[2000-04-11-FMW] Masato Tanaka & Balls Mahoney vs H & Mr Gannosuke

[soup23]

Really bizarre match with H getting beat up and having to leave the match, Fuyuki coming in and taking over only for him to be knocked out and then Hayabusa returns for the finale. A lot to unpack and try to decipher in combination with Balls and Tracy Smothers continuing to be this big foreign stable. The action here was good but I do think a lot of the context and significance of the storyline was lost on me. I am still unsure of how I feel about Tanaka for the decade. I am kind of at a loss on how to grade this one given my overall feelings but the action did seem fun and intense and “good”. ***

[Loss]

I enjoyed this as an overbooked rollercoaster. Sometimes that's fun. I hope this means Hayabusa is returning and H is going away. I know we have an imposter coming soon (Tenryu!), but Hayabusa's work is so much better when he's in full gimmick. It does seem like his return should have had a bigger reaction though, and Tanaka beating him on his return seems weird without knowing the full story. (My hopes of a Hayabusa return were dashed when he unmasked again in the post-match.) ***

[Tim Evans]

I'm really enjoying heel Masato Tanaka. He's good at it and has some good heel offense. H gets taken out early and Fuyuki takes his place and bleeds a whole bunch. The pop for the Hayabusa return was awesome too. The crowd and the announcers were going nuts. Balls Mahoney is also really good in FMW. Way better than he was in ECW at the time. Fun match.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Another FMW match that seemed like it went on and on. They beat on Fuyuki forever, and after Hayabusa returned, Tanaka kicked out of everything. Maybe if I understood why H became Hayabusa again and why he still lost anyway, the match would have been more meaningful. Below Average.

[Edwin]

All of these ECW guys in FMW are members of the invading heel ECW JAPAN faction. They booked a ton of ECW guys and paired them up with some former FMW heels such Kodo Fuyuki, Kyoko Inoue, Crazy Boy, etc. That’s why you get guys like Balls and Tracy working together as heels.

 

The Hayabusa to H transformation was because he was getting beat up constantly by Team No Respect and his childhood best friend Mr. Gannosuke. He decided it was time to stop getting pushed around and he needed to reinvent himself and he eventually did reinvent himself as H. Hayabusa and Gannosuke had already patched up their friendship here. IIRC they patched it up when the entire ECW JAPAN storyline began.

 

Also keep in mind, this was in an era where Fuyuki had taken power and he wanted to reinvent FMW and remold the organization more as a Japanese ripoff of WWE than of what it was originally founded to be by Onita in the late 80’s — early 90’s.

 

IIRC Fuyuki got a ton of heat from the hardcore local fan base as he was always booking himself into main event spots such as he did here.

 

H getting stretchered out due to him taking a Nutcracker Suite from the top rope was a nice way of getting H out of match early on. Fuyuki coming out to step in for H was a nice touch, but the heat segment on him was far too extensive however. Hayabusa’s return was awesome as the crowd popped huge for it. The match got a better from that moment on, but the booked finish was awful as they should have put Hayabusa who was their biggest star over in his return.

 

***