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60-495: Hiromichi Fuyuki had been wrestling in Wrestle Association R (WAR) since 1992 and took Jado and Gedo , who just joined WAR after their home promotion, W*ING , folded, under his wing to form the villainous stable Fuyuki-gun and became the lead villain of the company. The group competed in its first match as a team on April 26, 1994 by defeating Genichiro Tenryu , Koki Kitahara and Takashi Ishikawa and quickly became

120-470: A three-way match , during which Kuroda turned on Tanaka to join Shin Fuyuki-Gun and the match was turned into a six-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. GOEMON and Onryo had a third match together on December 10, which ended in

180-771: A wrestler and went under his Korean name Kwak Gwang-ung. He ended the tournament with a record of one win and two losses, and was disqualified due to the penalty points system. When Yoshida returned to Japan, he became captain of the Senshu wrestling team in his fourth year at university and won the Freestyle and Greco-Roman 100 kg class tournaments at the All Japan Championship in 1973. Yoshida debuted in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in August 1974 against El Greco. In

240-506: A " sports entertainment " approach based heavily on comedic storylines and characters similar to American promotions such as World Wrestling Entertainment . The beginning of the end for FMW was realized after its top star Hayabusa 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

300-465: A Japanese mother and Korean father. His father left Korea's Chūseihoku-dō for Japan in 1939 and worked as a garbage man for much of his life. Yoshida has said that he faced discrimination from teachers in elementary school due to his Korean heritage. He took part in baseball and judo as a teenager and after training in the judo department at Giyang Junior High School, he moved to the wrestling department of Yamaguchi prefecture's Sakurakaoka High School as

360-425: A Japanese promotion when he turned on Inoki and Fujinami in a six man tag match. Choshu spent the rest of the year feuding with Fujinami while attracting additional supporters to his faction, then known as New Wolves. Choshu was joined by Masa Saito , to provide a more senior rival for Antonio Inoki, along with Kuniaki Kobayashi and Gran Hamada, who would feud with Tiger Mask in the junior division. Strong Kobayashi

420-553: A Six-Man Tag Team Tournament at the 2nd Anniversary Show , where they lost to Ashura Hara , Jinsei Shinzaki and John Tenta in the quarter-final. Fuyuki-gun lost the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship to Bob Backlund , Scott Putski and The Warlord in their first title defense on August 26, only to regain it in a rematch on September 1. On September 29, Fuyuki lost a hair vs. hair match to Tenryu, which stipulated that upon losing Fuyuki would have to ride

480-470: A barbed wire deathmatch in 2000. Choshu accepted and wrestled Onita in a deadly squash, where Choshu ended up winning. He then balanced wrestling and booking for NJPW, until his departure in 2002, stemming from the departures of Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima , among others, to AJPW, which caused his position of head booker taken away. After leaving NJPW, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling in 2003, which would later be changed to Riki Pro, after

540-465: A brief hiatus as Fuyuki went to Mexico to work a few matches with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Fuyuki-gun returned to WAR on June 30 by defeating Hideo Takayama , Hiroshi Itakura and Ichiro Yaguchi in the quarter-final, Brett Como, Lionheart and Dos Caras in the semi-final and Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koti Kitahara in a one-night tournament to become the promotion's first World Six-Man Tag Team Champions . They participated in

600-515: 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. 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 as Apache Pro-Wrestling Army , but continued

660-655: A chair and injure his ribs, setting up Choshu as a babyface within the promotion he had invaded a year earlier. In April 1986, the Calgary Hurricanes, who were also members of Choshu's stable, invaded AJPW as a new faction setting up a three-way battle between Japanese factions that lasted throughout the Summer of 1986. In early 1987, Choshu left AJPW to return to NJPW, with some members joining him, others staying behind in AJPW, and others retiring. Upon returning to NJPW in 1987, Choshu

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720-584: A defense of WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship against Kodo Fuyuki, Kyoko Inoue and Chocoball Mukai by hitting Gedo in the back of the head with a title belt, allowing Fuyuki to get the easy victory. Fuyuki formed a new version of Fuyuki-gun called Shin Fuyuki-gun ( English : New Fuyuki Army) with Mr. Gannosuke, Chocoball Mukai, Kyoko Inoue, Koji Nakagawa, Hideki Hosaka , Yoshinori Sasaki and Shoichi Arai . On June 16, Kintaro Kanemura ended TNR and joined Shin Fuyuki-gun. They would be based on Team No Respect as

