Eiji Ezaki was born on November 29, 1968 in Kumamoto-shi, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.

Eiji Ezaki would be the first born child of his parents. They would give birth to another boy Takanori three years later before moving to Okayama in 1972.

Ezaki's parents struggled financially at first while starting their family. Ezaki's father was a taxi driver and it was difficult to support two children on that salary. Ezaki's grandparents on his mother side were actually quite wealthy. They ran an old traditional Japanese style hotel that Ezaki's grandmother started back in the 1940's for geishas to live in. It had since been transformed into a public hotel. Ezaki's grandparents and his father had issues following the marriage of Ezaki's parents. Eventually the conflict would be resolved and the Ezaki's would move to Hinagunaka Nishimachi, Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture and would begin working and living in the hotel in 1977 while Eiji was 8 years old.

Eiji Ezaki would enjoy the transition because the hotel would have giant bathtubs that Ezaki did not mind sharing with other people. Ezaki became a very social person growing up interacting with the all guests staying at the hotel. His job would be to put the firewood in the goemonburo bath tubs.

Eiji Ezaki would get to watch television during the day but at night his father had control of the television and Eiji would watch whatever his father wanted to watch. That would be mostly baseball at night and his favorite team was the Yomiuri Giants so Ezaki would begin following them as well and his first love would end up being baseball as a result of his father.

Ezaki would also begin watching another sport on television in 1977 at the age of eight as well which was pro-wrestling. Ezaki's grandfather enjoyed pro-wrestling as well and they would watch it together. Mil Mascaras would stand out to Ezaki and would become his first favorite wrestler because of his colorful mask. His grandfather would also bring him All Japan Women's show outside of a shrine where Ezaki would be more fascinated with the midgets on the show.

Ezaki's love of baseball would still take priority over wrestling though at this point and he would join a baseball club in the 4th grade in 1978. He had dreams of being like Yomiuri Giants great Sadaharu Oh who was known as the Home Run King in Japan. There would be an issue for Ezaki though when it came to baseball and that would be that he was not very good at it. He would bat in the 8 spot as he was not a very good hitter and he would play outfield where he would make many errors out there as well. Ezaki would still move forward playing baseball though hoping to get better one day.

Ezaki would begin to really start to enjoy pro-wrestling in Jr. High in 1981 as new Junior Heavyweight sensation Tiger Mask would become a very popular wrestler. Many of the students at his school would talk about him. Ezaki would watch the weekly shows and could keep up but he did not know any of the moves that were actually happening like so many of the other boys that talked about him. Ezaki would continue to watch New Japan and learn about a rival All Japan Junior Heavyweight star at the time named Atsushi Onita who Ezaki did not like as he felt he could not compare to Tiger Mask.

Tiger Mask would end up retiring from New Japan and Ezaki would begin to follow the power wrestlers Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody who would become his favorite into the mid 1980's. Ezaki would also begin to really fall in love with wrestling into his later teens and begin watching WWF, Jim Crockett Productions, and AWA as well.

Eiji Ezaki would finish Junior High in 1983 and have his heart set on attending Yatsushiro Industrial High School a school that he would have to test to get in. Ezaki would end up failing the test after it would be revealed on the test that he was partially color blind with the colors red and green. Ezaki's heart would be broken as he would not be allowed in the school and he would have to attend Yatsushiro East Commercial High School instead.

Ezaki would begin attending Yatsushiro East Commercial High School in 1983. He would have to pick a sports club to participate in and since he had been playing baseball since he was 10 so he would pick that as his sport of choice to play. But Ezaki was still not very good at and his height of nearly 6 feet but only 110 pounds made him stand out. He would get bullied every day in high school for his weight and his poor play. Ezaki would be so depressed after 9th grade that he would request to his parents that he drop out. His father would refuse allow him to do such thing and tell him that he has to stick with something no matter how hard it got. Ezaki would just have to deal with the bullying. Ezaki would ride his bike to school every day and eventually make a friend who also rode his bike to school. That friend would end up suggesting to him that he try out for Judo as his sport of choice instead of baseball. Ezaki would end dropping out of baseball and begin training in Judo where he would train and receive a Shoden Black Belt in it.

Ezaki would also begin weight training while doing his Judo training and begin paying one dollar a day to go to a local gym in Kumamoto. Ezaki would train every day there and one time while training on a day that New Japan was in Kumamoto for a show he would see Andre the Giant come in to his gym and train and see just how massive of a man he was in person.

Ezaki would also have desires of becoming an actor while in high school as well. He would act in his high school play called Sukeban Deka in 1986 which is about a delinquent schoolgirl who is taken by the government and forced to fight crime to redeem herself. Ezaki would play Kyoichiro Jino who is the mentor of the main girl in the play and would at least get to play a male character which some of the other boys were not so lucky.

Eiji Ezaki would graduate from Yatsushiro East Commercial High School in March 1987 would begin attending Kumamoto Commercial College which would later become Kumamoto Gakuen University a private college which their classes were at night. Ezaki would get a day job at a local coffee shop where he would meet his college friend there. He would also be informed that he could attend the college gym for free to continue high weight training. Ezaki would begin training at that gym when he would be informed about a local university promotion called Syodai Wrestling Association were looking to bring in new college students. Ezaki originally would think against it because he did not feel comfortable wrestling in front of people in so little of clothing at just 160 pounds. But Ezaki's love for pro-wrestling growing up would make him decide to go for it.

Eiji Ezaki would apply for the Syodai Wrestling Association and he would be one of three people accepted into the group that semester. The other two were Kengo Matsuda and Masashi Honda. The three boys would meet up at one of the boys dorm rooms to celebrate and would begin drinking and chugging beers. They would drink for hours until Ezaki would have to leave to go throw up in the college bath room. After Ezaki would finish, he would hear someone else throwing up in the other stall and would see that it was Masashi Honda. Ezaki would ask out loud when was he going to stop doing such stupid things. Honda would respond that he just became a wrestler, so they are suppose to do stupid things which got a laugh out of Ezaki and a life long friendship was born.

A trainer by the name of Takashi Ishikawa would would teach Ezaki, Honda, and Matsuda the basics of how to work a match. Ezaki and Honda would spar for the first time in these trainings four years before they would ever have a match against each other.

November 2, 1987 in Kumamoto, Eiji Ezaki would work his first ever match of any kind teaming up with Masashi Honda who would go by the name Encho and Kengo Matsuda as they would take on upper classmen Hasibe, Yukimura, and Ishijima and while Ezaki would be able to throw his first drop kick, the match would be a mess with all the young boys just wanting to get their moves in and not really knowing what they were doing before Matsuda would end up taking the fall.

Ezaki would continue working for the group for the next four years with Honda. They would change in tents and hold many shows outside even in the cold in December. Ezaki would pay the consequences of working with inexperienced kids as one time early on he would get his head busted open and would blood would be pouring all down his face during the match and another time he would suffer a bone fracture and would not be able to wrestle for a good length of time.

Ezaki around this time would also begin to enjoy his college days too much as he would begin bar hopping every night instead of going to his classes. He would drop out of Kumamoto Commercial University due to failure to attend his classes after four years and no degree to show from it. Ezaki's parents who had taken over Ezaki's grandparents hotel and were making good money cut off Ezaki financially due to him being kicked out of school unless he were to return back home with them.

Ezaki and Honda would be on a bus together when Honda would suggest that he wanted to move to Kawagoe in Saitama. Ezaki confused and not even knowing where that was exactly would ask why. Honda would explain that he was going to join the FMW Dojo which is where it was located. Honda would suggest that Ezaki join him as well since Ezaki was no longer in college. Ezaki knew what FMW was but was not impressed with that style of wrestling that they did and he only knew of one wrestler and that was Atsushi Onita who he hated while in All Japan. Ezaki stated that he was just going to go live back at his parents instead. Honda would set off for Saitama when Ezaki would go to a pay phone and begin dialing the numbers to his parents letting him know he would return back home when he would change his mind and decide to go with Honda instead of going back home.

Ezaki with the help from the Syodai Wrestling Association students pitching in together would pay for a bus ticket for Ezaki to go from Hakata to Tokyo. Ezaki would end up meeting Honda at the bus station to Honda's surprise. Honda and Ezaki would take the 14 hour over night bus ride from Hakata to Tokyo from January 31st to February 1, 1991. They would then try to find out where Kawagoe in Tokyo was. To their surprise, they would end up finding out that Kawagoe was not in Tokyo like they had thought, but it was actually in Saitama. They would have to take the subway from Shinjuku in Tokyo to Kawagoe in Saitama.

The two would enter the FMW Dojo with 40 other people with Tarzan Goto assigned as their trainer. Goto would make Ezaki, Honda, and the other students trying out 500 hindu squats, 300 push ups, and 100 sit ups to prove they were physically worthy of making it in the FMW Dojo. They would also have to be interviewed by Tarzan Goto as well. Ezaki would be number 13 and after his interview would be told by Goto that he had failed. Ezaki would start to freak out after failing before Goto would begin laughing and letting him know that he was just kidding and that he had actually made it. Honda would be the next person to be interviewed and with Ezaki waiting outside for him when Honda would come out he would have a smile on his face. Only two people would pass of the 40 people trying out and they would be Masashi Honda and Eiji Ezaki as they were officially accepted in to the FMW Dojo.

Eiji Ezaki would return home to Yatsushiro to the Japanese hotel that his parents had taken over from his grandparents and were now running. He would inform them about dropping out of college but that he had been accepted into the FMW Dojo. Ezaki's parents would be furious about this decision and would let him know that since he was the first born he would have been on track to have a secure hotel job before taking over for them. Ezaki would end up living with his parents for another two weeks which were the longest two weeks of his life and after hearing nothing from them would finally get the call that they were ready for him to return back to Saitama and live in the FMW Dojo.

Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda would become the newest members of the FMW Dojo as Akihito Ichihara, Yukihide Ueno and Katsutoshi Niiyama known as The Shooter would already be living in the Dojo. Ezaki and Honda would not even know who Niiyama was until later on as he had only wrestled with a mask on so they were unable to identify him without the mask. They would encounter an issue right away as there were 5 people living in the Dojo and only four bed rooms. Ezaki and Honda would end up taking turns sleeping in the hall way. This would only just be the beginning of the hell that Eiji Ezaki would occur.

Ezaki and Honda would also learn from Akihito Ichihara that they would begin part time jobs which neither of them knew they would have to do. This would allow them to make some money since it would take awhile before they would begin wrestling and they would not be paid until they begin wrestling.

They would be woken up at 6 AM to workout and then eat breakfast before Honda would have to drive the license less Ezaki to their job at the French Bed Co. in Kasukabe, Saitama which sold beds for the elderly and was the biggest sponsor and they would work there until 8 AM until 3:30 PM. They would then begin practice wrestling at 6 PM after doing 1000 squats while getting heckled by Tarzan Goto. They would finish practice at 11 PM. They would then eat dinner and then clean the Dojo until 2 AM leaving them only four hours of sleep sometimes just in a hall way unless Goto would randomly to decide he wanted to begin practice again at 2 AM for a couple more hours.

This would occur six days a week with only Sunday being the day to catch up on their sleep. The only thing Ezaki always had going for him was that he was a fast learner and picked up on everything rather quickly which did not go unnoticed by Tarzan Goto or the other students.

They would also have to go to the grocery store and get food for dinner which Ezaki would always get Chanko after being advised by Akihito Ichihara as it was what Sumo Wrestlers ate to gain weight as it had a lot of protein with Ezaki desperately doing anything he could to be able to gain weight back then.

