| Fuyuki-gun | |
|---|---|
| Stable | |
| Members | See below |
| Name(s) | Fuyuki-gun Shin Fuyuki-gun |
| Debut | April 26, 1994 (Fuyuki-Gun) May 28, 2000 (Shin Fuyuki-Gun) |
| Disbanded | November 23, 1999 (Fuyuki-Gun) January 7, 2001 (Shin Fuyuki-Gun) |
Fuyuki-gun (Japanese:冬木軍;English:Fuyuki Army) was the name of Japaneseprofessional wrestlingstables led byHiromichi Fuyuki inFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) andWrestle Association R (WAR) during the 1990s. Fuyuki-gun was originally founded by Fuyuki in WAR in 1994 and they became the firstWAR World Six-Man Tag Team Champions, winning the title a recordfive times. They left WAR in 1996 and competed as freelancers before being signed by FMW to a full-time contract, where they held theFMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The group would merge with the trio ofMr. Gannosuke,Yukihiro Kanemura andHido to formTeam No Respect.Fuyuki-Gun disbanded after Fuyuki left FMW (kayfabe) due to losing a match toMasato Tanaka at the10th Anniversary Show. Fuyuki formed a new offshoot group called "Shin Fuyuki-Gun" (New Fuyuki Army) which lasted until 2001.
Hiromichi Fuyuki had been wrestling inWrestle Association R (WAR) since 1992 and tookJado and Gedo, who just joined WAR after their home promotion,W*ING, folded, under his wing to form thevillainousstableFuyuki-gun and became the lead villain of the company. The group competed in its first match as a team on April 26, 1994 by defeatingGenichiro Tenryu,Koki Kitahara andTakashi Ishikawa and quickly became the lead villains of the company.[1] Shortly after their debut as a team, Fuyuki-gun debuted forFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) at the5th Anniversary Show by losing to Team Canada'sBig Titan,The Gladiator andRicky Fuji.[2] Fuyuki-gun lost to the team of Genichiro Tenryu,Animal Hamaguchi and Koki Kitahara in themain event of theLive War Rise event on June 6.[3] The group went on a brief hiatus as Fuyuki went toMexico to work a few matches withConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Fuyuki-gun returned to WAR on June 30 by defeatingHideo Takayama, Hiroshi Itakura and Ichiro Yaguchi in the quarter-final, Brett Como,Lionheart andDos Caras in the semi-final and Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koti Kitahara in a one-night tournament to become the promotion's firstWorld Six-Man Tag Team Champions.[4] They participated in a Six-Man Tag Team Tournament at the2nd Anniversary Show, where they lost toAshura Hara,Jinsei Shinzaki andJohn Tenta in the quarter-final.[5]
Fuyuki-gun lost the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship toBob Backlund,Scott Putski andThe Warlord in their first title defense on August 26,[6] only to regain it in a rematch on September 1.[7] On September 29, Fuyuki lost ahair vs. hair match to Tenryu,[8] which stipulated that upon losing Fuyuki would have to ride theSumida River or Jado and Gedo would have to get their heads shaved. Fuyuki forcibly cut the hair of Jado and Gedo.[9] Fuyuki-gun retained the title against Bob Backlund, Dos Caras andVampiro Canadiense in their first title defense on October 11.[10] On November 8, Fuyuki-gun retained the title against Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koki Kitahara in a lengthy match which went for nearly forty-three minutes.[11] On January 8, 1995, Fuyuki-gun lost the title toHeisei Ishingun membersShiro Koshinaka,Tatsutoshi Goto andMichiyoshi Ohara.[12] As a result, Fuyuki-gun began a feud with Heisei Ishingun and Fuyuki battled the group's leader Koshinaka in a losing effort at3rd Anniversary Show.[13]
On August 5, Fuyuki-gun defeated Animal Hamaguchi, Koki Kitahara and Genichiro Tenryu to win their third World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. They lost the title toArashi, Nobutaka Araya and Koti Kitahara on October 4. Fuyuki-gun defeated the trio in a rematch to regain the title on March 22, 1996. They lost the title to Golden Cups (Youji Anjoh,Yoshihiro Takayama andKenichi Yamamoto) on May 26. On June 7, Fuyuki-gun defeated Golden Cups in a rematch to win their record-setting fifth World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. The title would be vacated on June 19 to be defended in a tournament at4th Anniversary Show on July 20.[12] Fuyuki-gun made it to the finals of the tournament by defeatingKazuo Yamazaki,Osamu Kido andTakashi Iizuka in the quarter-final andRiki Choshu,Satoshi Kojima andOsamu Nishimura in the semi-final but ended up losing toMasahito Kakihara,Yuuhi Sano andNobuhiko Takada in the final.[14] In July 1996, Lionheart, who joined the group in November 1994, left WAR as he signed withWCW, while the remaining members of Fuyuki-gun left WAR in October and became freelancers on the Japaneseindependent circuit.
