[1994-09-25-FMW] Atsushi Onita & Katsutoshi Niiyama & Mr Gannosuke vs Mr Pogo & The Gladiator & Hideki Hosaka (Exploding Barbed Wire Dynamite Pool Elimination Death)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

My usual defense of FMW against the allegations of just being gratuitous blood and guts is that there is also a lot of good wrestling, and also that even the death matches usually have a lot of good wrestling mixed in and are worked in smart fashion. But this? This is just gratuitous blood and guts. That doesn't mean there's no typical death match goofy fun. I mean, wrestlers are taking bumps into pools of exploding water. But Pogo is using an AX as a weapon and carving a whole in Onita's stomach. Seriously. On the awesome side, Onita's team rides to the ring on a motorboat! Fun at times, crosses a line into being too gory at times. But here is Onita's FMW in all its glory, for better or worse.

[El-P]

For the better. Awesome spectacle.

[Kevin Ridge]

They take a boat out to get to the ring! A boat! That already is pretty awesome. I hope all of these guys can swim. Serious looking weapons being used. Brutal looking stuff happening. This was just a spectacle to watch. If it had Somalian pirates and a great white shark involved it could have been my match of the year.

[jdw]

Anyone remember when Nitro in the early years would do that Spring Break show (I think) where they were at some place that had a pool? Could you imaging Eric seeing this over lines of blow with Hogan, and then wonder who they might book into it and how they could slip it by the sponsors?

 

Hogan: "We're going to need a bigger pool, brother."

 

John

[jdw]

I seem to recall Onita doing one of the greatest 0-60 juice jobs ever: bell rings, Pogo wacks him, Onita goes to the blade. It was something like Ferrari fast in under 4 seconds or something.

[jdw]

From Bahu's fmwwrestling.us site:

 

Onita would come up with another new idea for a Death Match, but this Death Match couldn't be booked at just any building. It had to be booked inside of a Stadium that carried an Olympic size pool. FMW would book the Tokyo Jingyu Pool Stadium on September 25, 1994 with the idea of the main event being Atsushi Onita, Mr. Gannosuke, and Katsutoshi Niiyama against Mr. Pogo, The Gladiator, and Hideki Hosaka in an Exploding Barbed wire Pool Death Match. The ring would be placed in the middle of the pool, and the pool would then be set with dynamites, and every time a wrestler would be thrown into the pool, the explosions would go off. The show would sell out with 3,200 fans attending to see a brand new death match, but before the main event, Yukihiro Kanemura would make his FMW debut with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga against Tarzan Goto and Hisakatsu Oya, but it wouldn't take long in the match when Oya would end up turning on Goto, allowing Kanemura, Matsunaga, and Oya to triple team Goto as the ring would be surrounded by the giant pool. Onita seeing his friend being attacked by three men, Onita would decide to jump in the pool and begin swimming to the ring to make the save for Goto. Onita would brawl with Kanemura, Oya, and Matsunaga, and would even bodyslam Kanemura into the pool. Kanemura, Oya, and Matsunaga would retreat, but when Onita would go up to the bloody Tarzan Goto, Goto embarrassed and humiliated after turning his back on FMW and then getting turned on and having to be saved by Onita would refuse to look Onita and would take a boat by himself to the back while ashamed. Explosions in the pool would then be placed outside of the ring, with Onita's team and Pogo's team taking a boat to the ring. The ropes to the ring would be replaced and two sides of the ring would be placed with exploding barbwire. The wrestlers would be warned before going out to make sure not to directly land on the explosions in the pool, or they would be seriously injured if not worse. Katsutoshi Niiyama would be the first one eliminated after being thrown into the pool by The Gladiator to show the crowds the enormous explosions coming out of the pool once the wrestler was thrown out and eliminated from the match. Mr. Gannosuke for the first time would make a name for himself in the main event, and hold his own quite well after dropkicking The Gladiator into elimination, and then fighting with Mr. Pogo until both wrestlers would bring each other into the water causing both to be eliminated. This would leave Atsushi Onita against Hideki Hosaka, and although Hosaka would gain control of Onita early, Onita would fight back by throwing Hosaka into the exploding barbed wire and then pinning him with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb for the victory.

