Note: 1st 5 bouts digested, last 2 Onita bouts complete
All Japan Kickboxing Featherweight Championship: Matsuda vs. Hayashida
Ishu Kakutogisen: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Ismael Changaney (sp?). Wrestler vs. kickboxer match
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsutoshi Goto
Ryuji Murakami vs. ?
Rumi Kazama vs. Cuty Suzuki
Ishu Kakutogisen: Atsushi Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi 4R
FMW 10/10/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Ishu Kakutogisen: Atsushi Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi R5 1:13
Sano vs. George Takano-excellent match, Power & Glory vs. Tenryu & Savage, Yatsu & Haku vs. Tenryu & Savage, Onita vs. Pogo-Barbed Wire Landmine Death Match, Fantastics vs. Footloose (Kawada & Ricky Samson Hiromichi Kodo Fuyuki), Sano & SS Machine vs. Koshinaka & Chono-1/5/90 Chono & Koshinaka win NJ Tag Tourney-excellent match, Takada vs. Maeda, Tenryu & Kawada & Fuyuki vs. Tsuruta & Kabuki & Inoue, Windham vs. Taue, more!
Combat Toyota vs. Magnificent Mimi
Doing The Hair Cut Match: Reibun Amada & Megumi Kudo vs. Miwa Sato & Yuki Morimatsu. This is the match where Reibun & Kudo split up. Reibun worked as a heel and was intent on cutting some hair. After Amada pinned Morimatsu, she tried to get Kudo to cut Morimatsu's hair. Kudo refused so Amada slapped her, cut Morimatsu's hair herself, then slapped Kudo again.
Street Fight Death Match: Masanobu Kurisu vs. Sambo Asako
Atsushi Onita vs. Lee Gak Soo
This tape highlights the best of FMW from 1990. Onita vs. Masanobu Kurisu is the second big fued after Masashi Aoyagi in 1989. Unlike Aoyagi, Onita regularly defeats his rivals this year, though he does the lion's share of the bleeding. Tarzan Goto, who initially teamed with Onita, is the third big fued, highlighted by the 8/4/90 Shiodome match that introduced explosive barbed wire. Goto is by far the best wrestler of Onita's opponents, and they are able to do a quality wrestling match that's aided by the pyro. Similar to the Goto program, Reibun Amada starts as Megumi Kudo's ally, but winds up her foe after turning on her, leading to a big match before Reibun unfortunately retires at the start of 1991. Mr. Pogo is Onita's opponent for FMW's 1st Anniversary show on 11/5/90. This is a thinner version, managed by Victor Quinones and seeming to only use one weapon that isn't laying around ringside in this Texas Death Match. It's much more of a wrestling match with Onita showing a lot of his old junior heavyweight offense, including the tope, and Pogo actually bleeds far more than Onita. Despite the plethora of gimmick spots, the highlight of the tape is Asako giving Bertichev an ipponzeoi over the top to the floor, which I've never seen before.
FMW Korakuen X2 2/27/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Pandita & The Shooter vs. Ricky Fuji & Yukihide Ueno
Wrestler vs. Kickboxer: Billy Mac vs. Katsuji Ueda
WWA World Women's Title: Combat Toyoda vs. Megumi Kudo
Sambo Asako vs. Tarzan Goto
World Martial Arts Title Champion Final: Atsushi Onita vs. Gregory Veritchev. Veritchev becomes 1st champion.
AJ TV 6/27/93 '93 Super Power Series taped 6/3 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
Stan Hansen & Joel Deaton vs. Terry Gordy & Steve Williams
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Note: Some bouts digested
Eiji Ezaki vs. Masafumi Honda
8 Woman Joshi Puroresu Battle Royal
The Shooter & Horace Boulder vs. Kim Hyun Han & Jimmy Backlund
Amigo Ultra & Akihito Ichihara & Ultramancito vs. Pandita & Yukihide Ueno & Pandita Chiquito
Combat Toyoda vs. Reggie Bennett
Megumi Kudo vs. Gundarenko Svetlana
Big Titan & The Gladiator vs. Sambo Asako & Ricky Fuji
Gregory Bertichev vs. Katsuji Ueda
No Rope Barbed Wire Cage Electric Current Bomb Destructive Blast Death Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Tarzan Goto
Note: matches are shown in highlight form
6/30/92
No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match: Onita vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
9/1/92 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
WWA World Women's Title: Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda
World Martial Arts Tag Titles: Tarzan Goto & Gregory Veritchev vs. Big Titan & Dr. Looser
No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Tornado Tag Death Match: Atsushi Onita & Sambo Asako vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Sabu
9/19/92 Yokohama Stadium
8 Woman Tag Match: Erika Tsuchiya & Miwa Sato & Yoshika Maedomari & Kumiko Matsuda vs. Yukie Nabeno & Rie Nakamura & Emi Koizumi & Yumiko Komatsuzaki
Special Mixed Tag Match: Amigo Ultra & Ultramancito vs. Valtania 1 & 2
Katsuji Ueda vs. Samato Lokematri (sp)
Street Fight Triple Stretcher Death Match: Sambo Asako & Ricky Fuji & The Great Punk vs. Big Titan & The Gladiator & Horace Boulder
Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyota vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto (AJW team)
World Martial Arts Title Special Tag Match: Tarzan Goto & Gregory Veritchev vs. Leon Spinks & Brian Sayodill
World Martial Arts Title No Rope Explosive Barbed Wired Death Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Tiger Jeet Singh. Onita wins title.
11/20/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
World Street Fight Tag League: Sabu & Karim Sudan vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Tiger Jeet Singh Jr.
World Street Fight Tag League: Tarzan Goto & Big Titan vs. The Gladiator & Horace Boulder
World Street Fight Tag League: Dr. Looser & Dr. Hannibal vs. Atsushi Onita & Gregory Veritchev
11/27/92 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan
World Street Fight Tag League: The Gladiator & Horace Boulder vs. Dr. Looser & Dr. Hannibal
World Street Fight Tag League: Tarzan Goto & Big Titan vs. Atsushi Onita & Gregory Veritchev
12/6/92 Ryuoka (?) Shi Taiiku Center
World Street Fight Tag League: Tarzan Goto & Big Titan vs. Dr. Looser & Dr. Hannibal
World Street Fight Tag League: Sabu & Karim Sudan vs. Atsushi Onita & Gregory Veritchev
World Street Fight Tag League: Atsushi Onita & Gregory Veritchev vs. Dr. Looser & Dr. Hannibal
12/7/92 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
World Street Fight Tag League: Atsushi Onita & Gregory Veritchev vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Tiger Jeet Singh Jr.
World Street Fight Tag League: Tarzan Goto & Big Titan vs. The Gladiator & Horace Boulder
World Street Fight Tag League Final No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Barricade Mat Tornado Tag Death Match: Atsushi Onita & Gregory Veritchev vs. Tarzan Goto & Big Titan. Onita & Veritchev win tag league.
Koji Nakagawa vs. Eiji Ezaki. Highlights.
Rie Nakamura vs. Keiko Iwame. Highlights.
5 vs. 5 Captain Fall Elimination Match: Miwa Sato & Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari & Kumiko Matsuda & Yukie Nabeno vs. Eagle Sawai & Utako Hozumi & Yasha Kurenai & Midori Saito & Mikiko Futagami. Highlights.
