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There really wasn't that much on the Stop the Matsunaga stuff in the second book at least not the more popular 2005 run. He did talk about Kazunari Murakami a lot from the 06 run, so I just felt like there wasn't enough meat on the bone when I already had so much stuff and it was going to be such a time consuming project. Here's the 05 run talk in his second book It's great that "Mr. Danger" became a thriving restaurant, but every night, night after night, as I looked at the dark night sky after the restaurant closed, I often thought back to the past, thinking, "Oh, how short the glory was." Living in Tokyo, I never run into my friends from the countryside, and although I would love to visit them, I don't have time to do so, and I spent my time thinking that I would never see them again, and then I happened to receive a notice for a reunion. After that, Director Aoyagi and Kazuhiko Ogasawara were looking for Karate Gundan members in Zero-One, and even though it was three days before the show (June 17, 2005, Korakuen Hall), they offered me, "Will you be our X (Mystery Partner)?" I thought that if I was going to be at the reunion anyway, it would be cooler to be an active member, so I ended up promising to enter. Back then, it had been about three years since I left Big Japan, and I was only looking forward to wrestling once a year at the Mr. Pogo WWS Isesaki shows as a hobby, and I wasn't training, nor was I prepared for it. My body had also lost weight to the low 90s (around 200 pounds). So, I made a mask with X and went to the Karate Army's second line, but the fans didn't say, "Matsunaga! The audience was like, "Who is he?" I was more perplexed and wondered if I had come to the right place. Moreover, I had heard that it was a Karate vs. wrestling match, so I thought it would be a tense match, but it turned out to be a karate match with Masashi Aoyagi, Kazuhiko Ogasawara, Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, Akio Kobayashi, all of whom had wrestling experience, even though they were karate fighters. When I made my full-fledged debut at Zero-One on June 30, 2005 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring and first bloodied Osamu Namiguchi, I felt as if I had hit Zero One with the culmination of my wrestling career. Then, when I beat Rikiya Fudo (August 23, 2005, Shin-Kiba 1st Ring), Kohei Sato (September 19, 2005, Korakuen Hall), and Hirotaka Yokoi (October 9, 2005, Korakuen Hall), who was also active in mixed martial arts at the time, in the first "no rope barbed wire death match" at Zero One, I was reminded of W*ING. As my career progressed, I began to have various feelings. In the past, W*ING held a Mr. Pogo vs. Kim Duk match at Korakuen Hall (September 27, 1992), and the venue was very lively. From the outside, it didn't look like they were doing much at all, but the two were staring at each other, and the venue was filled with excitement just from the exchange of Mr. Pogo's louder voice and Mr. Duk's squeaky voice. Mr. Duk had a complicated expression on his face, as if he was in pain, sad, or angry because of the bloodshed. I would like to have matches like that in the future. But I can't do it while I'm young. I was very envious that they were wrestling with such dignity. When I was able to do that at Zero-One, I felt like I had to make a decision here, even though I had been so focused on it up until then. On November 17, 2005, when I was there, I fought Yoshihito Sasaki at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium # 2. Sasaki was a wrestler who joined FMW because of his passion for death matches, and during my W*ING days, he was a fan of the five-sided nail match between me and Leatherface at the Toda Sports Center (December 20, 1992), and he watched it live. Unfortunately, FMW had changed course and gone the entertainment route by the time he debuted. I think that's why his obsession with death matches was so great. Sasaki, who defeated me, said after the match, "I didn't think death matches were this hard. I want to be called the best "Mr. Barbed Wire" if I get another chance." The match between me in my 40s and Sasaki in his 20s reminded me of my first fight with Mr. Pogo in W*ING. And after I lost to Sasaki, I said to myself, "My plan went awry..." That was, after all, when I entered Zero One, I was asked "Why did you come to Zero One? but in reality, there was no particular reason, just that I was asked to do so because there was no one in the karate army. Moreover, there was no past causal relationship or grudge. For example, if Hayabusa was there, things could be complicated, but the only one I knew in Zero-One was Masato Tanaka who was really a young pawn back then. So, even if you talk about taking over Zero-One, the current fans won't react to it, and it won't matter if you do. There were some freaks who said, "Zero-One, do the WING-ization plan," but my W*ING past had been sealed after I had a singles match with Kanemura, and I never wanted to bring it out again. I was very particular about that, and then a quick thought came to me: if I went into Zero-One and didn't speak from beginning to end, and at the end said, "The plan went wrong," I thought that would be enough. That's why the white mask came to Zero-One to do something... In the end, it remained a mystery.

