Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by

Atsushi Onita is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and is credited with introducing Japan to the deathmatch style of professional wrestling. He founded ...

as (FMW). The promotion specializes in

hardcore wrestling Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow the use of numerous items, inclu ...

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 HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrest ...

, and as well had 14 DVDs released in the U.S. by

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed ...

. 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 Vice (formerly known as Viceland and also known as Vice TV) is an American basic cable television channel that launched on December 2, 2019, replacing H2 on most multichannel television providers in the United States. It is a part of the Vicela ...

's pro wrestling docuseries ''

Dark Side of the Ring ''Dark Side of the Ring'' is a Canadian documentary television series produced by Vice Studios. The series focuses on controversial subjects and events within the realm of professional wrestling. Series overview Episodes Season 1 (2019) Sea ...

'' in September 2021.

History

FMW under Atsushi Onita (1989–1995)

The

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 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 or ...

but the best martial arts fighters in the world. Onita would bring in American talent that were known in Japan like

Jos LeDuc Michel Pigeon (August 31, 1944 – May 1, 1999) was a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Jos LeDuc. Wrestling with a lumberjack gimmick, he debuted in Stampede Wrestling with his kayfabe brother, Paul LeDuc. The pair l ...

and

Dick Murdoch Hoyt Richard Murdoch (August 16, 1946 – June 15, 1996) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names "Dirty" Dick Murdoch and "Captain Redneck". He was best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation and New Jap ...

, 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 martial arts aspect of the company and focus strictly on

. Onita would go on to have violent and bloody matches like the first ever barbed wire match in the company where he would team with

Tarzan Goto , better known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches against Atsushi Onita in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling ( ...

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 William Brenneman (born November 21, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, better known by his ring name Jerry Flynn. Flynn is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling between 1996 an ...

. Onita would use real barbed wire 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 barbed wire match in August of 1990, as he challenged his rival,

. 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 Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and singer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Jerich ...

, Lance Storm,

The Original Sheik Edward George Farhat (June 7, 1926 – January 18, 2003) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name The Sheik (often called The Original Sheik to distinguish him from The Iron Sheik, who debuted in 1972). Farhat is cred ...

, Sabu,

Damián 666 Leonardo Carrera Gómez (born July 9, 1961) is a Mexican professional wrestler best known under the name Damián 666. He has worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CM ...

, Dr. Luther,

Leon Spinks Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

Tiger Jeet Singh Jagjeet Singh Hans (born April 3, 1944) is an Indo-Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler, known better by his ring name Tiger Jeet Singh. He was known for his elaborate ring entrances, and generally performed as a heel. He wrestled in Japan ...

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 through ...

. Ezaki was known as a prodigy in the world of wrestling and like a-lot of promotions in Japan 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 Japan, they will. Ezaki would go on excursion to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and wrestle for a couple of different promotions and while he was down there, he developed the character of

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C fo ...

became a fan favorite in the promotion for his high flying style and it was known that

was the "ace" of

. Onita was fixing to retire once again from

and his retirement match was held at the annual May 5th,

Kawasaki Stadium is a stadium in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The stadium was opened in 1952 and had a capacity of 30,000 people, but was demolished and rebuilt in 2003 as an American football venue and is now the home of the Fujitsu Frontiers of the X-League. ...

show. These stadium shows every May 5th would be the equivalent of

WrestleMania WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event held annually between mid-March and mid-April by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Since premiering in 1985, 37 editions followed, mos ...

in America. This was

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

in an exploding barbed wire cage, timebomb deathmatch. This match now signified a changing of the guard as Onita would retire and

would step up and be the face of

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

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 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

. Arai would enlist the help of

professional wrestler 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 ...

Kodo Fuyuki (May 11, 1960 – March 19, 2003) was a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter better known by his ring name best known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), W ...

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,

would return back to

and start a faction that would rival

and they were known simply as ZEN. This group was loosely based off

WCW World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nationa ...

's group known as The NWO. Onita would run shows under the ZEN label and these shows would feature

talent.

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 ( 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 Japa ...

, and,

Tetsuhiro Kuroda is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently competing as a freelancer on the Japanese independent circuit. He is best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he primarily competed from 1993 until the promotion's cl ...

. As the booker of

also continued to wrestle and he would go on to help form the top heel faction known as

Team No Respect Team No Respect was a professional wrestling faction in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), which existed in the company between 1998 and 2000. The ideology of the group was that they disrespected all the wrestlers in FMW as well as the compan ...

. In 2000,

would sign a distribution deal with

which would help get their product out to a Western audience as

could now be seen officially on VHS and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in the

United States 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 territori ...

. 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

. 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

and Mammoth Sasaki.

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 , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

(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

(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 was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion operating from 2004 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2016. History Following the closure of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in 2002, Hiromichi Fuyuki formed his own promotion, which ran under the names F ...

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 The FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship was a championship in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). T ...

, as they set a match to determine new champions on December 22. In 2016, two tragedies had befallen FMW. On February 17, 2016, Ray 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 Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is an American independent wrestling promotion. In 1998, John Zandig and five of his students, Ric Blade, T.C.K, Lobo, Nick Gage and Justice Pain, along with trainer Jon Dahmer, began to run professional 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 World Wonder Ring Stardom (スターダム女子プロレス), often referred to simply as Stardom (stylized as ST★RDOM), is a Japanese '' joshi puroresu'' or women's professional wrestling promotion based in Tokyo, Japan. Stardom was founded i ...

and

DDT Pro-Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Its name stands for Dramatic Dream Team, which was the promotion's official name from 1997 to 2004. Founded in March 1997 by Shintaro Muto, the promotion was eventually bo ...

. 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 All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...

's 2021

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

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 *

*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 Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic *Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

*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 (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 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 199 ...

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