780-696: A long trip to the United States, leaving the New Wolves without a senior leader. Though the New Wolves had only lasted a few months, NJPW's business had doubled, setting the tone for the future of puroresu where Japanese vs Japanese rivalries within a promotion would become a booking staple. In June 1983, Choshu and former IWE faction member Animal Hamaguchi quit NJPW to form a breakaway promotion, but on July 1, 1983 they returned to NJPW TV as Ishin Gundan (Revolutionary Army) with Choshu and Hamaguchi immediately gelling as

840-503: A match against Kuroda at Deep Throat pay-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. 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

900-653: A match on May 14, where Fuyuki teamed with Yoshiaki Yatsu . One of several wrestlers to leave AJPW with Genichiro Tenryu in July 1990, Fuyuki competed in Tenryu's rival promotion Super World of Sports under his real name, also appearing on interpromotional shows for the World Wrestling Federation , with little to no impact. Following the closing of SWS in June 1992, Fuyuki followed Tenryu to WAR . While there, he became one of

960-555: A no contest after GOEMON died during the match and was put into a casket. On December 20, GOEMON quit Shin Fuyuki-Gun by returning as Onryo's mystery partner against Azusa Kudo and Naohiko Yamazaki. On December 23, Fuyuki and Kuroda defeated Tamon Honda and Naomichi Marufuji to win the WEW World Tag Team Championship at Pro Wrestling NOAH 's Great Voyage pay-per-view. On January 7, 2001, Kuroda turned on Fuyuki during

1020-636: A shorter variation of his real name, Kodo Fuyuki . After spending over four months freelancing, Fuyuki found a new home in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in February 1997. Fuyuki-Gun made their FMW debut on February 19 by defeating W*ING Alliance members W*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

1080-540: A site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami ’s Dradition , as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer . Choshu was a second generation Zainichi Korean . He was naturalized in 2016. Mitsuo Yoshida was born Kwak Gwang-ung ( Korean :  곽광웅 ), the youngest of four children in Tokuyama , Yamaguchi Prefecture to

1140-491: A special student. He eventually came in second place in the 73 kg class of the Nagasaki National Freestyle wrestling tournament, which attracted attention from university wrestling officials and he later enrolled at Senshu University School of Commerce on a wrestling scholarship. Yoshida joined the amateur wrestling team at Senshu University shortly after enrolling and was teammates with Mitsushi Hirasawa,

1200-610: A tag team. They were joined by Tiger Toguchi (Kim Duk), Killer Khan, and Kuniaki Kobayashi, who continued his feud with Tiger Mask (Sayama). In October, former olympian Yoshiaki Yatsu joined the group. NJPW did record business as Ishin Gundan vs Seiki Gundan (NJPW) continued to dominate booking through September 1984, when Choshu suddenly left, taking most of Ishin Gundan with him to form the Japan Pro-Wrestling (JPW) promotion that "invaded" All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). Choshu attended an AJPW event on November 1, 1984 where he

1260-501: A title defense against Masato Tanaka and Gedo, allowing Gedo to pin Fuyuki for the title. 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. Hiromichi Fuyuki Hiromichi Fuyuki ( 冬木 弘道 , Fuyuki Hiromichi ) (May 11, 1960 – March 19, 2003)

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1320-460: A tournament at 4th Anniversary Show on July 20. Fuyuki-gun made it to the finals of the tournament by defeating Kazuo Yamazaki , Osamu Kido and Takashi Iizuka in the quarter-final and Riki Choshu , Satoshi Kojima and Osamu Nishimura in the semi-final but ended up losing to Masahito Kakihara , Yuuhi Sano and Nobuhiko Takada in the final. In July 1996, Lionheart, who joined the group in November 1994, left WAR as he signed with WCW , while

1380-491: A villainous group and entered a rivalry with Atsushi Onita and his ZEN group. In 1998, Fuyuki formed Team 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

1440-856: A win over Daikokubo Benkei, Katsumi Hirano and Leatherface . Fuyuki began promoting his own shows as well under the "Fuyuki Army" banner beginning with the Samurai TV airing on April 28. They also began wrestling for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), which would become their home promotion. They made their debut for Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) on July 23 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 defeating W*ING 's W*ING Kanemura , Dragon Winger and Hideki Hosaka . They returned to FMW on March 14 by picking another win over W*ING. A week later, Fuyuki-Gun began feuding with Funk Masters of Wrestling by defeating

