(August 5, 1971 – August 2, 2021) was a Japanese

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

, who is best known for his work in

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their ...

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

, and

Pro Wrestling Zero-One (stylized as Pro Wrestling ZERO1), formerly known as Pro Wrestling Zero-One and Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max (stylised in all capital letters) and often referred to simply as Zero1, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2001. I ...

Career

Early career (1991–1993)

An amateur wrestler in his scholastic years, he enrolled in Submission Arts Wrestling in May 1990. After over a year of training (including a dark match for Fighting Network RINGS in May 1991), he joined Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING) in August 1991. In W*ING he trained with wrestlers including The Great Wojo,

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

, and

Mr. Pogo was a Japanese professional wrestler best known for his work under the ring name . He helped popularize hardcore wrestling in the 1990s with "death matches" in promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, W*ING and Big Japan Pro Wrestlin ...

. In 1992, he left W*ING and joined the Takano Brothers' Pro Wrestling Crusaders, under the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

Benkei. As PWC did not run regular shows, he transferred to

(FMW) a year later.

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (1993–2001)

Hosaka made his debut for FMW in 1993, siding with his W*ING friends Mr. Pogo and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga. He competed against

Atsushi Onita is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and is credited with introducing Japan to the deathmatch style of professional wrestling. He founded ...

in several street fights and deathmatches for well over a year. In February 1995 he won his first championship, the

FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship that is being defended in various independent promotions in Japan. The title was originally created in 1993 by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. There have been a total of forty-four reigns spread over ...

, by defeating

Ricky Fuji Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic *Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

. He reigned as champion for two months, before losing the title to

Koji Nakagawa is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) between 1992 and 2002. He is perhaps best known for his “Hitman” character, heavily inspired by Canadian professional wrestler Br ...

. During his time in FMW, he also wrestled on various W*ING Reunion shows. In September 1997, the W*ING

faction Faction or factionalism may refer to: Politics * Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose * Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party * Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...

disbanded, due to

W*ING Kanemura ( ko, 김행호 ''Kim Hyeong-ho'') (born August 9, 1970) is a Zainichi-Korean retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . He is also known as W*ING Kanemura or . He is best known for his death matches in Apache Army, Big Jap ...

's loss to Onita, as Hosaka joined Onita and Kanemura to form a group called ZEN. In May 1998, he wrestled his first match for

at their

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of th ...

show. After ZEN disbanded in May 1998, he joined Onita's Team Zero, until Onita finally left the promotion in November 1998. That same month, he wrestled a match for

BattlARTS , more commonly referred to as simply Battlarts was a professional wrestling promotion based in Koshigaya, Saitama, Japan. The promotion was formed in 1996 by Japanese wrestler Yuki Ishikawa and featured all of the wrestlers from the Fujiwara Gum ...

. In 2000, he won three

WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship The FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship was a tag team hardcore wrestling championship contested in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling from April 2000 until FMW closed in February 2002. The title was picked up by Big Japan Pro Wrestling that same ...

s with Mammoth Sasaki, before leaving FMW in 2001 in an exodus that also included

Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Ext ...

Jado (born September 28, 1968) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . He is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as part of a tag team with his partner Gedo. Jado and Gedo's careers have largely para ...

Gedo Gedo ( so, Gedo, Maay: ''Gethy'', ar, جيذو, it, Ghedo or ''Ghedu'') is an administrative region ('' gobol'') in Jubaland, southern Somalia. Its regional capital is Garbahaarreey. It was created in 1974 and is bordered by the Ogaden in E ...

, and Kaori Nakayama.

All Japan Pro Wrestling (2001–2006)

After wrestling a couple of W*ING Reunion shows in April 2001, Hosaka became a regular for

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. History Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasak ...

and

before officially signing with AJPW in 2002. He underwent a five match trail series from April 27 to May 6, losing all matches. He was unable to make much progress in AJPW and began wrestling regularly for

where he had a more prominent role. By 2004, he was back wrestling solely for AJPW, but a major knee injury forced him out of action and he left AJPW.

Freelance (2006–2019)

After fully recovering from his knee injury, Hosaka returned to the ring as a freelancer in November 2006, which included stints in Wrestling Marvelous Future, Team Vader, and

Ice Ribbon is a ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) professional wrestling promotion, promotion established in 2006 by Emi Sakura, after her split with Gatokunyan. History Ice Ribbon was founded by Emi Sakura, a professional wrestler wh ...

, before retiring from active competition in February 2008. In 2010, Hosaka came out of retirement and returned to the ring as a freelancer, aligned with Atsushi Onita and Ichiro Yaguchi. The trio wrestled for multiple promotions including Zero1,

Kaientai Dojo Active Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion and training facility originally owned and promoted by Taka Michinoku. The promotion places emphasis on a style of puroresu that combines high-flying, technical wr ...

Pro Wrestling Freedoms often stylized in capital letters as FREEDOMS is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. Founded by Takashi Sasaki in 2009, the promotion lets wrestlers choose their own fighting style, having the "freedom" of ch ...

and

Pro Wrestling Noah (stylised as Pro Wrestling NOAH) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) ace Mitsuharu Misawa after he had led a mass exodus in which 24 of AJPW's 26 contracted wrestlers left the ...

. Hosaka held the Niigata Openweight Championship for three years from December 2013 to December 2016. He was a regular for the revived FMW known as "Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW" until the promotion stopped promoting events in early 2018. After the death of his mentor

in June 2017, he wrestled a tour for the resurrected FMW as Mr. Pogo, as a tribute to his mentor. He retired from wrestling in 2019.

Political career

On October 16, 2016, Hosaka announced that he was running for the City Council for the Sodeguara District in Chiba.

Illness and death

On October 21, 2019, Hosaka announced that in the month prior, he was diagnosed with Stage-IV colon and liver cancer. After nearly two years battling cancer, Hosaka died on August 2, 2021, just three days shy of his 50th birthday.

Championships and accomplishments

* Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling / World Entertainment Wrestling **

( 1 time) **

FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship The FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship was a championship in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). T ...

(2 times) - with

and

(1), and Atsushi Onita and Sean Guinness (1) **

( 3 times) – with Yoshinori/Mammoth Sasaki *Niigata Pro Wrestling **Niigata Openweight Championship (1 time)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hosaka, Hideki 1971 births 2021 deaths Japanese male professional wrestlers Sportspeople from Niigata Prefecture Place of death missing Deaths from colorectal cancer Deaths from liver cancer 20th-century professional wrestlers 21st-century professional wrestlers Independent World Junior Heavyweight Champions WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champions