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153-634: He is also known as a mainstay of FMW where he was the arch rival of the company's top star Hayabusa and a founding member of the stable Team No Respect included Kintaro Kanemura , Hideki Hosaka , Masao Orihara , Tetsuhiro Kuroda , Mr. Gannosuke , Koji Nakagawa , Horace Boulder , Super Leather , Hido , Gedo and Jado. Trained by Isao Yoshihara, Hiromichi Fuyuki made his professional wrestling debut in International Pro Wrestling on May 4, 1980, one week before his 20th birthday. Three months later, IWE folded, and Fuyuki applied to

306-609: A WarGames match after Hayabusa pinned Onita after a Moonsault from the top of the cage as a payback for his loss to Onita at 6th Anniversary Show in 1995. Hayabusa started getting over with the audience and he was finally being heavily pushed . Friction arose within ZEN and Gannosuke formed his own group Team No Respect . On January 16, 1998, Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya lost their six-man tag team title to Team No Respect members Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Jado . Hayabusa and his allies battled Team No Respect members for

459-652: A fan favorite underdog by teaming with Ryo Miyake against The Headhunters in a losing effort. Although he started in the undercard, he worked his way up the ladder in W*ING and quickly became one of the top stars of the company due to his willingness to take damage in deathmatches . On May 5, 1992, he defeated The Grappler in Osaka to lay claim to a version of the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship , whose championship belt

612-502: A five-on-five elimination tag team match which Hayabusa's FMW team won with a clean sweep as his entire team survived. On June 4, Hayabusa and Shinzaki lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship to No Fear ( Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama ). Ezaki had suffered multiple injuries during the past few years of his career which forced him to change his wrestling style from high flying to mat wrestling. This

765-485: A gauntlet match to earn an immediate WEW Heavyweight Championship match against Kodo Fuyuki, which he lost after Jinsei Shinzaki turned on Hayabusa. On July 28, Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya defeated Fuyuki, Shinzaki and Mr. Gannosuke after Hayabusa pinned Gannosuke. This set up a match against Gannosuke on August 28, which Hayabusa won to earn a shot at Fuyuki's WEW Heavyweight Championship. On September 15, Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Tetsuhiro Kuroda lost

918-439: A hair vs. hair match at FMW's 8th Anniversary Show . After the match, Hayabusa said that Gannosuke's hair would not be cut off if he left Funk Masters of Wrestling and side with FMW and Gannosuke apparently shook his hands and then attacked Hayabusa, thus removed his mask and attempted to blow fire on him until Jinsei Shinzaki made the save. As a result, Hayabusa formed a tag team with Shinzaki. They teamed with each other for

1071-455: A handicap match with Power's Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship on the line. Takagi won the title and then Kanemura used the title's 24/7 rules and immediately defeated Takagi to win the title. The following week, on April 25, Kanemura teamed with Super Uchu Power to defend the title against Takagi and Takashi Sasaki in a match, during which Takagi pinned Kanemura to win the title. On May 16, Kanemura defeated GENTARO and Takashi Sasaki in

1224-466: A round robin tournament for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, where they qualified for the finals by topping the tournament with thirteen points by winning all of their matches except fighting Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to a thirty-minute time limit draw on March 29. On May 3, Hayabusa and Fuyuki lost to Tanaka and Kuroda in the final round. After the match, Hayabusa poured water on Fuyuki to revive him which angered Fuyuki and

1377-488: A six-man tag team match to earn a title shot at Hayabusa's WEW World Heavyweight Championship on August 11, where he defeated Hayabusa to win the title with help from Mammoth Sasaki. Kanemura lost the title back to Hayabusa in a rematch on September 5, but the FMW President Senmu Yoshida overturned the decision on September 9 by showing a video in which Hayabusa used a low blow on Kanemura to win

1530-464: A tag team match . As is customary for rookies to lose matches in professional wrestling, especially puroresu , Ezaki lost the majority of his matches throughout the year. Ezaki got his first win in FMW against fellow rookie Masashi Honda on June 29. The two competed in many matches including the opening match of FMW's 2nd Anniversary Show on September 23, which Ezaki won. His next major show appearance

1683-695: A three-way match to become the #1 contender for the KO-D Openweight Championship . At Max Bump , Kanemura defeated champion Sanshiro Takagi to win the KO-D Openweight Championship, also winning Takagi's Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship for the second time in the process. Kanemura lost the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship six days later to Chocoball Mukai. Kanemura would then team with Futoshi Miwa to participate in

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1836-535: A two time WEW 6-Man Tag Team Champion . He also won All Japan Pro Wrestling 's All Asia Tag Team Championship once . He headlined many pay-per-view events for FMW including the company's premier show Anniversary Show a record six times, consecutively for four years between the 9th and 12th editions of the event. In his post-retirement years, Ezaki promoted the Wrestling Marvelous Future (WMF) promotion, which spun off from FMW, but

1989-516: A " sports entertainment " approach based heavily on comedic storylines and characters similar to American promotions such as World Wrestling Entertainment . The beginning of the end for FMW was realized after its top star Hayabusa suffered a career-ending injury in October 2001; to make matters worse, Mr. Gannosuke injured both his ankles in January 2002. With Hayabusa and Gannosuke gone, Fuyuki

2142-424: A No Ropes Exploding Barbed Wire Steel Cage Time Bomb Deathmatch at Fall Spectacular, which stipulated that if Onita lost, he would be forced to retire and if Kanemura lost then W*ING Alliance would be forced to disband. Kanemura lost the match due to his fractured foot, resulting in him being forced to disband W*ING Alliance. Atsushi Onita grew upset at Yukihiro Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka and Hido being worried due to

2295-524: A ceremony in Kawasaki stadium honouring Fuyuki, Hashimoto clutched an urn containing Fuyuki's ashes, and he and Kanemura flung themselves into the barbed wire, both giving Fuyuki a final victory. Fuyuki was survived by his wife Kaoru, whom he married in November 1986, and his two daughters. Under his associate Kintaro Kanemura, the promotion reorganized in 2004 as Apache Pro-Wrestling Army , but continued

2448-635: A comedy feud with Hisakatsu Oya, which culminated in a ladder match between the two on July 23, which Oya won. Kanemura successfully defended the Hardcore Championship against Mike Samples on July 28. He then began a violent feud with Masato Tanaka, which culminated in a match between the two for Kanemura's Hardcore Championship at Deep Throat , which Kanemura won to retain the title. In 2001, Shin Fuyuki-Gun disbanded after Tetsuhiro Kuroda turned on Kodo Fuyuki to form Team Kuroda. After

2601-536: A falling out in 1996 after Ezaki turned down a deal with NJPW , but they mended their friendship in 2005. In May 2005, he performed a play called The Shinichi Amano Story at the Tokyo Shinjuku Theater. He portrayed the main character's best friend Fuyuki Hayato, an injured air pilot soldier in World War II, who is reliant on a wheelchair. His performance was given positive reviews and the play

2754-528: A folding chair until The Great Sasuke made the save. On April 1, Hayabusa appeared during Kuroda and Kodo Fuyuki's WEW Heavyweight Championship match, where he attacked Mr. Gannosuke after Gannosuke attacked Fuyuki during the match and then Kuroda and his allies attacked Hayabusa until Sasuke came to his rescue again. Hayabusa made his in-ring return at the 12th Anniversary Show on May 5 by teaming with Sasuke to defeat Kuroda and Gannosuke in an octagon cage electric bomb death match . This match also commemorated

2907-653: A great chemistry and they became over with the fans due to their villainous antics and surpassed their leader Atsushi Onita to get heat from the audience. Friction arose between ZEN when Onita booked himself against Masato Tanaka in the main event of the first show of the Super Extreme Wrestling War on December 19, while Gannosuke and Kanemura felt that their defense of the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki deserved to be

3060-559: A group and became a serious threat to FMW and Lethal Weapon. At Year End Spectacular , the W*ING Alliance squared off against each other as the team of Super Leather, W*ING Kanemura and Hido lost to Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Jason the Terrible and Hideki Hosaka in a W*ING Caribbean Barbed Wire Double Hell Glass Deathmatch. On February 23, W*ING alliance lost to the FMW team of Koji Nakagawa , Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in