FMW Stories Episode 6 covering Mitsuhiro Matsunaga I go over his career with many never before told stories in English. I go over him getting into wrestling as a child, his college days, trying to get into wrestling before starting with FMW, his W*ING days, and his later career in Big Japan into retirement. Also, covering his issues with Onita, Hayabusa, Kanemura, Mr. Pogo and more.

It's not a work or an injury. The main blood vessel that goes to his heart is swollen. It's from being old and smoking a lot. He is having surgery on it May 9th. He won't retire from it as he's already booked for June in All Japan and then FMW-E again in July and August.

Kawasaki Stadium was torn down in 2000 but the land was still used by FMW in 2001 then Fuyuki/his widow promoted shows in 2002-2004 there. I went by there in 2011 and they had turned the space into a football field for kids to practice/play on and anyone could just walk around the area freely. They have since turned into a football stadium for a Japanese Football league which means you have to pay to enter now. They also have began allowing wrestling shows to be booked there as Hard Hit and DDT booked it the last couple of years. Onita wants to book it next year for his 50th Anniversary show. As far as FMW running other stadiums they ran Yokohama Stadium in 1992 after running Kawasaki Stadium once in 1991, but they didn't do as well and they liked Kawasaki more and made Kawasaki their once a year home.

FMW Stories Episode 5 going over FMW's top rival promotion W*ING. I go over the history of W*ING and tell many untold stories of the promotion that is still remembered fondly 30 years later for its chaos.

No, FMW-E still exists. They are running two shows in Hokkaido on October 1st and October 2nd. They have pretty much been dead since December though as they are only running house shows bought by sponsors. They were losing money running once a month shows in Yokohama so they stopped doing that. Fire Blast Wrestling is not a new promotion. It is a name change from Fire Pro-Wrestling that started back up in 2016 and ran as recently as July. Onita does not run Fire Blast Wrestling. The company just bases their shows off him. Onita hasn't put his own money in a company since FMW in 1995. Even Onita Pro was financed by sponsors to where he wasn't putting up his own money.

FMW Stories Episode 4 going over the first two years of FMW up until their first Kawasaki Stadium. I talk about about many never before heard in English stories of the old FMW, the many issues that came up with the young promotion, what caused several people including Mr. Pogo to leave FMW to start up the rival W*ING promotion and much more.

FMW Stories Episode 3 going over Megumi Kudo's life and career. From her beginning in All Japan Women's to her going from job to job before settling in as a teacher, before getting an opportunity to join FMW and all the goods and bads that came with it, before her 1997 retirement followed by her post active wrestling life. This episode contains many never before told stories in English about her.

FMW Stories Episode 2 - Going over the life and times of Tarzan Goto. Going over his career in Sumo, All Japan, Memphis, FMW, and why he decided to leave FMW right before wrestling in the biggest FMW match ever.

FMW Stories Episode 1 - a new show I started going over specific FMW topics with stories attached to them with pictures and clips to go along with it. This episode covers the Creation of FMW with Atsushi Onita and how everything lead to the start of the first big time independent promotion in Japan.

I have never even heard of such a rumor. Gannosuke retired because he was 40 and been dealing with many injuries and was tired of not making that much money the last couple of years. If he was hiding, he probably wouldn't have had started two separate bars, continued training for Ice Ribbon, made two movies, been to every FREEDOMS show in Tokyo selling his stuff, promoted his own shows under his own name multiple times a year, and working for the Guts World office until Ishijima convinced him to come out of retirement so that he could help draw their first Korakuen Hall show. If he was "under ground" he did a horrible job at it, because I saw him every year from 2009-2013 I went to Japan while he was retired. The Arai situation was much different as FMW was a major company and WMF under Gannosuke the last three years was a promotion that ran one show a month in a 300 seat building. They are night and day different situation, and that's even if Gannosuke even went the route for financial support you're saying.

They came over to my house and interviewed me for three hours. I gave them every detail of that night of FMW in one sitting without notes. It was a lot, mentally fried me the rest of the interview, as it was very detailed. So they had all the information, but time wise cut to the chase. Don't know why they said school yard when I specifically told them a park. I also got them Ricky, Arai's daughter, and Hayabusa's daughter for the show.

