On September 20, Kanemura changed his ring name to Kintaro Kanemura, a name given to him by Shark Tsuchiya based on Korean wrestler Kintaro Ohki and was awarded the new Hardcore Championship by Kodo Fuyuki. He successfully defended the title against Extreme Championship Wrestling's (ECW) Balls Mahoney at 10th Anniversary Show. Later at the event, Kodo Fuyuki lost a loser leaves FMW match to Masato Tanaka and Mr. Gannosuke left TNR to form a tag team with H, which left Kanemura as the leader of Team No Respect and the group turned fan favorites. On December 11, Kanemura successfully defended the Hardcore Championship against Mahoney's tag team partner Axl Rotten. The following night, TNR defeated ECW's Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten, Super Crazy and Yoshihiro Tajiri. In 2000, Kanemura began an angle with Big Japan Pro Wrestling's (BJW) Ryuji Yamakawa, resulting in an interpromotional feud between BJW and FMW. On February 23, Kanemura lost the Hardcore Championship to Yamakawa at a BJW event. Kanemura then wrestled for ECW, where he lost to Balls Mahoney at Living Dangerously. At FMW 11th Anniversary Show, Kanemura defeated Ryuji Yamakawa to win his second Hardcore Championship.
