Added: 12/21

Chocoball Mukai held his Retirement show on December 17, 2006 ending his 7 year career due to injuries. Chocoball Mukai who made his debut on September 24, 1999 at Korakuen Hall along with Team No Respect members Mr. Gannosuke as Hayabusa, Koji Nakagawa, and Gedo against H, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Yoshinori Sasaki, and Flying Kid Ichihara in the main event. Chocoball would turn babyface in the match as he would come to the aid of fellow porn star Sena Wakana after Hayabusa would begin to place a dog collar on Wakana with the intentions of delivering a super powerbomb on Wakana. Mukai would get attacked and laid out for his efforts but would be embraced by Team FMW as a result. Chocoball would win his first title by teaming with Ricky Fuji and Flying Kid Ichihara for the WEW 6 Man Tag Team Titles on November 23, 1999 at the Yokohama Arena. Chocoball would end up turning on his FMW team by joining up with Kodo Fuyuki and Kyoko Inoue's ECW Japan and held them win the WEW Tag Team Titles on February 25, 2000. Mukai would stay loyal to Kodo Fuyuki, the man who gave him his break in the wrestling business after FMW would declare bankruptcy in February 2002 by joining Fuyuki's WEW promotion. Mukai would stay loyal to Fuyuki even after his death on March 19, 2003 by joining up with all the former FMW wrestlers to participate on Fuyuki Army Promotion shows which were funded by Fuyuki's widow Kaoru. Chocoball began feuding with Yuki Ishikawa while on Fuyuki Army Promotion show who would become a rival and a friend to Chocoball. After Kaoru pulled out of promoting shows, Chocoball separated himself from the other former FMW wrestlers and began working for the IWA Japan promotion instead of Kintaro Kanemura's new Apache Army promotion. Chocoball would soon get in trouble legally after being thrown in jail for filming a porno in a public place without a license. IWA Japan President Asano was the one that ended up bailing him out and as a result Chocoball stayed loyal to him as a result for the rest of his career. Chocoball would also put on shows promoted by himself with his friends from FMW, Battlarts, and IWA Japan participating on the show. After suffering an injured hernia, Chocoball announced that he was ending his career after 7 years at his promoted show. Chocoball promoted the show at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE teaming with former FMW friend Mammoth Sasaki against former Battlarts' wrestlers Yuki Ishikawa and Ryuji Walters with Chocoball getting the pinfall victory over Walters with a stiff leg kick to the face for the victory at 14 minutes, 42 seconds. Former FMW friends Hideki Hosaka and Shinjuku Shark also participated on the show along with Hayabusa attending the show as well. There was a 10 bell salute for Chocoball and afterwards all the wrestlers in the crowd picked him up and tossed him into the air several times before dropping him on the mat. Chocoball then said his farewell before walking a back and ending his professional wrestling career.

Soldier held a mostly successful first promoted WMF show in his hometown of Toyohashi on December 17, 2006 drawing 630 fans to the show. Soldier's main event opponent was New Japan's Jushin Thunder Liger making his WMF debut on the show. The match was reported as a good match with Liger finishing off Soldier with the Brainbuster at 13 minutes, 33 seconds. Rick Patterson returned to Japan as Leatherface teaming up with former W*ING wrestler Masayoshi Motegi who Soldier defeated this past July for the Wrestle Brain Junior Heavyweight Championship. Patterson also wrestled the last few months of FMW in 2002 as Leatherface.

The Apache Army held a show of their own the day before on December 16, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda faced each other for the first time in a singles match as the main event of the show for the first time since their April 29, 2003 WEW World Title Match. The match was to determine the number one contender for Togi Makabe's WEW World Championship. It was the second time that Kanemura and Kuroda faced each other for the number one contendership for the WEW World Title as Kuroda defeated Kanemura on March 13, 2001 in a bloody Korakuen Hall match to become the number one contender for Kodo Fuyuki's WEW World Title which Kuroda eventually won. Kuroda's win was actually the first singles victory over Kanemura since that March 13, 2001 match. Kuroda will now go on to face Togi Makabe on January 8, 2007 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the WEW World Title in the main event. Jun Kasai and Tomoaki Honma will also defend their WEW Tag Team Titles on the show against Big Japan's King of the Death Match Champion Takashi Sasaki and The Winger on the show. Mammoth Sasaki will get another crack at the Big Japan Tag Team Titles on the show as well teaming up with GENTARO to face new Big Japan Tag Team Champions Daisuke Sekimoto and Yoshihito Sasaki on the show.

Jun Kasai will be promoting his own show under the Apache Army name on December 25, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Due to a HUSTLE show taking place also on that day Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda are not being booked on the Apache Army show. Jun Kasai instead will hold a Jun Kasai Death Match Tournament on the show instead with 8 wrestlers wrestling possibly 3 matches on the show to win the one night tournament. Kasai, Mad Man Pondo, Takashi Sasaki, The Winger, Hido, Hi69, Saburo Inematsu, and Tomoaki Honma will be the 8 men on the show. Another wrestler might have to fill in for Hido due to injuries as well on the show. The expensive front row seats for the show have already been sold out. The first Apache Army Korakuen Hall show for 2007 which is on February 2nd will be entitled "Not for Sell". 

Added: 11/30

Hayabusa celebrated his 38th birthday on November 29th. He also revealed two new Hayabusa masks to the public. One would be a new red designed mask that he will wear in public. Hes been wearing the same white mask since his injury. A new blue mask used for matches was also revealed. 

This past year I got more reaction to the story and pictures of Hayabusa's trip to America than anything else in the last couple of years. More pictures of his trip to America as well as other pictures of him in Japan were released by his official photographer and friend Bonso. I have created a new page for the site that will consist of pictures of Hayabusa that can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Hayabusapictures.html  I will try to update it every now and then when more pictures become available. 

Added: 11/20

Kintaro Kanemura challenged for the WEW World Title for the first time since Togi Makabe won the title back on September 24, 2006 by facing Makabe in the main event of New Japan's LOCK UP show on November 18, 2006 in the main event. Kanemura was triple teamed early  in the as  Makabe ended up having help from Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano who interfered for Makabe and cut Kanemura up badly. Kanemura would fight back, but he odds were too much as Makabe would end up putting Kanemura away at 11 minutes with a knee drop. Makabe would insult the Apache Army fans after the match but Tetsuhiro Kuroda would hit the ring and announce that he would get the next shot at Makabe's WEW World Title and win back Kodo Fuyuki's title. Kuroda earned the right to face Makabe for the title next after defeating Toru Yano with a front cradle at 11 minutes, 47 seconds earlier in the show. 

Now with Tetsuhiro Kuroda as the number one contender for the WEW World Title, there has been a booking change for the upcoming Apache Army show on November 26th. Kanemura and Kuroda were originally to team with Mammoth Sasaki against Jun Kasai, Tomoaki Honma, and GENTARO but Kuroda and GENTARO have switched places and now Kuroda will captain the team of Jun Kasai and Tomoaki Honma against Kanemura, Mammoth Sasaki, and GENTARO in now what is a Hardcore Rules Match. The first singles match between Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda since April 29, 2003 will then take place on December 16, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba as well. Kuroda has not defeated Kanemura in a singles match since their FMW March 13, 2001 Korakuen Hall main event that saw Kuroda be hospitalized after an extremely deep cut. 

Today marks the 8th year anniversary of the site. This website originally started as just a small website on AOL with some FMW tapes for sale and covering the FMW 11/20/98 Yokohama Bunka Gym show has turned into one of the biggest, longest lasting Japanese wrestling sites on the internet. I am really proud of this site and I am always happy hearing the positive feedback towards the site because I really have spent countless hours and dollars making this site the best possible website to cover the history of FMW and the promotions that have followed it. Thank you to everyone who has visited the site over the last 8 years. 

Added: 11/17

WMF ran their November 4, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with the main drawing points being Tatsutoshi Goto returning to WMF to team with Soldier against Mr. Gannosuke and Mineo Fujita. Mineo Fujita would get his first big main event win over someone ranked above him by defeating Soldier with the Fire Bird Splash at 23 minutes, 20 seconds. Mineo Fujita will now face Soldier in the main event of the WMF December 9, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring a week before Soldier will face Jushin Thunder Liger in the main event of his own promoted show at his hometown of Toyohashi. Mr. Gannosuke will face his first big opponent when he faces Tatsutoshi Goto in the semi-main event of the December 9th show. The other big selling point of the November 4th show was the return of the Hayabusa gimmick to WMF. The only report of the man that was under the Hayabusa gimmick was that it was Hideki Hosaka under the mask teaming with GOEMON against Ricky Fuji and Gosaku. If it were Hosaka then the finish would make sense as Hayabusa pinned Gosaku with a hurricanrana at 15 minutes, 18 seconds which is Hosaka's only aerial offensive move. Gosaku will take on a mystery opponent in a Barbed wire Board Street Fight with the Hayabusa gimmick being predicted as the likely mystery opponent in the match. GOEMON and Onryo will return as a team once again this time to face Tomoya Adachi and Kamui (Kenji Sawaragi). Kyoko Kimura will face Kitten Kid, and Ricky Fuji will team up with WMF rookie Kenichi Kono against Katsura Hoshino and 666's Yuko Miyamoto in the opening match.

The Apache Army announced their upcoming shows for the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st with their upcoming show being on November 26th with Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki reforming their FMW team against the non FMW team of Jun Kasai, Tomoaki Honma, and GENTARO in the main event. Former WEW Tag Team Champions Takashi Sasaki and Hido will face off against each other in a Barbed wire Baseball Bat, Ladder, and Tables Death Match in the semi-main event. Their next shows after that will be December 16th and Christmas Day, December 25th at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Their return to Korakuen Hall will take place on February 2, 2007. It hasn't been announced official yet, but plans are still on for the May 5, 2007 Kawasaki Stadium show with the theme being a FMW Reunion show with Kanemura really interested in bringing back Super Leather for the show. 

A former FMW wrestler who will not be on the FMW Reunion show is Chocoball Mukai who has announced his retirement and will be producing his own show for the retirement on December 17, 2006 at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE with Mukai teaming up with his best FMW friend Mammoth Sasaki against another friend and long time rival Yuki Ishikawa as well as Ryuji Walters in the main event. Mukai has been injured with a hernia and will be officially ending his career at 7 years after debuting on September 24, 1999 in the main event of FMW's Korakuen Hall show teaming with Mr. Gannosuke as Hayabusa, Koji Nakagawa, Gedo against H, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Flying Kid Ichihara, and Yoshinori "Mammoth" Sasaki. 

Added: 11/3

The Apache Army held their November 2, 2006 "November Rain" Korakuen Hall show drawing an announced 1,050 fans to the show. Hiroyoshi Tenzan making his Apache Army debut teamed with WEW World Champion Togi Makabe and Shiro Koshinaka against the Apache Army team of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki in the main event. Tenzan went right after Kanemura as the match with all six wrestlers brawling around Korakuen Hall. Tenzan and Kanemura brawled around ringside while Kuroda and Makabe fought in the crowd with Kuroda delivering his running lariat through the aisles in the crowd. Mammoth and Koshinaka battled in the ring with Mammoth delivering a powerful supplex to Koshinaka. Kanemura and Makabe who have a rematch for the WEW World Title on November 18th met with each other and began brawling in the crowd as well as Kanemura delivered a dive off the top of entrance from the crowd sending Makabe through a table. Things seem to be going the Apache Army way with Mammoth delivering a Mammoth Home Run to Tenzan but things quickly turned in favor of the GBH group as Makabe began delivering lariats to Mammoth failing to knock him down on the ground. It took Makabe putting a chain around his arm and delivering a lariat to Mammoth with the chain knocking Mammoth out and allowing Makabe to score the pinfall. Tenzan would deliver the Anaconda Vice on Kanemura preventing him from making the save for Mammoth while Koshinaka held on to Kuroda's leg preventing him from making the save as well as the GBH would come away with the victory at 17 minutes, 19 seconds. Tenzan would get on the mic and begin taunting the Apache Army crowd calling the Apache Army wrestlers weak and how he has tarnished himself working in a Apache Army ring in front of such filthy fans. The Apache Army would finally group together and chase off the New Japan group with Kanemura grabbing the mic and state that there's no chance that Makabe is going to escape out of the New Japan LOCK UP show still the champion before doing the TNR Dance with the rest of the Apache Army members. 

Takashi Sasaki squared off against Jun Kasai in the semi-main event in a rematch of their April 14th Korakuen Hall Death Match. This time the match would be a Barbed wire Board Glass Death Match. Kasai would end up sending Sasaki through the barbed wire board early in the match. Kasai would then setup Sasaki outside the ring on a table as Kasai would go back in the ring and climb up a ladder and dive off the ladder sending Sasaki through a table. Sasaki would fight back and set up a plate of the glass up on two chairs and powerbomb Kasai through the plate glass cutting Kasai's back badly. Sasaki would then throw the shattered plate glass in Kasai's face and then deliver the D-Geist kick but still fail to score the victory over Kasai. Kasai would make his come back and deliver knock out Sasaki and then place both the shattered glass as well as the barbed wire board on top of Sasaki and then deliver the Pearl Harbor Splash on Sasaki and manage to score his revenge victory at 18 minutes, 19 seconds for the win.

GENTARO managed to defeat Hi69 in the a excellent match with GENTARO pulling out his Bret Hart offense including a figure four around the ring post and the Sharpshooter. Hi69 would fight back by delivering a Shining Wizard, but GENTARO would get the victory using the Shooting Star Press at 23 minutes, 14 seconds. WEW Tag Team Champion Tomoaki Honma teamed up with Saburo Inematsu to face off against the team of Hido and The Winger with The Winger getting his first victory since returning to the Apache Army by hitting a diving senton on Inematsu for the win at 13 minutes, 39 seconds in a Hardcore Rules Match. The team of NOSAWA Rongai, Shinjuku Shark, and Yuu Yamagata defeated the team of Tomohiko Hashimoto, MIYAWAKI, and Naoshi Sano when NOSAWA getting the Cross Armbreaker on Sano to force him to tap at 16 minutes, 15 seconds in the opening match of the show. 

WMF announced a show for December 17th in Toyohashi with the show being the first show promoted by Soldier. The show will be in Soldier's home town and he will wrestle in the biggest match of his career when he faces New Japan's Jushin Thunder Liger in the main event. Mr. Gannosuke has promoted every WMF show since Laing, Inc. pulled out in May 2005 other then two promoted shows by Gosaku Goshogawara on August 27, 2005 in Aomori and March 27, 2006 in Akita. 

Added: 10/24

Kintaro Kanemura gained a small bit of revenge on Togi Makabe on October 21, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring by teaming up with fellow Apache Army member Mammoth Sasaki to defeat the team of the WEW World Champion Togi Makabe and Daisuke Sekimoto when Kanemura pinned Sekimoto with the Bakku YAMA Senton Special at 12 minutes, 54 seconds. Makabe afterwards announced what most already knew would happen when he revealed that his partner alongside himself and Shiro Koshinaka would be friend Hiroyoshi Tenzan against Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki in a battle of FMW vs. New Japan pretty much for November 2nd at Korakuen Hall. Kintaro Kanemura will be getting a rematch for his WEW World Title on November 18th at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for New Japan's LOCK UP show against Togi Makabe. 

It was also announced after the show that Togi Makabe was taking over leadership of Takashi Sasaki's group and that it would be called TPB. The group consists of Togi Makabe, Takashi Sasaki, Hido, Daisuke Sekimoto, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Hi69, Katsumasa Inoue, and The Winger. 

Super Leather is alive. Mike Kirschner let everyone know that he was still alive yesterday and that WWE.com had sent out a fake report about his death. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer which is the source I used to trust the information followed suit by releasing the incorrect information. Of course, I find out about it being fake after I told Mr. Gannosuke that his former Funk Masters of Wrestling partner had passed away who also told Hayabusa who wrote how Gannosuke sent him the information that Super Leather had died and how saddened he was that another person in the FMW family had died. I sent out the information to Gannosuke that the news was false, and he let it know to everyone that Super Leather was not dead. Hayabusa followed by posting the good news on his blog. I don't know if Gannosuke sent Kanemura the information or if Kanemura just heard it from other sources online but he held a ten bell salute for Mike Kirschner before the October 21, 2006 Apache Army show. After the show, Kanemura found out about the news being false and sent out a note apologizing for the confusion and just by going by the information that he heard.  

Two days ago marked the fifth year of Hayabusa's paralyzing injury. I still remember coming home and reading the result of the match that day and knowing something was wrong just by the time of the match and that it was a no contest for a main event at Korakuen Hall. Then to read Hayabusa suffered a head injury, then to read about that the injury was a worse case scenario, and then to find pictures of the accident all within an hour span. Hayabusa has gone through so many battles these last five years between almost dying when the germs at the hospital got into his heart, divorcing his wife, and still randomly catching himself crying when he's alone. I personally respect him as much as anything not because of what a wrestler he is, but because of everything that life can throw at him and he can still put a smile on things. I know I am not the only one, but I very much look forward to the thing that he will be able to walk back in the ring in the Hayabusa costume and be introduced one last time as Hayabusa by the ring announcer because it's going to happen eventually. Hayabusa recently wrote how about the five year mark as well stating that he has never seen the footage of the injury as a personal choice of his although he can go back and reflect calmly on everything that happened that day. 

Added: 10/20

 Mike Kirschner wrestled in Calgary Stampede, WWF, USWA, and then W*ING. He became the first wrestler in Japan to wrestle as Leatherface in Japan while in W*ING in 1992. He did not last long however as he ended up getting thrown in jail for six months for punching a photographer in the face while at bar, breaking many of a Japanese mans facial bones with the punch. Rick Patterson from Canada was called to come in and take over for Spear. Doug Gilbert would also eventually play the role as Leatherface while in W*ING. After W*ING folded, the new IWA Japan promotion picked up Patterson as Leatherface where the gimmick began to take off in popularity. Spear ended up coming in for one match for IWA Japan where he teamed up with Patterson to form a Leatherface team. That would be the only match in IWA Japan for Spear as he would get fired for attacking Hiroshi Ono in a match in IWA. He would eventually get contacted by FMW for work. FMW seeing the popularity of Leatherface in IWA Japan would try to capitalize on the popularity by having their own Leatherface gimmick with Spear playing it and being called Super Leather. Super Leather would make his FMW debut on June 27, 1995 at Korakuen Hall with the W*ING team as their surprise partner along with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Hido to defeat the Lethal Weapon team of Mr. Pogo, The Gladiator, and Horace Boulder with Super Leather carrying his chainsaw and fighting all over the building. 

Although Super Leather never was as popular as the IWA Leatherface, he still pushed as one of the top guys in FMW for his first year. He was inserted in the Grand Slam Tournament for the vacant FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title getting wins over Katsutoshi Niiyama, Masato Tanaka, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, W*ING Kanemura, and Hayabusa. He would fail to make the finals of the tournament after getting knocked out by losing to The Gladiator on September 24, 1995 in his last round robin match. Super Leather would show loyalty with Hido after Hido would split from the rest of W*ING after the W*ING team had sided with the FMW team to battle Lethal Weapon. The faction between FMW and W*ING against Lethal Weapon would not last long though as W*ING would turn on FMW, and Hido and Super Leather would turn on Lethal Weapon to reunite as W*ING and this time battle against FMW and Lethal Weapon. 

