FMW 1st Anniversary Show (11.5.90) review 

 

November 5, 1990.  

 

We’re in Tokyo, Japan at the Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium.  

As you can see, it’s a cool looking building. I can see why Onita wanted to run here. It was built for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and unlike all the crappy American buildings built around that time it hasn’t been torn down and replaced. Nine matches on tonight’s card. I suspect they will be clipped because the tape release version is 90 minutes. Also, the longest match is 12:24, so maybe not. I wish WCW limited their matches to 12:24 in 1990.  

 

The original venue for this show was Sumo Hall but when Onita told them his plans (VIOLENCE etc) they decided not to let him do that. There was also backlash in Japan after Onita worked an angle in Puerto Rico with Jose Gonzalez (Invader #1) just beforehand. Gonzalez murdered Bruiser Brody just two years ago. It was a questionable decision by Onita and the dislike of him, from certain circles, was real. Onita, predictably, didn’t give a fuck.  

 

“Soul King was so scary looking that I thought he actually could kill people, but he was helpless when he got into the ring” – Ricky Fuji 

 

Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari vs. Miwa Sato & Yuki Morimatsu 

It’s weird seeing Shark and Crusher before they got gimmicked up the wazoo. Sato does a good job of drawing sympathy. She’s a good character, amongst a sea of badasses in the women’s division. It’s a shame everyone is so underdeveloped in the ring and the match mostly sucks. Sato eats a huge powerbomb but kicks out and then counters a second powerbomb into a rana into the pin. Sato won again! That’s twice now. This was heavily clipped.  

 

Ricky Fuji & Akihito Ichihara vs. Billy Mack & Shooter 

The Shooter is Niiyama, who would be an FMW undercard regular. He’s not very good. Billy Mack is this fucking huge Yankee bastard who tattoos poor Ichihara with strikes. In North America, WWF in particular, he was just a jobber but in Japan he could be the top tier asshole he’s always wanted to be. Mack gets to look good because of how SHIT everyone else is in this. Ichihara and Shooter are both abysmal. 

 

The match is so bad that the best worker in it, by a distance, is Ricky Fuji. Ricky Fuji. Just process that for a minute. Mack wins with a powerslam on Ichihara. This was botchy as fuck, lads. Just awful.  

 

I was reading an interview with Ricky Fuji just before I saw this show and he claims Shunji Takano offered him a job in SWS, and he rejected it out of loyalty to Atsushi Onita. That might explain why Fuji stayed in FMW despite the company slowly improving the in-ring talent over the years.  

 

Kim Hyun Han & Yukihido Ueno vs. Lee Gak Soo & Ultraman 

A couple of hapkido loving Koreans, a luchadore and Choden Senshi Battle Ranger. How bad can it be? FMW was the first promotion to really get into the concept of mixing wrestling styles. Seeing if lucha and MMA would gel. Ultraman does a bunch of wacky lucha stuff, and the crowd are like “WHAT IS HAPPENING”. Ueno comes from a judo and karate background so the match is essentially MMA…unless Ultraman is in there. It’s a wild meshing of styles for 1990. 

 

Ultraman, not content at freaking people’s nuts with normal lucha, busts out a MUSCLE BUSTER. This is 1990 mind you and it’s just a move. It’s not a finish or anything. Ultraman goes on to force a submission on Han with the Ultra Clutch. This was mad. Like we’re thinking so far outside the 1990 box here. This is what FMW should have been doing with their undercards. *** 

 

WWA Women’s Championship 

Beastie the Road Warrior vs. Combat Toyoda 

This is a new title so we’re crowning the first champion here. Beastie is a character right out of GLOW. As in, she actually wrestled for GLOW before this. Hence the stupid name.  

Noriyo Toyoda changed her name to “Combat” a few months ago. This is an ugly match because both of them want to work heel. So, they both end up going after belts and flails and shit. The actual wrestling around the cheating is weak. Beastie seems to struggle especially with taking bumps and the finish is DOG UGLY. Combat has to hit it twice because they fuck up the powerbomb so badly the first time. The referee then gets into a fight with Beastie and the invader is run off by the pink tracksuited side of the locker room. This wasn’t good. 

 

AWA World Lightweight Championship 

Katsuji Ueda (c) vs. Jimmy Backlund  

This is a “mixed style” fight. Which means Ueda has come in wearing boxing gloves and Backlund is just a wrestler, so he’s not dumb enough to give himself that handicap. FMW are certainly trying different things here, I’ll give them that much. You’re not allowed to attack your opponent when he’s down, so that, at least, makes the boxing gloves make more sense. However, if you take your opponent down then you can slap on submissions and stuff. Yeah, I don’t know.  

