Hideki Hosaka was born on August 5, 1971 in Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture. He would begin doing amateur wrestling because of his love for pro-wrestling while attending the Gunma-Kanto Gakuen High School and after graduating would begin attending the Tokyo University of Agriculture.
The college would be right next to the All Japan
Dojo so Masao Orihara who was an attendant for Genichiro Tenryu would come by
the college to wash Tenryu's laundry and would meet Hosaka there, and tell him
about the plan of Tenryu leaving All Japan to join SWS before it had been
announced officially and that Hosaka should try and join the new promotion.
Hosaka would try to quit college to try and join the SWS Dojo, but his parents
would not allow him and Hosaka would miss his chance at taking the SWS tryout so
that he could stay in school and would end up dropping out of college the next
year anyway.
Hosaka would begin working at a factory to make a living and during this time
would end up meeting Koichiro Kimura who was working for the Submission Arts
Wrestling (SAW) promotion and would convince Hosaka to join.
Hosaka would train at the SAW Dojo and would be booked by SAW for a Dark Match
for the Rings promotion on May 11, 1991 at the Yokohama Arena where he would
lose to Kimura.
Nobuhiro Tsurumaki who was a member of the SAW group would hear about a new
pro-wrestling promotion starting with the understanding it would be based around
martial artists doing pro-wrestling matches although Mr. Pogo would be the ace
of this martial arts promotion which confused Hosaka.
The new promotion was being created to rival FMW and it would be called "World
Martial Association Union W*ING" started up by both Kazuyoshi Osako and Mickey
Ibaragi who both had previously worked for FMW and had issues with FMW owner
Atsushi Onita.
Osako wanted the promotion to be about Martial Arts and Ibaragi wanted the
promotion to be about Mr. Pogo and Death Matches so the promotion would become a
hybrid of both for the time being. Hideki Hosaka saw it as an opportunity to be
able to make his debut as a professional wrestler and tried out and was accepted
by promotion for his submission based wrestling resume.
Hideki Hosaka would make his pro-wrestling debut on August 7, 1991 at Korakuen
Hall for W*ING where he would lose to The Great Wojo in an amateur wrestling
match as Hosaka did not know how to wrestle a professional wrestling match at
the time of his debut.
W*ING did not have a dojo so Hosaka would end up getting pro-wrestling training
from Tom Pritchard, Danny Davis, and Ricky Santana before the shows while W*ING
was on tour.
Hosaka with little experience in the wrestling business would mostly be used in
the undercard where he would take the loss. He would team up with the likes of
Yukihiro Kanemura, Akitoshi Saito, and Ryo Miyake for two months.
After the October 1991 tour, the conflict between Ibaragi and Osako in the
direction they wanted the promotion to go would come to a boiling point. The two
sides would end up splitting with wrestlers having to choose which side they
were going to join. Most of Martial Artists went with Osako and the
Pro-Wrestlers went with Ibaragi. Only Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Yukihiro Kanemura
who were on the Martial Arts side originally through Masashi Aoyagi's karate
school went with with Ibaragi's side and had to write signed letters swearing
their allegiance to Ibaragi and they wanted nothing to do with Osako's martial
arts side.
Hosaka being a martial artist and living with fellow submission martial artist
Nobuhiro Tsurumaki would decide to follow along Osako's Martial Arts side with
the idea that he would form his own new promotion to rival Ibaragi's death match
promotion. They chose incorrectly though as Osako's World Martial Arts promotion
would close down before ever running a show.
Hosaka felt he could not give up his dream and
heard about the creation of a new promotion Pro-Wrestling Crusaders (PWC)
starting up by George and Shunji Takano. Hosaka would join the Dojo along with
rookies Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Nanjyo Hayato where they just would be beaten by
dojo trainer Shunji Takano who would be drunk all the time every day. Hosaka
hated getting beaten, but knew if he would run away that he would be giving up
on pro-wrestling although one time it got so bad that Hosaka did plan on
throwing his dream away, but after packing his bag and sneaking out of the dojo
at midnight, he could not find a taxi to get him out of the area and decided to
just go back to the dojo with no one noticing he left.
Katsuji Adachi better known as Mr. Hito who had trained many great wrestlers
including Bret Hart would end up being hired to take over training at the PWC
Dojo, and things got much better for Hosaka as he never wanted to quit after
Adachi came in and he would wrestle for a little while in the promotion under
the name Benkei.
PWC never really picked up a following and it
caused great stress to both George and Shunji who already were not stable and
they would end up getting in a fight right in front of Hosaka at the dojo with
Katsuji Adachi having to break it up by pulling a knife on both of them to get
them to stop. Not long after that, PWC would close down.
FMW would have their pick of the PWC wrestlers after the promotions closing and
they would take Katsunari Toi, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Nanjyo Hayato, and Hideki
Hosaka.
