Year End Spectacular (1996) was the third and final Year End Spectacular

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

event produced by

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling 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 ...

on December 11, 1996. The event was a part of the 1996 Year End Sensation tour, which concluded with the Year End Spectacular event. The event marked the in-ring return of Atsushi Onita since his retirement at the 6th Anniversary Show and the retirement of

Mr. Pogo was a Japanese professional wrestler best known for his work under the ring name . He helped popularize hardcore wrestling in the 1990s with "death matches" in promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, W*ING and Big Japan Pro Wrestlin ...

as both men teamed up with

Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Ext ...

and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against the Funk Masters of Wrestling team of

Terry Funk Terrence Funk (born June 30, 1944) is an American retired professional wrestler, rapper, disc jockey and actor. Funk is known for the longevity of his career – which spanned more than 50 years and included multiple short-lived retirements – a ...

Hisakatsu Oya Kenichi Oya (大矢健一) (born July 2, 1964) is a semi-retired Japanese professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Hisakatsu Oya (大矢剛功). Although he started out for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he is well known for his stint in Fro ...

and

The Headhunters The Headhunters are an American jazz fusion band formed by Herbie Hancock in 1973. The group fused jazz, funk, and rock music. History (and name) Hancock had grown dissatisfied with his prior band, Mwandishi, and wanted to make a band with a st ...

in a Texas Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch. Other predominant matches on the event were an interpromotional match between Hayabusa and The Great Sasuke, which Hayabusa won and a

title unification match Championship unification is the act of combining two or more separate professional wrestling championships into a single title. History In professional wrestling, championships may be unified to consolidate the number of championships in a give ...

between

The Gladiator ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

and

W*ING Kanemura ( ko, 김행호 ''Kim Hyeong-ho'') (born August 9, 1970) is a Zainichi-Korean retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . He is also known as W*ING Kanemura or . He is best known for his death matches in Apache Army, Big Jap ...

for Gladiator's FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and Kanemura's

FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship The FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship contested in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). It was one of the top two titles in the company, along with the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavywe ...

, which Gladiator won to unify both titles and both titles became collectively known as the FMW Double Championship.

Background

At Summer Spectacular,

defeated

via knockout in a no rope barbed wire landmine match. Pogo had injured his neck when he fell into the exploding barbedwire after Funk blew fire on him. However, Pogo continued to wrestle and feud with the Puerto Rican Army. The Puerto Rican Army continued to grow in strength. On September 15, Lethal Weapon members

and

Horace Boulder Michael Allan Bollea (born October 21, 1965) is an American retired professional wrestler. The nephew of fellow wrestler Hulk Hogan, he is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling in the late 1990s under the ring name Hora ...

turn Turn may refer to: Arts and entertainment Dance and sports * Turn (dance and gymnastics), rotation of the body * Turn (swimming), reversing direction at the end of a pool * Turn (professional wrestling), a transition between face and heel * Turn, ...

ed on Ricky Fuji to join the Puerto Rican Army, forcing Lethal Weapon to end. Later in the main event, Hayabusa, Koji Nakagawa,

and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Puerto Rican Army's Hisakatsu Oya,

Super Leather Michael James Penzel (September 7, 1957 – December 22, 2021) was an American professional wrestler and United States Army paratrooper. He was best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Corporal Kirchn ...

and

in a 20 million yen on a pole match to regain the

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

s which FMW had lost to the Puerto Rican Army at the

7th Anniversary Show 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

. On September 24, Terry Funk and

defeated Hayabusa and Tanaka and then Funk replaced the Puerto Rican Army to form his new group Funk Masters of Wrestling, seeking revenge on Atsushi Onita for beating him at the 4th Anniversary Show. On October 28, Pogo announced that he would retire at Year End Spectacular and begged his longtime rival Atsushi Onita to come out of retirement for only one match and team with him against the Funk Masters of Wrestling, but Onita refused. On November 26, Oya and The Headhunters defeated the FMW team of Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa and Mr. Pogo and then Funk Masters of Wrestling attacked Pogo after the match, which led Onita to make the save for Pogo and then Onita announced that he was coming out of retirement to team with Pogo at Year End Spectacular. Just one night away from Year End Spectacular on December 10, the Funk Masters of Wrestling team of Terry Funk,

, Hisakatsu Oya and The Headhunters defeated the FMW team of Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, Mr. Pogo, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Gosaku Goshogawara to get the last laugh before Year End Spectacular. Hayabusa FMW