1500-567: A wrestler and a booker . He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Sasori-Gatame , better known in English as the Scorpion Deathlock or Sharpshooter . After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as

1560-620: Is also known as a mainstay of FMW where he was the arch rival of the company's top star Hayabusa and a founding member of the stable Team No Respect included Kintaro 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 in International Pro Wrestling on May 4, 1980, one week before his 20th birthday. Three months later, IWE folded, and Fuyuki applied to

1620-609: The 8th Anniversary Show , where they defeated Hisakatsu Oya and The Headhunters in a street fight . Fuyuki began feuding with Terry Funk , the leader of Funk Masters of Wrestling, which culminated in a loser leaves FMW match between the two at Fall 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 defeated ZEN members Hido , The Gladiator and The Great Fake. They ceased appearing for other promotions and established themselves as

1680-666: The G1 Climax , winning every single match in the tournament. In 1997, he won his third IWGP Tag Team title with Kensuke Sasaki . In January 1998, he retired from the ring; for his retirement match, he wrestled five matches in one night, winning four out of five matches, defeating Tatsuhito Takaiwa , Yutaka Yoshie , Jushin Thunder Liger and Kazuyuki Fujita , only to fall to his former tag team partner Takashi Iizuka . He would focus on booking matches for NJPW after that. Retirement did not last long, as Atsushi Onita challenged Choshu to

1740-621: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship . On May 27, the match ended in a no contest, in which the title was held up. Fujinami won the rematch on June 24. In July 1989, he won his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Salman Hashimikov of the Soviet Union. The same month, he would also win his second IWGP Tag Team title with young up-and-comer Takayuki Iizuka . Two more IWGP Heavyweight title reigns would follow between August 19, 1990 and January 4, 1992. In August 1996, he won

1800-509: The Sumida River or Jado and Gedo would have to get their heads shaved. Fuyuki forcibly cut the hair of Jado and Gedo. Fuyuki-gun retained the title against Bob Backlund, Dos Caras and Vampiro Canadiense in their first title defense on October 11. 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. On January 8, 1995, Fuyuki-gun lost

1860-652: The WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship five times between June 1994 and June 1996, as well as a single reign with UWFI 's Yoji Anjo and ECW 's Bam 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 as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , Big Japan Pro Wrestling , and International Wrestling Association of Japan . Around this time, he started using

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1920-641: The All Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo. In August 1981, after spending a year training in the dojo, he made his debut in All 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 name Ricky Fuyuki , in honor of his childhood idol, Riki Choshu . He would also wrestle in Memphis under

1980-727: The United National titlein the semi-main event under Baba versus Rusher Kimura. The Budokan show aired the next day on atwo-hour prime time TV special as the popularity of AJPW soared due to the popularity of Japanese vs Japanese storylines. Choshu's jump to AJPW had immediately shifted the balance of power from New Japan to All Japan, forever changing the booking style of All Japan, which had historically relied on Japanese vs foreigner rivalries but would go on to feature Japanese vs Japanese rivalries even after Choshu jumped back to New Japan in 1987. In January 1986, Jumbo Tsuruta turned heel, running in on several of Choshu's matches to attack him with

2040-461: The WEW titles. Riki Choshu Mitsuo Yoshida ( 吉田 光雄 , Yoshida Mitsuo , born Kwak Gwang-ung ( Korean :  곽광웅 ; Hanja :  郭光雄 ), December 3, 1951) , better known by his ring name Riki Choshu ( 長州 力 , Chōshū Riki ) , is a South Korean - Japanese retired professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both

2100-400: The early eighties, NJPW had run a very successful Japanese vs Japanese program pitting Inoki and NJPW wrestlers against Rusher Kimura and IWE wrestlers, who were actually employed by NJPW following the dissolution of IWE. In late 1982, NJPW Chairman and booker Hisashi Shinma decided to have Choshu turn heel and create a new faction. On October 28, 1982, Choshu became the first "traitor heel" in

2160-489: The explosion. On June 26, Fuyuki, Inoue and Mukai lost the 6-Man Tag Team Championship to H, Hisakatsu Oya and Tetsuhiro Kuroda . H eventually returned as Hayabusa on July 23 and defeated Shin Fuyuki-gun in a gauntlet match to earn a title shot at Fuyuki's WEW World Heavyweight Championship and Fuyuki managed to retain the title. On September 15, Gannosuke, Fuyuki and Shinjuku Shark won the 6-Man Tag Team Championship from Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Tetsuhiro Kuroda, but lost

