned fan favorite for the first time since 1995. Gannosuke's transition into a fan favorite led to him to quit Team No Respect and he formed
12288-675: The match. Gannosuke continues to wrestle occasionally for FREEDOMS. He debuted for the resurrected FMW on March 22, 2017 at the occasion of the first anniversary of Hayabusa 's death. Gannosuke teamed with Raijin Yaguchi, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Tomohiko Hashimoto against Atsushi Onita , Hideki Hosaka , Mammoth Sasaki and Ricky Fuji in an eight-man tag team match , which Gannosuke's team lost. In 2018, Gannosuke announced his retirement from professional wrestling, promoting his last Kishindo Returns Final show on March 27, where he teamed with Hayabucha against Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka in
12416-403: The mystery tag team partner of GOEMON and Hideki Hosaka against the WMF team of Soldier, Mineo Fujita and Kengo Takai, during which Gannosuke turned villain and Fujita turned on Soldier, allowing Gannosuke to defeat Soldier for the victory. Gannosuke formed a group with Fujita, Hosaka, GOEMON, Leatherface and Yasu Orano called KHM as the top villainous group to feud with WMF. The KHM Army wrestled
12544-459: The new promotion was formed. The promotion, however, held its last card to date on December 19, 2021, after which Onita went freelance yet again. In October 2022, FMW-E started back up promoting cards. Deceased individuals are indicated with a dagger (†). Vice TV Vice TV (also known as Vice on TV , or simply Vice , and formerly known as Viceland ) is an American basic cable television channel that launched on February 29, 2016. It
12672-407: The next month and Gannosuke tweeted the following day that he would be returning to the ring as a full-time wrestler for Guts World at the 10th Anniversary Show. Gannosuke made his in-ring return at 10th Anniversary Show, on October 12, where he teamed with Guts Ishijima to defeat Tonpachi Machine Guns (Masao Orihara and Masked Mystery Partner). In February 2015, Gannosuke and Ishijima participated in
12800-594: The president and Hayabusa as the executive producer of the promotion, which would also feature participation from Atsushi Onita. The promotion held its first event on April 21. On October 30, 2015, they announced that they were reviving the FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship , as they set a match to determine new champions on December 22. In 2016, two tragedies had befallen FMW. On February 17, 2016, Ray would announce that she had inoperable stage three brain cancer after being diagnosed with
12928-528: The previous year at 9th Anniversary Show . The following week, on September 3, Honda appeared in Hayabusa's attire and mask and attacked H during a six-man tag team match and proclaimed that he was the real Hayabusa. Gannosuke would then use Hayabusa's entrance theme and compete as Hayabusa and embarrassed H by filming a porn video with Chocoball Mukai as Hayabusa. This led to an anus explosion match between H and Hayabusa on October 29, which ended in
13056-423: The production of new programming. Prior to launch day, Vice ran newspaper ads for Viceland, containing only the network's name and a phone number that, when called, invited viewers to contribute answers to questions. On February 29, 2016, at 6:00 am. ET, the channel began broadcasting a countdown clock to the official relaunch as Viceland later in the evening, accompanied by footage of Vice executives answering
13184-401: The promotion for his high flying style and it was known that Hayabusa was the "ace" of FMW. Onita was fixing to retire once again from professional wrestling and his retirement match was held at the annual May 5th, Kawasaki Stadium show. This was FMW's biggest show of the year and Onita would take on Hayabusa in an exploding barbed wire cage, timebomb deathmatch. This match now signified
13312-445: The quarter-final and Fuyuki-Gun ( Kodo Fuyuki , Jado , and Gedo ) in the final. Two weeks later, on August 21, Gannosuke and Oya defeated W*ING Kanemura and Hido to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship . On August 31, Funk Masters of Wrestling lost the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Koji Nakagawa. At Kawasaki Legend: Fall Spectacular , Gannosuke and Oya successfully defended
13440-410: The ring, Gannosuke signed a contract with Guts World Pro Wrestling and appeared as a ring announcer for a Guts World show on September 6, 2014. During the show, he was attacked by Masao Orihara after Orihara lost a match to Guts Ishijima and then Ishijima asked Gannosuke to come out of retirement and team with him to take on Orihara and a masked mystery partner at the promotion's 10th Anniversary Show
13568-477: The semi-final, a Barbed Wire Deathmatch and then lost to Big Titan and The Gladiator in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Deathmatch in the final of Block A. They would be moved to the losing teams' Block B, where they were defeated by Atsushi Onita and Katsutoshi Niiyama in the final of Block B, a No Ropes Barbed Wire Deathmatch. Gannosuke would then team with Sambo Asako to defeat Goro Tsurumi and Hideki Hosaka at 5th Anniversary Show . Gannosuke began elevating his status in
