FMW Summer Passion 1990 N12: Summer Spectacular in Shiodome (8.4.90) review 

 

August 4, 1990 

 

FMW, the renegade promotion started in the late 80s by lunatic Atsushi Onita, was gathering a little steam in Japan. Initially started as a shootstyle promotion, off the back of Onita’s violent assault on a judoka, it has swiftly turned into Japan’s most violent promotion. 4,520 turned up to this show with the promise of an EXPLODING RING main event. Let’s fucking goooooo. 

 

 

This is the commercial release, which means the show is clipped down to about an hour. Which means you don’t get 30+ minutes of dead time with them setting up the no ropes main event. The camera pans around outside as people file in and holy shit, is it ever a SAUSAGEFEST. Onita might have shagged thousands of women, but he couldn’t get them to buy tickets to his show.  

 

Ultraman & Masacarita Sagrada vs. Piratita Morgan & Yukihide Ueno 

Ueno is better known as “Choden Senshi Battle Ranger” in WAR. Pirata Morgan has worked under that gimmick in all sorts of places including both WWF and WCW in the late 90s. This is his first venture into Asia since working AJPW back in 1984. Sagarada is the only ‘mini’ in this match (standing 4’ 5” tall) compared to everyone else, who are just short by wrestling standards. As the video kicks in it becomes apparent that this isn’t Pirata Morgan but rather his mini equivalent Piratita Morgan. Which makes a bit more sense. 

 

This match doesn’t really work. It’s clumsy and awkward. The structure doesn’t make any sense. You have Sagrada SAVING Ultraman from stuff. Minis action usually provides a nice comedic relief but instead nothing happens and the fans just pop high spots. Any attempt from Sagrada to do comedy is met with silence. They fuck the finish up in horrendous fashion. Sagrada gets a victory roll, but Morgan’s shoulders are on Sagrada’s feet so there’s no pin. The referee refuses to count it twice before giving up and going with the flow. This wasn’t worth the tape space. 

 

All Europe Women’s Championship* 

Magnificent Mimi (c) vs. Miwa Sato 

In my previous look at Mimi, I said she did hard things well but wasn’t good at the basics. One of the major changes from the 80s to the 90s was guys learning high spots before basics. So, a lot of guys had bad fundamentals. This has never improved. This is the turning point. Sato is the pluckiest underdog in the company. She has no chance here against the much larger Mimi. I’ve said this before, but Mimi has star power, and I’m surprised she never made it big. She does make dubious choices. Like hitting a sick sitout powerbomb and then hitting a splash instead of just pinning right away.  

 

Poor Miwa gets bullied and thrown around and the crowd start to boo. Leave her alone! There’s a feeling Mimi is ‘playing with her food’. Sato, however, cannot do offence AT ALL. So, you can see why she’s so frequently the victim in these contests. The problem is that Mimi should finish this a lot quicker and it runs over 10 minutes, which is frankly ridiculous. Mimi eventually wins with a crossbody. I’m reminded again here that Mimi was great at some things (that sitout powerbomb was SWANK) but can barely manage a convincing pinfall.  

 

She went on to star in 1993 actioner “Streets of Rage” before a decent career as a stuntwoman in Hollywood. Her credits include Man on the Moon, X-Files, Malcolm in the Middle (she was Jane’s stunt double), Scorpion King, The Shield, Chuck and Million Dollar Baby.  

 

*no idea 

 

Megumi Kudo vs. Noriyo Toyoda 

You would think this ruled, right? Well, Kudo tries for a tope before the match and misses. Congratulations, you’ve fallen flat on your face mate. Toyoda blades out on the floor and most of the match is a brawl around ringside. The various chairs and belt shots get a reaction. Mainly because of how feisty Kudo is. The actual work in it is not good though. Kudo can’t bump anything here. She isn’t the polished wrestler we’ll come to know and love. Aside from a suplex on the floor (and the dive) an untrained wrestler could do all this stuff to the same level.  

 

Almost everything looks ugly. The rana into a pin is a prime example. It’s so slow and messy. Toyoda wins with a big old powerbomb, which is happily the cleanest looking spot in the match. So, at least they finished strong. There was a lot of energy here and they used the street fight stipulation to cover for their lack of experience. Something ECW did to cover up guys lack of actual ability. 