Super Leather would win his first FMW title with fellow W*ING partner Jason the Terrible against Hisakatsu Oya and Horace Boulder after Leather would pin Oya to win the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title on January 5, 1996. Super Leather's biggest win of his career in FMW would take place on February 23, 1996 after defeating Hisakatsu Oya to win the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship as Oya was defending the title for fellow Lethal Weapon partner The Gladiator who had a injured knee. The Gladiator would come back still not recovered from his injury to try and win back the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title on March 15, 1996 in Sapporo, but Super Leather would go right after the The Gladiator's injured knee and defend his title successfully over the former champion. Super Leather and Jason the Terrible would lose the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles to The Headhunters on March 30, 1996 with Super Leather turning on Jason afterwards and siding with Victor Quinones' Puerto Rican Army. Super Leather benefited greatly with Victor Quinones back in FMW as Quinones made it an issue to push all of the foreigners on the roster and loved the horror movie gimmicks as Quinones would also bring in foreigners to play Freddy Krueger and the Crypt Keeper as well. Super Leather would team up with The Headhunters to win the brand new FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Championships after defeating the Lethal Weapon team of The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya, and Horace Boulder on May 5, 1996 at Kawasaki Stadium in a match that would go all over the stadium before Leather would pin Boulder with the Tombstone Piledriver to become a part of the first FMW 6 Man Tag Team Champions.

It was the second time in 1996 that Super Leather was a double champion in FMW, but it would not last long as a fully recovered The Gladiator would come back and win back the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title on May 27, 1996 in Fukouka after delivering a Kamikaze Awesome Bomb to Super Leather to win back the title. He would not hold the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Titles that much longer either as the team of Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would win the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Titles from Super Leather and The Headhunters on June 28, 1996. 

Super Leather would be inserted in the 8 man elimination tournament for the brand new FMW Independent Heavyweight Title as he would defeat Hido in the first round, but end up losing to W*ING Kanemura on July 21, 1996 in the semi-finals as it looked like Super Leather being pushed as a top wrestler in FMW was over. Super Leather would be given another shot at the FMW Brass Knuckles Title but would once again lose to The Gladiator on September 1, 1996 in Nagoya. The Puerto Rican Army that Super Leather had sided with would become the Funk Masters of Wrestling as Terry Funk had become official leader of the group as well the Lethal Weapon group of The Gladiator and Horace Boulder would join the group. Although apart of the lead heel group Super Leather would not be pushed as a meaningful person in the group as he would just work the opening match to the FMW December 11, 1996 show at Komazawa with Crypt Keeper defeating the W*ING team of Hideki Hosaka and Dragon Winger. Super Leather would lose to Michinoku Pro's Jinsei Shinzaki for his first FMW match in years on April 29, 1997 at the Yokohama Arena in a meaningless midcard match. The departure of Victor Quinones from FMW after the Kawasaki Stadium show on September 28, 1997 would pretty much end any chance of another push for Super Leather as many of the FMW wrestlers in charge wanted the real FMW wrestlers in top positions pretty much ending the pushes for all the foreigners. The official end to the Funk Masters of Wrestling would take place on October 21, 1997 as The Gladiator and Super Leather would accidentally collide with one another in a match against Mr. Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya. The Gladiator would take exception and Awesome Bomb Super Leather helping Oya get the pin on Super Leather. The Gladiator would officially announce the end of the Funk Masters of Wrestling and join the ZEN group later on the show. Super Leather would side with Kodo Fuyuki's new Fuyuki Army along with Jado and Gedo as the faction that hated both FMW and ZEN. 

Super Leather's career in FMW was going nowhere fast as he was pretty much relegated to squash matches against Flying Kid Ichihara. The Fuyuki Army that he was apart of would eventually merged with Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, and Hido to form Team No Respect on January 7, 1998. He would officially become a member of Team No Respect after the group would help him get a count out victory over Jinsei Shinzaki on March 13, 1998 in Sapporo as Gannosuke and Shinzaki would battle outside the building in the snow to help give Leather the win. Super Leather would team with brand new Team No Respect member Horace Boulder and get the victory over the ZEN team of The Gladiator and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on April 30, 1998 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym after Boulder would get the victory over Kuroda in his last FMW match before joining WCW. Team No Respect would eventually begin to get frustrated with Super Leather's win/loss ratio and announce a match against Hido for June 19, 1998 at Korakuen Hall with the loser getting fired from Team No Respect. The TNR members would show who they wanted to stay and leave in the match as they would attack Super Leather during the match and help Hido get the win. Team No Respect manager Go Ito would take great pleasure in firing Super Leather from Team No Respect by announcing to the crowd over the mic. Super Leather would leave the ring in a rage. Later in the show, The Gladiator would give Super Leather the advice to drop the stupid mask and wrestle showing his own face. Super Leather would wrestle for the first time without the mask on July 10, 1998 at Korakuen Hall and get revenge on Hido for the embarrassing loss. Super Leather would also join the FMW faction for the first time in his three years with the FMW promotion. Being a face would not do much for Super Leather's career as he would eventually leave the FMW faction and put back on the leatherface mask. 

Super Leather would be by himself, but not for long as after being defeated by Hayabusa on January 9, 1999 in Kisaradu, Mr. Gannosuke would attack Hayabusa and look for help from Super Leather which he would get as the two loners of Gannosuke and Super Leather had no formed an alliance. The alliance would eventually see Hisakatsu Oya and Hideki Hosaka join to become Gannosuke's Outlaws. Super Leather and Hideki Hosaka would enter the FMW Tag Team Round Robin Tournament for the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles but would do very poorly only getting a victory over Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido on the last day of the tournament. Super Leather would once again be by himself as Mr. Gannosuke would disband his group of outlaws to reform with Team No Respect on May 5, 1999. Super Leather would team up with the returning Sabu to challenge for the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles on June 15, 1999 at Korakuen Hall against Koji Nakagawa and Gedo, but Leather and Sabu could not work as a team together and Gedo would eventually get the pinfall victory over Super Leather. 

Super Leather's last notable run in FMW would be teaming with the Armageddon team which consisted now of WWE's Umaga and All Japan's RO-Z to enter into the WEW 6 Man Tag Team Tournament for the brand new WEW 6 Man Tag Team Titles. The tournament would consist of a round robin style, but only for the placement of how the matches would go for the single elimination tournament held at Korakuen Hall. Super Leather and Armageddon would score a major upset on July 19, 1999 in Gifu by defeating the team of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda after Super Leather would put away Kuroda with the Tombstone Piledriver. They would not have the same success the next two nights after the team of Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura, and Jado would defeat them on July 20, 1999 with Kanemura pinning Armageddon # 2, and then losing to the team of Kodo Fuyuki, Koji Nakagawa, and Gedo on July 21, 1999 with Super Leather getting DQ'd to cost his team. They would enter into July 31, 1999 at Korakuen Hall with only two matches making them tied for last place with Hayabusa, Tanaka, and Kuroda meaning those two teams would have to win a three match gauntlet to become the WEW 6 Man Tag Team Champions. Super Leather and Armageddon would not be able to get out of the first match as Hayabusa, Tanaka, and Kuroda would put them away quickly in just over four minutes as Hayabusa would pin Super Leather with the Fire Bird Splash in what would be the end to anything notable for Super Leather's FMW career. Super Leather would team with Chris Youngblood for one more FMW tour at the end of August and early September with his last FMW match taking place on September 3, 1999 in Hokkaido with Jado and Gedo defeating Super Leather and Chris Youngblood with Gedo pinning Super Leather in his last FMW match. 

Super Leather would never return to FMW after that due to most likely financial issues for both sides. FMW would eventually bring in the former IWA Leatherface Rick Patterson in December 2001 and would use him until the last FMW show on February 4, 2002 as it marked the only time FMW ever had a wrestler under the name "Leatherface"

The Apache Army announced the lineup for the November 2, 2006 Korakuen Hall "November Rain" show. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda announced that their partner for the main event would be Mammoth Sasaki. Togi Makabe and Shiro Koshinaka still have not announced their partner yet. Kanemura requested that it be Hiroyoshi Tenzan as Tenzan recently formed an alliance with Makabe and Koshinaka in New Japan. 

Added: 10/6

After attending WWE's SummerSlam in Boston, Massachusetts on August 20th, Hayabusa stayed the night at a Boston hotel before making a bus trip to Bridgeport, Connecticut to attend the next nights RAW on August 21st. Hayabusa once again along with Fumi Saito and photographer MIBU received backstage passes for the show from Johnny Ace. Jeff Hardy who was returning to the WWE that night and thus did not get to meet Hayabusa the night earlier at SummerSlam came up to Hayabusa and showed him much praise and respect. Everyone spent the night in Bridgeport before leaving at 8 AM the next day for WWE's SmackDown and ECW tapings on August 22nd in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on their bus. They stopped at Stanford, Connecticut to visit WWE headquarters to meet with people working in the building as well as look at the many wrestling pictures on the wall. After leaving the office building, they stopped to get some food at Subway. They also got Starbucks as Hayabusa was amazed at the idea of ice in hot coffee. 

After filling up they were once again at another airport, this time they would head to New York where their scheduled flight at the LaGuardia Airport in Queens was scheduled for. The group would take a tour of the area. Hayabusa would get to see Central Park while passing on the bus which holds a significant memory for him as the place John Lennon was sniped. They would stop in Times Square and collect many New York souvenirs as well as stop at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant. After eating, they would head to their flight and drive two hours to the SmackDown and ECW tapings in Wilkes Barre. Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam, and Eddie Fatu now known as Umaga all visited Hayabusa as they all partnered or faced Hayabusa while in FMW during their careers. Hayabusa was very happy to talk to Eddie Fatu as they were always close during Fatu's time in FMW as Armageddon # 1 and Eddie Samoan in 1999 and 2000. WWE Divas also came by and greeted Hayabusa as one of the women actually knew a little bit of Japanese and was able to talk to Hayabusa before the show started. After Smackdown ended, the ECW stage was setup quickly and the ECW show started with Hayabusa hearing the "ECW! ECW!" and "Holy shit!" chants from the back. After the show ended, Hayabusa went to the same hotel that the wrestlers were staying at in Wilkes Barre. Hayabusa met with Rey Mysterio without his mask this time for the first time. Sabu then came up to him and began leading him to the restaurant of the hotel and stated "Brother, sit here" as Sabu and Hayabusa ate their meal together which Sabu got drunk during. Hayabusa was amazed how much Sabu was able to eat, but then could not turn down Sabu's offer to drink Tequila together as they took shots together as it was the first time the two friends had ever drank together. The entire trip made Hayabusa once again feel like a pro wrestler. It was the only night that Hayabusa drank while in America, but it was also the most fun night and the last night while in America. Hayabusa, Fumi Saito, MIBU, and Michael all left for Japan early the next morning and returned to their home country on August 24th. Hayabusa would like to thank everyone he met, saw, and got a chance to talk to while in America as it was a very positive experience for him overall and hopes to return to the country once again soon. 

WMF ran their September 30, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show which turned out to be a successful show drawing around 300 fans. All the full time WMF wrestlers wrestled twice on the show with the main event being Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Camiod defeating the team of Mr. Gannosuke, Ricky Fuji, and Gosaku Goshogawara with Soldier getting the victory over Gannosuke using Gannosuke's own finisher the Gannosuke Clutch on himself for the win at 15 minutes, 15 seconds. After the match, all six wrestlers showed respect upon another by shaking each others hands and raising their hands in victory. The next WMF show to take place will be October 15, 2006 at the Osaka Delfin Arena with Soldier and Camiod teaming up to take on Mineo Fujita who has become an Osaka Pro regular along with Osaka Pro's Tiger Mask in the main event. Mr. Gannosuke will take on 666's and former WMF Dojo graduate Yuko Miyamoto in the semi-main event. Ricky Fuji and Flying Kid Ichihara will reunite their FMW tag team by teaming up together to take on Osaka Pro's Atsushi Kotoge and 666's Shinobu. It will be Ichihara's first appearance in WMF in over a year as he has become a full time Osaka Pro wrestler as Ebessan and only works for WMF when they come to the building that he works almost every weekend throughout the year at. 

Added: 9/27

Hayabusa recently wrote about his trip to America last month. Hayabusa's trip started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 19th where was scheduled to his sit down interview at 10 AM. Due to being Philadelphia, he wanted to see the Rocky Balboa statue before the interview as he feels that there was no Rocky Balboa character there would be no Hayabusa. Hayabusa who was a big Sylvester Stallone fan growing up had a Stallone poster as his two favorite movies were Rocky and Rambo II as a kid. Hayabusa feels that Stallone's body is the body that he wanted to achieve while weight training during his early days for him to be able to gain enough weight to become a pro wrestler. He wasn't able to go see the statue as he had to have breakfast with Fumi Saito and be at the studios to tape the interview for 10 but the crew ended up taking extra time setting up the background set and the interview did not get started until 11 AM. Hayabusa admits to doing the interview for all his fans, but that seeing the Rocky Balboa statue was the top priority on his mind during the interview and was saddened that the interview lasted until 1:30 PM and it was too late for him to go see the statue. He had to arrive at the ECW Arena for the PWU show at 4 PM as he took a taxi to the building but due to being early was able to stop by at a local sports bar right next to the building. Hayabusa then went into the ECW Arena with Fumi Saito and met with the promoter who went over with him about his singing during the show. The promoter (Tod Gordon?) then asked for him to sign autographs before the show. Hayabusa agreed and was surprised by all the Hayabusa merchandise to the show including his masks, figures, t-shirts, and FMW items as well. He felt bad that he was not able to understand a lot of the fans who used difficult English around him and was quiet as a result. He came out after the first match was announced as "Japanese legend Hayabusa" and received a standing ovation. He then sang one of his songs from his recent CD and knew that a lot of the meaning was lost due to nobody in the crowd understanding Japanese as it got very quiet during the song, but afterwards received another loud ovation from the crowd. Hayabusa then stood up which received another loud ovation. Hayabusa was overall happy with the response from the crowd despite barely having wrestled in the states, and even shocked to see one fan had a Hayabusa tattoo on his body. Hayabusa stayed backstage and watched the rest of the show on the monitor until getting 200 dollars for his performance and taking a taxi back to his hotel. He had dinner at 12:30 AM with Fumi Saito at the restaurant in the hotel where he was told his schedule for the upcoming day that would start at 3 AM. Hayabusa would only get to take a two hour cat nap before having to get ready for another day in the United States. 

The alarm clock went off at 3 AM as Hayabusa got ready to leave Philadelphia as there was a bus outside the hotel waiting for everyone to take them to the airport. They flew out of Philadelphia and into the Detroit airport which he barely remembers anything about before flying to Boston. They tried checking into a hotel but apparently were too early for their room. So in the mean time Hayabusa went to a supermarket in Boston to buy food. It turned out to be a wise move on Hayabusa's part to stop at the grocery store and buy Corn Flakes, mayonnaise, mustard, and bread as they ended up not being able to find the restaurant in Boston. They would finally be allowed into their hotel room. Hayabusa would make himself a sandwich and then get ready to attend the WWE SummerSlam event at the former Fleet Center. Due to the show being a big event, the security was incredible as Hayabusa met with Johnny Ace first to be allowed backstage for the event. While backstage Hayabusa would see Sabu in person as Hayabusa would say "Brother!" with Sabu replying "SuperStar!" which caused a smile on Hayabusa's face as they both went into the waiting room together. While talking Hayabusa realized that Sabu had not changed at all in the fourteen years that they had known each other. While talking with Sabu a voice of "Hayabusa" would appear from the background as it was Rey Mysterio, Jr. who had trained with Hayabusa in Tijuana in 1993 seeing each other for the first time in over ten years. Mysterio would kneel to Hayabusa and begin talking with him as both would begin getting teary eyed as the two talked in person for the first time in a decade. Hayabusa couldn't believe that this sixteen year old he knew while training in Tijuana would become one of the biggest starts in wrestling today but couldn't be more proud of his old friend. Hayabusa then watched the show backstage while eating more than he has in years including hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato chips. After the show, Sabu met up with Hayabusa and introduced Hayabusa to WWE owner Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon who took a picture with Hayabusa and shook his hand. After the McMahons left, Fumi Saito introduced Hayabusa to John Cena who greeted each other before other wrestlers like Edge and Lita came up to Hayabusa to greet him as well and many other WWE wrestlers wanting a chance to get to meet with the former FMW legend.

Added: 9/26

Kintaro Kanemura resurrected the WEW World Title for the first time in three years to make his match against New Japan's Togi Makabe a title match. Kanemura vacated the title after WEW became the Fuyuki Army and was challenging Makabe for the right to be the WEW World Champion for a fourth time. The last time the WEW World Title was defended was Kanemura defending against Tetsuhiro Kuroda on April 29, 2003 on the first WEW show since Fuyuki's death. The main event was a Barricade Chain Death Match with Makabe taking full advantage of the stipulation by choking out Kanemura with the chain. Both men bled during the match, but Kanemura's cut was a gusher with blood pouring down his face most of the match. Makabe ended up finishing off Kanemura with three straight lariats to get the victory at 14 minutes, 40 seconds to win the WEW World Title and bring it to New Japan. The title win meant the first for Makabe's career. Kanemura then announced that he would get revenge later on in the day as he would be traveling to New Japan in Osaka in a match that Togi Makabe would also be apart of. The rest of the Apache Army would enter the ring and do the TNR Dance to end the show. 

Tetsuhiro Kuroda faced Shiro Koshinaka in the semi-main event in the straight match between two matches. Kuroda who came out to Nobuhiko Takada's ring music to play head games with Koshinaka as he and Takada had a rivalry years ago. The finish would be no surprise at all as Koshinaka would end up pinning Kuroda at 13 minutes, 45 seconds with a powerbomb. Koshinaka is just another added to the list of high level wrestlers that Kuroda has lost singles matches to since FMW folded in 2002 with the likes of Shinya Hashimoto, Satoshi Kojima, Takao Omori, Shinjiro Otani, Masato Tanaka, and Akira Taue being on that list. 

Takashi Sasaki and Hido would defend their WEW Tag Team Titles for the first time against the newly formed former Big Japan wrestlers team of Jun Kasai and Tomoaki Honma in a Ladder Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. Hido would focus on cutting Kasai's forehead early with a knife to get blood. Kasai would end up using the ladder to hit the Pearl Harbor Splash on Hido to score the victory at 20 minutes, 22 seconds to become the new WEW Tag Team Champions with Honma. 

Mammoth Sasaki would once again face off against Daisuke Sekimoto, but this time the match would be a tag as Mammoth would team up with fellow Apache Army wrestler GENTARO against Sekimoto and Hi69. GENTARO would end up scoring the victory Hi69 using the Gedo Clutch to get the win at 16 minutes, 14 seconds.

Once the Apache Army Korakuen Hall show was over around 3 that afternoon the group of Kanemura, Kuroda, Makabe, Koshinaka, Hido, and Tomohiko Hashimoto would all travel to Osaka to participate in New Japan's last match on the show at the Osaka Prefectural Gym entitled "LOCK UP's Survival Go to Hell Elimination" match. The rules would be that there would be six teams participating in the match. The team would only be officially eliminated from the match after both members of each team were pinned, submitted, or thrown over the top rope. The teams consisted of Kanemura and Kuroda, Makabe and Koshinaka, Jado and Gedo, Riki Choshu and Daisaku Shimoda, Hido and his mystery partner Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii. Tomohiko Hashimoto would be the first one eliminated after Riki Choshu would quickly put him away with the lariat. Kanemura would eliminate former Fuyuki Army rookie Daisaku Shimoda after nailing the Blast YAMA Senton Special for the elimination. Hido's team would be the first officially eliminated after all the wrestlers gathered together to pin Hido at the same time. The upset of the match would be all the wrestlers going after Riki Choshu to eventually setup Gedo nailing the Super Fly Splash on him for the elimination. Koshinaka would then follow by doing what he had done earlier by pinning Kuroda to eliminate him using the running hip attack. Koshinaka would not make it much longer as he would be pinned by Toru Yano after a spear. Yano would then finish off Jado with a Uragasumi. Yano's partner would then eliminate Gedo just seconds later leaving Ishii and Yano to team up against Kanemura as well as Makabe. Makabe and Kanemura would not even try to get along and team up to try and take out the tag team and as a result Makabe would once again pin Kanemura on the day after delivering a German Supplex for the elimination. Makabe would then be a sitting duck and could not overcome the Yano and Ishii tag team as Yano would put away Makabe with the Oni Koroshi for the final elimination giving the tag team of Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii the win. 

