PUNQ

Sorry, I no longer deal in tape trading. My system got old and broken down and I decided not to upgrade for trading as it would cost too much compared to the interest of Japanese wrestling these days. I haven't even watched wrestling in 3 months and stopped at the 2010 footage.

 

 

--PUNQ--

From what I can tell from a quick look at my lists, Big Boss Man (aka 'Big' Bubba Rogers) wrestled 3 tours for All Japan in 1993. First one was the July 2nd to 29th tour, then the September 29th to October 23rd tour and the following Real World Tag League tour from November 13th to December 3rd. These are the matches available from those employments:

 

 

July 2, 1993 - Big Bubba Rogers -vs- Mighty Inoue [*]

July 9, 1993 - Mitsuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi -vs- Stan Hansen & Big Bubba Rogers [***]

July 12, 1993 - Stan Hansen & Johnny Ace -vs- Big Bubba Rogers & Kendall Windham [** 3/4]

July 29, 1993 - Akira Taue -vs- Big Bubba Rogers [** 1/4]

 

 

 

September 29 1993 - Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers & Richard Slinger -vs- Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama [** 3/4]

October 2, 1993 - Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase & Dan Spivey -vs- Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers & Richard Slinger [** 1/2]

October 14, 1993 - Kenta Kobashi -vs- Bubba Rogers [***]

October 17, 1993 - Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase & Kendall Windham -vs- Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers & Richard Slinger [** 1/2]

 

 

 

November 13, 1993 - Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers -vs- The Patriot & The Eagle - (RWTT '93) [** 1/2]

November 17, 1993 - Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers & Richard Slinger -vs- Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama [** 3/4]

November 24, 1993 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi -vs- Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers - (RWTT '93) [*** 1/4]

November 25, 1993 - Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers & Richard Slinger -vs- Stan Hansen & The Patriot & The Eagle [**]

November 30, 1993 - Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers -vs- Dan Spivey & Johnny Ace - (RWTT '93) [**]

December 1, 1993 - Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue -vs- Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers - (RWTT '93) [***]

December 3, 1993 - Shohei Baba & Stan Hansen -vs- Steve Williams & Bubba Rogers - (RWTT '93) [**]

 

 

 

--PUNQ--

Speaking of torrents, I downloaded an Atsushi Onita compilation off XWT the other day. Having not watched FMW in a long, long time, it got me wondering. Have there been any explosion matches held in Japan recently? Powerslam ran an article on a pretty high profile one that took place about five or six years ago, so that's the last one that springs to mind.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the last explosion match in Japan was the one between former WWE'er Kenzo Suzuki and king of parody Sanshiro Takagi in 2006. Here is my review of it:

 

 

WRESTLE EXPO on Samurai TV - August 20, 2006, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

August 20, 2006, Tokyo - Waterfront Subcenter Event Space (1,600 fans)

 

7. Kenzo Suzuki -vs- Sanshiro Takagi - (No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match) [** 3/4]

--- It's nice to see a Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match again. It brings back memories of the glory days of Onita and FMW. Except here it was done by two of Japan's main "entertainment" wrestlers. Takagi the owner of DDT, the ultimate parody company, and Suzuki, a former WWE comedy superstar. But at least they had the decency to be serious for a match like this. And it exceeded every expectation. And because this type of match isn't overdone in this day an age (this is the year of the Light Tubes), it was a pleasent change. And it wasn't that much different to how Onita would have done it. Minus the all important over-dramatic selling though. But hey! It's Kenzo and Takagi we're talking about. It took a few minutes before the first explosion happend as they started out by just teasing. Kenzo's wife Hiroko was doing TV commentary while the match was going on and in some strange way it helped the drama as she would scream scared for her husband everytime he was in danger of getting blown up. Takagi was the first to go into the exploding barbed wire and they did the gimmick that the lights went out because of the electricution, so they wrestled in the dark a little while. They did the same the second time which was Suzuki's turn with Takagi ducking a big boot and pushing the big man into the fireworks. But after that they had the power-failure under control like when both fell into barbed wire together and the big explosion spot when they in an adrenaline rush were going to do a running body challenge on each other without thinking about the stipulation ran into a massive double-explosion with a cat like scream coming from Hiroko. This did include some actual wrestling done in a very strong style way. I must say I liked Suzuki's work. Sure he's not the most emotional character and it's hard to take him all that serious after the things he's done in the last few years, but he had/has potential much thanks to his size and I felt that he showed that he can in this match. Love his jumping knee to the face! And the big brainbuster that ended it all also looked nice. Suzuki is a superstar!

13:09 of 15:45 - Suzuki pinned Takagi after a brainbuster

 

 

--PUNQ--

Nah, it's the IWGP Heavyweight Title belt that Brock Lesnar stole from New Japan after refusing to honor his contract agreement and lose the title back to New Japan and Hiroshi Tanahashi when he was champion there. Brock just left and kept the belt while New Japan stripped him of it. So a year later he turned up working for Inoki instead with the championship belt claiming to be the real IWGP Champion and then lost it to Angle here who later would work for New Japan and lose it to Shinsuke Nakamura to unify it with the IWGP Heavyweigth belt New Japan were using after the Brock fiasco.

 

 

--PUNQ--

Well if it happend in Japan between the years 2006-2009, then why not check my review threads? Here's the little I had to say about their bout for Antonio Inoki.....includes spoilers.

 

 

 

IGF on PPV - June 29, 2007, Tokyo - (2 1/4 hrs)

 

 

June 29, 2007, Tokyo - Sumo Hall (8,426 fans)

 

8. Brock Lesnar

Having watched a lot of indy sleeze over the years, I was not prepared for the this one. It should have been taken as a hillarious experience, but something inside of me just died watching this match between Kota Ibushi and Yoshihiko from last year......

 

 

 

 

--PUNQ--

Nah, I don't think so. The FMW reviews didn't create much talk except being a waste of time. Besides I'll be getting the 2009 footage any day now, so that'll keep me occupied with reviewing catching up with this years happenings.

 

I did consider getting getting everything WING and all the Michinoku Pro 1993 footage along with other Japanese shows I haven't seen from the first few years of the 90's like from UWFI, Fujiwara-Gumi, Oriental, NOW and such, but right now I'll wait with that and see how much fun 2009 is before I go back in time again.

 

 

--PUNQ--

Too be fair the FMW reviews didn't exactly sparke much nostalgia talk as I'd hoped so in that sense I can understand the very constructive "^^^Thread killer^^^" remark.

 

It is interesting how different perspectives I have from the the current generation of UKFF'ers. It's difficult to grasp that many today actually think FMW is obscure wrestling while I more or less grew up with it. FMW is my early 90's WCW in a way. Surely there must be some understanding that shows featuring freakin' Dick Murdoch, Jos LeDuc and Japanese old schoolers Kurisu, Goto, Nagasaki and "The Wild Thing" Atsushi Onita belong in a old school thread! But then again there seems to be some Jap-o-fobia going on around here which was easily spoted in the Misawa thread recently, so it's not surprising people "booo" when some Jap stuff one has little understanding of take up place of wrestling one self understand, ruining the WCW discussion. And that attitude will keep the old school Japanese wrestling stay "obscure" instead of actually learning from it. Then again I'm the first to admit I'm not very good at sparkling discussion like many others are with their writing, so it's also understandable that some want my stuff out of it. And that's what'll happen from now on. I'll keep my reviews in out of this thread.

 

 

--PUNQ--

FMW Hand-Held: May 12, 1990, Towada - (1 3/4 hrs)

 

 

May 12, 1990, Towada Citizen Gym (1800 fans)

 

1. Yuki Morimatsu -vs- Yoshika Maedomari [1/2*]

--- Both girls had debuted earlier in 1990 and that made sure this was as basic as a joshi rookie match gets. Yoshika "Crusher" Maedomari is most known for being Shark Tsuchiya's tag partner in the first half of the 90's as this butch monster women's team while Yuki Morimatsu had the best part of her career in Jd' as the masked Ryuna and the Drake Morimatsu. Morimatsu gets to win this one rather unspectacularly with a Jumbo Tsuruta like side suplex.