After quitting WAR, Fuyuki-gun began freelancing in various Japanese promotions. They debuted forTokyo Pro Wrestling (TPW) on December 7 by defeatingTakashi Ishikawa,The Great Kabuki and Daikokubo Benkei.[15] They made their debut forInternational Wrestling Association on their television show on March 9, 1997 by picking a win over Daikokubo Benkei, Katsumi Hirano andLeatherface.[16] Fuyuki began promoting his own shows as well under the "Fuyuki Army" banner beginning with the Samurai TV airing on April 28.[17] They also began wrestling forFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), which would become their home promotion. They made their debut forBig Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) on July 23[18] and continued to tour with BJW and IWA Japan while running their own Fuyuki Army shows as well with FMW lending its talent and financial support to their shows.
Fuyuki-Gun debuted for FMW on February 19 by defeatingW*ING'sW*ING Kanemura,Dragon Winger andHideki Hosaka.[19] They returned to FMW on March 14 by picking another win over W*ING.[20] A week later, Fuyuki-Gun began feuding with Funk Masters of Wrestling by defeating the group's membersHisakatsu Oya andThe Headhunters to win theWorld Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[21] Fuyuki-Gun defeated the trio in astreet fight at8th Anniversary Show.[22] They defended the title on their own Fuyuki Army shows before it was vacated on July 8 to be defended in a tournament. Fuyuki-Gun participated in the tournament, beating Eagle Sawai,Lioness Asuka andShark Tsuchiya in the quarter-final and Daikokubo Benkei,Keisuke Yamada andThe Great Kabuki in the semi-final but lost to Funk Masters of Wrestling'sMr. Gannosuke, Hisakatsu Oya andThe Gladiator on August 5.[23]
Fuyuki-Gun continued their freelancing after Fuyuki was forced to leave FMW after losing a match to Funk Masters of Wrestling leaderTerry Funk atKawasaki Legend.[24] However, Fuyuki-Gun returned to FMW to work full-time for the promotion on November 15.[25] The group began feuding withAtsushi Onita'sZEN due to Fuyuki's hatred with Onita. On December 5, Fuyuki-Gun defeated Onita's alter ego The Great Nita, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido.[26]
On January 7, 1998, Fuyuki-Gun's Kodo Fuyuki and Jado joined former ZEN members Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido in attacking ZEN members Atsushi Onita,Koji Nakagawa andTetsuhiro Kuroda after the latter defeated the former. Fuyuki, Jado, Gannosuke and Kanemura merged to formTeam No Respect to feud with FMW and ZEN.[27] Gedo joined the group upon returning to FMW on February 4.[28] Fuyuki-Gun had now been merged in TNR and the trio continued to team with each other as TNR members in various matches throughout 1998. On January 6, 1999, Fuyukiturnedfan favorite for the first time by quittingvillainous tactics. Jado disagreed with Fuyuki and left TNR while Gedo chose to stay in the group, leading to a feud between Jado and Gedo.[27] The two former tag team partners met in a match on May 5, where Gedo defeated Jado.[29] Later in the night, Fuyuki-Gun reunited as Jado re-joined TNR. Fuyuki-Gun continued teaming together as TNR members until Fuyuki was forced to leave FMWin storyline due to losing aloser leaves FMW match toMasato Tanaka at10th Anniversary Show.[27]