Tarzan Goto from the start of training would not bother to learn his students name and instead would give them names based on celebrities who he thought they looked like. Masashi Honda's Dojo name would be "Gannosuke" as Goto felt that Honda looked like Japanese actor Ashiya Gannosuke. Ezaki's name would be "Ken" as he felt that Ezaki looked like Japanese singer and actor Kentaro Shimizu.

Tarzan Goto would like to have his students spar. Ezaki despite being a Shoden black belt in Judo would always be paired with either Katsutoshi Niiyama or Tarzan Goto. Niiyama had trained in Submission Arts Wrestling and would always be able to take down Ezaki. Ezaki would also go up against Tarzan Goto as well and with Goto being double the size of Ezaki he would have no chance and would be taken down by Goto as well.

The first time Ezaki would enter Korakuen Hall in Tokyo would be on February 26, 1991 to help set up the ring. It was not an easy job as Korakuen Hall would be located on the fifth floor so wrestlers would have to bring up parts of the ring at time up the elevator. Ezaki would be brought to the locker room where he would be introduce and bow in front of Sambo Asako, Ricky Fuji, and his boss Atsushi Onita. Ezaki's job would be to greet fans and help them to their seats. He was told to watch the matches but to not react to any of the matches. While watching a match between Yukihide Ueno against the debuting El Pandita who was doing his act for the first time causing all the fans in the crowd would begin to laugh hysterically. Ezaki noticed himself laughing at Pandita as well and try to play it off as he was coughing and would hope nobody had noticed. Later that night while back in the Dojo, Ezaki would be working with Tarzan Goto who would end up punching Ezaki right in the face very hard and stated that was for laughing at the show earlier.

Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda would be informed on April 20, 1991 that they would be participating at a banquet put on by FMW for its sponsor and that they would have to go up and make the audience laugh with Onita telling them that they would be dismissed from FMW if they were not funny. Ezaki and Honda would put on a performance like they were body builders and pose with Ezaki wearing a speedo which would make the audience laugh. Ezaki and Honda would get backstage and be told by Onita would tell him he thought it was boring, although they were not told if they were actually being dismissed or not until Shoichi Arai who was the ring announcer for FMW and worked in the office would introduce himself to Ezaki and let him know he would be a very important person for FMW one day.

May 5, 1991 at the Nagoya International Center, Ezaki would be ordered by Tarzan Goto two hours before the show would start that he was making his professional wrestling debut. Ezaki would not feel ready and would not have any wrestling tights to wear but he had no choice. He would have to borrow Ueno's red wine tights and team with Amigo Ultra who would later be known as Damian as they would defeat the team the team of Yukihide Ueno and El Pandita with Ezaki delivering a drop kick and a spinning heel kick to Ueno during the match before Amigo Ultra would end up getting the pinfall for the victory. Ezaki would get back stage and get yelled at by Goto for pulling out a spinning heel kick in his debut match as you are only suppose to do basic moves in your first match. He would then find out that the only reason he was called to have his debut match was because Akihito Ichihara had injured his wrist and was unable to wrestle on the show. Ezaki would go up to Ueno afterwards and bow and thank him for the match which Ueno would just respond with a demand of making sure his tights were washed and returned neatly. Ezaki would make his first ever amount of money from pro-wrestling following the match. He would receive an envelope with 5,000 Yen in it ($50 USD) but would also receive coverage in Pro-Wrestling Weekly for his debut match which would also get his friend Honda jealous that Ezaki would be the first to debut.

June 19, 1991 at the Akita Prefectural Gym, Ezaki's second match would be a handicap match as Ezaki would be booked in the match at the last minute to team Akihito Ichihara against The Gladiator to get over The Gladiator as a monster. It would be a quick squash for The Gladiator who was told to just go out there and destroy Ezaki and Ichihara and make them both pay their dues. Ezaki afterwards would begin throw up dark blood backstage which would scare Ezaki that he could possibly die from the punishment he just took. Goto would see Ezaki hurt following the match and tell Ken to just lay down with Arai coming by to ask if he was alright. Ezaki would not go to a hospital that night, but instead would be told by Ricky Fuji that he would have to go out to Karaoke with him instead with an FMW sponsor.

June 22, 1991 at the Hokkaido Haboro Elementary Gym, Ezaki and Honda would both wrestle in single matches for the first time in their career. The show would be held at an Elementary School where they would use a class room as the locker room and the chalk board that would list the matches of the show with both Ezaki and Honda's name on it. Eiji Ezaki would wrestle his first singles professional match against Yukihide Ueno where he would lose to a Boston Crab and Masashi Honda would face off and lose to Akihito Ichihara with Ezaki feeling it was his real debut and that June 22, 1991 was the day that both Ezaki and Honda could call each other professional wrestlers.

After the show, there would only be one hotel in Haboro so the entire roster could not stay in the hotel. FMW would only book the foreigners to stay at the hotel while the native FMW wrestlers would spend the night at a camping lodge Atsushi Onita would congratulate both Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda for their singles debut matches earlier and then would come up with the idea due to photographers from the Pro-Wrestling Weekly magazine there that he would try to gain some publicity by announcing that as a way to celebrate their debuts they would be using fire crackers but the twist would be that they would have to celebrate by setting the fire crackers off out of their anus. Ezaki and Honda would go rock, papers, scissors to see who would go first with Ezaki losing. Honda would place the fire works in Ezaki's ass with it going off although it would not seriously injure Ezaki he would need ointment and it would hurt to sit in the bus the next day. Onita would end up lighting the next one in Honda and the stunt would gain FMW attention after the pictures were published in the magazine and would be the first thing that casual fans would know about Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda.

Ezaki would then face off against Masashi Honda for the first time on on June 26, 1991 at the Hokkaido Ashikawa Prefectural Gym with Honda getting the victory over Ezaki. Ezaki would follow by getting his first career victory over Honda on June 29, 1991 at the Hanamaki Citizen Gym.

June 30, 1991 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would make his Korakuen Hall again facing off against Yukihide Ueno and again Ueno would be very rough with Ezaki before getting the win over him in the first of many matches for Ezaki at the historic Korakuen Hall.

Ezaki would be considered the best of all the young students especially by Atsushi Onita whenever he would have the chance to watch the training going on in the Dojo. Ezaki would also be given the roll of Atsushi Onita's main assistant where as Honda would become Tarzan Goto's main assistant.

August 24, 1991 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would team up with Yukihide Ueno who would still continue to give him problems out of jealousy as they would would lose to the team of El Pandita and Akihito Ichihara with Pandita picking up the win over Ezaki.

September 23, 1991 at Kawasaki Stadium, Eiji Ezaki and Masashi Honda would wrestle in the biggest match of their career at the time in the opening match of the biggest FMW show at the time against each one another. Honda had previously complained about stomach problems. He would be informed that it was his appendix and that he would need to have it removed. This would cause Honda to miss wrestling at Kawasaki Stadium. Honda would instead choose to take so many drugs to kill the pain to get through the match. Ezaki would have to be very careful while working with the match due to Honda's condition with Ezaki would end up getting the win over his best friend at Kawasaki Stadium. Honda would never end up getting his appendix removed.

FMW would run a tour in October 1991 that would see Masashi Honda pushed into main event matches and be given the new ring name Gannosuke Honda based off of Tarzan Goto's nick name for him. That name would end up making it one day before it would get changed to Mr. Gannosuke. Ezaki would be happy for his friend but envious as well but would understand him getting the push due to him having a bigger frame that was made to handle the punishment that they were doing for the Street Fight main event matches. Mr. Gannosuke would end up suffering an injury and would end up missing the rest of 1991.

November 20, 1991 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym, Ezaki would team up with Yukihide Ueno as they would lose to the Korean Martial Arts team of Chong Summusu and Kim Shunki who were participating in the World's Strongest Team Team Tournament after Chong would pin Ueno. This tournament would also bring in the legendary Shiek who would team up with his nephew Sabu who would make his Japanese debut on this show.

November 24, 1991 in Tsuyama, Eiji Ezaki would wrestle Sabu in their first ever singles match with Sabu getting the easy victory over the young Ezaki in just over three minutes. Ezaki who was still a young boy would idolize The Sheik and Sabu although fear them at the same time. Ezaki would earn the respect of both after time and would eventually be considered The Sheik's favorite to where Ezaki could be allowed to call him "Papa Sheik".

November 27, 1991 at the Shizuoka, Ezaki would team up with Katsutoshi Niiyama still going by The Shooter name as they would take on The Sheik and Sabu in a Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight and although Ezaki would get in a drop kick on Sabu he would end up getting busted open and bleeding for the first time in his career before Sabu would pin Ezaki in under two minutes.

December 5, 1991 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki again would deal with teaming with Yukihide Ueno as they would lose to The Mercenaries who were Billy Anderson and Louie Spicolli in masks and they would get the win after Spicolli would put away Ezaki for the win.

December 9, 1991 at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall would see the finals of the World Strongest Tag Team Tournament with Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto winning. Ezaki would again team up with The Shooter to take on Sabu and The Sheik and again it would be chaotic with The Sheik using his fork and Sabu delivering his Arabian Press to put away Ezaki in under a minute.

January 6, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would team up with Katsuji Ueda who was a boxer and also Atsushi Onita's personal bodyguard as they would take on The Gladiator and Jim Peterson and much like six months earlier although Ezaki would get some awesome in this time he would get destroyed by The Gladiator before getting pinned by him.

January 9, 1992 in Koga, Eiji Ezaki would team up with Mr. Gannosuke as their team name would be called the Kyushu Express due to both of them being from the area in Southern Japan called Kyushu with the Express coming from a take off of the Rock and Roll and Midnight Express with the Kyushu Express taking the loss to The Gladiator and Jim Peterson as The Gladiator would finish off Ezaki again in under five minutes.

Shoichi Arai would inform Ezaki and Gannosuke that since they were going to tour in February in Ezaki's home town of Kumamoto and Gannosuke's home town of Nagasaki that the company wanted them to invite their parents to see them wrestle. Ezaki would speak with his parents for the first time since leaving a year earlier and let them know about the show on February 4th. They would just respond with okay but not give an answer on whether they would be attending or not before hanging up.

February 4, 1992 in Kumamoto, Ezaki would open the show against Yukihide Ueno in his home town. He would start to cheers and chants of his name when he would look over and see his parents in the front row cheering him on. Ezaki would go on to defeat Ueno in the first match his parents would ever see him wrestle in.

Ezaki and Mr. Gannosuke would meet after the show on February 4, 1992 in Kumamoto and visit Yoshinori Murata's wrestling restaurant which was a frequent place they would attend throughout college as they would drink together and become close with Murata who was a big wrestling fan. Ezaki and Gannosuke would see Murata for the first time that night as pro-wrestlers with Gannosuke proudly wearing an FMW jacket as they were living their dream.

March 25, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would open the show against The Shooter and would lose to Niiyama much like he would in their spars as The Shooter would use his Submission Arts Wrestling to make Ezaki submit.

Ezaki would continue to live in the Dojo with Gannosuke in a small dark room and train at all times during the day. A new class of men wanting to become wrestlers would be accepted in the FMW Dojo as Shoji Nakamaki who was accepted due to him being a famous Baseball writer in Japan and FMW wanting the publicity of Nakamaki training to be a wrestler for the newspapers and magazines as well as Koji Nakagawa. Even better news for Ezaki was that Yukihide Ueno who along with Akihito Ichihara had gone to Mexico for an oversees study allowing both Ezaki and Gannosuke their own room and they would no longer be the young rookies any longer as Ezaki continues to grow his hair out and begin to incorporate more highflying moves to his arsenal like the Moonsault which at the time was a very rarely seen move in wrestling.