At Summer Spectacular,

defeated Masato Tanaka in the finals of a tournament to become the inaugural Independent Heavyweight Champion. Kanemura suffered an injury shortly after his title win and returned to FMW on October 12 to successfully defend the title against Hisakatsu Oya. The Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion The Gladiator attacked Kanemura after the match and challenged him to a

at Year End Spectacular, which Kanemura accepted. Gladiator and Kanemura competed in many tag team matches before the event in the build-up to their title match. On September 20, Hayabusa lost a match to Hisakatsu Oya and then Jinsei Shinzaki of

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (originally known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke on October 1, 1992. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rather ...

debuted in FMW and challenged Hayabusa to a match at the MPW's third anniversary show ''These Days'', which Hayabusa lost. After the match, The Great Sasuke challenged Hayabusa to a friendly match at Year End Spectacular, which Hayabusa accepted. On November 16, Hayabusa defeated MPW's

TAKA Michinoku (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name (with his first name usually stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. Michinoku is known in North America for his work for the ...

in a warm-up for his match with Sasuke. Tensions had been rising between Mad Dog Military (

Shark Tsuchiya Eriko Tsuchiya (土屋恵理子, born February 19, 1970) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Shark Tsuchiya (シャーク土屋). She spent most of her career working for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling. Pr ...

, Crusher Maedomari and

Bad Nurse Nakamura is a retired Japanese professional wrestler known as . She worked most of her career for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling. Career After dropping out of high school, Rie Nakamura joined the Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling Dojo, where she was traine ...

) during the summer of 1996. At Summer Spectacular, Megumi Kudo defeated Mad Dog Military in a handicap match to retain the WWA World Women's and FMW Independent Women's Championship after Nakamura turned on her team by hitting Tsuchiya with a barbed wire stick which was intended for Kudo. Nakamura turned fan favorite and left Mad Dog Military and then changed her

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

to RIE in a match against Kudo on August 21. RIE began teaming with FMW's women's team to feud with her former Mad Dog Military teammates, heading to a match between the teams at Year End Spectacular. On November 16,

Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling, also known as LLPW and currently as LLPW-X, is a Japanese independent women's professional wrestling promotion founded in 1992 by Rumi Kazama and Shinobu Kandori. History Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling split in 1992 ...

's (LLPW) Michiko Omukai lost to Mad Dog Military members Crusher Maedomari and Shark Tsuchiya in a handicap match. Later in the show, Megumi Kudo defeated RIE and then LLPW's Shinobu Kandori debuted in FMW and confronted Kudo as she was irate at Omukai's defeat and Omukai separated the two from brawling with each other. The confrontation set up a match between the two ladies at Year End Spectacular.

Event

Preliminary matches

In the first match, Funk Masters of Wrestling members

and Crypt Keeper took on W*ING Alliance's Hideki Hosaka and Dragon Winger. Leather kicked the referee in the groin as the match began to use foreign objects. Near the end of the match, Leather performed a

missile dropkick Aerial techniques, also known as "high-flying moves" are maneuvers in professional wrestling using the ring's posts and ropes as aids, in many cases to demonstrate the speed and agility of smaller, nimble and acrobatically inclined wrestlers prefer ...

on Winger and performed a kneeling reverse piledriver to gain a near-fall. Leather followed with a

brainbuster A brainbuster is a professional wrestling throw in which a wrestler puts the opponent in a front facelock, hooks their pants or thigh, and lifts them up as if they were executing a vertical suplex. The wrestler then falls onto their back so that ...

to win the match.

RIE Rie is a Japanese ( ja, 利恵, りえ, リエ) and Dutch feminine given name. It is also an uncommon masculine short form of Henri and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Japanese given name Rie can be written using different kanji ...

brought in

's (LLPW) Chikaro Shiratori as her tag team partner against Mad Dog Military (

and Crusher Maedomari). Tsuchiya performed a '' Tsuchi Bomb'' on RIE to win the match. MikeAwesome1999cropped

The FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and the

were put on the line in a

to unify for both titles as the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion

took on the Independent Heavyweight Champion

. Mid-way through the match, Kanemura performed a

diving splash Aerial techniques, also known as "high-flying moves" are maneuvers in professional wrestling using the ring's posts and ropes as aids, in many cases to demonstrate the speed and agility of smaller, nimble and acrobatically inclined wrestlers prefer ...

on Gladiator through a wooden table taking the W*ING flag down with him. Near the end of the match, Gladiator performed an '' Awesome Bomb'' to get a near-fall. Gladiator attempted another but Kanemura slid out of it but Gladiator maintained his dominance by performing a short-arm lariat and then hit a wooden board on Kanemura's head and followed with an ''Awesome Bomb'' to win the match and unify the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and the Independent Heavyweight Championship, making them the unified FMW Double Championship. Megumi Kudo took on LLPW's Shinobu Kandori. Kandori disrespected Kudo by pulling her hand out for Kudo to shake and then pulled it back and Kudo attacked her. Kandori performed an

armbar An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow joint or shoulder joint. An armlock that hyper-extends the arm is known as an armbar, and it includes the traditional armbar, pr ...