FMW would decide to put Hosaka because of his previous W*ING connection with Mr.
Pogo the top heel in the promotion although Hosaka did not get along with Pogo.
Hosaka would form a bond with The Gladiator who was also apart of Mr. Pogo's
Army but also did not personally get along with Pogo. Hosaka and The Gladiator
would spend hours together despite the language barrier and sit next to each
other on the bus and watch Beavis and Butthead VHS tapes that The Gladiator
would bring from home while they would sit on the bus for hours going from town
to town every day.
Despite the differences personally with Mr. Pogo, Hosaka would be put in a main
event position while painting his face like Mr. Pogo. FMW would run 10-15 shows
a month and almost every show would be a 6 man match with Atsushi Onita pinning
Hideki Hosaka with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb with Hosaka making good money.
Hosaka's most famous match of his career came
during this era as he teamed up with Mr. Pogo and The Gladiator to take on
Atsushi Onita, Katsutoshi Niiyama, and Mr. Gannosuke on September 25, 1994 at
the Tokyo Jingu Pool Stadium in a No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Exploding Pool
Death Match.
Mr. Pogo and The Gladiator would both be eliminated being sent out of the ring
into the pool for an explosion and Hosaka would be the last member of his team
before getting sent into the exploding barbed wire and then hit with a Thunder
Fire Powerbomb and pinned by Onita.
The Mr. Pogo Army would end up being turned into
the W*ING Army following Mickey Ibaragi having to close down his W*ING promotion
and Yukihiro Kanemura joining FMW. Hosaka would end up winning his one and only
title of his career on February 6, 1995 in Aichi as he would defeat Ricky Fuji
with the W*ING Army celebrating afterwards with Hosaka for his victory. Hosaka
would end up only keeping the title for a month though before losing it to Koji
Nakagawa on March 30, 1995 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym.
The W*ING Army would end up being split up following the Atsushi Onita
Retirement show on May 5, 1995 at Kawasaki Stadium after Mr. Pogo and The
Gladiator would end up leaving the group to join the new heel Lethal Weapon
group. The W*ING group would now consist of Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Yukihiro
Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka, and Hido.
The group would go back and forth from faces to heels and in between run their
own shows as well for the old W*ING audience to attend and cheer them on against
the FMW team they were facing. This W*ING group would last until September 28,
1997 when Atsushi Onita would end up defeating Yukihiro Kanemura at Kawasaki
Stadium with the pre-match stipulation being that the W*ING group would disband
if Kanemura were to lose.
The FMW office would have issues with both
Atsushi Onita and Hayabusa wanting to be the top face of the promotion and would
decide on Hayabusa to continue that role with Onita becoming a heel. Onita would
see the fight that the W*ING group had and wanted to form a new group with them
called ZEN as they would be heels and feud with Hayabusa and the FMW team.
Hosaka was surprised that he would be included in Onita's group as always being
a heel against Onita, he never actually would see Onita outside the ring, but
Hosaka feels that he gained a sense of respect from Onita by being in all the
barbed wire matches with him and always being the one to take the Thunder Fire
Powerbomb from him every day that he would want Hosaka apart of his group.
ZEN as heels would not last long though as Onita hated being a heel. The
structure of the group would start to break after just a month when Kanemura and
Hosaka who had been aligned for years got into a shouting fight with one another
backstage. Not long after that Kanemura along with Mr. Gannosuke and Hido would
break away from ZEN and form the new heel group Team No Respect.
Onita's ZEN group would turn face although the group would not last long as
Onita take an absence from FMW for the summer and disband ZEN on May 5, 1998
beforehand. After ZEN had disbanded and Onita absent both Hideki Hosaka and
Tetsuhiro Kuroda would end up being captured by Team No Respect and be made into
Team No Respect slaves for the rest of the Summer of 1998. It would take Atsushi
Onita coming back and teaming with FMW owner Shoichi Arai, Gosaku Goshogawara,
and Yoshinori Sasaki to defeat Team No Respect on August 11, 1998 to finally
free Hosaka and Kuroda.
With Onita back working semi-regular for FMW he
would form a new group once again with Hosaka, Kuroda, Yoshinori Sasaki, and
Gosaku called Team Zero. They would continue to feud with Team No Respect until
it would be decided by the FMW office and wrestlers that Atsushi Onita would be
expelled from FMW for good.
All the FMW wrestlers would meet at the FMW office on November 21, 1998 where
Atsushi Onita was planning on visiting that day. He would arrive and see all the
FMW wrestlers there. Hosaka still had loyalty to Onita but chose to stay with
FMW because of the unknown financially that following Onita would bring, and he
knew staying with FMW he would there would always be an income. Hosaka was the
only wrestler crying after all the wrestlers raise their hands in agreement to
expel Onita from FMW right in front of him.