April 23, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would put away youngster Koji Nakagawa who he would be partner with for the next year as Ezaki would go up against Nakagawa as their body frames matched up more with one another than Gannosuke who would still continue to work in upper midcard matches with Tarzan Goto.

May 15, 1992 at the Tijuana Baja-California Mexico Arena, Ezaki would team up with Rey Mysterio, Sr. and Ultraman 2000 as they would take on the FMW team of Billy Anderson, Louie Spicolli, and their partner Jesse Hernandez with Misterio pinning Hernandez in the match. Ezaki would be happy to get out of Mexico as soon as possible as the hotel air conditioner would not work, the water in the bathroom was brown, and they could not leave the hotel because of the crime in Mexico. They would take the bus to America and not a moment too soon for Ezaki.

May 16, 1992 at the Los Angeles California State Gym, Ezaki would team up with Mr. Gannosuke and Ultra Taro as they would face off against the Los Merenarios Americanos once again this time with Hernandez getting the pinfall over Ezaki for the win. Although America would be better than Mexico and the FMW roster would get to shop around and go to Universal Studios where Ezaki would get to ride the Jaws ride while there the trip experience would be ruined when while rooming with Ezaki they would hear multiple gun shots outside the parking lot of the hotel they were staying in while trying to sleep that night. Ezaki and the FMW crew would head back to Japan the next day with Ezaki happy to be back in his home country.

May 24, 1992 at the Tokyo Ariake Coliseum, the Kyushu Express team of Eiji Ezaki and Mr. Gannosuke would open the show in a loss to Ricky Fuji and Katsutoshi Niiyama formerly The Shooter going by his new gimmick name of The Great Punk as Punk would end up getting the win over Ezaki.

Ezaki's life would change at this show on without him even knowing it that day. A young woman in early 20's named Harumi would attend this show after being invited by her friend. Harumi had no interest in wrestling and was only going as a favor to her friend. Harumi would look at the FMW program for the show and see the picture of Ezaki that is above. She would be really attracted to Ezaki and begin attending all FMW shows in Tokyo just to see him. She would stay after the shows to get a picture of Ezaki who was shocked as fans only wanted pictures of Onita back then. Eiji and Harumi would begin to talk after the shows and begin to see each other following the shows as well as they would start a long distance relationship by the end of the year.

May 31, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would face off against Katsuji Ueda and Ezaki would proceed to get knocked out early in the second round and laid out by Ueda who would get the KO victory over Ezaki.

June 28, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would face off against the 35 year old Shoji Nakamaki who Ezaki was 12 years younger than but had more seniority over in the Dojo. Ezaki would end up getting the easy win over Nakamaki who was not progressing as far as his basic rookie skills but was kept because of his famous name.

July 19, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would once again face off against Katsuji Ueda and once again he would get knocked out although this time Ezaki would make it to the third round before getting finished off by Ueda.

August 10, 1992 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2, Ezaki would face off against Sabu once again and although he would end up taking the loss he would be able to get some offense in including nailing Sabu with a Dropkick before taking the loss. Ezaki would idolize Sabu for his style as each FMW Dojo student would be told to pick a current FMW wrestler to strive to have that type of style in the ring it would be Sabu that Ezaki would choose.

August 22, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would fall to Katsutoshi Niiyama going by The Great Punk name again as Ezaki would continue to improve but would still continue to pay his dues by losing to anyone that outranked him by seniority.

August 23, 1992 at the Sagamihara iWorld Shop Parking Lot, Ezaki would face off against Atsushi Onita for the first time in his carer. Ezaki would team up with Yukihide Ueno who debuting his Battle Ranger Z gimmick from Mexico in Japan for one spot and Koji Nakagawa as the young students would take on the top three in FMW in Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto, and Sambo Asako. Ezaki would get busted open during the match but would fight back against Onita as well and show some spark before Goto would end up finishing off his student by putting away Ezaki with the Facebuster.

September 19, 1992 at the Yokohama Stadium, Eiji Ezaki and Koji Nakagawa would team up to take on Kevin Faule and Chris Jericho which would be the first ever stadium show for Ezaki. Jericho and Faule would be told before hand to make sure that Ezaki's Moonsault was protected during the match by the other member of the teaming breaking the count before the referee would count to three. Ezaki would end up hitting the Moonsault on Jericho with Kevin Faule coming in late and being unable to break up the count forcing Jericho to have to kick out of the move instead. Jericho and Faule would end up coming off the top rope with a double dropkick on Ezaki with Jericho scoring the pinfall over Ezaki.

October 11, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would once again fall to Katsuji Ueda's punch in the second round after Ueda would end up knocking out Ezaki for the win as Ezaki would just not have enough strength to compete against Ueda and his boxing skills.

November 20, 1992 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would work an eight man tag team match along with FMW wrestlers Sambo Asako, Ricky Fuji, and Florida independent wrestler Haystacks Calhoun, Jr. as they would take on the team of The Psychos and The Alligators with Ezaki taking the fall after Alligator Man # 1 would get the win to build them up for the upcoming Tag Team Tournament that was beginning.

November 27, 1992 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym, Ezaki would make his Yokohama Bunka Gym debut against Koji Nakagawa in the opening match and much like the beginning of every other FMW show it would result in Ezaki getting the win over Nakagawa with a moonsault. The same result would take place for Ezaki with the same finishing move on December 7, 1992 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym for the finals of the FMW Tag Team Tournament.

January 5, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would continue to be a preliminary punching bag as Katsuji Ueda would end up KO'ing him in the third round again punch. The next day would be more successful for Ezaki though.

January 6, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would take on Dr. Luther and the two would tear down the house and have the best match on the show. Luther afterwards would tell everyone backstage that he felt Ezaki had the talent to be a star in wrestling and should be protected better. Although Ezaki was still an opening match he knew the talent he possessed compared to the rest of the roster and he would even tell other wrestlers that even though Atsushi Onita was FMW that he would be the star of FMW soon enough.

February 21, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki and Mr. Gannosuke would team up together against The Gladiator and Dr. Hannibal. The Kyushu Express pull out some double teaming moves including Gannosuke delivering a drop kick the same time that Ezaki would deliver a spinning heel kick but the The Gladiator and Dr. Hannibal would be too much to powerful for the still young team as The Gladiator would finish off Ezaki with an Awesome Bomb.

March 5, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, the Kyushu Express would face off against each other as Mr. Gannosuke would defeat Ezaki by making him submit to a single leg crab as Gannosuke would continue to climb up the ladder in FMW the way that Ezaki had wanted to.

March 17, 1993 at the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center, the top three young wrestlers of Ezaki, Mr. Gannosuke, and Koji Nakagawa would team up against the foreign team of Sabu, Tiger Jeet Singh, Jr. who would go on to become Tiger Ali Singh in the WWF, and Judge Dread would defeat the green boys as Sabu would finish off Nakagawa for the win.

March 29, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would continue to be fed to bigger wrestlers as a way of proving himself as he would lose to Judge Dread a tall American wrestler after finishing Ezaki off with a choke slam.

April 22, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would face off against Battle Ranger Z who was Yukihide Ueno under a costumer after returning full time from Mexico. Ueno would still have issues with Ezaki and would take liberties during the match while defeating the younger Ezaki.

May 5, 1993 at Kawasaki Stadium, Ezaki would open Kawasaki Stadium once again, this time it would be against Nakagawa who Ezaki had worked with almost hundred times by this point. Ezaki would look to impress the largest audience ever seeing an FMW show at the time by using his highflying moves and finishing off Nakagawa with a moonsault as it was becoming more apparent that Ezaki had was one of if not the best worker in FMW already.

June 8, 1993 at the Okinawa Air Force Base, a special show would see a special match as Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto would take on the younger FMW wrestlers in Battle Ranger Z, Eiji Ezaki, and Koji Nakagawa with Ezaki getting another chance at facing off against Onita as well as his teacher Goto. Ezaki would hit some of his highflying moves on Onita and even bust him open but Onita would end up nailing Ezaki with his Thunder Fire Powerbomb to get the win in the handicap match.

June 28, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would once again defeat Koji Nakagawa with the Moonsault in the opening match on the show. He would then team up with Battle Ranger Z on July 16, 1993 at Korakuen Hall and lose to the team of Amigo Ultra now going by the name he is best known for in Damian and the Zombie as Damian would end up pinning Ezaki.

July 24, 1993 at Kitakyushi Stadium, Ezaki would team with Katsuji Ueda and Mr. Gannosuke against the team of Shirkroad, Chiaki Matsuyama and Abe with Gannosuke picking up the victory over Matsuyama. Ezaki would end up making his first impact on the main event of the show after Atsushi Onita would defeat Mr. Pogo in a Exploding Barbed wire Double Hell Death Match. Pogo would end up attacking Onita after the match with Mr. Chin an old IWE wrestler in his 60's and turned comedy opening card match wrestler would end up trying to make the save for Onita but Pogo would end up throwing Chin into the Exploding Barbed wire. Onita would end up covering Chin's body and Pogo would then blow a fireball at Onita's back. Ezaki would then rush the ring to cover Onita's burnt body and protect them both until more help could come. Ezaki and Masato Tanaka would both grab Chin's unconscious body and carry him to the back for safety.

September 17, 1993 in Ibaraki, Ezaki would be entered into the FMW Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title Tournament. His first round opponent would be Koji Nakagawa who Ezaki defeated numerous times throughout the last year. This time would be different though as Nakagawa would be the one to hit the Moonsault on Ezaki instead to get the pinfall and the win. Nakagawa though would end up breaking his arm after hitting the Moonsault and would be rushed to the hospital afterwards clinging to his arm. Nakagawa would be out of the tournament and Ezaki would take his spot in the semi-finals.

September 25, 1993 in Hiratsuka, Ezaki would face off against Battle Ranger Z in the Semi-Finals of the tournament to crown the new FMW Independent Jr. Heavyweight Champion. Ezaki would be out matched by the more experienced Battle Ranger who would end up and again defeat Ezaki and advancing to the finals where he would end up losing to The Great Sasuke.

September 27, 1993 at Korakuen Hall, Ezaki would end up defeating new FMW Dojo student Masato Tanaka in the opening match on the show. Ezaki would get told that Atsushi Onita wanted to speak with him. Ezaki would be nervous as he had been told in the past about Tarzan Goto wanting to speak with him but getting called in by Goto was like the teacher wanting you to stay after and Onita was like getting called into the principal's office. Onita would simply state to Ezaki "You go to Mexico. Immediately." Ezaki would bow and say yes. They would end up posing for pictures to the media afterwards for the magazines with Ezaki crying about the announcement and although it was staged those tears from Ezaki were real as he did not want to go based off his previous experience a year earlier. He would be told it would be an oversees study and that since Ichihara had just returned from Mexico there was not enough room in the undercard for Ezaki. Shoichi Arai later in his book would state the real reason that Onita sent Ezaki to Mexico was because they would go out after shows and since Ezaki was Onita's assistant he would always come with him and all the girls would over to Ezaki instead of Onita.

Ezaki would go to Akihito Ichihara who had just returned from Mexico with Ezaki asking Ichihara advice about going to Mexico. Ichihara would suggest for him to bring extra clothes, tights, and shoes as he will have several matches a week.