6:27 of 6:30 - Morimatsu pinned Maedomari after a side suplex

 

 

2. Jun Onouchi -vs- Akihito Ichihara [1/4*]

--- Two guys I know nearly nothing about. Ichihara had a much longer and better career as Flying Kid Ichihara and more recently as Ebessan II, but here neither guy showed much as it was a terrible short rookie bout which Onouchi won with a horrible looking Victory Roll in no time.

2:06 of 2:09 - Onouchi pinned ishihara with a Victory Roll

 

 

3. Mascarita Sagrada -vs- Espectrito [*]

--- Only a quick midget fix with a handful cool moves before Sagrada had it won. These two would have tons of greater matches then this the next decade, but at least it beats Tiger Jackson and Little Louie who they brought in for he first tour.

3:54 - Sagrada pinned Espectrito after a top rope summersault press

 

 

4. Lee Wong Pyo -vs- The Shooter [1/4*]

--- A unknown korean trying to do pro-wrestling and getting to beat a Shooter. Over quick and forgettable.

4:06 of 4:06 - Pyo defeated Shooter after a neck breaker

 

 

5. Ricky Fuji -vs- The Shooter [1/2*]

--- This might actually be Ricky Fuji's FMW debut. He started his wrestling career in Hart's Stampede promotion in Canada during 1988 and was scouted by Onita and brough in to FMW for his first gig in his home country. Only a very quick win for Fuji who was dominant here doing the type of wrestling you'd normaly associate for Stampede. And he'd not bleached his hair yet!

2:41 of 2:40 - Fuji made Shooter submit to a chickenwing crossface

 

 

6. Magnificent Mimi -vs- Megumi Kudo [* 1/4]

--- Mimi was heavily featured in wrestling mags around this time. A tall lady with a smalltime movie career I belive. She was fairly atheltic and had there been a bigger market for women's wrestling in the US at that time she might have had a career. I don't remember if she had any tours with AJW or JWP at the time, so this might have been her only tour of Japan. The wrestling was fairly basic, but Kudo got in a little before she fell victim to the foreigner. Mimi did a fancy looking backdrop suplex which Kudo unexpectedly kicked out of, but then Mimi followed up with a long-leged top rope dropkick for the pin.

7:50 of 8:20 - Mimi pinned Kudo after a top rope dropkick

 

 

7. Reibun Amada & Noriyo Toyoda -vs- Kumiko Matsuda & Miwa Sato [*]

--- The earliest footage of, soon to be Combat, Noriyo Toyoda in FMW. Another one from the AJW 1986 class along with Amada and Kudo who got dropped by AJW after a few years considered not good enough. And the two '86'ers was having a easy time convincing the FMW fans that they were the best in this bout facing two of FMW's own trained girls. The match itself wasn't all that interesting. It was a basic quash with very few highlights. But at least it got the point across that Toyoda & Amada are a force to be recond with....

8:36 of 8:37 - Amada pinned Matsuda after a double-arm faceslam

 

 

8. Lee Gak Soo -vs- Yukihide Ueno - (Rounds) [* 3/4]

--- Ueno will forever be remembered as a solid midcard guy who with his athletic fighting didn't really live up to his potential because of his small size. He's the type of grapler who'd go all in and get caught with kicks from the more bastardist like Lee. Only a few judo throws went Ueno's way before he got kicked one too many times down and KO'ed.

7:41 of 7:41 - Soo defeated Ueno by KO after a high head kick 1:41 of the 3rd Round

 

 

9. Tarzan Goto -vs- The Wizard [3/4*]

--- Goto beating up a masked nobody very simply....

7:09 of 7:10 - Goto pinned Wizard after a facebuster

 

 

10. Masanobu Kurisu & Wild Bullman -vs- Atsushi Onita & Fumiharu Asako [**]

--- Not so much about Onita then about trying to build interest for the big sambo guy. Onita was barely in and when he was it was only to get some momentum for Asako who most of the time was beat up by this bearded mini-Brody character called Wild Bullman. Well, Onita's help didn't really help as he was more interested in attacking Kurisu when saving Asako from Bullman's claws. And that was Asako's doom and he was knocked down and out by Bullman while Onita was fighting with Kurisu out of the ring.

10:10 of 9:49 - Bullman pinned Asako after a lariat

 

 

COMMENTS: I guess this was a typical FMW house show at the time. Many quick meaningless matches. Even Onita was phoning it in. Still it's interesting to see the FMW pieces come together with more and more regular FMW wrestlers turning up as the company starts running regularly.

 

 

--PUNQ--

FMW on COMM - April 1, 1990, Tokyo - (1 hr)

 

 

April 1, 1990, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (2450 fans)

 

1. Megumi Kudo & Reibun Amada -vs- Miwa Sato & Kumiko Matsuda [* 1/2]

--- Megumi Kudo and Reibun Amada has now joined FMW! Two former AJW ladies who'd not been considered good enough by AJW and dropped a little while earlier. Amada was the most well known at this point having held the AJW Tag Title a short while before being droped from the roster. I think this was Amada's FMW debut while Kudo had been on a few of the FMW shows the month before. And it was clear that the former AJW due was in charge treating the FMW trained girls like they were trash. And it was clear that they were too. Especially Sato who was far from ready at this point while Matsuda was at least showing signs of knowing how to fight. But that didn't stop the FMW side being killed by the more experienced girls while Despina Montagas was doing a horrible job being the referee for this one. Fun basic stuff as it was a shift in FMW's ladies division toward something great. Kudo picks up the pin when she cross-bodypressed Matsuda off Amada's shoulders.

14:01 of 14:01 - Kudo pinned Matsuda after a double-team top rope cross-bodypress

 

 

2. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Kim Hyun Hann - (3x10 Rounds) [**]

--- With the success of Lee Gak Soo FMW bring in another Korean like him with the crowd friendly Kung Fu movie style. And watching Asako against these guys is just admirable. Asako is kind of like Bob Sapp. He's big and dangerous if he catches you, but he's got no chin for offence and falls down in pain for everything. And Hann landed some impressive kicks including a top rope flying kick straight in the big mans face! Hann was almost murdering the sambo wrestler the first two rounds that way. But then came the 3rd and it was over in no time when Asako caught a kick and made it into a fisherman's suplex before applying the chickenwing facelock for the tap. Fun short fight.

6:35 of 6:35 - Asako made hann submit to a chickenwing facelock 0:35 of the 3rd Round

 

 

3. Jimmy Backlund © -vs- Lee Gak Soo - (AWA Light Heavyweight Title; 3x15R) [* 1/2]

--- The future Jimmy Del Ray defending the AWA Light Heavyweight Title in a fifteen 3-minute round bout with no pinfall allowed. And that hurt Backlunds game a lot. And in reality this was a styles clash too with some interesting parts as to how the two different styles of fighting would work out. Lee had his speedy martial arts kicking and Backlund had to rely on his amateur wrestling skills and try to hook in a submission, but while he was better at the ground game then Lee he didn't have enough skills to get in a serious submission and the crowd grew impatient with Backlund because of it. And Lee kept landing more spectacular blows that became the highlight of this one. In the 5th round Backlund was caught with too many kicks and was KO'ed after a getting hit with a dropkick. He nearly got up in time though, but the decision and AWA belt was awarded to the Korean.

12:44 of 12:44 - Soo defeated Backlund by KO 0:44 f the 5th Round after a dropkick to become the 2nd AWA Light Heavyweight Champion.