2220-498: The failure of some of their big shows. He ran Riki Pro until 2005 when he returned to NJPW as a site foreman, booker and wrestler. In 2007, Choshu joined the Legend stable with Masahiro Chono , Jyushin Thunder Liger and AKIRA . Choshu also promotes an occasional series of events called "LOCK UP", which feature talent from New Japan and other promotions. New Japan supported this financially until 2008 before withdrawing. In 2012, Choshu

2280-611: The father of future NJPW wrestler Mitsuhide Hirasawa . In 1971, he won the All Japan Student Wrestling Championship in the 90 kg class. Thanks to his victory in the tournament, Yoshida was selected to represent Japan in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , Germany. Officials however refused to let him compete for Japan on account of him being part Korean . Nevertheless, South Korea instead invited him to join their freestyle team and he represented South Korea as

2340-477: The group's members Hisakatsu Oya and The Headhunters to win the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . Fuyuki-Gun defeated the trio in a street fight at 8th Anniversary Show . 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 and Shark Tsuchiya in

2400-482: The group, leading to a feud between Jado and Gedo. The two former tag team partners met in a match on May 5, where Gedo defeated Jado. 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 FMW in storyline due to losing a loser leaves FMW match to Masato Tanaka at 10th Anniversary Show . On May 28, 2000, Koji Nakagawa turned on his Team No Respect allies Jado and Gedo during

2460-540: The latter defeated the former. Fuyuki, Jado, Gannosuke and Kanemura merged to form Team No Respect to feud with FMW and ZEN. Gedo joined the group upon returning to FMW on February 4. 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, Fuyuki turned fan favorite for the first time by quitting villainous tactics. Jado disagreed with Fuyuki and left TNR while Gedo chose to stay in

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2520-456: The lead villains of the company. Shortly after their debut as a team, Fuyuki-gun debuted for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) at the 5th Anniversary Show by losing to Team Canada's Big Titan , The Gladiator and Ricky Fuji . Fuyuki-gun lost to the team of Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koki Kitahara in the main event of the Live War Rise event on June 6. The group went on

2580-508: The mid-1970s, he was sent to North America to gain experience. Wrestling under his real name (Mitsuo Yoshida, sometimes referred as "Mitsu"), he appeared in George Cannon 's "Superstars of Wrestling" promotion in Windsor, Ontario as a heel , managed by Superstar (or Supermouth) Dave Drasen. Choshu had a brief feud with the top fan favorite of Cannon's promotion, Luis Martinez. The ring name at

2640-669: The name Mr. Helo , teaming with " Mr. Shima , and was managed by Tojo Yamamoto . In December 1985, he returned to AJPW, under the name Samson Fuyuki , and began teaming with Toshiaki Kawada , under the team name " Footloose ". As members of Genichiro Tenryu 's Revolution Army, Footloose captured the All Asia Tag Team Championship three times between March 9, 1988 and October 20, 1989. Footloose would disband in April 1990, as Kawada teamed with Tiger Mask II , who would later unmask, revealing himself as Mitsuharu Misawa , during

2700-434: The next year, he planned to come out of retirement and had been scheduled to face Shinya Hashimoto before his death. Fuyuki died at approximately 6:50pm on March 19, 2003, after an almost year long battle with intestinal cancer. Fuyuki was perhaps the only wrestler to participate in a match posthumously, as the planned barbed wire deathmatch with Hashimoto indeed went ahead, with Kintaro Kanemura taking Fuyuki's place. After

2760-423: The promotion on November 15. The group began feuding with Atsushi Onita 's ZEN due to Fuyuki's hatred with Onita. On December 5, Fuyuki-Gun defeated Onita's alter ego The Great Nita, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido. 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 and Tetsuhiro Kuroda after

2820-429: The quarter-final and Daikokubo Benkei, Keisuke Yamada and The Great Kabuki in the semi-final but lost to Funk Masters of Wrestling's Mr. Gannosuke , Hisakatsu Oya and The Gladiator on August 5. Fuyuki-Gun continued their freelancing after Fuyuki was forced to leave FMW after losing a match to Funk Masters of Wrestling leader Terry Funk at Kawasaki Legend . However, Fuyuki-Gun returned to FMW to work full-time for

