Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) was a revolutionary Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 1989 by Atsushi Onita. It specialized in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. FMW had a short lived working agreement with Extreme Championship Wrestling. FMW has had fourteen DVDs released in the U.S. by Tokyopop.

History

In 1990, Onita had the first ever exploding barbed wire match with Tarzan Goto. This match started a revolution between the small "garbage wrestling" organizations of Japan. From there, Onita recruited some of hardcore wrestling's most notable names, like Mr. Pogo, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Super Leather (Leatherface) and Kintaro Kanemura. In 1995, Onita wrestled his retirement match with young talent Hayabusa in an exploding ring, barbed wire steel cage match. This match started a revolution in FMW, called Neo FMW, where stars Masato Tanaka, The Gladiator and Ricky Fuji took part in high-flying matches. Hayabusa became the central star of the promotion winning its belt several times and battling most of the FMW roster. FMW also had a thriving women's wrestling division, led by Megumi Kudo who was one of FMW's biggest stars in her heyday. All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling talent feared them so much that they rarely had interpromotional matches against each other, but the FMW women were successful in other feuds with LLPW and JWP. During this time FMW signed a contract to hold a major event every May 5 in the Kawasaki Stadium.

Under new FMW president Shoichi Arai, the promotion began to falter. Arai brought in former International Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and Super World of Sports jobber Hiromichi Fuyuki as the new booker and he brought an end to the garbage/death matches in favor of an entertainment-oriented style based on that of the WWE. Although this saved the roster from further potential injury, it called into question the essence of FMW's wrestling. Onita began withdrawing further into the background, eventually leaving the promotion altogether to create his own death match ventures and to go back to high school to earn his diploma.

In 2001, in a match against Mammoth Sasaki, Hayabusa attempted a springboard moonsault—one of his signature moves—but slipped on the ropes and fell directly on his neck, breaking it and paralyzing him. He retired, but actually regained some control over his legs a year later. By the end of 2001, Arai owed about a million dollars to influential organizations in Japan, rumored to be connected to the Yakuza (or Japanese Mafia). Realizing that the promotion was going nowhere, he decided to finally close its doors. FMW came to an end with a final show on February 4 2002 and Shoichi Arai declared FMW bankrupt on February 15 2002. On May 16 2002, Arai hung himself in a Tokyo park using his tie to collect life insurance for his money to pay off the Yakuza.

The talent divided into two promotions: Fuyuki's WEW (World Entertainment Wrestling), the name of FMW's title governing body since 1999, and Mr. Gannosuke's WMF (Wrestling Marvelous Future). Some of the talent also made appearances on Onita's special shows.

Championships

• FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship (1996-1999)
• FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship (1994-2002)
• FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (1996-1999)
• FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship -later unified with Brass Knuckles title (1996-1999)
• FMW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1993-2002)
• FMW Women's Championship (1990-1997)
• FMW/WEW World Heavyweight Championship (1999-2002)
• FMW/WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship (1996-2001)
• FMW/WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship (2000-2002)
• FMW/WEW Hardcore Championship (1999-2001)

External links

• FMW site. Includes history, wrestler profiles and title records