Ezaki would decide that if he was going to Mexico that he would want to wrestle in a mask like the Mexican tradition and would then return to Japan back as Eiji Ezaki. He would get out a college rule notebook and begin drawing design ideas for what he would want his mask to look like as he wanted it to stand out. He would come up with a design that would be a mixture of a ninja and a bird since he wanted to be flying like a bird could. His designed was based on Magna illustrator Shotaro Ishinomori's Henshin Ninja Arashi. He wanted to leave the top open so his hair could stick and add Kumadori paint around his eyes like a Kabuki actor. He also came up with an idea to use a happi which is a Japanese robe for his entrance.

Ezaki would call his parents and let them know about the trip to Mexico and that it would be an oversees study. He would get in a package in the mail a couple of days later stating it was from the Japanese Style Hotel and in it would have a happi as well as a couple $10,000 yen ($100 USD) bills.

Ezaki would wait to tell Harumi last as she would not find out until October 1, 1993 about his trip when he was scheduled to leave on October 5, 1993. Harumi would be extremely upset and tell Ezaki "please don't leave me" and Ezaki would not be able to answer her exactly when he would return as he could not return until he would show growth in the ring.

Ezaki would arrive to the Narita Airport on October 5, 1993 with the other FMW Dojo students. Gannosuke would pose for a picture with Ezaki while Nakagawa would give Ezaki a Spanish to Japanese dictionary as a present. Ezaki would fly 12 hours to Los Angeles with customs only on a three month visitors visa. They would search his bag and see his wrestling costume in there and ask him about it and since Ezaki was only going there on a visitors visa and not a work visa as FMW had not spent the extra money on that he would have to tell the guard that it was for his nephew that was a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. Ezaki would clear customs and then wait for Damian who he was told would pick him up at the airport. Ezaki would wait four hours for Damian in the baggage claim. Ezaki would think about Damian not ever coming and Ezaki and having to fly back to Japan because he was never picked up and even though that is what he wish could have happened he knew that he would be a laughing stock to have to return that way. Damian would finally arrive and to make matters worse he would not even apologize for being four hours late and would just grab Ezaki's bags and put them in the trunk and head off to Tijuana with Ezaki silently enrage for having to wait that long with no reason given. Damian would drive two hours from Los Angeles to Tijuana where he was living with Ezaki bringing up that he wanted to start practicing soon with Damian "Okay. Later" as Damian only knew Spanish and Ezaki only knew Japanese there was not much ability to communicate as Ezaki would just listen Damian to sing to the radio the entire trip.

Ezaki would stay with Damian's family and while his wife was nice and would feed him dinner his stomach was not use to the seasonings she put on her food. Ezaki who was always worried about being too skinny for professional wrestling had managed to get up to 200 pounds after two years of training to gain weight. After his first six months in Mexico he managed to drop back to 180 due to the food not agreeing with his body at all. Ezaki would have nothing to do the first month and a half while in Mexico besides work out and go to the beach and tan. Ezaki would look out at the Pacific Ocean and wish he could just swim his way back to Mexico. He would just sit on the beach and listen to a cassette tape that Harumi had made for him. Harumi would also send him send him letters along with money to get by.

Ezaki would eventually get Damian to take him to a mask masker as Ezaki would show the mask maker the design that he came up with for the mask that he wanted to use. The mask maker would let him know he would have it made for him in two days. The mask maker had a collection of masks that he had made all over the walls of the building. Ezaki would come back two days later and find out that the mask maker had not made the mask for him like he had told him he would. The mask maker would state that it was just so weird. That the top part was open and there was so much space between the eyes as it leaves too much of the face exposed. Ezaki would respond that the whole point of the mask was to be different and would ask him if he could make the mask or not. The mask maker would respond that he could with Ezaki responding to the mask maker to make it then. Ezaki would come back three days later and the mask maker would have it ready. Ezaki could tell it had just been finished as he could still smell the glue on the mask and Ezaki would put on the mask and would look in the mirror and think that the the look had a bright future that was filled with promise.

Ezaki now had his mask ready but he still had no bookings and would ask Damian about it which Damian again would respond "Okay. Later." Ezaki frustrated that was the only response he was getting after two months of not working would snap at Damian and tell him he was tired of hearing about it and that Ichihara had told him he was working several shows a week. Damian would state that WWA was doing better back then and was not doing so well anymore and had less shows as a result. Ezaki stated he wanted Damian to take him to the WWA office to talk to them about it. Damian stated he could not do that. Ezaki would respond with asking him if the reason he could not was because he was worried that Ezaki would end up taking his spot on the roster? Ezaki would apologize after saying that. Damian would state that he could not work a match in Mexico because his ring name was Eiji Ezaki and that was not a name that the Mexican audience could say. Ezaki would then come up with a name he had already thought about using before arriving to Japan and that was "Hayabusa". The name fit what his design was based off of which was a ninja that could morph into a bird. Ezaki had borrowed the name from the the high speed roller coaster called the Hayabusa at Tokyo Summer Land.

Ezaki would have Damian take him to the WWA office where he would show his mask, a Pro-Wrestling Weekly that had pictures of him to show he had wrestling experience, and told them that his ring name was Hayabusa and asked that they book him on their next show. The office would respond back that he would have to train the Lucha Libre style before he could wrestle. They would setup Ezaki with Rey Misterio, Sr.'s Lucha Libre school. Ezaki would have to take the beginners class on Lucha which was filled with young school children due to so many children aiming for Lucha to get them out of their poor life in Mexico. Ezaki would be embarrassed to be training with young children but knew he had no choice. He would begin practicing with the school children on the mat and to make things even worse was his previous wrestling training hurt him in this environment. Ezaki had a very difficult time grasping Lucha because all the technology of wrestling he had learned was useless.

While training during one of his sessions Ezaki would get approached by a 18 year old Rey Misterio, Jr. who was helping out his uncle at the school that day. Misterio would create the conversation by asking Ezaki about Damian. Misterio would then have a practice session with Ezaki with Ezaki impressing Misterio and Misterio telling him "Good job amigo!" after their practice together.

Things would start to look better for Ezaki as Akihito Ichihara would return back to Mexico for another learning experience and Ezaki would have someone finally that could understand him. Ichihara would also have trouble getting booked by WWA this go around but Ezaki would finally be told that he had finished his Lucha Libre training and that he would debut for the promotion.

Ezaki would be heading back from hanging out with Damian in Los Angeles on their way to Tijuana for the WWA show for Hayabusa to make his debut under the mask. Damian would stop the car and suggest that Ezaki get out of the car and climb up the top of the hill by the road and he would take pictures of him as Hayabusa before making his debut that night in Tijuana. It would be the first picture of Eiji Ezaki as Hayabusa.

Ezaki would arrive in Tijuana and enter the building and see the match lineup written and he would see the name "HAYABUSA" written for the second match of the show and Hayabusa would wrestle his first match under the name and mask in December 1993. Hayabusa would come out and the fans would begin chanting "CHINO! CHINO!" which was Chinese in Spanish. Hayabusa would also get empty cups thrown at him as he felt fortune that he was wearing the mask so that no one could see his disappointed face. Hayabusa would work the match and would not feel too happy about it as he still did not have the Lucha Libre style but he was glad that the Hayabusa gimmick was there for no one to know it was Eiji Ezaki that was doing so poorly in the ring. Ezaki would get paid 10 pesos which was around 200 yen back then and he would buy a taco and a coke with his money.

Ezaki would eventually tweak the Hayabusa design a little bit more and have more costumes designed including kimono that his parents had sent him. Also, one of the perks of being sent to Mexico and and working for the WWA promotion for Ezaki would be getting to meet his first favorite wrestler as a child growing up in Mil Mascaras who was WWA Champion as well as Mil Mascaras' brother Dos Caras and wrestling on the same shows as them.

Ezaki would work matches with Akihito Ichihara in WWA in six man tag team matches but was dealing with the dilemma that his passport visa was about to expire in January 1994. He would find out that the AAA promotion was running a show in Tijuana and would attend it. He would see Ultimo Dragon and introduce himself as Eiji Ezaki of Atsushi Onita's FMW promotion. Ezaki would ask Dragon if he could speak with someone about getting him into AAA because his vacation visa was expiring and he would not get it renewed working for WWA. Dragon would tell him that he would need to go to Mexico City and that he would get his visa worked out for him.

Ezaki would fly to Mexico City two days later and although he was incredibly confused by the Spanish transportation system he would find himself where he needed to. Ezaki would stay at the Pension Amigo hotel which was nicknamed Japan Inn as it was where all the young Japanese wrestlers would stay while in Mexico City including The Great Sasuke and Dick Togo. Ezaki would meet Koji Kanemoto, SAITO who would go on to become Super Shisa, and Black Cat who were staying at the hotel. Ezaki would end up bonding with Koji Kanemoto and the two would become friends the rest of the time in Ezaki's stay in Mexico. Ezaki would spend most of his time on the phone with Harumi as he would learn that their phone lines did not charge long distance international fees.

Ezaki would meet with Antonio Pena of AAA to be included on their shows. Pena would agree for Ezaki to begin working for AAA and told him he would pay him 800 dollars a week if he worked a show that week which seemed like a dream to Ezaki who was only making 2-3 dollars a match in WWA. Hayabusa would make his debut in AAA in February 1994 where he would debut delivering a tope con hilo for the first time in the match. The dream of AAA would be too good to be true as Hayabusa would not get booked by AAA again for a month and he would never get paid his 800 dollars that week for working the one match that Pena had promised him in their meeting. Ezaki would keep going to the AAA office but Pena would never meet with him. He would get booked one more time in March 1994 and that would be it. Ezaki would see AAA wrestler Konnan at the Gym and ask him about his lack of booking with Konan telling him it was because New Japan and AAA have a partnership and that is why Kanemoto was getting booked and they did not want too many Japanese guys on the shows all the time.

Ezaki then got the call from Shoichi Arai that Onita wanted him to return to Japan for a New Japan "All Star Game" of junior heavyweights. Ezaki would respond back to Arai that he could not return as he was not ready as he had less than 10 matches in the six months since coming Mexico and that his performance would discredit FMW. Arai would call Ezaki back and tell him that Onita was demanding that he participate. Ezaki would ask Arai if he wanted him to return to Japan as Eiji Ezaki or as Hayabusa. Arai stated it did not matter which one he chose. Ezaki would choose to go by Hayabusa so in case he failed he could return to FMW as Eiji Ezaki with no one knowing he was Hayabusa. Ezaki at the advice of Koji Kanemoto would constantly train at the gym with out knowing who anyone in the All Star Game was. Ezaki would then get a call to inform him that his match for the show would be against Jushin Thunder Liger which would freak out at the expectations of the match. Kanemoto would tell Ezaki the stories of training from Liger who had beaten up Kanemoto many times as a young boy. Ezaki as well as Ultimo Dragon would receive direct flight business airline tickets to Narita, Japan. Ezaki and Dragon would sit next to each other on the flight with Ezaki babbling to Dragon his nervous feelings and about how wish he could run away. They would be picked up by car at the airport and then be taken to the Tokyo Shinjuku Keio Plaza Hotel which is a very nice and expensive hotel that the New Japan foreigners like Hulk Hogan, Vader, and Andre the Giant would always stay at while touring for New Japan. Ezaki would call Harumi that night to come over and stay the entire three days at the luxurious hotel with him.

