Best of the Super Juniors
Remember the part where I gave credit to Gran Hamada inventing “LuchaResu” combining elements of Lucha Libre and Puroresu together? Well, here’s the result of that coming into fruition as around the 90’s the junior heavyweight scene became even more prominent in Japan thanks to many talented workers around the world who shared their skills against each other in the ring. By this point, NJPW’s junior division grew even bigger, back then they mainly only got one or two that are considered to be at the top, but this time around thanks to their partnership with other promotions as well such as WCW and CMLL, wrestlers from different parts of the world were able to showcase what they got against their Japanese contemporaries. The lucha influence began to become more prominent with wrestlers deciding to have masked characters to use as their in-ring personas as well as have a wide variety of highflying maneuvers in their arsenal which made for very entertaining matches, some going down as classics in modern times.
Of course the most popular among them all is Jushin “Thunder” Liger, making his debut on March 3, 1984. As I’ve mentioned earlier, he was on the same dojo class with the Three Musketeers. While they dominated the heavyweight scene, Liger became a staple part of the junior heavyweights and was the face of the division for almost two decades. After his excursion in Europe and Canada, in 1989 Keiichi Yamada was chosen to portray the Jushin Liger character, another anime character come to life with NJPW wanting to have another success story similar to Tiger Mask’s case. He was already talented to begin with, having learned different styles around the world and incorporating that in his performances, Liger became an instant hit from kids to adults, with his matches being a source of excitement for the fans. What made him even better than Tiger Mask in this aspect was that Liger had the freedom to evolve his character through the years and not just stick to one and milked that same old formula for the rest of his career. He has actually made tons of tweaks and added characteristics to his gimmick, keeping it fresh and it also adds interest to storylines he’s involved in to mix well with the personalities of his opponents, from the intimidating Kishin Liger to the brave Battle Liger and even the weird Neko Liger, yes he may be a talented in-ring performer but what doesn’t get credit enough was his innovation and genius thinking on aspects like these. Liger is the longest tenured New Japan wrestler and holds the record of being an 11x IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, first winning it on May 25, 1989 when he defeated Hiroshi Hase and last won it on December 6, 1999. He has pretty much faced every single noteworthy wrestler you can think of over the past 30 years, sharing his talents all over the globe and is a wonderful ambassador for pro wrestling in general.
Liger wasn’t the only masked junior making waves around these times. Because of the Super J-Cup and J-Crown tournaments, it allowed wrestlers from other promotions and countries to compete so their talents could be highlighted in a bigger stage. Many of the all-time greats we know today made their names in these tournaments such as The Great Sasuke, Ultimo Dragon, and El Samurai all three would become rivals and partners to Liger over the years, all of them also became IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champions and J-Crown winners. The 1994 match in particular between Liger and Sasuke tore the house down and to this day is still highly regarded as one of the best junior heavyweight matches of all time, even with the botch while attempting to jump through the top rope by Sasuke became iconic due to how both men played it off as part of the story, a sign of great workers is being able to cover up mistakes like these. Ultimo Dragon is one of the best highflyers of all time, his Asai moonsault is still widely used today but when he was the one executing it in his prime, no one could even come close to the awe inspiring sight of him doing it to his opponents. Out of all the winners of the J-Crown, Ultimo was also the most decorated by holding 10 championship belts all at once, which is a feat that still stands strong in modern times. El Samurai is often overshadowed by his peers but in his prime he is just as good as everyone else that’s been mentioned thus far, had a lot of memorable battles with Liger both in singles and tag-team competition. Yoshihiro Yamazaki also made his debut in the mid 90’s and became one of the staple parts of NJPW’s junior heavyweight division by being the fourth wrestler to portray the Tiger Mask gimmick which he still does until now, making him the longest tenured wrestler to have the character, in his career he’s a 6x IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Masked wrestlers aren’t the only ones prospering in the new era for the junior heavyweight scene, one of the most formidable opponents for Liger around this time as well is Shinjiro Otani. The final winner of the J-Crown, a former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, and the inaugural WCW Cruiserweight Champion. Unlike most of his peers, Otani did not need flashy costumes and gimmicks to prove that he is on the same level as the rest. All he needed was his top tier wrestling skills and wash their faces with his painful kicks. Although much more associated with his ZERO-1 career, Otani first found success as a junior heavyweight in NJPW and was one of the leading heels of the division in the 90’s. He was also often paired up with Tatsuhito Takaiwa, on August 8, 1998 they defeated the team of Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto in becoming the inaugural IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag-Team Champions. Speaking of Koji Kanemoto, he is also another underrated junior who started to grow as a performer around the mid 90’s, initially had a run as the third wrestler to wear the Tiger Mask but it didn’t last for long. He is one of the most accomplished juniors in NJPW being a 5x IWGP Jr. Heavyweight and 4x IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag-Team Champion.
