Hiroyuki Kanda
Ring name(s)	Yasushi Kanda
Billed height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Billed weight	187 lb (85 kg; 13.4 st)
Born	August 29, 1978 (1978-08-29) (age 31) Chiba, Chiba, Japan
Debut	August 29, 1998

Hiroyuki Kanda, better known as Yasushi Kanda, born on August 29, 1978 in Chiba City, Japan, is a wrestler currently performing for the Dragon Gate wrestling promotion in Japan. He is considered one of Toryumon's greatest heel characters, and was a founding member of the M2K stable. In his pre-injury days, he was famous for his mohawk hairstyle.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Referee 3 Return 4 In wrestling 5 Factions 6 Championships and accomplishments 7 External links

[edit] Early years

Kanda was trained by Ultimo Dragon as a 2nd Term student. Shortly after debuting, he allied with Susumu Mochizuki. He would win the Young Dragons Cup, and the IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Titles along with Susumu. Debuting in Toryumon Japan, Kanda and Susumu proved a disruptive heel presence. They were accepted into heel stable Crazy Max, but turned on them later that same night. Crazy Max retaliated by hog tying them with the ring ropes and beating them with baseball bats. They were saved by Masaaki Mochizuki. Although Susumu was thankful for the assist, Kanda was not, and he and Masaaki exchanged words. He would then wrestle Masaaki to a 20 minute draw. Having earned respect for each other, the stable M2K was formed. The stable's names was based on the last names of the members, two Mochizuki's (M2) and Kanda (K).

M2K feuded with Crazy Max, forcing it to turn face against its will. Kanda, Masaaki and Susumu would win the UWA World Trios Tag Titles. M2K would continue its successful ways. Kanda, however, suffered a legitimate neck injury on October 10, 2001 after taking a back-to-belly piledriver from Genki Horiguchi that displaced his neck vertebrae. He shifted over to a referee job.

[edit] Referee

Kanda began appearing as a heel referee. He no longer wore his mohawk, but he didn't cut the hair either, simply wearing it long. He also wore a neck brace due to the injury. He was a partial heel referee for the M2K stable. This ended during a grudge match between Dragon Kid and Darkness Dragon where, tired of M2K's interference in the match, he hit all the interfering members with the blue box, then Darkness Dragon as well. M2K declared headhunting on DKid and Kanda, but it didn't last long.

On September 8, 2002, Kanda came to the ring with his original M2K partners, Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki, to officially retire from the ring. Out of respect for him, Magnum Tokyo, the current leader of M2K, sealed the name.

Kanda continued refereeing, though he no longer had an individual role. He also took an office job within the federation.

[edit] Return

In 2006, Don Fujii of heel stable Blood Generation began to harass Kanda during matches. Kanda was provoked into fighting back. At first he fought against Blood Generation's heel referee Kinta Tomoaka, but he soon returned in full, sparking a "Rennaissance" concept that ended prematurely when one of the major participants, Magnum Tokyo, was injured. His full return to the ring occurred in July 2006, when he signed a wrestlers contract.

In 2007, Kanda captured the Open the Brave Gate Title from Genki Horiguchi on July 1, 2007, defending it twice before losing it to Masato Yoshino on September 22.

On October 21, he was assigned to be the special referee in a match which had Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & Gamma of the Muscle Outlaw'z against the three referees of Dragon Gate, one of them being the recent MO'z exile Kinta Tomoaka. Just as it seemed like Kinta had the match won, Kanda turned heel and helped the MO'z win the match. He was then announced as the newest member of the group.

In 2008, most of the active stables in Dragon Gate were going through rapid shifting. Kanda feuded with both BxB Hulk and his own stablemate Masato Yoshino. His 2008 started with several high profile wins, but this collapsed after Yoshino helped Hulk defeat him in a hair vs hair match, and when Hulk debuted his Killer Hulk persona, defeating him in their blow-off match in a squash. He rebounded a little, winning the Triangle Gate titles for the first time with YAMATO & Gamma on July 12, but they would lose them to Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Magnitude Kishiwada on September 28.

Shortly after losing the titles, he and Gamma began to quarrel. The quarreling escalated further when, during subsequent tag matches they had, Kanda misfired on protein powder attacks, blinding Gamma instead of their opponents and costing them the matches. He eventually said to Gamma that he would rather team with Cyber Kongcito than him. Eventually, at the request of YAMATO, a match was made for January 18, 2009 between him and Gamma, where the loser would be kicked out of Real Hazard. He lost the match. Afterwards, he looked to get beat down by Real Hazard, but Keni'chiro Arai came out to seemingly help him against them. However, Arai proceeded to assault Gamma, and he was joined by Kanda and the others, making Gamma the one ousted from the group.

[edit] In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Ryu Spin (Spinning lifting sitout double underhook facebuster)
  • Gekokujoh Elbow (Diving elbow drop)

• Signature moves
  • German suplex
  • Exploder suplex

[edit] Factions

• M2K (2000-2002)
• Muscle Outlaw'z (2007-2008)
• Real Hazard (2008-)

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

• Dragon Gate
  • Open the Brave Gate (1 time)
  • Open the Triangle Gate (1 time) - with YAMATO and Gamma

• Toryumon Japan
  • IWGR Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Susumu Mochizuki
  • UWA World Trios Championship (1 time) - with Sususmu Mochizuki and Masaaki Mochizuki
  • Third Young Dragon's Cup winner

[edit] External links

• Yasushi Kanda profile on Dragon Gate USA
• M2K History on Dragon Gate USA