Ezaki would head over the New Japan Dojo the next day where he would find out all the wrestlers on the show for what would be called the Super J Cup on April 15, 1994. Ezaki would return and go shopping with Harumi in Kabuki-cho District of Shinjuku that night. His jet lag and anxiety of the next day would result in him struggling to fall asleep which would result in him sleeping part the alarm and waking up at 7:50 am with the bus suppose to leave for 8:00 to Ryogoku. Ezaki would manage to get everything ready and be at the lobby for 8:15 which would result in the bus having to be held up and Ezaki feeling very embarrassed. Ezaki would meet with Mr. Gannosuke for the first time since leaving for Mexico back over 6 months earlier. Ezaki would tell Gannosuke that he was looking to make an impression and that was attempting the Shooting Star Press in his match for the first time. Ezaki would practice in the ring before the show as he would climb up the top rope and perfectly execute the Shooting Star Press in the ring. Ezaki's anxiety would turn to confidence as he knew he could perform the key spot of the match for him.

April 16, 1994 at the Tokyo Ryogoku Sumo Hall, Eiji Ezaki would debut as Hayabusa for the first time in Japan for New Japan's Super J-Cup Tournament in the last match of the first round against Jushin Thunder Liger and would quickly attack the legendary Liger before the start of the match and kick him out of the ring before delivering a tope con hilo to floor at him. Hayabusa would show his completely new offense to Japan for the first time to many fans that had never even seen Eiji Ezaki wrestle let alone this masked high flyer going at it with the top junior heavyweight star of the promotion. Ezaki was still not polished on many of his moves. Hayabusa would go up to the turnbuckle and deliver his first ever Shooting Star Press in front of an audience, but would also miss Liger completely as Liger would take advantage and hit a Running Liger Bomb which felt like to Hayabusa like taking an Awesome Bomb as it stopped the nature of his breathing and Liger would go on to get the pinfall victory over Hayabusa in a well received first match for Eiji Ezaki under his new gimmick as Liger would shake Hayabusa's hand after the match. Eiji Ezaki's wrestling life would change because of the big stage of this match.

Hayabusa who had come out to the ring with Mr. Gannosuke, Koji Nakagawa, and Masato Tanaka, and Yukihide Ueno would ask everyone how they felt the match had gone. Gannosuke stated that the match was good with Tanaka and Nakagawa agreeing. Ueno did not respond as his bitterness towards Ezaki remained as he was originally slated for the show as an FMW representative before they decision was change to go with Ezaki.

Hayabusa would be sent back to Mexico on April 19, 1994 just three days after his Super J Cup to no matches booked for him in AAA. Jushin Liger would come to Mexico in May 1994 and bring and a VHS of the Super J Cup show. They would all gather at Dragon's house and watch the VHS where Ezaki would watch the match for the first time and hear the announcer inflate to the audience that Hayabusa was very popular in Mexico during the match.

Victor Quinones of the IWA Japan promotion, which had yet to start running shows would offer Hayabusa a contract to the IWA Promotion for $3,000 dollar a month, and $10,000 dollar signing bonus to become the top Japanese star of the promotion due to the potential he saw at the Super J Cup. Hayabusa would turn down the offer to remain loyal with FMW.

Ezaki would ask Ultimo Dragon again who worked for EMLL to see if he could go to the promoter and get him booked for EMLL instead. Ezaki would come with Dragon to the show and afterwards Dragon would come back from the meeting and let Ezaki know he was booked on the show that night. Ezaki had not brought his wrestling pants for the show figuring he would not compete and he had just brought a mask for privacy and by special chance he was able to find wrestling boots for the match.

May 17, 1994 at the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, Hayabusa would make his EMLL debut in his casual Zubaz pants that he wore casually to the show that night not expecting to wrestle as he would team with La Sombra and Ringo Mendoza as they would defeat the team of Javier Cruz, Panico, and Tornado Negro I. Hayabusa would begin to finally find success as he would begin to get booked as much as three times a day as he would take Brazo de Oro's spot as the young flying sensation.

May 27, 1994 in Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, Hayabusa would team with Ciclon Ramirez and Pantera II in a losing effort to Mogur, Javier Cruz, and Cachorro Mendoza. The reports on Hayabusa after the match, were that he lacked experience in Lucha Libre style wrestling, but was obviously an incredible athlete from the moves he would deliver. Hayabusa would make his Arena Mexico debut teaming with Ciclon Ramirez and El Hijo del Solitario to defeat the team of Javier Cruz, Mogur, and Espectro Jr.

June 3, 1994 at Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Hayabusa would make his debut in the world famous Arena Mexico as he would team with El Pantera and Ciclon Ramirez as they would defeat Cachorro Mendoza, Javier Cruz, and Mogur in a Two out of Three Falls Match. Hayabusa would team with Ciclon Ramirex again as well as El Hijo del Solitario as they would defeat Espectro, Jr., Javier Cruz, and Mogur on June 17, 1994 in Arena Mexico in a Two out of Three Falls Match.

June 21, 1994 in Cuernavaca in Morelos, Hayabusa would get to team up with Ultimo Dragon for the first time in his career as well as La Fiera to defeat the defeat the team of Angel Blanco Jr., Los Hijos de Angel Blanco I and II after Dragon would get the pin for the victory. Hayabusa would then team up with Chicago Express and Americo Rocca as they would lose to Cadaver de Ultratumba, Espectro, Jr. and Javier Cruz on June 24, 1994 at Arena Mexico.

Hayabusa would team up with Ringo Mendoza, and El Hijo del Solitario to defeat Mogur, Jacque Mate, and Tornado Negro on July 5, 1994 at the Arena Coliseo as Hayabusa would continue to improve in Lucha Libre. Hayabusa would make his return to Arena Mexico on July 15, 1994 to team with El Hijo del Solitario and Blue Demon Demon, Jr. to defeat the team of Jacque Mate, Mocho Cota, and Cachorro Mendoza.

The next day Hayabusa, El Dandy, and Super Astro would lose on July 16, 1994 in Mexico City to the team of Jaque Mate, Mano Negra, and Negro Casas. Hayabusa would team up with Guerrero Imperial as they would defeat the team of Corzon Salvaje and Guerrero del Fantasma on July 21, 1994 in Cuernavaca, Morelos and then on another show that day in the building the team of Hayabusa, Atlantis, and El Texano would defeat Bestia Salvaje, Mano Negra, and Pierroth Jr.

Hayabusa would then team with Super Astro to enter into a tag team tournament to crown new CMLL Tag Team Champions after the titles were vacated and their first round opponents would be El Dandy and Negro Casas on July 22, 1994 in the main event of Arena Mexico in Mexico City in front of 8000 fans, in Hayabusa's first ever main event match of his career. Hayabusa and Super Astro would fail to get through the the first round after El Dandy and Negro Casas would come away with the victory to advance. Also, entered in the tournament would be the Wild Pegasus Chris Benoit, Vampiro, Miguel Perez, The Headhunters, Takashi Okano, and Silver King. The Headhunters would go on to win the tournament and the titles after defeating Negro Casas and El Dandy in the finals a week later.

Hayabusa would team up with fellow Japanese wrestler Nobutaka Araya as they would team up with El Hijo del Solitario to defeat the team of Bestia Salvaje, Jaque Mate, and Popitekus on July 30, 1994 at Arena Coliseo in a Two out of Three Falls Match and would then team up with Blue Demon, Jr. and then team up with Blue Demon, Jr. and Ciclon Ramirez as they would lose to Cachorro Mendoza, Mocho Cota, and Mogur on August 2, 1994 in Arena Coliseo.

Hayabusa would return to Arena Mexico on August 12, 1994 to team up with El Brazo and Brazo de Oro, who was known to the EMLL fans as the young flying sensation before Hayabusa had came in as they would lose Meno Negra, Archangel de la Murete, and El Hijo del Gladiator with Hayabusa again showing growth in the Lucha Libre style of match, and adding his own incredible moves like the 450 Fire Bird Splash, and the Phoenix Splash. Hayabusa would lose his last match before returning home to Japan on August 16, 1994 at Arena Mexico after teaming with El Brazo and Pantera II to lose to the team of Javier Cruz, El Hido del Gladiator, and and Gran Markus, Jr.

Hayabusa would then leave Mexico to return to Japan, and make his FMW debut as Hayabusa. But first he would pose for pictures for the Japanese Magazine Pro-Wrestling Shu in Osaka prior to returning to FMW. Due to leaving right after the show and going back to Mexico, Hayabusa would be brought back and be told that he was being groomed as the new ace of FMW and to establish himself as a main even wrestler.

August 28, 1994 at the Osaka Castle Hall, Hayabusa would be put in a match against Sabu due to the Hayabusa gimmick being patterned after Sabu due to Eiji Ezaki being such a fan of Sabu's gimmick from years earlier in FMW. Sabu would try a dangerous spot of hitting a 450 Splash off the top rope to the outside onto a table that Hayabusa had moved out of the way of. Sabu would injure his back during the spot and Hayabusa would manage to get his first ever Japanese victory under the Hayabusa gimmick by beating Sabu. Sabu would show respect to Hayabusa afterwards by shaking his hand. Hayabusa would also assist Atsushi Onita for the only time under the mask in the main event. Atsushi Onita after doing his speech to end the show and would begin spitting water to the crowd would spot Hayabusa near the ring and spit water at him.

Hayabusa would return to Mexico and begin to participate in Ultimo Dragon's training class called "Hall of the Dragon" in Mexico City which was a base camp on training highflying moves in the ring. Hayabusa and several other wrestlers including Chris Jericho would attend Dragon's trainings which years later would be the inspiration for him beginning his Toryumon class. Jericho would go up to Hayabusa and ask him about his Shooting Star Press which Jericho would tell him that he had tried it and broken his arm as a result. Hayabusa and Jericho would begin to incorporate the Asai Moonsault in the ring after this training. Ezaki who was using the Scorpio 450 Splash during the training wanted to come up with something innovative. He would include a backwards posture before delivering the 450 Splash which was a move nobody had never done before. Hayabusa would call it the Phoenix Splash.

Hayabusa's first match back in Mexico would be on September 6, 1994 in Arena Coliseo as his team with El Brazo and La Fiera would lose to the team of Dr. Wagner, Jr., El Gran Markus, Jr. and El Hido del Gladiator and his team of Atlantis and El Texano would lose again on September 9, 1994 at Arena Mexico to the the team of Emilio Charles, Jr., Miguel Perez, Jr. and Ricky Santana in a Two out of Three Falls Match.

Hayabusa would make his return to EMLL on September 23, 1994 at Arena Mexico teaming with Ultimo Dragon and Masao Orihara to lose to El Satanico, Emilio Charles Jr., and Bestia Salvaje. Hayabusa would make only his second ever appearance in the United States on October 2, 1994 in Houston, Texas teaming with Atlantis and Ringo Mendoza to defeat Felino, Mano Negra, and Pirata Morgan in the main event. After the match, the heels of the losing team would attack Hayabusa and his partners leaving them laid out when Moadib, who would later become Ahmed Johnson would make the save for Hayabusa, Atlantis, and Mendoza.

Hayabusa would team up with Ultimo Dragon as they would enter into the Copa Oreo 1994 Tournament but they would end up getting eliminated on October 25, 1994 in Arena Mexico by the team of Apolo Dantes and El Dandy. Hayabusa would also be informed around this time that he would be returning to FMW for the May 5th show at Kawasaki Stadium for Onita's Retirement as the focus of the promotion would be on him as he would be groomed to become the ace of the promotion.

Hayabusa would team up with Ultimo Dragon again and enter into another tournament for the vacant CMLL Tag Team Titles on November 11, 1994 in Arena Mexico to defeat the team of Felino and Mano Negra to get passed the first round. Hayabusa and Dragon would be eliminated from the tournament in the quarter finals on November 18, 1994 in Arena Mexico by the team of Emilio Charles, Jr. and El Santanico after Charles would finish off Hayabusa with a Powerbomb for the win as they would go on to win the tournament.

