Shoichi Arai would decide it was finally time to just officially make FMW known as Entertainment Pro-Wrestling due to DirecTV. FMW announcer Sugisaku J Taro as well as many outside TV writers help him write the Korakuen Hall shows although pretty much every outside TV wrestler and even J Taro would eventually get fired with some TV writers only writing one show before the wrestlers would complain about the writers not knowing the business based on what they had written and getting them fired right away. FMW would change their rings from the blue ones that had been associated with blood, street fights, and hardcore death matches to red ones to represent the new direction of FMW in Entertainment style. Just like how New Japan was represented by Strong Style and All Japan was represented by Kings Road now FMW would be represented by Sports Entertainment and that was the direction they were to go in without looking back. Fuyuki and Team No Respect would announce the Entertainment direction in FMW on August 21, 1998, but Atsushi Onita would come out with Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hideki Hosaka, Mr. Pogo # 2, Yoshinori Sasaki and announce his new group, Team Zero. Team Zero which signified that all of them were nothings, they could still wipe away Fuyuki and Team No Respect, but the group would start out with a loss after Fuyuki would put away Mr. Pogo # 2. Atsushi Onita would not be done with Fuyuki.
Hayabusa would reveal his dark side by debuting his new persona the Darkside of Hayabusa with thorns attached to his mask to face Koji Nakagawa on August 22, 1998 at the Tokyo TV Studio, with Hayabusa not afraid to break any rules, but again Hayabusa would get screwed as he would deal with tons of interference with Go Ito before tombstone piledriving him, and with Nakagawa out, Hayabusa would climb the top rope looking for the Phoenix Splash to finish him off when the lights would go out and Mr. Gannosuke wearing Jinsei Shinzaki's outfit would come to the ring and deliver a powerbomb to Hayabusa and leave before the lights would come back on. Nakagawa would lay over Hayabusa's body and once again score the pinfall victory over Hayabusa. Hayabusa extremely upset would attack the referee before leaving as Nakagawa and Go Ito both remained barely conscious, but victorious. Earlier in the show, Go Ito would get back at Shoichi Arai for defeating him by with the help of Team No Respect, kidnapping Shoichi Arai's 16 year old niece. The 16 year old would be played by a Japanese actress, proving more that FMW was focusing on a Entertainment style.
Hayabusa would successfully defend his FMW Doubles Titles against Hisakatsu Oya on September 1, 1998 with both men shaking hands and agreeing that they should change the name of Team FMW that had been the simple name of the team since the beginning of FMW. The group would become Team Phoenix consisting of Hayabusa, Daisuke Ikeda, Hisakatsu Oya, Super Leather, Ricky Fuji, Flying Kid Ichihara, and Kaori Nakayama. In the main event, Atsushi Onita, Kuroda, Hosaka, and Pogo # 2 would defeat Team No Respect members Kodo Fuyuki, Koji Nakagawa, Yukihiro Kanemura, and Hido after Onita would piledrive Fuyuki and finally score the pinfall and get his revenge, and due to the win, Team Zero would win Team No Respect's briefs. Team Zero would put the white underwear on a cross and crucify the underwear, ending the Brief Brothers from FMW.
Team No Respect would get back at Onita who finally got his revenge on Team No Respect and Fuyuki by setting up Onita's arch rival Mr. Pogo to attack Onita in the parking lot after the show. Mr. Pogo going by the name The Great Pogo would not officially join Team No Respect, but align himself with them due to his return hatred for Atsushi Onita. The Great Pogo would earn his back his name by defeating Mr. Pogo # 2 on September 29, 1998 for Pogo to return back as Mr. Pogo for good, with his former disciple going back to the name Gosaku Goshogawara.
Go Ito would reveal on September 20, 1998 that he brainwashed Shoichi Arai's niece into falling in love with him, and the couple would be hand and hand with one another as Shoichi Arai would attempt to try and bring sense into his nephew, but would just end up making his niece mad as a result due to her love for Go Ito. Hayabusa would defeat Jado to defend the FMW Double Titles on the show, but afterwards would be forced into a handicap match with Ricky Fuji facing Kodo Fuyuki, Koji Nakagawa, and Gedo as Fuyuki would pin Hayabusa in the match, and earn both Fuyuki and Nakagawa shots at the FMW Double Titles. Hayabusa would finally defeat Koji Nakagawa on October 6, 1998 at Korakuen Hall to defend the FMW Double Titles, putting a damper on Team No Respect's celebration party. Kodo Fuyuki would come to the ring with the champagne bottle he expected to celebrate Nakagawa's victory with, but instead would burst the champagne all over Hayabusa's mask and face instead as he would become the next challenger for Hayabusa's Double Titles on November 20, 1998 at FMW's return to the Yokohama Bunka Gym. Mr. Gannosuke would also return to the show, after Tetsuhiro Kuroda would score the biggest pinfall of his career by defeating Yukihiro Kanemura and challenging Mr. Gannosuke still wearing Jinsei Shinzaki's monk outfit on November 20, 1998 for Gannosuke's return.
Hayabusa's FMW Double Title reign would overall be a slight disappointment despite drawing some crowds, with the feeling that there just was not enough credible challengers for him to face, that a heel would make a better champion with the FMW team having more credible wrestlers to chase after a heel, and with Kodo Fuyuki being a top heel, but never having won a major title, he would fill in the role as the next person to carry the Double Titles well in a lot of people's minds.
Atsushi Onita extremely upset over almost the entire roster settling for Kodo Fuyuki's Entertainment style of wrestling, and convincing Arai to book Onita bad was just too much to handle for Onita and his ego. Onita feeling that he could make much more money in New Japan would announce that he was leaving FMW for good. FMW would first setup a match with him against Mr. Pogo, but Big Japan would announce that they were no longer on terms with FMW and would not Mr. Pogo wrestle the show. Because of that, FMW would be force to change Onita's last match to fighting his fellow Team Zero members Yoshinori Sasaki, Mr. Pogo # 2, and finally Hideki Hosaka, the wrestler who had pinned and defeated more than any wrestlers for years in the FMW vs. W*ING feud from when he ran FMW. Mr. Pogo though would end up announcing that he and Shoji Nakamaki were quitting Big Japan on November 19, 1998 and the match between Onita and Pogo would be signed for once again.
FMW would run at the Yokohama Bunka Gym on November 20, 1998, and although doing better than the show previous by drawing 3,933 fans to the show, it would still come short of their goal of 4,000 for such a loaded show. FMW would find out just days before the show that ECW was not sending Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Candido, and Tammy Sytch for the show despite promising them which would make FMW furious with ECW. ECW would instead just agree to send the One Man Gang for the show as a result, with Sabu agreeing to also work the show wanting to help the promotion that got him his first break. Kanemura would end up facing off against Sabu and the One Man Gang in a ECW Three Way Dance with Sabu last eliminating Kanemura for the win. Mr. Gannosuke would return to FMW under his peaceful Buddhist monk gimmick similar to Jinsei Shinzaki and defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda with the Nirvana Strangle for his return match. Afterwards, Kanemura would begin to question Gannosuke's loyalty towards Team No Respect, but Gannosuke would just ignore Kanemura and walk away.
Atsushi Onita's first retirement from FMW, he walked off into the sunset as the hero of FMW, with fans screaming and crying his name for their love with Onita. Atsushi Onita would come to the ring in his final match in FMW, with barely anyone believing it would really be his final FMW match due to his Mr. Liar character, but the few fans that did believe Onita would act extremely different than the fans for his retirement as they would all give Onita the middle finger for leaving FMW. Atsushi Onita would face off against Mr. Pogo in their final singles match against each other, with no barbed wire or Pogo cutting open Onita's back to help hide the weaknesses they both had. Pogo would attempt to blow a fireball at Onita, but Onita would move out of the way and finally deliver a bulldog to Mr. Pogo into a chair for the win similar to his win over Pogo in their last match before Onita's retirement when Onita would bulldog Pogo into a flaming chair. The match would be horrible, heatless, and Atsushi Onita would walk away from FMW in the crowd. Afterwards, Shoichi Arai would present Atsushi Onita with the Lifetime FMW 6 Man Street Fight Title for the thank you for creating FMW. Atsushi Onita would never return to FMW again although that would not be Onita's plan.
Hayabusa would challenge Kodo Fuyuki in the main event for the FMW Double Titles, with both wrestlers putting on an extremely excellent match with Fuyuki putting on a great performance for the biggest match of his career and delivering moves as the debuting Muscle Buster and reverse DDT off the middle turnbuckle on Hayabusa. Hayabusa would attempt a Phoenix Splash, but after Fuyuki would move out of the way, he would deliver several Charging Lariats to Hayabusa and score the win and the FMW Double Titles to become the 5th person to win them. Team No Respect would celebrate their leaders victory by bringing back the FMW Double Titles, but Fuyuki would announce that both of the belts were extremely ugly and represented a different era of FMW, and would announce his plan to create a new belt for FMW. Although the plans for the new belt would go under way, Fuyuki would still defend the FMW Double Titles.
Shoichi Arai would hold a meeting with all the FMW wrestlers. Arai would explain to them that Atsushi Onita's plan was for all the FMW wrestlers besides Hayabusa to quit FMW and join Atsushi Onita's USO promotion. Arai would beg Onita to come back to FMW with Onita finally agreeing and take his spot back as the main star in FMW. All the wrestlers would ask Arai if he was going to choose between Onita having his way or what the FMW wrestlers wanted which was to continue on without Onita. Arai would choose the FMW wrestlers and they would all get together at the FMW office in November 21, 1998 in Tokyo. Onita several hours after everyone else would arrive to see the entire FMW roster there. Arai would explain that he would not help out USO and he did not want Onita in FMW anymore. Onita would just have a bitter smile during the meeting and would end up agreeing to leave FMW once and for all.
Shoichi Arai would announce a 16 man single elimination tournament called "Over the Top" to determine the number 1 contender for the FMW Double Titles on March 19th at the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center. Kodo Fuyuki would be in the tournament as well, and if he were to win, he would get to pick his opponent on March 19th. Hayabusa, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mr. Gannosuke, Koji Nakagawa, Hisakatsu Oya, Super Leather, Gedo, Mohammed Yone, Yukihiro Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka, Ricky Fuji, Masao Orihara, Takashi Ono, and Hido would all be entered into the tournament. Hayabusa at the press conference would tell the magazine writers and newspaper editors about how happy he was to get the opportunity for a rematch against Kodo Fuyuki, despite him having to go through Gedo in the first round and Kodo Fuyuki having to beat Hisakatsu Oya for that to happen. The comment would insult Hisakatsu Oya who would begin screaming at Hayabusa for making the assumption that Hisakatsu Oya would be eliminated.
The tournament would start on December 9, 1998 and Hisakatsu Oya would end up upsetting Kodo Fuyuki by rolling him up for the upset to advance in the tournament. Hayabusa would also advance by eliminating Gedo and when Hayabusa would attempt to apologize to Oya for his comment and would attempt to shake his hand to return back on good terms, he would get a backdrop suplex as a result.
ECW would end up sending talent for the Korakuen Hall shows with the main focus being the Over the Top tournament, but the ECW wrestlers of Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, and The Dudley Boyz would all wrestle in non tournament matches. Hisakatsu Oya would end up facing off against Hayabusa on December 13, 1998 at Korakuen Hall, and would end up rolling up Hayabusa for the pin and eliminating Hayabusa from the tournament shocking Hayabusa. Hisakatsu Oya would move on, and eventually reach the finals. Mr. Gannosuke would face off against former friend Yukihiro Kanemura on the show, and despite being jumped by Kanemura before the match, Gannosuke would end up putting Kanemura in the Nirvana Strangle and forcing Kanemura to tap and Gannosuke move on. Mr. Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya would end up meeting in the finals of the tournament on January 5, 1999 at Korakuen Hall, with Oya not being able to pull another upset as he would eventually be force to tap to Gannosuke's Nirvana Strangle as Mr. Gannosuke would win the Over the Top tournament and earn the right to fight Kodo Fuyuki for the FMW Double Titles. Gannosuke leaving Team No Respect would not leave him with any allies as Super Leather & Hideki Hosaka would soon join up with Mr. Gannosuke.
Earlier in the show, Team No Respect would announce its plan to no longer covet over taking full control of FMW, which would not go over very well with Jado and Go Ito who would leave the group as a result. Masato Tanaka would also return to FMW after going back to Japan and FMW asking him to stay there. FMW extremely upset over ECW at how ECW had screwed them over exchanging talent wise, as well as how they keeping care of Masato Tanaka who could not speak English. Masato Tanaka being booked an a extremely cheap motels that a prostitute would not even want to be in. some would not even have beds in the room. Masato Tanaka would return to FMW by defeating Koji Nakagawa in less than a minute debuting the Diamond Dust as his finisher.
Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki would return back in All Japan as FMW would not allow Hayabusa to lose in All Japan as the FMW Double Titles Champion. Hayabusa and Shinzaki would be unsuccessful at winning the All Japan All Asian Tag Team Titles from Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida after Honda would pin Shinzaki on January 16, 1999, but would win a rematch after Shinzaki would pin Izumida to win the titles on February 13, 1999.
Hayabusa would team with Hisakatsu Oya on February 27, 1999 at Korakuen Hall feeling that since the tournament was over, their differences would be as they would face Mr. Gannosuke and Hideki Hosaka. Oya would end up turning on Hayabusa during the match and delivering a back suplex to him and allowing Gannosuke to get the pinfall victory over him as Oya would join Gannosuke's new group. Mr. Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya would rejoin as team mates in the upcoming tournament for the vacant FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Titles. Kodo Fuyuki would come to the ring and see the extremely upset Hayabusa as Fuyuki would walk in the ring and help Hayabusa up as the two would hug and form a tag team for the upcoming Tag Tournament The teams of Hayabusa & Kodo Fuyuki, Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mr. Gannosuke & Hisakatsu Oya, Super Leather & Hideki Hosaka, Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone, Koji Nakagawa & Gedo, Yukihiro Kanemura & Hido, and newcomers Armageddon would enter the tournament.
Kodo Fuyuki would successfully defend the FMW Double Titles on March 19, 1999 at the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center he would defeat Gannosuke after a table shot to the head would knock out the bloody Gannosuke and Fuyuki would score the victory. Afterwards, Kodo Fuyuki would challenge friend Tarzan Goto to return to FMW for the upcoming May 5, 1999 Yokohama Bunka Gym for the FMW Double Titles. Goto would eventually turn down the offer feeling that he did not need the booking, did not want to return to FMW, and did not like anybody in the promotion other than Fuyuki. Hayabusa and Shinzaki would successfully defend the All Asian Tag Team Titles by defeating Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda after Hayabusa would put away Kuroda with a Falcon Arrow after over 30 minutes.