The junior heavyweight scene of NJPW was pretty much at one of its peaks around this time thanks also to the arrival of international stars like Eddie Guerrero as Black Tiger, Chris Benoit as Pegasus Kid, Owen Hart, Chris Jericho, Negro Casas, and so much more, having a wide array of talents and styles clashing with each other. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for the other side in AJPW, their junior scene was underwhelming around the 90’s. Fuchi was starting to slow down, Yoshinari Ogawa and Maunakea Mossman (aka Taiyo Kea) were the only two mainly carrying the division at this point but without credible rivals their Jr. Title floundered and their heavyweights were the ones given the most priority.
From an international stand point, juniors like TAKA Michinoku and Tajiri are starting to make a name for themselves in the US. TAKA becoming one of the pioneers of the WWF’s short lived Light Heavyweight Division while Tajiri’s matches in ECW were paving the way for the success of the cruiserweights. TAKA was trained by Great Sasuke and in his prime, he was one of the most exciting wrestlers to watch and innovated a lot of moves such as the famous Michinoku Driver. Tajiri on the other hand, learned from numerous veterans but early in his career he was involved with death match promotions so his transition to ECW did not become difficult, matches against Mikey Whipwreck, Super Crazy, and Psicosis were way ahead of their time.
Harmless Fun
Comedy in professional wrestling is about as controversial as putting marmite on sandwich. It’s a polarizing genre where some enjoy it while others curse it to oblivion as a “disgrace” to the business. Some elements of comedy in pro wrestling can be seen going way back to the 1950’s when former ballet dancer Ricki Starr incorporating his ballet skills into his wrestling matches, mainly for comedic purposes with his Charlie Chaplin like mime acting, and they say wrestling ain’t ballet eh? Think again. Anyway, comedy in Puroresu was sparingly used in the older days as they still presented matches as legitimate contests but as time went on, especially with the lucha influence, comedic moments in wrestling matches started to become common, so much so that it became a genre of its own.
In 1993, The Great Sasuke founded Michinoku Pro-Wrestling (M-Pro) the first wrestling promotion in Japan not based in Tokyo, instead they are located at Morioka in the Iwate prefecture, Sasuke’s hometown. Instead of the brutal and high intensity action of the usual presentation of Puroresu, M-Pro paved the way for light-hearted style of wrestling, mainly family friendly action full of colorful and cartoonish characters and highflying action. Comedy wrestlers such as Super Delfin and Gran Naniwa whom innovated the style started out their careers in M-Pro while also being able to compete in other promotions like NJPW. Around the late 90’s, the promotion even had a short partnership with the WWF which allowed them to share workers, notably Jinsei Shinzaki went on to the US as “Hakushi” feuded with Bret Hart and Undertaker, KAIENTAI the stable was also created in M-Pro with TAKA Michinoku, Sho Funaki, Dick Togo, and Men’s Teioh were all proteges of Sasuke and later on they became memorable acts of the attitude era.
When Delfin, Naniwa, and a few other wrestlers left M-Pro, they started Osaka Pro Wrestling in 1998 which is another kid-friendly promotion which is purely comedy based, unlike M-Pro which still had other genres like strong style and shoot mat-based wrestling. Two of the most prominent stars that would come out of Osaka Pro were Kuishinbo Kamen and Ebessan aka Kikutaro. They’re very much well known throughout the wrestling scene as the best comedy wrestlers.
As for me, for what it’s worth I do enjoy comedy wrestling. Especially with the wholesome products that M-Pro and Osaka Pro have produced over the years, you can’t help but to like and enjoy the matches because they’re doing it for their small communities so that they can watch wrestling live. Being a comedy wrestler may seem easy but it is actually quite a difficult task. Grasping the attention of the audience is already challenging in traditional wrestling, even more-so in comedy. You not only need to be a good wrestler to begin with for your character/style to be effective, but have the right amount of charisma to make the audience laugh, or else you’ll just flop and embarrass yourself. What’s great about these comedic wrestlers is once they get serious, they can pull off fantastic sequences and matches against other great talents. The best example of this is Gran Naniwa, who may look ridiculous but don’t let the aesthetic fool you as he once gave Jushin “Thunder” Liger one of his best matches in the 90’s by participating in the Super J-Cup.
The MMA Movement
Around the 90’s, MMA as a sport was starting to become well known but is still yet to be officially structured like the way it is nowadays. On May 10, 1991 Nobuhiko Takada left NJPW again to create Union of Wrestling Force International (UWF-I) based on the original UWF promotion founded by Akira Maeda in the mid 80’s. Takada was joined by Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoji Anjo, Kiyoshi Tamura, and Masahito Kakihara, among others in establishing the promotion. Other wrestlers later on were also added such as Yoshihiro Takayama, Naoki Sano, and MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba who made his debut into combat sports in this promotion. Just like the original, UWF-I promoted their matches as “real fights” having standardized rules unlike in the traditional pro wrestling where the guidelines can get vague. The combatants start with 15 points each, points would be lost for knockout attempts, grabbing onto the ring ropes, or being at a disadvantage during a hold. The only way to win matches is by submission, knockout, or reducing your opponent’s score to zero. Tag-team matches were also contested with the starting points at 21 given to a team. They also gave highlight to win-loss records of the wrestlers being a factor into their matches.
