Yasushi Kanda

Yasushi Kanda (神田 裕之) is a Japanese 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.

Kanda was trained by Ultimo Dragon as a second 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 Mochizuki.

Debuting in Toryumon Japan, Kanda and Susumu Mochizuki 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 Mochizuki 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).

Kanda was known for his trademark Mohawk hairstyle.

M2K feuded with Crazy Max, forcing it to turn face against its will.

Kanda, Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki 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.

Kanda began appearing as a heel referee.

He no longer wore his mohawk, but he did not 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 headhunted on Kid and Kanda, but it did not 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.

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 Tamaoka, but he soon returned in full, sparking a "Renaissance" 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 wrestler's contract.

In 2007, Kanda captured the Open the Brave Gate Title from Genki Horiguchi on July 1, 2007, successfully 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 Tamaoka.

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.