The Sheik & Sabu vs. Dr. Looser & Dr. Hannibal. Highlights. Sabu breaks two tables after the match.
Chodensenshi Battle Ranger Z & The Great Sasuke & Kendo vs. Super Delfin & Espanto 1 & 2. Highlights.
Shinobu Kandori vs. Victoria Kazumiya. Bad match.
Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota. Exciting mach with a ton of high spots. Yamada was by far the best of the four. Better than their Dreamslam match, but the sloppiness held it down some. ****1/4
No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Captain Fall Loser Leaves Town Death Match: The Great Punk & Tarzan Goto & Katsuji Ueda vs. Ricky Fuji & The Gladiator & Big Titan. Gorefest. Poor work, but tons of blood and gimmicks. Punk leaves town, what a loss. *
Leon Spinks vs. Gregory Veritchev. The only redeeming factor of this was that it wasn't that long. Spinks punches were so pulled they couldn't hurt a fly. Veritchev sold them even though half of them didn't even hit. The hell of awful. Just a disgrace to the sport. -**1/2
No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Time Bomb Death Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk. The first even match with this combination of stipulations. This built well with both men really putting over the toll of the match. Onita's body was cut to shreds, and Funk bled like crazy also. The actual wrestling was pretty lousy, but it was a great spectacle. One of the all-time great post matches with Onita trying to save Funk from the giant explosion. ***1/2
Aja Kong & Kaoro Ito vs. Megumi Kudo & Miwa Sato, Chodensenshi Battle Ranger Z & Sasuke & TAKA vs. Delfin & Shinzaki & Naniwa, Funk & Goto vs. Sheik & Sabu, Onita vs. Pogo, etc.
Onita & Gannosuke vs. Pogo & Matsunaga-no rope barbed wire tornado street fight death match, Terry Boy vs. Shiryu, Shinzaki vs. Michinoku, Sasuke & Sato vs. Delfin & Naniwa, Jiraya vs. Shiryu, Pilota Suicida vs. Super Boy, Sasuke, Sato, & Michinoku vs. Delfin, Naniwa, & Shinzaki, Sasuke vs. Shinigami, Shinzaki & Naniwa vs. Michinoku & Terry Boy, Sato vs. Michinoku, Sasuke vs. Delfin 7/24/93-UWA Welterweight Title Sasuke wins title, more!
Note: The first seven matches are shown in digest form
Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Gosaku Goshogowara
Chodensenshi (super electric warrior?) Battle Ranger Z & Koji Nakagawa & Masato Tanaka vs. The Great Sasuke & Hanzo Nakajima & Shiryu (Michinoku Pro team)
Combat Toyoda & Crusher Maedomari & Shark Tsuchiya vs. Noriyo Tateno & Eagle Sawai & Mizuki Endo (LLPW team)
Sambo Asako & Mr. Gannosuke vs. Goro Tsurumi & Hideki Hosaka
Kickboxer vs. Wrestler Mixed Match: Katsuji Ueda vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama
Sabu & Damian vs. Dr. Luther & Yone Genjin (Michinoku Pro)
WWA World Women's & Independent World World Women's Double Title Match: Megumi Kudo vs. Yumiko Hotta (AJW) 8:34 of 16:48. Though one of the biggest wins of her career, this is hardly Kudo's finest moment. She's rather mechanical and deliberate in this match that threatens to become a trainwreck due to so many spots being at least a little off. It starts out good with Hotta playing subtle heel, laying into Kudo early and often. Hotta puts Kudo in the position of matching her strikes though, which needless to say isn't Megumi's best role. The idea is, perhaps, that she'll attack Hotta's bandaged left knee, the injury evening things out, but Kudo has trouble reading Hotta and lacks the stiffness to satisfy her even when she does. As few of the transitions to Kudo's offense come off smoothy, Hotta winds up kicking Kudo to save embarassment, and thus retains control. Kudo is looking woefully outclassed, but finally fires up landing a number of elbows. She's still never convincing as Hotta's equal, but they play up her resourcefulness to set up the flash pin.
Big Titan & The Gladiator & Ricky Fuji vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo (WAR/Fuyuki-gun team)
Terry Funk vs. The Shiek
World Brass Knuckle Tag Title Street Fight Tag Match: Mr. Pogo & Hisakatsu Oya vs. Tarzan Goto & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga
No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Death Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Genichiru Tenryu
Sabu vs. Hayabusa, Gladiator vs. Titan, Onita vs. Aoyagi-death match, Onita vs. Pogo-death match, Onita & Niiyama & Gannosuke vs. Pogo & Gladiator & Hosaka-pool death match, Kobashi & Misawa vs. Kawada & Taue ****3/4, War Games Cage: Jado & Gedo & Freddy vs. Perez & Matsunaga & Kanemura, Keeper vs. Nakamaki, more!
Glass Death Match: Headhunter A vs. Headhunter B, Barbed Wire Ladder Match: Nakamaki vs. Keeper, No Rope Barbed Wire Lumberjack Cobra Snake Death Match: Poison Sawada vs. White Mummy, No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Death Match: Nita & Goto vs. Pogo & Oya, Sasuke vs. Fuji, Nita vs. Pogo, more!
A great tape to start with if you are just getting into hardcore puroresu. Has pretty much all of Onita's big matches from 1990-1994. They are edited, but typically more than half of the match is shown with all the explosions and key spots included. So, while I would prefer if all the matches were shown in complete form, the editing isn't destroying the matches.
Volume 1
12/10/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Barbed Wire Tag Team Death Match: Onita & Tarzan Goto vs. Jerry Flynn & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga. Onita's arm was badly bloodied, and Goto was bloodied as well. Lots of knockdowns before the Onita teams goes over with the requisite Onita thunder fire powerbomb
2/12/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Barbed Wire Barricade: Onita vs. Masanobu Kurisu. This is when Onita used to have something of a wrestling match with the gimmicks adding to it. Only average, but the gimmick spots were worked in so they added to the match, rather than dominated it.
8/4/90 Tokyo Shiodome WWA Brass Knucks Title No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match: Onita vs. Goto. This was the first time FMW took out the Shiodome and it was a good match between the company's two top stars. Contained much more wrestling than later Onita matches, as Goto was pushing that, and they built to the explosions, with those spots meaning something because they were basically used to set up the near finishes. Both men bled, of course. Some very dramatic near finishes before the highly dramatic Rocky-esque ending.
5/6/91 Barbed Wire Barricade Explosive Land Mine Death Match: Onita vs. Mr. Pogo. Really bloody match. Quinones gets exploded, which makes this a must see.
8/17/91 No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Texas Death Match: Onita vs. Sambo Asako. Not really competitive or good.
9/23/91 Kawasaki Kyujo No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Bomb Death Match: Onita vs. Goto. The first cage bomb match. This was Texas Death match style in that you pinned your opponent then they had 10 seconds to get up and beat the count. Thus, Goto was able to use his big moves on Onita for pins, but obviously Onita beats the 10 count. Pretty decent wrestling. Dramatic match that was similar to their 8/4/90 match. Both guys were taken to the hospital in the ambulance after the match.
5/6/92 No Rope Texas Tornado Tag Fire Death Match: Onita & Goto vs. Sheik & Sabu. They put way to much kerosene on the cylinders that they lit on fire, so the fire got way out of control and they had to stop the match and put it out before there was a disaster.