UWF-I started strong, receiving endorsements from old school legends such as Lou Thesz and Billy Robinson. In fact the belt they used as their “Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship” was also the same belt used by Thesz in the 1950’s during his run as the NWA World Champion. Despite being actually “worked shoot” matches, UWF-I branded itself as the real deal, all of their matches were legit and that the rest of the top promotions were fake. Nobuhiko Takada, who was the face of the company and the inaugural champion beating Gary Albright for the belt on September 21, 1992, started calling out the reigning World Champions of other promotions at the time such as Misawa (Triple Crown), Muta (IWGP), and Chono (NWA) challenging them into fights to determine who’s the “real world champion.” None of them accepted the offer except for WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Big Van Vader who defeated Takada for the belt on August 18, 1994 ending his dominant 696 day run as champion. He would win it back on April 20 of the following year. Other notable matches in UWF-I’s short history was on October 23, 1992 between Takada and former sumo Koji Kitao, who wasn’t exactly known for his good reputation in Japan. Round 3 of the fight, Takada nailed a solid kick to the face to Kitao which knocked him out, this caused controversy amongst the media as some speculated it was a legitimate kick, a double-cross act while others thought it was just part of the show. Just like its predecessor, UWF-I didn’t last long either, regular wrestlers such as Kazuo Yamazaki, Vader, and Gary Albright left the promotion, Takada no longer had credible wrestlers to fight. Soon enough to salvage his company, he agreed on a partnership with NJPW but only the latter was given the rights on booking the outcomes. Lou Thesz dropped his partnership with Takada as he did not agree with his decision in partnering with other promotions.
In 1995 New Japan and UWF-I started their promotion rivalry, a similar situation ten years ago only this time Nobuhiko Takada was leading the way instead of Maeda. Most UWF wrestlers loss, as revenge by booker Riki Choshu after years of slander they received from the opposition. Takada did find success though, he would become the first former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion to win the Heavyweight belt when he defeated Keiji Mutoh in the main event of the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 1996. Two months later he dropped the belt to another musketeer in Shinya Hashimoto in what is many considered one of the best IWGP Title matches in history. At this point, UWF-I was a company was pretty much dead, at the very least their credibility was. They ran their final shows co-promoting with Genichiro Tenryu’s WAR and officially going defunct on December 27, 1996. Despite not having long term success, UWF-I would become influential in the rise of the MMA scene in Japan as promotions with similar philosophies began to pop up one by one.
In 1991 after the closure of the original UWF, Yoshiaki Fujiwara also started his own shoot style based promotion called “Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi” he initially started out with a small roster that included himself and his two students: Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki. This is where both of them started to make a name for themselves and become well known within the creation of the “hybrid style” fighting. The debut show of Fujiwara Gumi was a huge success, drawing in 40,000 fans in the Tokyo Dome headlined by Funaki vs. kickboxer Maurice Smith. Future UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock also his career in Japan thanks to Fujiwara Gumi and this is where he met his future rival Minoru Suzuki. Just like UWF-I, they presented themselves as “real fighting” with focus on submission holds but they were all still primarily pre-determined matches. It wasn’t until in 1993 when Suzuki and Funaki left their master’s promotion to start what would become the pre-cursor to all future MMA promotions: Pancrase. Fujiwara Gumi on the other hand operated until 1996 when most of its best wrestlers left and was forced to close.
Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki became fans of combat sports when they witnessed the 1976 “boxer vs. wrestler” fight between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki. They would become a part of the New Japan Dojo and trained under Fujiwara, the master of the armbar. As they founded their own promotion, Pancrase became successful and actually featured real fights that would lead to the MMA craze in the country later on. Ken Shamrock established himself as the top foreign star of the company, often going up against Suzuki and Funaki. Other MMA stars such as Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock, and Guy Mezger also started out their careers in Pancrase. Over the years though, it would be revealed by some of the past workers that not all matches in Pancrase were legit, some were also worked altough those were only on rare occasions. Even when Suzuki left in 2003 to continue his pro wrestling career, Pancrase as a company continued to run and is one of the leading MMA promotions in Japan. Josh Barnett became popular first in Pancrase before going on to fight in the UFC years later. Other shoot style based promotions that were founded in the 90’s were Fighting Network RINGS by Akira Maeda in 1991 after the closure of the original UWF and Battlarts in 1996 by Yuki Ishikawa.
All of these hybrid wrestling promotions eventually led to the creation of one of the most successful and influential combat sport companies of all time: Pride Fighting Championships (PRIDE FC) created in 1997. Way before the UFC became the phenomenon that it is today, PRIDE was the leading brand in cultivating the mixed martial arts as a sport and for a long time became the leading brand of competition in Japan, even eclipsing pro wrestling. Former pro wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba cemented his status as a living legend thanks to PRIDE by defeating numerous members of the acclaimed Gracie Family. Wrestlers such as Kazuyuki Fujita, Koji Kitao, Naoki Sano, Naoya Ogawa, Nobuhiko Takada, and Yoshihiro Takayama all competed in PRIDE as well, some more successful than others.
