[citation needed] His tenure was notable for commentator Joel Gertner constantly making racist remarks about Hidaka during his matches and nicknamed him "Pokémon" after the popular children's animated series.

In 2000, Hidaka returned to Japan, now somewhat higher on the scale, and wrestled numerous matches for Battlarts with Mitsuya Nagai as his tag team partner.

Following a crucial loss to Minoru Tanaka and Masaaki Mochizuki, another team long "defunct before it even started" due to scheduling conflicts, Hidaka and Fujita turned on each other.

In 2002, Hidaka had his mixed martial arts debut for Deep as a Zero1 representative, pitted against his close friend Takafumi Ito.

The slightly heavier and much more experienced Ito dominated the grappling exchanges, but Hidaka survived until the second round and held his own with some ankle lock attempts before losing by rear naked choke.

[5] The gym is located in the Suginami ward of Tokyo and employs fellow pro-wrestlers Munenori Sawa, Fuminori Abe and Towa Iwasaki.