Go Ito would end up quitting as booker in April 1999 for being too stressed out by how the planning had become for the DirecTV shows every month. Go Ito was use to simple booking decisions by himself throughout the years and the meetings had become much more complex, with many different writers, some that did not know anything about wrestling but just television, and the meetings had become much longer as a result. Go Ito would decide that it was too much for him and decided that his last show would be on May 5, 1999. Kodo Fuyuki would end up being asked to be the booker for the promotion who would announce that he was resetting everything after May 5th.
Hayabusa & Kodo Fuyuki would win every match except a time limit draw against Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to earn a shot at the finals on May 3, 1999 with Tanaka and Kuroda having to face Nakagawa and Gedo in a playoff match the day of the show for the winning team to earn a right at the finals. Tanaka and Kuroda would blow away Nakagawa and Gedo in minutes, and then manage to defeat Hayabusa and Fuyuki in the finals after Tanaka would knock out Fuyuki with the Rolling Elbow for the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles. The show would turn out to be a huge disappointment only drawing 2,100 in the 11,000 seat building which would end a tournament that had drew bad crowds all throughout. Hayabusa would wake up Fuyuki after the lost by pouring a bucket of water on Fuyuki. Fuyuki would wake up enraged at Hayabusa as Gannosuke and Kanemura would hold back Fuyuki. Gannosuke's Outlaws had align themselves with Team No Respect as FMW seemed to be as a whole with the only enemy being the outside Battlarts promotion.
FMW would run once again at the Yokohama Bunka Gym on May 5, 1999 for the beginning of FMW's 10 year anniversary tour that would end at the Yokohama Arena on November 23, 1999. The show would end up becoming a huge disappointment by only drawing 2,800 fans in the 4,900 seat building, but with no main event announced as the winner of the pinfall of Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda facing Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki getting the shot at the FMW Double Titles. Kuroda would end up scoring the upset by pinning Hayabusa after a lariat to earn the right to face Fuyuki later in the show. Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, Hisakatsu Oya, Hideki Hosaka, and Hido would all team together to represent FMW to face off against Battlarts in a single elimination match that would end up being Mr. Gannosuke against Daisuke Ikeda with Ikeda managing to defeat Gannosuke with a lariat for the Battlarts victory.
Tetsuhiro Kuroda would then come out for his match against Kodo Fuyuki for the FMW Double Titles, but instead of Fuyuki's "Shoot It '95" theme playing Team No Respect's "Come out and Play" would begin playing as Kodo Fuyuki would be accompanied by Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, Koji Nakagawa, Jado, Gedo, and Hido as Team No Respect were back fully together. Team No Respect would interfere throughout the match to help Fuyuki, and Kuroda would be busted open deeply with blood pouring all down Kuroda's face would be nailed with a Charging Lariat for Fuyuki to score the victory to successfully defend the FMW Double Titles. Hayabusa would appear out of nowhere jumping over the top rope and attacking Fuyuki with many of the FMW fans upset over the finish beginning to throw bottles in the ring as Team No Respect would begin attacking Hayabusa and laying him out with a powerbomb. Masato Tanaka would appear in the ring and Kodo Fuyuki would make sure to run for it and Team No Respect would retreat from the ring as Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hisakatsu Oya, Hideki Hosaka, and Ricky Fuji would be left in the ring as it would once again be Team FMW vs. Team No Respect as part of Fuyuki's reset.
FMW would go through many changes after the show with Kodo Fuyuki as booker instead of Go Ito. Kodo Fuyuki would announce that he was splitting up the FMW Double Titles and giving Mr. Gannosuke the FMW Independent Heavyweight Title and Yukihiro Kanemura the FMW Independent Heavyweight Title. He would also announce that FMW was ending their talent relationships with Battlarts, Michinoku Pro, and All Japan. Kodo Fuyuki would also suggest to Shoichi Arai that the promotion restart and change its name to WEW. World Entertainment Wrestling would fit the direction better of the company than Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling did, but Shoichi Arai having been in the promotion since the beginning would turn down Fuyuki's suggestion feeling that the FMW name had too much value and had name recognition for a new name. Shoichi Arai would agree to let Kodo Fuyuki change the name of the FMW titles to WEW titles.
Shoichi Arai would then announce on May 31, 1999 at Korakuen Hall that Kodo Fuyuki was the Commissioner in FMW as Kodo Fuyuki had brainwashed Shoichi Arai into giving him the power in FMW. Kodo Fuyuki's first announcement would be towards Masato Tanaka as Fuyuki would declare Tanaka, Public Enemy # 1 in FMW. Fuyuki would announce that if Tanaka were to be pinned one time, then he would be fired in FMW.
Kodo Fuyuki would then use his ties to the Japanese porno industry and bring in porn actress Sena Wakana to become his new valet. Sena Wakana would end up valeting for Flying Kid Ichihara instead, upsetting Fuyuki that she had chose Ichihara over him. The feeling backstage that a beautiful woman would help get Ichihara over as he had been wrestling for 10 years and was still thought of as a rookie with fair skills and below average charisma. Kodo Fuyuki would also make a blockbuster announcement on June 15, 1999 at Korakuen Hall telling Hayabusa that he must take off the mask on August 25, 1999 and return to wrestling as Eiji Ezaki, as this was Fuyuki's FMW, and Fuyuki did not want super heroes in his FMW. Hayabusa would leave the ring incredibly upset over Fuyuki's order, not even being able to talk in the ring. It would actually be Eiji Ezaki to make the decision on dropping the Hayabusa gimmick. Eiji Ezaki admits to not liking wrestling in highflying matches feeling that he's always scared when coming off the top rope for a move, as well as his body was taking punishment every match from his highflying style. But he always felt that if he were in the crowd, he would want to see Hayabusa fly, and that's what the crowd wants to see, so that is what they were to get. But when the pain would become increasing, Ezaki feeling that the only way to increase the longevity of his career was to stop with the highflying as much in the ring, and focus on a more ground base match. But Hayabusa could not just wrestle a ground based match, so Ezaki would go to Arai and make the decision on changing Hayabusa's gimmick and draw a good final show for Hayabusa. Hayabusa would team up with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, and Hido in a Loser eats Dog Food match, with a ladder being brought in the ring and Hayabusa going all out on his highflying moves including delivering a moonsault off the ladder. Kuroda would end up getting the pinfall victory over Hido forcing Kodo Fuyuki to eat dog food as a result. Kodo Fuyuki would take a bite of the dog food and then spit it out on Hayabusa's face as a brawl would begin between FMW and Team No Respect with dog food flying all over the ring.
Kodo Fuyuki would announce that the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles that had been retired and rewarded to Atsushi Onita would be replaced by the WEW 6 Man Tag Titles. Koji Nakagawa and Gedo who had defeated Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda for the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles would have their titles be replaced with new titles called the WEW Tag Team Titles. Kodo Fuyuki would also announce that he was bringing back the FMW Women's division with Kaori Nakayama and newly signed Emi Motokawa as the two wrestlers for it. He would also turn his attention to Hisakatsu Oya and announce that Oya would be given a Japanese singer Tomomi Tanimoto to escort him to the ring. Also, due to Hisakatsu Oya's receding hairline, he would be force to wear a wig to cover his head. Hisakatsu Oya would appear at Korakuen Hall on July 31, 1999 with the wig that Kodo Fuyuki had asked of him to wear, but Oya would go against Fuyuki by pulling it off and revealing his entire head bald instead to a shocked Fuyuki. Ricky Fuji extremely upset over Arai being brainwashed by Fuyuki would challenge Arai for a match at the next Korakuen Hall show.
FMW's 6 Man Tag Team Tournament would consist of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda as the favorites, as well as Kodo Fuyuki & Koji Nakagawa & Gedo, Mr. Gannosuke & Yukihiro Kanemura & Jado, and Super Leather & Armageddon.. Hayabusa's team would struggle in the tournament not getting one lost and two draws resulting in them having to face all three teams in able to win the WEW 6 Man Tag Titles on July 31, 1999 at Korakuen Hall. Hayabusa's team would defeat Super Leather's team after Hayabusa would pin Super Leather with a 450 Fire Bird Splash, followed by defeating Mr. Gannosuke's team after Hayabusa would pin Jado with a shotei, but Kodo Fuyuki's team would walk away the champions after interference from the entire Team No Respect would help setup Fuyuki pinning Hayabusa with a Charging Lariat for the victory. Kaoruko Arai would come back after a hiatus from FMW and return to cheer on Team No Respect with her uncle Shoichi afterwards. Kodo Fuyuki would then announce the top lineups for the three top shows for the Hayabusa gimmick before he would be force to take off the mask and become Eiji Ezaki.
The Darkside of Hayabusa gimmick would retire on August 20, 1999 at Korakuen Hall teaming with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu Oya to face Koji Nakagawa, Yukihiro Kanemura, and Hido after Hayabusa would spit mist in Hido's face and then pin him with the 450 Fire Bird Splash. Kodo Fuyuki would assign himself as a referee for the show by referring the Shoichi Arai vs. Ricky Fuji match. The show would have a Halloween theme to it, and Shoichi Arai would dress up as zombie for his match with a mask. Ricky Fuji would force Arai to prove it was actually Arai by getting on the microphone and talking. But during the match, Arai would switch with a masked Gedo to do a number on Ricky before a newcomer by the name of The Giant Steele would enter the ring and choke slam Ricky and allow Arai to get the victory over Ricky.
Kodo Fuyuki would then referee Mr. Gannosuke defending the FMW Independent Title against Masato Tanaka, with Fuyuki attempting to catch Tanaka with the smallest mistake and disqualify him for it, and fire him as a result. Tanaka would manage to escape the Gannosuke Clutch and the fast counts by Fuyuki until when charging at Gannosuke, Gannosuke would move out of the way and Tanaka would end up smashing Fuyuki, and then Tanaka would attempt a Rolling Elbow, but Gannosuke would again move out of the way and Tanaka would nail Fuyuki knocking Fuyuki out. A new referee would come in as Tanaka would manage to finish of Gannosuke with the Diamond Dust for the FMW Independent Title. Tanaka and Ricky Fuji would team up on August 23, 1999 at Korakuen Hall against Kodo Fuyuki and Shoichi Arai, with Kaoruko Arai helping out her uncle by handcuffing Tanaka to the turnbuckle and place the key in her cleavage. Tanaka seeing the key between her breasts would have too much respect to grab it, but Sean Wakana would rush to the ring and grab the key instead and unlock Tanaka to help Ricky Fuji from being double teamed. Tanaka would take care of Fuyuki as Ricky Fuji would deliver a Kamikaze to Shoichi Arai and get his revenge over Arai. Hayabusa would finish the good day for FMW by winning back the FMW Brass Knuckles Title against Yukihiro Kanemura for the win in Hayabusa's last match under the gimmick at Korakuen Hall.
A ceremony for Hayabusa would be held with all the fans in the arena handing flowers to Hayabusa to say their goodbye to the gimmick. Kodo Fuyuki would even come to the ring and personally hand Hayabusa flowers and shake his hand. The FMW team would treat Hayabusa by throwing him up in the airs three times before dropping him on the mat to all smiles. Hayabusa would have one last match under the mask against Mr. Gannosuke.
FMW would run the very last professional wrestling show at the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center, a building that had ran wrestling shows for over 50 years, with Hayabusa's last match under the mask as the main event. The show would draw 4,900 which would be considered a success for the current FMW. Masato Tanaka would wrestle Yukihiro Kanemura in the final FMW Independent Title match, the same two wrestlers that had fought to become the first champion would be fighting to become the last. Kanemura would brawl with Tanaka to the upper deck of the arena before body slamming Tanaka from the upper deck to the table down to the floor. Tanaka would manage to retain the title and become the last FMW Independent Heavyweight Champion. Hayabusa would face off in the last ever FMW Brass Knuckles Championship, a title that had been FMW's main title since 1993 would be defended for the last time. Hayabusa would deliver every special Hayabusa move, including bringing back the Shooting Star Press that he stopped doing, but would end up taking one of the most incredible bumps after Gannosuke would deliver a reverse Thunder Fire off the middle turnbuckle causing Hayabusa to land directly on his head. Hayabusa would manage to get up, and finally finish off Gannosuke with his personal favorite move, the Falcon Arrow to score the victory over Gannosuke and retain the FMW Brass Knuckles Title. Afterwards, a 10 bell salute would take place for the memory of the Hayabusa gimmick as Kodo Fuyuki would come out once again to shake Hayabusa's hand and present him flowers, but instead Fuyuki would take the opportunity to sucker kick Hayabusa and then begin smashing the flowers over Hayabusa as Team No Respect and Team FMW would rush in the ring to try and stop Fuyuki. Gannosuke would begin helping Fuyuki as they would tear off Hayabusa's mask and pants and then put a dog collar over him as Sena Wakana would rush to cover Hayabusa's body as Fuyuki and Gannosuke had set out what they wanted to, and embarrass Hayabusa on a big stage. Even Shoichi Arai would be against at what Fuyuki was doing, and try to stop him before getting shoved out of the way by Fuyuki. A mask less Eiji Ezaki would stand their furious, and as a result, Ezaki would not return to the ring by his real name, he would go by the name H instead.
Eiji Ezaki as H would dye his long hair blue and would wear a different attire including shorts and make his first appearance on August 27, 1999 in Ashikawa in a 10 man single elimination match. H would eliminate every Team No Respect member with his new finisher, the H Edge, all except Gannosuke. H would come off the top rope and deliver a drop kick to Gannosuke's bad knee, and apparently would cause Gannosuke to re-injure it. Gannosuke would be taken to a hospital and it seems like the same injury to Gannosuke's knee had taken place. But instead, Gannosuke would return with a brand new mask and attack H on September 3, 1999 and reveal that he was Hayabusa. Gannosuke and Team No Respect would also attempt to drag the Hayabusa name in the mud by using Fuyuki's porn connections to make a porno video with Hayabusa and porno actor Chocoball Mukai with Hayabusa fingering the girls, and Mukai having sex with them to disrespect the Hayabusa name and legacy.
Gannosuke would not be the only Team No Respect to change his name in the month as Yukihiro Kanemura would change his name to Kintaro Kanemura, as Kodo Fuyuki would present Kanemura a newly created WEW Hardcore Title. Kodo Fuyuki would reward himself the WEW World Title as the FMW Brass Knuckles and Independent Titles would be auctioned off. FMW would also begin working with ECW again, allowing Masato Tanaka to begin working in ECW once again as they ECW had also signed The Gladiator who had been injured the past year and decided to begin working with All Japan before then signing with ECW. The Gladiator and Masato Tanaka would both defeat ECW Champion Taz on September 19, 1999 before The Gladiator would finish off Masato Tanaka with a Kamikaze Awesome Bomb for the ECW title. The alliance between FMW and ECW would allow FMW to get some ECW wrestlers to work the undercard of the upcoming FMW Yokohama Arena show.
