          AJPW PPV, 4/13/02 (Tenryu vs. Muto)
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Title History:
WAR International Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title (1):
Tournament History:
WAR International Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Tournament (1):
Notes: Studied amateur wrestling at high school, taking part in the 1994 National Athletic Meet ... Initiated into Wrestle Dream Factory in June, 1995, teaming with Shinichi Nakano on his debut at Korakuen Hall ... In October of the same year, he and Kamikaze formed the Ashikaga Express, being invited to work in Genichiro Tenryu's WAR promotion ... Also wrestled for Tatsumi Fujinami's Muga promotion ... Formed a tag team with Hiroyoshi Kotsubo, the two winning the WAR International Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title in a tournament final ... Impressed by his ability, New Japan invited him to take part in the 1998 Best of the Super Jr. Tournament ... Although he finished on the bottom of his group with just one win, he continued to impress, his 5/23/98 match with Shinjiro Otani particularly good ... He and Kotsubo vacated the WAR International Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title after a long reign, the reason being his graduation to the heavyweight division ... From January, 1999, he was a New Japan wrestler and began gaining experience on undercards, often losing, but gaining much knowledge in doing so ... In early 2000, he finally got a big break, joining Manabu Nakanishi and Yutaka Yoshie in Yuji Nagata's Fighting Club G-EGGS group ... In April, tragedy struck ... (Thanks to Mike Lorefice of Quebrada for parts of the following) Fukuda took on fellow youngster, Katsuyori Shibata, in a Young Lions Cup match on 4/14/00. Something went wrong though and Fukuda was rushed to the hospital in serious condition after having an emergency operation, due to internal bleeding of the brain. He was fine during the beginning of his match, but something was already wrong because his movement got sluggish as the match progressed. Where the big problem occured is that Shibata was delivering a flying elbow and Fukuda just fell without being able to fully avoid the elbow, resulting in Fukuda taking another bad blow to the head ... On 4/15, many New Japan wrestlers, including Shinya Hashimoto, travelled to the hospital to see him, but his condition remained unchanged ... On 4/19, he died of an acute hard membrane lower bloody tumor in Kessunuma General Hospital at 3:28am. He was 27-years-old ... On 4/20, ring announcer Hidekazu Tanaka cried as he reported the death of Fukuda to the fans. G-EGGS member Yutaka Yoshie stood in the ring and held a picture of the late Masakazu Fukuda, while G-EGGS leader Yuji Nagata rang the bell 10 times in Fukuda's memory. The fans then chanted Fukuda's name one last time. The photo of Fukuda was kept at ringside for the rest of the show ... On 9/9/00, New Japan held a show in his memory. Former G-EGGS friends, Manabu Nakanishi and Yutaka Yoshie, met. In the main event, Kensuke Sasaki, G-EGGS leader Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka defeated Team 2000's Masahiro Chono, Don Frye & Hiroyoshi Tenzan.
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