Volume 2
6/30/92 No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match: Onita vs. Tiger Jeet Singh. This match took place outside during a rainstorm in front of almost nobody. A ton of explosions, but the match was terrible and contained no wrestling. Singh actually goes over here, but keeps attacking Onita after the bell anyway and Onita winds up collapsing in the mud.
9/19/92 Yokohama Stadium World Martial Arts Title No Rope Explosive Barbed Wired Death Match: Tiger Jeet Singh vs. Atsushi Onita. Onita sold big and well for Singh, who got a lot of heat for his heel tactics. What would become typical Onita, as he was destroyed, exploded, and bloodied then got huge pops for his glorious comeback win. Actual wrestling was horrible, but the storyline played well to the Onita marks. Onita takes title.
5/5/93 Kawasaki Kyujo No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Landmine Death Match: Onita vs. Funk. Due to Funk, the work was as good as you will see in an Onita match. Nice selling and even though they did an explosion early, the build was good. Action got frantic at the 10-minute mark when the loud alarm began for the countdown to the huge explosion. Both Onita and Funk wind up getting exploded because, after saving the ref, Onita tried, but just didn't have enough time left to save the "unconscious" Funk.
7/24/93 Kitakyushu No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Death Match: Onita vs. Pogo. Pretty good build. Pogo blew fireball at Onita, who took the bump into the barricade for a big explosion. Onita's aged friend Mr. Chin was then destroyed by Pogo while Onita was selling. After the match, Pogo blew a fireball on Onita's back well he was checking Chin's condition.
8/22/93 Hyogo Nishinomiya Stadium World Brass Knucks Title No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Bomb Death Match: Onita vs. Pogo. Very good match. Highlights are the ring burning a little after Onita avoids a Pogo fireball, ref getting exploded, and Onita DDT'ing Pogo on the fire. Very vocal crowd. Very dramatic post match with Onita lying on top of Pogo and the ref to protect them from the huge explosion. Onita had wickedly deep cuts on his back.
12/8/93 Tokyo Harumi Dome World Brass Knucks Title No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match: Onita vs. Matsunaga. Matsunaga kicked the hell out of Onita. Not surprisingly, lots of gimmick spots and explosions. Matsunaga's head got cut to hell. Selling was good and it was a brutal match that raised the bar for explosions, but the work wasn't too solid and some of the execution was shaky.
5/5/94 Kawasaki Kyujo No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Death Match: Onita vs. Tenryu. Onita vowed that he would retire if he lost this match. He was so incredibly over here with fans screaming at the top of their lungs for him, especially down the stretch. Different than just about every match on the tape because Tenryu wasn't into taking any gimmick bumps and he tried, not successfully, to make it a wrestling match. Slow-paced with a lot of rest holds. Onita jobs, but states that he'll go on a year long retirement tour before retiring in the same stadium exactly 1-year later
Volume 3
8/28/94 Osaka Jo Hall No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Double Hell Death Match: Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi. Bad and boring match. Aoyagi just kicked and kicked as always, but this time some of them knocked Onita into the gimmicks.
9/7/94 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center No Rope Barbed Wire Barricade Street Fight Double Hell Death Match: Ok match with Pogo using the typical gimmicks on Onita. After the match, W*ING attacks Onita with a barbed wire bat.
9/25/94 Tokyo Jingyu Pool No Rope Barbed Wire Electrified Dynamite Pool Hell 6 Man Death Match: Onita & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Gannosuke vs. Pogo & Gladiator & Hosaka. Interesting gimmick, though not something you'd want to see that often. Eliminations, as well as explosions, occur when someone is knocked into pool. Wild, all-action match.
10/30/94 Iwate No Rope Electrified Explosive Barbed Wire Explosive Landmine Double Hell Death Match: Onita vs. Sasuke. This style of match is far from Sasuke's strong suit, and it really showed. Two really cools spots; Sasuke explodes Onita in the landmine then does his space flying Tiger drop. Sasuke tries a handspring move, but Onita catches him and drops him in a landmine. A good match, but below average for Sasuke.
12/1/94 Hiroshima No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Street Fight Double Hell Death Match: Great Nita & Ho Chi Mihn (Goto) vs. Pogo & Oya. Not that great and the outcome was never in question.
12/20/94: Great Nita vs. Pogo. Pogo blows a huge fireball then hits Onita with a burning barbed wire bat. Onita comes back by facebustering Pogo on the burning chair and DDT's him on burning chair for the win. Not good at all, with the Great Nita gimmick making it all the worse
5/5/95 Kawasaki Kyujo World Brass Knucks Title No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Bomb Death Match: Very dramatic match that was good for what it was. At one point, both men are exploded at once. It would have been better for Onita to put Hayabusa over here, but he chose to retire as champ and FMW drew flies for months with Hayabusa on top.
9/24/91 Kawasaki Kyujo Kakutogisen: Megumi Kudo vs. Gundarenko Svetlana. Not really a good match, but interesting because Gundarenko was doing all shoot style, while Kudo was doing a cross between shoot style and pro style. She ran the ropes, did a plancha, etc, but mainly got tossed around in Gundarenko's judo throws.
12/9/91 Tokyo Bay NK Hall Kakutogisen: Megumi Kudo vs. Gundarenko Svetlana. This was more pro style than their previous match, but it wasn't as good or competitive.
9/19/92 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena: Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto. Very exciting match with strong work and a lot of nice spots. Unfortunately only 5:26 is shown.
5/5/93 Kawasaki Kyujo: Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota. Exciting mach with a ton of high spots. Yamada was by far the best of the four. Better than their Dreamslam match, but the sloppiness held it down some. ****1/4
7/24/93 Bay Square WWA Sekai Joshi Oza Champion Ketteisen: Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda. Good action, but it could have been more fluid. 6:35 shown
Note: There are highlights of several other matches interspersed in between these
1/5/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Sambo Asako Retirement Match Street Fight: Atsushi Onita vs. Sambo Asako
1/6/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Scramble Money Bunkhouse Climbing & Snatching Battle Royal: Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Koji Nakagawa & Masato Tanaka & Gosaku Goshogowara vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Hisakatsu Oya & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Yukihiro Kanemura & Hideki Hosaka & Hido
1/17/95: Atsushi Onita vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda
No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Tornado 8 Man Tag Death Match: Mr. Gannosuke & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Masato Tanaka & Gosaku Goshogowara vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Yukihiro Kanemura & Hideki Hosaka
1/21/95 Miyagi-ken World Brass Knuckle Title Street Fight Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Mr. Pogo. Pogo wins title.