 

 

4. Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto -vs- Kendo Nagasaki & Masanobu Kurisu - (Texas Death Match) [***]

--- The Japanese Kendo Nagasaki! He didn't really have much of a career in Japan apart from a short stint in New Japan in 1985-86 when everybody else was leaving the company thanks to Inoki's dealings until the indy scene was established in Japan during the 90's. Nakasaki did have a solid career in Texas and Puerto Rico and gained a cult status because of it. He's a old school brawler like the rest of these guys and this match was filled for pure madness fighting. As real as it gets. Swinging chairs, cowboy boots and belts recklessly around. And not in the modern protective way. Only swing to hurt in a real heated way! And there wasn't any overkill either to get the point across. Straight in your face beating! It was a Texas Death Match so the rules are pinfall first and then a 10-count KO to win the match. And there was only two such potential match-ending spots. One with Nakasaki getting pinned after double-teaming by the two FMW aces with Kendo managing to get up in time. Kurisu wasn't so lucky and got a royal asskicking for the final ending with Onita Thunder Fire'ing him a couple of time plus Goto landing on him from the top rope. He didn't have a chance in hell to get up from that. Good good brawl the way it should be done!

10:59 of 10:58 - Onita defeated Kurisu by TKO

 

 

COMMENTS: A very entertaining 1 hour release from FMW from the Korean Martial Arts guys doing their thing to Megumi Kudo finally coming to FMW to the old guys having a sweet old school Texas Death Match with the boots to match. From memory I don't think Kendo Nagasaki had much to do with FMW after this, so it was cool to see them mix together in such a badass way as this.

 

 

--PUNQ--

FMW COMMS: January-February 1990 - (2 1/2 hrs)

 

 

January 7, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (2450 fans)

 

1. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Jang Yong Wow - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Kurisu is and always will be a bastard and he just trashes the Korean martial artist the puro way smashing him hard with a chair before backdroping him and locking in the crab hold for the win.

1:39 of 4:38 - Kurisu made Wow submit to a single leg crab 1:38 of the 2nd Round

 

 

2. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga -vs- Katsuji Ueda - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Ueda is a boring shootboxer who was Onita's bodyguard getting to be apart of the FMW roster. Matsunaga gets through to the next round because of a simple screwjob lowblow.

1:03 of 3:21 - Matsunaga defeated Ueda by DQ 0:21 of the 2nd Round

 

 

3. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Lee Gak Soo - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Soo is a very Bruce Lee type figther and something very different. Quick animated kung fu kicking and quite energetic and fun in that way. I wouldn't say his kicks are the most damanging, but Asako sold them like he was about to get KO'ed. However Soo get a little carried away and ended up kicking down the referee too as he was doing a KO count and that caused the second screwjob in a row.

2:02 of 6:29 - Asako defeated Soo by DQ 0:29 of the 3rd Round

 

 

4. Tarzan Goto -vs- Satoshi Imaizumi - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Didn't look too impressive and short yet boring match where Tarzan beat up a martial artist who's probable from Aoyagi's stable. A couple of judo takedowns from Imaizumi, but that was it and Goto won unspectacularly with a knee standing Cobra Clutch.

2:19 of 4:14 - Goto made Imaizumi submit to a Cobra Clutch

 

 

5. Atsushi Onita -vs- The Shooter #1 - (Open Tournament - Round 1)

--- Onita facing a masked mystery shooter! Oh, the drama! Not! Shooter impressed with some professional kicking, but was soon exposed as easy beat-up meat for Onita who Thunder Fire'ed him before locking in the leg for the crab.

2:56 of 3:57 - Onita made Shooter submit to a single leg crab

 

 

6. Tarzan Goto -vs- Fumiharu Asako - (Open Tournament - Round 2)

--- Highlight from Asako was him armdraging Goto out of the ring and a hillarious lariat where Asako climed to the freakin' top rope to execute it. He jumped kind of short and the Korakuen Hall more or less filled with laughter at the sight of this fat man trying a crazy thing like that and not pulling it off properly even if he got Goto down. Well, with Asako not knowing how to follow up on a wounded Tarzan was met with a headbutt out of nowhere for the pin. Lovely simple finish.

2:30 of 6:14 - Goto pinned Asako after a headbutt

 

 

7. Beast the Barbarian -vs- Atsushi Onita - (Open Tournament - Round 2; WWA Brass Knucks Title) [*]

--- Beast the Barbarian?! Did this guy ever have much of a career anywhere before or after this? He was a typical 80's barbarian character with some absolutely lovely fury trunks! Fur on trunks is underrated! In very typical Onita way he made his opponent look good beating him up even if the fans was having a hard time taking this barbarian seriously. He worked kind of stiff though and even smashed a chair over the ring announcer before it originally ended in a draw when they were fighting on the Korakuen floor. They got a re-start and this time for the WWA Brass Knucks Belt. Best parts of this was Onita's backdrop suplex out on the floor along with the Thunder Fire powerbombs Onita needed to do to put this freak out of his misary. I know he's supposed to be a beast, but I still don't understand why they let him kick out of the first deadly Thunder Fire powerbomb?! At least the second one got him looking brutal. And now Onita has a belt to build his promotion around.

2:16 of 2:17 - Barbarian wrestled Onita to a No-Contest

4:49 of 4:56 - Onita pinned Barbarian after a Thunder Fire powerbomb to become the 2nd WWA Brass Knucks Champion.

 

 

8. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Mitsuhiro Matsunaga - (Open Tournament - Semi-Final)

--- Martial arts kicks can be hurtful, but smashing several chairs full force to your back will keep you down. And that's how the old asshole defeated the future "Mr.Danger" by count out.

2:48 of 4:10 - Kurisu defeated Matsunaga by Count Out

 

 

9. Tarzan Goto -vs- Atsushi Onita - (Open Tournament - Semi-Final) [1/2*]

--- After wrestling Beast the Barbarian Onita was tired and beat down and Tarzan just rolled over Onita with ease stomping him to the ground before locking in a cross-armbreaker bending the arm again and again until Onita nodded his head for the submission. Very unspectacularly done, but also surprising how simple it was done seeing the great Onita quit so easy and clean.

3:32 of 3:32 - Goto made Onita submit to a cross-armbreaker

 

 

10. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Tarzan Goto - (Open Tournament - Final) [*]

--- Goto beat Onita with ease and Kurisu close to beat Goto with ease. The 3 former All Japan lowcarders are dividing the top position in the company in it's first 6 months in excistance. Goto's problem was his back. And with Kurisu favourite hobby being to stomp and smash chairs over that area Tarzan was as helpless as he gets. And when it finally looked like Goto would make the comeback his back was hurting so much that he couldn't execute his offensive moves and Kurisu would be all over him again. Very simple and effective formula like with most of the turnament. Nobody was superhuman except maybe beast the Barbarian and they capitalized on someone hurting and kept it at that. There might never had been any major climaxes, but the story was in full effect and that gave Kurisu the win here as he locked Tarzan in a crab hold bending that back some more until he submitted. Kurisu attacked Onita after the bout setting up the barbed wire match between them on February 12th.

7:58 of 7:58 - Kurisu made Goto submit to a single leg crab

 

 

February 12, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (2350 fans)

 

11. Konan El Barbaro -vs- Rey Misterio [* 3/4]

--- An early Konan bout. This was when he was still wearing a mask and the match was close to a wrestling lesson from Misterio with Konan doing ok, but showing strong signs of not being totally ready for the big time just yet. I loved how they kept teasing tope spots again and again irritating the crowd more and more before Konan was the one to finally land one. At least partially as he nearly flew over Misterio. Well, Misterio didn't want to be any worse and went for a plancha to the outside. However Konan was too far off and while trying to man himself up for a big leep Misterio lost balance for an embarrassing dive. Funny moment that they'd built up for a long time and that's how badly it went. Apart from that the match was the typical lucha exhibition Japan gets before the muscle man Konan made Misterio submit to a ball-tie-up lucha special.