With no Onita alliance any longer, Hosaka would
end up turning heel in 1999 and begin a Big Boss Man gimmick where he would
dress much just like the Boss Man was wearing in WWF as well as use a night
stick as a weapon. Hosaka would end up joining up with Mr. Gannosuke's heel
group along with Super Leather and Hisakatsu Oya. The group though would only
last a couple of months before Mr. Gannosuke would end up re-joining the heel
Team No Respect group leaving Hosaka without a group which would force him to go
face and join the FMW team for the first time in his career.
Later that month though Hosaka would end up suffering an injury after being
thrown outside the ring and his elbow would end up getting cut open from the
concrete. Hosaka would not think much of it and try cleaning it up with a
shower, but there would be so much bacteria in his arm that it would become
black and swollen. Hosaka would finish the rest of the tour before seeing a
doctor where he was told that if he waited just a little bit longer, his arm
would have had to be amputated because of the bacteria. Hosaka would end up
missing the next 7 months due to the injury and would be out the rest of 1999.
Hosaka would come back at the beginning of 2000
before joining up with fellow former Team Zero member Mammoth Sasaki where they
would end up winning the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles three times in 2000. The
team would end up splitting up on January 7, 2001 after losing the titles to
GOEMON and Onryo after the Mammoth and Hosaka had issues going into the match
and Hosaka would end up turning on Mammoth after a miscommunication spot causing
Mammoth to get pin, followed by Hosaka breaking a childhood toy that Mammoth had
given him earlier in the show to try and put peace to their issues the two had
been having the previous month with one another.
Hideki Hosaka would be around for another month with no real purpose until
Shoichi Arai would call a meeting with the FMW wrestlers on February 17, 2001
and state because of money loss that the company was dealing with and the
wrestlers had already been experiencing late payments, that any wrestler that
wanted out of their contract could get out of it. Masato Tanaka who had been
asked by Arai the night before to leave would agree to leave during the meeting.
Tanaka's girlfriend Kaori Nakayama would also leave with him as well as would
his tag team partners Jado and Gedo who were very frustrated with the
promotion's direction and late payments as well. Hideki Hosaka who had no
alliance to any of the others wrestlers leaving would also take Arai up on his
offer.
Hosaka had hated the FMW direction in Entertainment Wrestling stating he liked
WWF wrestling at the time, but he really did not like Fuyuki's version and his
connection with Adult Video stars being used in the company and felt there was
self interest by Fuyuki in getting rid of the death match aspect of FMW and
making it the way he wanted it to be regardless of what it did financially to
the company.
Hideki Hosaka would first tag along with Masato Tanaka getting booked in Big
Japan for the rest of 2001 up until their Yokohama Arena show on December 2,
2001. Hosaka knew he had a short shelf live with Big Japan though because he
refused to take part in any Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match and eventually
took a full time position with All Japan although his introduction meeting with
Motoko Baba about joining the promotion would have her tell him he looked dirty
with his full beard and that he needed to shave.
Hosaka would get to wrestle legends like Abdullah
The Butcher, Mil Mascaras, Keiji Muto and Terry Funk while in All Japan but
would mostly remain a midcarder for the promotion. All Japan and ZERO1 would
begin working with one another in 2003 and Hosaka began working for both
promotions. Hosaka would end up doing an interview for Samurai TV where he would
state that he liked ZERO1 better than All Japan and referee Kyohei Wada would
see that and ask for Hosaka's contract to be transferred to ZERO1 where he would
work for the rest of 2003.
ZERO1 would not renew Hosaka's contract in 2004 though and All Japan would pick
him back up as Hosaka would become Genichiro Tenryu's full time attendant which
Hosaka enjoyed because of his respect for Tenryu. Hosaka though would end up
suffering a horrible injury on June 10, 2004 in a match against D'Lo Brown where
his knee would end up bending in the opposite direction breaking his right knee
tibial plateau. Hosaka would need surgery, and would have to spend time in a
wheel chair, as it would take him two years before he could live a normal life
again let alone wrestle. Hosaka did not make any money during that time as All
Japan refused to pay him because he was not wrestling. Hosaka just had to manage
to cut down how he lived and live off of his savings over the years. Onita,
Tenryu, as well as Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto who lived close by would come
over and visit him while he recovered.
Mr. Gannosuke would be the first to book Hosaka following his injury in 2006 as
Hosaka would join Mr. Gannosuke's heel KHM group which was a veterans FMW group
feuding with the young WMF wrestlers that would go on up until Gannosuke would
close down WMF in August 2008 with his retirement coming up and the WMF never
really catching on after several years.