The day before getting eliminated in the CMLL Tag Team Tournament, Hayabusa would get the chance to team up with Dos Caras the younger brother of Mil Mascaras along with Ringo Mendoza on November 17, 1994 as they would defeat Hombre Bala, MS-1, and Pierroth, Jr. in Mexico City. Hayabusa and Caras would form a friendship that would go the rest of Ezaki's life with Caras sending a Christmas card to him up to 2015. Ezaki would also celebrate his 26th birthday on November 29, 1994 with Chris Jericho in Mexico City as Jericho would end up dumping Ezaki's face in the cake.

Hayabusa would team up with El Dandy and La Fiera to lose to Black Magic Norman Smiley, Mano Negra, and Mocho Cota at Arena Mexico on December 2, 1994, but Hayabusa would end up suffering his biggest injury at the time after attempting an Asai Moonsault to the floor, but still new to the move, he would end slipping off top rope, and end up crashing down to the floor, and smacking his head hard against the concrete. It would be a scary spot, but Hayabusa would go on to recover from it, with only suffer a severe headache for several days as a result. Hayabusa would be considered lucky after the spot gone wrong.

December 17, 1994 at Arena Mexico would mark Hayabusa's last match in Mexico. He would challenge Silver King for his CMLL Heavyweight Championship Match in a Two out of Three Falls Match. Hayabusa and King would brawl all over ringside at the start of the match with Hayabusa failing to beat the referees count for King to get the first fall win via count out. The second fall would have Silver King get DQ'd to tie it up going into the last fall. Hayabusa would deliver a Thunder Fire Powerbomb as well as a moonsault but it would be Silver King that would come out on top by pinning Hayabusa to defend his CMLL Heavyweight Title to end Hayabusa's 15 month stint in Mexico.

Hayabusa would end up winning Rookie of the Year for 1994 by the Pro-Wrestling Box and Lucha Magazine. Hayabusa though at 209 pounds wanted to bulk up more to become the ace of FMW and a true heavyweight and felt like he was never going to accomplish that in Mexico due to having so many stomach issues with the food there so he would request to to go to the United States and train there for the rest of his stay before returning to FMW.

Hayabusa would travel from Mexico City to Tampa, Florida in January 1995 where he would live with The Gladiator Mike Awesome. The Gladiator would pick him up at the airport and the two would begin training together and would eat 15,000 calories a day. Hayabusa would begin to drink chocolate milk as it was inexpensive and high on calories as he would drink 4 to 5 liters a day. He would eat meat and pasta daily as well. The Gladiator and Hayabusa would have talks about keeping FMW going with Onita retiring in May as they wanted to be the top rivalry of the promotion and change the image of FMW from the Onita Death Matches that it was known for after he retired.

Hayabusa would work the Florida independent promotions from January to April 1995. Hayabusa would wrestle for the Florida Wrestling Alliance which was Horace Boulder's promotion. At the beginning, the fans would laugh at Hayabusa's ring attire by many of the Florida fans screaming to him that he looked like one of the Power Rangers and boo him. Hayabusa would end up earning those fans respect with his moves by first debuting the Falcon Arrow which would get a reaction and then delivering the Phoenix Splash to applause. Many of the fans were stunned by the maneuvers at how impressive they actually were and Hayabusa would earn the respect of the fans and he would manage to to defeat The Navy Seal with help from former FMW wrestlers Haystacks Calhoun, Jr. and Horace Boulder to become the PCWF Heavyweight Championship in February 1995 as he was also getting praise from the boys in the back from what they were seeing from him.

He would wrestle the likes of Green Beret, Vern Henderson, Bill Garrett and would eventually lose the title two weeks after losing it to Randy Fuller on April 6, 1995 in what would be Eiji Ezaki's only match of his career where he would work as a heel against a babyface.

The Gladiator would attack Hayabusa afterwards backstage with pictures being taken of The Gladiator lifting up Hayabusa and challenging him to a match at Kawasaki Stadium for the return of Hayabusa to FMW the following month. The match was to symbolize the new FMW that would be taking place following Atsushi Onita's Retirement on May 5th which would put him at the level of The Gladiator who had once beaten him up so bad as a rookie that he vomited blood but plans would change.

Hayabusa would also get informed while in Florida in Spring 1995 that WWF was interested in him having a try out for them since there were no Japanese wrestlers on the roster and they were interested in his look. Hayabusa would convince himself that FMW was his home and should be top priority over his personal dream of wrestling in the WWF and that his life would be completely different if he were to remain living in a foreign country like America for long term. Hayabusa would decline the try out and Jinsei Shinzaki would end up getting the Japanese wrestler spot on the roster in May 1995.

Hayabusa would return back to Japan for good on April 20, 1995 to get ready for his upcoming match against The Gladiator at the FMW Dojo in Saitama. Hayabusa would look to become the ace of the promotion and top babyface along side Mr. Gannosuke and Katsutoshi Niiyama as Tarzan Goto would still be the senior leader of the promotion on the neutral Lethal Weapon team of Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji. Shoichi Arai would pick up Ezaki at the airport with Ezaki bringing up in the car ride about remaining Hayabusa instead of returning as Eiji Ezaki in the ring with Arai agreeing with him.

Shoichi Arai would drop Hayabusa off at a regular hotel in Ota-ku in Tokyo which was a small cramped room nowhere near compared to the hotel he had stayed at a year prior for New Japan. Hayabusa would be staying at this hotel for the time being while FMW was finishing their tour leading up to the show on May 5th at Kawasaki Stadium. Hayabusa would decide to go visit Harumi after a year instead of hanging out in the small room. Hayabusa would end up missing a call from Mr. Gannosuke that night who had called the hotel looking to speak with Hayabusa about some important information but Hayabusa would be out and never receive the phone call.

Mr. Gannosuke was trying to call Hayabusa to inform him that Tarzan Goto was leaving FMW. Goto after being told he was going to lose to Atsushi Onita once again for Atsushi Onita's Retirement Match after Onita had defeated him in every previous match and with Goto expecting to be one of the top stars of FMW with Onita gone he felt he was being setup to fail by Onita's ego and he would make a decision that would change FMW and all their plans leading up to the biggest show ever for the promotion. Gannosuke wanted to speak with Hayabusa before making his decision to follow Goto but since Hayabusa was unable to get in contact he he would decide to follow his teacher. Go Ito would end up knocking on Hayabusa's door that night to give him the news that Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke, and Akihito Ichihara were leaving FMW. Ito asked Hayabusa if he would be following with his best friend. Hayabusa would inform Ito that he was going to stay with FMW out of loyalty to Shoichi Arai and The Gladiator. Goto, Gannosuke, and Akihito Ichihara would attend a press conference the next day to announce their leaving FMW.

Shoichi Arai would meet with Hayabusa at his hotel and bring up changing the lineup for the May 5th Kawasaki Stadium show from Hayabusa facing The Gladiator to now being put in the main event of the show against Atsushi Onita in his Retirement Match. Arai would state to Hayabusa right away that he could not win of course but that it would be such a high profile of a match for him with Hayabusa accepting. FMW would announce that Takashi Ishikawa of Tokyo Pro would be in the main event of the match against Onita with none of the reporters believing that would actually be the match that FMW would go with.

April 30, 1995 at a FMW press conference in Tokyo, Atsushi Onita and Takashi Ishikawa would be about to sign for their match in the main event for Kawasaki Stadium when Hayabusa would walk in to the room before the match could be signed. Hayabusa would come out and kneel in front of them and ask for the match against Onita instead. Onita would get angry and begin screaming at Hayabusa for interrupting. Hayabusa would tell Onita that he would risk his life for FMW and that he would show him if he gave him the match. Onita would refuse but Takashi Ishikawa seeing how eager Hayabusa for the match would decide to step down and let Hayabusa have the match with Onita angrily agreeing to fight Hayabusa for his retirement match instead with Hayabusa stating "I can represent the New FMW in a fight to the death at Kawasaki.".

Hayabusa would take a taxi hours before the show to Kawasaki Stadium to prepare for the biggest match of his life. Hayabusa would be very nervous for the entire day leading up to the show worried that it would not go as planned and over the fact that he had trained over the past year in highflying and now was going to be able to do very little highflying with no ropes in the match. Hayabusa would have special brown ninja pants made for this show as he had never worn brown before and a brown outfit would represent a big match for him. Hayabusa would also meet with former FMW Dojo friends for the first time at the show including Katsutoshi Niiyama and Masato Tanaka following their match on the show as they were going to be pushed with Hayabusa as the stars of the New FMW.

May 5, 1995 at Kawasaki Stadium, Hayabusa would wrestle in the biggest match of his career by facing the retiring Atsushi Onita in front of 58,250 fans in a Exploding Ring No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Cage Death Match. The biggest Death Match to ever take place at the time, and the biggest match in the history of FMW. The moment the door would close Hayabusa would feel afraid. Onita and Hayabusa would shake hands before starting the match. Onita would start off by chopping Hayabusa in the chest, and then attempting to grab Hayabusa in a head lock and send Hayabusa into the exploding cage, but every time Hayabusa would manage to stop short of going into the cage. Hayabusa would manage to grab a head lock on Onita, but Onita seeing his opportunity, would attempt to fling Hayabusa into the cage but Hayabusa would manage to hold on to the head lock, bringing Onita with him as both would hit the cage for the first huge explosion. Hayabusa would feel a feel across his arm and a feeling of his body being burnt more than he had expected. Hayabusa would take a majority of the explosion, as Onita would easily get up first, and begin working on Hayabusa's leg. Onita would place Hayabusa in a Sharpshooter before modifying it into a single leg crab. The sirens would begin going off, noting five more minutes until the ring would explode. Onita would finally let go, and put Hayabusa in another headlock, but Hayabusa would shove Onita, breaking the head lock, and sending Onita into the exploding for another explosion.

Hayabusa would take advantage of Onita's fall, and would deliver a suplex, and then a standing Moonsault for the cover, with Onita kicking out. Hayabusa would then put Onita, in a Figure Four Leg lock, attempting to make Onita to submit. Onita would begin screaming in pain, due to Hayabusa working on Onita's severe leg injuries that had force him to retire from wrestling ten years earlier, but while in the figure four, Onita would begin slapping Hayabusa in the face and screaming at him with Hayabusa fighting back with slaps of his own to Onita. Hayabusa would lose concentration of the figure four, and Onita would manage to break out and deliver a Fire Thunder Powerbomb to Hayabusa, with Hayabusa kicking out as the sirens would continue to get louder. Onita would then deliver a DDT, with Hayabusa kicking out. Less than ten seconds would remain until the ring would explode when Hayabusa would get up and deliver a spinning heel kick to Onita, and then charge at Onita, but Onita would move out of the way and send Hayabusa flying into the cage for a huge explosion at the exact time the ring would explode. The safest way to protect your body in a exploding cage match is to lay down in the middle of the ring, but Hayabusa would end up being put in the most dangerous position by already hitting the exploding barbed wire at the same time the ring explosions would set off right next to him. The explosions would end up leaving scars all over Hayabusa's body.

