[1992-05-24-FMW] Atsushi Onita vs Leon Spinks

[Matt D]

This is one I probably wouldn't have ended up watching if it wasn't suggested to me. I like Onita. Even more than Onita himself, I like the idea of Onita: classically trained, Memphis-honed, charismatic, over the top, unchained spectacle, a creator of moments and possibilities. Spinks is not heavily on my radar. Past a year of watching Tuesday Night Fights on USA as an 11 year old, Boxing's never been my thing. I get the idea of a limited outsider with a faded but still viable name value and a very specific skillset.

 

This was pure, beautiful simplicity. Spinks punches Onita. Onita falls. Onita bleeds. Onita gets back up. Spinks punches him again. Onita falls. Onita barely makes the count. This repeats and repeats and repeats until the crowd, their hearts moved by Onita's selling and his resilience, start chanting his name. Then, in desperation, he dives across the ring for a clothesline instead of eating another punch. It doesn't work the first time, but it does the second. This lets him turn the tide. Spinks had waited for the ten count, had let Onita get back up. He's a boxer. Onita's a wrestler. That means that he picks up Spinks to control the moment and keep the momentum. He uses the cage for a DDT (probably too over the top), hits him with some suplexes that Spinks takes bravely, and finishes him with two attempts at a submission.

 

It's basic, it's primal, it gets Onita over as warrior. It keeps Spinks' heat since he lost mainly because he fought a wrestling match like a boxer. Spinks gets a payoff. Onita beats a legit fighter. The crowd goes home happy. Everyone wins. Wrestling is the best.

[peachchaos]

This sounds incredible. Have you seen any of the footage of Spinks' Memphis stint in 1990?

[El-P]

It's actually pretty awful, but Onita vs fighters was always kinda fun because Onita was Onita and he understood pro-wrestling better than most pro-wrestler in that everything is about selling and making a comeback.

[Matt D]

I think it leaned closer to incredible than terrible, myself. The punches looked 3/4th legit. I'm pretty sure that Spinks just swung and Onita was happy to lean into them for the effect. The blood came early but worked well. Spinks went up for suplexes. The biggest issues I had were 1.) that Spinks gave too much too soon on the two clotheslines. They were desperation and things that he, as a boxer, wouldn't be used to taking, but it felt like too much too soon. 2.) that Onita went a bit stupid on some of his suplexes/the cage DDT. Simple would have worked, and maybe 3.) the execution of the final submission that probably was supposed to be an octopus but wasn't. I thought the post match with Spinks picking Onita back up was excellent and that in general, Spinks got it for this match.

 

But in truth, I have no idea, because this appealed to the stuff I value. Selling and comeback. Build and payoff.

 

(and peachchaos, I don't think I've seen any of the 90 run. I know a lot is online but that's a gap year for my memphis watching, because it's sort of twice the work).

[El-P]

But in truth, I have no idea, because this appealed to the stuff I value. Selling and comeback. Build and payoff.

 

You should watch every classic Onita. You may not enjoy some of the most gory stuff, but Onita was all about the thing you love the most, and not simply taking stupid garbage bumps (that became his tool but never his aim, unlike 99,99% of the garbage workers who followed without understanding why Onita drew so much money ).

[eas]

Yeah, I didn't find this to be very good at all. Basically, Spinks keeps knocking Onita down with some weak-looking punches, Onita makes a comeback with some terrible-looking clothelines and a crappy-looking DDT, and then wins with some Octopus-ish hold. Crowd was pretty dead the entire time until Onita won and that was just a mild pop. Post-match with the fans surrounding the ring after the cage had been lifted was a cool sight though.