Atsushi Onita

[Childs]

I don't remember there being a lot. I know we put the match in which he blew out his knee on as an extra. I looked back and there was a tag match with him and Steamboat nominated, but not with a lot of enthusiasm. 

Actually, I went back and looked, and there were some Onita singles on the G+ Classics discs we reviewed. I didn't like them much at the time and particularly didn't like his work. Not sure if I'd feel differently now. 

[Matt D]

Hey this is a favorite of mine:

 

[elliott]

From what I've seen I've really enjoyed his work against Chavo Guerrero.

[Childs]

2 hours ago, elliott said:

From what I've seen I've really enjoyed his work against Chavo Guerrero.

Just watched two of their matches from 1982, including Onita's title win from Crockett, and thought they were pretty good but mostly as showcases for Chavo. Onita came off as a guy who was stealing wins from a superior wrestler and not doing it in particularly charismatic fashion. He wasn't terrible or anything; I just didn't see any real hints of the wrestler he would become. 

[elliott]

I will have specific recommendations soon, but I don't want to ruin the surprise  

Grimmas included one in the Watch Party that MattD uploaded without watching it beforehand (I think my comment prior to seeing it was "Matt uploaded it so thats good enough for me) and I thought it was really impressive. 10/1/82 was the date. 

[Childs]

Yeah, I watched that. Thought it was clearly better than the title change but still more a fine performance than a standout one from Onita.

[Boss Rock]

Watched the Aoyagi matches and they're terrific. Onita certainly knew how to make a match feel both chaotic and like a spectacle.

[club]

Been on an Onita kick recently and he really shines as a wild brawler from 89 to 93. GOTNW made a great post in the Shinya Hashimoto thread about the likes of Inoki and Maeda being able to work their best when able to work their own vision of pro-wrestling. Onita belongs in this category. My read on early FMW is it’s really just the story of Onita getting this improbable second chance to become a star. A punkish underdog heir to Lawler and Funk, dialling up the violence and the emoting. It plays to all his strengths and negates his weaknesses, and that of some of his opponents as well. Even FMW’s DIY aesthetic seems to accentuate Onita’s status as this working-class hero outsider defying the odds and succeeding on his own terms. A pro-wrestling version of Ashita no Joe if you will.

 

Looking at his back catalogue I always assumed that judging him by his big matches against other big 90s names - your Chonos and Tenryus - would give a fair summation. It really doesn’t. A lot of his best stuff come from lesser names: Tarzan Goto, Masashi Aoyagi, Gregori Veritchev. Who the hell has a better match with Gregori Veritchev than Genichiro Tenryu?!

[Luna_Bourke]

One match I would recommend for Onita in his 80s AJPW era is Onita and Steamboat vs The High Flyers (8.6.82)

Such a great tag match with one crazy spot from Onita.

[Ma Stump Puller]

A decent (but quite awkward) Jr heavyweight, his 90s big match stuff while impressive can go overkill, especially in the late 90s where it's clear his motivation for doing crazy shit was starting to weigh on him. His best work ever was probably his early FMW catalogue, insane mileage out of extremely heated brawls + awesome Different Style material that had him work brilliant Fish out of Water sequences with boxers and martial artists. 

He does suffer from diminishing returns as the years go by; post-2000's Onita feels more and more like a parody of himself more than the real article; by the time you get to the Tiger Mask feud it's just kinda never-ending how dull his matches tend to get especially since he started abusing the fuck out of mist spots to the point where half the match is just him building up to it. Not withstanding today where he's so limited that all he can really do is his entrance and maybe a table piledriver if his knees feel up to it. It's hard to grade him because he's a guy that's most known for spectacle despite his best material generally not being all that spectacular lol. I feel like he'll still be on that top 100 but his consistency is a big knock to his case.

 

 

[Tetsujin]

I never got Onita. At first I assumed it was a style preference more than anything, but then I watches Kudo/Toyoda and thought it was absolutely fantastic and far better than anything I've seen Onita do. I'm really high on the Omega/Mox explosive Barbed Wire match, as well. With Onita, thought, something is missing. The match with Funk is just good (awesome post match though), and I'm really bored by the Tenryu match, and I'm never bored watching Tenryu. Maybe he's the most "and then the bell rang" wrestler ever for me, idk.

[Graham Crackers]

17 hours ago, Tetsujin said:

and I'm really bored by the Tenryu match,

Have you seen the tag match that sets up the Tenryu match? Not that it'll change your mind about Onita but it is much better than the singles deathmatch. 

[Tetsujin]

On 6/11/2025 at 1:52 AM, Graham Crackers said:

Have you seen the tag match that sets up the Tenryu match? Not that it'll change your mind about Onita but it is much better than the singles deathmatch. 

I saw It once, in preparation for the steel cage. I remember liking It more, indeed, and maybe that's a reason why I don't like the steel cage deathmatch as much. I've never felt it paid off the intensity and animosity set up in that tag match.

[Graham Crackers]

7 hours ago, Tetsujin said:

I saw It once, in preparation for the steel cage. I remember liking It more, indeed, and maybe that's a reason why I don't like the steel cage deathmatch as much. I've never felt it paid off the intensity and animosity set up in that tag match.

I'd agree with that. Not nearly as severe but the Onita/Tenryu deathmatch reminds me of the Choshu/Onita deathmatch. Usually Choshu and Tenryu would be guys I'd enjoy working with someone lower in the hierarchy but maybe a deathmatch requires something more even? It's been a while but I think Tenryu takes one bump into the cage but I mostly remember it feeling one sided. I really like Onita's performance against Choshu but Choshu seemed to be taking the night off in that one. Choshu actually runs into the barbed wire and sells it like he just ran into regular ring ropes. 

I am an Onita fan, particularly from 1989-1994. If he made my list it'd be towards the bottom. I prefer the Aoyagi and Goto singles matches and the 1990 Texas Death Tag to the big explosion matches. 

[Owen Edwards]

I think people sleep on his Junior run - not that it's a Top 100 run in my view, but it's much better than the lukewarm reports you sometimes read. Partly this is explicitly due to an unwise comparison to Sayama - whereas the essence of a good match, imo, is connected to its moveset contents but is not determined by it. (I just watched a 1977 Bllington vs Breaks match where DK does no classic DK spots and there are in fact very few moves and it's still a great 4/5 because both men know game.)

 

Onita vs Chavo (three of their four matches, one is poor)), Hector, Steamboat, and w/ Steamboat vs High Flyers and w/ Baba vs Flair/Slater are all legitimately good, and you can jaw about how they must all be carry-jobs but if you watch the actual work he's really good. He was still putting it together when he had his accident. I still have a few more of his major early matches to watch, and I expect at least one or two of those to join the rec list.