2880-450: The remaining members of Fuyuki-gun left WAR in October and became freelancers on the Japanese independent circuit . After quitting WAR, Fuyuki-gun began freelancing in various Japanese promotions. They debuted for Tokyo Pro Wrestling (TPW) on December 7 by defeating Takashi Ishikawa , The Great Kabuki and Daikokubo Benkei. They made their debut for International Wrestling Association on their television show on March 9, 1997 by picking

2940-506: The time of debut was Mitsuo Yoshida (吉田 光雄), but from April 1977 after returning from overseas training, he adopted his famously known ring name Riki Choshu after Choshu (長州) in honor of the Choshu Forces , another name for his hometown Nagato . In the 4th World League match, which he participated in when he returned to Japan, he finished third with Nikolai Volkoff, behind winner Seiji Sakaguchi and runner-up The Masked Superstar . In

3000-440: The title to Arashi , 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 and Kenichi 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

3060-405: The title to Heisei Ishingun members Shiro Koshinaka , Tatsutoshi Goto and Michiyoshi Ohara . As a result, Fuyuki-gun began a feud with Heisei Ishingun and Fuyuki battled the group's leader Koshinaka in a losing effort at 3rd Anniversary Show . 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

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3120-490: The title to Jado, Gedo and Kaori Nakayama two days later when Nakayama pinned Fuyuki for the title. 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. Gannosuke grew tired of FMW's sports 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

3180-485: The top villainous group in FMW and mainly feuded with FMW's top wrestler H . Nakagawa changed his character to "GOEMON". On May 30, Shin Fuyuki-gun kidnapped Ricky Fuji during an autograph signing and planned to blow him after Kodo Fuyuki and GOEMON's match against H and Hayabusa 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

3240-517: The top wrestlers and was the main heel. In August 1993, Fuyuki was invited by New Japan Pro-Wrestling to participate in the G1 Climax tournament; he defeated Takayuki Iizuka in the first round, but lost to Masahiro Chono in the quarterfinals. In 1994, he would make a brief stint in EMLL in Mexico, once again under the name Samson Fuyuki , feuding with Vampiro . In early 1994, he started teaming with Jado and Gedo as Fuyuki-Gun , with whom he held

3300-440: Was a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter better known by his ring name Kodo Fuyuki ( 冬木 弘道 , Fuyuki Kōdō ) best known for his time in All 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 team Fuyuki-Gun with Gedo and Jado . He

3360-608: Was a part of the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan. After NJPW split ties with Takeshi Kitano over the December 27 Sumo Hall riot, Choshu slowly climbed back up into the main event picture. In June 1988, he won his first IWGP Tag Team Championship with Masa Saito , with whom he had also partnered during a brief stint in the American Wrestling Association (AWA). At the same time, he feuded with Tatsumi Fujinami over

3420-460: Was also added to the faction, but retired before wrestling for them. On January 2, 1983, Killer Khan also turned heel on Fujinami in a tag team match to join the New Wolves. The group continued to feud with NJPW for several months, with Choshu finally defeating Fujinami by count out on April 3, 1983 to win the International title. Three weeks later, Saito lost a loser leaves town match to cover for

3480-413: Was booked in a series of matches for LEGEND The Pro Wrestling and Dradition . On June 26, 2019, Choshu teamed with Tomohiro Ishii and Shiro Koshinaka in a six-man tag team match against Tatsumi Fujinami, Keiji Mutoh, and Togi Makabe. Fujinami's team won when Makabe pinned Choshu. In the post-match, Choshu officially announced his retirement from professional wrestling. Choshu appears as a gang member in

3540-492: Was challenged by Genichiro Tenryu . Tenryu was second among AJPW's top Japanese stars, behind Jumbo Tsuruta, with Baba moving to more of an emeritus role. Choshu defeated Tenryu by count out in 9:21 on February 21, 1985 in the main event of a JWP show that was not televised, but is available via bootleg tapes. Tenryu continued as Choshu's main rival through the summer of 1985. On June 21, 1985, AJPW held their first show at Budokan in almost ten years with Choshu challenging Tenryu for

3600-612: 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 by Pro Wrestling Noah , Fuyuki teamed with Yoshinari Ogawa & Mitsuharu Misawa to defeat Tamon Honda , Masao Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi on April 14, 2002. Although continuing to promote events for WEW during

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