Joshi’s Popularity – Second Wave
When Jaguar Yokota retired for the first time she became the full-time trainer at the AJW Dojo and so it resulted into the second wave of joshi superstars that would dominate throughout the 90’s. Her most notable student is in my opinion, the greatest women’s wrestler of all time: Manami Toyota. In 1988 at the WrestleMarinpiad show at Yokohma for AJW, The Tokyo Sweethearts (Toyota and her partner Mima Shimoda) took on the team of Etsuko Mita and Toshiyo Yamada. Why this match is mentioned here is because it was the one that made everybody recognize Manami Toyota’s talents, she pulled an HBK and stole the show, outperforming even the veterans due to her fast-paced style of action, highflying and flashy moves which were all unseen before on that level for joshi. It wouldn’t take long before she became one of the leading stars of the promotion, becoming one of the most decorated wrestlers in AJW history. She is a 4x WWWA World Single Champion, 3x WWWA World Tag-Team Champion, and a plethora of other belts and awards that she gained in her time with the company. While The Four Pillars were receiving tons of praises for their high quality matches in AJPW, Toyota was doing the same only for joshi as most of her high profile matches have been well received and to this day are considered as some of the best women’s wrestling matches ever. Particularly her feud against Aja Kong which they managed to headline the Tokyo Dome, it is the classic tale of the underdog against the much bigger and intimidating opponent. A lot of their matches were technically sound and brutal in some instances too, which would become the standard for women’s wrestling around the world since. If you watch their bouts, you’d see the influence they have on a lot of wrestlers nowadays.
Speaking of Aja Kong she herself is considered by many as the best women’s wrestler ever. The successor of Dump Matsumoto, Aja was unlike any other woman in the roster at the time with her physique and intimidating aura which played off well with the beautiful fairy-like presence of Toyota. Before becoming a dominant heel champion though, Aja had success in the tag-team division as well with her fellow Gokuaku Domei member Bull Nakano. The two of them would terrorize the entire AJW roster with their physical strength and pure dominance, taking down everyone in their path just like their mentor Dump Matsumoto did in the past. When they broke up, Aja and Bull became mortal enemies and even feuded for the WWWA World Single Championship. Between 1990 and 1995, the title would change hands with Aja, Bull, Toyota, and Dynamite Kansai. Aja and Bull would also find their way in the WWF for a short while in their women’s division.
Aja Kong and Bull Nakano weren’t the only ones striking fear into the audience and AJW roster at the time as the arrival of “Dangerous Queen” Akira Hokuto would also set the entire joshi scene on fire with her blazing presence and intense performances in the ring. Hokuto is one of the most popular women’s wrestler at her peak, finding success not only in Japan but also in North America particularly US with WCW and Mexico with CMLL. Unlike Aja and Bull who were physically imposing beasts, Hokuto was pretty much on the same size as Toyota but her attitude was just as wild as those two. Known for high impact work ethic, putting her body on the line in producing some of the most high volume matches that is quite honestly, never been seen in women’s wrestling for a long time. From 1987 to 1996 she had great runs whether as a singles or tag-team wrestler around the world but her greatest match was headlining the Tokyo Dome for the biggest women’s wrestling even in history: the Big Egg Wrestling Universe in 1994. It is the most successful women’s wrestling event in the country which saw wrestlers from different promotions and countries stack the card with exciting match-ups, with the main event being Akira Hokuto and Aja Kong, the finals of the V*TOP Five Star Tournament which Hokuto ended up winning.
When I mentioned that this was the second wave of Joshi’s popularity, it would also pretty much be its tipping point as after the 90’s, the scene will turn quiet for many years. AJW’s dominance and monopoly-like presence in women’s wrestling for Japan worked like a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is the reason for joshi at its peak, producing many of the great stars and legends we’ve seen over the years, and it being the only brand helped in fans focusing on one product to support their favorite wrestlers. However, this also didn’t work as there would come a point where their roster would inflate and despite their early retirement rule, most of the time it wouldn’t be followed and a lot of their wrestlers from the past made their comebacks and starting their own promotions, which led to many other joshi products available to consume. It’s good for the wrestlers as they have alternative companies to work for, but there comes a point where the average fan will find it confusing on which particular company to follow if they want to root for the wrestlers they like. Here is a list of these joshi promotions that started to compete against AJW around the late 80’s to 90’s. Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (JWP) founded by Jackie Sato and Nancy Kumi, the first promotion to go up against AJW. JDStar and GAEA Japan (1995) by Jaguar Yokota and Chigusa Nagayo respectively, NEO Ladies (1997) by Kyoko Inoue, ARSION and OZ Academy (1998) by Aja Kong and Mayumi Ozaki respectively, and FMW would also create its own women’s division, making it the first Japanese wrestling promotion to integrate an actual joshi division into its roster.
