It was led by Tadao Yasuda and managed by Kantaro Hoshino, and its gimmick was that of a group of mixed martial arts fighters and pro wrestlers who worshipped Antonio Inoki as a god.
Makai Club first formed in the summer of 2002 during New Japan's G1 Climax when Antonio Inoki's crown wrestler Tadao Yasuda sent three masked men against Masahiro Chono.
[7] By the spring, the group began a feud with the Crazy Dogs (Tatsutoshi Goto, Hiro Saito, Michiyoshi Ohara and Enson Inoue) and Makai #5 began a feud with Takashi Iizuka, who recognized him as Nagai (who got him injured in June 2001) with Iizuka defeating him in a best of series (with Nagai even unmasking for the final match).
[10] At Ultimate Crush on May 2, 2003, Ken Shamrock joined the Makai Club for one night defeating Takashi Iizuka, while Murakami lost to Enson Inoue.
[14] At Wrestling World 2004, Makai #1, Yanagisawa, Nagai and Chikuzen defeated The Crazy Dogs in the forms of Ohara, Goto, Saito and Inoue, while Yasuda lost to Masayuki Naruse twice (firstly by disqualification, and secondly by KO after a sleeper hold), and Murakami and Shibata lost to Josh Barnett and Takashi Iizuka.
One of the group's last big moments occurred in February 2004, when Yasuda took part in a tournament for the vacated IWGP Heavyweight Championship but he would lose to Yuji Nagata in the first round.