Team No Respect was a professional wrestling faction in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), which existed in the company between 1998 and 2000. The ideology of the group was that they disrespected all the wrestlers in FMW as well as the company's management and President Shoichi Arai. TNR was formed after Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido turned on their ZEN leader Atsushi Onita out of jealousy with Onita due to his high ego and selfishness and formed a major alliance with Fuyuki-Gun. TNR was the most popular, successful and influential stable in the history of FMW and were involved in FMW's major storylines and rivalries during its two and a half year existence.
History Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Mr. Gannosuke's leadership (1998)
Atsushi Onita had formed ZEN in late 1997, which quickly removed W*ING and Funk Masters of Wrestling from FMW and absorbed the members of the groups into ZEN. Jealousy arose within the group on December 19, 1997, during the first show of the Super Extreme Wrestling War when Onita booked himself in the main event, which angered Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura, who thought that their FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship match deserved to be the main event of the show. They were irate of Onita's egoism and selfishness. On December 22, Onita, Gannosuke and Kanemura lost a WarGames match to Masato Tanaka, Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki after Hayabusa pinned Onita. Gannosuke and Kanemura attacked Onita after the match and left ZEN, along with Hido. On January 7, 1998, Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated the trio of Gannosuke, Kanemura and Hido at ZEN's first show. Kodo Fuyuki and Jado attacked ZEN after the match and joined Gannosuke and Kanemura in a meeting in their locker rooms, where Kanemura named the merger "Team No Respect". Gannosuke became the leader of the group as he was the company's top villain and the reigning Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and Independent Heavyweight Champion.
TNR primarily feuded with ZEN and FMW's team and TNR also got the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship held by Gannosuke and Kanemura. TNR's first match together took place on January 9, in which Gannosuke, Kanemura and Jado defeated Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki and Ricky Fuji. On January 16, the trio defeated Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Masato Tanaka to capture the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, the first title that was won by TNR. As a result, Gannosuke held all major FMW's men's titles. TNR soon gained more members as Fuyuki-Gun member Gedo returned to FMW and Super Leather joined the group and TNR's ally Hido also became an official member. On February 13, Gannosuke, Kanemura and Jado lost the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to ZEN's Atsushi Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda. After the match, TNR attacked the match referee Go Ito, forcing him to walk on crutches. This turned out to be a ruse as Ito joined TNR by attacking Nakagawa with his crutch in the back to cost Nakagawa and Kuroda, a Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship opportunity against Gannosuke and Kanemura on February 19. Later in the main event, TNR achieved more success as Fuyuki defeated the company's ace Hayabusa in the first-time ever match between the two.
Gannosuke demanded that Shoichi Arai set up a tournament to determine the #1 contender for his Double Championship. Kanemura and Jado were entered into the tournament and both men won their quarter-final matches against Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on March 7 respectively, but lost to The Gladiator and Hayabusa in their respective semi-final matches. Hayabusa won the tournament to become the #1 contender to Gannosuke's title. On March 13, Horace Boulder was brought in as TNR's newest member alongside Hido, Gannosuke and Kanemura during a street fight against ZEN, which TNR won. TNR and ZEN's feud would also develop a singles rivalry between Kodo Fuyuki and ZEN leader Atsushi Onita, stemming from the legitimate backstage conflict between the two on the control over FMW. Onita wanted to maintain the deathmatch style in FMW which made the company successful while Fuyuki wanted to transform it into sports entertainment and had won the support of the majority of FMW's locker room, who were upset at Onita due to his egoism and selfishness.
In early 1998, TNR introduced a new gimmick for TNR called "Brief Brothers" in which they would undress to reveal their briefs and held many hilarious pranks which would help TNR get over with the fans. During one skit, they pulled a rag on their member Hido and had Jado portray Hido's wife Megumi Kudo as "Megumi Jado" and they conducted a "wedding" between Hido and Megumi Jado. On March 17, TNR mocked the fans into believing that Hayabusa had joined the group by having Hayabusa appear to join them and then he unmasked himself to reveal Yukihiro Kanemura in a Hayabusa outfit and then he removed the "Hayabusa" attire to reveal his briefs. Kodo Fuyuki and Hido defeated Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship on March 29. They lost the title to Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka on April 17.
TNR competed in five matches at FMW's first pay-per-view 9th Anniversary Show. Hido won the first match against ZEN's Hideki Hosaka. Jado and Gedo defeated Ricky Fuji and John Kronus in a tag team match and Yukihiro Kanemura lost to the departing Jinsei Shinzaki in Shinzaki's last FMW match and the team of Horace Boulder and Super Leather defeated ZEN's Tetsuhiro Kuroda and The Gladiator. Kodo Fuyuki defeated Atsushi Onita in a match where Onita put ZEN's existence on the line, forcing ZEN to disband while Mr. Gannosuke lost the Double Championship to Hayabusa. Gannosuke injured his knee during the match and he was out of action for six months.