 

Ricky Fuji, Mr Pogo & Katsuji Ueda vs. Lee Gak Soo, Kim Hyun Hwan & Sambo Asako 

Having feuded with the Koreans, Asako now teams with them. I would say “if you can’t beat them, join them” but he did beat Hwan. Ueda is a kickboxer, who has never wrestled before in his life until this tour. Ricky Fuji is another newcomer. I’m sure you’ve seen him work at some point for FMW, if you’ve ever seen an FMW show. Ueda starts by beating up Asako. ARRRGH. Oh no! Is he ok? AAARRRRGH.  

 

Asako knows the business. He knows if he looks like a big fat, pathetic loser that him winning means more. Fuji, in his tiger print trunks, looks kinda useless. Compared to all these rookies, Pogo has been wrestling for EIGHTEEN YEARS. Holy shit, was he ever young? Everyone has a martial arts discipline apart from Pogo, whose martial art is Fuck You and that martial art involves punching people in the face. 

 

This does remind me of early MMA with all the different styles. The Korean Bruce Lee rip off stuff against kickboxing with actual boxing gloves on is a wild ride. Asako’s sambo doesn’t initially kick in unless he’s demonstrating the sambo technique of falling on your face and screaming. AAAAARGH. Hwan decides kicking Pogo in the head is the way to go. Do you really think a concussion will stop this guy? Pogo drills Soo with a piledriver but luckily his lego haircut prevents any damage. 

 

The sounds in this match are incredible. All you can hear is the Korean lads doing Bruce Lee noises and Asako screaming in pain. It’s an assault on the auditory senses. Hwan gets punched by Ueda and fails to answer the ten count. This was a gigantic fucking mess, and I had a lovely time, thanks. Post match Asako goes to shake hands with Pogo, who punches him in the face. You had it coming. Sambo Asako is one of the great workers of the 1990s. An essential wrestler to watch, imo.  

 

 

WWA Brass Knuckles Championship 

Atsushi Onita (c) vs. Tarzan Goto 

This is barbed wire, no ropes, “current blast” death match. Which means if you get run into the wire, an explosion happens. Goto is the kind of lunatic that Onita needed in his promotion. The kind of guy who’ll agree to work Onita’s stupid match types. “The ropes are barbed wire, and they explode”. “Ok, you son of a bitch, I’m in”.  

 

Onita gets backed up on a lock up and his leg brushes the bottom strand of barbed wire and it explodes. Was that supposed to happen? Oh, Onita, you mad bastard. Keep in mind this is the same year that WARRIOR was WWF champion. That’s what it’s playing against. You bet you sweet bippy the tape trading freaks were all over this like white on rice.  

 

These two sickos, not content with being surrounded by literal barbed wire, resort to headbutting each other. At least one of them gets busted hardway through this. The explosions are pretty cool but almost seem like accidents. There is a funny bit when Onita goes for a rope break, while in a Figure Four, and realises he can’t because the ropes will explode.  

 

The work in this is nicely snug. Especially the strikes. The gimmick does overwhelm things, but the gimmick is the selling point too. Onita backs himself up into the ropes when he’s a bit fucked, and more explosions follow. They do escalate as Onita pushes Goto into the wire, and he gets very exploded upon. Goto survives that but Onita spams DDTs and powerbombs until Goto can’t stand.  

 

The match style would get the kinks ironed out as it got more violent, but this was a dramatic start. Onita was certainly making waves and changing what Japanese public perception of pro-wrestling was.  

He’s clearly very emotional about it and, as a promoter, you can’t underestimate the influence of Onita. Especially how much of FMW was ‘borrowed’ by ECW. Which, in turn, was borrowed by the big two in their Attitude Era battle. Look no further than the Mexican wrestlers, minis, two women having a street fight and extreme ultra-violence in the main. FMW was the catalyst for a lot of what 1990s wrestling was. If you’re looking for the source, it is Onita. 

 

The 411: 

It’s not a great show but the meshing of styles and different aspects of wrestling here is the forefront of a decade long change of what pro-wrestling was. Like it or not. I’ve said this about FMW many times, but we will see its influence kicking in sooner rather than later. For FMW itself, this switch from ‘different style’ mixed MMA matches (semi-main) to exploding barbed wire (main) would see them increase their popularity exponentially. Their first anniversary show would draw over 7000 but a year later, for their second anniversary show, they ran Kawasaki Stadium and drew 33,000.