As the smoke of the explosions would clear, the referee Go Ito would be knocked out from the explosion. A new referee would enter Nobuyoshi Nakamura who would later become Dragon Kid would enter the cage. Onita would get up and deliver a Fire Thunder Powerbomb to Hayabusa, and Hayabusa would still manage to kick out. Onita would attempt another Thunder Fire Powerbomb, but Hayabusa would manage to reverse it, and turn it into a hurricanrana for the pinfall, but Onita would manage to kick out. Hayabusa would deliver his own Thunder Fire Powerbomb to Onita which Hayabusa would come up from watching Tatsumi Fujinami would use Riki Choshu's Scorpion Death Lock as a way using your opponents signature finish. Onita would kick out of his own move.

Hayabusa would begin climbing to the top of the barbed wire cage that had been deactivated after the explosion. Hayabusa would climb to the top and do one of the most dangerous spots seen in wrestling at the time by moonsaulting off the top of the cage. Onita would manage to move out of the way, and Hayabusa would hit the mat hard and in pain with dust flying everywhere from the explosion. Onita would get up, with blood running down his arms and would deliver a Thunder Fire Powerbomb to Hayabusa. Hayabusa would still manage to kick out to an incredibly loud reaction from the thousands of fans who had started the show chanting for Onita were not chanting for Hayabusa. Onita not believing that Hayabusa was able to kick out of the move, would deliver another Thunder Fire Powerbomb, and then follow it up with a third straight Thunder Fire Powerbomb to finally put away Hayabusa for the pinfall win.

Onita would begin pouring water on Hayabusa as a show of a respect for the fight he put on, and to water down the burns that he had suffered. Both Onita would Hayabusa would hold hands as Onita would symbolically be passing the torch of ace of FMW to Hayabusa. Onita would grab Hayabusa up and attempt helping him to walk before Hayabusa would fall down from just the punishment his body would take. Onita would pick up Hayabusa and walk around the ring while pouring water over Hayabusa's body as Onita's Wild Thing theme song would be played. A stretcher would be brought to the ring for Hayabusa, and Hayabusa would be placed on the stretcher, the loud chants of Onita, would begin to become "Ezaki" chants, as Hayabusa would be put on a stretcher to the back. Backstage, an incredibly hurt and mask less Eiji Ezaki would begin to break down in tears from the incredible amount and pain and emotion that he had gone through the match, and would be taken to a near by hospital on the burns and the cuts where he would need 67 stitches to close them afterwards. Hayabusa had attempted everything he could do in one match to show the FMW fans, what he was willing to do, just like Onita did, to become the new ace of FMW.

Hayabusa was now the ace of the new FMW. Onita's FMW, Inc. would become dormant. Shoichi Arai would create a new FMW company called Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, Inc. which would be based off the original FMW name when Onita started it in 1989. Hayabusa would begin taking pictures on May 8, 1995 for mass media for his name and look to get out there. He would take pictures for posters as well the new building that would be for the FMW Dojo in Saitama. He would take pictures for Pro-Wrestling Weekly while at the Dojo and give an interview as the new character had already sparked much interest to the fans even if it did not necessarily mean that he was ready to replace Onita as the draw or superstar that Onita had been for years.

May 17, 1995 at Saitama Fukaya City Gym, although Onita had sold incredibly well for Hayabusa in his retirement match, Hayabusa was still too unknown to actually help draw for Onita especially after losing to Onita. Although the crowds were going to be down no matter what due to Onita's retirement and the whole promotion being built around Onita since the beginning, it was hard for many of the hardcore fan base of FMW to believe in Hayabusa and the new FMW. Many of the house shows at the beginning would only draw around 1000 fans for the show just twelve days after drawing over fifty eight thousand. Hayabusa would team up with Katsutoshi Niiyama to face The Gladiator and Horace Boulder, and would be able to show the FMW fans for the first time his highflying skills inside and outside of the ring, and would debut to the fans, a running moonsault off the top rope to the outside, but when climbing the top rope for a Phoenix Splash, would be caught by The Gladiator, and be hit with a Running Awesome Bomb with The Gladiator scoring the victory for the win. After the match, Ricky Fuji would call out Hayabusa, and question his ability to become the ace of FMW, and that FMW was at its weakest, and his group consisting of Mr. Pogo, The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya, himself, and Horace Boulder would take over what was Tarzan Goto's Lethal Weapon.

May 28, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, Hayabusa would not be able to sleep before the show due to the poor shows attendance wise through out the tour it would be very important that the new company make money at Korakuen Hall where they usually bring in a profit and to his delight the building would end up being filled with fans looking to give Hayabusa and the new FMW a shot. This would be Hayabusa's return to Korakuen Hall for the first time since 1993, but this time as the face of FMW. He would declare to the crowd with the rest of the FMW roster by his side that he was going to promise to the New Generation of FMW would continue to fight with the same spirit that Onita brought to FMW. Hayabusa would then team with Katsutoshi Niiyama and Masato Tanaka to face off against The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya, and Ricky Fuji. He would deliver a tope to the outside and then end up going to the top turnbuckle where he would deliver the Phoenix Splash that he learned while at Ultimo Dragon's training in Mexico for the first time to the audience of Japan on Ricky Fuji with Oya breaking the cover. The audience would be quiet at knowing what they had seen. Hayabusa would still end up taking the fall as he would end up getting back dropped by Oya and pinned for the loss. Pro-Wrestling Weekly magazine would promote the Phoenix Splash by giving it two whole pages as a break down of the move to show to people a move that had never been seen before which would get Hayabusa over right away as someone that was doing things not seen by anyone else to help him gain more popularity.

June 22, 1995 at the Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes, Hayabusa would return to Hakata in South Japan for the first time in two years as he would team with Katsutoshi Niiyama and Masato Tanaka against The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya, and Ricky Fuji. The fans would be screaming for Hayabusa now knowing and expecting him to deliver moves that they had only seen pictures of in the magazine. Hayabusa would deliver the Shooting Star Press, Bermuda Triangle to the outside, and then deliver the Phoenix Splash to Ricky once again except this time he would mostly miss and just connect with his feet on Ricky to where they would have to improvise a new finish with Hayabusa putting away Ricky with a German Suplex for the FMW win. There would be a 30% increase in the audience from May to June because of word of mouth of what Hayabusa was doing in the ring. A mainstream television news show would even do a feature on Hayabusa performing the Phoenix Splash to broadcast it to let everyone see it on their television as they would show the move delivered on Ricky Fuji at Korakuen Hall the previous month.

June 27, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, Hayabusa would face off against Hisakatsu Oya for the vacant FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title that Onita had vacated on May 5th. Hayabusa would show the fans a much more slower mat based style match lead by Oya, with Hayabusa getting the victory on Oya after debuting "The Falcon Arrow" that he had created while in Florida to win the FMW Brass Knuckles Championship. Hayabusa would end up returning the belt stating that he could not consider himself a champion until he beat everyone from the W*ING and The Gladiator. It would be announced that FMW would hold a 8 man Grand Slam Tournament in August and September to crown the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion. Yukihide Ueno would also end up quitting FMW during the show. Ueno would be upset that Hayabusa was given the top spot of the promotion and becoming the ace after having never liked Ezaki since he joined FMW in 1991.

July 18, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, Hayabusa would team up with Katsutoshi Niiyama against The Gladiator and Hisakatsu Oya with The Gladiator being in control of the match delivering his power moves and Awesome Bombs to Hayabusa. Hayabusa would counter with his moves that many of the FMW fans had never seen before Hayabusa returned to FMW including the Bermuda Triangle moonsault off the top turnbuckle to the outside. Hayabusa would end up getting the pinfall victory after a hurricanrana rollup counter would get the pinfall victory for the win to setup for their upcoming singles match later in the month.

July 30, 1995 at the Tokyo South Owasa Multipurpose Plaza, Hayabusa would face off against The Gladiator in their first singles match. Hayabusa would have anxiety going into the match while painting his face. Hayabusa would remember how he felt half way to death following his first encounter with The Gladiator in their second match and now they were equals. There would be issues before the match as it would be a hot and humid night in late July outside and the mask would make it even more difficult to breath. The Gladiator would attempt a Kamikaze Awesome Bomb on Hayabusa, but Hayabusa would manage to reverse it and deliver a hurricanrana to The Gladiator instead. While The Gladiator down, Hayabusa would begin climbing the top turnbuckle debating on what move he wanted to use when he would decide on the Shooting Star Press. Due to the lack of being able to breath to the climate and mask his stamina would be gone and when he would attempt the Shooting Star Press and not turn his body completely over causing only just his face to nail The Gladiator's body. Hayabusa would feel a shock go across his neck and chest as well as cut open his lip with blood beginning to soak on Hayabusa's face under the mask. Hayabusa would not be able to move moments following but the match would keep going and feeling would end up coming back a moment later as Hayabusa would still keep fighting and even go to the top rope once again looking to deliver the Phoenix Splash. The Gladiator though would end up catching Hayabusa still on the top turnbuckle, and would deliver a Running Awesome Bomb with Hayabusa still managing to kick out. The Gladiator would end up going to the finish early as he would put away Hayabusa with the Kamikaze Awesome Bomb for the win. Hayabusa would call out The Gladiator on the mic saying that next time they face in a singles match, that Hayabusa was going to get him. Shoichi Arai seeing the blood under Hayabusa's mask felt that he had vomited blood and had called 911.

Hayabusa would turn down the ambulance ride feeling there was no point in going. Arai would tell him he had to go because he felt he was vomiting blood. Hayabusa would get in the ambulance and be taken to the hospital where they would give him x-rays and telling him there was nothing that could be done other than for Hayabusa to just rest long term and take a couple of months off. That would mean miss the Grand Slam Tournament which Hayabusa would refuse. Hayabusa would keep the pain to himself. Every time he would be on the FMW bus during the tour and the bus would shake he would feel pain but he could not tell anyone. He could be the ace after following Onita and then take off to heal.

FMW would announce in August 1995 that an eight man Round Robin Tournament for the vacant FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title which would culminate on September 26, 1995 at Korakuen Hall. The eight men announced for the tournament would be Hayabusa, The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya, Katsutoshi Niiyama, Super Leather, Masato Tanaka, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, and W*ING Kanemura.

Hayabusa's first tournament match would be against Masato Tanaka on August 22, 1995 in Yokosuka as it would be their first singles match since Eiji Ezaki defeated Tanaka in his last FMW match before going to Mexico. Hayabusa would earn his fourth point in the tournament at Korakuen Hall on August 25, 1995 after defeating W*ING Kanemura with the Phoenix Senton.

August 31, 1995 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2, Hayabusa would face off against Hisakatsu Oya in his third Grand Slam Tournament match and even though Hayabusa would hit Oya with a Bermuda Triangle, a tope con hilo, a Thunder Fire Powerbomb, and a hurricanrana he would miss the Phoenix Splash that would fail to put Oya away and eventually the thirty minute limit would be up for one of Hayabusa's best matches of his career. Hayabusa and Oya would shake hands once again following the match although Hayabusa would only get one point giving 5 for the tournament.

September 5, 1995 at the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center, Hayabusa would face The Gladiator after taking severe punishment by The Gladiator, including a Kamikaze Awesome Bomb, and a sit out Awesome Bomb, before reversing an Awesome Bomb with a hurricanrana to get his first singles pinfall win over The Gladiator. as the two would embrace following the match. It would give Hayabusa seven points in the tournament.

Hayabusa would follow up by defeating Katsutoshi Niiyama the man that use to outclass him in the Dojo when he just a younger when they would spar September 14, 1995 in Gunma. But Hayabusa would lose his first match on the tournament after being defeated by Super Leather on September 18, 1995 in Shimane after getting hit with a Powerbomb forcing his last match against Mitsuhiro Matsunaga to be a must win, to reach the finals.