3213-412: A high fever and required surgery. This injury ended his wrestling career. As he was considered the heart and soul of FMW, the company slowly folded after his departure. Ezaki later pursued a career as a singer. He promoted a new wrestling company called WMF (Wrestlings Marvelous Future) that contained up-and-coming wrestlers. The name was chosen since, spelled backwards, the initials are FMW in honor of

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3366-483: A homage to W*ING during his first match against Masato Tanaka , which Kanemura won. The following month, Kanemura took on Mr. Pogo in a Street Fight on June 25 to avenge the betrayal at 6th Anniversary Show, which he lost. In July, Kanemura participated in the Young Spirit Tournament , a tournament featuring the new generation of young wrestlers of FMW after the departure of Atsushi Onita. He made to

3519-744: A losing effort for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship on November 28. Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki unsuccessfully challenged Gannosuke and Kanemura for the tag team title on December 19. On December 20, Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Masato Tanaka won the World Street Fight Six-Man Tag Team Championship by beating Atsushi Onita, Hido and Tetsuhiro Kuroda during the Super Extreme Wrestling War tour. On December 22, Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki and Masato Tanaka defeated ZEN members Atsushi Onita, Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura in

3672-676: A match on May 14, where Fuyuki teamed with Yoshiaki Yatsu . One of several wrestlers to leave AJPW with Genichiro Tenryu in July 1990, Fuyuki competed in Tenryu's rival promotion Super World of Sports under his real name, also appearing on interpromotional shows for the World Wrestling Federation , with little to no impact. Following the closing of SWS in June 1992, Fuyuki followed Tenryu to WAR . While there, he became one of

3825-598: A match with Mammoth Sasaki . He was a five-time world champion in FMW as he won the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship three times , Independent Heavyweight Championship one time and the WEW Heavyweight Championship one time . He also became a two time Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champion , a two time WEW World Tag Team Champion , a two time World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Champion and

3978-446: A match. On October 28, Kanemura and Tanaka lost to Hayabusa and Matsunaga in a match and all four men formed an alliance to fight Lethal Weapon. Super Leather and Hido took exception to it and joined Lethal Weapon. However, it turned out to be a swerve as Matsunaga turned on Hayabusa during a match against Mr. Pogo and Super Leather of Lethal Weapon and then Super Leather and Hido turned on Lethal Weapon and W*ING Alliance reunited as

4131-766: A name for himself in FMW by rising from a mid-carder to one of FMW's top main eventers as a member of W*ING Alliance and Team No Respect . He was the first title holder of the Independent Heavyweight Championship and the Hardcore Championship . He became a three-time world champion in FMW, winning the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship once , the Independent Heavyweight Championship once and

4284-433: A name given to him by Shark Tsuchiya based on Korean wrestler Kintarō Ōki and was awarded the new Hardcore Championship by Kodo Fuyuki. He successfully defended the title against Extreme Championship Wrestling 's (ECW) Balls Mahoney at 10th Anniversary Show . Later at the event, Kodo Fuyuki lost a loser leaves FMW match to Masato Tanaka and Mr. Gannosuke left TNR to form a tag team with H , which left Kanemura as

4437-439: A pay-per-view on December 20 as a color commentator, along with Mr. Gannosuke, who had retired from wrestling after losing to Tetsuhiro Kuroda. During the match, Kuroda mocked Hayabusa to anger him and Hayabusa headed to the ring but Gannosuke held him back. On February 6, 2001, Hayabusa made another non-wrestling appearance to confront Kuroda along with The Masked Sumo. Sumo turned on Gannosuke and Kuroda injured Hayabusa's arms with

4590-423: A really fun match, it wasn't perfectly executed, but the good far outweighed the bad." Stuart of Puroresu Central stated that "Hayabusa's highspots were dazzling as always and Gannosuke's craftsmanship made them look better and very important. They fought almost one year exactly before this and Hayabusa smoked Gannosuke as a worker" and considered it "a worthy main event between two excellent wrestlers and undoubtedly

4743-735: A result, Hayabusa faced him as "Darkside Hayabusa" in a losing effort at the Welcome to the Darkside pay-per-view. On September 1, Hayabusa successfully defended the Double Championship in his third defense against Hisakatsu Oya after the duo wrestled to a thirty-minute time limit draw. He made his next title defense against Jado on September 20, where he retained and then teamed with Ricky Fuji to take on Kodo Fuyuki, Koji Nakagawa and Gedo in an immediate handicap match , which he lost and this earned Nakagawa and Fuyuki title shots at

Hiromichi Fuyuki - Misplaced Pages Continue

4896-438: A result, Jado and Gedo were awarded the win by forfeit and Kanemura was taken to hospital on a stretcher. Kanemura returned to W*ING on November 20 to show his burns to the crowd and Gedo and Hido tried to confront him until he chased them away with his umbrella. He made his in-ring return to W*ING on February 15 by defeating Hido in a Loser Leaves W*ING Street Fight , forcing Hido to leave W*ING. On March 13, Kanemura headlined

5049-610: A result, Kanemura began feuding with Roadblock and the two wrestled each other to a double disqualification on August 14. After coming up short in a title shot on September 27, Kanemura finally defeated Miguel Perez Jr. on December 18 to win the Caribbean Heavyweight Championship . On March 1, 1993, Kanemura wrestled Kevin Sullivan at a television taping for Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) in

5202-538: A series of chain matches, until a dispute with bookers caused Kanemura to quit on August 31, 1994. Kanemura signed with FMW for a deal of a monthly salary of $ 10,000. He debuted in FMW on September 7, 1994, as a villain by attacking Atsushi Onita and joining Mr. Pogo 's group. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga would join Kanemura after a falling out with Onita, which was the genesis of the W*ING Alliance . The aim of

5355-616: A series of events titled Goodbye Hayabusa as a farewell to Ezaki's Hayabusa character. During this time, he participated in a tournament with Tanaka and Kuroda for the newly created WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . Hayabusa and his team reached the finals of the tournament on July 31 , where they lost to Kodo Fuyuki, Gedo and Koji Nakagawa. At Hayabusa Graduation Ceremony , Hayabusa defeated Yukihiro Kanemura to win his third Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and made his first and only title defense against Mr. Gannosuke on August 25 in his last match as Hayabusa, which he won to retain

5508-413: A severe brain injury in a match against The Wifebeater , which put him out of action and Kanemura continued to compete in singles competition. Kanemura dropped the Hardcore Championship to Mammoth Sasaki on April 1. At 12th Anniversary Show , Kanemura defeated Sasaki to regain the title winning it for a third time. Kanemura successfully defended the title against Jun Kasai on May 22 and then retired

5661-659: A shorter variation of his real name, Kodo Fuyuki . After spending over four months freelancing, Fuyuki found a new home in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in February 1997. Fuyuki-Gun made their FMW debut on February 19 by defeating W*ING Alliance members W*ING Kanemura , Hideki Hosaka and Dragon Winger. Fuyuki-Gun initially performed as freelancers on the Japanese independent circuit until they began competing full time for FMW. They appeared at

5814-457: A street fight against Hido at a W*ING show, which Ezaki won. On September 20, Jinsei Shinzaki of Michinoku Pro Wrestling challenged Hayabusa to a match, who Hayabusa lost to in the main event of Michinoku Pro Wrestling's These Days event. This marked the beginning of a future friendship between the two. Following the match, The Great Sasuke challenged Hayabusa to a match at FMW's Year End Spectacular on December 11, which Ezaki won. In

5967-624: A successful title defense against Azusa Kudo on February 11, Kanemura teamed with Ryuji Yamakawa on February 23 to defeat GOEMON and Onryo to win the Hardcore Tag Team Championship . Kanemura and Yamakawa successfully defended the title against Azusa Kudo and Mammoth Sasaki on March 5. On March 13, Kanemura lost to Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a #1 contender's match for the WEW World Heavyweight Championship . On March 18, Yamakawa suffered