13:31 of 13:31 - Konan made Misterio submit to a modified Indian Death Lock ball

 

 

12. Lee Gak Soo -vs- Fumiharu Asako - (Hair Match) [** 1/2]

--- Soo did some martial arts trick exhibitions before the match including doing about a hundred attempts at choping a stone in half. He managed to do it in the end, but it looked hopeless a long time. The match was entertaining in it's own special way and will probable be loved by fans of kung fu movies as Lee was doing his flashy Bruce Lee fighting kicking Asako down a million times. Asako doesn't have a clue about the striking game, especially not defensively and Lee could land those quick kicks as much as he wanted. Asako becomes such a lovable super-heavyweight underdog as he gets knocked down by this little Korean kicker countless times. Asako should consider himself lucky that there wasn't any 3 times knocked down TKO rule because then he'd probable lose 5 times each round as most of the match was based around him laying there passed out and then miraculously get up just in time to continue fighting. Asako is better at the ground and suplex game, so when he managed to catch the little prick he had Lee in a dangerous position. But this wasn't Asako's bout and the fans loved Lee because he's such a different fighter then anyone else and eventually got the KO win on his 1000th knock down or something which means Asako gets a haircut.

13:17 of 13:11 - Soo defeated Asako by KO 1:11 of the 5th Round. Asako gets his head shaven.

 

 

13. Atsushi Onita -vs- Masanobu Kurisu - (Barbed Wire Boards Match) [** 3/4]

--- The first match in Japan with barbed wire boards around the ring. And you know nearly everything in this match was about pushing, stomping and draging you opponent out into the sea of sharp metal. And two minutes into the match Onita takes the first fall into the warzone and Onita sells it like only he can! And he got a cut across his back too with blood running across his back of his teared up white shirt. Onita would fall in the barbed wire several time. Sometimes a little too easy as he would be standing in it and then roll and fall down in pain. Regardless it was more fun seeing Onita try and get Kurisu to take a barbed wire bump. That wasn't so easy. Onita tryed to drag him full force out of the ring with Kurisu grabing ahold of the ropes in full streach. He managed to land clean on the side of the barbed wire nearly under the ring escaping it barely. Onita would finally get him out there a little bit later, but the camera view of that one was bad so you din't get a sense of how the traditional bastard Kurisu was doing in this trash environment. And then it was time for the end with Onita killing the old shit with two nasty straight down Thunder Fire powerbombs with Kurisu somehow kicking out of the first one!

13:49 of 13:46 - Onita pinned Kurisu with a Thunder Fire powerbomb

 

 

NJPW - November 19, 1987, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (Chochu vs Maeda Shoot Incident x 2 angles)

 

14. Riki Choshu & Masa Saito & Hiro Saito -vs- Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido - (Ringside) [** 3/4]

--- This is the inframous shootkick match where Akira Maeda blindsided Choshu with a kick to the eye just because he wanted to. The situation was a ego driven affair with Maeda feeling he was depushed down the cards after Choshu had returned to New Japan a few months earlier and refused to play second fiddle to him. There was also the major styles clash between the two with Choshu the master and pioneer of the lariat wrestling with big bumps and Maeda a UWF shoot stylist of kicks and submissions. The match took a turn in mid-match when Maeda first refused to go along with a Scorpion Death Lock and then Choshu returning the favour by refusing to go along with a wakigatame armbar which Maeda in return refused to sell Choshu's stomp in any way in which Choshu refused to let Akira have the next attack. And this none co-operation caused Maeda to lash out a wreckless warning chop which didn't really hit well along with a warning kick aiming for the arm. The next thing that happend was them ending up in Maeda's corner so he could tag out but before Akira got out of the ring Choshu planted a ruthless faceslap in as payback for the warning shots Maeda had taken at him. Well, they quickly got them seperated and the match continued it's normal way until Choshu was locking Kido in a Scorpion Death Lock facing the other way then where Maeda was. And as soon Choshu had his back turned to Maeda you could see him climb through the ropes and kick Choshu in the eye from behind and without Choshu knowing what was coming. The camera doesn't quite get all of the kick, you get a good feel of what's happening when seeing Maeda creap up on him. And then Akira walked calmly back to his place on the apron as Choshu was trying to summon himself. Once Choshu had Kido turned in the ring position to lock the Scorion Death Lock in he saw the face of Akra and just let go of Kido and started walking toward Maeda. They had to be seperated by the others again. This time it was much harder not getting them to attack each other. Once some order was settled they went for a quick finish with Takada looking barely hurt while getting pinned by Choshu and his lariat wrestling. You could then see Choshu's eye had been shut completely as a result of Maeda's actions. Looked sickening! Akira Maeda would get fired because of this and start up UWF Version 2 the next year.

10:52 - Choshu pinned Takada after a lariat

 

 

15. Riki Choshu & Masa Saito & Hiro Saito -vs- Akira Maeda & Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido - (Stands) [** 3/4]

--- Same match with this angle coming from the TV camera high up in the stands in the Korakuen Hall and you get a very good view of the impact the kick had. Choshu's hair was just flying from the kick Akira blindsided him with. Maeda was super over with the fans and a massive pro-Maeda chant filled the arena too as this was happening. A really strange moment and a real important one as well.

10:31 of *10:52 - Choshu pinned Takada after a lariat

 

 

COMMENTS: The 1st hour was a edited version of a tournament featuring shooters, characters and All Japan three which the company was originally built around. Surprisingly many screwjobs and short matches becoming even shorter being squeezed into a one hour commercial release. There wasn't the usual drama usually associated with Onita and seeing him so helplessly trapped into submission was almost weird watching. But this showed one of Kurisu's biggest moments as a pro-wrestler. With the follow-up show of him facing Onita in the first barbed wire board match on Japanese soil. Also fun seeing a fresh Konan from his rookie years doing lucha spot wrestling. Not to mention Asako getting pathetic sympathy as he got the crap beat out of him at the hands of that Bruce Lee wannabe. At the end comes two angles of the Akira Maeda and Riki Choshu shoot incident from November 19, 1987. One at ringside and one from the usual high-up camera in the Korakuen Hall. Pro shots. It's interesting to see the pride and personality clash between two such big personalities.

 

 

--PUNQ--

FMW Hand-Held - December 10, 1989, Tokyo - (1 3/4 hrs)

 

 

December 10, 1989, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (2300 fans)

 

1. Little Devil -vs- Tiger Jackson [1/4*]

--- The midget comedy with ass biting, ass grabing and time for ass scratching on slow counts. Little Louie wins again like he did in their December 4th match. Simple leg roll-up.

6:46 of 6:46 - Devil pinned Jackson with a leg roll-up

 

 

2. Dennis Knight -vs- Mitsuteru Tokada [*]

--- Dressed Mideon facing the martial arts nobody Tokuda and only gets in a little bit of trouble. Tokuda did leep out of the ring with a plancha and executed a backdrop suplex nicely along with locking Knight in different submissions MMA style. But that's nothing against the Texas style of a fucked-up DDT and a sloppy lariat before Knight did a "Dr.Death" style powerslam for the win. The match had it's spots, but hardly a wrestling classic.

6:57 of 6:57 - Knight pinned Tokuda wit ha running powerslam

 

 

3. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Shoji Akiyoshi [** 1/4]

--- Take notes veterans. Don't want any stupid kid to enter this business and think they're pro wrestlers? This is how you treat them. No silky gloves on here. Kurisu doesn't like rookies and that's what Universal Lucha Libre wrestler Akiyoshi got to feel. Akiyoshi is current New Japan wrestler Jado in his very early days. And I bet he regret taking on this booking because Kurisu was in KAYFABE!od to play with kids. It started nicely with some hard stomping from the veteran. Then came the kicking to the head and the chairshots looked absolutely sickening! Kurisu more or less knocked him silly and to the point that Jado couldn't get up and needed help from two guys and he still coundn't stand up. Classic old fuck beats the crap out of a nobody loser. Ironically Akiyoshi ended up having a much more successful career then Kurisu had. Hell, most people had a better career then Kurisu.

