Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails man ...

founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989. In the late 1990s, FMW had a brief working agreement with Extreme Championship Wrestling, and as well had 14 DVDs released in the U.S. by Tokyopop. On March 4, 2015, FMW was resurrected under the name . With the resurrected FMW not holding any events since 2018, Onita announced in 2021 that he would be starting Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion in which the promotion would specialize in exploding death matches. The promotion was highlighted in the third season of the Vice TV's pro wrestling docuseries '' Dark Side of the Ring'' in September 2021.

History

FMW under Atsushi Onita (1989–1995)

The Atsushi Onita era of

FMW Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their ...

originally consisted of a promotion that featured not only professional wrestling but the best

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

fighters in the world. Onita would bring in American talent that were known in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

like Jos LeDuc and Dick Murdoch, he had female talent in the promotion, he had the best midget wrestlers in the world. The early days of

gave the fans and viewers a taste of everything that Onita had to offer. As the years progressed with

, Onita decided to phase out the

aspect of the company and focus strictly on professional wrestling. Onita would go on to have violent and bloody matches like the first ever

barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is t ...

match in the company where he would team with Tarzan Goto as they took on the team of

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga is a Japanese retired professional wrestler best known for his deathmatch wrestling style, having competed in memorable deathmatches in Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and Wrestling International New Generati ...

and Jerry Flynn. Onita would use real

which resulted in him receiving a nasty gash on his arm. Onita would take it one step further as he would go on to have the first ever exploding

match in August of 1990, as he challenged his rival, Tarzan Goto. As the years would progress further, we would see an influx of American & Foreign talent begin to appear in

with talent ranging from Chris Jericho,

Lance Storm Lance Timothy Evers (; born April 3, 1969), known professionally by his ring name Lance Storm, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Extreme Championship Wrestling (EC ...

, The Original Sheik, Sabu, Damián 666,

Dr. Luther Len Olson (born October 30, 1968), better known by the ring names Dr. Luther or simply Luther, is a Canadian professional wrestling, professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling, where he is also a producer. He is also known for his appeara ...

, Leon Spinks, Tiger Jeet Singh and so forth. During these years of violence, a young wrestler started to slowly work his way through the ranks and he would be known simply as

Eiji Ezaki was a Japanese professional wrestler, stage actor, musician and professional wrestling promoter, better known under the ring name . He was best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he primarily wrestled throughout ...

. Ezaki was known as a prodigy in the world of wrestling and like a-lot of promotions in

do, if they see something in a young talent, that specific talent will go on excursion away from the company as they will learn and develop and when it is time to return to the promotion in

, they will. Ezaki would go on excursion to Mexico and wrestle for a couple of different promotions and while he was down there, he developed the character of Hayabusa. Hayabusa became a fan favorite in the promotion for his high flying style and it was known that Hayabusa was the "ace" of

. Onita was fixing to retire once again from professional wrestling and his retirement match was held at the annual May 5th, Kawasaki Stadium show. These stadium shows every May 5th would be the equivalent of WrestleMania in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. This was

's biggest show of the year. May 5th, 1995 would be the date where Onita would take on Hayabusa in an exploding

cage, timebomb deathmatch. This match now signified a changing of the guard as Onita would retire and Hayabusa would step up and be the face of

. Atsushi Onita would go on and sell the company to

ring announcer,

Shoichi Arai Shoichi Arai (荒井昌一 ''Arai Shōichi'') (December 19, 1965 – May 16, 2002) was a Japanese professional wrestling promoter. Arai ran Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling from 1995 until its closure in 2002. Career Arai started with FMW as a ...

and with that sale, a new era of

was about to begin.

FMW under Shoichi Arai and Hiromichi Fuyuki (1995–2002)

The

era of

would end up issuing changes to the promotion and gave the promotion a new look and feel. Arai would slowly phase out the deathmatches that Atsushi Onita would help popularize and what put the company on the map and would bring in a more "sports entertainment" look and feel for the promotion that would be almost similar to that of the WWE. Arai would enlist the help of professional wrestler , Kodo Fuyuki as both men would usher in this new era. Having Fuyuki as the booker, he would put forth his vision on how

should be run as Arai would sign the checks and book the arenas for the promotion. During this time, Atsushi Onita would return back to professional wrestling and start a faction that would rival

and they were known simply as ZEN. This group was loosely based off WCW's group known as The NWO. Onita would run shows under the ZEN label and these shows would feature

talent. Hayabusa would continue to be featured as the ace of

and would go on to feud with the likes of

Mr. Gannosuke is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) under the ring name . Honda was quickly pushed as "Mr. Gannosuke" due to his resemblance to the actor Ashiya Gannosuke and he beg ...

, Kintaro Kanemura, and, Tetsuhiro Kuroda. As the booker of

, Kodo Fuyuki also continued to wrestle and he would go on to help form the top

heel The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower Human leg, leg. Structure To distribute the compressive for ...

faction known as Team No Respect. In 2000,

would sign a distribution deal with Tokyopop which would help get their product out to a Western audience as

could now be seen officially on VHS and DVD in the United States. They would go on to release 12 programs which were old

cards shortened down to feature the best matches or they were compilations of specific talent like Hayabusa. They also featured dubbed commentary from Eric Gellar and John Watanabe. Later releases would feature Dan Lovranski replacing Eric Gellar. As the years progressed, the audiences for the live shows began to decrease and Arai would slowly sink further and further into debt. Tragedy struck the promotion on October 22, 2001 during a match with Hayabusa and Mammoth Sasaki. Hayabusa attempted a

springboard moonsault A moonsault, moonsault press, or back flip splash is a Professional wrestling aerial techniques, professional wrestling aerial technique. It was innovated by Mando Guerrero. Much of its popularity in both Puroresu, Japanese and professional wrestl ...