6120-485: A tag team match. On November 12, Hayabusa got another title shot against Fuyuki at the Deep Throat pay-per-view, but lost the match. Hayabusa and Fuyuki ended the feud after the match by shaking hands with each other and then Tetsuhiro Kuroda turned on Hayabusa by attacking him. Hayabusa then took time off to heal his injured arms. Hayabusa had a successful double elbow surgery on November 22. He returned to FMW at

6273-521: A thirty-minute time limit draw and defeated The Gladiator and Katsutoshi Niiyama to gain nine points in the tournament. He suffered his first loss in the tournament against Super Leather and then defeated Mitsuhiro Matsunaga to qualify for the final. He lost to Gladiator in the final round of the Grand Slam on September 25. Ezaki competed against W*ING and Lethal Weapon members in various tag team matches, street fights and deathmatches throughout

Hiromichi Fuyuki - Misplaced Pages Continue

6426-621: A tournament for the vacant WEW World Tag Team Championship , defeating Balls Mahoney and Horace Boulder in the quarter-final and Super Crazy and Crazy Boy in the semi-final before losing to Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the final. On January 6, 2002, Kanemura lost the WEW World Heavyweight Championship to Kodo Fuyuki. The following month, on February 4, the team of Kanemura, GOEMON and Mammoth Sasaki defeated Vic Grimes , Paul LeDuc and Mitsunobu Kikuzawa . This would turn out to be FMW's last show as

6579-491: A villainous group and entered a rivalry with Atsushi Onita and his ZEN group. In 1998, Fuyuki formed Team No Respect with several of FMW's leading wrestlers which remained the dominant "heel" stable until its disbandment in June 2000. From there, he formed multiple stables, which didn't last as long. He became the head " booker " of the promotion in 1999. Attempting to distance the promotion from its earlier reputation for " garbage wrestling " style, he instead focused more on

6732-716: Is Kim Hyeong-ho ( Korean : 김행호 ), but he has used a Japanese name in and outside of the ring. However, his best known pseudonym reflected his background, as the forename was a reference to South Korean professional wrestler Kintarō Ōki . He also had a short-lived marriage to Shiho Tsubaki of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), having first met each other when she was touring with W*ING. Yukihiro Kanemura made his debut in December 1990 for Pioneer Senshi, against Akitoshi Saito , who also debuted. Within months, Pioneer Senshi folded. Kanemura made his debut for Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING) on August 7, 1991, as

6885-537: Is a Zainichi Korean retired professional wrestler . He also wrestled under the ring name Wing Kanemura ( ウイング金村 , Uingu Kanemura ) (stylized as W*ING Kanemura ). He is best known for his death matches in Apache Army , Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), International Wrestling Association (IWA) and Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING). After beginning his career in

7038-418: Is highly regarded as the best match of Ezaki's career. On May 27, Hayabusa and Tanaka lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Kodo Fuyuki and Yukihiro Kanemura. Shortly after, Tanaka left FMW and Ezaki made Daisuke Ikeda his new tag team partner. During this time, Gannosuke was injured and Kodo Fuyuki became the new leader of Team No Respect. Hayabusa and his allies split wins with Team No Respect at

7191-635: The 1994 Copa de Oro on October 25 in a loss to eventual winners Apolo Dantés and El Dandy in the quarter-final. The following month, Hayabusa and Dragon participated in the number two contender's tournament for the World Tag Team Championship, where they defeated El Felino and Mano Negra in the first round before losing to El Satánico and Emilio Charles Jr. in the quarter-final. He would remain in Mexico until December 1994. Between January 1995 and April 1995, Ezaki wrestled in

7344-609: The 8th Anniversary Show , where they defeated Hisakatsu Oya and The Headhunters in a street fight . Fuyuki began feuding with Terry Funk , the leader of Funk Masters of Wrestling, which culminated in a loser leaves FMW match between the two at Fall Spectacular , which Fuyuki lost. As a result, he was forced to leave FMW. He began promoting his own shows under the "Fuyuki Army" banner. He began competing for FMW full-time on November 15, when Fuyuki-Gun defeated ZEN members Hido , The Gladiator and The Great Fake. They ceased appearing for other promotions and established themselves as

7497-563: The All Asia Tag Team Championship in a losing effort. Hayabusa and Shinzaki were granted a rematch on February 13, in which they defeated Honda and Izumida to capture the All Asia Tag Team Championship. Hayabusa and Shinzaki made their first and only successful title defense against Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on March 19. Hayabusa renewed his rivalry with Mr. Gannosuke and formed an alliance with rival Double Champion Kodo Fuyuki. Hayabusa and Fuyuki entered

7650-526: The Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship . The impact of ZEN's dominance led Oya, Gannosuke and The Gladiator to end Funk Masters of Wrestling and jump ship to ZEN. The following month, Onita and Kanemura vacated the tag team titles due to Onita's inactivity. On November 28, Kanemura teamed with Mr. Gannosuke to defeat Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. Gannosuke and Kanemura had

7803-634: The Harder than Hardcore IV tour. He successfully defended the title against Abdullah Kobayashi in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Deathmatch on June 1, before dropping the title to Ryuji Ito in a steel cage match on August 24. Kanemura continued to compete as WEW's top wrestler until the promotion closed in 2003 due to the death of its owner Kodo Fuyuki and the promotion was changed into Fuyuki Army. Kanemura would then also begin making appearances for Hayabusa 's Wrestlings Marvelous Future (WMF) promotion, where he debuted at Marvelous Days 3rd event on July 25 as

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7956-517: The Independent Heavyweight Championship . On April 17, Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka defeated Hido and Kodo Fuyuki to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. On April 30, Hayabusa defeated Mr. Gannosuke to win the Double Titles Championship at FMW's first pay-per-view 9th Anniversary Show: Entertainment Wrestling Live . Immediately after the title win, Hayabusa appeared at AJPW's twenty-fifth anniversary show Showdown at

8109-480: The Kawasaki Stadium , where he and Shinzaki lost to AJPW's Kenta Kobashi and Maunakea Mossman in a highly acclaimed tag team match. On October 14, Hayabusa, Nakagawa and Tanaka dropped the six-man tag team title to ZEN members Atsushi Onita, Hido and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. This marked the beginning of a feud between Hayabusa and Onita as Onita wanted to stay on the top of FMW while Ezaki wanted to remain

8262-597: The United States , which Kanemura won by disqualification after Sullivan bladed Kanemura's arm with a spike; the incident was censored on national television in America. The injury required Kanemura to get fifty-eight stitches. On April 3, he teamed up with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga to win the World Tag Team Championship , defeating Freddy Krueger and Leatherface . However, Matsunaga vacated

8415-670: The WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship five times between June 1994 and June 1996, as well as a single reign with UWFI 's Yoji Anjo and ECW 's Bam Bam Bigelow in October 1996. Lionheart also became a member of Fuyuki-Gun, during their stint in WAR. Upon leaving WAR in October 1996, he wrestled briefly as a freelancer, wrestling in various promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , Big Japan Pro Wrestling , and International Wrestling Association of Japan . Around this time, he started using

8568-484: The WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Hisakatsu Oya and Tetsuhiro Kuroda by defeating Kodo Fuyuki, Kyoko Inoue and Chocoball Mukai . On July 22, Ezaki retired his H character and announced that he would begin competing as Hayabusa again after he and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated The Samoans ( Eddie Fatu and Matty Samu ). On July 23, Ezaki revived his Hayabusa character after a year and defeated Shin Fuyuki-Gun members in

8721-528: The WEW Tag Team Championship . After the match, Sasaki challenged Hayabusa to a match which stipulated that if Hayabusa won then Shoichi Arai would be reinstated as FMW President. The match took place on October 22, during which Hayabusa had a career-ending injury when he attempted a springboard moonsault off the middle rope and lost footing, landing on his head, cracking two of his vertebrae and leaving him paralyzed. The injury provoked

