Hideki Hosaka

Hideki Hosaka
Hideki Hosaka
Born	August 5, 1971; Itoigawa, Niigata, Japan
Died	August 2, 2021 (aged 49)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Hideki Hosaka; The Great Fake; Benkei; Mr. Pogo (II)
Billed height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Billed weight	110 kg (243 lb)
Debut	August 7, 1991
Retired	August 18, 2019

Hideki Hosaka (保坂秀樹, Hosaka Hideki) (August 5, 1971 – August 2, 2021) was a Japanese

professional wrestler, who is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Zero-One

.

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

The Great Wojo, TNT, and Mr. Pogo. In 1992, he left W*ING and joined the Takano Brothers' Pro Wrestling Crusaders, under the ring name Benkei. As PWC did not run regular shows, he transferred to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling

(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

BattlARTS. In 2000, he won three WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championships with Mammoth Sasaki, before leaving FMW in 2001 in an exodus that also included Masato Tanaka, Jado, Gedo

, 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 and All Japan Pro Wrestling 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 Pro Wrestling Zero-One 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, 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 Pro Wrestling Freedoms and Pro Wrestling Noah. 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 Mr. Pogo

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.