on Kudo and worked on Kudo's arm during the earlier part of the match. After a back and forth match, Kudo attempted to perform a '' Kudo Driver'' on Kandori but Kandori overpowered her and then attempted to perform a Powerbomb but Kudo slipped out of it and charged at Kandori but Kandori choked her and Kudo was knocked out, with Kandori being awarded the match via referee stoppage. After the match, Kandori poured a bottle of water on Kudo's face as an insult. Atsushi Onita

Hayabusa took on

's (MPW) The Great Sasuke. Both men traded momentum with each other and Sasuke infuriated Hayabusa by kicking out of a pinfall attempt after a '' Firebird Splash''. Sasuke made comeback into the match with a '' Sasuke Special 2'' and 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 ...

. Near the end of the match, Sasuke attempted a missile dropkick on Hayabusa but Hayabusa

dropkick A dropkick is an attacking maneuver in professional wrestling. It is defined as an attack where the wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the soles of both feet; this sees the wrestler twist as they jump so that when the feet connec ...

ed him in mid-air, knocking both men down to the mat. Sasuke attempted a

Frankensteiner Professional wrestling throws are the application of professional wrestling techniques that involve lifting the opponent up and throwing or slamming them down. They are sometimes also called "power" maneuvers, as they are meant to emphasize a wrest ...

on Hayabusa from the top rope but Hayabusa countered it with a '' Falcon Arrow'' to win the match.

Main event match

Atsushi Onita came out of retirement to compete in his first FMW match in over a year by teaming with the retiring

and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to represent FMW against Funk Masters of Wrestling's

, Headhunter A and Headhunter B in a Texas Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch. Both teams competed in the deathmatch wrestling style throughout the match. Near the end of the match, the FMW team gained momentum as Pogo grabbed a barbed wire baseball bat and began attacking the opposing team with it. Headhunter A attempted a

moonsault A moonsault, moonsault press, or back flip splash is a professional wrestling aerial technique. It was innovated by Mando Guerrero. Much of its popularity in both Japanese and American wrestling is attributed to The Great Muta, despite it being u ...

on Tanaka but he countered it and hit a '' Rolling Elbow'' twice. Onita nailed a chair on the Headhunter and Tanaka performed a backdrop suplex to win the match. After the match, Hayabusa joined the winning FMW team in the ring and they celebrated and paid tribute to the retiring Pogo.

Reception

Stuart of Puroresu Central praised the event and the three main event matches were considered to be "really good matches" and each match having "its own style and focus.", with "The unification match had a great wrestling/garbage blend and was really choice. The third was a crazy spotfest with lots of "how did he...?" spots. The main event was just a total, whacked out insane brawl, FMW style. Lots of blood shed on the canvas and a great atmosphere. This is a good introduction to old school FMW, although the 5/5/96 show is probably better, since it had more matches. Good wrestling, good brawling."

Aftermath

Megumi Kudo continued her feud with Shinobu Kandori after losing to her at Year End Spectacular. On January 5, 1997, Kandori defeated Kudo in a street fight at a LLPW show. The two competed again in a no ropes barbed wire deathmatch at a FMW show on March 14, which Kudo won. After the match, Kudo and Kandori shook hands to end the feud. Kudo lost her

Women's Championship The Women's Championship (formerly The FA Women's Championship) is the second-highest division of women's football in England. The division was established in 2014 as the FA Women's Super League 2 (WSL 2). WSL 2 replaced the previous level 2 d ...

to Shark Tsuchiya on March 21, only to regain it in her retirement match at 8th Anniversary Show. Kudo's retirement also marked the first time that a women's match headlined the Anniversary Show event. Just like Atsushi Onita, Mr. Pogo broke his retirement vow as well. He joined FMW's rival deathmatch wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) on July 23, 1997 by defeating The Great Kojika. Pogo returned to FMW in 1998 as "The Great Pogo" to feud with Onita and their rivalry culminated in a match between the two on November 20, which Onita won to end their feud in FMW once and for all. This was the last match for both Onita and Pogo in FMW. The Gladiator continued his dominant reign as the FMW Double Champion after unifying the titles at Year End Spectacular. He successfully defended the title against Masato Tanaka on February 18, 1997, before Tanaka defeated Gladiator for the title at Fall Spectacular. As a result, Gladiator would become the longest reigning Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and the longest reigning Independent Heavyweight Champion in FMW history.

Results

References

{{FMWPPV, Year End Spectacular 1996 in professional wrestling FMW Year End Sensation 1996 in Japan December 1996 events in Asia Events in Tokyo Professional wrestling in Tokyo