It was announced that Togi Makabe would be returning to the next Apache Army show on October 21, 2006 at Korakuen Hall with Makabe teaming up with Daisuke Sekimoto against Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki in the main event. Takashi Sasaki and Hido will get to have a win back at the expense of Jun Kasai as he will team up with Saburo Inematsu in the semi-main event in a match that will have barbed wire boards, ladders, and tables. The main event for the upcoming Apache Army November 2, 2006 Korakuen Hall show called "November Rain" will be Kanemura and Kuroda getting another shot at Makabe and Koshinaka with this time both teams having mystery partners to choose from. Takashi Sasaki will face off against Jun Kasai in a singles Death Match in a rematch of their April 14, 2006 Korakuen Hall Death Match that saw Sasaki come out the winner after Hi69 turned on Kasai to join up with Sasaki. 

WMF announced the full lineup of their September 30, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show with the WMF regulars of Mr. Gannosuke, Soldier, Mineo Fujita, Camoid, Gosaku Goshogawara working double duty on the show. The former FMW team of Mr. Gannosuke, Ricky Fuji, and Gosaku Goshogawara will team up in the main event to face off against the WMF youngster team of Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Camoid. Camoid who just made his debut last month will also be wrestling in the regular high flying match on the card teaming up with Asian Cooger and Yuko Miyamoto against GOEMON, Onryo, and Tomoya Adachi. It marks the first time in well over a year that GOEMON and Onryo will be reforming their tag team that resurrected Koji Nakagawa's career six years ago. 

Added: 9/13

Kintaro Kanemura held an Apache Army workout session on September 5, 2006 where he announced the lineup for the upcoming Korakuen Hall show on September 24th. Both Tetsuhiro Kuroda and GENTARO worked out for the cameras to show they are getting ready for their upcoming matches. Kanemura then afterwards announced that he planned on running an Apache Army show at Kawasaki Stadium for May 5, 2007. The main event would also be an Exploding Death Match. The last show put on at Kawasaki Stadium was for the last Fuyuki Army show on May 5, 2004 with Kanemura and Hido taking on Riki Choshu and Tomohiro Ishii in the main event in a show that bombed. The last exploding match was an Exploding Barbed wire Death Match was Kanemura taking on the late Shinya Hashimoto on May 5, 2003 in the main event where both men holding the late Kodo Fuyuki's ashes and sending themselves into the exploding barbed for Fuyuki's ashes to spread all over the ring. Nothing has been finalized as of yet though. The Apache Army Korakuen Hall show on November 2nd will be called "November Rain". 

WMF announced a partial lineup for its upcoming September 30, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show as Mr. Gannosuke, Mineo Fujita, and Soldier will all wrestle twice on the show. The undercard lineup matches with the three were the only matches announced. Mr. Gannosuke will take on rookie Kenichi Kono in Kono's biggest match of his short career. Soldier and Mineo Fujita will team up to take on Lingerie Muto and the Kitten Kid in which as of right now is the main event of the show. Osaka Pro's MASAMUNE will take on the demonic character making his debut as Helter Skeltar. 

Big Japan held its first Yokohama Bunka Gym show of the year on September 10, 2006 announcing a dissapointing crowd of 2500 which if that is legit is only a little over half of what the building can hold usually (4900). Ryuji Ito walked out of the Yokohama Bunka Gym once again as the Big Japan King of the Death Match Champion after defeating Takashi Sasaki once again in a rematch of their June 8, 2005 Yokohama Bunka Gym title Death Match. Ito defeated his friend Sasaki in a Super High Ladder Fluorescent Light Tubes Double Hell Barbed wire Death Match with the Half Nelson Supplex on the broken glass in the ring for the victory at 22 minutes, 27 seconds. Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated the team of Daisuke Sekimoto and Zero-One MAX's Yoshihito Sasaki in what was the longest match of the show when Tanaka hit the Rolling Elbow on Sekimoto for the finish at 22 minutes, 47 seconds. Mammoth Sasaki and Shadow WX defended their Big Japan Tag Team Titles for the third time by defeating the Big Japan tag team of Men's Teioh and Onryo when Mammoth hit the 29 Years Old on his former FMW and WMF friend Onryo for the win at 16 minutes, 43 seconds. The tag team of Jun Kasai and Naoki Numazawa defeated the young team of 666's Yuko Miyamoto and Union Pro's isami in a School of Madness Death Match when Kasai hit a Last Ride Powerbomb on isami on a barbed wire board for the win at 18 minutes, 44 seconds.

Added: 9/9

Kintaro Kanemura participated in the 20th HUSTLE House show at Korakuen Hall on September 7, 2006 in front of a sold out crowd. Although Kanemura would have Naoya Ogawa and Shinjiro Otani as his partners, the competition of former All Japan Triple Crown Champions Toshiaki Kawada and Genichiro Tenryu as well as Commander An Joe would turn out to be too much for Kanemura. Kanemura would take several of Tenryu's hard chops to the chest, followed by the enziguri kick to the head by Kawada before Tenryu would finish off Kanemura with the Bond of Monster for the pinfall at 15 minutes, 16 seconds. The next HUSTLE show will be HUSTLE-19 on October 6th at the Osaka Prefectural Gym, although no match for Kanemura has been announced yet. 

The Apache Army announced the full lineup for their September 24, 2006 Korakuen Hall show starting at Noon. The main event will be Kintaro Kanemura facing off against New Japan's Togi Makabe in a Street Fight Barbed wire Barricade Chain Death Match. Tetsuhiro Kuroda will get the chance to job to Shiro Koshinaka in the semi-main event which will be the straight match between two Death Matches on the card. The WEW Tag Team Titles will be on the line as Takashi Sasaki and Hido who are undefeated as a teag team will defend their titles for the first time against Jun Kasai and Tomoaki Honma who both made their debut in Big Japan. The match will be a Street Fight Ladder Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match with the barbed wire baseball being held above the ring. Mammoth Sasaki will face off against Daisuke Sekimoto again, but this time in a tag team match as Mammoth will team up with GENTARO to face Sekimoto and Hi69. Shinjuku Shark will team up with K-Dojo's Yuu Yamagata to take on Naoshi Sano and K-Dojo's MIYAWAKI. The opening match will consist of Tomohiko Hashimoto facing off against the returning Winger who was originally a full time Apache Army wrestler late in 2004, and early 2005. 

Winger will also be returning to Big Japan tomorrow on September 10, 2005 for Big Japan's big show at the Yokohama Bunka Gym by replacing Abdullah Kobayashi who injured his tendon and had to go through surgery this past week. Winger will be teaming up with Daikokubo Benkei against MIYAWAKI and Yuichi Taniguchi for the opening match. Kintaro Kanemura will team up with his Big Japan tag team partner Asian Cougar and isami to take on the young boy team of Katsumasa Inoue, Hiroyuki Kondo, and MASDA. Jun Kasai and Naoki Numazawa will team up against 666's Yuko Miyamoto who has impressed many in Big Japan with his talent and isami in Miyamoto and isami's first Death Matches of their careers. Mammoth Sasaki and Shadow WX will defend their Big Japan Tag Team Titles for the 3rd time against the Big Japan tag team of Onryo and Men's Teioh. It will be Mammoth and Shadow WX's first title defense since March 31st. Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda who have been tag teaming on and off since 1993 in FMW will reform their tag team against Daisuke Sekimoto and former FMW young boy Yoshihito Sasaki in the semi-main event and the expected best actual in ring wrestling match of the show. The main event will be Takashi Sasaki defending his Big Japan King of the Death Match title for the second time against Big Japan ace Ryuji Ito in a Death Match. It will be Takashi Sasaki's chance to gain revenge on Ito for defeating Sasaki last year on June 8th at the same Yokohama Bunka Gym for the Big Japan King of the Death Match title. It will be Sasaki's first defense since June 26th. 

Added: 9/1

Hayabusa sat down for a two hour interview on August 19, 2006 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and gave his first interview in America since his injury about his life and his career with Fumi Saito as his translator.

Eiji Ezaki started watching wrestling around 2-3 grade. His first favorite wrestler was Mil Mascaras and then it became Tiger Mask. He didn't get a chance to go to live shows often due to living in the small town of Kumamoto though. His Grandfather took him to his first live show which was a woman's wrestling show in the late 70's. He didn't feel he would ever be a wrestler as when he was 22 years old he was only 165 pounds and too skinny for wrestling. He was on the Judo team in high school and only made up his mind to become a wrestler the week before entering the FMW Dojo. After finishing college he still didn't know what he wanted to be. He had a regular job lined up but three days before Gannosuke who had been his friend become of their interested in wrestling since 18 called him and told him they should try out for FMW. He originally said no to Gannosuke causing Gannosuke to hang up on Ezaki. He then thought about it that night and the next day told Gannosuke he was going to come with him to Tokyo. He packed one weeks worth of clothes and went with Gannosuke to the FMW Dojo. He had heard about the one year old FMW promotion but was never an Onita fan and never really liked him as a wrestler because he was such a Tiger Mask fan at a young age and Onita was All Japan's answer to Tiger Mask back then. It just happened to be FMW that he auditioned for. Tarzan Goto was his instructor and about 40 people were in his tryout class. They were to do 500 squats and 100 situps to show what they were about and only Ezaki and Gannosuke made it out of that class. He didn't think he was going to make it as he just wanted to convince himself he tried something as he was 22 years old and had never decided anything on his own and it was okay if he failed with no regrets. It was unreal when Tarzan Goto told him he passed. He was so shocked he said "what?" when he was told he had passed and Goto replied "What? You don't want it?" which Ezaki quickly replied with "Yes, I accept." He then began living in the FMW Dojo as you would wake up at 6 AM and have a morning workout and breakfast. You then would have a day job and go to work for a small office until 5 PM and get groceries before 6 PM when you would start working out again until 11 PM. Then you cook, eat, and clean and don't get to bed until 2 AM from Monday to Saturday. Sundays would be the only day off to catch back up on sleep. Hayabusa didn't understand why on Monday through Saturday you work from 6 PM to 11 but on Sundays your curfew to be back in the Dojo was at 9 PM. He felt Tarzan Goto was an unpredictable trainer as he would wake everybody at 2 AM and tell everyone to start working out. The training class consisted of Hayabusa, Gannosuke, Katsutoshi Niiyama, and Battle Ranger (Yukihide Ueno).

Two months of living in the Dojo was when the students started touring with FMW as the ring crew. Ezaki was considered a quick student so he made his debut only three months in which was an accident as he was filling in as there was an injury and he filled in for the match which is why he debut in a tag team. Hayabusa felt he was a quick learner because his whole life was wrestling at that point. He never felt like leaving FMW because they're the company that started him. He was always thankful towards Onita and Goto for the shot but never really asked what they thought of him or how he was progressing. After seconding Onita in a Double Hell Death Match on May 6, 1991 against Mr. Pogo his initial feeling was that he did not want to have a match like that. He felt Yukihide Ueno was always hard on him at the beginning of his career in matches due to jealousy.

It was a special feeling getting to wrestle The Sheik for the first time in December 1991 as that was the style he grew up watching. He got scared just having eye contact with The Sheik in their match. When he met Sabu for the first time he really thought he was crazy. For 2 1/2 years as Ezaki without the mask he always felt like he was just a first mask guy with his first hope becoming a second match guy. He learned a lot by seconding in the main events as he learned that it wasn't the barbed wire or the blood that makes a match great, but what they do with it makes it great. He felt other companies looked down on FMW as well as the media as they thought FMW was just wrestlers that couldn't wrestle and just tried to make up for it by using the hardcore style which was humiliating for himself personally. He always felt personally that he could change that stigma by showing his wrestling skills. He felt the craziest thing he ever saw was The Sheik running into the crowd with Ezaki trying to keep contact away from The Sheik and the fans when the Sheik out of nowhere shoved the fork he was carrying straight into Ezaki's forehead. Tiger Jeet Singh also walked right up to him while he was seconding and hit him with a chair out of nowhere.

He explains about the time Tiger Jeet Singh hit a member of the Yakuza while in the crowd during a match with Sabu. The Yakuza then surrounded the building as no one could get in or out of the building for two hours. They were going to have Singh go the Yakuza and apologize but when they looked all around the building for him they found out he was the only one able to get out of the building early and make it back to the hotel. It took four hours before Onita was able to convince the Yakuza to leave. Outside of the ring he felt Tiger Jeet Singh was always a gentlemen to the boys despite his negative stigma of not being friendly. He always got along with The Sheik and felt like he was always Sheik's favorite and was the golden boy with Ezaki always calling him Papa Sheik. Sabu and The Gladiator were his favorite wrestlers to face early in his career. The Gladiator didn't treat young boys as human and just treated Ezaki as a punching bag. The Gladiator himself states he was told by Onita to go out there and beat the crap out of the young boys in their matches to toughen them up.

He never thought FMW thought much of him because of his young boy status until Onita set up for him to go to Mexico and train there. Ezaki was very nervous going to Mexico because he knew no Spanish. Since he was going to wrestle in Mexico he decided he had to wear a mask for his matches, but that he would only wear the mask in Mexico while wrestling and he would go back to being Ezaki when he returned to Japan. He came up with the mask design for the Hayabusa gimmick while in Mexico. He first worked in Tijuana the first six months for Rey Mysterio, Sr. and got to work with Rey Mysterio, Jr. while there. He didn't like the food very much in Mexico at the time he was still trying to gain weight which was a problem as the food made him throw up a lot. It took two years to gain 40 pounds and then 6 months he lost 20 pounds. The Lucha Libre style was very difficult to learn because the basic learning is different. In Japan you make your rookies do so many squats and situps but in Mexico they make you jump for hours. He was a rookie all over again while in Mexico because nobody had heard of him even though he already had 2 1/2 years of experience in Japan. He had to start all over as a rookie again at the Tijuana Dojo where he worked out with kids as young as sixth grade. He is sure Onita had plans going to Mexico but he feels himself personally wasn't smart enough to come up with any plans on what to accomplish while in Mexico.

He felt upon returning to FMW during Onita's Retirement Tour that nobody was going to be better than Onita at Death Matches so that they needed to go into another direction and create a style that Onita couldn't do and come up with a new FMW. A lot of people including the media had to do with making Hayabusa the ace of FMW after Onita's Retirement. A lot of the wrestlers didn't really trust Hayabusa because he had been gone for so long in Mexico and hadn't seen anything he had done for a long time. He also admits how Victor Quinones offered him a deal to join IWA Japan while he was in Mexico with Hayabusa turning down the offer because he grew up in FMW. He mentions how he didn't really want to be in the Super J Cup Tournament in 1994 as he was scared of the spotlight but it was already set up and he had to return to Japan after 6 months in Mexico for the J Cup. He asked FMW whether he should go into the tournament as Eiji Ezaki or Hayabusa since he was just known as Ezaki in Japan but FMW told him it didn't matter. He left three days after the show back to Mexico so he did not hear any feedback at all with his match with Liger until real later. FMW then told him in August to return and come home with mask for his match against Sabu on August 28, 1994 and he stayed in Japan for one week.

When talking about the May 5, 1995 Kawasaki Stadium Retirement show with the original idea being Atsushi Onita vs. Tarzan Goto with Hayabusa battling with Goto afterwards. When Goto quit and with Onita retiring Hayabusa found himself the top guy in the promotion. Asked why FMW wasn't prepared for Onita's Retirement after a year of building up for it Hayabusa states it was because Onita wanted to leave as a superstar and didn't think of what was next for FMW. That Onita felt FMW wouldn't survive without him and he was okay with it. Arai became the president after Onita, but everyone was involved in the meetings to keep the company going afterwards. He felt he was ready for the match after all the time in Mexico and had faith in Onita. He needed 67 stitches after the match and thought the match was not bad but difficult because he was a highflyer with no ropes for the match. He had the match he wanted to have and he was actually very calm during the match.

He discusses how the month before Onita's Retirement while he was working in the Florida Independents he went to The Gladiator's home in Tampa and trained and discussed how to keep FMW going after Onita. He felt he had to go as hard as possible every night because without Onita there were smaller crowds for the house shows but the fans that came should go home happy. He was always willing to attend big shows for other promotions so the fans that didn't follow FMW would know who he was and the biasedness of FMW being nothing but hardcore wrestling might go away after seeing how Hayabusa could actually wrestle.

For the FMW May 5, 1996 Kawasaki Stadium show he felt the match had to be a Death Match as it wasn't even a singles match that they wouldn't fill the stadium without it. He didn't really like all the wrestlers that came in from IWA Japan in 1996 as it made things harder and it took away from the feeling of a pure FMW show with so many wrestlers originally from other promotions. Matsunaga and Pogo were the most difficult wrestlers to work with because all they wanted to do were death matches. He enjoyed all his matches with Michinoku Pro wrestlers The Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki, and TAKA Michinoku. Many people believe him and Shinzaki are best friends, and although they're not exactly best friends they did become close while they were a regular tag team but he was never someone he would go out and have drinks with afterwards but just were close during their matches. Hayabusa's problem working with Sasuke was that Hayabusa is a person that needs to work with bigger guys and Sasuke was smaller. Sasuke is a guy that needs to work with guys the same size as him. Sasuke was still fun and easy to work but both were not in great shape and the match was a disappointment.

He has bitter feelings that Onita came back out of retirement on December 11, 1996. He always had the feeling that this guy would come back someday and he wasn't good enough to stop him from doing that. There was much resentment from all the wrestlers for Onita coming back and that it hurt the credibility of FMW because they lied to the loyal fans. He didn't think much to not being on the main event of the September 28, 1997 Kawasaki Stadium show as he knew he wasn't going to have another match with Onita and wanted to make his match the best possible. Onita was going to win no matter what he thought. He never even deep down felt like leaving FMW no matter what despite Onita coming back as Hayabusa would always remain loyal. Although he feels Onita was jealous of him, he wanted to make a point that he does not hate Onita's guts and will always respect him as he created the death match style. He enjoyed All Japan because everyone including Mr. Baba and Misawa treated him with so much respect with Mr. Baba taking him out to dinner and everything. He got along with everyone but Kawada but Kawada was not friends with anyone. He never paid attention when Onita went to New Japan and wrestled except for the time he wrestled Kensuke Sasaki on April 10, 1999 at the Tokyo Dome as he went to the Tokyo Dome to watch the show. He watched the show from the way back that caused many faxes to the FMW office asking Hayabusa why did he just watch Onita and not go help him out instead.