7:19 of 7:19 - Kurisu pinned Akiyoshi after a headkick

 

 

4. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [* 1/4]

--- The big sambo dude and Wakita facing one and other again and once more the big guy won with a powerslam. Wakita tried to suplex Asako a few times, but gave up on the ridiculous attempts doing inside cradles instead. The future Delfin was in reality helpless against the size and legit background of Asako.

7:01 of 7:01 - Asako pinned Wakita after a powerslam

 

 

5. Delta Dawn -vs- Despina Montages - (Indian Strap Match) [*]

--- I feared the worst seeing as there was two gaijin females fighting each other, but they kept it short and simple enough to make it work. Not too much need for the ropes apart from a little choking and it was Montages who was mostly in charge before Jos LeDuc the bastard helped Dawn by punching the women down making Montages a easy victim for Dawn. Tarzan Goto naturally didn't like that LeDuc was hitting on his woman.....

6:02 of 6:02 - Dawn pinned Montages after Jos LeDuc punched her down

 

 

6. Dick Murdoch -vs- Jos LeDuc - (Chain Match) [**]

--- Two freakin' oldtimers in a old school chain match. And you could see they've done this type of match before as the chain wasn't just something that was in the way to stumble over. It was used effectively as a weapon and also a way to counter with like when LeDuc threw it around the turnbuckle post to pull Murdoch off him and then beat the crap out of him as Murdoch was trapped in the corner. Otherwise most of the end was closed fist fighting which both of these know how to do. Many punches until they were dazed and bloodied and Murdoch could land the big elbow drop to beat the big fat lumberjack. The fans however wanted Murdoch to end with a brainbuster. They didn't get their wish and I don't think that's even possible to get LeDuc off the ground that way.

10:34 of 10:34 - Murdoch pinned LeDuc after a jumping elbow drop

 

 

7. Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto -vs- Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Jerry Blayman - (Barbed Wire Match) [***]

--- Don't know who Blayman (or Jerry Grayman?) is, but he's a tall martial arts foreigner who gets the honor of being in the first barbed wire match in Japan teaming with the future "Mr.Danger" against the two FMW favourites in Tarzan and the God himself Onita! The barbed around the ring wrapped around the turnbuckle posts so that there was some space for the wrestlers to stand on the apron between the ropes and the sharp wire. The barbed wire wasn't really used for bumping. Sure they touched it as they were pushed into it standing out on the apron waiting for a tag and a Onita in pain would grab on to it "without knowing" what he was grabing. Onita of course got a big cut on the arm which he was selling like he was near death being nearly helpless against the martial artists who's kicking looked weak in a very unstructured bout. But the match had life! A lot of it. It was a war area which the barbed wire helped picture. And the war was on until Onita got in a final force of attack dropping Blayman down on his neck with the Thunder Fire powerbomb for the KO where Onita himself barely got up in time. That might have been the end of that match, but Masashi Aoyagi made sure the war would continue attacking and brawling with both Onita and also Kurisu who alongside Onita & Goto was all former AJPW lowcarders together. That feud didn't marerialize as after the January Korakuen Hall show Aoyagi's martial arts guys were pulled from FMW shows.

11:00 of 11:01 - Onita defeated Blayman by KO after a Thunder Fire powerbomb

 

 

COMMENTS: Fun seeing old guys like Murdoch and LeDuc do an old fashioned brawl. Slow and man-like. The undercard was very random stuff, but that Kurisu squash is something that'll stick in your mind a long time because that trashing of Jado was unhumane! But most important about this show is naturally Onita doing his first barbed wire match in Japan. A trend that would set the flavour for so many indy promotions to come the decades later. Onita matches are so raw and emotional it's insane. I wish more people would learn form him and how he does his Terry Funk act.

 

 

--PUNQ--

Pioneer/FMW Hand-Held: October 26 & December 1 & 4, 1989 - (4 hrs)

 

 

Pioneer Senshi - October 26, 1989, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (1hr 25min)

 

1. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki -vs- Katsuhiro Hasizume - (Rounds) [*]

--- I know very little about Pioneer's roster or results. They were a short-lived indy promotion before indy wrestling took over in Japan. So I've no idea about these wrestlers at all. The names might be wrong too, but I belive this is the Matsuzaki that would turn up in countless indy promotions in the 90's. The other guy I'm clueless about. This match was done in a very MMA style way in a 5 rounds 2 minute rules way. There was hardly any striking in this match, but they were well schooled at the ground game. Almost too schooled at the defensive part because this became too uneventful as they'd get out or away from anything dangerous before it became dangerous. But no doubt these two had good training at the fighting game before wrestling in Pioneer. Anyway this ended in a 5 round draw.

10:25 of 10:00 - Matsuzaki wrestled Hasizume to a time limit draw after 5 Rounds

 

 

2. Hiroshi Itakura -vs- Yuji Kawachi [** 1/2]

--- Pioneer wasn't as professional looking as UWF at the time, but it was the next best thing if you liked the shootstyle of wrestling. In a way Pioneer looks like the late-80's version of Battlarts. Solid workers displaying some fine technical fighting in all aspects of the game. Submissions, suplexes and strikes. Itakura was bigger and stronger the Kawachi and would dominate him almost the entire bout throwing him around like he was nothing. That of course generated some love for Kawachi when he'd try and make his comebacks. Very short-lived comebacks, but he did manage to suplex Itakura a couple of times. But having so control of the match Itakura wasn't going to let that stop him. In the end nobody got the win and it went to a time limit draw.

20:01 of 20:00 - Irakura wrestled Kawachi to a 20:00 Time Limit Draw

 

 

3. Masahiko Takasugi -vs- Masato Ueno - (Rounds) [**]

--- Takasugi was more the traditional pro-wrestler while Ueno had more MMA style to him and not as fluid in the pro game. I wouldn't call the match all that good, but I found some enjoyment out of it anyway as Ueno who looked fairly uncomfortable did get in a couple of nice moves and even a amateur lift powerbomb to surprise me while Takasugi would be the one to keep the match together with the basics and even treating Ueno like a rookie in the end locking in the single leg crab for the win in round 4.

10:08 - Takasugi made Ueno submit to a single leg crab at (0:50) in the 4th Round

 

 

4. Ryuma Go -vs- Fumihiro Niikura [* 1/2]

--- How many short-lived indy promotions was Go apart of? Many. So many that the yakuza controled him and forced him into doing gay porn to pay off his debt. At least he got to be in main events of promotion that collapsed one after the other. Here on this Pioneer show he faces former bodybuilder Fumihiro Niikura who was trained in New Japan debuting in 1981 before jumping to All Japan around 1985, probable coming with Choshu and his gang during all the termoil with Inoki at the time. But Niikura was nothing but or opening card nobody and in 1986 he had a heart attack. Here a heart attack and many opening card matches in his career he gets to main event a indy show with the once respectable peoples wrestler Ryuma Go. And it was a very down to the ground technical pro-wrestling match without many flashy moments. They relyed mostly on the submissions getting the crowds emotion, but it didn't work as well as they'd hoped as there was more laughter then cheering most of the time as Go was already a comical figure in 1989 it seems. Far from his famouse days of the late-70's when he was feuding with Tatsumi Fujinami over the WWF Junior belt. The crowd also seemed unhappy that Go won this long bout too.

22:06 - Go made Niikura submit to a wakigatame armbar

 

 

FMW - December 4, 1989

 

5. Takayuki Mukumoto -vs- Tomohiko Otsuka - (Karate)

--- Waste of time Katae exhibition.

4:02 of 4:00 - Mukumoto defeated Otsuka vie decision after 2 Rounds

 

 

6. Tetsuo Yamagata -vs- Fabulous Arsei - (Karate)

--- Yamatomi was aggressive and made this karate exhibition interesting. Nothing too interesting happend though.

