[1996-12-11-FMW-Year End Sensation] Atsushi Onita & Mr Pogo & Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs Terry Funk & Hisakatsu Oya & Headhunter I & Headhunter II

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

One of the weaker FMW matches on the set but still a really fun brawl judged on it's own and I can see people liking this a lot.

 

Historically significant as it has Onita making what was supposed to be a 1 time in ring return for what was supposed to me Pogo's retirement match. Instead Onita would come back full time next year and Pogo poped back up in 97 working for BJW. Ironically almost 2 years later in 98, Pogo would make his 1 time return to FMW to wrestle Onita in his last match working for the company.

[Loss]

I agree that it's not as good as most of the FMW on the set, but the production values are so much better, with better camerawork and and no distracting announcer like in August-September. It's not really anything new, but I always get a kick out of American wrestlers waving the flag as heels in other places.

 

This was a TV special, correct?

[FLIK]

This was a TV special, correct?

Yeah, it was kind of weird how they did the 12/11 show making it so you can't get the entire thing from 1 source.

 

Everything up to the main event was released on 1 comm tape (which also had Taka/Kanemura 12/10 & the Taka/Hayabusa match) and then the main event was released on a completely seperate comm tape that just focused on the history of Onita & Pogo.

 

Then when they aired the footage on tv, all the men's matches from the card aired on 1 show and the 2 women's matches aired on a diffrent one as for a short while FMW joshi had their own seperate tv deal.

 

Don't know which version of this match is on this set but the one i've got is from the tv airing which cut out about 3 mins of stuff.

[Tim Evans]

I really enjoyed this. Funk/Onita was great and Onita might be the best emotional wrestler ever. He just lets it all out and his post match crying is always good. Loved the stuff with Pogo.

[PeteF3]

Onita looks like he's gotten 10 years younger in his time off. This was pretty good overall, with a nuclear crowd going nuts for Onita's return. Pogo is also super-over as an unlikely babyface, though he's so fucking horrible and out-of-shape that he really drags this down--it's absurd watching this guy waddle around throwing sub-Lita-level strikes while the Headhunters are flying around the ring. Plus his chain-and-sickle get involved which is a surefire way to take me out of a match instantly. But Onita looks good, the Headhunters provide some great flying fat man offense, Funk is Funk, and Tanaka gets a star-making spot here with some heroic kickouts, near-falls, a comeback from long odds, and the winning fall.

[soup23]

Something about the spectacle of all of this really resonated with me. Perhaps it is that I think the 2000 stuff involving Onita has been too brief and full of mostly no names guys in his camp. This match featured a lot heavy hitters between the Headhunters, Funk, Tanaka etc. The visual of Funk grinding into Onita on the ropes won't lose my mind anytime soon and provided a gritty backdrop for the array of violence. Onita returning for "one night only" is as carny as they come but it felt like a big deal and the heat was off the charts. **** (7.8)

[tim]

This started out lovely with some wild chaos, blood, marauding through the crowd, the kind of gritty-sloppy garbage match I love. It did drag for me after a while though, but I get the sense they wanted a longer match for a sense of importance. The Headhunters sure did kill people with splashes here.