With so many promotions popping up left and right, comes with its fair share of new stars as well. Some of the notable ones first is Mayumi Ozaki. One of the longest tenured wrestlers in Japan today, she actually started her career in JWP and had some matches in AJW as well winning the WWWA Tag Titles with Dynamite Kansai in 1993. For seven years she established herself as one of the top workers in joshi and by 1998 created her own promotion: OZ Academy which is still one of the leading joshi companies today. She became the leading star of the promotion and even today is still one of the top performers in the roster, goign strong for three decades nonstop. She is a 3x OZ Academy Openweight Champion and 6x OZ Academy Tag-Team Champion.
Moving on to someone who has one of the most decorated careers in joshi, Kyoko Inoue. In my opinion she is on the same pedestal as all of the aforementioned joshi superstars but due to her lack of success in other countries, she often gets overlooked by a lot of fans. She is a 3x WWWA World Single Champion, 4x WWWA World Tag-Team Champion, among many others including DDT’s Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship which actually makes her the first woman to win a men’s title in Japan. She had a lot of classic bouts over the years with Manami Toyota whom she feuded with for the World Title. Speaking of champions, another wrestler who doesn’t get enough credit these days is Shinobu Kandori, a multi-time World Champion in all of the major joshi promotions she worked for in her prime. Kandori is a legitimate badass with her judo background which she incorporates in her offense in pro wrestling. She became the top star for Ladies Legend-Pro Wrestling (LLPW), an offshoot promotion of JWP where she won the company’s World Title twice. She is also a WWWA World Single Champion beating Yumiko Hotta on March 21, 1998 and had a dominant 354 day reign. Some of Kandori’s best work was against Akira Hokuto.
Lastly I’ve briefly mentioned that FMW were the first promotion to incorporate a women’s division, well there is one woman that ruled that division for a long time and its none other than Megumi Kudo. After being rejected in her time with the AJW Dojo, she proved her doubters wrong and became the queen of hardcore matches in Japan. The first woman to bleed in wrestling as they say, she took women’s wrestling to another level by being involved in some of the deadliest and brutal matches ever which the promotion was known for. Along with her pretty looks, Kudo played the role perfectly of the sympathetic babyface and was a fan favorite because of all the things she went through in her matches. It may not have been traditional and her career only lasted for 10 years, but to this day it is still a memorable run than most, making her a 6x Women’s Champion in the company.
There were already some gaijins in joshi before, but it wasn’t until the 90’s where some truly became a prominent part of the scene, often feuding with the native fan favorites. Canadian wrestler Rhonda Singh or better known as Monster Ripper, a student of Mildred Burke has actually been around since the late 70’s, she feuded with Jackie Sato at the height of her popularity and exchanged the WWWA World Single Championship twice with each other. Madusa (aka Alundra Blayze) also worked a lot of matches in Japan in which she primarily feuded with Bull Nakano which was brought over in the States with the WWF. Then in the 2000’s, Awesome Kong (aka Kharma) became one of the most dominant figures in joshi and was personally mentored by her idol Aja Kong.
Explosive Insanity
“No Rope Electrified Barbed Wire Swimming Pool Dynamite Double Hell Death Match.” Yes that is an actual thing that happened. With or without context, that is the madness of death matches. On April 14, 1974 Atsushi Onita made his debut in AJPW and was originally supposed to be the leading star of the promotion’s junior heavyweight division as an answer to NJPW’s Tiger Mask. However in 1985 he was forced to retire early due to several injuries. But Onita, like his idol Terry Funk are pretty much synonymous with retirement matches just as much they are with hardcore. In 1989 Onita made his comeback to pro wrestling, well the first of many. He attempted to make an impact by challenging wrestlers of the UWF-I but he was rejected. He then fought Masashi Aoyagi of the World Karate Association (WKA) but was disqualified during their fight because he used wrestling moves. So he booked two grudge matches under the name “Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling” (FMW) one night in Nagoya and the other in Tokyo, both headlined by Onita vs. Aoyagi. The shows were successful enough that Onita made FMW into a full-time promotion. The company stayed true to its moniker and did have numerous fighters compete in it through the years from different forms of martial arts but the actual draw of the promotion and eventually where it would circle around on for its existence were the death matches.