8874-510: The WEW World Heavyweight Championship once . After FMW folded down, Kanemura became a freelancer in the independent circuit and founded his own promotion, Apache Army, an offshoot of FMW, which ended with Kanemura's retirement in 2016. Other major titles won by Kanemura were the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship and the KO-D Openweight Championship . Kanemura is of Korean descent. His Korean name

9027-587: The World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship after Nakagawa apparently suffered a shoulder injury, forcing ZEN to disband as a result of the pre-match stipulation. Later that month, Fuyuki and Kanemura formed a tag team called The New Footloose , a spin-off of Fuyuki's old tag team with Toshiaki Kawada called Footloose in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). On May 27, New Footloose defeated Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka to win

9180-673: The lucha libre style in Mexico. Ezaki adopted the Hayabusa character in December 1993 while in Mexico. While there, he learned the lucha libre style from wrestling instructor Rey Misterio, Sr. Ezaki wrestled for the World Wrestling Association , Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) during his time in Mexico. He then returned to Japan to participate in the 1994 Super J-Cup tournament for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he competed as Hayabusa in Japan for

9333-416: The round-robin format and Ezaki was put in the tournament. However, before the tournament started, Ezaki was severely injured by The Gladiator in a match on July 30 but he insisted that he would compete in the tournament. Ezaki started the tournament on August 22 by defeating Masato Tanaka. He won his next match against W*ING Kanemura on August 25 to gain four points. He competed against Hisakatsu Oya to

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9486-579: The 2002 KO-D Tag League, in which the two managed to score eight points. Kanemura lost the KO-D Openweight Championship back to Sanshiro Takagi on September 7. Kanemura would frequently make appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero-One as part of a working partnership between WEW and Zero-One, participating in Zero-One's Fire Festival , where he won only one match in his block against Taka Michinoku . Kanemura defeated Tetsuhiro Kuroda to win

9639-544: The All Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo. In August 1981, after spending a year training in the dojo, he made his debut in All Japan Pro Wrestling . In November 1984, he went on an excursion of North America, where he made stops in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and San Antonio, Texas, where he wrestled under the name Ricky Fuyuki , in honor of his childhood idol, Riki Choshu . He would also wrestle in Memphis under

9792-499: The Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Hayabusa at the Hayabusa Graduation Ceremony pay-per-view on August 23. Two days later, Kanemura unsuccessfully challenged Masato Tanaka for the Independent Heavyweight Championship at Last Match , which would turn out to be the last match of the title as it would be retired after the event. On September 20, Kanemura changed his ring name to Kintaro Kanemura ,

9945-548: The Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. At 8th Anniversary Show , the team of Onita, Masato Tanaka and W*ING Kanemura defeated the team of Cactus Jack, The Gladiator and Terry Funk in a Texas Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch when Kanemura pinned Gladiator. On May 25, Kanemura earned the right to face Onita in the main event of Fall Spectacular , after Onita, Kanemura and Hido defeated Koji Nakagawa, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda when Onita pinned Tanaka. However, Tanaka begged Onita and Kanemura to give him one more chance and

10098-528: The Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. In June, TNR vacated the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, only to regain it as Fuyuki, Kanemura and new member Koji Nakagawa defeated Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya to win the title. On June 26, Kanemura unsuccessfully challenged Hayabusa for the Double Championship. TNR grew in power and began influencing FMW and feuded with Atsushi Onita's ZEN and Hayabusa's Team Phoenix throughout

10251-517: The Caribbean Heavyweight Championship to Jado . On October 19, Kanemura and Shoji Nakamaki lost to Jado and Gedo in a falls count anywhere match . At Odawara Brazing Night , Kanemura and Nakamaki lost to Jado and Gedo in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Scramble Fire Deathmatch, when Jado executed a Powerbomb on Kanemura into the fire with Hido 's help, burning 75 percent of his skin tissue off his back and shoulder. As

10404-439: The Double Championship into Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and the Independent Heavyweight Championship and awarded the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Kanemura. Kanemura would then team with Mr. Gannosuke and Jado to participate in a tournament for the newly created WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship , where they lost to Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the semi-final on July 31 . Kanemura lost

10557-467: The Double Championship. Ezaki successfully defended the title against Nakagawa at the October pay-per-view. On October 26, Hayabusa and Ikeda defeated Kodo Fuyuki and Yukihiro Kanemura to capture the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. They made only one title defense against Hideki Hosaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on November 14. On November 20, Hayabusa lost the Double Championship to Fuyuki in his sixth title defense. Hayabusa participated in an Over

10710-451: The Egg, where he teamed with AJPW owner Giant Baba and Kentaro Shiga against Jinsei Shinzaki, Jun Izumida and Giant Kimala. Hayabusa got the win for his team by pinning Izumida. Hayabusa made his first title defense of the Double Championship against his tag team championship partner Masato Tanaka on May 19, where Hayabusa retained the title. The match between the two earned critical acclaim and

10863-579: The Hardcore Championship to Yamakawa at a BJW event. Kanemura then wrestled for ECW, where he lost to Balls Mahoney at Living Dangerously . At FMW 11th Anniversary Show , Kanemura defeated Ryuji Yamakawa to win his second Hardcore Championship. On June 16, Kanemura disbanded Team No Respect to join Kodo Fuyuki's Shin Fuyuki-Gun , thus turning into a villain and teamed with Hideki Hosaka and Yoshinori Sasaki to defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda , Hisakatsu Oya and Flying Kid Ichihara. He would be involved in

11016-551: The Japanese independent circuit in 1990, Kanemura joined W*ING in 1991 where he got his first mainstream exposure in professional wrestling and became skilled in deathmatch wrestling style as he participated in many notable deathmatches in the promotion, becoming one of the top stars of W*ING and became a one-time Caribbean Heavyweight Champion , one-time Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion and one-time World Tag Team Champion . He then worked briefly for IWA Japan after W*ING folded in 1994 before ultimately joining FMW. He made

11169-535: The Japanese fans by debuting the Phoenix Splash against Lethal Weapon member Ricky Fuji during a match on May 28. Hayabusa's team lost but the Phoenix Splash was heavily promoted by the Japanese media, which helped FMW in regaining the fanbase and Ezaki started becoming popular due to his high-flying skills. Just one month after his re-debut, Ezaki was booked to win the promotion's top title,

11322-546: The June and July pay-per-views. On August 2, Hayabusa made an appearance for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) at the Heat Wave pay-per-view where he and Jinsei Shinzaki unsuccessfully challenged Rob Van Dam and Sabu for the ECW World Tag Team Championship . Hayabusa returned to FMW to begin a feud with Koji Nakagawa after Nakagawa pinned him to win an elimination tag team match . As

11475-669: The New Alhambra (formerly known as ECW Arena). This was his first appearance in the USA since 2000, the last time being at E3 in Los Angeles, helping promote TOKYOPOP 's FMW DVDs by having a 6-man tag match. He also participated in a shoot interview with RF Video. Ezaki was active in working with the Dragon Gate promotion. He recorded a debut album with Dragon Kid titled Trust! which came out in November 2007. He partook in

11628-478: The Phoenix Splash is one of the top five most beautiful moves in wrestling (let's see... Phoenix Splash, Shooting Star Press, Space Flying Tiger Drop, Ultimo Dragon's Asai Moonsault, and a Dragonrana), and Hayabusa hit it perfectly. It was the perfect ending, as the two other times he had gone for the move in the match he had failed... he knew that to win the titles he had to hit his ultimate finisher. Overall

11781-427: The Terrible to defeat Hisakatsu Oya and The Gladiator . After the match, Kanemura was attacked by Gladiator, setting up a title unification match between the two at Year End Spectacular , where Gladiator's Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship would also be on the line. After successfully defending the Independent Heavyweight Championship against Hisakatsu Oya in his first title defense on October 26, Kanemura lost

11934-498: The Top Tournament to determine the #1 contender for the Double Championship. He defeated Hideki Hosaka in the opening round before losing to eventual winner Mr. Gannosuke in the quarter-final round. In early 1999, Kanemura teamed with Hido to participate in a tournament for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship and they were eliminated from the tournament losing all of the matches. On May 18, Kodo Fuyuki separated