Team No Respect would treat Shoichi Arai's plead to stop attacking Hayabusa as a stab in the back, and as a result they would attack Arai and bound and gag him and bring him in the ring then proceed to urinate on Arai to show that he was no longer one of them, although they would not use real urine and no one would actually pull their pants to perform the task. Shoichi Arai would begin crying to the showers, feeling that he had made a huge mistake, and now was by himself as a result. Kodo Fuyuki would go to desperate levels to try and get Masato Tanaka fired by making a handicap match against Tanaka with Kanemura and Jado as his partners on September 24, 1999 at Korakuen Hall, but Arai would come back to the ring and being spraying black spray in Fuyuki's face to a huge reaction blinding Fuyuki and distracting Kanemura enough to allow Tanaka to deliver a Rolling Elbow and score the victory over Kanemura to keep his job in FMW. H would team up with Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Yoshinori Sasaki, and Flying Kid Ichihara to face Hayabusa, Koji Nakagawa, Gedo, and mystery partner porno actor Chocoball Mukai. Although Mukai's alliance with Team No Respect would not last long after becoming furious at Hayabusa for putting a dog collar over Sena Wakana, and about ready to deliver a super powerbomb to her. Hayabusa would stand for Mukai's crap and would punk the porno actor out, but the match would eventually turn in H's favor as H would deliver an H Edge and score the pinfall victory over Gedo for the win. H would then grab the mic and the mic and issue a challenge to Hayabusa that since he wants to drag the Hayabusa name, why not have a death match from their past, an Anus Explosion Death Match. Hayabusa stunned from the suggestion would take liberty in accepting the match.
Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda had trained in the FMW Dojo, and when they graduated Atsushi Onita would come up with the idea of putting firecrackers around their butts and setting them off in celebration of the two graduating from the Dojo, as well as to get media attention. H would face Hayabusa in a Anus Explosion match on October 29, 1999 at Korakuen Hall, with the loser getting it done, but Hayabusa would make quick work of the match by right away tying H's arms to the turnbuckle and sticking the firecracker around H's rectum before setting it off. Hayabusa would walk off not winning the match, but victorious in humiliating H once again. Masato Tanaka and Kodo Fuyuki would sign a contract for the a Thunderbolt Cage Death Match at the Yokohama Arena on November 23, 1999 with the loser leaving FMW. The contract would end the rule where if Tanaka were to lose, he would be fired, but Tanaka would end up getting pinned by Fuyuki in the main event.
FMW would return to the Yokohama Arena on November 23, 1999 to draw a successful 11,000 fans to the show, although they would spend a budget of around $500,000 for the show to bring in the ECW wrestlers Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Balls Mahoney, Jazz as well as other wrestlers Willie Williams, Dory Funk, Jr., Terry Funk for his last ever FMW match, and Shawn Michaels to referee the main event, as well to create the Thunderbolt Cage.
Kodo Fuyuki would defend the WEW World Title for the first time against Masato Tanaka in a style of death match, with both wrestlers being sent into the cage and volts going off, although not looking as impressive as the explosions of barbed wire that FMW fans were use to. Fuyuki would take off all the ropes in the ring and begin choking Tanaka with them, but Tanaka would manage to fight back and finally knock out Fuyuki with a Rolling Elbow and then scoring the pinfall victory over Fuyuki to finally defeat Kodo Fuyuki and ridden him of FMW for the WEW World Title. Fuyuki would be stretcher off, and then dumped into a garbage truck with Masato Tanaka and the WEW World Title in hand driving off with Fuyuki going out with the trash.
Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda would then face off once against at the Yokohama Arena, this time as H and Hayabusa with Shawn Michaels as the Special Referee for the match. Hayabusa would lowblow Michaels immediately, and continue to annoy Michaels with sucker kicks to Michaels throughout the match until Shawn Michaels would have enough and Superkick Hayabusa and then attempt to take the mask of Hayabusa with H stopping him knowing full well of the embarrassment being stripped off. Instead, Gannosuke would strip off the mask and wrestle the rest of the match as Mr. Gannosuke. H would bring out all the old Hayabusa moves including the 450 Fire Bird Splash, the Falcon Arrow, and then finish Gannosuke off with the Phoenix Splash to show the significance of the show. Shawn Michaels would ask both to shake hands before leaving, but that shake would end up in resulting Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda letting all their differences go, and trying to put the past behind them and the two best friends would begin hugging in the ring, finally after nearly three years of feuding becoming friends once again.
H and Mr. Gannosuke would start off getting a WEW Tag Team Title shot and would take advantage of it by defeating the WEW Tag Team Champions Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hisakatsu on December 1, 1999 after H would pin Kuroda with the H Edge. Masato Tanaka, upset over how Ezaki had just taken back Gannosuke after three years of Gannosuke trying his best to take over FMW and humiliate Eiji, and then them getting a tag title shot right away after just teaming would not sit right with Tanaka and he would show his frustrations by walking out after where he would be booked to team with them.
ECW would send talent Super Crazy, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Axl Rotten, and Balls Mahoney for the December shows for the third straight year, but this time it would leave a lasting effect on FMW. H and Mr. Gannosuke would defeat Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on December 12, 1999 at Korakuen Hall, after H would debut his new finisher H Thunder, and Tanaka would let out his frustrations of the FMW team and accepting Gannosuke just like that, and announce that he no longer wanted to be associated with FMW anymore, and instead wanted to be with ECW and would align himself afterwards. Masato Tanaka would leave to return to America and tour with ECW where he would defeat The Gladiator on December 17, 1999 in Nashville to become the ECW World Champion as well as the WEW World Champion, but he would lose it back to The Gladiator on December 23, 1999 in White Plains, New York. Tanaka would then lose the WEW World Title on January 5, 2000 to former friend and partner Tetsuhiro Kuroda after Kuroda would nail Tanaka with a lariat for the victory in a incredible match with Tanaka returning to ECW for the next two months. Kodo Fuyuki would also make his presence known on January 5th by returning to the promotion with Kyoko Inoue, Balls Mahoney, and Pitbull # 1 as ECW Japan as he would announce that he had signed a contract with Paul Heyman and was not a FMW wrestler, but would attempt to once again crush FMW and score the pinfall victory over H, Gannosuke, Oya, and Ricky Fuji after Fuyuki would deliver a Charging Lariat to Ricky Fuji for the win. Kodo Fuyuki and Kyoko Inoue would then win the WEW Tag Team Titles on February 25, 2000 after Chocoball Mukai would interfere and join ECW Japan to keep the hot streak of ECW Japan, but after Fuyuki would challenge Tetsuhiro Kuroda to a no contest with FMW and ECW Japan running in the ring on March 27, 2000 to a huge brawl, Masato Tanaka would come back to FMW and knock out Fuyuki with a punch. H feeling that Tanaka had finally came to his senses, but when H would put his hand out for Tanaka to shake it, Tanaka would slap it away and announce that he hated Fuyuki more than anyone, but that he was pissed at H and FMW as well, and believed in ECW, and was taking over as leader of ECW Japan.
Kodo Fuyuki would be similar in Atsushi Onita in a lot of ways despite their complete opposite feeling on how FMW should have been ran, both craved the attention from the media and would come up with extremely unique ideas for the media to cover. Kodo Fuyuki would bring back Gosaku Goshogawara who had been let go by FMW the previous year and announce that he traveled to Thailand and had gotten a sex change. Goshogawara would return to FMW under his real name as Azusa Kudo. Azusa Kudo would debut on February 25, 2000 at Korakuen Hall against Kaori Nakayama, Emi Motokawa, and Neo Ladies Yuka Nakamura and manage to defeat them in the handicap match. But Emi Motokawa would eventually turn on Nakayama to join with Kudo, followed by Yuka Nakamura. Kaori Nakayama would end up aligning herself with Kyoko Inoue and Chocoball Mukai who had recently been kicked out of ECW Japan with Fuyuki.
Kodo Fuyuki would announce on April 1, 2000 that if ECW Japan were to lose to Team FMW in a series of matches, then he would announce his retirement from professional wrestling. H would end up defeating Kodo Fuyuki on April 4, 2000 in Sapporo for the Team FMW victory, and afterwards Masato Tanaka would show his appreciation to Fuyuki for being the last one eliminated by attacking Fuyuki and kicking him out of ECW Japan. Kodo Fuyuki would announce his retirement after the upcoming May 5, 2000 Komazawa Olympic Indoor Gym to allow him the opportunity to win back his WEW World Title against Tetsuhiro Kuroda before retiring.
FMW would announce the lineup for FMW's May 5th Komazawa Indoor Gym, which shared the same building as the Komazawa Olympic Gym, but was on the other side of the building and only held 4,200 compared to the near 8000 the Olympic Gym held. The main event would be announced as Kodo Fuyuki's retirement match challenging for the WEW World Title against Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and H & Mr. Gannosuke against ECW Japan's Masato Tanaka and the return to FMW of The Gladiator. Those plans would be nixed after The Gladiator would leave ECW to join WCW, leaving him unable to be booked for the show. FMW would change the card, but first would deliver a huge surprise.
H & Mr. Gannosuke would team up on April 11, 2000 at Korakuen Hall against Masato Tanaka and Balls Mahoney at Korakuen Hall, but H would be attacked by Balls Mahoney and be nailed with a Nutcracker Suite and laid out by the move. H would be unconscious and carried out of the ring by Yoshinori Sasaki. Kodo Fuyuki would eventually come in and help out Mr. Gannosuke during the match, but then the crowd would let out of the loudest ovations in months as Hayabusa would return to the ring and deliver a flying head scissors kick to Mahoney. Hayabusa would deliver several of his trademark spots including the Asai Moonsault, but would eventually get knocked extremely hard by a Masato Tanaka and stumble towards the turnbuckle where Tanaka would finish off Hayabusa with a Diamond Dust to score the victory. Eiji would take off the mask as a one time deal to make the fans happy, but due to the crowd response from Hayabusa returning, the lineup for the FMW May 5th show would be changed to Hayabusa against Masato Tanaka in the main event, and Kodo Fuyuki's retirement match for the WEW World Title against Tetsuhiro Kuroda as the semi-main event. Mr. Gannosuke would be booked against Sabu who had recently quit ECW and was allowed to take his own bookings.
H & Mr. Gannosuke would begin to have problems on April 25, 2000 after Masato Tanaka would defeat a bloody Mr. Gannosuke in their singles match, H who would change his name to Super Star H for matches would tell Tanaka that everyone would find out who the true Super Star is after May 5th, but Gannosuke would get up and smack H for his comments. Gannosuke would get on the mic and ask H what he was to him. If Gannosuke was just a foil to make H look better, H would ask Gannosuke to stick with him, and that everything would turn out right after May 5th. FMW would also create brand new WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles and a new tag team in FMW would be born after Hideki Hosaka and Yoshinori Sasaki would win the titles and be scheduled to face ECW's Balls Mahoney an New Jack for the title defense.
FMW would run their annual May 5th show on May 5, 2000 at the Komazawa Olympic Indoor Gym, and manage to draw a sell out of 4,200 fans for the show. ECW wrestlers would all end up no show after Balls Mahoney would tell ECW that FMW had stiffed him money throughout his time there, and was sick of going to Japan. FMW would end up replacing Mahoney and New Jack by bringing back the former Armageddon, now called The Samoans to challenge Hideki Hosaka and Yoshinori Sasaki in a match that would go all over the building before Yoshinori Sasaki would score the biggest victory of his career at the time by defeating Samu who would go on to become Rosey in WWE with a choke slam. Mr. Gannosuke would face off against Sabu, although the match would not last longer as Sabu would throw fire at Mr. Gannosuke's face and force Gannosuke to retreat outside of the ring. As Gannosuke would lay outside the ring, he would grab kerosene and as Sabu would go over to see what Gannosuke was doing, Gannosuke would blow a huge fireball at Sabu's face causing the referee to stop match and call it a no contest between the two. Kodo Fuyuki would then announce to the crowd that his announcement of his retirement had been done on April 1st and that it was all an April Fools Joke, and that he would never retired. Kodo Fuyuki would then go on to defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a match where a diaper would be put over both men's head, and a fire extinguisher would be used with Fuyuki getting the victory over Kuroda and once again becoming the WEW World Champion. Kodo Fuyuki afterwards would announce a challenge towards Genichiro Tenryu for a future match between the two partners and rivals.
Hayabusa would face off against Masato Tanaka in the main event that would be built as FMW vs. ECW, and Tanaka would turn it into an ECW style match by delivering an Awesome Bomb, a Running Awesome Bomb over the top rope to send Hayabusa through a table, and then powerbombing Hayabusa through a table. Hayabusa would deliver his signature spots of a 450 Fire Bird Splash, a Phoenix Splash, but then finish Tanaka with H's finisher the H Thunder to score the victory over Masato Tanaka officially ending ECW Japan at exactly 4 months. Kintaro Kanemura, Jado, and Gedo would help Tanaka to the back to tease an alliance between the four with Hayabusa pulling off his mask and ending the show announcing his plan to go after Kodo Fuyuki's WEW World Title.
Masato Tanaka would end up walking out of FMW shortly afterwards, extremely upset at Shoichi Arai who he had never gotten along with, and would end up taking a hiatus away from FMW. Hayabusa and the rest of the FMW wrestlers would travel to California for the first time in eight years to put on a show at the E3 Convention where the announcement of the upcoming Tokyo Pop FMW DVD's would be coming out in America, as well Hayabusa would film for an American movie called Backyard Dogs where he would play himself in the movie. Shoichi Arai would also make the announcement that FMW would soon no longer be airing on DirecTV starting in July as DirecTV after never catching on in Japan would be bought out by SkyPerfecTV, the top Pay Per View network in Japan that had carried many other wrestling shows on the network.