Inspired by the street fights and backstage brawls between Terry Funk and Jerry Lawler he witnessed in his excursion, Onita was inspired by these bloody wars and wanted a way out of the traditional pro wrestling for his company to stand out. He knew in order for his new promotion to gain attention, he had to do something outlandish and so by taking the concept of hardcore wrestling, he turned into a mad scientist and added more crazy elements onto it and the death match style was born. Barbed wire, explosives, live fire, glasses, spikes, and whatever other vulnerable items you could probably get at your local junk shop, he used them all. Forget about steel chairs, when you can nail your opponents with… actual nails! The first Barbed Wire Death Match took place on December 10, 1989 when Atsushi Onita teamed up with Tarzan Goto to defeat Jerry Blayman and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga. Ever since then, high profile matches were usually contested in different variations of death matches through the years and for awhile, it became the new craze in town. The fans that have grown tired of the usual Puroresu presented by NJPW and AJPW, found a new alternative in FMW. The death matches and Atsushi Onita himself were a proven draw. Standing at 5’11” and weighing in at 169 lbs. Onita looked like your average individual, which is why the fans connected with him because they saw themselves in him. Whenever Onita felt pain, it’s as if the crowd felt it too. He was a reflection of a certain group of people in Japan and the formula worked, making him one of the all time best box office draws in Puroresu, and whether you liked his style or not, it didn’t matter to him as it made money. Onita and FMW was to Puroresu what the Sex Pistols were to the music industry, a far cry from the past product that everyone was used to, providing some attitude and edgier side into the art form and gaining the support of many, it’s almost as if an underground movement.
For six straight years Atsushi Onita was the top star of FMW. He is a record 7x FMW Brass Knuckles Champion, the premier title for the company. But he obviously couldn’t do it alone. He had other crazy maniacs that became rivals along the way. His most well known foe was Mr. Pogo whom just like Onita was brought up into the old school ways of wrestling, being an amateur then training into the NJPW dojo. However in 1985, Tetsuo Sekigawa created the “Mr. Pogo” persona and tagged along with Kendo Nagasaki, he would eventually bring this character to FMW in the 90’s. Him and Onita were long time rivals in the existence of FMW and their matches were always a spectacle. They blazed the trail (literally) and setting the standard for death match wrestling. Other notable opponents for Onita are the likes of Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, and Kintaro Kanemura, all of which would become death match legends of their own. He also had a lot of memorable bouts with his idol Terry Funk and other gaijins included Cactus Jack, Sabu, Tiger Jeet Singh, The Sheik, and Leatherface (aka Corporal Kirchner in the WWF). Partaking in the early years of FMW having already been involved in many hardcore matches in the past.
There comes a point in time where Onita has to eventually past the torch to the next generation, two of his most notable trainees were actually being groomed to become the next FMW aces one day and they were Masato Tanaka and Eiji Ezaki or better known as Hayabusa. The two of them were supposed to be the future of FMW, the next generation Onita vs. Mr. Pogo if you will. Hayabusa was a wrestler who did not only excel in hardcore matches but was a fantastic all-around talent who could pretty much do anything such as highflying and technical as evident in his matches outside of FMW. Dare I say he was on the same level as the likes of Liger and Ultimo Dragon at this point. Then there’s Masato Tanaka, best remembered for his ECW tenure where he feuded with Mike Awesome. Their iconic rivalry actually stared in FMW when Awesome was called The Gladiator and they brought over their bloodbath wars in Philadelphia, feuding over the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
The problem with Onita though, he did have the proper stars to build the future of his company around but he just couldn’t get out of the spotlight himself. When Hayabusa finally surpassed him and was suppose to be the new ace of the company, it only lasted for a short period of time. Onita would frequently go back-and-forth with his retirement and farewell matches that at some point the fans grew tired of it, he became a parody of himself that he loss credibility and so were the stars that he was supposed to be putting over. Yes Onita was beloved by the fans, but fool them one too many times and they’ll stop rooting for you. When former AJPW wrestler Kodo Fuyuki was also brought in as a booker around the mid 90’s, conflicts arise between him and Onita, under the new president Shoichi Arai, they aimed for FMW to get away from the death match branding that made them popular and lean in more into the less garbage-style entertainment and more for a WWE style presentation. All of these elements clashing with one another eventually led to FMW’s demise. The nail in the coffin sadly was Hayabusa’s career ending injury, during a match against Mammoth Sasaki in 2001, while performing a springboard moonsault he landed straight to his neck which left him paralyzed and wheelchair bound for the rest of his life until his passing on March 3, 2016. On February 15, 2002 the original FMW closed doors after several years of flaming cages and exploding rings, it was all extinguished.
In 1999 Atsushi Onita had two high profile Barbed Wire Explosive Death Matches in New Japan, first on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome perhaps his most memorable one against Masahiro Chono. Several months later he’d do it again, this time against The Great Muta and he created a new persona for himself, The Great Nita similar to his opponent. The following year he had his final match in NJPW, another death match against the legend Riki Choshu who came out of his first retirement just for this match. Since then, those have been the only recorded explosive death matches in NJPW and I don’t think we’ll be seeing it back anytime soon. There were also other promotions that attempted to compete against FMW during their peak that were solely dedicated to death match wrestling. IWA Japan and W*ING in particular. Kintaro Kanemura was the top star for both of these promotions. When FMW folded the remnants of the roster split into two, Kodo Fuyuki’s World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) and Mr. Gannosuke’s Wrestling Marvelous Future (WMF.) In 1995 Big Japan Pro-Wrestling (BJW) was created and to this day is the leading brand for death match style matches in the country. Abdullah Kobayashi is one of their more popular wrestlers, trained by Abdullah the Butcher himself. You might’ve probably seen gnarly pictures of Kobayashi’s head being stabbed by BBQ sticks and glass shards. The most well known death match wrestler in modern times though is Jun Kasai. Wrestling since 1998 and is one of the most accomplished hardcore wrestlers both in Japan and the US. In 2015 Onita revived the FMW brand and have hosted several shows since.