He had the chance to sit down and go over with Kodo Fuyuki about Fuyuki's Entertainment ideas for the promotion. Fuyuki feeling was that wrestling is suppose to be a larger than life dream that you play out and although he didn't fully agree with every point he saw his views and with WWF being popular in Japan that's why it was felt there was a market for it. He knew a lot of the fans felt that FMW had lost something when into the entertainment route and that although they lost loyal fans, they also gained a lot of new fans. It was felt that as long as they kept the fanbase and added an entertainment flavor to it that it would be alright. He would not have mind going to ECW, but not full time like Masato Tanaka but he was never invited and figured it was just that Hayabusa was not popular in America but he was pretty much the office in FMW and he couldn't leave much anyway as he had to deal with serious matters. He felt he was going to come back and forth to ECW after the Heatwave '98 match but Paul Heyman never returned any phone calls but there was nothing but good memories. He messed up a couple of spots in the ECW match and heard the "you fucked up" chants from the crowd and he felt great hearing that because that's how he judges working for the smart fans as that was ECW style.

When discussing about the death of Shoichi Arai there was no just one reason why he did it and he feels very sorry for what happened and how it happened that way because Arai took it so hard due to Hayabusa's injury as he was way too serious about it, and that's how he took responsibility for it. He felt there's other ways to take responsibility for it. He had spoke to Arai two days before that (Arai originally brought up the idea of suicide to Hayabusa in that phone conversation with Hayabusa trying to convince him not to do that.) When discussing about Kodo Fuyuki's death he brings up how only six months after he was hurt that Fuyuki found out about the cancer. Fuyuki randomly showed in Hayabusa's hospital room at 1 AM and told him that he had cancer and asked Hayabusa point blank whether he was going to be able to walk again in which Hayabusa replied he didn't know, but that there was a possibility. Fuyuki replied if there's a chance, do your best and left the room. There was some dissention with Fuyuki with his views on the direction of the company by the wrestlers, but there were also people that agreed with Fuyuki as well which were actually the people that left FMW (referring to Tanaka, Jado, Gedo, Hosaka, Nakayama) but himself personally there is no regret going in that direction because they were doing what they thought was best.

Talking about the accident on October 22, 2001 in which Hayabusa states "simply put, I fell." Just like when you trip when you're walking, he tripped on the rope. Right away when it had happened he knew. His initial thought after it happened was that he was going to die. He had stopped breathing right when it happened and really felt he was dead. He really felt his spirit went out of his body in the ring and was looking at himself from above like astro projection. Then he realized he was still alive and remember the referee asking him if he was okay. He told referee Marty Asano that he wasn't okay and told the referee to stop the match (he actually originally told referee Asano to keep going but then had no choice but to say stop the match when he still couldn't regain any feeling) and he just laid there while the ambulance came and witness everything as he never passed out. Then he realized the crowd was very worried and that this was the main event and asked to bring the microphone over because he felt like he had to talk to finish the show. He didn't even think when he was talking and words just came out and said "I'm sorry, I will be back, and I have given my life to FMW and please don't leave FMW." and then as result FMW went out of business. He loved FMW that much that it was worth dying over. He was in the hospital for a year and a half (from October 22, 2001 to April 1, 2003). The actual diagnosis was a vertebra injury the same injury Christopher Reeves suffered. He read many books about Christopher Reeves as a result and saw the little by little progress that he made. There's no time limit for the future and that if you don't give up, the dream will never die. Hayabusa states that he will put on the costume in the ring one more time and that's his responsibility because that's what he promised the fans. Wrestling is not a sad story and although Arai and Fuyuki are gone, that's his responsibility to bring back that era to the ring as well.

He still keeps in touch with everyone like Masato Tanaka and Sabu from Japanese wrestlers from other promotions to American wrestlers. He keeps in contact with all his fans as well and still goes to rehab as not only did he suffer the neck injury but had heart surgery as well. He had a lot of experiences and wants to share that with as many people. He mentions about his singing career at the small live house shows and that he enjoys doing that now. He states that the Japanese scene is hard today as there is no strong leadership and there's more companies now but that's not the fault of anyone and just how the industry is. He comments on the Toryumon/Dragon Gate style of wrestling and that the younger fans really enjoy it even though it is copying what Hayabusa use to do and he takes it as a compliment as Dragon Kid calls him all the time and keeps in touch with him. When asked about his favorite matches he can not answer as whatever match you think is his best match, is his best match then and that he feels he hasn't had his best match yet. There has been no regrets. He closes by saying he knows he has disappointed a lot of the fans with the way he is now, but it's a fact and he accepts the way he is now, and that even though it's going to take time he's going to walk again and he's going to put on the costume and stand in the ring again. 

Added: 8/29

The Apache Army held their second Korakuen Hall show of the year on August 28, 2006 entitled "This is WAR" in front of a disappointing crowd of 1,000 fans. The crowd was actually more in the 600-700 person range but the expensive front row seats sold well and the show was taped for Samurai TV.

Kintaro Kanemura Kanemura teamed up with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and former All Japan Triple Crown Champion Satoshi Kojima to take on Takashi Sasaki, New Japan's Togi Makabe, and Shiro Koshinaka with TAKA Michinoku as their manager Mr. T who is built up as the man that originated the plan to destroy the Apache Army in a Street Fight Barbed wire Board Death Match. It was the first time in his 15 year career that Kojima would be wrestling in a match with barbed wire involved. Kojima who stated he was nervous going into the match would be the one targeted by Koshinaka and Makabe right away due to being a "death match virgin". Makabe put Kojima through the barbed wire board right away and then followed up by Koshinaka and Makabe delivering a double brainbuster to Kojima causing him to be cut open and start bleeding right away. Sasaki went after Kojima biting at his forehead causing more blood to pour out of Kojima's forehead. Everyone but Koshinaka who refused to be put through any barbed wire before the match ended up going through the sharp wire before Kanemura would eventually hit a Super Thunder Fire Powerbomb off the top rope on Sasaki through a barbed wired board for the pinfall victory at 18 minutes, 2 seconds. After the match a challenge was laid out to both Makabe and Koshinaka for singles matches against the two with Kanemura and Kuroda for the next Apache Army show on September 24, 2006 with Kanemura facing Makabe in the main event, and Kuroda facing Koshinaka in the semi-final. The September Korakuen Hall show which will take place at Noon that day due to Kanemura, Kuroda, Koshinaka, Makabe, and Hido being booked for a New Japan in Osaka later that day will be built as the 3 year anniversary of the Apache Army as the entire group ended the show doing the TNR Dance. The Apache Army was actually formed on August 25, 2003 after Kanemura and Gannosuke decided to join together once again but the September 22, 2003 Korakuen Hall show was the first show built around the newly formed group. Kojima talked afterwards that even though he was nervous going into the match, he eventually began to like the death match environment and would be willing to do it once again.

Former friends Hido and Jun Kasai fought in a Big Japan style Death Match with Hido getting the win after interference from Takashi Sasaki and Hido nailing a Tombstone Piledriver for the win at 13 minutes, 17 seconds. Afterwards, former Big Japan wrestler Tomoaki Honma and chased off Hido and Sasaki and challenged the WEW Tag Team Champions to a match against him and Kasai at the next Korakuen Hall show. Sasaki and Hido afterwards accepted saying they were the best tag team in the world as they went undefeated in the WEW Tag Team Tournament earlier this month. The tag team match was officially signed afterwards but as of right now the tag team titles are not on the line. 

GENTARO faced off against New Japan's Gedo in what was build as a rematch to their Best of the Super Juniors Tournament match last June and the match had the same result with Gedo getting the best of GENTARO once again with the Gedo Clutch at 18 minutes, 27 seconds in what said to be a really good match.

Hi69 who has gained a significant amount of muscle weight since his days as a highflyer for the K-Dojo promotion and is a member of Takashi Sasaki's group defeated current K-Dojo wrestler and Apache Army loyalists and friend Saburo Inematsu at 8 minutes, 16 seconds with the Maharaja.

NOSAWA Rongai, MAZADA, Kikutaro, and Shinjuku Shark who a couple months ago was force to wet down his hair so no longer has the puffy hair hes had for years defeated the team of Harley MIYAWAKI with MIYAWAKI acting out as Harley Race, Dusty Inoue with Katsumasa Inoue acting out as Dusty Rhodes, Nature Boy Hondo with Hiroyuki Kondo as Ric Flair, and Sano Sammartino with Naoshi Sano as Bruno Sammartino after Shark hit a moonsault press on Sano for the win at 12 minutes, 56 seconds.

Tomohiko Hashimoto defeated Yusaku Obata in the opening match on the show at 6 minutes, 42 seconds after hitting the XCT for the win.

WMF ran their 4th anniversary show at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on August 27, 2006. Mineo Fujita who is now the proclaimed ace of the promotion wrestled in the main event with only a mystery opponent being announced before the show. The mystery opponent turned out to be debuting mask man for WMF Kamui who also apparently is patterned after Hayabusa including wearing a Hayabusa t-shirt. Mineo Fujita who Gannosuke built as the possible 2nd Generation of Hayabusa put away Kamui at 16 minutes, 49 seconds for the win. 

Added: 8/21

Takashi Sasaki teamed up with Big Japan rival Naoki Numazawa to face off against partner Ryuji Ito and Numazawa's partner Jun Kasai in the main event of Big Japan's August 18th Korakuen Hall show in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. Ito ended up getting the victory after a Dragon Splash on Numazawa off a ladder place on top of a table for the victory at 19 minutes, 42 seconds. 

Mammoth Sasaki teamed up with Tetsuhiro Kuroda to face off against the Big Japan team of Daisuke Sekimoto and Katsumasa Inoue in the semi-main event. Mammoth and Sekimoto who will be wrestling in the semi-main event of the Apache Army August 28th Korakuen Hall show started it out going after one another. Mammoth would eventually get the victory for his team after delivering an Awesome Bomb to Inoue, followed by the 29 Years Old for the victory at 18 minutes, 29 seconds.

Kintaro Kanemura and Asian Cougar teamed up to face the team of MASADA and J.C. Bailey with Kanemura and Bailey starting the match right away fighting into the crowd of Korakuen Hall. Kanemura would bring the fight back into the ring and throw in many chairs into the ring, but Bailey would end up using them for his advantage by delivering a supplex off the top rope onto the chairs. A bloody Kanemura would come firing back and and eventually finish off Bailey at 8 minutes, 7 seconds with the Blast YAMA Senton Special for the win. 

Onryo teamed up with Big Japan tag team partner Men's Teioh as well as Hardcore Craig to face Hiroyuki Kondo and fellow 666 wrestlers Yuko Miyamoto and Shinobu. Shinobu and Miyamoto both looked impressive as Shinobu nearly got the victory hitting a Shooting Star Press on Craig that was broken up. Craig would end up getting a Japanese leg roll on Shinobu for the victory at 17 minutes, 48 seconds in a very well receive match. 

The full lineup for the WMF 4th Anniversary show was announced with Mineo Fujita's opponent in the main event being held until the match itself. Soldier will be defending the Wrestle Brain Heavyweight Title that he won a month ago against Kengo Takai who is the former Osaka Pro dog Perro. Mr. Gannosuke has made notice to now focus the promotion on the younger talent with Fujita in the main event spot on the card, and his match only third on the card teaming up with 666's Shinobu against Gosaku and 666's Yuko Miyamoto.

Hayabusa made his return to the United States for the first time since 2000 when appearing at the PWU promotions show at the former ECW Arena. A table was setup for Hayabusa to have pictures taken with him as he was very thankful and polite to all the fans that went up to him. The show began with a video montage of Hayabusa with a standing ovation and chants of Hayabusa which brought Hayabusa to tears. Hayabusa thanked all the fans and sang a song to the crowd which received another positive reaction from the crowd afterwards. Hayabusa's second CD will be released in stores on September 10th. 

Added: 8/10

Kintaro Kanemura teamed up with TAJIRI for the second straight HUSTLE-House show at Korakuen Hall on August 8, 2006 to face the team of Sodom (Mark Jindrak) and Commander An Jo (Yoji Anjo) in the main event. Sodom ended up pinning Kanemura with the Mad Dog at 11 minutes, 45 seconds but after the match a big brawl between the HUSTLE Army and the Takada Monster Army took place with Yinling, Naoya Ogawa, and Razor Ramon HG running helping out Kanemura and TAJIRI. The show would end will five of them doing the HUSTLE dance. Kanemura and TAJIRI would team up the next day on August 9, 2006 along with Shinjiro Otani to face Toshiaki Kawada, Giant Vabo (Hiroshi Nagao) and Sodom with Otani hitting a missle kick on Vabo for the at 8 minutes, 25 seconds. The show would once again end with the HUSTLE Army as well as the HUSTLE Rangers doing the HUSTLE dance to end the show. 

Kintaro Kanemura took a page from the book of Kodo Fuyuki's booking style for Round Robin tournaments for the WEW Tag Team Tournament. Just like in 1999 when Kodo Fuyuki booked thirty minute time limit draws between the teams that would eventually meet in the finals. Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda fought Hayabusa and Kodo Fuyuki to a 30 minute time limit draw on March 29, 1999 in the FMW Tag Team Round Robin Tournament for the vacant FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles that Tanaka and Kuroda won after defeating Hayabusa and Fuyuki in the finals on May 3, 1999. Kodo Fuyuki, Koji Nakagawa, and Gedo faced the team of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on July 18, 1999 in a match that went the thirty minute draw in the WEW 6 Man Tag Team Round Robin Tournament. Fuyuki, Nakagawa, and Gedo eventually won the WEW Tag Team Titles after defeating Hayabusa, Tanaka, and Kuroda on July 31, 1999 at Korakuen Hall. This time Takashi Sasaki and Hido who had gone through every other team could not put away the team of Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Jun Kasai on August 4, 2006 for the WEW Tag Team Round Robin Tournament for the WEW Tag Team Titles. Sasaki and Hido who managed to defeat every other team before making it to the finals with 7 points faced Kuroda and Kasai who also were undefeated in the tournament after the time limit draw as well as going to a no contest with Daisuke Sekimoto and Tomohiko Hashimoto earlier in the tournament got into the finals with 5 points. Hido who ever since joining Takashi Sasaki's group has shortened his name to BBH pinned Jun Kasai with the Tombstone Piledriver to score the victory for the WEW Tag Team Titles. It is Takashi Sasaki's second reign as WEW Tag Team Champion after holding the titles with former partner GENTARO from August 2002 to March 2003. It is Hido's third reign as champion under the FMW/WEW Tag Team Titles as Hido had also won them before with Kanemura and Kodo Fuyuki. 

The Apache Army announced the full lineup for their second Korakuen Hall show of 2006. Kanemura who was very upset when New Japan's Togi Makabe appeared along side Takashi Sasaki on June 4th at the Apache Army's Tokyo Shin-Kiba show because New Japan's LOCK UP show had been held the same day in the same building. Makabe help interfere for Sasaki which led to Kanemura challenge Makabe to a match in a Apache Army ring. The match was eventually turned into a 6 man with Makabe teaming up with his partner Shiro Koshinaka as well as Takashi Sasaki to face Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda with Kanemura announcing his partner would be from a major promotion as well. Kanemura would shortly after reveal that his mystery partner was former IWGP Heavyweight and Triple Crown Champion Satoshi Kojima. It will be Kojima's first return to the Apache Army promotion since working the December 27, 2004 Korakuen Hall show against Hido. New Japan's Gedo will also be on the show facing GENTARO in a rematch of the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament. Kikutaro will also be returning to the promotion in a 8 man match on the undercard on the show. 

Last month Hayabusa announced that he would returning to America for the first time since going to WCW in the Fall of 2000 to find out that they had not done the proper paper work for him to have a match on one of their syndication shows. Hayabusa announced that he would be attending backstage at the Smackdown tapings as a guest of Rey Mysterio, Jr. who he had not seen in ten years. Tod Gordan announced that Hayabusa would be appearing at his promotion's show at the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia on August 19th. It will be Hayabusa's first appearance at the building so many of his American fans can see him live in the states for the first time in over six years. 

Added: 8/3

Hido would finally have his rematch with Jushin Liger after their quick match at the Apache Army April 14, 2006 Korakuen Hall show. It would be on July 30, 2006 at the CTU Korakuen Hall show, and instead of Jushin Liger it would be his evil persona Kishin Liger with makeup instead of a mask. Liger would come out to more of a demonic theme before revealing his face for the first time since October 20, 1996 but Hido would make sure to get the early advantage by jumping Liger to start the match. Hido who had came out with Takashi Sasaki and Hi69 would take Liger to the back of the bleachers of Korakuen Hall and begin going after his forehead banging against the door of the locker room. Hido would then bring Liger back to the ringside area while beginning to bleed more. Hido would throw Liger back in the ring and begin to pound him more before revealing the scissors that he had used to cut Liger's hair back in April. Instead of cutting Liger's hair, Hido would begin stabbing Liger's busted open forehead with the scissors. Hido would then once again cut Liger's hair and begin showing it to Liger which would look to be a big mistake. Liger would get up immediately and slap Hido's chest causing him to fall down. Liger would then run to the ropes, but Takashi Sasaki would trip Liger to an ovation of boo's from the CTU crowd. Hido would then pull out a stapler and begin to staple Liger's bloody forehead several times. Hido would bring Liger outside the ring where Sasaki and Hi69 would hold Liger and allow Hido to slap Liger across the chest himself. Hido had pretty much dominated the whole match as Liger slowly crawled into the ring all bloody. Hido would then try to deliver a supplex, but Liger would manage to throw Hido into the ref. Liger would then spit red mist into Hido's eyes to change the direction of the match completely. Liger would throw Hido out of the ring and deliver a piledriver to the concrete floor. Liger would then grab a trash can out from under the ring and throw the objects in it into the ring. Liger would find himself a screwdriver in the pile which would get a loud ovation as Liger would put the screwdriver in his mouth and begin to walk over to Hido. Liger would stab Hido's forehead with the screwdriver causing Hido to bleed before throwing him back in the ring and carving his bloody forehead for revenge. Liger would then begin to bite Hido's bloody forehead with Hido's face now covered in blood. Liger would deliver a bodyslam to Hido, and then follow it up with a frog splash. Liger would then begin to throw chairs from the crowd into the ring, but would spend too much time doing so allowing Hido to get up and cut him off. Hido and Liger would both grab a chair and begin dueling with the chairs with Liger winning and knocking Hido's chair away and smashing the chair over Hido's back. Takashi Sasaki would rush the ring to help Hido out but he would get smashed over the back with a chair as well. Hi69 would follow as well, getting smashed over the back of the chair by Liger. Liger would pile all the chairs into one and then deliver a brainbuster to Hido. Hido though would manage to get right away afterwards even before Liger and deliver a Diamond Cutter to Liger on the chairs. Hido would hit a running clothesline on Liger and cover him but only manage a two count. Hido would grab his barbed wire bat, but Liger would duck the swing and deliver a shotei to Hido. Liger would deliver another brainbuster to Hido on the chairs and follow it up with one more before getting the pinfall victory over Hido. The bloody Kishin Liger had finally got his revenge over Hido. 

Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda wouldn't have much luck either as they would face Jado and Gedo earlier on the show in a makeup for the match that didn't happen on April 14th. Jado and Gedo continued their recent string of victories especially over Kanemura and a partner as Gedo manage to roll up Kuroda for the Gedo Clutch for the victory at 15 minutes, 48 seconds.

Kanemura, Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki had participated in another New Japan show the day in Riki Choshu's LOCK UP show on July 29, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The Apache Army was actually able to get a win over a Riki Choshu led team when they defeated Choshu, Naofumi Yamamoto, and Daisaku Shimoda when Kanemura pinned Shimoda at 10 minutes, 56 seconds. It was the first time Choshu had even lost in a tag match to the Apache Army since May 5, 2004 at Kawasaki Stadium when Kanemura and Hido beat Choshu and Tomohiro Ishii. 