FMW would return back to Korakuen Hall on May 28, 2000 when Koji Nakagawa would reveal why he was Mr. Double Cross by turning on his WEW 6 Tag Team Champion partners Jado and Gedo after delivering a belt shot to Gedo in the face and allowing Kodo Fuyuki to score the victory over Gedo for Kodo Fuyuki, Kyoko Inoue, and Chocoball Mukai to become the new WEW 6 Man Tag Champions. Koji Nakagawa would leave Team No Respect after almost two years. H would face off against Mr. Gannosuke who would recently have knee surgery and carry a leg cast and crutches to the match and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a Three Way Dance to determine the number 1 contender for Fuyuki's WEW World Title. Fuyuki would at least not be biased towards either H or Kuroda during the match as he would attempt fast counts for every time each other would pin another as Gannosuke would stay away from most of the action until H would finally eliminate Kuroda with a hurricanrana. Gannosuke would grab his crutch and smash it over H and with the help of Fuyuki jumping on top of Gannosuke over H, Fuyuki would count the victory for Mr. Gannosuke. H would become shocked at Mr. Gannosuke apparently siding with Kodo Fuyuki as Gannosuke would state that he was sick of trusting "Super Star" H and just being used and would go back with Kodo Fuyuki who appreciated him. Koji Nakagawa would arrive in the ring as a new persona as well, and would come out as GOEMON, the Japanese thief who could not be trusted. Shoichi Arai would also side with Kodo Fuyuki once again, as well as Kyoko Inoue, Chocoball Mukai, Yoshinori Sasaki, and Hideki Hosaka and would be called Shin Fuyuki-gun in a group designed after Team No Respect of a year before. Hido would also announce during the show that he was leaving FMW for a year to find himself, and his hardcore roots by wrestling in the hardcore independent promotions while in America. Hido would never end up returning to FMW, but would end up finding himself as a hardcore wrestler when he would come back.
Shin Fuyuki-gun would mark their first mark in FMW by attacking Ricky Fuji before a show on May 30, 2000 at the autograph desk and grabbing him and taking him off in a van where he would be tied and be only given a small amount of food and water to live on. Kodo Fuyuki would announce the plan to blow Ricky Fuji on June 16, 2000 after his team of himself and GOEMON would defeat H and his partner. H would announce his partner as Hayabusa for the match. Due to Mr. Gannosuke's injury, he would be assigned to take Ricky Fuji into the woods and blow him up using dynamite after Shin Fuyuki-gun would win. Kintaro Kanemura, feeling that Shin Fuyuki-gun was more for him, and had all the members of Team No Respect of a year earlier, and were doing things that fit him would announce after 2 1/2 years, Team No Respect was finally ending. Jado and Gedo would become a tag team by themselves, but would quickly find Kaori Nakayama to become their valet. H would come out as the Darkside of H to face Kodo Fuyuki and GOEMON, but H who would be working with an ankle injury would not handle being without a partner very well would be attacked and bloodied the entire match until Hayabusa's music would play and Genichiro Tenryu in Hayabusa's costume would come out and powerbomb Fuyuki and allow H to deliver the 450 Fire Bird Splash and score the victory. But after the match, a huge explosion would be seen where Ricky Fuji was, leading the fans to believe that Ricky Fuji had been exploded. It would turn out that Gannosuke and Ricky Fuji were away from the scene when the dynamite went off, and Ricky would return back to FMW days later. Video of Mr. Gannosuke with a kidnapped Ricky Fuji threatening to blow him up.
The plan match between Genichiro Tenryu and Kodo Fuyuki would be pulled off after Mitsuharu Misawa would announce that he was leaving All Japan and forming his own promotion, NOAH. Misawa would take almost the entire roster with him, and as a favor to Motoko Baba with barely any wrestlers left, Tenryu would sign a contract to help on the roster. Kodo Fuyuki would use his friendship with Misawa to start a relationship between FMW and NOAH with the NOAH guys challenging for the WEW Tag Team Titles.
A decision would finally be made by FMW to finally return H to Hayabusa full time. Although the H gimmick had remained over, it was only simply because the fans would always love and cheer Eiji Ezaki after the respect he had earned by putting his body on the line for them at every show for the past five years. The H gimmick allowed Eiji to work more of a mat base style, and become a better overall wrestler, but the fans just enjoyed watching Hayabusa more than H, and the number feeling was that you had to do what the fans wanted more than what you wanted, and Eiji Ezaki would return to Hayabusa full time. Hayabusa would come back full time on July 23, 2000 at the newly built Tokyo Differ Ariake, where he would get a shot at the WEW World Title, but he would have to defeat all of Shin Fuyuki-gun first. Hayabusa would manage to defeat all of Shin Fuyuki-gun one by one, before finally meeting Fuyuki for the title. As Hayabusa would climb the top rope to deliver a Fire Bird Splash, Jinsei Shinzaki would return to FMW, but turn on Hayabusa by delivering a Praying Powerbomb to him to allow Fuyuki to deliver a Charging Lariat to retain the WEW World Title. Fuyuki would announce that Shinzaki was with him, and that Fuyuki, Shinzaki, and Gannosuke would team up to face Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya, and a Mystery Partner.
DirecTV in Japan would officially end in July 2000, and SkyPerfecTV would take over the FMW Pay Per Views. Although the one upside of it was that the Pay Per Views could possibly be seen by more fans, as well as FMW would get to return to airing shows on Samurai TV, it would turn out to be a huge blow to the company. SkyPerfecTV would not pay FMW near the amount of 3 million dollars that FMW had got from DirecTV for being its lead show. Also, SkyPerfecTV would hardly focus on FMW as they would carry much bigger promotions on the network, and would not really put any focus or attention towards FMW during ads.
Ricky Fuji would also end up making a huge mistake once again, as he would end up going to a bar with Flying Kid Ichihara and Kaoruko Arai and getting extremely drunk, and would end up being set up by Ichihara and Arai as Mr. Gannosuke would come in the bar and kidnap Ricky Fuji once again. This time Ichihara and Arai would be assigned to watch over the kidnapped Ricky Fuji in Mount Fuji, a mountain that was known for people getting lost in and going crazy and committing suicide as a result.
FMW would have their first show on SkyPerfecTV on July 28, 2000 at Korakuen Hall, with the NOAH wrestlers Masao Inoue & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeating Jado & Gedo for the WEW Tag Team Titles, taking the titles to a promotion that had not even started showing right away who had all the power in the relationship between FMW and NOAH. Tetsuhiro Kuroda would defeat Kyoko Inoue in a Cooking Death Match, with famous Yokohama chefs attempting to help Inoue defeat Kuroda by using food that they made as weapons including stuffing food in Kuroda's trunks, but it would not be enough for Kuroda who would end up defeating Kyoko Inoue with a lariat in the unique death match.
Hayabusa and Hisakatsu Oya would announce the returning Masato Tanaka who would patch his differences for the time being with Shoichi Arai to face Kodo Fuyuki, Mr. Gannosuke, and Jinsei Shinzaki. Gannosuke and Shinzaki would work as a team, hitting the moves that Hayabusa and Shinzaki had used, and that Gannosuke had used to mock Shinzaki. But just as it seemed like Shinzaki and Gannosuke were no longer enemies, Shinzaki would turn on Gannosuke and deliver a flying kick to the head for Gannosuke as Hayabusa and Shinzaki were back as a team. Shinzaki would deliver a Praying Powerbomb to his long time rival and Hayabusa would finish off Gannosuke with the 450 Fire Bird Splash for the victory for Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, and Hisakatsu Oya, as well as Jinsei Shinzaki. Trouble with Ricky Fuji would happen again as Ichihara would leave Kaoruko Arai in charge of Ricky Fuji for the time being, and as a result Ricky Fuji would escape and end up becoming lost in the gigantic Mount Fuji.
Although Masato Tanaka was back in FMW, the relationship between him and Arai had actually gotten worse with Tanaka leaving, and Tanaka's push that he had been getting since returning to FMW in 1999 after working in ECW would slowly be on the decline. Kodo Fuyuki would get his singles victory win back from the Yokohama Arena match at the Differ Ariake on August 20, 2000 after Shinjuku Shark, a former SPWF wrestler would set his glove on fire and then hit Tanaka with it, stunning Tanaka and allowing Fuyuki to deliver a Charging Lariat to Tanaka and retain his WEW World Title. Hayabusa, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Hisakatsu Oya would team up in the main event to face Mr. Gannosuke, Kintaro Kanemura, and GOEMON in a match where the losing team would get pelted with pies in the face afterwards. GOEMON would end up pinning Kuroda with the Gannosuke Clutch and scoring the victory for Shin Fuyuki-gun. Gannosuke, Kanemura, and GOEMON would get to throw pies in the face of Hayabusa, Kuroda, and Oya and then allow the audience to throw the pies in their face. A brawl would ensue between FMW and Shin Fuyuki-gun with pies all over the ring causing all the wrestlers from each group to charge the ring including Fuyuki who would end up slipping on his way to the ring due to all the pie cream everywhere. Finally, with all the wrestlers fighting in the ring, Ricky Fuji's Sexy Storm would begin to play with Ricky Fuji and Onryo coming out. Ricky Fuji with clothes all shredded up and dirty would announce that with the help of Onryo, a ghost from someone that had died in Mount Fuji and was still living in the Mountain would help Ricky Fuji escape the incredibly large Mountain and helped him back to Tokyo.
Jinsei Shinzaki would be booked in a match with Masato Tanaka booked against Kintaro Kanemura and GOEMON on August 28, 2000 at Korakuen Hall, but Shinzaki would be booked to not be able to make the match in time due to traffic in Tokyo. Onryo would end up making his FMW debut, facing off against GOEMON with the rivalry between the two just getting started as Kanemura would end pinning Onryo in his debut. Hayabusa would end up facing Mr. Gannosuke in their final singles match against each other in the main event, with Hayabusa fighting for another chance at getting a shot for Fuyuki's WEW World Title. Jinsei Shinzaki would finally arrive before the match, rushing to the ring, but would end up getting triple teamed by Gannosuke, Kanemura, and GOEMON with Hayabusa having to make the save for Shinzaki to start the match. Shinzaki would be taken to the back, with Hayabusa having to deal with Kanemura and GOEMON's interference throughout the whole match. Although it would not be their best match, it would be the most fun as Hayabusa would have to deal with the constant interference of Kanemura and GOEMON until Shinzaki would finally be able to help his friend and help take out Kanemura and GOEMON in the match before delivering their double team maneuvers to Gannosuke for what would turn out to be the last time. Hayabusa would end up finishing off Gannosuke with an H Thunder on Gannosuke to score the victory and to earn a shot at Fuyuki's WEW World Title. Kodo Fuyuki on the other hand, with his constant influence on making FMW into Entertainment Pro Wrestling by wrestling British Pop singer Captain Jack in a WEW World Title match. Captain Jack would perform his song before the match, but was not a train wrestler, and even though his backup dancers would get involved in the match, Fuyuki would easily get the victory to retain over the non wrestler as Fuyuki would let Captain Jack wear the title for coming out and fighting him as they would leave to "in the Navy".
After the lost to Hayabusa, Mr. Gannosuke would begin to become more bitter towards everything surrounding him in FMW. Gannosuke would win the WEW 6 Man Tag Team Titles with Kodo Fuyuki and Shinjuku Shark, but just two days later would lose them on September 17, 2000 at Differ Ariake to Jado, Gedo, and Kaori Nakayama after Jado would smack a Singapore cane against Fuyuki's back allowing Kaori Nakayama to roll up Fuyuki for the victory. Mr. Gannosuke would go irate at Fuyuki for losing the titles by getting pinned by a girl. Mr. Gannosuke's bitterness would continue on September 21, 2000 at the Sapporo Green Dome.
A year after the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center had been torn down, a building which had held two shows every year for FMW, FMW would finally start booking in a similar big building in Sapporo in the Sapporo Green Dome, which could hold up to 6,200, just 300 less than the Nakajima Sports Center could. Gannosuke's frustration would continue with Shin Fuyuki-gun and FMW after his team of GOEMON and Shinjuku Shark would lose to Masato Tanaka, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Onryo after Tanaka would pin Shark. Gannosuke would begin screaming and berating his partners, as it seemed like something was going to give with Mr. Gannosuke.
Hayabusa would face off against Kodo Fuyuki in a 15,000 volt Thunderbolt Cage Death Match, in the main event, although it would not be for the WEW World Title as that would be scheduled for the next Korakuen Hall show. More volts would be added to the explosions, making them look much more impressive over the Yokohama Arena cage. Kodo Fuyuki would attempt to escape the match by throwing his jacket into the ring, causing a huge explosion and shocking everyone and allowing him to deliver a Charging Lariat at Hayabusa and attempt to score the victory just seconds into the match. Hayabusa would kick out, and although would end up being just launched into the cage for the bolts to go off, and the noise going off like it were an Earthquake, it would be Kodo Fuyuki to react towards towards the explosions into the cage more after being sent into it, he would be finished and Hayabusa would easily get the victory after a Fire Bird Splash on Fuyuki. Fuyuki would be stretcher off and taken to a Sapporo hospital to sell the explosions for the match. The problem with Fuyuki's health was that he was signed up to defend the WEW World Title in a 60 minute Iron Man match at Korakuen Hall.
Kodo Fuyuki who had once been an incredible wrestler with Toshiaki Kawada would end up gaining weight and becoming much more lazy in the ring, and would end up be cast as a horrible wrestler as a result. As Kodo Fuyuki would push himself as one of the top guys in FMW, he was force to not make a bad example and would return to training incredibly hard for his matches. Kodo Fuyuki wanting to prove everyone that he was a great worker, and could wrestle 60 minutes would come up with the idea and put himself with Hayabusa to make the match as easy as possible for him. Although Hayabusa had only wrestled 30 minute singles match before, it would be much more easier to have a 60 minute match with Hayabusa than anyone else in the company with how much everyone loved Hayabusa. Hayabusa would also be up for the idea of testing his conditioning and seeing if they both could work a 60 minute match at Korakuen Hall, and knowing that it would be the only opportunity to have the match, as his elbows were beginning to bother him due to all the highflying through out the years.
Mr. Gannosuke would eventually erupt on September 26, 2000 at Korakuen Hall, teaming with GOEMON to face Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Onryo. Tetsuhiro Kuroda who brought in a Japanese Baseball star to accompany him to the ring would be attacked by Gannosuke with a baseball bat backstage to injure Kuroda's shoulder. Kuroda would end up having to go in the ring with a taped up shoulder would be easy pickings for Gannosuke who would begin attacking Kuroda's shoulder and forcing Kuroda to tap out. Gannosuke would shove GOEMON out of the way, and grab the mic and call out Shoichi Arai. Gannosuke would admit to be upset at Kuroda for bringing a Japanese Baseball star to him in the ring. Gannosuke would tell Arai that he was also sick of a lot of things going on in FMW recently that were not what the FMW that he came up in was about. Pop singers challenging for the world title, chefs interfering in matches, and now Baseball players interfering in the matches. Gannosuke was sick of the Entertainment style that FMW was now about. Arai would reply telling Gannosuke that the Entertainment style is what sold tickets, and was what kept FMW going, so he would no longer hear to Gannosuke's complaints. Gannosuke as a result would clothesline Shoichi Arai and storm out. Shoichi Arai would announce as a result at what just happened, he was firing Mr. Gannosuke from FMW. It would turn out to be a storyline reason to allow Mr. Gannosuke to rest his body.