4:04 of 4:00 - Yamatomi defeated Alse via decision after 2 Rounds

 

 

7. Akitoshi Saito -vs- Kazuo Yoshioka - (Karate)

--- Current NOAH wrestler in his early days in pro-wrestling and before he killed Mitsuharu Misawa. This was before he'd officially became a pro-wrestler only doing a karate exhibition match on a pro-wrestling show. Saito made his official pro debut on December 20, 1990, over a year later. So it's a curiosity seeing him so young and fit. The fight wasn't anything sepcial except for Saito getting knocked down by a illigal fist punch at the end of the 1st round. The match was still declared a draw and Saito didn't look too good.

5:07 of 4:00 - Saito fought Yoshioka to a draw after 2 Rounds

 

 

8. Little Devil -vs- Tiger Jackson [1/2*]

--- Little Devil was Little Louie under the Boat Man Joe mask. I KNOW Little Louie wasn't the rather tall guy under that mask on FMW's debut show This was a pure midget comedy match! Funny and not at all serious in any way. The masked Louie won with a roll-up hooking Tiger's shoulders down with his short legs.

8:20 - Devil pinned Jackson with a leg roll-up

 

 

9. Delta Dawn -vs- Kumiko Matsuda & Miwa Sato [*]

--- Delta Dawn was one of the foreigners, along with Madusa and The Beastie, AJW used during their experimenting period between the Crush Gals era and the early 90's hardcore fans boom. Thankfully Dawn they stopped using Dawn and sadly FMW brings her back to Japan in a rather badly funny squash of two of it's unfinished girls. Sato & Matsuda didn't have too much to come with, but I found it rather enjoyable even if the match was shit. Dawn wins naturally.

7:02 of 7:04 - Dawn pinned Sato after a backbreaker

 

 

10. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [* 1/2]

--- Sambo Asako has joined FMW by this time and while the future Super Delfin looked more professional in his work then him Sambo had the size and legit background so Wakita didn't stand a chance but made a good figure while losing. Wakita's dropkicks looked especially good. But he was up against a guy with extensive sambo training and with several armbar locks, a chickenwing crossface and a big fisherman's suplex Wakita was close to helpless against the big guy. And a powerslam was all that was needed and the Monkey man was pinned.

7:22 - Asako pinned Wakita with a powerslam

 

 

11. Dennis Knight -vs- Mitsuteru Tokuda [*]

--- The future WWF/E star Godwinn and Mideon against a Japanese martial arts guy. Ok for the spots like Knight's DDT and Tokuda's backdrop suplex. Knight also used the martial arts belt to choke Taokuda with before powerslaming him down for the count.

6:43 of 6:43 - Knight pinned Tokuda with a powerslam

 

 

12. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga -vs- Tarzan Goto - (Rounds) [** 1/2]

--- This was ugly sweet! Goto started out like a badass, but Matsunaga with his martial arts quickly put an stop to that knocking him out of the ring with a summersault kick. That set the "love" between the two and they continued beating the crap out of each other for the next 3 rounds. Matsunaga's kicking and superb he was ruthlessly out to hurt the FMW'er and Goto wasn't going to let the martial artist do that without paying. In the chaos the referee was unable to control the hatred in the ring and was knocked down several times by Goto before more people entered the ring and the two rivals was covered in blood for a hot screwjob finish. Matsunaga was awarded the win, but but this feud seems far from over.

9:46 of 8:58 - Matsunaga defeated Goto by DQ

 

 

13. Atsushi Onita & Dick Murdoch -vs- Jos LeDuc & Masanobu Kurisu - (Street Fight) [** 3/4]

--- Unintentional funny things before the match was the positioning of the flower girls and the audio of Onita's "Wild Thing" enterance dropping out. Shows you that FMW wasn't as well organized and professional in it's early days as the big companys. The match was a good ol' southern brawl. Old school American punch fighting with the kings of that style in Dick Murdoch and Jos LeDuc doing a wonderful job swinging the punches. One of the awesome parts was Kurisu getting a chair smashed over his head and Murdoch continuing squeezing the head in between the chairseat. Also the way Kurisu got upset with the crowd abling Murduch to ambush him from behind. The end came with the only attempt at winning during the match as Murduck simply rolled Kurisu up in a inside cradle after a blow from LeDuc had backfired. Onita was there to lay the punches in too, but he was greatly out-shadowed here by the two big old foreigners at this game.

9:26 of 9:28 - Murdoch pinned Kurisu with a small package

 

 

FMW - December 1, 1989, Osaka Takaishi Seadside Sports Center (1500 fans)

 

14. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [* 1/2]

--- Yeah, Kurisu sure is a grumpy old man. He doesn't like to see younger guys try and take his spotlight and Wakita got a taste of that here headbutting and stomping him down and out of the ring before the real punishment started. Man, did those chairshots sounded nasty! Kurisu wasn't holding anything back going berzerk with that chair. The view was blocked because of the fans, but you could see him swing the chair and the sound could everybody hear! And then back in the ring it was over with a armlock.

7:50 of 7:51 - Kurisu made Wakita submit to a chickenwing hold

 

 

15. Fumiharu Asako -vs- Mitsuteru Tokuda [3/4*]

--- Two martial arts guys trying their luck at pro-wrestling without much experience. Not a total trainwreck, but hardly a masterpiece. Best part was Asako running Tokuda down like a speedy truck trying to kill someone. Asako won via count out because of that. But that's when Tarzan Goto came out and demanded a re-start. I wish they hadn't because the next 3 minutes had close to nothing happening....

5:02 of 5:00 - Asako defeated Tokuda by Count Out

2:44 - Asako wrestled Tokuda to a Time Limit Draw

 

 

16. Dick Murdoch -vs- Dennis Knight - (Chain Match) [**]

--- Short, but classic Murdoch fight. As soon as Dennis called Murdoch an old man Knight got his ass whipped like he was his little kid. And Murdoch ends it like he usually does in Japan. With the legendary brainbuster!

3:57 of 3:57 - Murdoch pinned Knight after a brainbuster

 

 

17. Atsushi Onita -vs- Mitsuhiro Matsunaga - (Rounds) [**]

--- Not as heated as most Onita matches. Matsunaga would use his karate kicking and punching effectively, but this match was all about the Thunder Fire powerbomb! Onita tried for it in the 2nd round, but Matsunaga blocked it, but he didn't do that in the 3rd round and was MURDERED! Once the match was over Tarzan Goto came in to create heat and help build for his bout with Matsunaga on the 4th which I reviewed earlier here.

7:44 of 6.33 - Onita pinned Matsunaga with a Thunder Fire powerbomb at (1:33) in the 3rd Round

 

 

COMMENTS: The one and a half hours of Pioneer Senshi wrestling was interesting. The wrestling was realistic looking, but kind of faceless. But it's a promotion I wish there was more info on available as they did have some interesting inter-promotional matches in their short excistance which might be available some obscure place via hand-helds out there. The other two shows on this one are two shows from FMW's first real tour after their two debut shows in October. Sadly I don't have any source for FMW's first Korakuen Hall show on October 10th which has the Onita vs Aoyagi rematch and I'm pretty sure a copy of that show can be found somewhere. FMW also had shows on December 3rd, 6th, 8th and 10th. But only the tour ended seems to be available via hand-held (or is there commercial relases of some of these?). FMW managed to bring in Little (Louie) Devil, Tiger Jackson, Delta Dawn, Despina Montagas, Dennis Knight, Joe LeDuc and most of all Dick Murdoch who'd last been seen in Japan working for New Japan a year earlier for this tour and did a impressive run drawing full houses. But probable the main reason for that was Onita and FMW's feud with the martial arts people from Masashi Aoyagi's camp.

 

 

--PUNQ--

Well I guess this thread is perfect for my nostalgia FMW reviewing. Here's ths hows I watched so far

 

 

FMW Hand-Held - October 6, 1989, Nagoya (Debut Show) - (1 3/4 hrs)

 

 

October 6, 1989, Nagoya Sports Center (4000 fans)

 

- Opening Ceremony

 

1. Boat People Joe -vs- Monkey Magic Wakita [**]

--- A fairly slow paced match with some good moves in between. The wrestling wasn ok enough in a walking pace. Wakita had most of the offence, but Boat People Joe came back and got the win with a fine top rope lariat. Wakita is of course Super Delfin getting his first gig in Japan after having to flee to Europe to get his pro-wrestling career going after his training in the New Japan dojo didn't lead to anything. I've got no idea who this star-masked Boat People Joe is. Can anyone help with that?