After rewatching the match for the first time in ages thanks to youtube, I'm still not much of a fan of the match. I always hated Pogo's scythe... symbolically always came across as a rape tool, and probably was the intent that Pogo was playing for even if it went over the head of most of the fans. That said, Gannosuke's dive onto Pogo to take them both out... that's one of the better elimination spots ever. The finish come quick after it and is so sudden a turn around for the faces that it takes a lot of the thunder out of it... but it's a really great spot that you sort of wish a better promotion and match figured out how to use.

[Ditch]

Memorable, but not actually good. Which is my opinion of pretty much every Onita deathmatch.

[Exposer]

Onita's team coming to the ring on a boat was awesome. This was a hell of a spectacle. Pogo gutting Onita was a little too much though. The eliminations were nicely set up though if I want to give this match any praise. Ultimately, it's just an amazing spectacle to see.

[soup23]

I can't describe the look of shame my wife gave me when she saw Onita load up a boat to get to the ring. I am assuming this was a one match show? A spectacle I am glad to have seen. Certainly not a great wrestling match or brawl, but memorable and is a nice fit in an overall yearbook setting.

[Zenjo]

The one match that involves a swimming pool and none of the 6 wrestlers are wearing trunks...

 

This was pure FMW. Personally I prefer the IWA Japan Bath House Death Match from 95. That probably had more to do with the spectators than the wrestling though.

[BAHU]

I can't describe the look of shame my wife gave me when she saw Onita load up a boat to get to the ring. I am assuming this was a one match show? A spectacle I am glad to have seen. Certainly not a great wrestling match or brawl, but memorable and is a nice fit in an overall yearbook setting.

No. It was a full show.

 

FMW 9/25/94

Tokyo Jingu Pool Stadium

3200 Fans (Sold Out)

 

Battle Ranger Z & Koji Nakagawa & Masato Tanaka d. Mach Hayato & Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Gosaku Goshogawara when Nakagawa pinned Hayato (12:45)

Sambo Asako d. Ricky Fuji (9:33)

Damian d. Cockroach # 1 (12:32)

Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari & Keiko Iwami d. Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda & Miwa Sato when Tsuchiya pinned Sato (19:21)

Tarzan Goto & Hisakatsu Oya vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Yukihiro Kanemura went to a No Contest (6:58)

Atsushi Onita & Mr. Gannosuke & Katsutoshi Niiyama d. Mr. Pogo & The Gladiator & Hideki Hosaka in a No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Dynamite Pool Elimination Death Match.

The Gladiator eliminated Katsutoshi Niiyama (6:01)

Mr. Gannosuke eliminated The Gladiator (8:20)

Mr. Pogo & Mr. Gannosuke eliminated each other (12:59)

Atsushi Onita eliminated Hideki Hosaka (13:08)

 

The last two matches made the Triple Onita commercial tape. The women's match made highlights of a Megumi Kudo commercial tape where all six of them end up in the pool. I would not say this match was FMW. Not even Onita FMW as there a lot to Onita during his era of FMW. I would say this was more Onita/Pogo FMW.

[PeteF3]

Well, this was something, all right. The entrances brought to mind the scene in Ace Ventura, where Ace uses a little portable fan to move a boat about 6 feet. I agree about Pogo here--this went from being fun to uncomfortable really quickly when he starts trying to disembowel guys with a fucking scythe. Somehow guys taking bumps into an exploding pool is more believable than that. This is more of a spectacle than a good match but there is some good work here--some guys are throwing some wicked suplexes and the builds to the eliminations are all done well. There's even some attempts at psychology surrounding Pogo's fireball. Pogo was his usual shit self but the other five worked hard, and Onita's selling (if you want to call it that) is as good as ever. Not a high-end FMW match but probably something everyone should see once. You can't say Onita has ever lacked ambition.

[Makai Club #1]

This was gross at times. Pogo at one point was carving into Onita at the stomach using a scythe. The explosion looks great, but it's all just for flash rather than drama. This was a fun spectacle with a good Onita performance and a magnificent Gannosuke spot where he dives onto Pogo, eliminating (and blowing up) him and Pogo. That's pretty much it. ***