Hayabusa would then challenge Kodo Fuyuki for the WEW World Title in the main event in a 60 minute Iron Man match. The match would start out slow, both trying to save their strength, but as Kodo Fuyuki would exit the ring looking for a break, Hayabusa would dive over the top rope and land on Fuyuki to the outside. Fuyuki's power would end up being too much for Hayabusa and would eventually score the pinfall over Hayabusa with a Charging Lariat to gain the lead in the match. Fuyuki would follow right away by making another pinfall attempt, but Hayabusa would manage to kick out after a second pinfall attempt. But Hayabusa would still not be fully recovered after the first pinfall lost as just a little over thirty seconds later, Fuyuki would deliver another Charging Lariat at Hayabusa and score another pinfall victory over Hayabusa to gain a 2-0 edge. Kodo Fuyuki would have a distinct lead going into the half way point as Kodo Fuyuki would then tear off Hayabusa's mask, which would allow Eiji a better opportunity to breathe, but it would also be easier to bust him open after smashing a piece of a table across his face. Hayabusa would manage to make a come back on Fuyuki, and would deliver a picture perfect H Thunder to Fuyuki to get back in the match and only be down 2-1. Fuyuki and Hayabusa would then begin brawling outside of the ring, and would brawling around the ringside, but with both men gasping for breath, it would be hard to make it look effective. Fuyuki would deliver a chair shot to the head of Hayabusa to bust him open and then deliver a Charging Lariat outside of the ring. Fuyuki would enter in the ring, and Hayabusa would be unable to make it back in the ring for the count, and Kodo Fuyuki would be award another fall and take a 3-1 advantage with less than twenty minutes remaining. Another count would be started, but Hayabusa would barely make it back in the ring to stop the count. A fire would end up being burnt in Hayabusa as he would end up turning the match into a punching contest, with Hayabusa trying to deliver a shotei to Fuyuki. Fuyuki would catch Hayabusa's arm and attempt to supplex Hayabusa, but Hayabusa would manage to block the supplex and roll up Fuyuki for Fuyuki's own Samson Clutch on Fuyuki to make the match 3-2 Fuyuki. Hayabusa would then attempt to deliver his own screaming Charging Lariat to Fuyuki, but Fuyuki would manage to block it, but Hayabusa would spit red mist in Fuyuki's face and then deliver a 450 Fire Bird Splash to tie it up at 3-3. Both wrestlers extremely tired would look for the last bit of air in them, as it would turn into a desperation for the next fall, but it would never come as the 60 minutes would finally be up, and both wrestlers would lay in the ring exhausted from the match. Hayabusa and Kodo Fuyuki would shake hands due to the respect for another for the match, but Kodo Fuyuki would still be the WEW World Champion. Hayabusa would admit later that match was the toughest match he had ever worked in his career.
Hayabusa finally could no longer take the pain of his elbows day in and day out, a pain that was increasing everyday. Hayabusa would schedule himself for double reconstructive surgery on November 22, 2000, and work until FMW's November 12, 2000 Yokohama Bunka Gym show. Hayabusa would announce the surgery after teaming with Masato Tanaka to defeat Kodo Fuyuki and Kintaro Kanemura on October 10, 2000 after Hayabusa would pin Kanemura. Hayabusa would announce to the crowd that due to the years of the highflying moves and the way his arms hit the ring each and everything he performed a highflying moves, his elbows were in so much pain that he was going to have to take nearly six months off, but would return for FMW's May 5th show. Mr. Gannosuke would also reappear in FMW by attacking Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and the two would begin brawling outside of the arena into the streets. Gannosuke would not forget that Kuroda was behind the reason how he had gotten fired from FMW. Gannosuke would continue attacking Kuroda until Shoichi Arai would come up with the idea that he would reinstate Mr. Gannosuke for one match only, and if he were to defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda on November 12th, then he could return to FMW, but if he were to lose, he would have to retire from wrestling.
FMW would return to the Yokohama Bunka Gym on November 12, 2000 and due to poor advertising for the show, and really going out to try and sell the show as something especial, the show would end up drawing 2,500 to fill up about half the building. GOEMON would face off against Onryo, with Onryo's Belt of Curse being on the line. Unlike every other title, the Belt of Curse was rewarded to the loser of the match, as the belt would slowly begin to kill all those who held it. GOEMON would attempt to use the belt and smash it over Onryo's head during their match, but Onryo would manage to duck it, kick GOEMON out from under his knees, and pin GOEMON with the Onryo Clutch. GOEMON would be given the belt and try to toss it right back at Onryo, but GOEMON would be held down and handcuffed to the title. Already GOEMON would begin to suffer from the belt, as he would begin coughing a large amount of blood right away, and would begin to feel a slow death.
Mr. Gannosuke would put up his career against Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a rematch of Gannosuke's return to action two years ago in the same building. Kuroda would become much more dominant in the match, and bust Gannosuke completely open during the match. Although the bloody Gannosuke would fight back and deliver the Fire Thunder, and hook Kuroda up in the Gannosuke Clutch, it would be Kuroda to walk away the winner after debuting his new Technan Buster DDT to knock Gannosuke out and score the win. Kuroda would show his obnoxiousness by giving Gannosuke a 10 bell salute in memory of Gannosuke's career and quickly ringing the bell as fast as possible to disrespect Gannosuke who would begin crying and say goodbye to the FMW fans.
Hayabusa would get his third opportunity to win the WEW World Title against Kodo Fuyuki in another rematch of the November 20, 1998 Yokohama Bunka Gym show. The match would be built as must having a winner, as there would be no count outs during the match. Hayabusa would struggle to make it through the match, as his elbows would just be in incredible pain, and having to pick up Fuyuki through out the match for moves would not help them. Hayabusa would deliver the 450 Fire Bird Splash, and the Falcon Arrow to Fuyuki, but once again in Yokohama, it would be Fuyuki's Charging Lariats for him to able to score the victory over Hayabusa and retain the WEW World Title. Hayabusa and Fuyuki would shake afterwards out of respect, and as Hayabusa would give a farewell speech and tell the fans he will return on May 5th and ask the fans to keep supporting FMW while he is absent. Hayabusa would begin shaking hands with all the fans in the ring as Kuroda would come in the ring to shake Hayabusa's hand, but out of nowhere Kuroda would kick Hayabusa and then delivering his Technan Buster DDT to Hayabusa laying him out. Kuroda would grab the mic and announce that with Hayabusa out, he would become the ace of FMW.
GOEMON's slow death would continue on November 28, 2000 at Korakuen Hall, facing Onryo once again with the Belt of Curse on the line, and once again Onryo would manage to defeat the weaken GOEMON with a Onryo Clutch as GOEMON would continue to have to carry the belt with him, and would reveal that half his face was that of Onryo's dead face. Tetsuhiro Kuroda would be given the biggest push in FMW as the ace without Hayabusa around, but when teaming with Masato Tanaka to face Kodo Fuyuki and Kintaro Kanemura as well as Jado and Gedo, Kuroda would end up turning on Tanaka during the match and siding with Fuyuki and Kanemura. The match would then be turned into Fuyuki, Kanemura, and Kuroda vs. Tanaka, Jado, and Gedo with Kuroda becoming the newest member of Shin Fuyuki-gun. Kuroda would deliver the Technan Buster DDT on Tanaka, and score the victory over him. Tanaka, Jado, Gedo, and Nakayama would continue to team together after the match to get revenge on Shin Fuyuki-gun and would call themselves The Complete Players.
With FMW Pay Per Views down and the promotion losing money without Hayabusa and house shows doing incredibly bad without Hayabusa on the card, FMW would begin running two Pay Per View shows from Korakuen Hall a month, feeling that would be the best way to make a profit and make up for the lost money. GOEMON would once again face Onryo on December 10, 2000 at Korakuen Hall, and would be warned by doctors not to wrestle the match even when coming out. GOEMON feeling that the only way to survive would be to beat Onryo would go on with the match, but the internal bleeding that would begin happening would eventually end up killing GOEMON because of the cursed belt. The match would be stopped and GOEMON would be announced as dead. GOEMON would be put in a casket at Korakuen Hall, and on December 20, 2000, with Onryo teaming with a mystery partner facing Azusa Kudo and Naohiko Yamazaki, GOEMON would end up rising from the coffin and coming back from the dead to help Onryo to defeat Kudo and Yamazaki as a new tag team would be formed. GOEMON would suffer exactly what Onryo had gone through, and even though the storyline was more fiction than anything, it would revitalize Koji Nakagawa's career, and result in a very good team. The creation of a new tag team would come at the same time another tag team was about to split. Yoshinori Sasaki who would begin using the name Mammoth Sasaki from his Sumo days and Hideki Hosaka would be WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champions for almost the entire year off and on. The WEW Hardcore Tag Titles had replaced the WEW Tag Titles as the main tag titles in the promotion after NOAH would hold them for months. But differences between the two would occur when they would face off against rookies Tomokazu Morita, Yoshihito Sasaki, and Satoshi Makita in a handicap match. Mammoth trying to break in the rookies by punishing them with chair shots as well as his personalized Mammoth Home Run which consisted of placing a chair over the wrestlers head, and then smashing it with another chair to knock the wrestler out. Hosaka would have no part of the brutality towards the rookies and would walk away from the match as Mammoth would pinned out the knocked out Yoshihito Sasaki. Hideki Hosaka and Mammoth Sasaki would then be put in a match against each other, as well as Azusa Kudo in a Triple Threat Match. Hosaka would end up scoring the pinfall over Kudo, enraging Mammoth for getting the lost and not being pinned by his tag team partner.
FMW's main event for the show would be announced as the last ever Barbed wire Street Fight in the history of the promotion that was known for its barbed wire matches. Due to Fuyuki's feeling that barbwire was associated with Atsushi Onita, and the time that it took to place the barbwire in the ring making it incredibly hard for live Pay Per Views that FMW had to deal with. The barbwire for this match to make it a lot faster would be placed over the ropes, instead of replacing the ropes like the early FMW barbwire matches. Mr. Gannosuke would come back before the match and announce that he was no longer a pro wrestler and would by his real name Masashi Honda as he would do color commentary for the match. Hayabusa would also come back to watch the match and especially Kuroda after what he had done. Kuroda would end up pinning Jado with the Technan Buster DDT for the victory in the bloody match. Kuroda afterwards would spot Hayabusa by ringside and begin daring him to come in the ring and fight. Kuroda would begin calling Hayabusa a chicken pissing Hayabusa off and would tempt going in the ring to fight Kuroda before Honda would begin holding Hayabusa back knowing that Kuroda would go after Hayabusa's injured elbows. Hayabusa would flick off Kuroda before leaving as their feud would continue to built up for May 5th.
Kodo Fuyuki and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would end up finally ending NOAH's WEW Tag Title reign on December 23, 2000 at NOAH's Ariake Coliseum show as FMW would finally get their end of the bargain by allowing NOAH to hold the titles for almost five months with Fuyuki and Kuroda winning back the WEW Tag Titles at NOAH's biggest show ever for the promotion of the time with Fuyuki pinning Marufuji for the win. The FMW and NOAH relationship would end afterwards, and quickly would the WEW Tag Title reign of Fuyuki and Kuroda after Tetsuhiro Kuroda would turn on Fuyuki on January 7, 2001 at Korakuen Hall allowing Masato Tanaka and Gedo to win the WEW Tag Titles after Gedo would pin Fuyuki. Kuroda would quit Fuyuki's group and announce the creation of his new group "Team Kuroda" consisting of Azusa Kudo, Shinjuku Shark, and Naohiko Yamazaki. Kuroda would not be done embarrassing Fuyuki as he would tie Fuyuki up to the ropes and place Kyoko Inoue's bra on Fuyuki. Mammoth Sasaki and Hideki Hosaka would also try to work out their differences and conflicts towards each other and return to being friends. Mammoth would offer Hosaka one of his favorite toys from childhood to Hosaka as gesture. Also, GOEMON and Onryo would be seen walking together when the Belt of Curse would come flying at GOEMON. GOEMON would grab the belt and throw it in the trash as he was no longer curse, and did not want anything to do with the belt anymore. Mammoth Sasaki and Hideki Hosaka would end up losing the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles to GOEMON & Onryo after Mammoth Sasaki would end up accidentally hitting a Mammoth Home Run after GOEMON would end up placing a chair over Hosaka's head and Sasaki hitting the first sight of a chair thinking it was GOEMON to knock Hosaka out. GOEMON and Mammoth would continue brawling outside into the crowd until Hosaka help GOEMON out by delivering a powerbomb off the stage in the crowd to Sasaki and GOEMON would follow up with a Swanton Bomb off the stage on to the concrete floor to score the win for the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles. Hosaka would then pull out Sasaki's toy that he was given and begin smashing it to finally end the Mammoth Sasaki and Hideki Hosaka tag team.
FMW would then announce plans to return to Kawasaki Stadium for the first time in nearly 4 years. Although, it would not be the original Kawasaki Stadium that had held the classic FMW matches throughout the years as the historic Stadium would end up being destroyed in 2000. But, the space that the Kawasaki Stadium Parking Lot still remained, which would make area cheap enough for the struggling FMW promotion to rent out the space for the show. The open area would be able to hold a ring, as well as around 20,000 chairs for the show they had planned for.
After Mammoth and the Hosaka tag team would split, Mammoth would end up joining Team Kuroda while Hosaka would reunite with former tag team partner Hisakatsu Oya who he entered FMW with in 1993. Team Kuroda would also align themselves with Kyoko Inoue and would team up with her on February 6, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, but it would be announced that Kyoko Inoue scores the pinfall, then she and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would get married. Kuroda would team with Mammoth Sasaki and Kyoko Inoue in the match against Kodo Fuyuki, GOEMON, and Onryo in the main event, but as soon as it looked like Inoue was going to get the victory by delivering to Fuyuki her own personal lariat, Kuroda would quickly make the save against his partner and attack the incredibly upset Kyoko Inoue who really wanted to marry Inoue. Kyoko afterwards would be an easy finish for Kodo Fuyuki who would lariat his former tag team partner for the victory. Once again Hayabusa would come out to confront Tetsuhiro Kuroda, but this time he would come out with the Masked Sumo wrestler who was FMW ring announcer Nakamura who had made his debut earlier in the show. The Masked Sumo would end up turning on Hayabusa and both Kuroda and the Masked Sumo would begin kicking at the injured Hayabusa as Kuroda would grab a chair and place it over Hayabusa's injured arm and begin stomping on it with Hayabusa screaming in pain from his injured elbow. Team Kuroda would finally leave, and with Hayabusa laid out, The Great Sasuke would return to FMW and help Hayabusa out of the ring. It would be the first appearance in FMW for The Great Sasuke since his match against Hayabusa in 1996.