2/17/95 Kumamoto Shi Taiikukan Street Fight 6 Man Tag Match: Great Nita & Mr. Gannosuke & Katsutoshi Niiyama vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Hido
3/10/95 Street Fight 6 Man Tag Match: Great Nita & Mr. Gannosuke & Katsutoshi Niiyama vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Hideki Hosaka
3/15/95: Great Nita vs. Pogo Daio (great king)
3/30/95 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan No Rope Barbed Wire Lumberjack Barricade Double Hell Death Match: Great Nita vs. Pogo Daio
4/21/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 4,000,000 No Rope Barbed Wire Barricade Mat Scramble Bunkhouse Climbing & Snatching Battle Royal: Atsushi Onita & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Koji Nakagawa & Masato Tanaka vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Horace Boulder
5/1/95 Osaka Great Nita Retirement Match Street Fight 6 Man Tag Match: Great Nita & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Masato Tanaka vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Hideki Hosaka
5/1/95 Nagoya Aiichi-ken Taiikukan World Brass Knuckle Title Match No Rope Barbed Wire Barricade Mat Double Hell Death Match, Rivals Last Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Mr. Pogo
Rikio Ito (Tokyo Puroresu) vs. Gosaku Goshogowara. Highlights
Katsuji Ueda (kickboxing) vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda. Highlights
Lucha Libre Tag Match: Chodensenshi Battle Ranger Z & Mach Hayato vs. Amigo Ultra (Damien) & Ultra Taro. Highlights
Women's Street Fight Texas Death Match: Combat Toyoda & Miwa Sato & Yukari Ishikura vs. Crusher Maedomari & Shark Tsuchiya & Kaori Nakayama. Highlights
Judge Dredd & Koji Nakagawa vs. Dunk Tanny (?) & Ryo Miyake (Tokyo Puroresu team). Highlights
Arabia no Kaijin (mystery man) vs. Mexico no 666: The Sheik vs. Damien. -****
Takashi Ishikawa & Apollo Sugawara & Kishin Kawabata (Tokyo Puroresu) vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hideki Hosaka & Hido. Highlights.
WWA World Women's & Independent World Women's Title Match: Bad Nurse Nakamura vs. Megumi Kudo. **1/2
Street Fight Tag Match: Katsutoshi Niiyama & Masato Tanaka vs. The Gladiator & Horace Boulder (Hogan). *1/2
World Brass Knuckle Tag Titles: Mr. Pogo & Yukihiro Kanemura vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji. **
Atsushi Onita Retirement Match World Brass Knucks Title Match No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Time Bomb Death Match: Atsushi Onita vs. Hayabusa. ***1/4
5/17/95 Saitama-ken
Masato Tanaka vs. W*ING Kanemura. 1:13 shown.
Mr. Pogo & Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hido & Hideki Hosaka. 3:20 shown.
Hayabusa & Katsutoshi Niiyama vs. The Gladiator & Horace Boulder. Some great spots attempted, but the execution was poor. One cool move was Gladiator coming off the top with a chair and breaking it over Hayabusa's head. 4:11 shown.
5/28/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Bad Nurse Nakamura. Shark wrapped the barbed wire around Kudo then lariated her for the win. 4:29 shown.
Scramble Bunkhouse Tag Death Match: Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & W*ING Kanemura vs. Mr. Pogo & Horace Boulder. Kanemura bled like crazy, and Matsunaga wasn't trailing him by too much. 4:26 shown.
Hayabusa & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Masato Tanaka vs. The Gladiator & Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji. 4:02 shown.
6/22/95 Fukuoka-ken Hakata Star Lanes
Joshi Survival Street Fight Scramble Tag Death Match: Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Bad Nurse Nakamura. Combat bled. This didn't seem very good, and was made worse by them showing 3 falls in something like 2 minutes.
Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Super Leather vs. Mr. Pogo & Horace Boulder. 1:37 shown.
Hayabusa & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Masato Tanaka vs. The Gladiator & Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji. 1:49 shown.
6/27/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Koji Nakagawa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Mach Hayato & Gosaku Goshogowara. Hayato was cool with quick kicks and nice flying. 1:28 shown.
Chodensenshi Battle Ranger Z vs. Ricky Fuji. 3:28 shown.
Masato Tanaka vs. W*ING Kanemura. Tanaka got a good pop for the upset win. 1:57 shown.
Mixed Match: Katsutoshi Niiyama vs. Katsuji Ueda. 1:19 shown.
Joshi Scramble Tornado Climbing & Snatching Captain Fall Death Match: Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura & Shark Tsuchiya. They wrapped Kudo in barbed wire and hit her until she fell down onto a barbed wire board.
W*ING vs. Lethal Weapon Street Fight 6 Man Tag Match: Super Leather & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Hido vs. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Horace Boulder. Fans were going nuts for this one. Lots of blood. Pogo fireballed Hayabusa and powerbombed him on a barbed wire bat. 5:16 shown.
World Brass Knuckle Title Decision Match: Hayabusa vs. Hisakatsu Oya. Oya did a good job of keeping Hayabusa under control and carrying him. He held the match together, and Hayabusa made it entertaining with his spots. Aside from Hayabusa overshooting his shooting star press, the execution was excellent. They tried to build the match since they were going so long, but there were too many submissions since they weren't sold that well and, aside from Oya attacking the knee for a while, there wasn't much focus. It was a really technically sound match for FMW. It's just that it would have been better at 18 minutes than 27 because the matwork was in excess and the pacing was a little slow. Hayabusa wins title, but then vacates it. ***3/4
Hayabusa vs. Kanemura, Matsunaga vs. Kanemura-Bunkhouse Death Match, Hayabusa vs. Oya-30min draw, Hayabusa vs. Gladiator, Perez Jr. & Jiraya vs. Okano & Negra, Murdock vs. Johnny Gomez, Nakamaki & Ono vs. Leatherface 1 & 2-Spike Nail Death Match, Silver King vs. Texano, Headhunters vs. Misterioso & Araya, Araya vs. Kanemura, more!
8/29/95 Shiga Azumigawa Sports Center
No Rope Yuushitessen Fire Death Match: Mr. Pogo vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga. This was sick. Pogo shreaded Matsunaga's head, set his pant leg on fire, and set the tape on his arm on fire. 5:29 shown.
8/25/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Grand Slam Sekai Brass Knuckle Oza Kettei Koshikleaguesen: Masato Tanaka vs. The Gladiator. The basis of the match was the same as today with Tanaka as the bump boy, but they work together a lot better now. 6:50 shown.
Grand Slam Sekai Brass Knuckle Oza Kettei Koshikleaguesen: Hayabusa vs. W*ING Kanemura. Some cool spots like W*ING putting Hayabusa through a table with a body press off the top to the floor and W*ING doing a slingshot body press to the floor. It was just spots though and the pacing was too slow, especially since they didn't bother to sell and wrestled less than 11 minutes. **1/2
8/29/95 Shiga Azumigawa Sports Center
Grand Slam Sekai Brass Knuckle Oza Kettei Koshikleaguesen: Masato Tanaka vs. Super Leather. Well, it wasn't as bad as I expected. 4:01 shown.
8/25/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Toshie Sato vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura. Digest
Chigusa Nagayo & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Miwa Sato. Brawl with Chigusa bleeding. It wasn't very good, but the fans were really into it. *1/4
8/31/95 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2
Joshi Street Fight Handicap Captain Fall Match: Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda & Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Bad Nurse Nakamura & Miwa Sato. 6:46 shown.
Mach Hayato vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda. :57 shown
Katsutoshi Niiyama vs. Hideki Hosaka. 1:59 shown
Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa vs. Horace Boulder & Ricky Fuji. 1:11 shown
Grand Slam Sekai Brass Knuckle Oza Kettei Koshikleaguesen Barbed Wire Bat & Barbed Wire Board Bunkhouse Death Match: Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. W*ING Kanemura. Lots of gimmick spots, kind of like current Big Japan with the barbed wire board spots. 4:13 shown
Grand Slam Sekai Brass Knuckle Oza Kettei Koshikleaguesen: Hayabusa vs. Hisakatsu Oya. Excellent match. Oya did a really good job of carrying Hayabusa and ordering the spots, and Hayabusa did nice spots as always but they actually meant something. Oya launched a focused attack on Hayabusa's arm and Hayabusa was surprisingly good and consistent in putting it over. ****
9/5/95 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Grand Slam Sekai Brass Knuckle Oza Kettei Koshikleaguesen: Hayabusa vs.The Gladiator. This picked up where the last match left off with Hayabusa's bad arm getting worked on, but they just left that in the midst and turned it into the expected spot match. A lot of big moves, but they didn't always look as good as they should have. ***1/2
*COOP available
Hayabusa vs. Gladiator-twice, Leather vs. Matsunaga-Spike Nail Death Match, more!