Jado and Gedo would defeat the team of Hido and MIYAWAKI earlier in the show after Jado would clap on the Crossface of JADO on MIYAWAKI and force him to tap at 10 minutes, 30 seconds. GENTARO would team up with Asian Cougar to defeat the New Japan team of Minoru and Hirooki Goto after GENTARO would once again be able to defeat Goto with the Shooting Star Press at 16 minutes, 19 seconds for the second straight time. It was the last match for Goto before taking time off from New Japan.

Masato Tanaka won his first Fire Festival after his 6th entry into the tournament. Tanaka along with Shinjiro Otani had been the only two wrestlers to participate in every years tournament since 2001. Tanaka finally was able to come away the Fire Festival commemoration sword on July 29, 2006 at Zero One MAX's Korakuen Hall show defeating Ryouji Sai with the roading elbow for the victory. 

Added: 7/28

Genichiro Tenryu promoted his last every WAR show on July 27, 2006 at Korakuen Hall in front of a sell out crowd 2150 fans. WAR originally started on July 14, 1992 after Tenryu's SWS promotion turned out to be a disaster. WAR actually stopped running reguarly in 1997 but there were several shows after until July 13, 2000 with Tenryu promoting what looked to be the final WAR show with Tenryu defeating Hayabusa in the main event. Six years later the actual final WAR show would take place with former WAR wrestlers Jado and Gedo teaming up wearing their old outfit they wore in WAR and FMW to face Apache Army's Kintaro Kanemura and GENTARO. Jado and GENTARO would start the match off with GENTARO taking the match to the outside after hitting an Asai Moonsault on Jado. Jado would bring the match back inside the ring and deliver a German Supplex on GENTARO before following up by placing him in the Crossface of JADO. Kanemura would make the save and would eventually go at it with Gedo as Gedo would deliver a hurricanrana to Kanemura. Kanemura would eventually get rid of Gedo out of the ring, and begin setting up several chairs in the ring. It would eventually turn out to be a mistake as Kanemura would get thrown off the top rope into the chairs by Jado. Jado and Gedo would then setup GENTARO for the old Fuyuki Super Powerbomb spot with Jado delivering the powerbomb off the top rope on GENTARO. Jado would then place Kanemura in the Crossface of JADO as Gedo would deliver the Superfly Frog Splash on GENTARO and score the pinfall victory at 14 minutes, 52 seconds. Afterwards, Jado and Gedo would promote the CTU Korakuen Hall show on July 30th talking about returning to Korakuen Hall to face the Apache Army once again. They then spoke about their former boss and mentor Kodo Fuyuki with Jado stating that he believes Fuyuki is looking from the dead world saying "Those guys are no good!" and how Fuyuki was the one that taught them so much about pro wrestling including how to get the fans in the palm of your hand. Jado and Gedo has originally worked together in W*ING before leaving due to a pay dispute in 1994 and jumping to WAR immediately where they were put with Fuyuki who became their teacher and boss. 

Mammoth Sasaki was recently had a rematch with Takeshi Morishima for the first time since the two fought as preliminary young workers at the FMW 5/5/99 Yokohama Bunka Gym while Morishima was with All Japan. The show was a SEM show at the Tokyo Differ Ariake but that is pretty much a NOAH show with the NOAH roster inside NOAH's building. The result was the same as it was 7 years ago as Morishima once again defeated Mammoth after referee stoppage. There was some politicial games being played by NOAH booking Mammoth for the show. Mammoth who is booked for New Japan's Lock Up show on July 29 was booked just to be beaten by a NOAH wrestler just so Mammoth could go into the New Japan show fresh off a loss from a NOAH wrestler. 

Added: 7/24

The Apache Army will be holding a 6 day tournament for the vacant WEW Tag Team Titles from August 1st to August 6th. There will be five teams facing each other the first five day Round Robin format with the teams being announced at the Apache Army July 19th show. The five teams consist of Kintaro Kanemura & Shinjuku Shark, Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Jun Kasai, Mammoth Sasaki & GENTARO, Takashi Sasaki & Hido, and Daisuke Sekimoto & Tomohiko Hashimoto. The two teams that score the most points in the first five days will face each other on August 6th with the winners becoming the WEW Tag Team Champions. The Apache Army also announced two matches for their August 28, 2006 Korakuen Hall show called "This is WAR" which is what Takashi Sasaki proclaimed against the Apache Army earlier this year. Mammoth Sasaki will face Daisuke Sekimoto in the rubber match as each has one win over the other over the last couple of months, as well as a Death Match with Jun Kasai looking to get revenge on Hido for turning his back on the Apache Army back on June 4th to join Takashi Sasaki's group. 

WMF announced three matches for their upcoming 4th year Anniversary show on August 27, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Mineo Fujita who is now being pushed as the ace of the promotion despite losing in undercard matches in Osaka Pro this past weekend will be in the main event facing a Mystery Opponent. The Mystery Opponent will most likely be announced on August 4th when the full card will be released. Mr. Gannosuke will team up with 666's Shinobu against Gosaku Goshogawara and former WMF Dojo student Yuko Miyamoto and Ricky Fuji will face a rookie with the last name Hoshino for his pro wrestling debut. Also on the card will be Soldier, GOEMON, Onryo, Tomoya Adachi, and the Kitten Kid. 

Added: 7/11

Kintaro Kanemura faced off against Toshiaki Kawada for only the second time in his career on on July 11, 2006 at Korakuen Hall for HUSTLE House-17. Kanemura teaming with TAJIRI faced off against Toshiaki Kawada and Monster C in Kanemura's first main event of a HUSTLE show. Kanemura mostly went up against Monster C including putting him through a table, where as TAJIRI went up against Kawada most of the time. Both TAJIRI and Kawada exchanged their hard kicks, with Kawada coming up on top after pinning TAJIRI with a hard kick for the pin at 12 minutes, 12 seconds.

The show which was a memorial for the one year anniversary of Shinya Hashimoto's death saw his Zero-One friends Shinjiro Otani and Masato Tanaka team along with Tadao Yasuda to defeat the team of Genichiro Tenryu, Wataru Sakata, and Ryoji Sai when Otani put away Sakata with the Spiral Bomb at 14 minutes, 4 seconds to win the HUSTLE King Memorial Six Man Tag Team Tournament to win the Golden Afros. Afterwards, Otani wearing Hashimoto's pants, Tanaka, and Yasuda along with others and the crowd did the Hashimoto signature pose in memory of Hashimoto. Tetsuhiro Kuroda teamed up with Margaret and Erica otherwise known as Amazing Kong and Aja Kong to face the team of Giant Vabo, Kohei Sato, and Gomora otherwise known as Mark Jindrak. Kuroda ended up getting the victory by pinning Vabo with the lariat at 10 minutes, 35 seconds.

Soldier defeated Masayoshi Motegi at the Saitama Pepe Hall Atlas on July 9, 2006 to win the Wrestle Brain Heavyweight Championship for his second ever championship title, and first ever by victory. His first title which he still owns claim of was the IWC International Heavyweight Title which he was given to by the IWC promotion after leaving from a long stay with them. Soldier defended the title at the Saitama Pepe Hall Atlas against Garuda on August 29, 2004, but has not defended it since. This is also Soldier's first Japanese title in his almost six year career. 

The Apache Army promotion announced that there will be five teams in the tournament matches from August 1st to August 6th for the WEW Tag Team Titles which haven't been defended in years. The WEW Tag Team Titles which were originally the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles but were changed when Koji Nakagawa and Gedo held the titles in 1999. The titles trace back to the first tag team champions in FMW in Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto when they won the WWA Martial Arts Tag Team Titles on December 9, 1991. The WWA Martial Arts Tag Team Titles then turned into the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles in May 1992 when Goto and Gregory Veritchev before turning into the WEW Tag Team Titles. The five teams in the tournament will be announced at the Apache Army July 19th show.

Added: 7/9

Hayabusa made his first appearance at an All Japan event since losing the All Asian Tag Team Titles with Jinsei Shinzaki to Yoshihiro Takayama and Takao Omori on June 4, 1999 when he and his protégé Hayabusa-cito attended the All Japan July 3, 2006 show at the Ota Ward Gym show. Hayabusa and Hayabusa-cito came out to "Fight with Dream II" to team with Kikutaro who wrestled at FMW in the end as Mitsunobu Kikuzawa to face CMLL's Virus and MAZADA. Hayabusa-cito delivered a Moonsault Press, an Asai Moonsault, and the Phoenix Splash while Hayabusa watched in his corner. Hayabusa-cito also took a good beating like Hayabusa was known for, but Kikutaro would end up being the one taking the fall after Virus put him the in Virus Lock II for the submission victory. I don't know exactly who Hayabusa-cito is, but it does look like the Independent wrestler that was doing a similar gimmick to Hayabusa on Atsushi Onita's promoted shows in late 2004. Taiyo Kea who wrestled on FMW show back on September 28, 1997 at Kawasaki Stadium as Maunkea Mossman against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki won the All Japan Triple Crown in the main event of the show against Satoshi Kojima who has participated for both the Apache Army promotion in 2004 and WMF on December 12, 2002. Kenta Kobashi who was Mossman's partner on the Kawasaki show, also had great news this past week as he was able to have successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his kidney. 

Hayabusa will be returning to the United States for the first time since 2000. Hayabusa will be going with Pro Wrestling Journalist Fumi Saito from August 18th in Indiana and leaving August 24th in Philadelphia. Hayabusa plans on attending backstage to a Smackdown show on August 22nd in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania as a special guest of Rey Mysterio, Jr. who he hasn't seen in ten years. Sabu who still stays in touch with Hayabusa will be at the show as well. 

Kintaro Kanemura, Jado, and Gedo will be traveling around Tokyo a lot at the end of the month. Kanemura will team with GENTARO to face Jado and Gedo on July 27, 2006 at Korakuen Hall for WAR's final show ever. It will be the two Apache Army wrestlers debut in WAR against Jado and Gedo who wrestled for the promotion along with the late Kodo Fuyuki for years. Kanemura will then team up with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mammoth Sasaki on July 29, 2006 for New Japan's "LOCK UP" show at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring against Riki Choshu, Naofumi Yamamoto, and Daisaku Shimoda. It will be Mammoth Sasaki's debut for New Japan. Hido and MIYAWAKI representing Takashi Sasaki's Army will face off aginst CTU in Jado and Gedo. GENTARO and Asian Cougar will also team up to take on Best of the Super Juniors winner Minoru as well as Hirooki Goto who lost his last match on the tour at Korakuen Hall to GENTARO. Kanemura and Kuroda will then team up once again the next day for CTU's Korakuen Hall show against Jado and Gedo with Hido facing off against Jushin Liger's evil persona Kijin Liger. Kanemura will then participate for his Apache Army Beer Garden show the two days later on August 1, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. 

Added: 7/2

Although barely anyone has been able to see it due to WMF's lack of coverage, Mineo Fujita has turned into an excellent worker over the last year. Mr. Gannosuke and Mineo Fujita had one of the best straight wrestling matches in the promotions near four year history. Gannosuke ended up defeating Mineo Fujita on July 1, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring at 25 minutes with the Fire Thunder for the win. Gannosuke got on the mic afterwards and told Fujita how proud he was after the performance. Gannosuke who trained Fujita in the WMF Dojo stated that if Fujita were to start training now to become a Heavyweight, that he could even become the 2nd Stage of Hayabusa. Fujita who has added a variety of high flying moves to his offense in the past year similar to Hayabusa will be adding weight and muscle in hope to live up to the billing that was given to him at the show by his teacher. Many fans after the show stated that match alone made them wish that WMF ran more than once a month, and wasn't a small promotion struggling to survive because of how much promise Mineo Fujita showed, and how it was the first time Gannosuke in months that Gannosuke looked motivated and wasn't just going through the motions in his matches.

The New Generation Army faced off against each other when Soldier defeated Kenji Sawaragi with the BUU at 9 minutes, 18 seconds. Sawaragi, the second WMF Dojo student graduate who was busted open hardway after the match got on the mic and announced a change would be happening in WMF at the next show, although no word of what the change would be. 

In the highflying match thats been seen on almost every WMF show the last year, the team of Onryo, isami, and Hyper Brave G Valion defeated the team of Asian Cougar, Kitten Kid, and Tomoki Nakaya. The match was said to be very good. Kitten Kid brought comedic value to the match. The spot of the match was Hyper Brave G Valion putting on his super hero claw to the face of Nakaya from behind, in which Asian Cougar followed by putting his own on Valion, isami then put his own on Cougar, but as Kitten Kid went to put his cat claw on isami, Onryo brought to the ring a cat rattle distracting Kitten Kid from helping his partners and pinning him with the Onryo Clutch at 12 minutes, 51 seconds.

The Apache Army held a successful show at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on June 25, 2006 with the advertised main event being Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Takashi Sasaki and a Mystery Partner who was built as the Mastermind behind Sasaki's new group. The match instead turned out being an 8 man match with the Apache Army team of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Jun Kasai and GENTARO taking on the team of Takashi Sasaki, Hido, Hi69, and the Mastermind TAKA Michinoku who was accompanied to the ring by New Japan's Togi Makabe. Kuroda would end up being busted open, as most of the match would consist of brawling around the building before Kanemura would manage to put away Hi69 with the Thunder Fire Powerbomb at 12 minutes, 40 seconds. Togi Makabe would quickly hit the ring after the match and attack Kanemura with his sword causing another brawl between the two groups until the Apache Army would finally clear the ring of Takashi Sasaki's group and do the TNR Dance to end the show. The Apache Army announced that their next show will be on July 19, 2006 again at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with the main event being Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, and Jun Kasai taking on Takashi Sasaki's group of Hido, Daisuke Sekimoto, and Tomohiko Hashimoto in a Hardcore Rules Match in the main event. Kintaro Kanemura will team up with NOSAWA Rongai and MAZADA to face Takashi Sasaki, Ryuji Ito, and Hi69 in the semi-main event. 

The Apache Army announced that they will be reviving the WEW Tag Team Titles for their upcoming shows. They will be running Beer Garden shows which is what Gannosuke did similar while on WMF was on hiatus in the Summer of 2004. I don't know if it will be the same, but Gannosuke's shows were a dollar to get in, but you had to pay for beer and a snack as well to enter and the shows were held in a small area outside called the Saitama Kawagoe Pepe Garden which was just outside the Saitama Pepe Hall Atlas. These shows for the Apache Army will be in the much bigger 350 seat Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, and will be going on from August 1st to August 6th. The Apache Army also announced they will be returning to Korakuen Hall for two shows, one on August 28, 2006 and the other on September 24, 2006. It will be the third Korakuen Hall show of the year, which is a very good sign for the promotion to be able to run at the building, as they were only able to run the show once in 2005, and that was because they had booked Toshiaki Kawada, and the show was still a disappointment.

Earlier in the day on June 25, 2006 the team of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and GENTARO wrestled at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for Riki Choshu's promoted New Japan LOCK UP show with the Apache Army once again going up against their long time rivals Riki Choshu and Tomohiro Ishii who teamed along with Toru Yano in the main event of the show. GENTARO who ended up wrestling three times in the day after wrestling twice on the Apache Army show later in the day was a last minute replacement for the originally scheduled Hido who turned on the Apache Army to join Takashi Sasaki's group back on June 4th. Choshu's group once again came out with the victory on the show after Ishii finished off Kuroda with the brainbuster for the win. The Apache Army will return to New Japan for the CTU promoted 2nd Anniversary show at Korakuen Hall. It will be booked similar to how the Apache Army's April 14th Korakuen Hall show was originally booked. Kanemura and Kuroda will face off against Jado and Gedo who they were originally scheduled to face in the main event of the Apache Army before it was turned into a six man match. Hido who this time will not be getting help from the Apache Army will get a rematch from that show in April facing off against Jushin Thunder Liger's new character Kijin Liger. Kijin Liger which stands for "Fierce God" is Liger's evil persona that he promised he would bring back after the Apache Army show for the first time since debuting it against The Great Muta in New Japan back on October 20, 1996.

GENTARO who got very high praised reviews for his performance in the New Japan Best of the Super Juniors Tournament got a final match on tour victory after defeating Hirooki Goto on June 18, 2006 at Korakuen Hall. Goto who struggled throughout the tournament was able to beat GENTARO in the tournament, but GENTARO got revenge defeating Goto with the Shooting Star Press. Minoru who competed in FMW in late 1998 as well as the FMW May 5, 1999 Yokohama Bunka Gym show winning the FMW Junior Heavyweight Title defeating Ricky Fuji ended up defeating Tiger Mask IV later in the show to win the tournament for the first time.

Hayabusa held another concert on June 24, 2006 at the Suidobashi Fighting Cafe Corosseo. The Fighting Cage Corosseo is a restaurant that is also a wrestling and mixed martial arts memorabilia store. GOEMON was not there at the show, but it was still considered a success. Hayabusa like always stayed after the show to meet with fans and to talk to them. Hayabusa was asked what his favorite match was by one fan, and although he couldn't point out one, he stated his All Asian Tag Team Title matches in 1999 with Jinsei Shinzaki against Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda from March 19, 1999 and against Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama from June 4, 1999 both from the old Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center were high up there. Hayabusa also returned to Korakuen Hall on June 26, 2006, the building that he wrestled in more than any other, as well as suffered his paralyzing injury in. He was backstage for the Big Japan show to meet with his former FMW friends working the show like Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, and Onryo. It was the first time Hayabusa had been in the building since WMF's last time running a show at Korakuen Hall on February 11, 2004. Hayabusa stated he felt much nostalgia returning there, as well as sadness due to not being able to wrestle anymore in the building that he practically wrestled once a month in for 6 years. 

Added: 6/17

Kintaro Kanemura has had a busy bloody last three days. Kanemura teamed up with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on June 15, 2006 at Korakuen Hall for the HUSTLE-House 16 show going up against Team 3D consisting of Buh Buh Ray, D-Von, and Spike Dudley. The former FMW wrestlers were accompanied by former All Japan wrestler and former Big Japan King of the Death Match Tomoaki Honma for the match. Tanaka who with Balls Mahoney defeated the Dudleys for the ECW Tag Team Titles, and then lost them to the Dudleys in November 1998 started out going up against Buh Buh. Soon the match would turn to the outside as all six wrestlers would begin brawling on the outside before Buh Buh and Spike would enter the ring and Buh Buh would toss Spike over the top rope onto Kanemura, Tanaka, Kuroda, and D-Von. Weapons would soon become involved in the match as D-Von would use a trash can to smash over Kanemura's head, followed up by Buh Buh Ray using a cheese grader on Kanemura's forehead cutting him and causing blood to drip all over Kanemura's face. Tanaka would fight back by bringing a weapon of his own in a guitar and smashing it over Spike's head taking him out of the match. It wouldn't be enough though as Buh Buh Ray and D-Von would manage to catch Kuroda and deliver the 3D on him for D-Von to score the pinfall victory over him. Afterwards Kanemura would get on the mic and announce that they would get revenge in two days against Team 3D with Honma replacing Kuroda as their partner in two days for the HUSTLE-Aid show. Kanemura, Tanaka, Kuroda, and Honma would leave with Kanemura's music playing, but Team 3D would decide to stay and go into the ring and begin mocking Kanemura by doing the TNR Dance to Come out and Play. 

Kanemura would then head to the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on June 16, 2006 for NOSAWA's promoted show that would sell out the building. Kanemura would face in what might be his last ever match in Japan in Sabu. It would be the first time the two would be going up against each other since November 20, 1998 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. The match would have the same result though as Kanemura would begin bleeding easily from the day before, and after several dives assisted by chairs, Sabu would put away Kanemura with an Atomic Arabian Facebuster for the win.