FMW would be faced with a terrible burden for the promotion. They were losing money. A lot of money. The SkyPerfecTV deal was not bringing them near the money that DirecTV provided for them due to FMW not being considered a top priority like DirecTV had considered them. They were also losing money at house shows at almost every show due to no Hayabusa being on the show. The shows with out Hayabusa would continue to do poorly, and FMW would become in financial problems. Shoichi Arai was unable to pay the wrestlers in December 2000 and January 2001 and the wrestlers would not get paid for those months for over a year when Arai would declare bankruptcy. Arai held a meeting with all the wrestlers and let them know about the financial situation and that he did not know when they would be getting paid. The wrestlers would end up getting paid for February 2001 and March 2001 due to Toshima EMI video money coming in. But Arai would be right back to struggling to find a way to pay the wrestlers for April 2001.
Shoichi Arai would then hold a meeting on February 21, 2001 with the entire FMW roster attending. Arai would talk about the problems that FMW was going through financially and let the wrestlers he would try and get them paid but he did not know when they would get paid but understood if the wrestlers wanted to leave. Masato Tanaka who had been frustrated with Shoichi Arai and many of decisions would accept this request. Hideki Hosaka would be the next to agree and accept the resignation. Kaori Nakayama who was Masato Tanaka's girlfriend at the time would then agree to leave followed by Jado. Gedo who did not want to leave became very hesitant as he felt comfortable in the promotion and did not want to leave, but after the entire Complete Players group especially his long time friend and partner Jado decided they they would be leaving, he would take the offer for the release also. FMW had just lost five long time wrestlers for the promotion in one day. Atsushi Onita would quickly take in the Complete Players and Hideki Hosaka soon after, and would have them working for his promotion Onita Pro for him.
FMW would continue on without the Complete Players on February 23, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, with Kodo Fuyuki and The Great Sasuke teaming up against Team Kuroda's Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mammoth Sasaki, but during the match Kuroda would end up getting a surprised attack by Hayabusa dressed up in his full mask and costume as Hayabusa would sent Kuroda out of the ring and deliver an Asai Moonsault to Kuroda. Kuroda would make it back in the ring, but too stunned from Hayabusa causing The Great Sasuke to get the roll up over Kuroda. Tetsuhiro Kuroda would get revenge on The Great Sasuke by attacking him the public streets and stripping Sasuke of everything but his mask. It would end up setting up a Naked Man Death Match between The Great Sasuke facing Tetsuhiro Kuroda on March 5, 2001 at Korakuen Hall. Although, The Great Sasuke was considered a top Junior Heavyweight wrestler in the world, his drawing success lied in Michinoku Pro and Northern Japan, and Korakuen Hall which had its hardcore FMW audience sell out FMW shows for years would not even be half way full for the show for a singles match between Kuroda and a non FMW guy that worked for a smaller promotion. The match idea would also serve to be a distraction from the match, as both wrestlers would be allowed to wear as much clothes as possible, and the wrestler that was stripped to nothing first or pinned would end up losing. Both wrestlers would wear as much clothes as possible during the match, and brawl all over Korakuen Hall trying to rip off as many clothes as possible. The Great Sasuke would manage to pull down Kuroda's pants to reveal Hello Kitty boxers underneath, although those would be pulled off to reveal black underwear. The tearing off the clothes would turn out to be pointless as Kuroda would end up getting the victory over Sasuke with a Technan Buster DDT to score the victory. Kodo Fuyuki would also announce on the show that Shoichi Arai had given Fuyuki permission to become Commissioner of FMW for life.
FMW would then begin to focus on the upcoming May 5th Kawasaki Stadium show on March 13, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, a show that would draw one of the lowest crowds ever to Korakuen Hall for a very poorly booked show building around Kanemura vs. Kuroda and nothing else but filler for the rest of the show. Shoichi Arai, FMW Commissioner Kodo Fuyuki, and FMW commentator J Taro would come to the ring and the announcement would be made that J Taro was now Fuyuki's assistant. Fuyuki would then also make a challenge for Atsushi Onita to return to FMW in a match at Kawasaki Stadium. The offer would be made for Onita to accept a match that would use the legit hatred between Onita and Fuyuki to sell tickets for the show, as well as possibly get The Complete Players back in FMW for the show. The talk would end up going nowhere, and Fuyuki would end up deciding on asking a favor towards his former WAR friend Genichiro Tenryu to come back to FMW. Although, All Japan did not have a partnership with FMW anymore, it would seem that Tenryu would not be able to take part on the show, but Tenryu would use the fact that he was still also a WAR wrestler as he had never shut down the promotion he created. Genichiro Tenryu would be booked for the Kawasaki Stadium show as WAR's Genichiro Tenryu, and not as All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu.
Kintaro Kanemura would face off against Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the main event with Kuroda becoming number 1 contender for the WEW World Title if he were to win. The match would turn out to become extremely bloody as Kuroda would end up being cut deep, and with blood running all down Kuroda's face, and taking everything hardcore weapon Kanemura would throw at him, it would be Mr. Gannosuke in a Masked Sumo mask coming out and hitting a clothesline at Kanemura, and then delivering a Thunder Fire on Kanemura that would ultimately lead to Kuroda nailing the Technan Buster DDT on Kanemura for the victory and the shot at Kodo Fuyuki's WEW World Title.
Tetsuhiro Kuroda's WEW World Title shot would come at the next Korakuen Hall show on April 1, 2001, but before the match, Masashi Honda would come out with his protégé Banji Takada in the opening match. Takada would end up losing to Yoshihito Sasaki, but Honda would treat both Sasaki and Takada with respect for a good match which would bring out Shoichi Arai. Shoichi Arai would announce that due to Honda's good behavior since retiring that he had decided to rehire Honda back in to FMW. Kuroda would then face off against Kodo Fuyuki, but as Kodo Fuyuki had the advantage and was about to deliver a Muscle Buster to Kuroda, Mr. Gannosuke's music would begin playing and Gannosuke was now back, and would grab a chair and head to the ring. Gannosuke would begin smashing the chair across Fuyuki's back to a pop not heard in FMW for months. Kuroda would get in Gannosuke's face and begin screaming at him, but once Fuyuki was back up, they would begin double teaming him, and would ultimately shake hands. Hayabusa watching the match would charge to the ring and begin fighting with Gannosuke outside the ring, when Fuyuki would charge at Kuroda, and Kuroda would block it, and then roll up Fuyuki with the Gannosuke Clutch to score the victory and become the WEW World Champion, ending Fuyuki's near 11 month reign as champion. Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda were not done as they would continue attacking Hayabusa until The Great Sasuke would rush to the ring, and finally clear the ring as Mr. Gannosuke had become the newest member of Team Kuroda.
The main event would be announced for Kawasaki Stadium on May 5, 2001 with Hayabusa's return teaming with The Great Sasuke to face Team Kuroda's Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mr. Gannosuke in a Octagon Cage Exploding Death Match, the first exploding cage in FMW since their last Kawasaki Stadium show on September 28, 1997. Team Kuroda would not be done as at the start of the show they would get someone on a motor cycle to run at Hayabusa on his way to Korakuen Hall, which would lead to running over Hayabusa's foot and then kidnapped by Team Kuroda. Team Kuroda's Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mr. Gannosuke, and Mammoth Sasaki would defeat The Great Sasuke, GOEMON, and Onryo on April 15, 2001 at Korakuen Hall with the crowd much more packed than the recent months with the return of Gannosuke to the cards. Kuroda would eventually finish off Onryo with a Technan Buster for the win. Team Kuroda would not be done on the attack of The Great Sasuke and begin pulling his mask off for Mr. Gannosuke to wear as Hayabusa's "Fight with a Dream II" would begin playing, but instead of a save by Hayabusa, it would be Team Kuroda dumping Hayabusa's body and injured foot in the ring allowing Team Kuroda to do more damage to both a mask less Hayabusa and The Great Sasuke to set up for the return to Kawasaki Stadium.
FMW would run at the former parking lot of Kawasaki Stadium on May 5, 2001 and draw 10,500 fans for the return of the exploding cage match and Hayabusa in the ring. Kodo Fuyuki would face off against WAR's Genichiro Tenryu in a WAR reunion as former member Asharu Hara would referee the match that Fuyuki had asked for a year before. Both wrestlers would hit their signature spots, but eventually it would be the teacher defeating his old student once again when Tenryu would cleanly defeat Fuyuki. Afterwards, both wrestlers would shake out of respect, ending what had been a 7 year feud after Fuyuki had turned on Tenryu back in WAR.
Hayabusa and The Great Sasuke would face off against Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mr. Gannosuke in the Octagon Cage Death Match. Hayabusa and Gannosuke would be squared off against each other a majority of the match, with Sasuke and Kuroda going at each other most of the time as well. Hayabusa would be the first one sent into the cage after attempting to fly off and send Gannosuke through it, Gannosuke would manage to move out of the way causing an impressive explosion towards Hayabusa's body. Sasuke would be the next to be thrown in the exploding octagon cage, but Sasuke would come back with one of the most dangerous spots as Sasuke would deliver a tope con hilo with no hands over the top rope sending himself and Kuroda into the exploding cage for a huge explosion. Hayabusa and Gannosuke would begin brawling towards the outside of the ring, and end up both sending each other into the cage at the same time, and with that explosion, the entire cage would explode. The explosions would be impressive, but with no warning siren, there would be a lack of heat during the match, that would ultimately end up hurting the match as Hayabusa would finally end up finishing Gannosuke with the H Thunder in the extremely brutal match that would be hurt with a lack of heat towards the match, but still overall a good match. Music video of Hayabusa & The Great Sasuke vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Mr. Gannosuke 5/5/01 Exploding Cage Death Match
After the lost, conflict would begin to take place between Team Kuroda as a match on May 11, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, would result in Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya, and Ricky Fuji defeating Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mr. Gannosuke, and Mammoth Sasaki after Kuroda and Gannosuke would end up accidentally lariating each other, and causing both men to shove one another for the miscommunication. Gannosuke would walk out on Team Kuroda and Hayabusa would end up delivering an H Thunder to Kuroda to score the victory. Mr. Gannosuke would eventually get Mammoth Sasaki to leave Team Kuroda and join sides with him.
Another death match would be booked, as Tetsuhiro Kuroda would defend the WEW World Title against Hayabusa on May 22, 2001 at the Sapporo Green Dome with Kodo Fuyuki as the Special Referee. The show would do extremely well, with all floor seats being sold, in one of the best selling big shows in years for FMW as the six month feud between Hayabusa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would finally come to an end. The match would be a Double Hell Death Match, with four barbwire landmines surrounding the ring. Hayabusa would end up being the first one to feel the huge explosions after being lariated off the apron into the double hell landmines. Kuroda would be the next to be dropped into the landmines, and Hayabusa would follow up with a running dive over to the outside on Kuroda with the crowd becoming the most active they had in months for a match. Mr. Gannosuke would eventually attack his former partner Tetsuhiro Kuroda, but as Kodo Fuyuki would try to stop Gannosuke from interfering, both Kuroda and Hayabusa would dropkick Gannosuke and send Gannosuke into Fuyuki who would fall into the explosions. Hayabusa and Kuroda would continue to brawl among the apron with no referee to end the match, and both Hayabusa and Kuroda would end up falling into the very last exploding barbwire covered land mine. Hayabusa and Kuroda would make it back in the ring with Fuyuki finally making it back in as well, and Kuroda would attempt to finish Hayabusa with a Technan Buster DDT, but Hayabusa would manage to kick out after the injured Fuyuki would make a slow count. Hayabusa would eventually come back and deliver several Dragon Supplexs to Kuroda before nailing Kuroda with a 450 Fire Bird Splash, and then finally finishing off Kuroda with the H Thunder for the victory to end his six month feud with Kuroda, and end his one year plus quest at the WEW World Title as the former WEW World Champion Kodo Fuyuki would reward him the title to prove that Hayabusa was back.
FMW would end up going through another restart with the groups as Kodo Fuyuki would announce that through Tokyo Pop that was distributing FMW DVD's in America backing him up with money, that Kodo Fuyuki was planning on buying FMW on June 8, 2001 at Korakuen Hall. Kodo Fuyuki would offer money to all the wrestlers to side with him as Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura would quickly join up with Fuyuki to reform the top three dynamic that Team No Respect held. Every wrestler feeling that Fuyuki was the new owner would look to join Fuyuki except Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Ricky Fuji would stay neutral, and Hayabusa who would side with Shoichi Arai. Shoichi Arai would announce that he owned 47% of the stock, and since that was not over half, and with Fuyuki owning 48% of the stock he had power than Arai. FMW Vice President Senmu Yoshida would then come in the ring and shove Arai down and announce that he was the secret seller of of the stock towards FMW and it would be Kodo Fuyuki, his, and Tokyo Pop owner Stuart Levy's goal to own more than 50% of the company to control the promotion. Hayabusa would then announce that he had purchased 5% of the stock, and that meant his stock and Arai's stock together were more than Fuyuki's. Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Ricky Fuji, Hisakatsu Oya, Azusa Kudo, Naohiko Yamazaki, and Emi Motokawa would all side with Hayabusa and Arai, as the rest of FMW would side with Fuyuki. GOEMON would be shoved towards Hayabusa's side by Onryo as it looked like Onryo would be siding with Kodo Fuyuki, but Onryo would end up being attacked by Onryo for his attempt at trying to buy FMW, and would end up siding with Hayabusa and Arai. With the split in the roster, it would end Team Kuroda at 5 months as Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hayabusa would once again be partner.
Hayabusa and Kuroda would be booked the day of the show to face Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura in the main event, but it would be Mr. Gannosuke to get his revenge on Hayabusa on the show as Gannosuke would roll up Hayabusa with the Gannosuke Clutch for the victory. Kodo Fuyuki with the win and with more ownership of the company than Arai would force Arai to punch Hayabusa repeatedly or be let go.