12087-570: The Top tournament to earn a title shot at the Double Championship by defeating Gedo in the first round, before losing to Hisakatsu Oya in the quarter-final round at the ECW/FMW Supershow II . In early 1999, Hayabusa and Daisuke Ikeda vacated the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship after Ikeda suffered an injury. On January 16, 1999, Hayabusa reunited with Jinsei Shinzaki at an AJPW show to challenge Tamon Honda and Jun Izumida for

12240-574: The United States, mainly in the Florida area. During this time, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was interested in Ezaki and offered a tryout, but he declined and remained with FMW. Ezaki was scheduled to make his full-time return to FMW as Hayabusa at the company's 6th Anniversary Show against The Gladiator on May 5, 1995. However, he was chosen by FMW's new owner Shoichi Arai to fill

12393-644: The WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Fuyuki, Gannosuke and Shinjuku Shark. On September 21, Hayabusa defeated Fuyuki in a non-title 15,000 volt thunderbolt cage death match . On September 26, Hayabusa took on Fuyuki for the WEW Heavyweight Championship in a sixty-minute Iron Man match , which ended in a draw. Hayabusa called it the hardest match of his career. After the match, Hayabusa demanded another title shot, which Fuyuki agreed. On October 29, Hayabusa and Onryo defeated GOEMON and Fuyuki in

12546-444: The WEW titles. Hayabusa (wrestler) Eiji Ezaki ( 江崎 英治 , Ezaki Eiji , November 29, 1968 – March 3, 2016) was a Japanese professional wrestler , stage actor , musician and professional wrestling promoter , better known under the ring name Hayabusa ( ハヤブサ , Hayabusa , "Falcon") . He was best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he primarily wrestled throughout his career and

12699-494: The ace of the company. Hayabusa and Shinzaki participated in AJPW's 1997 Real World Tag League and kicked off the tournament on November 19 by defeating Giant Kimala and Jun Izumida . They finished the tournament with four points as they would win only one more match against Johnny Smith and Wolf Hawkfield , while losing the rest of their matches. Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka faced Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura in

12852-446: The attack, Hayabusa began a lengthy and emotional rivalry with Gannosuke that would continue for the rest of his career. During this time, Ricky Fuji sided with FMW after the demise of Lethal Weapon and became an ally of Hayabusa. On March 19, Hayabusa got his first title shot in nearly two years as he and Fuji challenged The Headhunters for the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship in a losing effort. The following month, Ezaki served as

13005-867: The best match on the show." Many of the industry's wrestlers like Chris Jericho , Jonathan Gresham , Jack Evans , AJ Styles , Pac , Will Ospreay , Samuray Del Sol , Kota Ibushi , Matt Sydal , Ricochet , Seth "Freakin" Rollins and Mustafa Ali were inspired by Hayabusa at some point in their careers. Ezaki was the older of two sons. His maternal grandparents were owners of a hotel, which later his parents took over. Ezaki married his wife Harumi on April 7, 1997. Together, they had two daughters, Ayane (born October 19, 1997) and Shie (born May 10, 1999). He and Harumi amicably divorced in 2004, but remained friends, while sharing custody of their daughters. Ezaki had been close friends with Keiichi Yamada (best known as Jushin Thunder Liger) since 1994. The two had

13158-480: The centerpiece of FMW during a meeting with All Japan Pro Wrestling owner Giant Baba to begin a partnership between AJPW and FMW and subsequently made his AJPW debut at the 1997 Champion Carnival by teaming with Yoshinobu Kanemaru against Kentaro Shiga and Yoshinari Ogawa in a losing effort. This paved the way for wrestlers of AJPW and FMW to sporadically appear in both companies and began Hayabusa's occasional appearances in AJPW. Hayabusa defeated Gannosuke in

13311-469: The champion Kodo Fuyuki as the special guest referee. H eliminated Kuroda and then Gannosuke turned on H by hitting with a crutch and pinned him with Fuyuki's help and became a member of Shin Fuyuki-Gun. On June 16, Ezaki unleashed Darkside of H and brought " Hayabusa " as his tag team partner for a match against GOEMON and Kodo Fuyuki. H and Hayabusa won the match to take revenge from Shin-Fuyuki-Gun for attacking and kidnapping Ricky Fuji. On June 26, H won

13464-462: The company with Lethal Weapon. He was the leader of the new generation of FMW wrestlers including Niiyama, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Koji Nakagawa. He wrestled the group's members in several tag matches for the next one month after Lethal Weapon questioned his ability to become the ace of FMW and vowed to take over the company. He initially struggled to gain a fanbase after Onita's loyal fans refused to accept him but Hayabusa got to impress

13617-464: The company's 4th Anniversary Show on May 5, 1993, where he defeated Koji Nakagawa in the opening match. In September 1993, Ezaki participated in a tournament for the inaugural Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship , where he lost both matches in his block against Koji Nakagawa and Battle Ranger Z. His last match in FMW during this tenure was a win against Masato Tanaka on September 27, before Atsushi Onita sent Ezaki overseas to learn

13770-417: The company's first US tour, joining them in their appearance in Los Angeles on September 5 and Hawaii on September 8, 2008. Ezaki also designed the tour's T-shirt. When asked about his career in an interview, Ezaki said that one never knows what the chances are of a return to the ring. On 3 April 2015, Hayabusa was part of a press conference announcing the return of FMW. He served as the executive producer of

13923-479: The company. Tetsuhiro Kuroda also refused to side with Fuyuki and this resulted in Hayabusa and Kuroda being paired to take on Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura in a tag team match, which they lost. Hayabusa made his first title defense of the WEW Heavyweight Championship against Mammoth Sasaki on July 30, where he retained the title. On August 3, Hayabusa offered to put his 5% stock if he, GOEMON and Onryo lost

14076-637: The end of W*ING Alliance and no group would accept them in FMW. This led Onita to denounce himself as a FMW wrestler and take the former W*ING Alliance members and FMW's young rising star Tetsuhiro Kuroda under his wing to form a new nWo -themed group named ZEN at a press conference on September 30, 1997. The group emerged as the top villainous faction in FMW. On October 14, Kanemura reverted to using his previous ring name Yukihiro Kanemura as he and Hideki Hosaka defeated Super Leather and The Gladiator . On October 19, Onita and Kanemura defeated Funk Masters of Wrestling's Hisakatsu Oya and Mr. Gannosuke to win

14229-434: The event and Kanemura became the main focus of the group and began rising in popularity in FMW. Kanemura participated in a tournament for the new Independent Heavyweight Championship , defeating Koji Nakagawa in the quarter-final and Super Leather in the semi-final, a Caribbean Barbed Wire Deathmatch to advance to the final round to determine the first champion at Summer Spectacular , where he defeated Masato Tanaka to win

14382-580: The finals of the tournament, where he lost to Masato Tanaka on July 30, but reaching in the finals earned both men place in the Grand Slam Tournament for the vacant Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship . Kanemura was eliminated from the tournament and scored only two points as his only win in the tournament came against Masato Tanaka on September 5. W*ING briefly turned fan favorites by siding with FMW after Mitsuhiro Matsunaga showed respect to Hayabusa after Hayabusa defeated Matsunaga in

14535-414: The first time by teaming with Koji Nakagawa against Funk Masters of Wrestling members Hisakatsu Oya, Mr. Gannosuke and The Gladiator in a six-man tag team match on July 19. On August 5, Hayabusa teamed with Nakagawa and Ricky Fuji in a tournament for the vacant World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . They lost to eventual winners Oya, Gannosuke and Gladiator in the semi-final round. On August 31,

14688-415: The first time in several months. Ezaki's H character had failed to garner crowd support and ticket sales were dwindling, which caused Ezaki to slowly transition back to compete as Hayabusa. At Backdraft , he competed as Hayabusa in a win over Tanaka. On May 28, H competed against Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a three-way dance to determine the #1 contender for the WEW Heavyweight Championship with

14841-487: The first time to test how the crowd reacted to his character in Japan. He faced Jushin Liger in a losing effort in a well received first round match of the tournament. The following month, Hayabusa debuted for CMLL on May 17 by teaming with Ringo Mendoza and La Sombra to defeat Javier Cruz, Panico and Tornado Negro in a two out of three falls match . He teamed with Super Astro in the number one contender's tournament for