On May 28, 2000, Koji Nakagawa turned on his Team No Respect allies Jado and Gedo during a defense ofWEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship against Kodo Fuyuki,Kyoko Inoue andChocoball Mukai by hitting Gedo in the back of the head with a title belt, allowing Fuyuki to get the easy victory.[30] Fuyuki formed a new version of Fuyuki-gun calledShin Fuyuki-gun (English: New Fuyuki Army) with Mr. Gannosuke, Chocoball Mukai, Kyoko Inoue, Koji Nakagawa,Hideki Hosaka,Yoshinori Sasaki andShoichi Arai. On June 16,Kintaro Kanemura ended TNR and joined Shin Fuyuki-gun. They would be based on Team No Respect as the top villainous group in FMW and mainly feuded with FMW's top wrestlerH. Nakagawa changed hischaracter to "GOEMON".[31]
On May 30, Shin Fuyuki-gun kidnappedRicky Fuji during an autograph signing and planned to blow him after Kodo Fuyuki and GOEMON's match against H andHayabusa on June 16. H and Hayabusa won the match and then Mr. Gannosuke took Fuji away to blow him and a dynamite exploded but both wrestlers were away from the explosion.[31][32] On June 26, Fuyuki, Inoue and Mukai lost the 6-Man Tag Team Championship to H,Hisakatsu Oya andTetsuhiro Kuroda.[33] H eventually returned as Hayabusa on July 23 and defeated Shin Fuyuki-gun in agauntlet match to earn a title shot at Fuyuki'sWEW World Heavyweight Championship and Fuyuki managed to retain the title.[34] On September 15, Gannosuke, Fuyuki and Shinjuku Shark won the 6-Man Tag Team Championship from Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Tetsuhiro Kuroda,[35] but lost the title to Jado, Gedo andKaori Nakayama two days later when Nakayama pinned Fuyuki for the title.[36] Gannosuke became upset at Fuyuki losing the title to a girl.
Fuyuki retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Hayabusa while GOEMON began feuding with Onryo.[37] Gannosuke grew tired of FMW'ssports entertainment style and attacked Shoichi Arai, forcing Arai to fire him. He became unstable and attacked Tetsuhiro Kuroda and cost him matches leading to Arai reinstating him for a match against Kuroda atDeep Throatpay-per-view, where Onryo defeated GOEMON, Kuroda defeated Gannosuke which stipulated that Gannosuke must retire if he lost and Fuyuki defeated Hayabusa to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.[38] After the match, Hayabusa was taking time off to heal his injured elbows until Kuroda attacked him. On November 28, Kuroda and Masato Tanaka took on Fuyuki and Kanemura and Jado and Gedo in athree-way match, during which Kuroda turned on Tanaka to join Shin Fuyuki-Gun and the match was turned into asix-man tag team match, with Kuroda, Fuyuki and Kanemura gaining a win over Tanaka, Jado and Gedo. The latter would form a trio called Complete Players. The event also saw Onryo get his second consecutive win on GOEMON.[39]
GOEMON and Onryo had a third match together on December 10, which ended in a no contest after GOEMON died during the match and was put into a casket.[40] On December 20, GOEMON quit Shin Fuyuki-Gun by returning as Onryo's mystery partner against Azusa Kudo and Naohiko Yamazaki.[41] On December 23, Fuyuki and Kuroda defeatedTamon Honda andNaomichi Marufuji to win theWEW World Tag Team Championship atPro Wrestling NOAH's Great Voyage pay-per-view.[42] On January 7, 2001, Kuroda turned on Fuyuki during a title defense against Masato Tanaka and Gedo, allowing Gedo to pin Fuyuki for the title.[43] As a result, Fuyuki turned fan favorite to end Shin Fuyuki-Gun and begin feuding with Kuroda and his new villainous stable Team Kuroda. On April 1, Kuroda defeated Fuyuki to win the World Heavyweight Championship with the help of Mr. Gannosuke.[44]