Kodo Fuyuki would attempt to get Shoichi Arai fired and lose his stock in the promotion by teaming him with Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura to face Hayabusa, GOEMON, and Onryo on July 2, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, with Fuyuki assigning himself as referee. If Arai were to be pinned in the match, then he would be fired. GOEMON would attempt to make it easy for Arai by laying down for Arai to pin him right away, but Fuyuki would refuse to count and Gannosuke would make the save against his partner. Gannosuke and Kanemura would use Arai as the battery ramming team mate, making him take all the punishment against the opponents. Fuyuki would attempt many quick counts against Hayabusa and his team, but when Gannosuke would charge towards Hayabusa he would be hit with the H Edge, and then followed up with a 450 Fire Bird Splash, but as Kodo Fuyuki would make the first counts, he would stall for the third one when FMW referee Marty Asano would rush to the ring and hit Fuyuki's arm down on the mat for the third count and the victory for Hayabusa's team, as well as keeping Arai's job. Fuyuki would have enough, and would announce a series of matches for Hayabusa's 5% of ownership in stock. Hayabusa, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Azusa Kudo would face Kodo Fuyuki, Mr. Gannosuke, and Kintaro Kanemura in three matches on August 11, 2001 at the Komazawa Olympic Gym for Hayabusa's 5%. Azusa Kudo would get Kodo Fuyuki for his match, and feeling that he was not strong enough to defeat Fuyuki, he would go back to Thailand once again to get a sex change and become a man once again. But a problem would occur with the DNA during the surgery, as Azusa Kudo would end up being given the DNA of a spider during the operation, and would end up becoming half man and half spider, Biomonster DNA. It would be an attempt to actually give Azusa Kudo a push after being with the promotion since 1993 and being nothing but a preliminary jobber the entire time.
FMW would run at the Komazawa Olympic Gym on August 11, 2001 and draw a healthy 4900 fans for the show. GOEMON and Onryo who had won the WEW Tag Titles after Masato Tanaka & Gedo vacated them would defend against Mammoth Sasaki & Chocoball Mukai in a Octagon Cage Match. Senmu Yoshida would have a big problem with Onryo as his daughter and Onryo had began to have feelings for one another. Senmu Yoshida's daughter would be totally against what her dad was doing, and try to get away from him, but the only problem was that Mammoth Sasaki was assigned to bodyguard her. Yoshida's daughter during the match would eventually manage to get away from her dad and begin running away from him around the cage as the match went on, distracting Mukai enough and allowing Onryo to get the Onryo Clutch to retain the WEW Tag Titles. Yoshida's daughter would end up being caught and brought back to her father. Kodo Fuyuki would then face the debut of Biomonster DNA, but would be destroyed quickly after getting at by DNA's venom gun, covering Fuyuki in ooze and knocking him out as Biomonster DNA would get the easy victory and Kodo Fuyuki would be stretcher out as FMW would take the lead over Tokyo Pop 1-0. The next match would be between Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mr. Gannosuke, but during the match Gannosuke's girlfriend Mirei would sacrifice herself for her match including be elbowed by Kuroda, but eventually Kuroda's elbow would end up getting rammed by Gannosuke, and Gannosuke would force Kuroda to tap after a constant armbar on Kuroda to make it 1-1. Hayabusa would then defend the WEW World Title against Kintaro Kanemura in the final match to determine who would get Hayabusa's 5% stock. It would turn out to be Hayabusa's last great match, as Hayabusa would have to deal with Mammoth Sasaki interfering, and managing to kick out of everything Kanemura would give him. Hayabusa would attempt to finish off Kanemura by bringing back the Phoenix Splash, but would end up missing the splash on Kanemura, and Kanemura would manage to follow up the mistake by Hayabusa by delivering repeated Thunder Fire Powerbombs on Hayabusa until getting the three count and winning not only 5% of Hayabusa's stock for Tokyo Pop, but the WEW World Title as well as the Tokyo Pop now owned 53% of the promotion.
Senmu Yoshida would use his power and authority and announce himself as the President of FMW on September 5, 2001 at the Sapporo Green Dome. The show which had very little publicity compared to the show in May would only draw 3250, a very low crowd for such a big show. Yoshida would assign Shoichi Arai as FMW Janitor, and force Arai to clean all the stalls in the rest rooms. GOEMON & Onryo would defend the WEW Tag Team Titles against Mr. Gannosuke & Mammoth Sasaki, but Senmu Yoshida's daughter would once again interject herself in the match and would be cornered by Mammoth Sasaki and Senmu Yoshida with Onryo making the save by jumping off the apron and delivering a hurricanrana to Mammoth, but it would allow Senmu to grab his daughter and run off with her. Onryo's bad luck would continue as he would attempt an Onryo Clutch on Mammoth, but Mammoth would use his power by picking up Onryo by his shoulders and dropping him. Mammoth would then deliver a choke slam to Onryo and get the pinfall to win the WEW Tag Team Titles. Hayabusa would get a shot back at winning the WEW World Title, and although Kanemura would frequently when in trouble rely on delivering a lowblow to Hayabusa to gain the advantage in the match and using a table to smash it over Hayabusa's head as hard as possible, Hayabusa would end up fighting back by delivering a low blow to Kanemura and grabbing the piece of table and smashing it over Kanemura's head and then finishing off Kanemura with the 450 Fire Bird Splash to win back the WEW World Title. The title reign would not last long as on September 9, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, Senmu Yoshida would announce that due to Hayabusa using a lowblow in the match, that he was giving Kanemura the WEW World Title. Kodo Fuyuki who would wear a Revolution t-shirt from his old WAR days would team with Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura to face Hayabusa, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and GOEMON with Hayabusa getting revenge on Kanemura and scoring another pinfall victory over him after a 450 Fire Bird Splash to win the WEW 6 Man Tag Team Titles. Senmu Yoshida would also announce after his lost to Flying Kid Ichihara in the opening match that Tomokazu Morita would be sent to Mexico to train and learn the Lucha Libre style, feeling that Morita had the same amount of promise that Hayabusa did in his first years, and going to Mexico would be the trick on making him become an incredible worker. FMW would also sign NOSAWA to begin working for the promotion.
Kodo Fuyuki would begin meeting with All Japan President Motoko Baba on getting him to wrestle in upcoming shows for All Japan teaming with Kodo Fuyuki and would then end up interfering in a All Japan match as Kodo Fuyuki would attack Masa Fuchi and announce that he was leaving FMW soon to join All Japan. Kodo Fuyuki feeling to gain his credibility for working in All Japan and the feeling that Biomonster DNA was not taking off as a dominant wrestler, Fuyuki would book himself over DNA on October 9, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, getting his win back from two months earlier. Kodo Fuyuki would end up using Biomonster DNA's own venom gun on him and deliver the Charging Lariat to score the victory over DNA. Hayabusa would begin a feud with Mammoth Sasaki who would attempt to over take the FMW ace with Mammoth and Gannosuke defending the WEW Tag Team Titles against Hayabusa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda with Hayabusa injuring his knee during the match, and Mammoth would begin working over Hayabusa's knee the entire match, but just as it seemed like Hayabusa was not going to be able to recover and not be able to walk anymore, as Mammoth would attempt to slam Hayabusa's knee to the ground, Hayabusa would roll up Mammoth and score the victory over Sasaki and win the WEW Tag Team Titles.
Kodo Fuyuki would end up announcing to the FMW fans that he was lying to get the hopes up of the FMW fans wanting to see him gone from FMW, and that he would stay with FMW, but work with All Japan and team as a member of WAR with Tenryu in the upcoming All Japan vs. WAR feud at Budokan Hall where he would face his former tag team partner Toshiaki Kawada. Hayabusa would also agree to take part in the match due Hayabusa's friendship with the late Giant Baba as well as Genichiro Tenryu where he would face Tenryu for All Japan. Hayabusa would also agree to take part in the upcoming All Japan Real World Tag Team Tournament in November, but something nobody could ever imagine was about to happen.
FMW would run at Korakuen Hall on October 22, 2001 and would end up doing one of the lowest crowds with Hayabusa on the show, as the hot streak that had happened with FMW earlier was seeming to calm down with a majority of the audience just hardcore FMW fans that would attend every show due to the heavy rain that day in Tokyo. Hayabusa would face Mammoth Sasaki in the main event of the show, but while awaiting his ring introduction he would be met with a Grim Reaper that would give an eerie message towards Hayabusa. Hayabusa would take a step towards him, but then notice he had vanished. The match would start out slow, with Mammoth controlling a majority of it before Hayabusa take control of the match. Hayabusa would dropkick Mammoth outside of the ring, and then deliver an Asai Moonsault to the outside. Hayabusa would then throw Mammoth back in the ring, and deliver one Asai Moonsault over Mammoth, but when Hayabusa would attempt to deliver his second Asai Moonsault in the ring, a trademark spot he had done in every match of his for years, tragedy would struck Eiji Ezaki as his foot would end up slipping off the middle rope, and this time there would be no body next to him to soften the blow as Hayabusa's head would snap back against the ring. Fans would begin to scream at what they just saw, as nobody had known what happened. FMW referee Marty Asano would check on the status of Hayabusa who was clearly conscious. Asano would ask Hayabusa if he wanted to continue, and Hayabusa feeling that it was the same situation from his match against The Gladiator where he cracked a vertebra and continued the match, would tell Asano he could continue. The problem was that he was still unable to move when Mammoth Sasaki would be told to stall while Hayabusa tried to recompose himself. Mammoth not knowing what had happened as he was not looking at Hayabusa when he slip would make an unknowingly mistake by beginning to pick Hayabusa by his neck and place him in a headlock, and when Hayabusa was still not able to move, the referee Marty Asano would finally call the match as Ricky Fuji, GOEMON, Onryo, and Hisakatsu Oya who had seen the accident on the monitor in their locker room would quickly rush to the ring to check on the condition of their friend. Hayabusa was paralyzed. Shoichi Arai who had been doing color commentary would also rush to the ring to check on Hayabusa's condition with the fans FMW would not knowing what had happen. None of the heels would be allowed out despite their friendship with Eiji Ezaki including Mr. Gannosuke but Kintaro Kanemura who was told to get Mammoth Sasaki out of the ring and go to the back. Hayabusa would be placed on a stretcher and Hayabusa would ask for the mic. Hayabusa scared as hell over losing any moment in his body feeling that he was going to die and announce to the fans to continue to support FMW without him, as he may possibly have died for FMW. The Pay Per View show would end, as an ambulance would quickly make it to Korakuen Hall, and Hayabusa's mask would be taken off to make it easier for him to breathe as Eiji Ezaki would be stretcher off to a near by college hospital in Tokyo. Hayabusa's wife who was a registered nurse and Shoichi Arai were the only ones allowed to see Hayabusa in the hospital. FMW had just lost its superstar.
Without Hayabusa, Kodo Fuyuki would make the desperate decision to bring Tomokazu Morita back from Mexico after only a little over month there to take over Hayabusa's spot as the ace of FMW. Kodo Fuyuki would announce that he was bringing in a wrestler from Mexico that would save FMW in Garuda. Kodo Fuyuki would meet Garuda at the Airport and announce that he planned on Garuda taking Hayabusa's spot on the card by replicating Hayabusa, and would Garuda would be patterned after the Darkside of Hayabusa. Kodo Fuyuki would announce the debut of Garuda on November 5, 2001 at Korakuen Hall, as Fuyuki would expect his new friend to align with him, but instead Garuda would turn on him for trying to make him replicate Hayabusa and would end up delivering a 450 Fire Bird Splash on Fuyuki to prove that he had the talent to pull off the move. Genichiro Tenryu would not be thrilled with Garuda and would leave the ring in anger, but not before throwing chairs and a fire extinguisher in the ring. Garuda would take Hayabusa's spot in the upcoming FMW Yokohama Bunka Gym show on November 23, 2001. Atsushi Onita would offer his services to return to FMW after hearing about Hayabusa, but Kodo Fuyuki would turn down the offer not wanting Onita back in FMW.
Hayabusa's condition would continue to worse as staying in the hospital for a few days would almost turn deadly as Eiji Ezaki unable to move around in the hospital would contract germs that would end up going into his heart, causing his temperature to raise up with the germs in heart to deadly. Eiji Ezaki would be drugged so hard over the next few weeks to keep the temperature down to stay alive in the hospital.
FMW would return to the Yokohama Bunka Gym on November 23, 2001 with the main event matches of Kintaro Kanemura defending the WEW World Title against the returning Great Sasuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Garuda teaming up to face Genichiro Tenryu and Kodo Fuyuki. FMW would also bring in Superfly Jimmy Snuka in for the show, as well as the returning Dr. Luther from the early days of FMW. The show would end up becoming a disaster financially as they would comp many of the fans for the show, but barely anyone would buy the front row seats to the show making the building look empty. During the show, FMW would finally convince fans that had gotten in for free to sit in the front row just to show that people were in the building. Senmu Yoshida would finally end up making up with his daughter after the influence of Yoshihito Sasaki's dad Masato. GOEMON & Onryo would end up facing Jimmy Snuka and his protégé Jayson Ray in a match that would be hard to work with as Jimmy Snuka's age would make him very hard to work with, and Ray would end up being in for a majority of the match before being pinned by GOEMON. After Hayabusa's injury, the WEW Tag Team Titles would become vacant and Mr. Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki would end up winning them back over Biomonster DNA and Dr. Luther after Gannosuke would pin Luther with the Gannosuke Clutch. Gannosuke and Mammoth would then announce that the challengers were not at the level as the previous champions and felt they did not deserve the titles, and would vacate them. Kintaro Kanemura and The Great Sasuke would face each other for the WEW World Title, in a match that would go to the upper deck of the Gym, with Kanemura tossing Sasuke over the upper deck through a table on the floor. Kanemura would suplex the back of Sasuke's head into a table, and then finally finish him off with a Thunder Fire Power Bomb. Garuda with a new mask and costume would team with Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Kodo Fuyuki and Genichiro Tenryu in the main event. Tenryu who had problems selling for most of the FMW wrestlers would make a point to not even try against the near rookie Garuda, as every time Garuda would chop at Tenryu's chest, Tenryu would chop back harder and harder. Kuroda and Tenryu would end up brawling in the crowd, with Tenryu grabbing a beer bottle and smashing it over Kuroda's head, causing Kuroda to be cut deep. Fuyuki would end up finishing off Garuda with a Charging Lariat to put over his team with Tenryu for the upcoming All Japan Real World Tag Team Tournament. Mr. Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki would enter the ring and begin screaming at Fuyuki for turning on FMW and siding with WAR. Kintaro Kanemura would come in the ring, and as it looked like Kanemura was going to defend his long time friend Kodo Fuyuki, Kanemura would turn around and help Gannosuke and Mammoth attack the WAR team clearing them of the ring. The New FMW of Kintaro Kanemura, Mr. Gannosuke, Mammoth Sasaki would put their hands out in alliance with the bloody Tetsuhiro Kuroda joining in as FMW was now back in a war with WAR. Garuda afterwards would announce that he would return to Mexico, and that he was not ready to become a main eventer in FMW, but hope to return soon able to help FMW in the near future when he was ready.