10:58 of 10:59 - Joe pinned Wakita after a top rope lariat

 

 

2. Jimmy Backlund -vs- Mitsuteru Tokuda [**]

--- Backlund carried judo style wrestler Tokuda to a decent bout. Some good suplexes and mat work. Tokuda had most of the offence, but couldn't put Backlund away with submissions. Backlund the got the pin with a backdrop which Tokuda almost kicks out of. That after Takuda had been in control locking these submissions in and throwing the future "Heavenly Body" Jimmy Del Ray around. Backlunds ring attire really looked terrible in a sleezy way. Ultimate jobber look. This match was also noticable of having a young Ted Tanabe as referee!

5:45 of 5:45 - Backlund pinned Tokuda with a backdrop suplex hold

 

 

3. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga -vs- Billy Mack - (Rounds) [* 1/4]

--- "Mr.Danger" in one of his first wrestling matches. Without the beard. Without the bleached hair. But in his martial arts costume kicking and kicking at Mack at a insanse pace. Mack didn't know how to handle it and just took the beating without hardly getting anything in. This match was done in 3-minute rounds and in the 3rd Mack was tired of Matsunaga's kicking knocking him down with a closed first punch which at this point isn't allowed in FMW and that got Mack DQ'ed as referee Ted Tanabe didn't like that.

7:44 of 7:30 - Matsunaga defeated Mack by DQ (1:30) of the 3rd Round.

 

 

4. Witch Warrior -vs- Miwa Sato & Eriko Tsuchiya & Kumiko Matsuda [*]

--- Here's the early stage of FMW's women's division. Sato, Matsuda and the lady who's later become Shark Tsuchiya was the first women out of the FMW dojo facing an bigger American with a very GLOW like "tallent". It was fun for it's cheesyness as the young babyface FMW women trying to handle this monster of a woman. Even Tsuchiya was a rookie babyface at this point and also got squashed by the Vampire lady who came flying off the top rope with a tope. Other FMW'ers was at ringside like Crusher Maedomari, but this was before Megumi Kudo, Combat Toyoda and Rebun Amada came to town. After the bout another big foreigner (Bad Girl?) came to attack the Warrior, so it was the American girls that was the focus early on.

4:06 of 4:06 - Witch Warrior pinned Tsuchiya after a top rope tope dive

 

 

5. Masanobu Kurisu -vs- The Sambo Kid [3/4*]

--- Kurisu is a curious character. Longtime opening card guy for AJPW during the 80's and appearently grumpy about not getting more out of his career. FMW would be the first place he'd get to vent out his anger at poor helpless young guys, but his first match for FMW he gets to beat a bigger masked foreigner in a very basic bout. A little too basic, but you could still see Kurisu has the wonderfull stiff bastard execution the little he does like on the lariat before making Sambo submit to a submission.

9:59 of 9:59 - Kurisu made Sambo Kid submit to a kneebar

 

 

6. Masaji Aoyagi -vs- Atsushi Onita - (Rounds) [***]

--- Onita! Onita! Onita! Freakin' awesome. Even before the dawn of the hardcore legend the fans adored Onita as he takes on martial artist Aoyagi. Onita and Aoyagi had faced each other at least twice already in 1989 in Pioneer and another indy show and had already a established hatred. Both guys are also from Nagayo so it's a real treat for the hometown fans who packed this arena. For this match the fans actually stood up and was very vocal. You don't see that happen these days. Onita would open well with his Funk wrestling, but the kicks and karate punches of Aoyagi was effective and Onita milked the pain to hell. It was the times Onita was knocked down the match was really alive along with Onita fighting with all his heart. But it wasn't enough in this match as Aoyagi had him kicked to pieces once the 4th round was ending. Onita could barely get up as the final round started. Not even with the corner support of Tarzan Goto, who didn't wrestle on the show, or the fans going crazy for a Onita revenge. He was doomed and his corner men knew it too and threw in the towel. The expression on Onita's face as he saw the towel was just classic! The Onita crybaby look. While Aoyagi was celebrated by his karate students getting thown in the air. I miss wrestling that was this much alive and real at heart.

13:25 of 16:13 - Aoyagi defeated Onita (0:45) of the 5th Round when the towel was thrown in

 

 

COMMENTS: FMW's fist show creating an immediate buzz. At this time there was only one other indy promotion and that was Pioneer unless you classify UWF as a indy. And the hardcore fans where hungry for something different to what All Japan and New Japan had to offer and Onita gave them just what they wanted. This was only prototype of what FMW would become, but it came with a unpredictable formula and a place where nobodys could become somebody. Watching guys who'd end up having long careers so fresh and unestablished is fun. Here we had a maskless Super Delfin, unbleaced "Mr.Danger" Matsunaga, rookie girl Shark Tsuchiya, "Heavenly Bodies" Jimmy Del Ray early in his career and of course Aoyagi early in his career. But of course the life of FMW was always Atsushi Onita from day one.

 

 

--PUNQ--

what hapenned to jinsei shinzaki/hakushi is he still working?

Yeah, he's where he's always been (apart from that short stint in the WWF). And that's the place where he started his career in 1993 and most likely will end his career. That being Michinoku Pro, where he helps run the day to day business of the company with owner Great Sasuke.

 

 

--PUNQ--

Cheers PUNQ. Is the name's origin a mysterious ingrish thing then?

No idea about how the name came about. But it's a long vay down that valley to death when you're locked in that move.--PUNQ--

I actually have a question, for once. Who is credited with first using the Death Valley Driver, and what's the origin of the name?

Etsuko Mita. Announcers use the term ganzo when she does it which means original. The move is called Death Valley Bomb, but somehow ended up getting called a driver on American soil. From what I can tell the first time it was used was on May 8th, 1993 when it was used to finish off Suzuka Minami in their Japan Grand Prix '93 league match.--PUNQ--

How long was Koji Kanemoto (I am right in thinking he was the 3rd TM?) Tiger Mask III and was he any good?

Kanemoto's debut with the gimmick was March 1, 1992 against El Samurai (aka Osamu Matsuda) who also debuted that new gimmick for that match. Samurai won with a German suplex in 8:31. Kanemoto kind of had the Tiger Mask in training gimmick. It was never hidden who was under the mask and they followed the progress in training Kanemoto was making as the new Tiger Mask. He still wrestled more as himself during his stint as Tiger Mask then with the gimmick basically only bringing it to some big shows. Puroresufan says it was officially dropped in July 1994.As for his qualities. He wasn't bad, but he only had 16 month experience when he got the gimmick as was basically still in rookie mode.--PUNQ--