14994-724: The first-ever WarGames match in FMW, which ended FMW's feud with W*ING as Víctor Quiñones returned to FMW and introduced Puerto Rican Army to attack FMW and W*ING. As a result, W*ING reverted to fan favorites. At 7th Anniversary Show , Kanemura replaced Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and challenged Cactus Jack for the IWA King of the Deathmatch Championship in a Caribbean Barbed Wire Barricade Spider Net Glass Deathmatch, which Kanemura ended up losing. The match raised Kanemura's stock and enabled him to shine as W*ING's standout performer as Mitsuhiro Matsunaga would leave FMW after

15147-464: The group was to end FMW as they held Onita and FMW responsible for ending W*ING. On September 25, Kanemura made his in-ring debut for FMW by teaming with Matsunaga against Hisakatsu Oya and Tarzan Goto in an exploding barbed wire dynamite pool elimination match , which ended in a no contest after Oya turned on Goto to join W*ING Alliance. W*ING and FMW battled each other in many matches between late 1994 and early 1995 and W*ING established itself as

15300-436: The history of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (behind only company founder Atsushi Onita ), where he spent the entirety of his career. Due to his impressive talent, Ezaki received offers with better salaries from New Japan Pro-Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation , which could have driven him to success but he rejected all those offers out of loyalty to FMW. He worked hard as the company's ace , even putting his body on

15453-474: The late company. He traveled to a few WWE events where he met old friends such as Sabu, Rob Van Dam , and Rey Mysterio backstage. He also took photographs with John Cena , then WWE Champion Edge , then WWE Women's Champion Lita , Vince McMahon , Shane McMahon , and Triple H , and spoke with Jeff Hardy . Ezaki attended the PWU (Pro Wrestling Unplugged) FAHRENHEIT: 3RD DEGREE event on August 19, 2006, at

15606-477: The leader of Team No Respect and the group turned fan favorites. On December 11, Kanemura successfully defended the Hardcore Championship against Mahoney's tag team partner Axl Rotten . The following night, TNR defeated ECW's Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten, Super Crazy and Yoshihiro Tajiri . In 2000, Kanemura began an angle with Big Japan Pro Wrestling 's (BJW) Ryuji Yamakawa , resulting in an interpromotional feud between BJW and FMW. On February 23, Kanemura lost

15759-421: The leader. On January 16, Gannosuke, Kanemura and Jado defeated Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Masato Tanaka to win the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . They lost the title to Atsushi Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on February 13. The following month, Kanemura participated in a tournament to determine the #1 contender for Mr. Gannosuke's Double Championship, defeating Koji Nakagawa in

15912-522: The line and worked in some of the greatest matches in the company's history. His match with Masato Tanaka on May 19, 1998, is considered by many to be the greatest match of his career and considered to be the second best FMW match only behind Combat Toyoda vs. Megumi Kudo at 7th Anniversary Show . He had memorable rivalries and clashes with Mr. Gannosuke , Kodo Fuyuki and The Gladiator . His feud with Gannosuke would feature both men in many epic encounters and major matches between 1997 and 2001 and

16065-399: The main event match. Gannosuke and Kanemura retained the titles against Hayabusa and Shinzaki and confronted Onita on his ego and selfishness. On December 22, Gannosuke, Kanemura and Onita lost to Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki and Masato Tanaka in a Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Ladder WarGames match and Gannosuke and Kanemura turned on Onita by attacking him after the match until Koji Nakagawa made

16218-407: The match, Ezaki managed to kick out of Onita's Thunder Fire Powerbomb and gave a huge fight. He was rushed to the hospital on a stretcher due to severe burns but became Onita's successor as the ace of FMW. Hayabusa returned to the company on May 17 by teaming with Katsutoshi Niiyama against Lethal Weapon members The Gladiator and Horace Boulder in a losing effort to begin his first rivalry in

16371-468: The meanwhile, Terry Funk formed the Funk Masters of Wrestling group, which replaced Lethal Weapon as the new antagonist group and Hayabusa wrestled the group's members throughout the rest of 1996 and much of 1997. Ezaki's former friend Mr. Gannosuke returned to FMW and attacked Hayabusa after Hayabusa and Katsutoshi Niiyama lost to The Headhunters in a tag team match on January 5, 1997. As a result of

16524-601: The name Mr. Helo , teaming with " Mr. Shima , and was managed by Tojo Yamamoto . In December 1985, he returned to AJPW, under the name Samson Fuyuki , and began teaming with Toshiaki Kawada , under the team name " Footloose ". As members of Genichiro Tenryu 's Revolution Army, Footloose captured the All Asia Tag Team Championship three times between March 9, 1988 and October 20, 1989. Footloose would disband in April 1990, as Kawada teamed with Tiger Mask II , who would later unmask, revealing himself as Mitsuharu Misawa , during

16677-435: The next three months and Hayabusa lost a singles match to TNR member Kodo Fuyuki in the first singles encounter between the two on February 19 to begin a long lasting rivalry with Fuyuki. The following month, Hayabusa won a tournament by defeating Masato Tanaka, Jado and The Gladiator to become the #1 contender for his rival Mr. Gannosuke's FMW Double Championship, the unified Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and

16830-433: The next year, he planned to come out of retirement and had been scheduled to face Shinya Hashimoto before his death. Fuyuki died at approximately 6:50pm on March 19, 2003, after an almost year long battle with intestinal cancer. Fuyuki was perhaps the only wrestler to participate in a match posthumously, as the planned barbed wire deathmatch with Hashimoto indeed went ahead, with Kintaro Kanemura taking Fuyuki's place. After

16983-684: The promotion closed on February 15 due to bankruptcy. After FMW's demise, Kanemura joined Kodo Fuyuki's World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW), which lasted until 2004. Kanemura's home promotion was WEW but he became a freelancer and wrestled on many independent promotions in Japan. Kanemura had begun wrestling for several promotions in 2000 to make more money while also competing for FMW. Kanemura had begun making appearances for Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) in 2001 and began feuding with DDT's top star Sanshiro Takagi in 2002. On April 18, Kanemura teamed with Super Uchu Power , Chocoball Mukai and Futoshi Miwa to take on Takagi, Takashi Sasaki and Tanomusako Toba in

17136-594: The promotion was a failure and ended in 2008. Trained by former All Japan Pro Wrestling star and sumo wrestler Takashi Ishikawa , Eiji Ezaki made his professional wrestling debut at an independent show on November 2, 1987, teaming with Masashi Honda against three upper classmen. He and Honda would struggle in the very small indy circuit for four years before joining Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling 's dojo, headed by another former AJPW alumnus Tarzan Goto . Ezaki made his FMW debut on May 5, 1991, where he teamed up with Amigo Ultra to defeat El Pandita and Yukihide Ueno in

17289-535: The promotion's closure). On June 4, Kanemura teamed with Mitsuteru Tukoda against The Headhunters in a steel cage match , which Kanemura lost after suffering an injury which put him out of action for two months. Kanemura returned to W*ING at One Night One Soul on August 2, where he teamed with Tokuda to defeat Super Invader and The Masked Inferno in a hair vs. mask barbed wire barricade match when Kanemura pinned Masked Inferno, forcing Inferno to take off his mask and begin competing as Rochester Roadblock. As

17442-613: The promotion. Ezaki is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling and one of the pioneers of high-flying and junior heavyweight wrestling in Japan. He innovated the Falcon Arrow and Phoenix Splash , and popularized the Firebird Splash , which would become famous in North America as the 450° splash . He was the second most popular and greatest star in

17595-511: The quarter-final before losing to The Gladiator in the semi-final. Kanemura would wrestle the departing Jinsei Shinzaki in Shinzaki's last FMW match at the company's first pay-per-view event 9th Anniversary Show , which Kanemura lost. After the event, Kodo Fuyuki took over as the leader of Team No Respect due to Mr. Gannosuke being injured. On May 5, Fuyuki, Kanemura and Hido defeated Atsushi Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to win

