FMW Korakuen X2 N1-2 (2.26/27.91) review 

 

February 26, 1991 

 

On YouTube there are several shows simply marked “FMW Korakuen”. Do I know what’s on them? Nope! This feels very much like delving into the old wacky world of tape trading and I am here for it. Let’s fucking gooooooooo. 

 

(Obviously, I eventually found out what the show was, hence the title being filled in and shit – Future Arnold) 

 

The opening shot has two teams in the ring and the date is helpfully stamped into the corner. So, mystery over after 1:45. We had a wild ride for a minute there. 

 

Yoshika Maedomari & Eriko Tsuchiya vs. Megumi Kudo & Miwa Sato 

Eriko and Sato botch an early sequence, and the crowd get on them for it. Miwa Sato is great at fighting from underneath and she’s so tiny she draws great sympathy. Especially against these assholes. Kudo is dreadful here. I don’t know why, but she has no chemistry with either heel and it gets ugly. Jim Ross would be making bowling shoe references. The faces just about manage a double team powerbomb for the win. Thank fuck this was clipped because what was left sucked. DUD 

 

Video Control gives us a video of El Pandita exploring. Which involves him eating food and looking at stuffed toys.  

 

Yukuhide Ueno vs. El Pandita 

Pandita is over as fuck because he’s a panda. The crowd literally chant “PANDA” as he comes out. He distributes lollipops to the crowd and snapmares to Ueno. The match is quite bad but luckily it’s Japan, so they think it’s on purpose and laugh. If you put this on anywhere else, it would not get a positive reaction. Pandita gets a pin and the crowd not only applaud this abortion but also chant his name. FMW brought him back and insisted he wrestle comedy matches instead, seeing as that felt more in his wheelhouse. DUD 

 

WWA Women’s Championship 

Combat Toyota (c) vs. Despina Goto 

Greek wrestler Despina Montagas married Tarzan Goto so they’ve started billing her as such. Toyota is dressed as a British cop, which is certainly ‘a choice*’. I’ve always liked Despina when I’ve seen her before. She works snug and is happy to just let Combat whack her with strikes to make this look more real. I also like her selling. It’s realistic and she takes her bumps in satisfying fashion. Naturally, she’s about to retire and I’ll never get to see her again. Such are “the breaks”. Combat brings a chair in and brutally powerbombs Despina on it for the win. Cool finish. I assume there was some dead air cut out as the match was over 12 minutes. Miles better than the opening two matches. **¼  

 

*Based on her general fashion sense, I have to believe this is supposed to be punk related. Never Mind the Bollocks, here’s Combat Toyota!  

 

Ricky Fuji vs. Sambo Asako 

I love Sambo Asako and his pudgy little face, but Ricky Fuji is terrible, so this might not work. Fuji plays a jerky heel, and people seem to like him. There’s no accounting for taste. This is somewhat sluggish, because they let Ricky lead, until they both blade on the floor. Ricky’s is really obvious. Whatever could he be doing with his head and arm under the apron? I can’t believe how into this the crowd are! Asako eventually finishes Ricky with a backdrop driver. This was…fine? It took a while to get going and the stuff on the floor felt like it should have happened after the bladejobs. ** 

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Atsushi Onita 

Goto vs Onita is the big FMW match for the early years of the promotion. They tended to save it for bigger cards than this. Goto gets opened up with shoot headbutts in the first minute and Onita has hit a tope suicida before we get into minute two. These lads know how to get the juices going.  

 

The whole thing is carnage. The ringside cameraman can barely get his shots because he’s falling over stuff. It’s suitably chaotic. Onita, who DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK LADS, blades himself on camera. I’m not lying to you when I say I’m having a lovely time watching this. This is the absolute template for 90s garbage wrestling. The blood. The spots. The two big personalities. They potato the heck out of each other too. I love that they do a piledriver through a table and then just go back to punching each other in the face. HATRED.  

 

Goto’s clotheslines in this are meaty as hell. A good stiff lariat looks sensational at all times. Goto whups Onita’s ass here. He beats the shit out of him. So when Onita is unloading bombs near the finish, you can see how the beating has weakened his offence. Goto eats two powerbombs and barely kicks out of the second one so Onita hits another one and that finishes. I sense the finish was PB#2 as the referee actually counted three. A shame the finish isn’t there because the match kicks ass. ***¾  

 

 

February 27, 1991 

 

Oh heeeeey, so apparently Night 2 is also on YouTube, so let’s do that too.  We start with Pandita, who is exploring Shinjuku. He tests his strength and buys a coke from a vending machine.  

Onita must have loved this. YEAH, THIS IS GREAT CONTENT. THIS IS THE SHIT RIGHT HERE. He walks around in full costume for a bit and doesn’t get mistaken for a furry by a loudmouth right wing influencer. We lived in sweet, simple times in 1991.  

 

El Pandita & Shooter vs. Ricky Fuji & Yukehide Ueno 

“The Shooter” is Niiyama in a mask. He’s been doing this gimmick for a while. Dirtbag Ricky Fuji is much better suited to dumb comedy midcard fare than actual matches. Ueno decides to take this deadly seriously, going for an assortment of holds on Pandita’s goofy masked head as the crowd laugh at Pandita chaining. Early MMA, this is not, but it does demonstrate the clash of styles between lucha libre and puroresu, so it’s making strong points.  

