Masato Tanaka
Hayabusa and Shinzaki participated in AJPW's 1997 Real World Tag League and kicked off the tournament on November 19 by defeating Giant Kimala and Jun Izumida. They finished the tournament with four points as they would win only one more match against Johnny Smith and Wolf Hawkfield, while losing the rest of their matches. Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka faced Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura in a losing effort for the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship on November 28. Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki unsuccessfully challenged Gannosuke and Kanemura for the tag team title on December 19. On December 20, Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Masato Tanaka won the World Street Fight Six-Man Tag Team Championship by beating Atsushi Onita, Hido and Tetsuhiro Kuroda during the Super Extreme Wrestling War tour. On December 22, Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki and Masato Tanaka defeated ZEN members Atsushi Onita, Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura in a WarGames match after Hayabusa pinned Onita after a Moonsault from the top of the cage as a payback for his loss to Onita at 6th Anniversary Show in 1995. Hayabusa started getting over with the audience and he was finally being heavily pushed. Friction arose within ZEN and Gannosuke formed his own group Team No Respect. On January 16, 1998, Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya lost their six-man tag team title to Team No Respect members Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Jado. Hayabusa and his allies battled Team No Respect members for the next three months and Hayabusa lost a singles match to TNR member Kodo Fuyuki in the first singles encounter between the two on February 19 to begin a long lasting rivalry with Fuyuki.