Hashimoto vs. Ogawa
The legitimacy of professional wrestling has sparked a lot of arguments in its centuries of existence. Some of these however, boil down in the ring and become what we know as “shoot fights” where wrestlers turned from working pre-determined matches into legitimate fights due to varying reasons. There have been many infamous incidents in Japan before such as Akira Maeda hitting Andre The Giant with stiff kicks to the legs or Koji Kitao refusing to sell to John Tenta. However the most controversial incident of something like this ocurred on January 4, 1999. It was the heated rivalry between Shinya Hashimoto, whom at the time was the biggest star and face of NJPW against Olympic judoka turned pro wrestler Naoya Ogawa. It was the traditional 1.4 show in the Tokyo Dome main evented by Keiji Mutoh vs. Scott Norton for the IWGP Title but the match that most people remember this event for was between Hashimoto and Ogawa. The latter broke kayfabe and began attacking Hashimoto for real which resulted in getting busted open due to the kicks and stomps. Numerous wrestlers representing both NJPW and Universal Fighting-Arts Organization (UFO) stormed the ring and all hell broke loose as Jim Ross would say. There have been many rumors that sprouted over the years to the legitimacy of this incident. Some call it a work while others have said that it was Antonio Inoki who instructed Ogawa to go after Hashimoto. Conflicting stories about the whole ordeal much like the Montreal Screwjob in the WWF. As to why it is still heavily questioned though whether it was real or fake is that after Hashimoto left NJPW and created ZERO-1, him and Ogawa became formidable tag-team partners and actually good friends.
The focal point to take out of this entire incident though is the death of kayfabe. Yes, there were already promotions such as UWF-I claiming to be “real wrestling” as oppose to the traditional presentations of New Japan and All Japan, but what this did is kill the credibility of the biggest star of the company. Shinya Hashimoto has built up this persona of a seemingly unbeatable fighter, a no nonsense martial arts character that will take on any challengers. He has faced top stars like Mutoh, Chono, Takada, Sasaki and beaten them all, he was at the forefront of the New Japan army in their battles against the nWo Japan. Hashimoto reflected perfectly what NJPW and Strong Style stood for and the fans respected him for it. Then here comes this new wrestler who has all the credentials in the world with his background in the Olympics, seemingly groomed to be the next big star. To see him make a mockery out of Hashimoto, easily beating him up to a bloody mess, that was a grave sin in wrestling. Bret Hart, a legend in the industry prides himself to never intentionally injuring someone ever in his entire career. While wrestling may show that people duking it out against one another, at the end of the day it is pre-determined and protecting your opponent is a priority, despite in Japan where admittedly they do take everything to another level in terms of even as simple as striking. Practically the entire 90’s, Hashimoto was the man in NJPW and in matter of minutes, he got his ass kicked. It signaled what would eventually be the dark years for NJPW, it was clear what direction Inoki was headed for his company. When Hashimoto got laid out, it felt like every homegrown prospect was pushed to the side over the martial artists who aspire to be pro wrestlers.
The Third Generation
The 1991-92 class of the New Japan dojo was stacked with future notable names in wrestling. Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Kendo Kashin, and Osamu Nishimura were all proteges who turned out to have decent careers. But the ones seen with the most potential were the four heavyweights in the group; Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, and Manabu Nakanishi collectively known as “The Third Generation.” When The Three Musketeers’ time at the top was beginning to tick, Inoki was lucky to find four potential top stars in the dojo and could’ve carried the company to the next generation. Early on in their runs, they had promising runs that seemed like they would’ve been to NJPW what the Four Pillars were to AJPW, all around solid workers that you could interchange as your World Champions because of their abilities in the ring. However, fate thought of a different plan for these gentlemen as we will get through later.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan (Debut: January 11, 1991) – Hiroyoshi Yamamoto was the first to debut out of the bunch and after his excursion in Europe, he changed his last name to Tenzan as given to him by referee Tokyo Joe, derived from the Tien Shan mountains. Tenzan is the most accomplished tag-team wretler in NJPW history, being a 12x IWGP Tag-Team Champion throughout his career. In his prime, he was an excellent wrestler and was masterful in his character work being believable in whatever role he was given whether it be a heel or babyface. He is best known for his partnerships with Satoshi Kojima and Masahiro Chono whom he won most of those tag titles with. Tenzan also popularized the Mongolian chops and invented the Anaconda Vice submission hold. Most importantly he is a 4x IWGP Heavyweight Champion but most of his reigns were short, in fact they only totaled to 197 days combined unlike his tag-team record which is an astounding 1,990 days.