Tomoko Watanabe vs. ASARI, Hotta vs. Yamada, Kyoko Inoue vs. Kong-excellent, Kansai vs. Toyota-4 1/4 Toyota wins WWWA Title, TAKA vs. Tiger Mask 4-great action but a bit too short, Sasuke & Kung Lee vs. Delfin & Naniwa-Eleven Nine's Tag Tourney Final, Miwa Sato & Nakamura vs. Kudo & Tsuchiya-Shark throws a huge fireball at Kudo, Gladiator vs. Super Leather (Mike Kirchner), Gladiator vs. Hayabusa-Gladiator Wins Brass Knucks Title
Gekko (Masao Orihara) vs. Gosaku Goshogawara 2:25 of 3:00. An impressive display of brutality by Gekko, who toyed with Goshogawara in this brutal squash. Gekko just blistered his hapless foe with nasty strikes, busting him open big time.
Kaori Nakayama vs. Miwa Sato 3:33 of 7:18. Sato controlled the match, including punishing Nakayama with a deadly towel. Nakayama went for broke with an early moonsault, but Miwa was avoiding or countering her offense. It was actually pretty decent until they blew the finish where Nakayama was supposed to turn Sato’s powerbomb into a huracanrana.
Yukari Ishikura vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura 3:41 of 6:09. Fairly entertaining match. Ishikura was more advanced than Nakayama. Though not as spectacular, she was a Chikayo Nagashima type, a very energetic performer with superior execution who liked to develop the counter game. The execution wasn’t always perfect, but they at least tried to put together some quality segments.
Katsutoshi Niiyama vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda 4:58 of 9:40. Niiyama was actually a solid indie heavyweight, though it was often hard to tell as he’d team with Atsushi Onita in wild street fights. He wasn’t spectacular or a particularly gifted athlete, but he gave a good sound effort, working to develop the match. After Onita, Niiyama was often in these sort of help develop the youngster matches, which if this was any indication he did pretty well. Kuroda was always overrated in my book, but he followed adequately. Decent match.
5 Big Special Match:
FMW World Brass Knuckles Tag Title Match: Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Horace Boulder 17:24 of 17:38. I was hoping they’d try a U.W.F. style match in spite of Boulder, but it’s hard to say what they did beyond a boring match that contained no sequences. They struggled to find style, direction, and rhythm, doing stripped down, simplistic pro-wrestling with kicks, stomps, elbow drops, and submission holds. The final minutes were interesting enough when they kicked the pace up four gears, but even then it was essentially ordinary wrestling with increased speed and urgency. *1/2
Street Fight Match: Mr. Pogo vs. Masato Tanaka 19:19. To me this sort of “match” that consists entirely of inflicting countless wounds upon a good wrestler is not beneficial and certainly a waste of talent. Tanaka was stuck trying to be Atsushi Onita, except he lacks the clout so Pogo doesn’t bother to sell for him at all, just slicing and dicing him the entire night in this sadistic massacre. Tanaka gave a very fiery performance, but it’s hard for the crowd to get behind you when you are cut off after a few good elbows or punches. Pogo escaped the first 13 minutes completely unscathed, but Tanaka finally attacked Pogo with a piece of the table he broke with a diving body press to the floor. Pogo did a touch of wrestling when he was younger, but by this point he was so out of shape he labored just from having to run all the way to the corner when Tanaka whipped him. Normally these bloodbaths at least contain a few spots that are notable, but unless you go crazy for a DDT or piledriver on a barbed wire bat you can safely skip this match. *
Megumi Kudo & Aja Kong vs. Combat Toyoda & Bison Kimura 22:30. I’m not much for class reunions, but bringing together some of the famous names from the great AJW class of 1986 led to one of the best women’s matches in the history of FMW. I’d rate this as the second best straight match the division delivered behind Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda 5/5/93, though perhaps Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Combat Toyoda & Megumi Kudo 9/19/92 might be better if we could see it unedited. FMW women can be exciting, but rarely does the division deliver such a solid, well-executed match. This match is probably underrated because it’s not the sort of match that jumps out at you. There’s perhaps nothing glaringly exceptional about it, but consistency is one of its biggest strengths. What I really like about the match is its unified style. What sets Kong apart from the run of the mill hard hitter is her interplay, intensity and charisma. She instills this style from the outset, so there’s good solid impact on everything, allowing the match to be entertaining from the outset, but it also amounts to more than simply blasting away. Even though it takes quite a while for them to actually do much beyond the basic, we feel as though they are really going after each other. It’s a constant build rather than a match of specific portions, following a very natural and logical progression by going from heavy strikes to ordinary bone crunching moves such as Combat’s backbreaker to all the bombs, suplexes, and drivers. In the end, they use just about every power move in their arsenal, but it nothing feels out of place or excessive. As great as Aja is, the real standout of the match is probably Combat, who is simply on fire. She wrestles with a chip on her shoulder, trying to prove she deserves to be in the best big woman conversation. It’s clearly one of her best performances, just refusing to back down from Queen Kong. Combat might be overmatched and she might lose the series, but she won’t let Aja bully her. Combat might take 3 or 4 headbutts in a row, but she’d get right in Aja’s face and return one. Kudo is much leaner and doesn’t naturally fit into the brute strength style of the other three, but she does a nice job as the wild card, bringing it on occasion but more often using her athleticism to counter her opponent’s power moves. I’d probably go ¼* lower on an AJW show from the period, which would undoubtedly have a couple other matches that were at least on this level, but this is a top 5 FMW women’s match. ****
Caribbean Barbed Wire Spider Net Double Hell Glass Crush Death Match: Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Jason the Terrible & Hideki Hosaka vs. Super Leather & W*ING Kanemura & Hido 12:43 of 14:42. Superior to the Pogo vs. Tanaka street fight because there were periods of actual wrestling and they did a decent job of using the gimmicks to enhance their regular moves, highlighted by Kanemura being slammed off the apron onto the glass crush and Leather suffering the same fate after being propelled over the top by a double lariat. Still, they mostly gored each other, and there was too much stomping and holding each other against the two barbed wire ropes. At least there were two safe ropes that allowed them to run around some. Hosaka hit both his regular Frankensteiner and one of the top, while Kanemura’s team did their moves on or through a table. Death match fans will most likely enjoy this, but these gimmick after gimmick matches just don’t hold my interest. *3/4
Hayabusa & The Great Sasuke & Koji Nakagawa vs. Super Delfin & Ricky Fuji & TAKA Michinoku 17:14. A great tag team main event by FMW standards, but a “poor” one by the off the charts standards of what Michinoku was delivering during this Sekigun vs. Kaientai Deluxe era. The Michinoku tags were so great because familiarity allowed for amazing speed and impeccable timing. Though Delfin was good, TAKA vs. Sasuke was on a level the others could only dream of. Both do an amazing job of utilizing their athleticism, not only for flying but more importantly to make so many counters possible. The FMW wrestlers couldn’t be expected to just walk in without any real practice and match what Michinoku has been slowly developing for a number of years, especially when purolucha is simply a change of pace for them. Hayabusa is made for this sort of match though. He was spotted beautifully, flying in for several cameo appearances. Nakagawa was clearly the best and most solid of the FMW three. He lacks the offense, but he was effective in the MEN’S Teio sort of way, being easy to work with and play off. Masayoshi Motegi takes a lot of crap for being the stiff of the J-CUP’s, but unlike the hopeless goofball Fuji, he was at least passable enough to garner multiple invites. Replace him with Orihara and give them a handful of warmup matches and they could hit 4 stars. Still, it was quite an admirable effort. ***1/2
Chikayo Nagashima & Chihiro Nakano vs. Sonoko Kato & Aki Kanbayashi (Mongol). All action match that was good for their experience level.