Here's the rest of that post to follow that picture. RIP Tenta.I wrote this a couple years back about John Anthony Tenta's sumo career if anyone is interested:He was a international amateur wrestling champion in the super-heravyweight weight-class in 1983 and got a scholarship to Louisiana State University. LSU however dropped their wrestling program and John Tenta had to find something else to do and decided to enter the world of Japanese sumo wrestling. He was recruited into the Sadogatake heya (stable) in the fall of 1985. He first used the name Kototenta, but later changed it to Kototenzan at the end of his sumo career.He had his first matches in the November 1985 basho (tournament) as a Maezumo or unranken rikishi (sumo wrestler) and got an easy 3 wins out of 3 fights. At 198cm and 192kg he was much bigger then then his Japanese opponents who also was much younger then him. Tenta was 22 at the time and faced mostly 16 year old rookies who had just finished highschool, so with his international amateur wrestling background he had little problems beating them. He said in a interview that his match rarely lasted more then three seconds.The January 1986 basho was his first as a ranked rikishi placed in the 6th and bottom division called Jonokuchi. Like with his tryout matches he had no problems and won all 7 tournament matches and therefore also won the division. He was promoted to the 5th division, or Jonidan as it's called and won just as easy in this March 1986 basho with a 7-0 record before beating Miwanokuni in the tie-breaker to win the divisional title too. With only 2 tournaments he was already in the 4th division, Sandanme. And wouldn't you know it; He kept his undefeated streak alive during the May 1986 basho with another 7-0 record and division victory. With such an impressive 6 months in sumo he was ranked in the Makushita, or 3rd division, for the July 1986 basho. Sadly just before the tournament Tenta decided to drop out of sumo. There were many factors that played into his decision to leave the Sadogatake heya and sumo. The main one was that he was tired of adjusting to the strict sumo lifestyle. He initially had a problem with the amount of food he was forced to eat at the start with the stable boss and Tenta having different ideas of what his ideel match weight was. Also being a stranger in a foreign country didn't help even if he got along well with his stablemates and was never troublesome. It was a lonely world, but he fell in love with a girl named Mariko Yamada. Many blame her for him leaving since she always kept pressuring him to quit sumo, but Tenta denies that's the reason. He admits she had asked him many times but he had always told her no and she eventually stopped asking. He said it was more about being unhappy in the sumo lifestyle. He felt he didn't have any time to himself because of the long training days rikishi's have. The incident that broke the straw was when he was injured before the July 1986 basho. He cut his foot of some glass when jogging. It wasn't an serious injury, but this got him thinking about what would happen if he did get a serious injury. He was already hurting in his ankles and knees which he thinks came from the way they trained. And he had already learned that there was little help to get from the sumo bosses if he was to have an career ending injury. He would have nothing to fall back on. He was still in the amateur leagues in sumo and wasn't making much money. It was time to leave.The possibility of a pro-wrestling career had always been an option he was considering, even before going into sumo, and now he had a chance at making much more money on a easier lifestyle doing pro-wrestling. In July 1986 he first met with Antonio Inoki and NJPW before contacting Giant Baba and AJPW. He signed with AJPW around the same time former Yokozuna Hiroshi Wajima did, a contract which initially lasted until April 1987 (AJPW always did annual contract negotiations during the month of April). AJPW had a long and successful tradition of recrution former sumo wrestlers including Genichiro Tenryu, King Tonga (Haku/Meng), Great Kojika, Motoshi Okuma, Takeshi Ishikawa, Isao Takagi (Arashi) and later Akira Taue and Takeshi Rikio. I belive Tenta made his debut with AJPW on May 1, 1987 teaming with Giant Baba against Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi where Tenta defeated Kimura via count out. He stayed on another year in AJPW before signing with WWF and became Earthquake.....John Tenta could have been the first white man to make it to the top sumo division, but we'll never find out if he was good enough. While he was undefeated in sumo with an offical record of 21-0 (25-0 total with pre-rank and playoff matches) he had yet to meet any serious opponents. In keiko (training) matches he was struggeling, trading wins and loses with the top rikishi at the Sadogatake heya, so how well he would have done against real competition we'll never know. However the guy he was struggeling with, Kotogaume, did get to the top division and reached the third highest rank in sumo - Sekiwake.--PUNQ--

What is an Ocean Cyclone Suplex? I've often seen it mentioned on sites as a finisher, but what the feck is it?

It's a Manami Toyota move. It's a bit like a German but the opponent ends up rolled into a ball.

Ok, that's an original explaination of the move :DThe move is executed with the opponent sitting on the executers shoulders while the arms are crossed and locked before being dropped backwards in a bridge so that the poor sucker lands on his/her neck/upper back.--PUNQ--

Kenta Kobashi Vs Genichiro Tenryu

They could have met in Kobashi's rookie years from 1988 to early 1990, but I don't belive such a singles match excist on tape. I do have the following tag matches where they meat:July 15, 1989 - Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen -vs- Jumbo Tsuruta & Kenta Kobashi [*** 1/2]August 19, 1989 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Kenta Kobashi -vs- Genichiro Tenryu & Yoshinari Ogawa [** 3/4]October 14, 1989 - Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki -vs- Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Kenta Kobashi [*** 3/4]

Kenta Kobashi Vs Keiji Muto/Great Muta

Nope.

Mitsuharu Misawa Vs Kensuke Sasaki

No.

Mitsuharu Misawa Vs Genichiro Tenryu

I don't remember if they've met in NOAH. It wouldn't have been a singles match, but who knows, they might have fought in a tag match.As for the AJPW days, there is one Tenryu -vs- Tiger Mask (Misawa) singles match available:June 1, 1987 - Genichiro Tenryu -vs- Tiger Mask [***]Otherwise they've met in a few tag matches during those years, but keep in mind that it's only rarely that it's Misawa's qualities that's made these matches good. Misawa golden years wasn't as Tiger Mask. Thankfully Tenryu was more or less the best wrestler in Japan at the time:November 28, 1986 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu -vs- Shohei Baba & Tiger Mask - (RWTL '86) [*** 1/2]June 11, 1987 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask -vs- Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara [*** 1/2]July 30, 1987 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara -vs- Shohei Baba & Tiger Mask [*** 1/4]June 9, 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Toshiaki Kawada -vs- Tiger Mask & Shinichi Nakano & Isao Takagi [*** 1/4]July 2, 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara -vs- Tiger Mask & Akira Taue [***]July 16, 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada -vs- Tiger Mask & Isao Takagi [*** 1/4]August 20, 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara -vs- Tiger Mask & Shunji Takano [*** 1/4]August 28 (TV), 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara -vs- Tiger Mask & Akira Taue [** 1/4]October 17, 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara -vs- Tiger Mask & Akira Taue [** 3/4]November 21, 1988 - Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada -vs- Tiger Mask & Jimmy Snuka - (RWTL '88) [** 1/4]January 11, 1990 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask & Great Kabuki -vs- Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki [***]January 14, 1990 - Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask -vs- Genichiro Tenryu & Samson Fuyuki [** 3/4]

Mitsuharu Misawa Vs Keiji Muto/Great Muta

Never in a singles match, but they did meat at last years NOAH Tojyo Dome show in a tag match. That should be the only time those two have faced off.--PUNQ--

Does anyone know where Mitsuharu Misawa was from March 1989 to January 1990? He was wrestling as Tiger Mask in those days. The last available match I have of him from that period is his NWA Title match against Ricky Steamboat from March 8, 1989. Then he doesn't turn up om my AJPW listings until the first tour of 1990 on January 2.Was he injured or was he forced by Giant Baba to join a bootcamp to get his lazy ass in gear? --PUNQ--

Probably won't get this one but what where Smash (Barry Darsow) and Ax (Bill Eadie) doing in other feds in the run-up to when they joined the WWF?e.g. What feds did they wrestle before they arrived in 1987.

Smash had been Krusher Kruschev, working in Mid-Atlantic and then Mid-South, from where he was poached.Ax was Masked Superstar, who'd previously been in the WWWF in the early 80s. Last I can think of seeing him was Georgia in 83/84ish, but I don't know where he was immediately before joining Demolition.

Masked Superstar was also Super Machine in 1985 when they did all those masked Strong Machine gimmicks of the stars. I'm not sure if Super Machine was in WWF at the time when they did them, but he used it in NJPW tagging with Giant Machine (Andre the Giant). Apart from that short period Eadie wrestled a lot for NJPW under his Masked Superstar gimmick during the 80's. He was one of their regular foreigners and often faced Antonio Inoki n the main events.--PUNQ--

At least more good came out of these shows then todays AJW Korakuen Hall show where Amazing Kong won the WWWA Title --PUNQ--

Great topic!I would do HHH as long as I could finish off with a Money Shot.

you are a sick fuck!

What do you mean sick? HHH experiments a lot with juice, so why not mine? --PUNQ--