Satoshi Kojima (Debut: July 16, 1991) – Kojima and Tenzan’s careers have been intertwined with one another since the beginning. Training in the dojo at the same time and were only months apart in their debuts. Kojima is known for his high volume intensity during his matches, the machine gun chops, lariats, and top rope elbow drops are all signature moves of his. In his initial run with NJPW he would become a 3x IWGP Tag-Team Champion but would eventually leave because the entire atmosphere of the company would soon change.
Yuji Nagata (Debut: September 14, 1992) – In my opinion, the best worker of the four, young Yuji Nagata already got tested in his loyalty with the company by being one of the wrestlers to represent NJPW into their inter-promotional fight against the invading UWF-I. The UWF wrestlers, particularly Nobuhiko Takada became an influence to Nagata though and a lot of his moves especially his kicks emulated those of Takada. In 1997 for his excursion he competed in WCW and primarily feuded with Ultimo Dragon, returning to NJPW he won the tag-team titles with long time partner/rival Manabu Nakanishi in 1999. Nagata was seen as the next ace of the company, but he would fall into hard times even when he finally became IWGP Heavyweight Champion for the first time in 2002.
Manabu Nakanishi (Debut: October 13, 1992) – A month after Nagata debuted, former accomplished amateur wrestler Manabu Nakanishi followed suit. Unlike his peers who wrestled in a technical way and in his prime Nakanishi was capable of that, he was more of a hoss type wrestler. Standing at 6’1” and nearly 300 lbs. known for his “Monster Morning” diets, Nakanishi became one of the most formidable big man in the company. However, he would always come up short in high stakes matches which ironically made him a fan favorite because the fans wanted to see him finally achieve the big one. But it would take awhile before he could do so.
I make it seemed like the careers of these legends were a disappointment, in some ways it was. Sure they won multiple championships and are fondly remembered nowadays but they could have been so much more, instead their potential were derailed due to one common factor: Inokism. Around the time when The Third Generation were finally reaching their peaks, the dark years of NJPW were also on the horizon.
nWo Japan
July 7, 1996. A date that changed the entire industry of professional wrestling. One of the most significant moments in the past two decades and to this day, there is still nothing that could reach the impact it has created. The debut of the New World Order (nWo) at WCW’s Bash at the Beach PPV. For many years Hulk Hogan was the ultimate fan favorite of wrestling fans everywhere, the patriotic man who can do no evil. But on that very night, he had quite possibly the biggest heel turn in all of wrestling, dropped the leg to the Macho Man and formed the nWo with the Outsiders: Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, laying down the foundation for the most successful stable in wrestling lore. The popularity of the nWo was not only contained in the US as due to WCW’s partnership with NJPW at the time, the stable traveled in Japan as well. The two biggest names in Japanese wrestling at the time: Masahiro Chono and The Great Muta became staple members of nWo Japan and acted as co-leaders for the group while also competing in WCW. Chono’s Team Wolf compatriots, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Hiro Saito were also a part of the initial core members of nWo Japan and later on the native members expanded with the likes of AKIRA (formerly Akira Nogami), Michiyoshi Ohara, Satoshi Kojima, and Tatsutoshi Goto. They also had plenty of gaijins, most of which were from their US counterpart such as Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Big Bubba, and Michael Wallstreet. Big Titan aka Rick Bognar was also a part of the group.
Two wrestlers benefited the most though for their careers with the Japanese expansion of the nWo as in WCW they were mainly treated as midcarders at best. Scott Norton and the nWo Sting (aka Jeff Farmer.) They became two of the most popular gaijins in NJPW around the late 90’s and had much better careers in Japan than they did in the States. On September 23, 1998 Scott Norton became the second ever gaijin to become IWGP Heavyweight Champion, winning the vacant belt over Yuji Nagata, he’d have another run with the belt years later in 2001. He is also a 2x IWGP Tag-Team Champion. Meanwhile for Jeff Farmer or better known as nWo Sting, who’s gimmick was literally a copycat of Sting, oddly enough became a big deal in Japan for a short period of time. To his credit, Farmer himself is a good worker in the ring and he was able to showcase that, he is just forever synonymous with a gimmick that as bad as it was, made it work and felt like an entity of its own despite being an obvious ripoff. He didn’t win any belts or awards, but his presence was always constant in high profile tag matches.
By the late 90’s just like in WCW, the nWo feuded with the talents of NJPW led by Shinya Hashimoto and Kensuke Sasaki. Although later on when Chono got sidelined with an injury in 1999 and left the leadership to Mutoh, the stable was split upon his return as Mutoh would change the philosophies of the group and turned them babyface, this did not sit well with his former tag partner so they divided into two, Team 2000 led by Masahiro Chono and Bad Ass Translate Trading (BATT) led by Keiji Mutoh.