Miwa Sato vs. Bomber Hikaru. Miwa controlled the match, mainly through heel tactics. Not bad, but these two were mediocre with small move sets.
Kanako Motoya & Hiromi Sugo vs. Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura. All action with lots of spots. It was sloppy at times, and they definitely showed their greenness. Motoya looks so hot here in her Mimi-esque bathing suit.
Chigusa vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura. 0:52 DUD.
KAORU vs. Combat. Good match, but the first half was weak and they could have worked more fluidly together. ***
(First Ever) Women's No Rope Barbed Wire Death Match: Kudo vs. Shark. One of those testaments to just how much abuse Kudo can take. Shark, with help from her cronies, destroys Kudo with all sorts of weapons and the barbed wire, turning Kudo's face into a crimson mask. The match really worked as far as getting to fans to react to the heel spots and support Kudo. The problem was that there were way too many gimmicks, doing way too little damage, since it was the first women's match in this style. They should have allowed a lot more room for evolution instead of trying to establish that they could be just as sick as the men. Work was about as good as it gets with Shark involved. Kudo takes almost all to the gimmick bumps, and Shark somehow finds a way to escape without bleeding.
Sasuke & Hayabusa & Nakagawa vs. TAKA & Delfin & Fuji, TAKA vs. Tiger Mask 4, Sasuke & Kendo & Shimoda vs. Delfin & Naniwa & Hasegawa, Nakagawa vs. Fuji, Hayabusa & Matsunaga vs. Tanaka & Kanemura, Sasuke vs. Jay-Sasuke wins Jr. title, TAKA vs. Ishikawa, Sasuke vs. Shoichi Funaki, more!
Champ Forum FMW taped 2/23/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki vs. Koji Nakagawa & Wild Shooter
Street Fight 6 Woman Tag Match: Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari & Bad Nurse Nakamura vs. Megumi Kudo & Yukari Ishikura & Kaori Nakayama
Scramble Bunkhouse Cage War Game: Masato Tanaka & Ricky Fuji & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & W*ING Kanemura & Hido (W*ING)
Big Japan 11/20/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Yosuke Kobayashi vs. Yuichi Taniguchi
Yoshihiro Tajiri & GOKU vs. Ricky Santana & Fantastic
The Jester vs. Satoru Shiga
Grey Skull & Tornado Juice vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Seiji Yamakawa
Cactus & Scorpion Death Match: Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Shoji Nakamaki
Combat vs. Shark & Sato & Bad Nurse, Kudo & Nakayama vs. Combat & Ishikura, Aja vs. Combat, Chigusa vs. Kudo, Tanaka & Kuroda & Fuji vs. Matsunaga & Hido & W*ING-War Games Cage ****, plus lots of highlights
Aki Kanbayashi vs. Misae Genki (AJW). Really bad and boring rookie style match that was chock full o' arcane offense.
Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA) vs. Miwa Sato. The gimmick shots in this match were just awful. What's even sadder is that Chikayo, who was a rookie, was doing the better gimmick shots of the two. The good thing about this match is that Chikayo scores the upset.
Saburo & Bolshoi Kid (JWP team) vs. Chihiro Nakano (GAEA) & Yukie Nabeno. Terrible match with bad and sloppy work as well as stupid comedy. Highlight was Bolshoi tying some type of elastic to the tag rope so she could interfere all the way to the middle of the ring and claim it was legal because she was holding the tag rope.
Mima Shimoda (AJW) vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura. Bad Nurse is god awful, to the point even Mima couldn't come close to saving this. Bad Nurse got a few near falls, but it was blatantly obvious that she was way out of her league.
Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura vs. Shark & Crusher. This actually was pretty decent. Shark & Crusher tried to wrestle the entire match. The youngsters got over by double teaming them, with Ishikura getting a pretty big reaction for her near falls on Shark. Well booked and worked a lot better than you would think.
Kudo & KAORU (GAEA) vs. Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA) & Combat Toyoda. Solid, but unspectacular match. Good match, but there was no heat whatsoever.
Hayato vs. Jason, Michinoku vs. Nakagawa, Hayabusa & Tanaka vs. Funk & Pogo*No Rope Barbed Wire Time Bomb Land Mine Double Hell Death Match, Headhunters & Leather vs. Gladiator & Boulder & Oya-Headhunters & Leather become 1st World 6 Man Street Fight Champs, Cactus vs. Kanemura*Barbed Wire Barricade Spider Net Broken Glass Death Match, Kudo vs. Toyoda*1st Women's No Rope Electrified Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match, Sasuke & Hayabusa & Nakagawa vs. Michinoku & Delfin & Fuji, more!
Hayato Nanjyo vs. Jason The Terrible 2:25 of 8:20. Pointless junior vs. heavy match, although surprisingly well worked. Hayato hit two choice dives, but leaped his way into getting crushed with a turning powerslam he never recovered from.
Chaparita ASARI & Yumi Fukawa vs. Kaori Nakayama & Aki Kanbayashi 2:54 of 12:08. Nakayama would soon get a lot of unsuitable matchups going against Mad Dog Military, who were lucky not to botch her athletic spots and sequences. Today, she had apt adversary, and while no woman is going to outshine ASARI’s flying, Nakayama was able to hold her own with her in a fun athletic contest. I doubt this was a good match, as Kanbayashi wasn’t much and ASARI & Nakayama’s matches were always far more impressive in highlight form, but it certainly had its moments.
Daisuke Ikeda & Shoichi Funaki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Kamikaze & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Wild Shooter 2:40 of 14:39. Kamikaze was a Great Muta wannabe in this junior style match that seemed passable if unexceptional.
Crypt Keeper & Freddy Krueger & Boogie Man vs. Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson & Ricky Fuji 1:22 of 9:04. The only point of this match is Fuji thought it was cool to hang out with R & R Express. Even playing Guitar Hero acoustically, it’s hard to look lamer than Fuji playing air guitar to some wimpy entrance music before the match. Monster World look much cooler... until they actually try to wrestle. Morton & Gibson’s skills never really translated to Japan because, even in their heyday, their offense was woefully wimpy for Japan, but they were clearly the class of this thankfully clipped match.
Ryuma Go & Samurai Max vs. I.Majin & Uchu Majin Silver X 1:45 of 15:33. Go was a cult favorite because he was so incredibly pathetic the fans loved to laugh at him, and his quest to rid the world of the world’s cheesiest, least imposing monsters. He’d get huge pops even when he wasn’t asking for them with the Jumbo Tsuruta raise arm in the air, “Woo!”, but in his case the fans just egged him on because he was so lame.