Kanemura would then head over to the Saitama Super Arena for the June 17, 2006 HUSTLE-Aid show in front of an announced 14,012 fans. Kanemura would team up with Masato Tanaka and Tomoaki Honma to face once again Team 3D. Kanemura and Tanaka would do the TNR Dance while Honma would do push ups. Honma would go after Spike first, tackling and bodyslamming him. Honma would begin twisting Spike's arm, but Spike would try to overpower out of it, and would fail miserably and quickly making a tag to Buh Buh. Honma would tag in Tanaka who would take the match to the aisle ramp connected to the ramp. Tanaka would hit a Running Elbow on the aisle ramp to Buh Buh, but Buh Buh would eventually catch Tanaka and deliver a powerbomb to Tanaka onto the ramp. Buh Buh and Kanemura would go at it once again, and once again the weapons would be brought into the match. Kanemura's forehead would once again be shredded by the cheese grader causing Kanemura to bleed all over again. D-Von would come again and deliver a clothesline to the bloody Kanemura. Kanemura would end up making the tag to Tanaka, and Buh Buh Ray would end up coming back in, but Tanaka would bring his weapon and smash it over Buh Buh's head. Honma would be tagged in and deliver a supplex to Buh Buh Ray, but D-Von would make his way back in the ring, and Honma would end up getting nailed with the 3D and covered by D-Von for another victory for Team 3D. 

GENTARO finished his Best of the Super Junior Tournament run on June 14, 2006 at the Saku City Gym facing the man he was suppose to face at the Apache Army April 14th Korakuen Hall show in Hirooki Goto. Goto who had been rather disappointing throughout the whole tournament only scoring one win would end up defeating GENTARO using the Jigoku Guruma for the win. GENTARO would finish the tournament with 4 points in the B Bracket along with Black Tiger and Hirooki Goto although GENTARO losing to both of those men would put him at the bottom of the bracket. Tiger Mask IV would end up being the representative for the B Bracket as he faces Bracket A winner Minoru on June 18, 2006 at Korakuen Hall for the Finals of the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament. GENTARO was given all around good reviews for his performances in the tournament, and much better than Garuda two years ago who had extreme neck problems throughout the tournament and was overall considered very poor in his showings and will most likely never be asked back by New Japan as a result. 

Despite the ongoing feud between the Apache Army and CTU throughout 2006, there has been one wrestler that been much more of a problem to the Apache Army group than anyone in New Japan and that's Takashi Sasaki. Takashi Sasaki after his victory over Naoki Numazawa on December 21, 2005 for Big Japan's Yokohama Bunka Gym show denounced his loyalty to the Apache Army group and was siding with the Big Japan group despite being contracted by the Apache Army promotion. Sasaki had Big Japan wrestlers Ryuji Ito and Daisuke Sekimoto as well as MIYAWAKI who would become very loyal in Sasaki to feuding with the Apache Army. Sasaki would have a huge problem with the returning Jun Kasai in their 6 man match on March 19, 2006 and they both would let it know they wanted to take the other out in a Big Japan type of Death Match. Kanemura along with the rest of the Apache Army of Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hido, Jun Kasai, Hi69, GENTARO, and Mammoth Sasaki would hold a press conference on March 22, 2006 to announce the Korakuen Hall lineup. Sasaki and MIYAWAKI would invaded the press conference and almost start a riot with Kasai and Hi69 with Kasai having to be held back. Hi69 would come out with Jun Kasai in his match on April 14, 2006 against Takashi Sasaki who would have MIYAWAKI in his corner. MIYAWAKI would interfere after the referee would be knocked down, and as Hi69 would come in the ring to make the save for Kasai, instead he would end up helping MIYAWAKI take out Kasai and get Sasaki the win while officially joining his group. Sasaki would make an open challenge to Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda after the main event. Kuroda would end up putting away the King of the Death Match Champion on May 5, 2006 but when Sasaki would face Kanemura on June 4, 2006 he would have Kanemura's best friend Hido turn on Kanemura and help Sasaki get the win. Sasaki now has taken away Hido, Hi69, and MIYAWAKI from the Apache Army as well as formed an alliance with the Big Japan team in their war to finish the Apache Army once and for all. Sasaki has even proclaimed his group is now the group that the CTU has to worry about, and no longer Kanemura and the Apache Army.

Added: 6/13

After forming on December 25, 2005 in hope to make a movement they felt was needed in WMF, the New Generation finally were able to get their first victory on their fifth try against Mr. Gannosuke and GOEMON. Soldier and Mineo Fujita teamed together on the main event at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on June 11, 2006 to defeat the team of Mr. Gannosuke and GOEMON after Soldier nailed a BUU on GOEMON, and then finished him off with a lariat. Gannosuke afterwards congratulated the New Generation Army for their victory and shaked their hands. Gannosuke then got on the mic and announced how he was very impressed with Mineo Fujita's showing in the match, and challenged Fujita to a one on one match at the next WMF show on July 1st which Fujita gladly accepted. Tatsutoshi Goto made his WMF debut on the show and made quick work of Gosaku Goshogawara. Gosaku after the loss shook Goto's hands, but then Gosaku delivered a chokeslam to Goto and began attacking him until he was pulled off of Goto. Gosaku would leave the ring to a chorus of boo's for his actions to Goto.

GENTARO has had more success lately in New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament after starting out losing his first two matches. GENTARO took on Wataru Inoue on June 7, 2006 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2, a building known mostly for its FMW shows. Inoue who GENTARO lost to at Apache Army's April 14th Korakuen Hall show after he had gone in preparing for Goto. GENTARO when right after Inoue's knee to start the match delivering a spinning toehold, placing the Sharpshooter on Inoue, and then putting Inoue in the ankle lock, a move known for by Koji Kanemoto. Inoue would manage to fight back, but GENTARO would deliver a hurricanrana to Inoue, and then be able to finish him off with his Shooting Star Press to score the upset victory and earn GENTARO his first two points in the tournament. Wataru Inoue suggested another match to break their 1-1 tie against each other. GENTARO would not fair as well against former Team No Respect and Complete Player and current CTU member Gedo on June 8, 2006 at Toyohashi City Gym #2 after Gedo would be able to roll up GENTARO with the Gedo Clutch for the win. GENTARO would then score the biggest win for himself in the tournament and possibly the biggest upset of the tournament as well after defeating the fourth Tiger Mask at another former regular FMW building in the Yokkaichi City Gym on June 10, 2006. GENTARO attacked the former Michinoku Pro star before the bell to get the early advantage and went after the knee right away. Tiger Mask would eventually fight back and take control for most of the match. Tiger Mask would eventually begin to feel the match was an easy win for him, and let his guard down and it would turn out to cost him. Tiger Mask would go for a kick, but GENTARO would manage to catch him and quickly inside cradle him for the victory. GENTARO would walk out with the big upset earning his fourth point as Tiger Mask could not believe what had just happened. GENTARO will try to avoid finishing last in the Bracket B as his last match will be against Hirooki Goto who only has two points so far in the tournament. The match will take place on June 14, 2006 at the Saku City Gym. 

Added: 6/5

GENTARO has not faired well so far in New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament. GENTARO first faced off against Black Tiger on May 29, 2006 in Makuhari for his first match of the tournament. The crowd was very against the Apache Army member GENTARO booing him relentless for his acts over the past few months in the Apache Army vs. CTU feud. GENTARO worked on Tiger's knee a large part of the match and controlled the majority of the match, but would eventually be defeated after Black Tiger would hit a Black Tiger Supplex for the win. GENTARO afterwards was not raddled by the defeat stating all the best wrestlers in the tournament lose their first match.

GENTARO's next match would be the match he was looking most forward to in getting his revenge on Koji Kanemoto. GENTARO who had been defeated and humiliated by Kanemoto on February 19, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st would finally get his shot once again at the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion on June 1, 2006 in Fukui. GENTARO would attack Kanemoto before the bell would even ring to get the head start, and would quickly take the match to the outside and begin brawling outside the ring. Kanemoto would eventually gain control and throw GENTARO back in the ring and throw him in the corner, where he would begin delivering stiff kicks to GENTARO's in the corner. GENTARO would fight back though and begin working on Kanemoto's knees delivering a dragon screw legwhip, a figure four leglock, and then followed by the Sharpshooter to try and make Kanemoto tap. GENTARO would not let Kanemoto humiliate him like he did back in March, but would eventually make the mistake of going for the Shooting Star Press that Kanemoto would move out of the way of, and deliver a Falcon Arrow to GENTARO, and eventually place a ankle hold on GENTARO forcing him to tap for the Kanemoto victory. Kanemoto showing much more respect to GENTARO this time around offered a handshake out of a show of respect, GENTARO still having harsh feelings after their February 19th match would refuse. Kanemoto would take the insult with a grain of salt, and ask the New Japan to give GENTARO a round of applause for his effort which they would before leaving. GENTARO is now at the bottom of Bracket B with 0 points after matches along with Gedo and Hirooki Goto. GENTARO's next tournament match will take place on June 7, 2006 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2 against Wataru Inoue who is tied in the lead of the bracket with Black Tiger. GENTARO will then face fellow former WEW Tag Team Champion Gedo on June 8, 2006 in Toyohashi, followed by a match with Tiger Mask IV in Yokkaichi on June 10th, and will finish up against Hirooki Goto on June 11, 2006 at the Saku City Gym.

Big Japan's King of the Death Match Champion Takashi Sasaki scored the upset over Kintaro Kanemura at the Apache Army's June 4, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show in the main event. The match was a Lumberjack Death Match, and afterwards Hido turned on his long time friend Kanemura breaking away from the Apache Army and siding with Sasaki. Sasaki afterwards announced that it would no longer be Kanemura and Kuroda invading New Japan, but instead it would be him instead.

Added: 6/1

A NOSAWA promoted show will take place on June 16th at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with Sabu possibly making his last Japanese appearance now that he is contracted with WWE. He will face Kintaro Kanemura in his farewell match, in a rematch of their match from FMW's November 20, 1998 Yokohama Bunka Gym show that saw Sabu and Kanemura face each other in a Three Way Dance along with the One Man Gang with Sabu last eliminating Kanemura for the win.

Here's a link of the Apache Army 4/14/06 Korakuen Hall Music Video done by Bill Zero posted on YouTube. The main event is a really good match, with the heat being incredible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQe-x0lTLWE

Added: 5/23

Kintaro Kanemura and Hido teamed up to take on the team of New Japan's Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii in the main event at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on May 21, 2006 for New Japan's LOCK UP show. Both Ishii and Hido bled during this match, as the New Japan wrestler fell right into the Apache Army's trap of having a bloody FMW style match. Yano was thrown out of the ring as Kanemura and Hido teamed up to take out Ishii as Kanemura finished off Ishii with the Fire Thunder Powerbomb and then then the Blast YAMA Senton Special for the victory at 13 minutes, 45 seconds. Kanemura afterwards announced that he would only appear for next months LOCK UP show if he got his demands met and he would get another crack at Riki Choshu in a six man. The match would be Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Hido against RikI Choshu, Yano, and Ishii. 

Tetsuhiro Kuroda teamed up with GENTARO to take on Jado and Gedo in a Apache Army vs. CTU match. Both Jado and Gedo teamed up to tear GENTARO apart and bust him open during the match. GENTARO then try to battle up against Gedo who he will be fighting again in the upcoming weeks, almost getting several pinfalls. but Gedo would eventually put GENTARO away with the Superfly Frog Splash for the win at 17 minutes, 5 seconds. GENTARO will be participating in the upcoming New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and will be in the B Block where he will face Gedo, Tiger Mask, Hirooki Goto, Wataru Inoue, and he will get another chance at Koji Kanemoto. 

I have updated a new section of the website that can be found at the bottom of the FMW Bio's page. It is an Profiles page that can be also found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Profiles.html and gives some information on former FMW wrestlers as well as current WMF and Apache Army wrestlers. I also updated Mr. Gannosuke's Bio, and have added more pictures to Hayabusa's, Kanemura's, and Mammoth Sasaki's recently as well.

Added: 5/10

For the first time since FMW ended in 2002 there was two shows put on by former FMW wrestlers for May 5th. One by Tarzan Goto running under the IBF name, and Kintaro Kanemura running under the Apache Army name. Tarzan Goto's show had more to do with the actual FMW history on May 5th than the Apache Army show. Tarzan Goto booked former FMW wrestlers Mr. Gannosuke, Masato Tanaka, Gosaku Goshogawara, Mr. Pogo, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Hisakatsu Oya, Ricky Fuji, Yoshihito Sasaki, Katsutoshi Niiyama going by his role that Tarzan Goto most remembers him as in The Great Punk, Katsuji Ueda, and Shark Tsuchiya for the show. The Apache Army countered with just its group of former FMW wrestlers on the roster in Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, Hido, NOSAWA, and Shinjuku Shark. This May 5th was the 11th year a May 5th show was put on by a former FMW wrestler. The IBF promotion ran at the 550 seat Tokyo Shinjuku FACE with the main event seeing Tarzan Goto and Mr. Gannosuke against Masato Tanaka and Gosaku Goshogawara in what was originally a Barbed wire Street Fight downgraded to a Street Fight due to Gannosuke and Goshogawara just going through one brutal one two weeks earlier in FMW. The best part of the match was by far with Gannosuke and Tanaka going at it again for the first time since 2003, but a bloody Tanaka would not be able to finish the match after injuring his wrist or already injured shoulder from what it looks like in the picture above and was not able to finish the match. Goto and Goshogawara would end up finishing the match as Goto would hit the Face Buster on Gosaku on a chair and score the pinfall victory at 19 minutes, 44 seconds. The match has setup a match for Tarzan Goto and Gosaku Goshogawara in a singles match for the WMF June 11, 2006 show. Masato Tanaka who was suppose to work later that day for the Zero-One MAX show at Korakuen Hall could not make the show due to his injury, and was pulled from the tour as a result.

The Love Guns team of Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji teamed up for the second time on a May 5th show to take on the team of Mr. Pogo and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and it did not take long for Matsunaga and Pogo to turn the match into their style of match with weapons involved. The match was ended at 8 minutes, 6 seconds after Pogo wrapped his chain around Ricky Fuji's neck and began to choke him with it until the referee called for the DQ on Pogo and rewarded to Ricky Fuji and Hisakatsu Oya. The best actual match consisted of former FMW Dojo student Yoshihito Sasaki defeating Mineo Fujita at 9 minutes, 51 seconds after Sasaki forced Fujita to tap to the Torture Rack. 

There was no real significance for the Apache Army show to the date of May 5th at the 350 seat Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring except for them just running it because of the history involved on the date, just like earlier this year when they ran on March 19th. Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Big Japan's King of the Death Match Champion Takashi Sasaki in the main event with the Technan Buster. The other match saw Jun Kasai team with Hido and NOSAWA Rongai and beat Kintaro Kanemura, Mammoth Sasaki, and Saburo Inematsu when Kasai pinned Inematsu at 12 minutes, 11 seconds in a Street Fight. GENTARO was originally scheduled to face Hi69 on the show, but Hi69 was not able to wrestle and Tomohiko Hashimoto took his place with GENTARO defeating his former DDT rival at 9 minutes, 16 seconds. So at the end of the day, although May 5th will probably never see another Kawasaki Stadium show, or big event due to the lack of funding the former FMW wrestlers have now, it still will continue on due to its history, and hopefully one of these years the entire former FMW fraternity can let their differences aside and work together, and actually have one big show for May 5th.

Here is a page that I had put together the last three years on May 5th with the history of FMW on May 5th, Kawasaki Stadium, and the biggest FMW show ever on May 5, 1995. It can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/May5th.html

Added: 4/24

Back to back HUSTLE shows at Korakuen Hall took place on April 22, 2006 and April 23, 2006 with both shows claiming an attendance of 2100 fans. The first night saw the team of Kintaro Kanemura, Masato Tanaka, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda taking on Giant Vado, Sodom, and Gomora with the team of Sodom and Gomora being Matt Morgan and Mark Jindrak. Sodom would end up getting the pinfall over Kuroda with the Sodom Buster after 10 minutes. The next night would see Tanaka and Kuroda teaming up against Giant Vado and Flying Vampire # 25 with Kuroda getting the win with a lariat over Flying Vampire # 25 at 9 minutes, 8 seconds. Kanemura would team up with Erica otherwise known as Aja Kong and Margaret otherwise known as Amazing Kong to defeat the team of Demon Spider, Bakken Blake, and Dokron Z after Erica would pin Dokron Z with a flying elbow off the middle rope at 7 minutes, 21 seconds.

WMF held its second barbed wire match in as many shows on April 21, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st ring with Mr. Gannosuke and GOEMON teaming up to take on the team of Soldier and Gosaku Goshogawara. Gannosuke whos chest was cut up badly during the match due to getting thrown into the barbed wire several times would end up getting the pinfall victory after two lariats on Goshogawara at 16 minutes, 36 seconds. After the match, New Generation Army member Mineo Fujita came out and challenged the old timers Gannosuke and GOEMON to a match at the next WMF show on June 11, 2006 with Fujita teaming up with Soldier in the main event against Gannosuke and GOEMON. The match was originally suppose to take place on March 3, 2006 before it was turned into Gannosuke, GOEMON, and Hisakatsu Oya against Soldier, Fujita, and Black Buffalo. 

Two matches have been announced for the IBF promoted FMW Reunion show on May 5, 2006 at the Shinjuku FACE run by Tarzan Goto. The main event will be Mr. Gannosuke teaming up with his trainer Tarzan Goto against the team of Masato Tanaka and Gosaku Goshogawara in a Barbed wire Street Fight. It will be the first time Gannosuke and Tanaka will be going at it against each other since December 5, 2003 in the War Games Match between the Apache Army and Zero-One. The semi-main event will see former rivals and W*ING team mates Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Mr. Pogo teaming up to take on the Love Guns tag team of Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji. It a close rematch to the May 5, 1995 FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship when Oya and Ricky teamed up to defeat the W*ING team of Pogo and Yukihiro Kanemura. Atsushi Onita looks doubtful to appear on the show.

Added: 4/18

The Apache Army ran their 4th Korakuen Hall show on April 14, 2006 drawing around 1200 fans for the show with the main attraction being the supposed final Apache Army vs. CTU feud. The show did better than the previous October 2, 2005 Korakuen Hall with the main attraction was Toshiaki Kawada on the show. Although the promotion will never draw what FMW normally did in the 90's in the same building, it still has many extremely passionate and loyal fans that FMW did have. Jushin Thunder Liger was the most over heel by far on the show, as he received thunderous boo's during the whole time he was out in front of the crowd despite the Apache Army being the traditional heels the whole time during this feud. Jado and Gedo who did receive heel heat for being associated with Liger were nowhere near as hated by the fans because they are still seen as part of the FMW fraternity for their four years of working for the promotion. 

Jushin Thunder Liger finally got his long awaited singles match against Hido that he been wanting to have since January. Liger faced Hido in the semi-main event on the show, and show his passionate hatred for Hido right away by going at him right at the start of the match, and busting him open right away. Hido would be provoking Liger before the match, and Liger would straight at Hido as the match begun with strikes to the head. Liger would then grab a chair and begin smashing it over Hido. Liger would then pile a bunch of chairs outside the ring, and deliver give Hido a DDT to the outside on the stack of chairs. Liger would then take the opportunity to remove the turnbuckle pad and receive a huge amount of boo's as a result while Hido lay outside the ring. Liger would smash Hido's head against the unprotected turnbuckle and bust him open. Liger then trying to carve Hido's cut even deeper would begin drilling his fingers into Hido's forehead.. Hido looking to turn the match around in his favor would deliver a lowblow to Liger and grab his barbed wire bat and begin using it on Liger to loud cheers from the crowd as he would smack it across Liger's chest three times. Hido would place the barbed wire baseball around Liger's throat and apply a Sleeper with the bat on Liger, but Liger's passion of hatred for Hido would not let him take the fall, and Liger would find himself back up smacking Hido around and delivering a Liger Bomb, and then finishing off Hido with a Shotei for the pinfall at 5 minutes, 3 seconds for the win to the disdain of the crowd.

