Mr. Gannosuke
Ezaki had suffered multiple injuries during the past few years of his career which forced him to change his wrestling style from high flying to mat wrestling. This was incorporated into a storyline that Kodo Fuyuki would not allow Ezaki to wear the falcon mask and compete as Hayabusa anymore. This led Ezaki to go through a character change. On June 15, Hayabusa teamed with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido in a ladder match which stipulated that Fuyuki had to eat dog food if his team lost. FMW held a series of events titled "Goodbye Hayabusa" as a farewell to Ezaki's Hayabusa character. During this time, he participated in a tournament with Tanaka and Kuroda for the newly created WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Hayabusa and his team reached the finals of the tournament on July 31, where they lost to Kodo Fuyuki, Gedo and Koji Nakagawa. At , Hayabusa defeated Yukihiro Kanemura to win his third Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and made his first and only title defense against Mr. Gannosuke on August 25 in his as Hayabusa, which he won to retain the title. The title was immediately retired.