Hosaka would struggle to get booked regularly again until Atsushi Onita would make a return full time to wrestling in 2012 and include Hosaka along with his friend Ichiro Yaguchi as his regular tag partners for 6 man tag matches. The three men would work in ZERO1, NOAH, FREEDOMS, Kaientai Dojo, All Japan, Real Japan, Super Fireworks, and the Super Battle FMW promotion through out the next couple of years, enough for Hosaka to make a living off wrestling again.
Mr. Pogo would end up passing away on June 23, 2017 and Hideki Hosaka would honor his former partner by bringing back the face paint that he would wear in 1994 and 1995 in FMW and this time go by the Mr. Pogo # 2 name and use the Mr. Pogo weapons while in Super Battle FMW for the next month.
As apart of Onita's group he would also be
invited to the CZW promotion for Onita's match against Matt Tremont on August 5,
2007 in New Jersey. Hosaka who had suffered a fracture jaw just ten days earlier
would work a tag match before interjecting himself with Yaguchi in the main
event which would be turned into a 6 man FMW vs. CZW match with the FMW team
getting the win on Hosaka's 46th birthday.
Atsushi Onita would end up retiring for the 7th time on October 31, 2017 and
Hosaka's bookings would decline as a result. He would still work with the Super
Battle FMW promotion until it would close down for good in April 2018 as well as
Kanemura's ING promotion in July 2018 where he would reform his tag team with
Mammoth Sasaki after 17 years although the promotion would end up not running
again.
Atsushi Onita would come out of retirement once again in October 2018 and Hosaka
would get some bookings teaming with Onita including a Giant Baba Memorial show
in February 2019 at Sumo Hall. Hosaka's last match would be apart of a FMW vs.
Big Japan feud that Big Japan was doing for their Osaka shows. It would be on
August 18, 2019 where Hosaka would team up with long time friend Tetsuhiro
Kuroda, Ichiro Yaguchi, and Leatherface to defeat the Big Japan team of Ryuji
Ito, Minoru Fujita, Abdullah Kobayashi, and Kankuro Hoshino in a Scramble
Bunkhouse Street Fight Death Match.
By that point Hosaka knew something was wrong with him until finally realizing he would need to go to the hospital on September 13, 2019. He checked himself into the emergency room where the doctors would find a blockage and that he would need to stay the night for tests. He would find out on September 14, 2019 that he had stage IV cancer meaning the cancer had spread through out his body. It had originally developed as colon cancer, but since he had not caught it early on, it had spread to his liver. Hosaka would ask the doctors if this would be a long or short battle, but he would not get an answer which Hosaka would feel meant a short battle. Hosaka would have a 14% chance that he would live another 5 years.
Hosaka would try to fight the cancer living in
the hospital and have ten different surgeries in just the first month alone.
Hosaka would begin radiation treatment in July 2020 and would be allowed to
leave the hospital every so often to be with his wife and daughter. Hosaka would
write on June 23, 2021 that he would have an operation to try and have it where
he could live as long as possible then his last tweet was on June 26, 2021 that
he had arrived home from that operation and that was a big mountain he had to
climb to get through it and that was he was in his bed and wanted to thank
everyone.
Hosaka would end up staying at his house although he would begin to go in and
out of consciousness on August 1, 2021 before passing away on August 2, 2021
three days shy of his 50th Birthday.
On a personal note, I got to interact with Hosaka regularly over the last 5 years. I met him at an FMW After Party in June 2016 and we became Facebook friends after that. He was always really nice to answer any question I had for him despite the language barrier. I got to meet him one last time at the CZW show on August 5, 2017 in New Jersey where I gave him a birthday card before the show which he posted on his Facebook. My last communication with him was on February 5, 2021 where I told him that I was praying for him to beat the cancer and he wrote back "Thank you from the bottom of my heart" in English.
Hideki Hosaka's Career Title History
FMW Independent Jr. Heavyweight Championship
Defeated: Ricky Fuji 2/6/95
Lost to: Koji Nakagawa 3/30/95
WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship w/ Yoshinori Sasaki
Defeated: Kintaro Kanemura & Willie Takayama 4/25/00
Lost to: The Samoans 6/21/00
WEW Hardcore Tag Tag Team Championship w/ Yoshinori Sasaki
Defeated: The Samoans 7/28/00
Lost to: Jado & Gedo 9/21/00
WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship w/ Mammoth Sasaki
Defeated: Supreme & Homeless Jimmy 11/12/00
Lost to: GOEMON & Onryo 1/7/01
FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Championship w/ Atsushi Onita & Masato Tanaka
Defeated: NOSAWA Rongai & Raijin Yaguchi & Tomohiko Hashimoto
12/22/15
Lost to: W*ING Kanemura & Raijin Yaguchi & Tomohiko Hashimoto 1/24/16
FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Championship w/ Atsushi Onita & Sean Guinness
Defeated: NOSAWA Rongai & Raijin Yaguchi & Sabu 2/26/16
Vacated titles in 10/16