Jushin Liger's victory celebration would not last long as after his music would begin to play, and his hand raised by the referee for the win, GENTARO would rush into the ring and deliver a Sweet Chin Music to Liger. GENTARO would then reveal a pair of scissors and hand them to Hido would would begin cutting Liger's hair before Jado and Gedo would rush into the ring to make the save. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would hit the ring next, and the scheduled tag team main event match between Kanemura and Kuroda against Jado and Gedo would be turned into a Six Man Street Fight match with Kanemura, Kuroda, and Hido against Liger, Jado, and Gedo. Kuroda and Jado would begin brawling to the south side of the Korakuen Hall stands where Kuroda would deliver his running lariat in the crowd, while Kanemura and Gedo would brawl in the East side of the stands. Liger and Hido would stay around ringside with Liger throwing Hido into the guard rail. Liger would then have a few choice words for the female referee of the match who is Big Japan's main referee as well as Ryuji Ito's wife. Liger would begin cursing at her for not stepping in after Hido had began cutting his hair, and the booing for Liger would get even louder for cursing at her. Kanemura would enter the ring, but would be welcomed back by a chair shot to the head from Liger busting Kanemura open. Gedo would enter the ring and take advantage of the bloody Kanemura and deliver a Super Fly Frog splash on Kanemura for two. Gedo would begin taking swings at Kanemura, but Kanemura would begin fighting with a swings of his own and bust open Gedo as well before delivering a headscissors to send him out of the ring. Kuroda and Jado would finally make their way back to ringside, with blood pouring out of Kuroda's forehead. Jado would deliver a Brain Buster to Kuroda, but Kanemura would break up the pinfall attempt of Jado's and throw him out of the ring and focus on Gedo once again. The bloody Kanemura would deliver a STO for the two count on Gedo, and then followed up with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb on Gedo to score the pinfall victory for the Apache Army at 18 minutes, 7 seconds causing Liger to go ballistic. The CTU would eventually leave ringside with fans screaming and cursing at Liger with Liger screaming right back at them as well. Kanemura would grab the mic as the rest of the Apache Army including Mammoth Sasaki, Jun Kasai, GENTARO, and Shinjuku Shark would enter the ring. Kanemura would state that no one could take away this victory for the Apache Army over the CTU, and that this was a win for the Indies over the bigger promotions, and issued a challenge to anyone else in New Japan to come into the Apache Army ring and challenge them, specifically calling out former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami when making the challenge and saying he would bloody him up as well before the entire Apache Army would do the TNR Dance to end the show. Liger afterwards would state that this was not the end of the Apache Army vs. CTU feud, and that next time Liger would release his demonic side that he released against The Great Muta on October 20, 1996 in New Japan. Hido backstage talking to interviews stated that next time his goal was to rip off Liger's mask, and although he may have been pinned today, cutting Liger's hair afterwards symbolized that he was actually the winner today.

Big Japan King of the Death Match Champion Takashi Sasaki faced off against Jun Kasai who was making his return to Korakuen Hall for the first time since October 2nd. The match would fit both their styles in a Barbed wire Board Ladder Death Match. Kasai would strike first by throwing Sasaki into the barbed wire board, and then laying Sasaki on a top would come off the top of the ladder with a legdrop sending Sasaki through that table. MIYAWAKI who had seconded Sasaki would intervene in the match and deliver a chairshot to Kasai allowing Sasaki to get back up. Sasaki would take over the offense on Kasai, with loud chants of "Kasai" from the crowd and take advantage of the match. Kasai would make several pinfall attempts at Sasaki, but MIYAWAKI would eventually make the save by pulling the referee away from making the three count. Kasai would then try to hit the Pearl Harbor Splash on Sasaki, but would accidentally hit the referee instead. This would allow both MIYAWAKI and Sasaki to double team attack Kasai and bloodying him up as well, but Kasai would fight back and eventually throw MIYAWAKI into the barbed wire board, but Kasai would make the mistake of turning his back on Sasaki who would eventually throw Kasai into the barbed wire board as well. Sasaki would then follow up with a Buzzsaw Kick and score the victory for Takashi Sasaki at 18 minutes, 3 seconds. Afterwards the bloody Sasaki would state that he had taken care of his first target, and had two more. Sasaki made a challenge for both Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Kintaro Kanemura with a match between Sasaki and Kuroda being made for May 5, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, and a match between Kanemura most likely taking place on May 17, 2006 in the same building.

Another Apache Army vs. New Japan match on the show would be GENTARO taking on Wataru Inoue who would be subbing for Hirooki Goto who had injured himself while training. GENTARO would be very upset over Inoue taking Goto's place due to his alliance with Koji Kanemoto. GENTARO would end up being pinned by Inoue's Staggerin' Blow at 12 minutes, 7 seconds for the New Japan victory. GENTARO would be very vocal afterwards about his dislike for Kanemoto due their match back in February and proclaimed Inoue nothing but Kanemoto's henchman.

The Apache Army team also suffered another loss, but not such a personal one when the Big Japan team of Ryuji Ito, Daisuke Sekimoto, and Katsumasa Inoue defeated the Apache Army team of Mammoth Sasaki, Hi69, and Saburo Inematsu when Sekimoto used a German Supplex on Inematsu at 10 minutes, 14 seconds.

Daikokubo Benkei once again defeated Shinjuku Shark at 2 minutes, 21 seconds with a running splash in a Hardcore Rules Match. It was the third gimmicked match between the two as Benkei had previously won a Boxing match, and a Sumo Match as well.

Onryo teamed up with NOSAWA Rongai to defeat the team of MIYAWAKI and Naoshi Sano in the opening match when Onryo used the Onryo Clutch on Sano to score the victory at 11 minutes, 5 seconds.

There was a small FMW Reunion held on April 2nd earlier with Hayabusa, Tarzan Goto, GOEMON, Gosaku Goshogawara, and Ricky Fuji for a small group of people. The event consisted of Hayabusa singing one song, hosting a talk show and answering questions from the fans, and a couple matches with Tarzan Goto's students with Ricky Fuji participating in a match as well. 

Tarzan Goto announced that he would be running a FMW Reunion show for May 5th saying the group running the show is called IBF. Mr. Gannosuke, Ricky Fuji, GOEMON, and Gosaku Goshogawara are announced for matches, and Hayabusa will be attending the show as well. Goto said that the main event would be true to the FMW name and its roots and that the main event would be a barbed wire street fight match, and invited Atsushi Onita to take part in the show as well. The show will be held at the 550 seated arena Tokyo Shinjuku FACE which is actually larger than the 350 seated Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring that the Apache Army will be running at that same day. So May 5th will have two shows this year promoted for former FMW wrestlers compared to last year where there was no show on the FMW day. The day will also mark the 15 year anniversary of Hayabusa's first match in FMW.

Added: 4/9

Former FMW booker and manager Victor Quinones died last week on April 2, 2006 at the age of 46 years old in Puerto Rico. Quinones originally made his mark in FMW on August 29, 1990 when Atsushi Onita went to Puerto Rico for a meeting about talent exchange between FMW and WWC. During the meeting, Onita was attacked by Quinones, Mr. Pogo, and Invader 1 who was the same man who had murdered Bruiser Brody two years earlier. Invader 1 stabbed Onita to try and play off the real life murder of Brody, with the idea of Onita getting revenge on Invader 1 in a match for himself as well as Brody. There was also rumors that Onita wanted to bring Invader # 1 to Japan, knowing he might not be able to make it out of the country alive. Invader # 1 never did go to Japan, as the backlash of the angle was too strong by fans in a negative way causing Onita to have to scrap it, and Mr. Pogo would end up taking Invader's spot for participating in the stabbing with Quinones as his manager. Both Quinones would manage Pogo for his heel run against Onita in 1990 and 1991, and both of them would end up quitting FMW to join the new upstart W*ING promotion in 1991 started by Mickey Ibaragi of FMW. Quinones would continue to manage Mr. Pogo until a feud with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga would see Pogo joining Matsunaga's side after a loss in a Fire Death Match in 1992. Victor would retaliate by bringing in and managing two 400 pound identical twins in the Headhunters to feud with Pogo and Matsunaga. When money would run thin in W*ING, Quinones would end leaving the promotion and joining another upstart death match promotion in IWA Japan to become the booker. Before the IWA promotion were to even start in 1994, Quinones after watching FMW's Hayabusa participate in the Super J Cup tournament, and seeing all the potential the highflier had would offer him a chance to jump from FMW to IWA Japan. Quinones would offer Hayabusa a spot as the top babyface for the promotion, as well as $3,000 a month, and a $10,000 signing bonus to make the jump, but Hayabusa would remain loyal to FMW, and decide to turn down the offer. Quinones would help bring in many different foreigners like Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, Terry Gordy, Tiger Jeet Singh, and Rick Patterson as Leatherface. IWA would become a cult like success right away like FMW had started at the beginning, but unlike they had the financial backing of a millionaire. The idea would be try and outdo FMW, by running at the building that FMW was most known for in Kawasaki Stadium. IWA would run at Kawasaki Stadium on August 20, 1995, but the show would be a financial disappointment only drawing 28, 757 fans which FMW even outdid after its first year of existence with just its regular roster on the show. IWA Japan's budget would be extremely cut, and many of the foreigners would never return after the show. Victor Quinones seeing more money elsewhere, would once again return FMW on February 23, 1996. After a War Games cage match between FMW and W*ING, Quinones along with the Headhunters making their FMW debut, and Mr. Pogo would attack both the FMW and W*ING side declaring war on them and stating that they were the Puerto Rican Army. Quinones would once again become Mr. Pogo's manager for the first time since 1992. Quinones would also become one of the bookers in FMW along with Go Ito and Koji Nakagawa. Quinones would issue a challenge to FMW against the Puerto Rican Army for their Kawasaki Stadium show on May 5, 1996. The match would be for 1 Million Yen with Mr. Pogo and a Mystery Partner taking on Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka with Pogo's Mystery Partner being Terry Funk who was brought back to FMW because of Quinones. The Puerto Rican Army would end up winning the match and capturing FMW's money after Funk would throw Hayabusa in a chair caught on fire for the win. Despite the win, the renewed friendship between Mr. Pogo and Quinones would not last much longer, after Masato Tanaka would defeat Pogo on May 27, 1996. A very upset Quinones would slap Pogo for the loss, upsetting Pogo to attack his former friend before getting jumped by the Headhunters officially ending the Pogo and Quinones business relationship. The Puerto Rican Army would eventually add new people, and eventually become the Funk Masters of Wrestling on September 24, 1996 with the idea they were the real FMW with Onita retired. Terry Funk calling out Atsushi Onita would eventually lead to Atsushi Onita to not only return to wrestling, but to team with his former arch rival Mr. Pogo in Pogo's own retirement match along with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against the Funk Masters of Wrestling's Terry Funk, Hisakatsu Oya, and the Headhunters with Quinones by their side on December 11, 1996. The FMW team would end up winning the match, and would be the only time that rivals Onita and Pogo joined forces together to take out Terry Funk and Victor Quinones. Quinones would continue manage the Funk Masters of Wrestling for the most of 1997 including being by new member Mr. Gannosuke's side against Hayabusa for his match on April 29, 1997 at the Yokohama Arena, as well as by Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, and The Gladiator's side against Atsushi Onita, W*ING Kanemura, and Masato Tanaka. Quinones last show for FMW would be at the Kawasaki Stadium show on September 28, 1997 which would be pretty much the last show with the Funk Masters of Wrestling as a group. Quinones would still maintain a relationship with FMW, but would no longer be a manager or booker, and would return to his home in Puerto Rico. Quinones would still continue to help in talent exchanges as TAKA Michinoku, Shoichi Funaki, and Yoshihiro Tajiri would all brought in because of Victor Quinones. Quinones would be the main piece in helping a deal be reached between FMW and the WWF to bring in Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee for the H vs. Hayabusa match on November 23, 1999 at the Yokohama Arena. The last deal between the two sides would be when Super Crazy and IWA Puerto Rico's Ricky Banderas would be brought in to FMW because Quinones for FMW's May 5, 2001 Kawasaki Stadium show. It is believed Quinones died after a mixture of somas and alcohol while sleeping. Although Quinones had many, many skeletons in his closet, he did help many wrestlers out. Kintaro Kanemura wrote on his Blog how thankful he was for Quinones who helped him go to America for SMW in 1993 as well as taking him to Toys R Us while he was there, and to the Dominican Republic which no other Japanese wrestler had gone before and that he will treasure all of that for a long time.

Added: 3/31

Takashi Sasaki became the second Apache Army wrestler to become Big Japan's Death Match champion after he defeated Abdullah Kobayashi on March 31, 2006 at Korakuen Hall in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Bed of Nails Death Match after dropping a leg on the fluorescent light laying on Kobayashi for the victory. Kanemura originally had won the title on March 30, 2003 before dropping it to Ryuji Ito. Sasaki who is contractually obligated to the Apache Army promotion will be working the Big Japan April 9th show over the Apache Army April 9th show due to his champion status now. Sasaki disbanded from the Apache Army group itself after the December 21, 2005 Yokohama Bunka Gym show and announced him as a Big Japan wrestler instead. Mammoth Sasaki and Shadow WX defended their BJW Tag Team Titles for the 2nd time in the opening match defeating Katsumasa Inoue and Hiroyuki Kondo after Mammoth finished off Inoue with the 29 Years Old. Tetsuhiro Kuroda teamed up with Masato Tanaka to have the best match of the show by defeating Big Japan's Daisuke Sekimoto and Zero-One MAX's Yoshihito Sasaki with the Rolling Elbow.

WMF announced its lineup for their April 21, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show, with the second show in a row involving barbed wire in the main event. Mr. Gannosuke will be teaming up with GOEMON to face Gosaku Goshogawara and Soldier. After Gosaku defeated Soldier on the March 27th show (Gosaku promoted and booked the show, which is why he went over) in a Barbed wire Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match, he told Soldier how impressed he was by his performance in such a hardcore match and asked Soldier to team up with him to face the old timers of the promotion in Gannosuke and GOEMON to a Barbed wire Street Fight Match. This will be GOEMON's first barbed wire match since September 3, 1998 when Koji Nakagawa led his Team No Respect partners Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido with a win over Team Zero's Atsushi Onita, Mr. Pogo # 2, and Yoshinori Sasaki when Mr. Pogo as The Great Pogo returned to FMW since his retirement to attack Mr. Pogo # 2 Gosaku Goshogawara for disgracing the Pogo name for aligning himself with Atsushi Onita. 

After a one year absence, there will be a May 5th show promoted by the Apache Army group. It had become a tradition to run on that date, but the feeling was last year that unless it was a big show, there was no point in running on that date. The feeling has changed, and instead of Kawasaki Stadium which had been the venue ran at on the date for four straight years before last, they will be running at the 350 seat Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring building instead. The promotion will return to the venue again on May 17th. Big Japan wrestlers will most likely not be on the May 5th show, as they will be running their own show on the same day.

Added: 3/24

The Apache Army announced their 4th Korakuen Hall show lineup for April 14, 2006 with the conclusion of their feud with the CTU taking place as the headliners. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda will team up to face Jado & Gedo in the main event. Two years ago on April 8, 2004 at Korakuen Hall for the Fuyuki Army Promotion, Kanemura teamed up with Jado and Gedo in a handicap match as punishment for Kuroda breaking away from the Apache Army at the time. Now Kanemura and Kuroda look end the feud with the CTU in favor of the Apache Army getting the last win. Jushin Thunder Liger will finally get his wish of a one on one match with Hido in the semi-main event. Liger who has been extremely passionate about his hatred with Hido since the beginning of the feud will finally get to put away Hido for the CTU victory. GENTARO will also get his shot at a New Japan wrestler, as he will face Hirooki Goto in a singles match on the card. Jun Kasai and Takashi Sasaki's match that was made on March 19th has been made into a Barbed wire Board Ladder Street Fight to fit their Big Japan style of wrestling. 

Added: 3/19

Today marks the three year anniversary of the death of Kodo Fuyuki. The Apache Army which stemmed from Fuyuki's WEW were very busy on this day. The Apache Army continued their feud against New Japan's CTU group at New Japan's Sumo Hall show in a elimination match. The Apache Army team consisted of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hido, and GENTARO facing off against the team of Jushin Thunder Liger, Black Tiger, Jado, and Gedo. The over the top rope rule was applied for the match. CTU started the match with a brawl right away attacking the Apache Army during the TNR Dance. Jushin Liger went right after Hido showing a passion of hate towards Hido more than any of the other members in the Apache Army. Liger managed to eliminate Hido quickly at 3 minutes, 30 seconds, but as Hido was being sent over the top rope, Liger could not keep his balance and managed to fall over the top rope and be eliminated as well at 3 minutes, 32 seconds. This gave the Apache Army a quick advantage with the CTU's leader already being eliminated. Tetsuhiro Kuroda who lost to Gedo in FMW on October 29, 2000 in a singles match due to interference from Mr. Gannosuke was able to exact some revenge by delivering a lariat and getting the pinfall to eliminate Gedo at 5 minutes, 28 seconds. Black Tiger quickly entered the ring after the elimination and worked on Kuroda and managed to even up the match at two men for each team by delivering a Tombstone Piledriver and score the pinfall to eliminate Kuroda at 10 minutes, 33 seconds. Kanemura followed up with what Black Tiger had done to Kuroda and attacked him right after the elimination, and set up Tiger for the Blast YAMA Senton Special for the pinfall victory and elimination of Black Tiger at 12 minutes, 1 second. This lead Jado all by himself against Kanemura and GENTARO. Jado tried to make the most of a bad situation by going right after Kanemura, and being able to hook on the Crossface of JADO on Kanemura causing him to tap for the elimination. This lead GENTARO who had been destroyed a month earlier at the Tokyo Sumo Hall against Koji Kanemoto as the last man left for the Apache Army against Jado. The two would quickly begin to fight outside the ring, and Kuroda would make sure it would not be a fair one and begin to deliver repeated chair shots to Jado laying him out. Jado would be tossed back in the ring, and GENTARO would manage to score the pinfall for the elimination of Jado to remain the sole survivor and the winner for the Apache Army. The Apache Army would celebrate their victory with the TNR Dance. When asked backstage, Kanemura would state that they did not have much time to talk, as they had their show to get to. But an upset CTU would attack the Apache Army backstage and declare that this war was definitely not over. 

The Apache Army team of Kanemura, Kuroda, Hido, and GENTARO quickly got their bags and made their way out of Sumo Hall and drove to the Tokyo Shin-Kiba building. They didn't know that they were being followed though, as Liger, Jado, and Gedo grabbed their bags and headed to the Shin-Kiba building as well. Kanemura would be facing Hi69 in their scheduled singles match on the show when Liger, Jado, and Gedo would rush the ring and attacked Kanemura and Hi69 causing another Apache Army vs. CTU brawl all over ringside. Kanemura would grab the mic and issue a challenge to the CTU to settle this feud once and for all. Kanemura offered the CTU one final match against the Apache Army, but it would have to be at the Apache Army's Korakuen Hall show on April 14, 2006. The CTU quickly accepted that show to be the final battle between the two groups once and for all.

