reverting to his real name, he joined the new japan pro-wrestling (njpw) promotion in june 1993, making his debut in february 1994. yasuda spent the majority of the 1990s as an undercard wrestler, primarily competing in opening matches or as the fall guy in tag team matches with wrestlers such as shinya hashimoto and kensuke sasaki, achieving little success. in late 2000, yasuda, along with kazuyuki fujita, became somewhat of a pet project for antonio inoki, and both of them were sent to the united states to train in mixed martial arts. yasuda returned to japan soon after, and was victorious in his first fight against veteran masaaki satake at pride 13. yasuda's win helped further legitimise him as a pro wrestler in the eyes of inoki, and this was rewarded with yasuda reaching the semi finals of the 2001 g1 climax, where he lost to keiji mutoh. after earning one win and one loss in mma throughout 2001, yasuda earned the biggest win of his career in december by choking out veteran jerome le banner. his defeat of jerome led to yasuda's stock in new japan skyrocketing almost overnight, and yasuda soon found himself elevated from over the hill veteran to top title contender in early 2002. yasuda earned the biggest win of his pro wrestling career on february 16, defeating yuji nagata in a tournament to win the vacant iwgp heavyweight championship. yasuda held the title for 48 days, before dropping it to nagata in april. in august 2002, yasuda and kantaro hoshino formed their own faction, the makai club, a group of wrestlers primarily with mma backgrounds who worshipped antonio inoki like a god. yasuda was viewed as the leader of the group, and in early 2003 he partnered up with his second in command kazunari murakami to enter the iwgp tag team championship #1 contender tournament. despite losing to jim steele and mike barton in the final, an injury to steele would give the title to shot to murakami and yasuda who unsuccessfully challenged hiroyoshi tenzan and masahiro chono on february 16. having retired from mma, the aging yasuda's position in the new japan card began to fall again, and in late 2004 he left the promotion. after leaving new japan, he started making sporadic appearances for zero-one and hustle.