FMW 5th Anniversary Show - 5/5/1994

FMW 5th Anniversary Show - 5/5/1994

I did a podcast on this show here:

This is Part 2 of my review. Part 1 is here: http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/fmw-5th-anniversary-show-551994.html

World Brass Knuckle Tag Title Street Fight Tag Match: Mr. Pogo & Hisakatsu Oya vs. Tarzan Goto & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga
Goto was around since the very first FMW show and was a former AJPW guy. While not the best wrestler, he was decent enough and definitely unoffensive in his role as Onita's foil. I always have a soft spot for him as he was "Powder Keg" in WCW vs The World and he looks like a wrestler. Matsunaga was the 90's Jun Kasai and was a very big indy deathmatch star for a while. Pogo was another Onita foil and a longtime vet who was limited to garbage wrestling. Oya was your solid midcard hand who didn't have much of a personality but was a good technical wrestler.

"Mr. Danger" Matsunaga

Tarzan Goto

The champs~! - Mr. Pogo(facepaint) and Oya.

Goto half-KO'd Oya with this as he stumbled around after

Oya got the win over Matsunaga with a backdrop at 16:38. This felt like it went on forever and the match structure was totally messy. They went from a wild brawl to a straight tag and just used different weapons throughout. I think it would have been a lot better if it were under 10 and if they just went straight to the spots. Pogo actually sold and looked the best I've seen him. Naturally, this was a pretty violent match with lots of blood(with Goto blading the ear), a sickle and fire.

No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Cage Death Match - Onita retires if he loses - Atsushi Onita vs. Genichiro Tenryu 
This is the main event and a pretty special one, with Tenryu taking part in a hardcore match. Supposedly, Onita put his career on the line for this due to tickets not selling well. Apparently, when he beat Tenryu in a tag, people figured Tenryu would get the win back in exchange.

A younger Tenryu with Baba

Onita with Giant Baba

Onita - Baba - Tenryu

Onita and Tenryu were both AJPW wrestlers in the 70's and 80's. Onita was a junior heavyweight who injured his knee and had to retire. Since he needed gimmicks due to his bad knee to work a match, he created FMW, where he could protect himself and his knee. Tenryu, came from sumo and became one of the top AJPW stars near the end of the 80's. He left to be the star of Super World Sports, which ended up closing. Tenryu then formed WAR and worked some of the bigger NJPW shows.

They had a lead in match to this one with Tenryu teaming with Ashura Hara to fight Onita and Tarzan Goto.

Onita got the pin with the Thunder Fire powerbomb. I reviewed this match here:
http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/todays-viewings.html

The finish

Tenryu beat Onita with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb. Excellent match with movie like scenes at times. Tenryu destroyed Onita the whole time by working his knee and throwing him into the cage. Onita mainly just tried to hold on with headlocks but got dismantled and finished off. Onita sold strong here and the theatrics made this quite the spectacle. Onita's straight kick to Tenryu's face was brutal and I was really surprised by how much offense Onita gave Tenryu. The explosions were of course cool and they definitely got a lot out of them. What I liked most about this match though is that it was mostly a wrestling match with some explosions, instead of an explosion match with a little wrestling. They didn't hit a ton of moves, but everything they hit meant something and it all looked really legit. This is easily a contender for the 1994 MOTY and one of my favorite matches. Rating:****1/2

Onita sold his injuries into the locker room and kept falling down while the press tried to talk to him. He then got into an ambulance with tons of rapid fans watching and following along.

Overall thoughts: This show had a little bit of everything and was good overall. The M-Pro tag was the first highlight with all the M-Pro crew looking great. The women then stepped up and had a good match. Later on, Terry Funk stole the show with his selling and we got to see Mike Awesome murder junior heavyweights. The semi-main was violent but too long. The main event was easily the best thing on the show though and was a classic match. It had theatrics, cool gimmicks, a hot crowd and good wrestling. I do recommend this show and I think it has something for every fan.