[1990-02-12-FMW-Battle Brave] Atsushi Onita vs Masanobu Kurisu (Barbed Wire)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

Couple years since i've last seen this. I remember it being pretty decent but not great, early prototype for the formula Onita would perfect later on, a lot of great drama & psychology but the action in this doesn't measure up to go along with it. Maybe i'll give it a re-watch this week end to see if my opinion will change.

[Loss]

More of a wild scene than a good match, but worth watching. There's more wrestling here than you'd think, and Kurisu is solid, but this is pretty gory. FMW would specialize in these things later in the decade, but this is an interesting look at a primitive version of their ideas. Fun to see how Onita became Onita.

[PeteF3]

Lots of stiff shots and a decent finishing stretch, with a pretty surprising false finish when Kurisu kicks out of a sick Thunder Fire power bomb. Even though the build to it was good there and it was the whole raison d'etre for the match there was a little too much laying around in barbed wire for my liking. Crowd was way into Onita and he does already have a crowd-pleasing style, especially with his comebacks. Of COURSE a barbed wire death match ends with hugs and handshakes.

[Kevin Ridge]

Match listing says barbed wire but not seeing any. Oh, it’s outside the ring on boards. So it feels like a battle royal where you are trying to eliminate your opponent to the outside. Onita is the first to fall outside on the barbed wire. And the ref starts a count so he has to quickly remove himself from barbed wire to get back in. That's pretty vicious in thought. Kurisu goes to work with stomps on Onita’s gash on his back. Seemed to be a bit too much laying around at times on the edge of the mat.

[soup23]

Real fun seeing the roots of death matches being fought out. There was a lot of laying around in this match but I sort of welcomed that especially compared to the superhuman no selling that has become par the course in death matches. The first powerbomb looked like it broke Kurisu's neck. Fun match.

[Cox]

This feels very experimental. The teases for the barbed wire are done well. It doesn't look spectacular watching this with 2012 eyes, but that's probably a good thing.

[Zenjo]

Onita's vest always makes me think of Rab C Nesbitt. That probably won't mean a lot to non-British readers. It wasn't long before his favourite article of clothing was all torn up. Oh yeah and his back. Did have some nice drama over the gimmick. What I actually dug most was the wrestling at the start and finish. Some meaty chops early and then at the end Onita just murdered him with a brutal head first powerbomb.

[stunning_grover]

I liked this a lot. Looking forward to see more FMW stuff from 1990.

[Laney]

I thought this was bad. Most of the match seemed to consist of trying to roll the other guy out of the ring onto the barbed wire boards. Very tame for today's deathmatch standards.

[JerryvonKramer]

lol at the Rab C Nesbitt reference.

 

Thought Onita's selling as good here and they got over a good sense of danger. The crowd was really good too.

 

Despite this being a deathmatch, they were still able to build to the superplex as a genuine high spot and the powerbombs in the finishing stretch.

 

Kurisu's is another neat moustache to add to the 1990 GQ collection.

[DR Ackermann]

Not good at all. It seems like they weren't sure what they were doing. The referee had to adjust the rules and stop in the middle of several count outs because a wrestler was obviously not going to make it back in the ring in time. Only about 2 minutes of actual wrestling in between all the crap. That action was good though. Awful match.

[garretta]

Less blood than you'd expect from a barbed wire match, but a lot more psychology with trying to put your opponent out of the ring so he not only gets tangled up on the wire, but has to beat the count back in. That in itself is a good idea for a match without the attempted pinfalls and submissions, but we get those too, including that powerbomb where Kurisu was dropped right on his forehead. How he wasn't legitimately knocked out I'll never know.

 

I've heard of FMW, but this is the first match of theirs that I've ever seen. Looking forward to seeing this promotion evolve over the course of the year.

[drew wardlaw]

The count out teases while Onita is in the barbed wire are excruciating because he's obviously moving very slowly to avoid gettin hurt, but he's got to move faster to beat the count, so thats really well done I thought. The finish is pretty unexpected with it not ending in a count out in the barbed wire, but that's cool, I was caught off guard but I enjoyed it.

[dawho5]

That first powerbomb should have ended it. Not a fan of the deathmatch style at all, so I have little else to add.

[G. Badger]

For the first time ever, we get barb wire boards surrounding the ring. Plus we get two AJPW vets laying in the slaps, chops, and headbutts. This isn't a fuck around, tease the wire, do a crappy move or two, do a wire spot type death match. Both guys gave and received some really good shots here...barbwire spots too. It's a great match and and is relatively short. Brief but, intense so, they never overstay their welcome. Brutal finish- go see this!

[DR Ackermann]

I've been going back through early FMW and I completely missed the boat on this. I don't know if it has to do with watching relatively little wrestling the last couple years so I'm appreciating things differently but this may not be a great match but it is great pro wrestling. Onita is the king of spectacle and really goes out of his way to involve whatever gimmick he's got going in the match. He just gets right into the barbed wire. And Kurisu is so fun and vicious. Can't wait to watch the Texas Death Match again.

[Chess Knight]

One of those dangerous spectacle FMW matches that has plenty of actual collapsing into The Dangerous Thing, but also teases the 'Almost' moments extremely well. Helps a lot that whenever someone got near the barbed wire mats (they're just laying on the floor outside the ring) you heard some high pitch squealing from the audience. Naturally this doesn't take more than a few seconds to become two guys trying to push each other out, and it's like watching a set of attempted royal rumble eliminations, but the actually decent ones where the guy is trying to use his chin strength to push back against the boot. Onita gets dropped out pretty quickly and it was done so suddenly, and with a bit of a slip-looking fall, that I wouldn't bet my life it wasn't an accident. There were a couple awesome moments where Kurisu comes Onita again to stomp on his head while Onita's outside trying to stand, and Onita catches the leg and they tease Kurisu dropping down into the wire. It was I guess a little anticlimactic that on that first one he had a soft fall, and fell mostly between the board and the ring, but it still got a response and Onita's selling is good enough that I liked that it didn't level the playing field yet. I think doing these drops into the wire early was a great move, because after that every blow is rattling someone who's probably bleeding from at minimum six different places. Onita after his second drop alone has at least two visibly nasty gashes. Really felt the weight of the suplexes and powerbombs as a result. Well as a result of that and as a result of these just being two thick dudes. Enjoyed this a lot.