Jun Kasai made his return to the ring for the first time in the main event of the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on March 19, 2006 by teaming up with fellow Apache Army members Mammoth Sasaki and Hido facing off against the Big Japan team of Ryuji Ito, Takashi Sasaki, and Daisuke Sekimoto in a barbed wire board street fight. It was Kasai's first match since October after discovering he had tumor in his intestines. Kasai faired well in his familiar barbed wire surroundings, getting sent into the barbed wire board several times as well as sending Takashi Sasaki in it. It would be Daisuke Sekimoto that would manage to put away Hido with an Atomic Bomb for the victory. Kasai issued a challenge to Takashi Sasaki for a death match afterwards. 

Added: 3/15

Kintaro Kanemura and Masato Tanaka returned to Korakuen Hall for the HUSTLE House-12 at Korakuen Hall on March 9, 2006. There they faced three other tag teams in Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley, Erica and Margaret, and Demon Spider and Dokron Z in a 4 Way Tag Team Hardcore Dance. The match would involve the usual HUSTLE weapons like trash cans, guitars, and tables. But despite that being up Tanaka and Kanemura's alley, they would be the first team to fall after the Dudleys would hit Kanemura with the 3-D and score the pinfall victory over him for the elimination. The Dudleys would go on to win the match after last eliminating the team of Erica and Margaret for the victory.

Kanemura and Tanaka would then travel along with Tetsuhiro Kuroda to Nagoya for HUSTLE-15 at the Aichi Prefectural Gym on March 12, 2006. Kanemura would bring his nephew Ryon along for the ride to meet all the wrestlers backstage as well. Kanemura would team up with Tanaka and Kuroda to face the masked team of Miyakinen & Arimakinen & Yasudakinen. The match would again be right up the former FMW team's alley with all the wrestlers brawling all over the arena including Tanaka and Kanemura diving off the stage sending two of the masked men through tables. Kanemura would end up getting the pinfall victory with the Blast YAMA Senton Special at 9 minutes, 15 seconds. 

Mr. Gannosuke's mother Kyoko Honda passed away at the age of 67 at 1:34 AM on March 3rd. Gannosuke received the news from his father on the phone that night while in Tokyo. Gannosuke decided to stay in Tokyo for the upcoming show that day for WMF and then hurry back to Nagasaki for the wake which was scheduled for March 4th and the funeral for March 5th. Gannosuke teamed up with GOEMON & Hisakatsu Oya to defeat the New Generation Army of Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Kenji Sawaragi when Gannosuke pinned a bloody Soldier with the Fire Thunder for the win at 18 minutes, 54 seconds. Gannosuke afterwards announced that he had dedicated the win to his mother. Gannosuke later wrote that he hoped his mother was watching her foolish son up in heaven. He also noted that she died from a disease called ALS which is a rare disease short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It is a incurable, paralyzing neurodegenerative disorder that causes your muscles to shrink every day and strikes 5 out of every 100,000 people. She had found out about it two years ago, so it did not come as a complete shock to the Honda family

Added: 3/6

Masato Tanaka and Kintaro Kanemura teamed up for HUSTLE-14 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym on March 5, 2006 to face the former WWE and ECW Tag Team Champions Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley in a hardcore match. D-Von and Buh Buh would jump Kanemura and Tanaka to start the match with D-Von bloodying Kanemura up right from the start with hits to the face with a garbage can. Tanaka would fight back by throwing an elbow at the chair held by Buh Buh Ray sending it into his face. Kanemura and Tanaka would fight back with double DDT's on both Buh Buh and D-Von. Tanaka would grab a guitar in the ring and smash it over D-Von's head, but once the table would be brought in the match, it would smell the end for the former FMW stars as The Dudleyz would end up sending Tanaka through the table, and then delivering the 3-D on Kanemura with D-Von scoring the win at 10 minutes, 52 seconds

Mr. Gannosuke's mother Kyoko Honda passed away at the age of 67 at 1:34 AM on March 3rd. Gannosuke received the news from his father on the phone that night while in Tokyo. Gannosuke decided to stay in Tokyo for the upcoming show that day for WMF and then hurry back to Nagasaki for the wake which was scheduled for March 4th and the funeral for March 5th. Gannosuke teamed up with GOEMON & Hisakatsu Oya to defeat the New Generation Army of Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Kenji Sawaragi when Gannosuke pinned a bloody Soldier with the Fire Thunder for the win at 18 minutes, 54 seconds. Gannosuke afterwards announced that he had dedicated the win to his mother. Gannosuke later wrote that he hoped his mother was watching her foolish son up in heaven. He also noted that she died from a disease called ALS which is a rare disease short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It is a incurable, paralyzing neurodegenerative disorder that causes your muscles to shrink every day and strikes 5 out of every 100,000 people. She had found out about it two years ago, so it did not come as a complete shock to the Honda family.

Jun Kasai will be returning to action for the first time since October after having a tumor removed from his intestine. He will be in the main event on March 19, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with his fellow Apache Army members Mammoth Sasaki and Hido taking on the Big Japan team of Ryuji Ito, Takashi Sasaki, and Daisuke Sekimoto in a Barbed wire Board Death Match.

I was incorrect about the WMF 3/3/06 show being released on DVD. The DVD was instead released at the 3/3/06 show and features several different matches from the promotion. The matches are Kenichi Kono's debut against Mineo Fujita from January 20, 2006, Riki Sensyu vs. Lingerie Muto from December 25, 2005, Seiji Ikeda's last WMF match against Gosaku Goshogawara from July 31, 2005, Gosaku Goshogawara vs. Mad Man Pondo from December 25, 2005, Mr. Gannosuke teaming with GOEMON and Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Kenji Sawaragi from January 20, 2006, and Mammoth Sasaki's last WMF match against Mr. Gannosuke in a barbed wire death match from July 31, 2005.

Added: 2/26

Sorry for the long time between updates. Old computer died, and had to try and transfer every single file on a brand new computer, which was a huge task. 

The Apache Army had their blow off feud with the CTU group of Jushin Thunder Liger, Jado, and Gedo on February 19, 2006 at the Tokyo Sumo Hall. The match would turn into an FMW Street Fight style match right away as planned with Liger going after Hido despite him holding a barbed wire bat, Kuroda and Gedo going at it, and Kanemura taking Jado to the outside and begin poking Jado in the forehead with a sharp object causing blood to burst out of Jado. Liger and Hido would find their way to the outside with Liger throwing Hido into a group of chairs. Liger would take total control of Hido on the outside by bodyslamming him onto the hard concrete floor. Kanemura would also take Jado into the crowd where he would begin to choke him out with a cable wire. Liger and Hido would end up fighting to the backstage area where Liger would throw Hido headfirst into the wall. With his team brawling on the outside Kuroda would be left alone with Gedo and take full advantage of it with Kanemura entering the ring as well and helping Kuroda stomp away at Gedo. Jado would eventually make it back in the ring, but not last long before getting dumped to the outside with Kanemura smashing Jado's bloody forehead into a chair repeatedly. Kuroda having his way with Gedo would tag in Hido. Hido would start where Kuroda left off by stomping away at Gedo with the referee bringing his attention to Liger. With the referee focusing on Liger, Kuroda would place a chair on Gedo's already taped up ribs with Kanemura smashing that chair with another. Kanemura would then grab Gedo and allow Kuroda to run down the aisle where he would do his sprint long lariat on Gedo. Kanemura would throw Gedo back in the ring and asked to be tagged in by Hido where Kanemura would begin to just punch Gedo's taped up ribs repeatedly. Kuroda and Hido would be tagged in eventually again and both would just focus on battering Gedo's injured ribs. Gedo would finally make his comeback after moving out of the way with Kanemura running at him and hitting the turnbuckle instead, and moving out of the way as well at a Kuroda clothesline that would connect at Kanemura instead. Gedo would hit Kuroda with a flapjack and make the tag to Liger. Liger would come in and deliver shotei's to all three Apache Army members. Liger would deliver a Liger Bomb to Kuroda, but Kuroda would manage to kick out, and would once after a dive off the top rope. Liger would go for a running shotei, but Hido would be there to grab Liger's leg and trip him allowing Kuroda to make the tag to Kanemura. Hido would help setup Liger for the Blast YAMA Senton Special by Kanemura, but Liger would manage to kick out. A frustrated Kanemura would then begin to rip off Liger's mask with the help of Kuroda and Hido with the referee trying to stop them to a loud ovation of boo's. With his mask half ripped off, Kuroda and Hido would both try for a double clothesline, but Liger would duck it, and deliver clotheslines to both of them instead and make the tag in to Jado. Kuroda would go after Jado with a clothesline, but Jado would duck it and deliver a German Supplex to Kuroda, followed up with one on Hido. Kanemura would climb the top rope, but Jado would catch him and deliver a Superplex instead for the two count. Jado would manage to hook the Crossface on Kanemura. Hido would manage to help Kanemura get out of it, and Kanemura would follow up with a scissors kick as Jado would make the tag to Gedo, and Kanemura would tag in Hido. Gedo would begin punching away at his former Team No Respect and W*ING friend. Kanemura and Kuroda would both make the save for Hido going after Gedo's ribs again with Kanemura delivering a Thunder Fire Powerbomb to Gedo. Hido would follow up with a clothesline, but Gedo would manage to kick out. Kanemura would then deliver another Blast YAMA Senton Special, this time to Gedo but Liger and Jado would be there to make the save. Liger would throw Kuroda to the outside and begin to brawl with him, as Jado would throw Kanemura the outside and deliver a DDT on the outside. Hido would try to finish Gedo off with a piledriver, but Jado and Liger would run in and begin double teaming Hido. Jado would throw Hido into a Liger shotei, and then setup Hido for a Super Powerbomb by Jado. Liger would then take care of Kuroda, and Jado would take care of Kanemura with a Crossface. Leaving Hido all alone for Gedo to deliver the Super Fly Splash for the three count and the victory at 15 minutes, 13 seconds for CTU.Jado would dump Kuroda out of the ring, and Liger would dump Kanemura out of the ring. Gedo would need an ice bag right away for his ribs as the CTU would embrace and hug in the ring as the winners. 

Despite the loss the Apache Army are not done with New Japan. Earlier on the show, Koji Kanemoto had treated GENTARO like a first match rookie, no selling his shots, and delivering stiff shots of his own before making GENTARO at 6 minutes, 39 seconds with an ankle hold. Kanemura was very upset over Kanemoto's behavior because it wasn't the first time he had treated an outsider like this before. Kanemura wants to show Kanemoto that you can't treat the Indies like that, and get away with it. 
Hayabusa will have his first solo concert on March 8, 2006 at the Kakado in the Tokyo Bunkyo Ward. Hayabusa will performing his songs with a recorder playing of MASAHIKO's guitar work. Hayabusa usually has MASAHIKO and GOEMON to help with and play off of between songs for his shows.

WMF will be releasing its first DVD since matches from the Round Robin Tournament they held in late 2004 and early 2005. The DVD will be released for the March 3, 2006 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show with Mr. Gannosuke, GOEMON, and Hisakatsu Oya taking on Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Black Buffalo. Soldier had been calling out the old time FMW wrestlers like Gannosuke and GOEMON for not moving out of the away, and letting the New Generation Army keep the business moving forward. After saying that at the Osaka Delfin Arena, a place that Oya has been at every weekend since October last year, he had heard enough and ran to the ring and went after the New Generation Army. An Osaka Pro rival of his in Black Buffalo also came to the ring and helped the New Generation Army against him setting up the main event for the next WMF show.

Mr. Gannosuke will be returning to Korakuen Hall for the first time since May 27, 2004 as he will be participating in the Kings Road show on February 28, 2006. Gannosuke who has recently been blackballed by almost every promotion due to their ties with Kanemura in some way or fashion, has not been able to work for many promotions that are bigger than WMF. But due to his ties with Tarzan Goto who is now a Kings Road regular, he and Ricky Fuji will be taking on former All Japan wrestlers Taichi Ishikari & Mitsuya Nagai. Former FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champion Daisuke Ikeda and Hisakatsu Oya will also be working the show.

Because WMF no longer has an official backer after Laing, Inc. pulled out in May 2005, there has been two wrestlers promoting the shows to keep the promotion going. Mr. Gannosuke and Gosaku Goshogawara. Gannosuke promotes every show in Tokyo and the Osaka Delfin Arena. Goshogawara promotes outside of Tokyo like Aomori and Akita. Goshogawara recently announced the scheduled WMF March 26, 2006 Aomori Industrial Hall would have to be cancelled due to low ticket sales, but the show scheduled for the next day at the Akita City Island Gym would still take place.

The Apache Army announced they will be running on March 19, 2006 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the 3rd year Anniversary of Kodo Fuyuki's death. The Fuyuki Army Promotion held a one year anniversary at Korakuen Hall to honor Fuyuki with Shinya Hashimoto facing Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the main event, although there was no show last year on the date, the upcoming show will be another one to honor Fuyuki's early passing.

Added: 2/1

Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hido, and GENTARO invaded the New Japan office on January 26th and made a challenge to New Japan. Kanemura originally challenged Yuji Nagata, but Nagata quickly replied back and stated he had no interest in facing Kanemura because he's a celebrity now. Kanemura also stated that the Apache Army's main focus was to extinct Jushin Liger's CTU group, and doing it the old FMW style way with chairs, tables, and barbed wire bats. The Apache Army returned to a New Japan ring for the first time since their Tokyo Dome match, this time at a place they're more familiar with in Korakuen Hall on January 28, 2006. Kanemura, Hido, and making his New Japan debut Tetsuhiro Kuroda faced off against Jushin Thunder Liger, Jado, and Gedo although the match was stopped after it quickly got out of hand after Kanemura and Gedo would both attack the referee by giving him kicks below the belt and then throwing him out of the ring, with Jushin Liger being able to carry his own against the FMW wrestlers in their style of match. The Apache Army also have brought in GENTARO to tour in New Japan with them as GENTARO was on the losing side of a six man on January 30th, and Kanemura was DQ'd on February 1st after attacking the New Japan referee during the match. The Apache Army's next big match will be on February 19th at the Tokyo Sumo Hall as it will be a rematch of the Korakuen Hall match with Kanemura, Kuroda, and Hido facing off against Jushin Liger, Jado, and Gedo with Hido most likely putting over Liger to have the CTU get their win back from the Tokyo Dome show. 

When the Apache Army was first created on August 25, 2003, the idea was for the group of Independent workers to ban together and go to war against every other big promotion. Now with a war against New Japan, they have finally backed up their statement by going up against New Japan, All Japan, Zero-One, and Riki Choshu's promotion just like they announced then the group was formed together. The Apache Army has been booked by New Japan because of Riki Choshu's influence as booker with Kanemura becoming close to Choshu over the last couple of years, and Jado & Gedo's friendship with the group and wanting to work with their friends once again. Tetsuhiro Kuroda's debut in New Japan on January 28th has now made him the first wrestler to wrestle for every big promotion over the last ten years in New Japan, All Japan, FMW, NOAH, Zero-One, and HUSTLE. Both Kanemura and Fuyuki are one promotion shy as Kanemura never worked a match in NOAH, and Kodo Fuyuki never got the chance to work for HUSTLE, although you know he would have loved doing so. 

Mammoth Sasaki won his first championship since teaming with Mr. Gannosuke to win the WEW Tag Team Championship on November 23, 2001 by teaming with Shadow WX to defeat the Big Japan Tag Team Champions Abdullah Kobayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto on January 27, 2006 in Kawasaki City after Shadow WX pinned Sekimoto for the title belts. 

Added: 1/23

The New Generation Army which includes  Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Kenji Sawaragi were formed on December 25, 2005 after Tarzan Goto defeated Soldier in the main event, Mineo Fujita and Kenji Sawaragi attacked Goto and laid him out and declared the new group and issued a challenge to Mr. Gannosuke and GOEMON who are the two older wrestlers in WMF. Gannosuke and GOEMON countered the New Generation Army by teaming with 17 year old Katsuhiko Nakajima to defeat the team of Soldier, Fujita, and Sawaragi on January 20, 2006 after GOEMON pinned Fujita. The three young wrestlers then attacked Gannosuke and GOEMON after the match and laid them both out. Soldier would get on the mic and proclaim that WMF was built on the premise of the wrestlers of the future, and the promotion would not be able to survive without The New Generation Army, that they would continue to challenge Gannosuke and GOEMON until they were finally get rid of the old timers from the promotion to allow the younger wrestlers their opportunity to lead the promotion.

Garuda in his match with Asian Cougar lost to Onryo and Tomoya Adachi in the semi-main event after a wrestler named The Black Garuda came out and attacked Garuda and allowed Onryo to get the victory over the hurt Garuda for the win. The Black Garuda was not Soldier who had used the gimmick while in Mexico in 2004. WMF Dojo student Kenichi Kono made his debut in the first match on the show losing to Mineo Fujita. He will be facing Flying Kid Ichihara in his second match on February 6, 2006 which has been the home for Ichihara most weekends while performing there as Ebessan in Osaka Pro. Hisakatsu Oya has become a full time regular for the Osaka Pro promotion as well.

Mammoth Sasaki will be challenging for his first title belt since teaming with Kintaro Kanemura and reaching to the finals in a WEW Tag Team Tournament on December 21, 2001 in FMW. Mammoth will be teaming with Shadow WX to challenge for the Big Japan Tag Team Championship against the champions Abdullah Kobayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto on January 27, 2006 in Kawasaki City.

Added: 1/8

Masato Tanaka and Hido made their New Japan/Tokyo Dome debuts along with Kintaro Kanemura making his second appearance for New Japan, and third in the historic Tokyo Dome to face off against Jushin Thunder Liger and their former friends Jado & Gedo on January 4, 2006 in front of what was announced as 43,000 fans but really was a little over 20,000 fans. The match turned into a hardcore match which favored the Tanaka/Kanemura/Hido team as it took Jushin Liger out of his element for the match, although he did better than expected for being in unfamiliar territory but it would still be too much as Kanemura would eventually get the pinfall victory for his team after nailing the Blast YAMA Senton Special on former friend Jado for the victory. 

Jado and Gedo would look to get revenge the next day for the Riki Pro show on January 5, 2006 at Korakuen Hall, facing off against former Team No Respect friends Kintaro Kanemura and Hido. Kanemura would get busted open early, as Jado and Gedo would be in control for a majority of the match. Jado would hook on the Crossface of JADO on Kanemura, but fellow Apache Army member GENTARO would make the save for Kanemura, by delivering a flying dropkick to Jado to make him release the move. Hido would not have much success against his former friends as he would be nailed with a Super Powerbomb by them, and then Jado would hook on the Crossface of JADO while Gedo would grab Kanemura and begin to choke him to prevent him from making the save as Hido would finally be forced to tap out for the revenge victory for Jado and Gedo. After the match, Kanemura issued a challenge to Jado and Gedo to team with Jushin Liger and "the guy that use to be Heat, Minoru?" against Kanemura, Hido, Masato Tanaka, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a Street Fight. Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Big Japan's Daisuke Sekimoto using the Gannosuke Clutch for the victory. It was the first time in years that Kuroda had used the move from his former Team Kuroda friend, as he also used the move to win the WEW World Title from Kodo Fuyuki back in FMW on April 1, 2001.

Mr. Gannosuke announced that along with GOEMON that his partner for the upcoming January 20, 2006 WMF show against Soldier, Mineo Fujita, and Kenji Sawaragi would be a real man. He then revealed that his partner would be 17 year old teen phenom Katsuhiko Nakajima for the main event of the show.