September 24, 1995 at Hachioji Civic Hall in Tokyo, The Gladiator would defeat Super Leather earlier to earn a spot in the finals of the Grand Slam Tournament. Hayabusa would face Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a winner facing The Gladiator two days later at Korakuen Hall for the title. Hayabusa would take all of Matsunaga's kicks and maneuvers, but would be able to kick out at every pinfall attempt. Hayabusa would eventually hit a Shooting Star Press on Matsunaga to score the pinfall, and earn the right to fight The Gladiator for the vacant FMW Brass Knuckles Title.

September 26, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, Hayabusa's injury would continue to get worse. Hayabusa would begin seeing a doctor for pain killers to deal to get through his matches. The injuries would not stop Hayabusa from taking on The Gladiator in the finals of the Grand Slam Tournament for the FMW Brass Knuckles Championship. Hayabusa would mostly go after The Gladiator's leg, as well as delivering some of his trademark moves including a moonsault over the top rope to the outside on The Gladiator. Hayabusa would eventually climb the top rope but The Gladiator would climb it as well and win the fight for control over it and The Gladiator would nail a Kamikaze Awesome Bomb which Hayabusa would struggle to be able to move afterwards off the top rope to get the pinfall victory over Hayabusa to win the tournament for the FMW Brass Knuckles Championship with The Gladiator whispering in Hayabusa's ear "Thank you Ezaki.". Both Hayabusa and The Gladiator would embrace after and hug for such a hard fought tournament and finals for the title. Hayabusa would not see another chance at the FMW Brass Knuckles Titles for over two and a half years.

October 28, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, Hayabusa and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga would team up to take on Masato Tanaka and W*ING Kanemura a bloody fight where Masato Tanaka would pull of Hayabusa's mask in the middle of the match causing which would be the first time Hayabusa's mask would be taken off in a match.. Hayabusa and Matsunaga would still manage to put away Kanemura and Tanaka as Hayabusa would deliver the Falcon Arrow on Tanaka for the pinfall victory. After the match, Hayabusa, Matsunaga, Kanemura, and Tanaka would all show each other respect by raising their hands. But suddenly they would all be attacked by Ricky Fuji, Hisakatsu Oya, The Gladiator, Horace Boulder, and Super Leather. After the attack, Hayabusa & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga& Masato Tanaka & W*ING Kanemura would all form an alliance together to take out Lethal Weapon and Super Leather.

November 11, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, Kanemura would offer his W*ING friends Hideki Hosaka and Hido to join himself, Hayabusa, Tanaka, Matsunaga to help take out Lethal Weapon. Hosaka would accept, but Hido would reject the offer and side with Lethal Weapon and Super Leather. In the main event of the show, Hayabusa, Kanemura, and Masato Tanaka would defeat The Gladiator, Hisakatsu Oya and Super Leather after Tanaka would rollup Oya for the victory. Hido would run in and attack Hayabusa and Tanaka, but would be chased off by Kanemura.

November 20, 1995 at the Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes, Mr. Pogo would return after a short leave from FMW and would side with Lethal Weapon & W*ING by teaming with Super Leather to take on the team of Hayabusa and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga. with Pogo placing a chain around Hayabusa's neck and throwing him over the top rope while Super Leather would hit Hayabusa across his bloody torso with a spiked nail board with Matsunaga having to make the save for his partner. Hayabusa would manage to fight back but Pogo would eventually deliver a powerbomb to Hayabusa on to a chair and follow it with helping Super Leather deliver another powerbomb to score the win over Hayabusa. Pogo would continue to attack Hayabusa with Masato Tanaka making the save for Hayabusa. Mr. Pogo though would come back and throw a giant fireball at Tanaka catching Tanaka's leg on fire with Hayabusa having to help out put out the fire on Tanaka's leg as Mr. Pogo would make his way out of the building.

November 26, 1995 in Gifu, W*ING Kanemura and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga would turn on Hayabusa and Tanaka while Hido and Super Leather turn on Horace Boulder during a match up, as Jason the Terrible, W*ING Kanemura, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Super Leather, Hideki Hosaka and Hido would reform the W*ING group.

Hayabusa would continue to suffer through the pain of injuries. He would be in so much pain that he could not sleep at night and would feel fatigue during the day as a result. The only way he could get himself to fall asleep was to drink so much alcohol that he would pass out. He would go bar hopping every night while on tour. He would refuse to go to the hospital and get a diagnosis of his injuries. Eiji Ezaki the man was still immature and the pressures of being the ace and following Atsushi Onita and his style was a lot to deal with.

December 10, 1995 at Korakuen Hall, in a 10 Man Street Fight with W*ING members Jason the Terrible, Super Leather, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, W*ING Kanemura and Hido defeating the FMW team of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Lethal Weapons Horace Boulder after Kanemura would pin Kuroda with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb for the W*ING victory over FMW.

Hayabusa would continue to deal with his injuries and to make matters worse one of his triceps would be ruptured and he would also suffer a bloody left eye from a finger to it during a match. Ezaki felt like he could get by with his injuries because of the high he felt like from a drug when he was in the ring but nothing would help him overcome his eye injury that disabled him from being able to judge distance while in the ring.

December 21, 1995 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym, Hayabusa teams up with The Great Sasuke and Koji Nakagawa against Super Delfin, TAKA Michinoku, and Lethal Weapons Ricky Fuji which would see Hayabusa work with the Michinoku Pro wrestlers for the first time. Hayabusa would end up pinning Ricky with the Phoenix Splash in which Hayabusa's boot would catch Ricky in the face hard for the victory. Hayabusa would grab the microphone and talk to the FMW crowd one last time in 1995 and promise them that he would keep fighting for FMW in 1996.

Shoichi Arai would not want to see Hayabusa fighting at the beginning of 1996. Arai would see all the injuries that Ezaki was dealing with and told him he was off the January 1996 tour with Hayabusa convincing him to let him finish the January tour and then they could do an injury angle to explain him being out to allow him time to rest.

January 5, 1996 at Korakuen Hall, the FMW team of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, and Koji Nakagawa would go up against the W*ING team of Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, W*ING Kanemura, and Hido in a Street Fight. Hayabusa would end up brawling with the W*ING team outside the ring that would lead to them taking out Hayabusa by having Hido piledrive him on top of several chairs causing an injury to his shoulder and leaving him out for the rest of the match as Kanemura would end up finishing off Tanaka with a Powerbomb for another W*ING win over FMW

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January 10, 1996 at the Chiba Koen Park Gym, in a Double Hell Barbed wire Caribbean Glass Death Match which would be Hayabusa's first Death Match since his match with Atsushi Onita to explain him taking time off. Hayabusa would team with Masato Tanaka and Koji Nakagawa in a rematch against the W*ING team of Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, W*ING Kanemura, and Hido. Hayabusa would deliver a moonsault off the ladder during the match but he would also end up getting thrown into the barbed wire net with glass in it and would be severely cut up from it before getting pinned by Matsunaga which was Hayabusa's idea as he felt he had to repay the debt to Matsunaga for putting him over on September 24, 1995 in a singles match for the Grand Slam Tournament.

Hayabusa would be hospitalized the next day on January 11, 1996. He would also sleep soundly for the first time in months thanks to the drugs that the doctors put him under. His physician would see him and deliver the news of all the injuries he had suffered. Left knee inside collateral ligament damage, right shoulder joint sprain, abnormally elevated level of phosphate in the blood, left ulnar nerve palsy, right knee sprain, finger joint sprain, left eye iritis, and traumatic glaucoma. He would be told a traffic accident would not cause all these injuries that he was suffering with him recommending that Hayabusa would need to take one year off to recover from these injuries. They would perform a surgery for his ruptured triceps where they would transplant from his thigh and connect it to his triceps resulting in Hayabusa not being able to walk right away.

Hayabusa would then read the headline of Tokyo Sports while in the hospital with the headline "Onita returns to FMW?" which after reading he would begin to cry in his hospital bed. Onita in the article would criticize Hayabusa for being the ace of FMW and missing the big Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center show in March. Hayabusa would blame himself for not resting which was allow an opening or Onita to come back and take his spot as the ace of FMW. Hayabusa would be half angry at Onita and half angry at himself for the development. Hayabusa would know as the ace he would have to come back for May 5th at Kawasaki Stadium as there was no way he could miss that show.

Hayabusa would return on March 30, 1996 at Korakuen Hall when The Headhunters would win the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles from Super Leather and Jason the Terrible after Leather would turn on Jason. Mr. Pogo and the Puerto Rican Army would all begin attacking Jason after the match and lay the Puerto Rican flag over his body. Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would all come to the ring to try and make the save but would get laid out by them as well. Hayabusa would then rush to the ring in casual attire and a sling from his tricep injury and would immediately get attacked by the Headhunters. Super Leather would begin punching Hayabusa in the face with a chain until the W*ING team of Kanemura, Hido, and Hideki Hosaka would finally manage to clear the ring. Hayabusa and Tanaka would challenge Mr. Pogo and a partner of his choice to a Exploding Ring No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Double Hell Death Match for the main event of the Kawasaki Stadium show on May 5, 1996.

May 5, 1996 at Kawasaki Stadium, Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka would team up to face Victor Quinones' team of Mr. Pogo and Terry Funk with the winner receiving 1 Million Yen in the Death Match. Before the match Hayabusa would see Atsushi Onita for the first time since their match the year before with Onita telling Hayabusa that he better win the match for FMW. Hayabusa would try everything he could during the match, including flying over the barbed wire ropes and the barbed wire land mines placed besides the ring to land on Mr. Pogo on the outside. Hayabusa would make it back in the ring and try to put Mr. Pogo away with a Falcon Arrow but Terry Funk would end up making the save for his partner. Hayabusa and Pogo would then continue to fight with another which would result in them both rolling each other out of the ring into the exploding barbed wire land mine. Mr. Pogo and Hayabusa would would get back in the ring and Mr. Pogo would drop Hayabusa into the exploding barbed wire Hayabusa's back causing a huge gash across his back just seconds before the ring would explode. Funk would then begin piledriving Hayabusa and then both Pogo and Funk would blow a huge fireball on to the back of Hayabusa's head. Mr. Pogo would then setup a chair on fire and both Pogo and Funk would toss Hayabusa onto a burning chair face first. Funk would then finally get the pin after a Powerbomb to finally put away Hayabusa for the three count.

Funk and Pogo would then begin to tear off Hayabusa's mask after the match was over. Hayabusa would be put on a stretcher and taken off as Terry Funk would grab the microphone and begin calling out Atsushi Onita in the stands watching the match. In the locker room, a unmasked Hayabusa would begin crying because of how much money he had just cost the promotion and felt he was full of shit to think he could be the leader of FMW. Atsushi Onita would go over to the locker room, and begin screaming at Hayabusa for doubting his leadership and would tell Hayabusa that if he wanted to lead this promotion to greatness like he did, he'll need to grow up and take these kind of incidents like a man would. Hayabusa would get and go back to his locker room before taking another trip to the hospital to receive over 110 stitches for his cut up stomach and arm. Just one stitch away from Atsushi Onita's record of stitches ever in a wrestling match of 111.

Eiji Ezaki remained out of action for a couple months as he healed and would not be booked for any FMW tours as a result with stitches all over his stomach. Ezaki would return to Florida in the United States and while there would be asked by his friend Jushin Liger to come by the WCW Pro tapings with him. Liger would ask Ezaki to join attend the New Japan event Skydiving J on June 17, 1996 event with Hayabusa accepting and attending the event backstage fueling rumors about Hayabusa leaving FMW to join New Japan.