 

“You wanna see face” yells Fuji, intent on exposing Pandita’s real face to the world. What if he pulls the mask off…and it’s a panda underneath? Niiyama is a beast, so it’s a little odd watching him bump around for Fuji’s goofy shit. Ueno seems intent on murdering Pandita with big moves, which just results in chuckles as it looks funny. Fuji eventually finishes with a backdrop driver as Pandita takes his FOURTH head drop of the match. What the fuck man? Just let him cosplay, you bastards. **¼  

 

Billy Mack vs. Katsuji Ueda 

I realise that in a previous FMW review I got Ueda and Ueno mixed up. If you’re reading these I can only apologise. It’s on the internet so it’s there forever now. Ueda, again, wears boxing gloves. His main tactic appears to be leg kicks on the enormous Mack. It’s a brutal assault. I feel bad for Billy, who doesn’t look like a fighter but rather one of those big old country boys, who’s just big and doesn’t like to fight. I don’t know which is the worst shoot fighting choice; boxing gloves or cowboy boots. Billy lumbers into a few big punches at the start of round two, and that’s the end of that.  

 

WWA Women’s Championship 

Combat Toyota (c) vs. Megumi Kudo 

Toyota defends her belt again after successfully besting Despina last night. Kudo shows a lot of pluck here but gets beaten all over the building. Combat beats her up on the floor, then overpowers her and puts her in submissions. Kudo can’t bring the same realism as Despina but she does feel like a big underdog. When she finally gets a sleeper and causes Combat trouble the crowd are invested. To the point where Combat’s response, choking her with a belt, gets booed. Booing the heels? In FMW? Whatever next? Kudo mounts a spirited comeback but gets beaten with a powerslam. This was fine. Not as good as the Despina match from yesterday and a little too clunky in places. Crowd was into Kudo though. ** 

 

Sambo Asako vs. Tarzan Goto 

Goto lost to Onita last night so he’s in…a bit of a mood. Poor Asako gets punched in the face for about a minute. If this was MMA it would already be over. Remember the Mick Foley-Tommy Dreamer thing where Tommy wanted Mick to bust him hardway with punches and he couldn’t? That’s this also. Eventually Asako resorts to blading while Goto mercilessly tags his back with chair shots. HE’S ALREADY DEAD! Asako has this cool comeback where he manages a judo throw and a senton off the apron to the floor. He’s all fired up and then Goto just beats the shit out of him some more and hits him with a table. Then it’s the SHOOT headbutts and Asako is down for the three. Both guys bleed buckets, stiff as fuck, seven minutes long. Someone stop me giving this five stars. **** 

 

WWA Brass Knuckles Championship 

Atsushi Onita (c) vs. Grigory Verichev  

I can’t remember if I’ve gone through Verichev’s achievements before, but he was world judo champion in 1987. He was top three in every world championship during the 1980s. He also won four European titles. He is LEGIT. Onita, presumably because he gets hit in the head a lot, tries to grapplefuck. With an Olympian. A judo world champion. This goes about as well as could be expected.  

Just hit him with a chair brother! The standard match for Onita around this time was that he gets his ass kicked for 15 minutes and then comes back to win. Onita mixes it up a bit here by trying everything to get Verichev discombobulated. From dropkicks to headbutts to actual judo throws. Verichev’s Soviet brain cannot comprehend what he’s facing. Eventually he goes BEASTMODE and starts throwing Onita around. It’s the Brock-Cena match.  

 

They do a series of suplexes where Onita barely gets up and then a huge overhead belly to belly, after a NINE count, and he pops back up and lariats Verichev! Yes! The suplexes continue until Onita can’t stand, and Verichev shockingly ends Onita’s 406-day reign with the belt. ***¾. Back-to-back bangers tonight and for Onita, with last night’s cracker. This was a less good match than Goto, but the finish was better. Onita does such a magical job of putting people over. If Onita took the job for you, he did it properly.  

He sits in the ring, bleeding, a broken man. The crowd hang on his every word and Verichev has to come back into the ring to pick him up. Showing that they’re just good sportsmen. Onita was the business here. Absolutely on it with his selling. Made Verichev look like a million bucks. He keeps going, saluting the crowd with his last burst of energy before collapsing at ringside. What a fucking guy. Just, an exercise in being the Man here. Understanding humanity and giving them a beaten hero. Onita is SO good at pro wrestling. Maybe one of the most underrated guys, ever. Not many people understood the work like he did.  

 

The 411: 

I’m so happy I watched these two shows. Two fantastic Onita matches. Two fantastic Goto matches. I legitimately think FMW is my third favourite promotion from 1991. It’s not just the Violent Crap that proliferated the 90s in tribute to Onita’s work. It’s the emotional heft the matches have. Did Onita change wrestling for the worse? Kind of. Because of all the awful copycat promotions that sprung up. Was FMW a great pro wrestling experience? Absolutely. We’ll take the rough with the smooth.