13696-421: The show, Gannosuke showed up during Kodo Fuyuki 's Double Championship title defense against Tetsuhiro Kuroda and reunited Team No Respect as all the members of TNR began dancing to TNR's theme song Come Out and Play . The group helped Fuyuki in retaining the title against Kuroda, resulting in Gannosuke ending Gannosuke's Outlaws and rejoining TNR. On May 18, Fuyuki split the Double Championship and awarded
13824-467: The show, Gannosuke teamed with Mammoth Sasaki as the two defeated Biomonster DNA and Dr. Luther to win their second WEW World Tag Team Championship. Later that night, they vacated the titles and joined forces with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Kintaro Kanemura to feud with Kodo Fuyuki who had turned on FMW to align himself with Genichiro Tenryu 's WAR alliance. On December 9, the FMW alliance defeated WAR's team of Tenryu, Fuyuki, Arashi and Koki Kitahara to win
13952-442: The summer of 1994 by picking up a major victory against Sambo Asako at Summer Spectacular . He then joined forces with Atsushi Onita and his allies to feud with the upstart faction W*ING Alliance . On November 23, the team of Gannosuke, Onita and Katsutoshi Niiyama took on W*ING members Mr. Pogo, Yukihiro Kanemura and The Gladiator in a Penalty Box Elimination No Ropes Barbed Wire Street Fight Deathmatch , during which Gannosuke
14080-465: The team of Mr. Gannosuke, Kodo Fuyuki and new Shin Fuyuki-Gun recruit Shinjuku Shark defeated H, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu Oya to win the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . Two days later, they lost the titles to Jado , Gedo and Kaori Nakayama when Fuyuki was pinned by Nakayama. Gannosuke began growing upset at his teammates. On September 26, Gannosuke and GOEMON defeated Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Onryo in
14208-414: The title and then defeated Daisuke to win the title on May 8. He made his first successful title defense against Gentaro on June 17. He lost the title to Masked Mystery on September 11. Gannosuke held his retirement ceremony on April 15 at Guts World's final show, where he competed in his final wrestling match, teaming with Michio Kageyama against Tatsumi Fujinami and Hiro Saito in a losing effort. After
14336-408: The title, Gannosuke and Oya left Funk Masters of Wrestling and jumped to ZEN. Two days later, Gannosuke and Oya defeated The Gladiator and Super Leather after Gladiator attacked Leather and abandoned Funk Masters of Wrestling. On November 28, Gannosuke teamed with his ZEN teammate Yukihiro Kanemura and they defeated Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka to win the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship and
14464-529: The tournament. They subsequently began feuding with Daisuke Ikeda and Muhammad Yone after losing to them in a tournament match on March 29. Gannosuke and Oya defeated Ikeda and Yone in a rematch on May 3. Later in the show, Gannosuke's Outlaws and Team No Respect formed an alliance as TNR helped Gannosuke's Outlaws in laying out an assault on Daisuke Ikeda. Two days later, on May 5, the combined alliance of Gannosuke's Outlaws and Team No Respect defeated Battlarts ' team in an elimination tag team match . Later in
14592-451: The two broke their friendship over combining their WMF and Fuyuki Army Promotions and Kanemura used his links to prevent Gannosuke from competing in other major promotions in Japan. They patched up in 2008 and Gannosuke convinced Kanemura to compete in his retirement match on December 27, 2008, which Kanemura accepted. Gannosuke now promotes shows under his own name about every four months and
14720-531: The two formed a very successful tag team, even surpassing their leader Atsushi Onita as the top villains of FMW due to them getting the biggest heel heat from the crowd. Friction arose within ZEN as Onita put himself in the main event of the December 19 show in the Super Extreme Wrestling War tour against Masato Tanaka, instead of Gannosuke and Kanemura's Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship defense against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki, which
14848-426: The upper mid-card while also competing in few main event matches as Atsushi Onita 's partner. On October 22, Honda changed his ring name to Mr. Gannosuke , a nickname first given to him by his trainer Tarzan Goto during his training days due to Honda's resemblance to actor Ashiya Gannosuke. He would team with Onita in numerous street fights and deathmatches by the end of his rookie year. He suffered an injury in
14976-536: The upstart promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in 1991. In February 1991, Ezaki and Honda joined the FMW Dojo, where they were trained by Tarzan Goto . Ezaki would debut for FMW in May and Honda made his FMW debut a month later as a fan favorite against Akihito Ichihara on June 22, which Honda lost. He and Ezaki wrestled as a low-card tag team during the early matches of his career and against each other on