Kodo Fuyuki's leadership (1998)
Following Mr. Gannosuke's injury, Kodo Fuyuki took over as the leader of TNR. On May 5, Onita agreed to end ZEN if Fuyuki, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido were able to beat him, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a street fight for the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. TNR won the title, forcing ZEN to disband. On May 19, Fuyuki and Kanemura formed a tag team called The New Footloose, a spin-off of Fuyuki's old tag team with Toshiaki Kawada called Footloose. Fuyuki began getting influential in FMW by getting the right to book his own matches and he made a match between TNR and ZEN on May 25, with the stipulation that if ZEN lost then TNR would pick a member of ZEN. ZEN lost and TNR picked Hideki Hosaka as their slave. The same stipulation was for the next night and TNR won again with Tetsuhiro Kuroda being forced to become TNR's slave. On May 27, New Footloose defeated Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. On May 31, New Footloose defended the title against Atsushi Onita and Koji Nakagawa, during which Nakagawa turned on Onita by hitting him with a crutch to end Onita's alliance and joined TNR. TNR misused Hosaka and Kuroda and Nakagawa would often beat and attack his former ZEN teammates to prove his loyalty to TNR. On June 1, TNR vacated the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and regained it later in the night as Fuyuki, Kanemura and Nakagawa defeated Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya to win the title.
On June 19, Super Leather took on Hido in a loser leaves TNR match due to his recent losing streak and TNR helped Hido in beating Leather and then Go Ito publicly fired Leather from the group. Later at the event, TNR lost to FMW's Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya, Ricky Fuji and Daisuke Ikeda. TNR would then split into two rivalries and that were against FMW and the returning Atsushi Onita. On July 10, Nakagawa pinned Hayabusa in an elimination tag team match and Hayabusa wanted retribution by demanding a match with Hayabusa. On July 20, New Footloose defeated Yoshinori Sasaki and Mr. Pogo #2 and then attacked Shoichi Arai until Onita made the save and Go Ito suggested that he, Fuyuki, Nakagawa and Kanemura face Onita, Pogo #2, Sasaki and Arai in a match which stipulated that if TNR won, Arai would lose his presidency and if Onita's team won, then Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hideki Hosaka would be freed from TNR's slavery. Onita's team defeated TNR in a weapons deathmatch to release Kuroda and Hosaka from TNR's slavery at Atsushi Onita Presents Liar, Liar.
On August 21, Onita formed Team Zero and took on TNR in a street fight, which TNR won. Go Ito kidnapped Shoichi Arai's niece Kaoruko Arai and began brainwashing her to make her fall in love with him. At Welcome to the Darkside, Nakagawa defeated Darkside of Hayabusa with the help of Mr. Gannosuke, who appeared in a disguise as Jinsei Shinzaki. Team Zero defeated TNR in a street fight on September 1 and then crucified TNR's briefs to end the "Brief Brothers" gimmick. The original Mr. Pogo returned to FMW as "The Great Pogo" and attacked Onita and Pogo #2 in the parking lot, which led to the renewal of a feud between Onita and Great Pogo, allowing TNR to completely focus on feuding with Hayabusa and FMW. During this time, Masao Orihara and Takeshi Ono joined TNR. Nakagawa headlined the October 6 pay-per-view against Hayabusa for his Double Championship, where Hayabusa retained the title. The show also featured Daisuke Ikeda and Ricky Fuji defeat Gedo and Hido with the help of Kaori Nakayama, who prevented Go Ito from interfering. TNR defeated Hayabusa and Ricky Fuji in a handicap match when Fuyuki pinned Hayabusa to become the #1 contender for the Double Championship. On October 26, New Footloose lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa and Daisuke Ikeda.
TNR was successful on November 20 as Mr. Gannosuke returned to FMW under the guise of Jinsei Shinzaki at the event and defeated Tetsuhiro Kuroda. Yukihiro Kanemura asked him about his antics but Gannosuke refused to answer and walked out on TNR. Go Ito and Hido defeated Kaori Nakayama and Ricky Fuji in an intergender tag team match. Later at the event, Kodo Fuyuki defeated Hayabusa to win the Double Championship. Shoichi Arai stripped TNR off the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and awarded it to the departing Atsushi Onita as a tribute for setting up the company and making it very successful. An Over the Top Tournament was set up during which problems arose between the team of Ono and Orihara and the rest of TNR beginning with Hido beating Ono in the opening round at ECW/FMW Supershow I. Orihara low blowed Hido during the quarter-final match at ECW/FMW Supershow II. Fuyuki also participated in the tournament but lost to Hisakatsu Oya in the opening round. On December 17, TNR let Orihara and Ono out of the group when Gedo caused them to get eliminated during a Come Out and Play match, which TNR eventually lost.
Face run (1999) Orihara and Ono gained their revenge on TNR by defeating Gedo and Hido on January 5, 1999. Later at the event, Kodo Fuyuki defeated Yukihiro Kanemura in a non-title match and then Fuyuki announced that TNR would no longer be looking for control over FMW. On January 6, Fuyuki retained the Double Championship against Hisakatsu Oya and then TNR officially turned fan favorites by quitting their villainous tactics. Jado and Go Ito disagreed with Fuyuki and quit TNR. TNR began feuding with Gannosuke's Outlaws and Fuyuki rescued Hayabusa from an assault on February 21 to end his feud with Hayabusa and form an alliance. TNR also began feuding with Battlarts group. During this time, TNR formed an alliance with Hayabusa's Team Phoenix to feud with Gannosuke's Outlaws and Battlarts. Hayabusa and Fuyuki participated in a tournament for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, which they ended up losing to Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the final on May 3, 1999.