 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-05-11)May 11, 1960 |
| Died | March 19, 2003(2003-03-19) (aged 42) Yokohama, Japan |
| Cause of death | Intestinal cancer |
Spouse | |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Kodo Fuyuki Ricky Fuyuki Samson Fuyuki Hiromichi Fuyuki Masamichi Fuyuki |
| Billed height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 109 kg (240 lb)[1] |
| Trained by | Isao Yoshihara |
| Debut | May 4, 1980 |
| Retired | April 14, 2002 |
Hiromichi Fuyuki (冬木 弘道,Fuyuki Hiromichi) (May 11, 1960 – March 19, 2003) was a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter better known by hisring nameKodo Fuyuki (冬木 弘道,Fuyuki Kōdō) best known for his time inAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW),Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW),New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW),Wrestle Association R (WAR) and other Japanese and international promotions during the 1980s and 1990s as the leader of 6-man tag teamFuyuki-Gun withGedo andJado.
He is also known as a mainstay of FMW where he was the arch rival of the company's top starHayabusa and a founding member of the stableTeam No Respect includedKintaro Kanemura,Hideki Hosaka,Masao Orihara,Tetsuhiro Kuroda,Mr. Gannosuke,Koji Nakagawa,Horace Boulder,Super Leather,Hido, Gedo and Jado.
Trained by Isao Yoshihara, Hiromichi Fuyuki made his professional wrestling debut inInternational Pro Wrestling on May 4, 1980, one week before his 20th birthday. Three months later, IWE folded, and Fuyuki applied to the All Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo.
In August 1981, after spending a year training in the dojo, he made his debut inAll Japan Pro Wrestling. In November 1984, he went on an excursion of North America, where he made stops in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and San Antonio, Texas, where he wrestled under the nameRicky Fuyuki, in honor of his childhood idol,Riki Choshu. He would also wrestle in Memphis under the nameMr. Helo, teaming with "Mr. Shima, and was managed byTojo Yamamoto.
In December 1985, he returned to AJPW, under the nameSamson Fuyuki, and began teaming withToshiaki Kawada, under the team name "Footloose". As members ofGenichiro Tenryu's Revolution Army, Footloose captured theAll Asia Tag Team Championship three times between March 9, 1988 and October 20, 1989.
Footloose would disband in April 1990, as Kawada teamed withTiger Mask II, who would later unmask, revealing himself asMitsuharu Misawa, during a match on May 14, where Fuyuki teamed withYoshiaki Yatsu.
One of several wrestlers to leave AJPW withGenichiro Tenryu in July 1990, Fuyuki competed in Tenryu's rival promotionSuper World of Sports under his real name, also appearing on interpromotional shows for theWorld Wrestling Federation, with little to no impact.
Following the closing of SWS in June 1992, Fuyuki followed Tenryu toWAR. While there, he became one of the top wrestlers and was the main heel.
In August 1993, Fuyuki was invited byNew Japan Pro-Wrestling to participate in theG1 Climax tournament; he defeatedTakayuki Iizuka in the first round, but lost toMasahiro Chono in the quarterfinals. In 1994, he would make a brief stint in EMLL in Mexico, once again under the nameSamson Fuyuki, feuding withVampiro.
In early 1994, he started teaming withJado andGedo asFuyuki-Gun, with whom he held theWAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship five times between June 1994 and June 1996, as well as a single reign withUWFI'sYoji Anjo andECW'sBam Bam Bigelow in October 1996.Lionheart also became a member of Fuyuki-Gun, during their stint in WAR.
Upon leaving WAR in October 1996, he wrestled briefly as a freelancer, wrestling in various promotions such asFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling,Big Japan Pro Wrestling, andInternational Wrestling Association of Japan. Around this time, he started using a shorter variation of his real name,Kodo Fuyuki.
After spending over four months freelancing, Fuyuki found a new home inFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in February 1997. Fuyuki-Gun made their FMW debut on February 19 by defeatingW*ING Alliance membersW*ING Kanemura,Hideki Hosaka and Dragon Winger. Fuyuki-Gun initially performed as freelancers on the Japanese independent circuit until they began competing full time for FMW. They appeared at the8th Anniversary Show, where they defeatedHisakatsu Oya andThe Headhunters in astreet fight. Fuyuki began feuding withTerry Funk, the leader of Funk Masters of Wrestling, which culminated in aloser leaves FMW match between the two atFall Spectacular, which Fuyuki lost. As a result, he was forced to leave FMW. He began promoting his own shows under the "Fuyuki Army" banner.
He began competing for FMW full-time on November 15, when Fuyuki-Gun defeatedZEN membersHido,The Gladiator and The Great Fake. They ceased appearing for other promotions and established themselves as a villainous group and entered a rivalry withAtsushi Onita and his ZEN group.
In 1998, Fuyuki formedTeam No Respect with several of FMW's leading wrestlers which remained the dominant "heel" stable until its disbandment in June 2000. From there, he formed multiple stables, which didn't last as long.
He became the head "booker" of the promotion in 1999. Attempting to distance the promotion from its earlier reputation for "garbage wrestling" style, he instead focused more on a "sports entertainment" approach based heavily on comedic storylines and characters similar to American promotions such asWorld Wrestling Entertainment.
The beginning of the end for FMW was realized after its top starHayabusa suffered a career-ending injury in October 2001; to make matters worse,Mr. Gannosuke injured both his ankles in January 2002. With Hayabusa and Gannosuke gone, Fuyuki was finally forced to close the promotion in March 2002, one month after it filed for bankruptcy.
Soon after the close of FMW, Fuyuki opened his own promotion, World Entertainment Wrestling, and briefly appeared in WEW before announcing his retirement after being diagnosed with cancer.
Wrestling his last match at a retirement show held byPro Wrestling Noah, Fuyuki teamed withYoshinari Ogawa & Mitsuharu Misawa to defeatTamon Honda,Masao Inoue &Tsuyoshi Kikuchi on April 14, 2002.
Although continuing to promote events for WEW during the next year, he planned to come out of retirement and had been scheduled to faceShinya Hashimoto before his death. Fuyuki died at approximately 6:50pm on March 19, 2003, after an almost year long battle with intestinal cancer.[2] Fuyuki was perhaps the only wrestler to participate in a match posthumously, as the planned barbed wire deathmatch with Hashimoto indeed went ahead, withKintaro Kanemura taking Fuyuki's place. After a ceremony in Kawasaki stadium honouring Fuyuki, Hashimoto clutched an urn containing Fuyuki's ashes, and he and Kanemura flung themselves into the barbed wire, both giving Fuyuki a final victory.[3]
Fuyuki was survived by his wife Kaoru, whom he married in November 1986, and his two daughters. Under his associate Kintaro Kanemura, the promotion reorganized in 2004 asApache Pro-Wrestling Army, but continued the WEW titles.
,Internet Wrestling Database