Independent World World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Koji Nakagawa vs. TAKA Michinoku 6:10 of 15:39. Exciting and dramatic contest mixing a solid story with high caliber work en route to what that appeared to be one of FMW’s greatest junior matches. TAKA, who was one of the best juniors in the world at this point, was in top form, working a very smart match that perfectly set up Nakagawa for his Bret Hart, Jr. gimmick. The little Hit Man, in probably his best performance, was uncharacteristically effective at working the knee over to set up the sharpshooter after TAKA hurt his knee missing his springboard plancha. TAKA, who while lacking the subtlety of the greatest heavyweight Toshiaki Kawada, was certainly one of the couple best sellers in the more exaggerated junior style, did a typically fantastic job of putting over the injury, milking the finisher for all it was worth only to have Nakagawa drag him back to the center and reapply the sharpshooter once he’d finally make it to the ropes. TAKA began countering, but due to his gimpy leg, Nakagawa would recover before he could mount a sustained offensive. TAKA finally managed his swandive missile kick, only to come crashing down on the knee when Nakagawa avoided. ***1/2
Women’s Street Fight: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Shark Tsuchiya 6:25 of 13:02. Chigusa made something of effort, doing little things to make it passable, but at this point it too a great such as Mayumi Ozaki to carry her. Shark burnt Nagayo’s back before the bell, and targeted this weak point for the duration with her various cutting utensils. Chigusa’s lower back would never allow her to chain two moves together, as Shark would regain control when Chigusa was selling her back after the first. Finally, Shark blocked a uranage (just the move to try when your back is killing you!), but Chigusa was able to transition into a step-over wakigatame for the ref stop. Poor match.
W*ING vs. IWA Puerto Rico 6 Man Tag Match: Matsunaga & Hido & Hosaka vs. Nakamaki & Perez & Toryu 2:39 of 13:18. I always enjoyed Perez, a graceful and agile big man. He delivers a space flying Tiger drop in this otherwise dull brawl featuring dueling no sell chair shots by Nakamaki, sporting an ECF’NW T-shirt, and Matsunaga.
World Street Fight 6 Man Tag Title Decision Match: The Gladiator & Hisakatsu Oya & Horace Boulder vs. Super Leather & Headhunters 8:50 of 19:59. Shaky brawl with a couple of good spots. Gladiator is the only entertaining wrestler here, flying around more than most juniors. Considering he also had a killer power offense, he should have been a far bigger star than he was. All the Headhunters delivered was a botched attempt to moonsault Boulder through a table, which Leather tried to save by following up with a diving body press to break the board. Poor match.
Japan/America King of the Death Match Decision Match, Barbed Wire Barricade Spider Net Glass Crush Death Match: Cactus Jack vs. W*ING Kanemura 16:49. What generally sets the best Japanese death matches apart from the American ones is the Japanese figure a way to make the gimmicks add to the wrestler match they’d have without them. Cactus Jack certainly had good brawls in the US, but even with Vader, who arguably delivered the US gimmick match of the 90’s with Sting on 2/21/93 by refusing to let the stupid strap narrow their boundaries, Cactus’ US brawls rarely had all that much in the way of actual wrestling. This may be a one-dimensional top this wrestling match, but it was certainly an exciting one with high quality offense. In that regard, much credit goes to Kanemura, who was one of the most thrilling and bump crazy brawlers before his body gave way. Though not as good a wrestler, he’s certainly the precursor to Tomoaki Honma, using junior heavyweight offense spiked by the available weapons as the backbone of his death match. There’s little in the way of build or psychology, but both men are more than happy to give or take until they drop. They deliver several excellent gimmick spots, with everything they did looking great, not to mention painful as hell! Highlights include Kanemura’s diving body press through a table to the floor, Jack’s suplex into the barricade to set up his hipbuster with a chair off the apron into the barricade, Kanemura’s overhead belly to belly into the glass crush, and Jack’s underhook DDT onto the barricade. If you are into death matches, this is one you definitely need to see. ****
~Combat Toyoda Retirement Match~ WWA World Women’s & Independent World World Women’s Title Match, 1st Women’s No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match: Combat vs. Megumi Kudo 21:26. It’s hard to think of any wrestler other than Combat Toyoda who delivered their best match in their swan song, certainly she’s without peer when you consider neither her nor her opponent had ever done this style match before. It’s not only the first, but probably the best women's death match of all-time, and unquestionable the most dramatic. Despite being a death match, this is a complete stylistic departure from Cactus vs. W*ING, a smart match not only building to the gimmick spots but using the threat posed by the barbed wire and exploding ropes to emphasize the danger of ordinary wrestling maneuvers. They began teasing the barbed wire right away, but rather than making the match about the explosions they instead instilled the threat of any blow or hold knocking someone back into the ropes, thus allowing them to get away with quite a bit of actually pedestrian offense. The match was a battle to hold the center of the ring, so whether it was a stiff kick or a dropkick, the key was maintaining your footing and balance to keep from finding yourself in a prone position. The early explosions were built around Toyoda’s lariat, with Kudo forward rolling her way clear of Combat’s powerful blow but getting knocked back into the ropes with a dropkick. Toyoda worked over Kudo’s wounded back until Kudo matadored a lariat to even the explosion count at 1. The lariat had run it’s course after Combat used it to knock Kudo into the barbed wire, so they shifted to suplexes and bombs in the center of the ring, looking for the finish. Though their offense is certainly good, they don’t have the timing or execution to pull off a great match together without any assistance. However, beyond the added threat, the fact that the gimmicks confine them to the center of the ring actually helped them, forcing them to rely on putting over a single hold, which they do very well, rather than sequences, which they can impress with but not without being somewhat erratic. Since this was a death match even their signature holds weren’t going to be enough for an unassisted pin, or were they? Both were on the verge of collapse, and having exhausted their best moves they tried to raise the stakes with a suplex into the barbed wire. When this failed, Kudo hit her hip attack, but though Combat was falling backwards she managed to hang onto Megumi and drag her down with her for the double explosion. They were selling not only the explosions, but also the moves for all they were worth, getting ¼ or ½ of the way up then stumbling or collapsing. Finally, with the explosions helping to suck they life out of them, Kudo did win with a wrestling move, her reverse Gori special bomb finisher. The post match is the stuff of legend with Combat not moving for several minutes and Kudo crawling a little then collapsing. Onita might not be the greatest wrestler, but he’s awesomely dramatic as the desperate and distraught father figure frantically trying to revolve his pupils with water, slaps, anything he can think of. Finally, Kudo is stretchered off and Onita carries Combat on his back, stopping just before the entrance to allow her to stand for a moment and raise her arm long enough to spur “TOYO-DA!” chants before collapsing. ****1/2
