Yasuda, a freelancer, is well known for his gambling debts and has been trying to make some fast money lately, so as you can see from the photo above he was quite happy with the offer.

Friday the tour opens at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall, and ZERO1-MAX announced that there would be a Shinya Hashimoto tribute held before the show, along with a video being shown. They said Hashimoto, like most in his profession, had a big soft spot in his heart for Korakuen Hall. Wrestling fans from Osaka had sent many e-mails to the office requesting that the tribute also be held when ZERO1-MAX goes there on August 5th.

The company also announced that on 7/31 they are holding a special Summer Vacation price deal, where the first 20 adults who apply can take up to four elementary school age children to the show for free. ZERO1-MAX has already been allowing below Middle School age children in for free to certain shows, but due to the chances of the "Fire Festival" shows running late they have added the adult stipulation.

Numerous familiar faces at the funeral, as was expected: Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Takao Omori, Masato Tanaka, Mr. Nakamura, Naoya Ogawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Don Arakawa, Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi, Tatsumi Fujinami, Masa Chono, Yuji Nagata, Jushin Liger, Tatsutoshi Goto, Manabu Nakanishi, Junji Hirata, Koji Kanemoto, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Takashi Iizuka, El Samurai, Osamu Nishimura, Hiro Saito, Yutaka Yoshie, Simon Inoki, Keiji Mutoh, Satoshi Kojima, Akira Maeda, Kazunari Murakami, Fumihiko Uei, Takeshi Rikio, Kensuke Sasaki, Akira Hokuto, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Nobuhiko Takada, Yoji Anjoh, Kiyoshi Tamura, Masakazu Kusama, Tadao Yasuda and many more.

Naoya Ogawa was one of Hashimoto's pallbearers (along with Keiji Muto, Masahiro Chono, Tatsumi Fujinami, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Seiji Sakaguchi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Don Arakawa) and he was very shaken up by the whole proceedings, as was everbody in attendance, saying he still couldn't believe his friend was gone. Ogawa vowed that Hashimoto's family would never be found wanting for anything.

Hashimoto's sister, Masanari, and his oldest son were the two people closest to Hashimoto at the service. After the casket was loaded on the hearse it was transported back to Hashimoto's hometown in Gifu, where his remains will be interred at his family's temple.

Many famous Japanese personalities were in attendance, and not only from the Pro Wrestling industy.

"From our hearts, may you find happiness in Heaven."

Steve Corino has made a small comment on his live journal, which can be viewed here.

Sasaki will also be in the main event on the final show of next tour, "Summer Season Fight" running from 7/22-7/24, where he'll tag with Yoshiaki Fujiwara against Otani and Omori.

In the semi-main event, there was some trouble between the Omori, Tanaka and Yasuda team as Omori accidently struck Yasuda who then looked for payback on Omori. This caused a breakdown in the teamwork, with Yasuda even attacking his teamates, that Kohei was able to score the pinfall on Masato Tanaka.

The ZERO1-MAX vs. Karate Army match was won by Kazuhiko Ogasawara and teamate Masashi Aoyagi over Rikiya Fudo and Fuyuki Takahashi. Fudo replaced Takehiro Murahama in the match, as Murahama was injured in his HERO promotions Mixed Martial arts match.

Spanky also defended his ZERO1-MAX US Openweight title against fellow Gaijin Junior - Sonjay Dutt. Sonjay has returned to ZERO1-MAX after injury and having to default his spot in the Tenka-Ichi Jr. Tournament.

ZERO1-MAX director, Mr. Nakamura, actually saw Yasuda at an OTB (Off Track Betting) in Niigata and said Yasuda dropped several hundred thousand yen in bets on the horses. He said he didn't see Yasuda win anything but did see him place numerousl losing racing forms into the trash can. Yasuda seems confident and says he can't wait until after the "Fire Festival" paydays (he's on the tour but not announced in the tournament as yet) so he can start spending more.

Other outside fighters that will be on the tour but not in the Fire Festival are: Alex Shelley (7/29 - 8/7), Katzuhiko Nakazima (7/29 - 8/7) and Tadao Yasuda (7/29 - 8/5).