Senmu Yoshida after his change of face with reuniting for his daughter would announce that he was allowing Shoichi Arai to once again take over as FMW President. FMW would restart a feud that had started in 1994 with WAR as the team of Kintaro Kanemura, Mr. Gannosuke, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki would face the WAR team of Genichiro Tenryu, Kodo Fuyuki, Arashi, and Kouki Kitahara on December 9, 2001 at Korakuen Hall. Tenryu would become the hardest wrestler for the FMW wrestlers to deal with as they would exchange chops with each other, and only Gannosuke would manage to hold up against Tenryu's hard hits. FMW would receive a huge ovation after knocking Tenryu down to the mat, and all four FMW wrestlers would continue to attack Tenryu while down including Mr. Gannosuke placing Tenryu in the Scorpion Death Lock. FMW and WAR wrestlers would begin battling as Kodo Fuyuki would look to finish off Mr. Gannosuke in the ring, but after Gannosuke would block a Charging Lariat by Fuyuki, Gannosuke would roll up Fuyuki and score the victory to give the FMW the final victory over WAR. The FMW team of Kanemura, Gannosuke, Kuroda, and Mammoth are what would keep FMW's spirits alive in a very bad time for the promotion. Mammoth Sasaki would grab a Hayabusa mask out of the crowd and urge the fans to chant Hayabusa's name at the end of the show.
FMW would then hold an 8 tag team tournament on December 21, 2001 at Korakuen Hall for the WEW Tag Team Titles, and would bring foreigners back to FMW including Sabu, Balls Mahoney, Super Crazy and Horace Boulder. Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki would team with each other, and Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would reform a team with each other, although with no Hayabusa around in sight, the crowd would be disappointing. Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would escape the first round by defeating GOEMON and Onryo after Kuroda would deliver the Technan Buster DDT to Onryo for the victory. Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki would face Balls Mahoney and Horace Boulder, as Horace Boulder would finally do a job in FMW that had been deserved after he left the promotion for WCW and was force to win in a match on his way out, but this time it would be Mammoth Sasaki finishing off Horace Boulder with a Mammoth Home Run to score the victory and move in Horace Boulder's last match in the promotion after touring on and off for FMW since 1991. Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would defeat Sabu and Yoshihito Sasaki in the semi finals after Gannosuke would deliver a Fire Thunder to Sasaki for the victory to advance to the finals. Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki would advance to the finals after defeating Super Crazy and Crazy Boy after Kanemura would set a chair over Crazy Boy's head and pick him up by his shoulder, and Mammoth would deliver a Mammoth Home Run off the top turnbuckle to Crazy Boy, who Kanemura would suplex and pin for the win. Naohiko Yamazaki would wrestle in his retirement match after a near four years in the promotion as preliminary wrestler. Yamazaki who had dealt for months with a serious injury would lose his passion for the business, and would wrestle Kodo Fuyuki in his final match before being defeated. Mammoth Sasaki would come out and present flowers and hug his former Dojo friend in memory of Yamazaki's career. Kintaro Kanemura still bleeding from the previous matches and Mammoth Sasaki would meet Mr. Gannosuke and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the finals. Gannosuke would end up being busted open, and all four wrestlers would attempt everything to finish each other in the last very good FMW match ever as Kuroda would end up delivering a Technan Buster DDT to Mammoth Sasaki to score the victory and the WEW Tag Team Titles. All four wrestlers would shake hand for a job well done by doing everything that FMW represented by bleeding, taking hard brutal punishment, and putting on a great match for the fans.
Hayabusa's near death experience in the hospital would finally end on December 29, 2001 after Eiji Ezaki would have open heart surgery to remove the deadly germs that had cause his fever to skyrocket for months, and the surgery would turn out to be a success. Due to the drugs that Eiji Ezaki was on, he would not have any memory of anything from shortly after the accident to after the surgery. But now after two months of fighting for his life, Eiji Ezaki could now focus on trying to recover from being paralyzed.
Kodo Fuyuki had been promoted as dealing with all the money in FMW in 1999, would begin to realize that the promotion was almost 1 million dollars in debt, and that the promotion was near a end. Kodo Fuyuki would decide to create a new group of foreign armies of Balls Mahoney, Vic Grimes, and Paul LeDuc and would book the shows in his favor to make him look as good as possible before FMW would end.
FMW would return to Korakuen Hall on January 6, 2002 and now was booking only a few shows per month due to the shows losing money. Mr. Gannosuke, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki would team up together to face The Sandman, Balls Mahoney, and Vic Grimes in a match would involved Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. The match would become extremely dangerous, especially when Mr. Gannosuke would be placed over the table outside of the ring. Vic Grimes would then climb up the top rope, and as Vic Grimes would do a flip of his 400 pound body in the air, Mr. Gannosuke would try to move out of the way off the table, but Gannosuke's legs would end up still being under the table by the time Grimes would come crashing down, and as a result, Mr. Gannosuke would break his ankle after the 400 pound Grimes would come crushing down on them. Mr. Gannosuke would be helped out, and would no longer be able to complete in the match after the break, leaving his team mates in a handicap situation that Vic Grimes would end up using as his advantage by pinning Mammoth Sasaki with a slam for the win. Mr. Gannosuke would end up wrestling his last match for the promotion he had started with since June 22, 1991 and his final match would be 4 years to the day of his FMW Double Titles victory. Mr. Gannosuke would be told that he would be unable to compete in the ring for 6 months, another incredible blow to FMW that had lost so much money the year before without Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke on the roster, and now they were even more in debt. Kodo Fuyuki would end up booking himself as WEW World Champion by finally ending Kanemura's reign by nailing Kanemura with a Charging Lariat for the victory as the foreigners would drink beer with Fuyuki to celebrate the win. It would be announced that the WEW Tag Titles would be on the line for the next Korakuen Hall show, but with Mr. Gannosuke out of action, the WEW Tag Team Titles would be declared vacant. Kodo Fuyuki and The Sandman would wrestle Tetsuhiro Kuroda & the returning Sabu for the titles.
The shows had been disaster for FMW in 2001 as they would include everything that was bad about FMW. Kodo Fuyuki knowing that FMW maybe near the end would position himself with the smaller DDT promotion and announce himself as the Commissioner of that promotion, as well as putting himself over everybody in the promotion to make him look good in case any other major promotion may possibly be interested in him. Sabu would come out in memory of Hayabusa by marking the tattoo of Hayabusa's on his chest, and writing Hayabusa's name on his arm band to cover his scars on February 4, 2002. Kuroda would once again blade and be cut deeply during the match, and as Sabu would deliver all his highflying spots, including a back flip somersault plancha, it would be Fuyuki to once again finish off Kuroda with a Charging Lariat to win the WEW Tag Team Titles.
Mammoth Sasaki would charge the ring and announce to the fans that he was going to take part in a PRIDE match to impress the audience, which the fans had not been much for the year by the promotion. The wrestlers would leave the ring, not knowing it would be their last time in a FMW ring. The match and show would turn out to be the last ever in FMW history.
Just twelve days later on February 14, 2002 it would all come crashing down for Shoichi Arai and FMW. Shoichi Arai had borrowing from twenty different Yakuza groups to try and keep FMW a float. Two of the checks that Arai had given out to Yakuza and had paid extra that it not be cashed out would end up getting cashed out just one day before he was set to be given another loan. The cashing of the check and not being able to make it to the bank on time that day resulting in FMW being $ 20,400 dollars overdue. Shoichi Arai would be forced to declare FMW bankrupt for 2.8 million dollars following that on February 15, 2002.
The small promotion that Onita had started on July 28, 1989 and only planning for two shows was finally be over after 12 years and 7 months.
Shoichi Arai would begin to go into hiding from the Yakuza, as Kodo Fuyuki would take the dates that were stilled booked by FMW over. Atsushi Onita after hearing about the promotion he had created would blame Kodo Fuyuki announcing to the public that he was responsible for embezzling money from the promotion. Fuyuki and Kanemura would invade IWA Japan days later, filling in for Shoichi Arai who had began a feud with IWA President Asano at the last FMW earlier in the month.
Fuyuki would announce the start up the Fuyuki Army Promotion, and on the first show on March 10, 2002 at Korakuen Hall. Before the show they would sell everything FMW related from old VHS tapes to programs in a everything must go sale to the fans. Fuyuki would then come out to just a regular blue ring with no television deal and no FMW video screen and hold a 10 bell salute in memory of FMW. After the salute, Atsushi Onita's "Wild Thing" would begin playing as Onita would come out and begin making the accusations to Fuyuki about embezzling the FMW money. A challenge would be made towards Fuyuki for a six man match up at the next Korakuen Hall show. Atsushi Onita would team up with FMW veterans Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Ricky Fuji to face Kodo Fuyuki, Kintaro Kanemura, and Chocoball Mukai with former ring announcer Nakamura interfering in the match after also being accused by Onita that he had embezzled money as well. Atsushi Onita would then deliver a Thunder Fire Powerbomb to Chocoball Mukai for the win. Kodo Fuyuki would remain heel attacking Onita, with the idea of Atsushi Onita finally taking on Kodo Fuyuki in a Exploding Ring Match on May 5, 2002 for the debut show of Kodo Fuyuki's new WEW promotion.
Backstage Kodo Fuyuki and Atsushi Onita would begin acting different towards each other, as Onita would begin hugging Fuyuki. Kodo Fuyuki would then announce to the public that he had cancer, and was being force to retire very soon before having to do radiation treatments to try and get rid of the cancer. Kodo Fuyuki would be booked by Mitsuharu Misawa on April 14, 2002 at the Differ Ariake, for his retirement match. Kodo Fuyuki would come out to the ring with all his friends from FMW in Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Kyoko Inoue, Shinjuku Shark, an Chocoball Mukai to do one last TNR Dance with Fuyuki as a wrestler. Fuyuki would team up with Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa to defeat the team of Akira Taue, Masao Inoue, and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi after Fuyuki would deliver one last Charging Lariat to Kikuchi for the victory. A 10 bell salute would be presented towards Kodo Fuyuki as he was finally retiring after all the times after backing out of retirement. Kodo Fuyuki would then be presented with flowers by wrestlers that he had become friends with over the 22 years of his career, including his former students Jado and Gedo.
Atsushi Onita would announce that he would bring back the FMW name, although he did not legally own it, he would get by using the name "Onita FMW" for his shows. Onita would run at Korakuen Hall on May 4, 2002 to a sell out crowd of fans wanting to see the return of days of FMW with Onita. Many old FMW wrestlers would work the show including Mr. Pogo and Katsuji Ueda, but it would be the main event of Atsushi Onita and Masato Tanaka teaming together to face Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda with Tanaka getting the pinfall victory over Kanemura for the win for the old school FMW team.
Kodo Fuyuki would have radiation treatment just days later and although it would take many more hours than expected in eight to finally remove the cancer, the cancer was gone. Kodo Fuyuki would return for one last 10 bell salute for his retirement at the debut of his new WEW promotion. The show would become a huge success drawing 16,800 fans to see the return of Atsushi Onita to Kawasaki Stadium against Shinya Hashimoto. Atsushi Onita would team up with The Great Sasuke on May 5, 2002 to face Zero-One's Shinya Hashimoto and Shinjiro Otani. Due to politics, it would become incredibly hard to book anyone to job to anyone else in the match, and as a result Atsushi Onita would spit green mist in Shinya Hashimoto's face, and then throw a fire ball at Shinjiro Otani to be disqualified. Atsushi Onita would continue his feud with Zero One for his Onita FMW promotion until the nostalgia would begin to wear out. Atsushi Onita would officially announce the end of the Onita FMW promotion on August 11, 2002. A new promotion called WMF with Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke as the lead wrestlers centered around the promotion would be announced, with Onita giving Hayabusa and Gannosuke the responsibility of continuing on with the FMW spirit in WMF.
Shoichi Arai would continue to remain in hiding, and while in hiding would decide to write a book about everything he had experienced while running FMW. Arai would trash his former friend and boss Atsushi Onita for his ego and womanizing throughout his career, as well as admit the truth towards many other former FMW wrestlers. The book would be made to help try and make as much money as possible due to the million he owed towards the Yakuza. Arai's life would continue to be hell after his wife would leave him, and Arai feeling that the only way out of debt was to take his own life. Shoichi Arai would talk Hayabusa through the phone and bring up his plans to kill himself because of the life insurance he had on himself that would pay his former wife and child enough money to help with the debt that he owed. Hayabusa would beg Arai to not do it, that something else would work out on getting the money, that would be better than killing himself. Hayabusa felt hanging up that he had gotten through to his friend Shoichi Arai, but it had not as Shoichi Arai would wake up in the early morning of May 16, 2002 and the former FMW owner and President would walk to the Mizumoto Park in the Katsushika Ward of Tokyo in his traditional business suit and hang himself using his tie. He was found by a jogger at 6:20 AM. Shoichi Arai's death would lead to an insurance policy for his ex wife and child in hopes that would be enough to pay back the Yakuza. Sadly the life insurance that the Arai family would receive for Shoichi's death still was not enough to pay back the Yakuza, and years later the Arai family would be still paying the Yakuza the money that Shoichi owed them for everything he took from them to keep FMW going.
Shoichi Arai kept FMW running after Atsushi Onita's FMW running for almost seven years. Shoichi Arai is one of the very people to die directly because of the wrestling business. Shoichi Arai dying would send shock waves throughout everyone in FMW, including Kodo Fuyuki who would have a panic attack after hearing the news after becoming so fragile and would be sent back to the hospital. Hayabusa would be told the news in his hospital bed room, and begin to cry over the lost of his boss and good friend, President Arai of FMW.
Many people blame Kodo Fuyuki's booking that led to the end of FMW. Atsushi Onita booked the promotion using himself as the only draw, and with the mindset of topping yourself with extreme punishment over and over and then left. FMW was not booked for the future, only the present. When the future came, and there was no more Atsushi Onita, it was not expected to live another year. Hayabusa and Megumi Kudo sacrificed their bodies to help keep FMW alive as long as it did. Kodo Fuyuki's ideas and direction may have been a mistake but they were what DirecTV who was funding them three million dollars wanted. Shoichi Arai was the person in charge and making the final decisions and felt the Entertainment route was the way for FMW to succeed as the Death Match promotion had been topped by Big Japan's insane antics and the house shows were starting to fail as a result.
FMW changed the wrestling business forever, and because of the wrestlers like Atsushi Onita, Hayabusa, Megumi Kudo, Mr. Pogo, Mr. Gannosuke, Kintaro "W*ING" Kanemura, Masato Tanaka, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Ricky Fuji, Hisakatsu Oya, The Gladiator, Sambo Asako, Tarzan Goto, Combat Toyoda, and Terry Funk there is a reason FMW will never be forgotten.
To check out what the FMW wrestlers are doing these days and what they look like than check out a new section to the site at FMW Now and Then.
Click here for FMW History Part 1
Click here for FMW History Part 2