2000000-en No Rope Electrified Barbed Wire Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Exploding Ring Double Hell Tornado Tag Death Match: Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs. Terry Funk & Mr. Pogo 19:01. Certainly a crazy match with blood and gimmicks galore that resulted in a huge stitch count for Hayabusa & Tanaka. Some people say this is the second best match on the show, but I wouldn’t rate it better than fourth, which in part shows what a great show this is by FMW standards, as usually you’re lucky if there’s two matches worth mentioning. That said, the match was rather disappointing because Kudo & Combat had just demonstrated how to use the essential lack of ropes to your benefit. Since these guys didn’t put much time or effort into selling their moves, the lack of them very noticeably hurt the match by removing most of the flow and possibility for sequences. They did a good job of teasing the explosive barbed wire “ropes” (on two sides) and explosive barbed wire barricades (on the floor on the other two sides), but this wasn’t so much a match as a collection of gimmick spots. That being said, everyone did as good a job as you could ask. Hayabusa’s strengths are negated because you need something to fly off, but he made the best of it hitting a rolling senton, standing moonsault, and diving over the barbed wire barricade with a kind of lariat/body attack combo. Tanaka’s style holds up pretty well because he can do his DDT’s and elbows, and he was more than willing to sacrifice his body. One of my favorite spots was the first explosion where Tanaka came ever so close to dropkicking Pogo into the electrified barbed wire, trying to seal the deal with his jumping elbow, which Pogo of course avoided. Funk may be old enough to be Hayabusa & Tanaka’s father, but he did almost all the selling for his team, including getting double front suplexed onto the exploding wire. He’s smart enough to mix his brawling with actual wrestling, including repeatedly bashing Hayabusa’s leg with a chair to set up his spinning toe hold. Pogo was Pogo. He’s incapable of wrestling, so it’s just going through is bag of weapons. It was quite disgusting the way Pogo sliced and diced Tanaka with his assortment of sharp objects. The fact all four were always fighting helped given you couldn’t do too much traditional wrestling, and they spaced the various gimmick spots out well enough to always hold your interest. Pogo cut Hayabusa’s mask off after the match and they called out Atsushi Onita, who could do little more than dip his head in shame as his protege was stretchered off. ***
Mamoru Okamoto vs. Hideo Makimura. Makimura's debut. Only 1:20 shown
Kaori Nakayama vs. Miwa Sato. Miwa was still the better of the two here. 2:50 shown
FMW Style Royal Rumble. Really bad with no action, storyline, or moves. Just pointless. -*
Hair vs. Hair: TAKA Michinoku vs. Hayato Nanjyo. Good match. Slow start, but then all kinds of great spots. No heat though, so a lot of the spots came off flat. Nanjyo loses his hair. ***1/4
Handicap Death Match: Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari & Bad Nurse Nakamura. The mere concept of this match doesn't even work. They had a penalty box set up, so Kudo could put one of her opponents in that to even the odds a bit, but it was still just stupid. The match was useful in getting over the angle where Bad Nurse turns face, but that's about it. 1/2*
Hayabusa vs. Koji Nakagawa. A total substancesless disaster. The match was way too long. It was slow and boring with no set up or transition, and the execution wasn't even good. -1/4*
Independent World Heavyweight Title Tournament Final: Masato Tanaka vs. W*ING Kanemura. Very good match that started an infamous RSP-W thread, which was one of the first I participated in. Great spots, good work, blood, etc. One of the couple best FMW matches of 1996. This match opened people's eyes to how could Tanaka could become. W*ING captures the newly created Independent World Title. ***3/4
No Rope Barbed Wire Spider Net Glass Crush Death Match: Mr. Pogo vs. Terry Funk. A total debacle. Pogo gets temporarily paralyzed after taking the bump into the spider net, but Funk continues to attack him and blows a fireball on his helpless foe. The match is eventually stopped and Pogo winds up bedridden for a while, before coming back and retiring (didn't that last long) on 12/11/96.
8/1/96 Tokyo Shiodome highlights
8/23/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Hayabusa vs. Koji Nakagawa
No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight 6 Man Tag Death Match: Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Hayato Nanjyo vs. W*ING Kanemura & Hido & Hideki Hosaka
9/1/96 Nagoya
1,000,000-en No Rope Barbed Wire Explosive Barricade Double Hell 6 Man Tag Death Match: Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. W*ING Kanemura & Hido & Hideki Hosaka
9/15/96 Omiya Skate Center
2,000,000-en Scramble Bunkhouse Climbing & Snatching Battle Royal: Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Super Leather & The HeadHunters
9/20/96 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Independent World Jr. Heavyweight Title: TAKA Michinoku (Michinoku Pro) vs. Ricky Fuji
World Brass Knuckle Tag Titles: The HeadHunters vs. Hideki Hosaka & Hido
Street Fight World 6 Man Tag Titles: Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Terry Funk & The Gladiator & Horace Boulder.
Independent World Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Hayabusa vs. Hisakatsu Oya
8/23/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Women's Street Fight: RIE vs. Shark Tsuchiya
9/1/96 Nagoya
Megumi Kudo & RIE & Kaori Nakayama vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari & Miwa Sato
9/24/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Megumi Kudo & Kaori Nakayama vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Miss Mongol
Street Fight Tag Match: Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs. Terry Funk & The Gladiator
Kudo vs. Kandori, W*ING vs. Gladiator-Gladiator unifies titles, Sasuke vs. Hayabusa, Tanaka & Onita & Pogo & Kuroda vs. Funk & Oya & Headhunters-Pogo's retirement match, more!
Super Leather & Crypt Keeper vs. Hideki Hosaka & Dragon Winger. Negative heat and poor work. No one looked good. *
The Goddess Chikako Shiratori & Rie vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari. The worst incarnation of crap. The lowest form of life carves up The Goddess. The least enjoyable match I've ever seen. I refuse this turd again. I believe my comment in my FIGHTING TV SAMURAI! review was I'd rather watch Sting vs. Tony Palmore 5 times consecutive than see this nightmare again. In any case, I don't know, or care to, if it's any worse than -** in this form.
12/10/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: W*ING Kanemura vs. TAKA Michinoku. Good match. TAKA's attack was solid and he instilled the psychology, but W*ING couldn't answer or maybe just has no desire to. Work was good and there were a lot of great spots, too many spots actually, but W*ING isn't close to a complete worker. At least he was willing to sell for the much smaller TAKA. ***1/4
Independent World Title & World Brass Knucks Unification Match: W*ING Kanemura vs. Gladiator. Unlike the TAKA match, this was very good because W*ING chose psychology of an all out attack on Gladiator's bad knee over just a bunch of brawling and spots. Gladiator's selling was as good as it's ever been. Actually, Gladiator was probably as good as he's ever been. Lots of gimmick spots, but incorporated so they meant something. Gladiator unifies titles. ***3/4
Megumi Kudo vs. Shinobu Kandori. Solid match that worked well within the confines of what Kandori can do. ***1/2
11/16/96 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center: TAKA Michinoku vs. Hayabusa. TAKA did a great job here and Hayabusa was able to follow his lead. The result was probably Hayabusa's best singles match of 1996. TAKA instilled the psychology working over Hayabusa's knee and set the standard for selling, which Hayabusa followed by selling key spots like he was dead. High spots were tremendous, but Hayabusa's transitions still really stunk. Body of the match had a point with TAKA working over Hayabusa's knee, and TAKA even did it in a way that works in FMW rings. The lowlight was Hayabusa doing the world's worst tombstone and TAKA having to sell it big because the spot was to set up Hayabusa burying him in chairs and doing a moonsault off the apron. ***3/4
Great Sasuke vs. Hayabusa. This looked so weak after watching the TAKA match. The body of this match was absolutely useless and pointless. Then they just did a stunt exhibition for the rest of the match. Mind you the spots were super, but they were just rolled out one after the other. Totally devoid of build and psychology. Far too long. **3/4