 

Sadly, this doesn’t get the heavy clipping treatment. Which means someone, somewhere, thought it was good. It is, of course, a precursor to MMA. UFC is still three years away at this point. This ends up going five rounds and doesn’t really work as a concept. Del Ray hits a powerbomb and finishes with the Sharpshooter. You can’t really escape a Sharpshooter with boxing gloves on! Interesting concept, for sure, but it looks dumb through a modern lens. 

 

Megumi Kudo vs. Reibun Amada 

This is a “street fight stretcher death match” and you can only win by knocking your opponent out. Say what you want about Onita, but he did give women’s wrestling the chance to be just as brutal as the men’s stuff. Kudo’s bumping and general movement is improving already. It’ll take a while until she’s as good as the top tier talent in Japan but it’s nice to see how much better she is here compared to the summer. She hits Amada with a bunch of backdrop drivers until she can’t stand anymore. KO! Much better from Kudo here. **½. 

 

Sambo Asako vs. Grigory Verichev 

Verichev is a Russian judoka. One of the rare ones that Antonio Inoki hasn’t already booked. This is his first match, ever. He was judo world champion in 1987 and got a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. So, you know he can go. He also has a very nice moustache.  

 

Verichev has a hard time with the concept of a worked match. He looks tentative and is only happy when he’s got a handful of gi. Asako has to heavily lead him. I’m guessing the match was pre-planned and Verichev does not recall every spot. Asako is a great guy to have on your roster because he’s a total pro, is over like crazy and has no problem taking a job. We skip ahead to Verichev winning with an armbar. They clipped a 5:00 match. That should tell you all was not right in Denmark. Or Russia in this case.  

 

Tarzan Goto vs. SOUL KING 

We got a look at Soul King earlier. He looks chiseled and comes out wearing a black belt. He doesn’t have a black belt in understanding pro-wrestling, that’s for fucking sure. He lazily kicks at Goto for basically the entire match. The crowd laugh at how much he sucks. Let’s just say he’s not some hidden gem that I’ve discovered during this deep dive. He can’t even take a turnbuckle spot. Instead of grabbing the ropes he just falls over. Goto whacks him with the ring bell and finishes with his Facebuster/Pedigree/pancake slam move.  

 

THE SOUL KING WILL RETURN*!!!! 

 

*The Soul King will not return.  

 

WWA Brass Knuckles Championship 

Atsushi Onita (c) vs. Mr Pogo 

Onita pitches the belt into Pogo’s face before he’s even announced and has hit a tope before the bell rings. This is a guy who knows what THE SHINE is all about, brrrrrrrrrrrother. This is fairly tame by FMW standards. There are actual ropes, nothing is on fire, nothing is going to explode. It’s just Onita, his charisma, Pogo and various plunder he’s going to bloody Onita with.  

 

Mr Pogo carved out (ha) a career by being this violent asshole. He’d torture fan favourites. This is under Texas Death rules so Onita loses a three count to a piledriver on a chair, but pops back up before the 10 count so he’s ok. Onita’s retort is headbutts and lots of them. This is a man who doesn’t give a fuck. He’s not careful with these headbutts at all. They’re not controlled. He does most of them while running. It’s CTE central. 

 

The match is completely out of control. Onita drills Pogo with a DDT onto a chair and while Pogo is recovering Onita takes exception to someone dressed as Yakuza at ringside. How so? HE PILEDRIVES HIM ON A TABLE. When Pogo gets back up he’s busted wide open. I have to assume a bladejob but he did get shoot headbutted half a dozen times, so who knows.  

 

Pogo eats another DDT for the pin but survives the ten count. Onita proceeds to headbutt him repeatedly, again, and this time the trauma is too much. Pogo can’t answer the count and Onita retains. *** 

 

The 411: 

Some of this show is awful but, by god, it’s never boring. Onita knew how to keep his fans enthralled and FMW chucked so many ideas at the wall. Eventually some of it was going to be good! It’s wild seeing this compared to other promotions where everything is so stale. FMW has mixed martial arts, mixed styles, mixed concepts and is prepared to go to the next level with all of it. The show was a huge success and helped sow the seeds for the continued success of the promotion into the following 12 months. While Onita’s ego drove away his backers, who went and formed W*NG, he had a new revenue source; a pack of adoring fans.