17748-490: The reinstated WEW World Heavyweight Championship on a WEW television show which aired on September 3. On March 3, 2003, the team of Kanemura and Kuroda defeated Gentaro and Takashi Sasaki to win the WEW World Tag Team Championship . Later that month, Kanemura defeated Shadow WX in a Lighttubes and Glass Deathmatch to win the vacant BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship on March 30 during

17901-424: The request was accepted with Kanemura defeating Tanaka in a No Rope Barbed Wire Deathmatch at Shiodome Legend to earn the right to face Onita in the main event of Fall Spectacular. On August 21, Kanemura and Hido lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Mr. Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya. Shortly after the title loss, Kanemura fractured his foot but still competed in his scheduled match against Atsushi Onita in

18054-456: The rest of the year and early 1996 before taking time off due to multiple injuries. Despite the injury, Hayabusa returned to FMW on March 30 to rescue Jason the Terrible from an assault by Mr. Pogo and The Headhunters to set up the main event for the company's 7th Anniversary Show on May 5, where he teamed with Masato Tanaka to take on Pogo and Terry Funk in a no rope explosive barbed wire time bomb land mine double hell death match and

18207-590: The returning Ryuji Yamakawa to defend the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship at a BJW event against Daisuke Sekimoto and Men's Teioh in a title vs. title match with Sekimoto and Teioh's BJW Tag Team Championship also being defended. Kanemura and Yamakawa lost the match and the titles. On December 9, FMW's team of Kuroda, Gannosuke, Kanemura and Sasaki defeated WAR's team of Fuyuki, Tenryu, Arashi and Koki Kitahara . On December 23, Kanemura teamed with Sasaki and participated in

18360-414: The save for Onita. The duo, along with Hido left ZEN. On January 7, 1998, the trio took on Atsushi Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the main event of the first ZEN-promoted show. Kanemura's team lost but attacked their opponents after the match and were joined by Fuyuki-Gun in the assault, leading to the two groups merging to form a new alliance called Team No Respect , with Mr. Gannosuke as

18513-542: The show by teaming with Shoji Nakamaki against Kendo Nagasaki and Nobutaka Araya in a Ring Filled with Cream tornado tag team match , which Kanemura's team lost. This would turn out to be W*ING's last show as the promotion closed due to financial loss on March 21. After W*ING folded, Kanemura joined the upstart International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA), defeating The Winger in IWA Japan's debut show on May 21, 1994. While there, he feuded with Shoji Nakamaki in

18666-419: The sidelines due to injury and lost the majority of his high-profile matches upon his return. He started gaining popularity and championship success in 1997 and won the Double Championship in 1998 and held the title for most of the year. He developed alter egos such as "The Darkside of Hayabusa" in 1996 and the unmasked "H" in 1999. His career ended in late 2001 after a botched moonsault left him paralysed during

18819-426: The six-man tag team match to Mr. Gannosuke, Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki. Hayabusa was pinned by Kanemura and he agreed to put his 5% stock in a two out of three match series on August 11. The FMW team and Fuyuki's team were even with 1–1 score until Hayabusa lost the WEW Heavyweight Championship to Kanemura in the main event. As a result of losing the series, Hayabusa lost his 5% stock to Fuyuki and Fuyuki sold

18972-537: The spot as Atsushi Onita's opponent in Onita's retirement match at the event as Onita wanted his final opponent to succeed him as the promotion's ace after Onita's originally supposed opponent Tarzan Goto left FMW and there was no main event star left to be Onita's opponent. Hayabusa returned to FMW at the 6th Anniversary Show, where he unsuccessfully challenged Onita for the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship in an exploding cage barbed wire deathmatch . During

19125-465: The stock to Stuart Levy. On September 5, Hayabusa defeated Kanemura to regain the title but the win was reversed by new FMW Vice President Senmu Yoshida, who returned the title to Kanemura. On September 9, Hayabusa teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and GOEMON to defeat Kintaro Kanemura, Kodo Fuyuki and Mr. Gannosuke to win the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The following month, on October 9, Hayabusa and Kuroda defeated Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki to win

19278-448: The tag team partner of Mammoth Sasaki and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Mr. Gannosuke, Mr. Iwaonosuke and Mr. Rocknosuke, which Kanemura's team won. On August 25, Kanemura defeated Mr. Gannosuke in a match and after the match, Kanemura formed a stable with several former FMW wrestlers called Apache Army. The stable would include Gannosuke, Taka Michinoku, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, GOEMON , GENTARO , Hido , Go Ito and Takashi Sasaki. On October 2,

19431-453: The team of 2 Tuff Tony , Kintaro Kanemura and Mad Man Pondo defeated Gosaku Goshogawara, Taka Michinoku and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to win the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . A week later, Kanemura and Kuroda won the All Asia Tag Team Championship by defeating Hirotaka Yokoi and Kohei Sato . On December 5, Kanemura was scheduled to team with Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Shinjiro Otani , Masato Tanaka and Tatsuhito Takaiwa but

19584-609: The team of Daisuke Sekimoto and Ryuji Ito in a hardcore rules match . On August 19, Kanemura and Hido defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Kendo Kashin to win the WMG Tag Team Championship at a Riki Pro show. On August 28, Kanemura started a promotion Apache Pro-Wrestling Army , which grew out of their stable. Things were going well for Kanemura until February 2008, when a sexual harassment scandal cost him several bookings from other promotions. On November 15, 2015, Kanemura announced that he plans on retiring from

19737-509: The tenth anniversary of his FMW debut. On May 11, Hayabusa pinned Kuroda in a six-man tag team match to earn a title shot at Kuroda. On May 22, Hayabusa defeated Kuroda in a double hell barbed wire deathmatch to win the WEW Heavyweight Championship, with Kodo Fuyuki as the special guest referee. On June 8, Fuyuki bought FMW from Shoichi Arai in storyline and gave the wrestlers option to either side with Arai or Fuyuki. Hayabusa sided with Arai by revealing that he had purchased 5% stock of

19890-443: The title afterwards. On June 8, Kanemura affiliated with Kodo Fuyuki, who owned 48% of the company's shares and wanted to sale it to Stuart Levy's Tokyopop . Kanemura would then feud with Hayabusa and Shoichi Arai's FMW team. On July 30, Kanemura, Mr. Gannosuke and Kodo Fuyuki defeated the team of Flying Kid Ichihara, Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji to win the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . On August 3, Kanemura pinned Hayabusa in

20043-575: The title and returned the title to Kanemura. Later at the event, the team of Kintaro Kanemura, Kodo Fuyuki and Mr. Gannosuke lost the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa, GOEMON and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. On November 23, Kanemura successfully defended the WEW World Heavyweight Championship against The Great Sasuke . Later that night, Kanemura turned fan favorite by siding with Mr. Gannosuke, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mammoth Sasaki to feud with Kodo Fuyuki, who had turned on FMW to ally with Genichiro Tenryu 's WAR alliance. On December 2, Kanemura teamed with

20196-555: The title only six days later to wrestle Leatherface. Kanemura continued his feud with Sullivan to avenge the attack in SMW and the two battled each other to no contest at Dog in the Box on May 27. The two had another rematch at Hollywood Nightmare , which again ended in a no contest. Kanemura became W*ING's top fan favorite after Mitsuhiro Matsunaga left the company to join Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). On September 26, Kanemura lost

20349-551: The title to Gladiator in the title unification match at Year End Spectacular. This led to the unification of the Independent Heavyweight Championship and the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship which would be collectively defended as the FMW Double Championship. In 1997, W*ING Alliance joined forces with the returning Atsushi Onita to feud with Funk Masters of Wrestling. On April 25, Kanemura and Hido defeated The Headhunters to end their year-long reign to win

20502-468: The title to Kodo Fuyuki and Kyoko Inoue on February 25, 2000. H defeated Inoue in singles action on March 27. On April 3, H represented FMW against the new ECW Japan leader Kodo Fuyuki in a losing effort. H began feuding with Masato Tanaka due to Tanaka confronting him on forgiving Mr. Gannosuke. Ezaki and Gannosuke lost to Tanaka and Balls Mahoney in a tag team match on April 11, during which Ezaki went backstage as H and then competed as Hayabusa for