—one of his signature moves—but he accidentally slipped on the ropes and fell directly on his neck, breaking it and paralyzing him. As the crowds continued to decrease, the amount of debt became too much for Arai, as he finally decided to announce that he has filed for bankruptcy and

would go on to have their final show on February 4th, 2002. As 2001 came to a close, it was stated that Arai owed the sum of what would be the equivalent of one million US dollars to Yakuza (or Japanese Mafia) due to the money he would constantly borrow but never pay back. Running out of options, on May 16, 2002 ,

would commit suicide so his family could collect the life insurance to pay back the money owed to the Yakuza (or Japanese Mafia)

Closure and aftermath

The talent divided into two promotions: Kodo Fuyuki's World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW), the name of FMW's title governing body since 1999, and

's Wrestling Marvelous Future (WMF). Some of the talent also made appearances on Onita's special shows. Following Fuyuki's death in 2003, most of the WEW talent formed a successor promotion, Apache Pro-Wrestling Army.

Cho Sento Puroresu FMW (revival, 2015–2018)

On April 3, 2015, Hideki Takahashi, Hayabusa and Choden Senshi Battle Ranger held a press conference, announcing they were reviving FMW under the new name "Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW". Takahashi would serve as the president and Hayabusa as the executive producer of the promotion, which would also feature participation from Atsushi Onita. The promotion held its first event on April 21. On October 30, 2015, they announced that they were reviving the FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, as they set a match to determine new champions on December 22. In 2016, two tragedies had befallen FMW. On February 17, 2016,

Ray Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (g ...

would announce that she had inoperable stage three brain cancer after being diagnosed with a tumor in December 2015. She would succumb to the disease in 2018, she was 36 years old. On March 3rd, 2016, Haybusa would pass away at his home from a brain aneurysm, he was 47 years old. On October 31, 2017, FMW founder Atsushi Onita retired after 43 years in the ring. The promotion held its most recent event as Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW in 2018. Although not officially closing once again the revival seemed to have been forgotten about.

FMW Explosion (2021–present)

In 2018, Onita would come out of retirement at a Pro-Wrestling A-TEAM (Apache Army's successor promotion) event. After this he would come back as a wrestler having matches with Combat Zone Wrestling,

Big Japan Pro-Wrestling (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. History Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasaki ...

, World Wonder Ring Stardom and DDT Pro-Wrestling. In 2021, Onita announced that he would be starting Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion, a promotion under the FMW name that specialized in exploding death matches, a match type in which Onita became famous for. The new promotion will have Hidetaka Kajiki serving as president. Onita stated he got the idea for the promotion after All Elite Wrestling's 2021 Revolution PPV in which the event held an exploding barbed wire death match and seeing that there was still a market for these types of matches internationally in the pro wrestling world and with the popularity of online media streaming the new promotion was formed. The promotion, however, held its last card to date on December 19, 2021, after which Onita went freelance yet again. In October 2022, FMW-E started back up promoting cards.

Current FMW-E roster

*Andreza Giant Panda * Atsushi Onita *Gabai Jai-chan (Psycho) *HASEGAWA (Kazutaka Hasegawa) *Hiro Takita *Kyoya Okazaki *Maku Donaruto *Mejiro Kid *Miss Mongol (Aki Kanbayashi) *Monster Leather *Naoshi Sano *Nene Dai *Noriyuki Yoshida * Onryo *Pandita * Mr. Pogo #3 *Raijin Yaguchi * Ricky Fuji *Shooter (Katsutoshi Niiyama) *Skull Reaper A-ji *Takumi Sakurai *Umanosuke Ueda #2 *Yuichi Taniguchi

FMW alumni

Deceased individuals are indicated with a dagger (†).

Championships and accomplishments

Current

Defunct

Tournaments

Events

Primary events

FMW Anniversary Show The FMW Anniversary Show was the biggest annual professional wrestling supercard promoted by the Japanese hardcore wrestling promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) between 1990 to 2001 The September 11 attacks against the United ...

* Summer Spectacular * Fall Spectacular * Year End Spectacular

Interpromotional events

ECW/FMW Supershow The ECW/FMW Supershow was a professional wrestling event jointly promoted by the Japan promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and the United States-based promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan on D ...

(with

ECW ECW may refer to: Professional wrestling * Extreme Championship Wrestling (originally Eastern Championship Wrestling), a professional wrestling promotion that operated from 1992 to 2001 * The Alliance (professional wrestling) (originally the WCW/E ...

) *FMW/WWA in Los Angeles (with WWA) *FMW/MPW (with MPW) *FMW/LLPW/AJW (with LLPW and AJW) *

Super Extreme Wrestling War Super Extreme Wrestling War was a series of professional wrestling events produced by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in 1997. These events marked the first time that FMW began a partnership with American counterpart Extreme Championship Wres ...

(with ECW)

References

External links

FMW site. Includes history, wrestler profiles and title recordsWrestling-Titles.com: FMWOfficial FMW Website
{{Professional wrestling in Japan Japanese professional wrestling promotions Organizations established in 1989 Organizations disestablished in 2002 Organizations established in 2015 1989 establishments in Japan 2002 disestablishments in Japan 2015 establishments in Japan