[1990-03-17-ICW-TV] Tony Atlas vs Atsushi Onita

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Onita wears solid red face paint and sprays mist. He tries to really work the martial arts expert gimmick as much as he can, which makes for a horrible match where he works a terrible looking nerve hold. I wouldn't call Atlas good in the ring, but I've seen way worse. With his look and interview ability, he could have worked in the Big Two at this point. But yes, this match is really really really bad, but that's part of its charm.

[Childs]

I was so amused by the idea of these guys wrestling each other that I honestly didn't care how good the match was.

[PeteF3]

You can't have all these Atlas promos and not provide at least a token match, regardless of quality. Onita works a poor man's Muta gimmick and this ends in a predictable screw finish. The match is bad, but not offensively so--the two announcers constantly talking over each other is easily the most annoying part of this.

[soup23]

Did the Duke ever do anything else with the glorious mullet?

 

I like the Champ as a nickname to and Tony has the Saba Simba tights. This is such a odd match up and Onita looks ridiculous with the face paint. Onita also keeps losing his straps. Terrible match but worth it for oddity purposes.

[shoe]

I love Atlas's robe here. He makes a great Apollo Creed.

[Kevin Ridge]

Green mist early which seems to be a legal move as ref had no issues with it. It’s not a very convincing mist though as Atlas regroups quickly. Ref takes some mist to his eyes but even he seems to be fine. They brawl into the crowd before video cuts out. Not a pretty match.

[Cox]

This was as simultaneously awful and awesome as I was hoping it would be. This is indy pro wrestling and everything I love about it.

[garretta]

The match was actually the best part of the whole segment. The camerawork was so bad I couldn't see Onita mist the ref, and the color man must never have worked a wrestling match before; even Superstar Billy Graham and Pete Doherty knew better than to talk over the play-by-play guy when he was calling the action.

 

It would have been interesting to see Onita work his Japanese deathmatch style here, but that wasn't going to happen for a small crowd watching a small-time promotion. Nice curiosity, though.

[drew wardlaw]

This is real freak scene stuff. Onita's karate stance looks like an excited chimp, and his loose fitting ring gear makes him look like a child. Onita is working that Great Kabuki nerve hold! I'm into the Duke though, I'd like to see more of him.

[GSR]

Atlas is sporting a jacket saying ‘The Champ’ and is accompanied by his manager ‘The Duke’. Onita is wearing red face paint, and from the moment he throws his first kick, you can tell that he’s not this karate, martial arts master that they claimed! No messing around from Onita and he blows the green mist in Atlas’ face early. Those Japanese stereotypes continue with a lousily applied nerve hold. The finish comes as Onita takes a swig of something from ringside, goes to blow it at Atlas, but he moves and the red mist hits the referee leading to the DQ. The two of them fight some more on the arena floor and brawl all the way to the back.

 

This may be worth watching for the perverse sight of Tony Atlas taking on Atsushi Onita (and as an added bonus it doesn’t go long either!), but this was bad. Onita was like a low rent Muta and his kicks were horrible. Atlas had some nice fire in his comeback, but the setting up of that finish seemed to take an age. The post-match brawl around ringside was better than anything in the match itself.

[dawho5]

Terrible match. Did I imagine it or is Atlas actually a babyface? Turning perhaps?