15104-738: The viewer-contributed calls as voice mail . The network's first program following the official launch was the series premiere of Noisey , following hip-hop musician Kendrick Lamar . The network's launch lineup featured programs hosted by existing Vice personalities such as Action Bronson and Thomas Morton , as well as notable figures such as Eddie Huang , Elliot Page , and Lance Bangs . Viceland's programming initially consisted primarily of lifestyle-oriented documentaries and reality series aimed towards millennials , directed in Vice's trademark style of "character-driven documentaries". Creative director Spike Jonze stated that his goal for Viceland
15232-655: The world. Jonze stated that Viceland's original programs will have varying lengths, stating that "some are four episodes. Some are six. Some are eight. We're making everything based on what feels right", and that extended episodes may be possible if warranted. On May 3, 2016, Vice announced a partnership with ESPN (a fellow Disney/Hearst venture) to produce sports-oriented content for its properties. The deal also includes some content-sharing between ESPN and Viceland, such as encore airings of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentaries on Viceland, and airings of Vice World of Sports on ESPN. In June 2016, Viceland broadcast live coverage of
15360-430: The years progressed with FMW, Onita decided to phase out the martial arts aspect of the company and focus strictly on professional wrestling . Onita would go on to have violent and bloody matches like the first ever barbed wire match in the company where he would team with Tarzan Goto as they took on the team of Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Jerry Flynn . Onita would use real barbed wire which resulted in him receiving
15488-423: The years progressed, the audiences for the live shows began to decrease and Arai would slowly sink further and further into debt. Tragedy struck the promotion on October 22, 2001, during a match with Hayabusa and Mammoth Sasaki. Hayabusa attempted a springboard moonsault —one of his signature moves—but he accidentally slipped on the ropes and fell directly on his neck, breaking it and paralyzing him. As
15616-408: The young Eiji Ezaki started to slowly work his way through the ranks. He was known as a prodigy in the world of wrestling and like a-lot of promotions in Japan do, send him on excursion away from the company as they will learn and develop. Ezaki would go on excursion to Mexico and wrestle for a couple of different promotions and developed the character of Hayabusa . Hayabusa became a fan favorite in
15744-399: Was pinned by Hayabusa. They attacked Onita until Koji Nakagawa made the rescue and then Gannosuke, Kanemura and Hido left ZEN to form their own freelance group alongside Miss Mongol. This led Onita to turn fan favorite and Gannosuke cemented his place as the top villain of FMW. Impressed by Honda due to his heel heat and increasing popularity, FMW's head booker Go Ito pushed Gannosuke as
15872-403: Was announced that Vice would air MLW's Fightland as a television special on October 7. On May 15, 2023, Vice Media formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , as part of an eventual sale to a consortium of lenders including Fortress Investment Group , which will, alongside Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, invest $ 225 million as a credit bid for nearly all of its assets. The sale
16000-435: Was closed in August 2023. Vice's current programming includes original documentary series (such as Dark Side of the Ring and its various spin-offs), and acquired reality shows , and film telecasts. In August 2016, it was reported that average viewership of Vice TV's programming was down by nearly half over H2 (in a period from November 28 to December 15, 2016, the network had average primetime viewership of 58,000 in
16128-399: Was eliminated by Gladiator and suffered an injury, which put him out of action for nearly two months. He returned to FMW on January 5, 1995, where he teamed with FMW fellows Tarzan Goto, Katsutoshi Niiyama and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against W*ING's Mr. Pogo, The Gladiator, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hisakatsu Oya in a losing effort. A month later, on February 24, Gannosuke won his first championship ,
16256-420: Was eventually cancelled after its April 11, 2019 episode. On April 10, 2019, Vice premiered the professional wrestling documentary series Dark Side of the Ring , which would go on to become the network's highest-rated, and longest-running, original series. In August 2019, Vice Media announced that the channel was merging with Vice News as a part of its shift from entertainment and lifestyle programming to
16384-446: Was to make its lineup have "a reason to exist and a strong point of view", rather than be just a "collection of shows". Jonze explained that Viceland would continue to reflect Vice's core mission of "trying to understand the world we live in by producing pieces about things we're curious about or confused about or that we think are funny. And if it doesn't have a strong point of view, then it shouldn't be on this channel." Smith stated that
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