20655-457: The title. The title was immediately retired. On August 27, Ezaki debuted his new character H , with a complete makeover of colored hair, a tattooed chest and jeans . Ezaki won his first match as H, an elimination match against Team No Respect. Gannosuke was injured in the match and then he attacked H under the Hayabusa costume and attire on September 3, thus instigating a feud between H and Hayabusa. This led to an anus exploding match between

20808-577: The top villainous group . On March 7, 1995, Kanemura won his first title in FMW as he and Mr. Pogo defeated Atsushi Onita and Mr. Gannosuke to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship . They lost the title to Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji at the 6th Anniversary Show after a miscommunication took place between Kanemura and Pogo. This led Pogo to blow fire on Kanemura after the match to turn on W*ING and join Lethal Weapon. On May 17, Kanemura changed his ring name to W*ING Kanemura as

20961-577: The top wrestlers and was the main heel. In August 1993, Fuyuki was invited by New Japan Pro-Wrestling to participate in the G1 Climax tournament; he defeated Takayuki Iizuka in the first round, but lost to Masahiro Chono in the quarterfinals. In 1994, he would make a brief stint in EMLL in Mexico, once again under the name Samson Fuyuki , feuding with Vampiro . In early 1994, he started teaming with Jado and Gedo as Fuyuki-Gun , with whom he held

21114-403: The tournament and become the inaugural Independent Heavyweight Champion. On September 1, the FMW team of Koji Nakagawa, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda took on Kanemura, Hido and Hideki Hosaka in a no rope barbed wire double hell deathmatch, during which Kanemura injured his ear after Nakagawa threw him into the exploding barbed wire. Kanemura returned to FMW on October 12 by teaming with Jason

21267-501: The trio of Hayabusa, Nakagawa and Masato Tanaka defeated Oya, Gannosuke and Gladiator to win the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. On September 28, Hayabusa wrestled two matches on the same day. He first appeared in a tag team match for AJPW at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo by teaming with Mitsuharu Misawa to defeat Jun Akiyama and Saturo Asako. He then travelled to Kawasaki, Kanagawa to compete at FMW's Fall Spectacular at

21420-597: The two came to blows and this ended the partnership between the two. On May 5, Hayabusa and Shinzaki took on Tanaka and Kuroda in a tag team match where the winner of the fall would earn a Double Championship match against Kodo Fuyuki in the main event and Kuroda pinned Hayabusa to earn the title shot. Fuyuki took over as the new commissioner of FMW and an alliance was formed between Gannosuke's Outlaws and Team No Respect. On May 31, Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hideki Hosaka and Hisakatsu Oya faced Kodo Fuyuki, Mr. Gannosuke, Hido, Koji Nakagawa and Yukihiro Kanemura in

21573-440: The two on October 29, which ended in a no contest. At the 10th Anniversary Show , H defeated fake Hayabusa in the main event, with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. H and Gannosuke reconciled after the match by shaking hands with each other to end their rivalry and form a tag team. On December 1, H and Gannosuke defeated Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu Oya to win the WEW Tag Team Championship . H and Gannosuke lost

21726-444: The vacant Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship by defeating Lethal Weapon member Hisakatsu Oya on June 27 by debuting his new finishing move, Falcon Arrow . However, he immediately vacated the title due to injury but a storyline was created that he vacated it because he wanted to beat Gladiator and all the members of the W*ING Alliance . The title was put up for grabs in the Grand Slam Tournament , an eight-man tournament in

21879-452: The vacated World Tag Team Championship , where the duo lost to El Dandy and Negro Casas in the opening round. During his time in Mexico, Víctor Quiñones would offer Ezaki a contract to defect to IWA Japan , but declined, showing loyalty to FMW. He appeared as Hayabusa in FMW for the first time at Summer Spectacular on August 28, 1994, by defeating Sabu . He then returned to CMLL to team with fellow Japanese wrestler Último Dragón in

22032-484: The winner would receive one million yens . Hayabusa was pinned by Funk after a brutal match. After the one-off return, Ezaki continued to heal his injuries and did not compete in FMW for the next three months. On August 1, he made his return to full-time competition by defeating Koji Nagakawa at the Summer Spectacular event. On September 11, Ezaki debuted an alter ego called Darkside Hayabusa during

22185-399: The year. On October 26, New Footloose lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa and Daisuke Ikeda . On November 20, FMW President Shoichi Arai stripped TNR of the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and awarded the titles to the departing Atsushi Onita as a reward for founding FMW and making it a successful promotion. In December, Kanemura participated in an Over

22338-577: Was a huge success. By 2015, Ezaki had regained the use of his legs and could stand on his own and walk with a cane. Ezaki died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 3, 2016, at age 47. His body was found when the owner of a nearby tavern, with whom he was scheduled to meet concerning a March 7 event, went to his home after Ezaki failed to arrive for their planned meeting. Kouhiro Kanemura Yukihiro Kanemura ( 金村 珩皓 , Kanemura Yukihiro , born August 9, 1970) , better known by his ring name Kintaro Kanemura ( 金村 キンタロー , Kanemura Kintarō ) ,

22491-512: Was at a FMW and World Wrestling Association co-promoted interpromotional event on May 16, 1992, where Ezaki represented FMW with Mr. Gannosuke and Ultra Taro against WWA's Los Mercenarios Americanos (Mercenario I, Mercenario II and Mercenario III ) in a six-man tag team match , which Ezaki lost after being pinned by Spicolli. At September's 3rd Anniversary Show , Ezaki and Gannosuke lost to Chris Jericho and Kevin Faule. Ezaki participated in

22644-539: Was considered the biggest feud in FMW history. They headlined many shows including 8th Anniversary Show , 9th Anniversary Show and 10th Anniversary Show as well as the main event of Goodbye Hayabusa II: Last Match pay-per-view which was the last match of the Hayabusa character in 1999. Kevin Wilson reviewed on the 9th Anniversary Show encounter between the two that "both wrestlers played their roles well and they hit their major moves without any problems. I still think

22797-616: Was finally forced to close the promotion in March 2002, one month after it filed for bankruptcy. Soon after the close of FMW, Fuyuki opened his own promotion, World Entertainment Wrestling, and briefly appeared in WEW before announcing his retirement after being diagnosed with cancer. Wrestling his last match at a retirement show held by Pro Wrestling Noah , Fuyuki teamed with Yoshinari Ogawa & Mitsuharu Misawa to defeat Tamon Honda , Masao Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi on April 14, 2002. Although continuing to promote events for WEW during

22950-402: Was incorporated into a storyline that Kodo Fuyuki would not allow Ezaki to wear the falcon mask and compete as Hayabusa anymore. This led Ezaki to go through a character change. On June 15, Hayabusa teamed with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido in a ladder match which stipulated that Fuyuki had to eat dog food if his team lost. FMW held

23103-508: Was owned by Grappler (that title win, however, is not recognized as part of the official title history for the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship , which was held at that point by C.W. Bergstrom and would be until Pacific Northwest Wrestling folded in July 1992 after Don Owen 's retirement; however, W*ING recognized Kanemura as their Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion until

23256-456: Was pulled out of the show due to a lymph infection and was replaced by Mammoth Sasaki. The injury forced Kanemura to vacate the All Asia Tag Team Championship on December 10. Kanemura returned to the ring in early 2004 and WEW's successor Fuyuki Army ended on May 5. The Apache Army stable competed as freelancers in the Japanese independent circuit . On July 4, Kanemura promoted his own show Kintaro Kanemura Festival , where he and Hido defeated

23409-486: Was the franchise player of the company between 1995 and 2001. Ezaki initially competed for FMW as a low-carder between 1991 and 1993 before travelling to Mexico where he developed the "Hayabusa" character and his signature wrestling style during his time with lucha libre organizations. He returned to FMW in 1995 and received a significant push as the face of the company, winning his first Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship later that year. He spent much of 1996 on

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