History of FMW Volume 50 going over the year 2020 with clips and pictures for the final timeline episode. Atsushi Onita works various outside death matches including returning to Kawasaki Stadium. Megumi Kudo works against her long time rival Shark Tsuchiya one final time. Toru Sugiura continues his hot streak of main event matches in FREEDOMS and much more!

NOW was Kendo Nagasaki's baby and when it died it allowed for Big Japan to be created with Kojika and Nagasaki.

Christmas 2013. It's a really good match, but it didn't air on Samurai and just released on Commercial video. He didn't like the magazine that week gave more attention to the semi-main of Takashi Sasaki vs. Minoru Fujita which wasn't as good of a match. Death Match Carnival 2012. It was the biggest FREEDOMS show/match at the time until 2018.

History of FMW Volume 49 going over the year 2019 with clips and pictures. Atsushi Onita ends up needing double knee reconstructive surgery and is back within 5 months including taking part in a new sub-promotion based around him. FREEDOMS gives Jun Kasai another run as King of Freedom World Champion as he has several great matches including with Toru Sugiura who looks to be the new ace of the promotion. Jun Kasai also visits GCW for the first time and GCW comes to Japan for the first time as well and much more.

History of FMW Volume 48 is up going over the year 2018 with clips. We go over Atsushi Onita coming out of retirement after a year and the storyline reason why as well as his return to CZW. Mr. Gannosuke retires again for good as he has a series of farewell matches against storied opponents for him. Masashi Takeda has a series of incredible matches while being both Big Japan and FREEDOMS champion culminating in two incredible matches with Jun Kasai and much more.

Sorry! Just got the notification that I was tagged in this. The ECW Hardcore TV show from 12/31/97 opened pretty much to this part of the Onita vs. Kanemura match maybe a couple of seconds prior and then they showed the explosion like Styles was there. Then they showed stuff on the show from 12/22/97 Korakuen Hall like Sabu vs. Sandman as if it was the same tour with the ECW guys as Kawasaki Stadium from September with Joey calling those matches like he was there. They did not show anything else besides that clip of the Kawasaki Stadium show.

It was a "performance" and never promoted as a match since they were not actually going to be doing any moves. The ZERO1 sponsor for the Sumo Hall show that got postponed is a big 90's wrestling fan and wanted to bring in a bunch of retired/semi-retired stars for the show and do a simulation match where they're getting paid and not breaking a retirement vow since it's a performance and not a match. The Kudo performance was an example of how it would look with Kudo already being contracted with ZERO1 so she was not really in the position to say no and there was no doubt if Shark could physically do it, she would.

History of FMW Volume 47 is up going over the second half of 2017. Atsushi Onita holds his 2017 retirement match in a six man against Kazuyuki Fujita, Onita vs. Tremont in CZW and all the stories that came out because of that match, Super Battle FMW tries to go on without Onita and fails, Daisuke Masaoka's run as FREEDOMS champion ends as the Jun Kasai vs. Violento Jack feud heats up, and Mr. Gannosuke begins to wrap up his career once again as well as much more.

History of FMW Volume 46 is up going over the first half of 2017. Atsushi Onita begins his 2017 retirement tour with matches against the likes of Masakatsu Funaki, The Great Sasuke, Bob Sapp, and the Voodoo Murders. Mr. Gannosuke runs a one year memorial show for Hayabusa. Daisuke Masaoka is given the chance to be the top guy in FREEDOMS and we also go over Mr. Pogo's sudden passing as well as much more.

History of FMW Volume 45 is up going over the second half of 2016. We go over the final six months of Kintaro Kanemura's career leading to his retirement show. Super Battle FMW begins horribly booking their shows and sees a fast decline as a result. Onita starts up a new promotion and revisits two wrestlers from his 1980's past and FREEDOMS continues to grow as the hot new young death match promotion as well as much more.

Ichiro Yaguchi hasn't really worked with Onita at all since he came back out of retirement in 2018.

Mike Awesome was out for a year with a knee injury he suffered in August-September 1998. He came back and felt because of how much FMW had changed when he was able to return in 1999 with Fuyuki now the booker and Onita/Go Ito were no longer there he didn't feel like FMW was the same company any longer so he didn't feel the loyalty towards it he had previously felt. So he joined All Japan. He did one tour and was planning on that being his new home when ECW came a calling. He would make less money than All Japan but he wasn't going to have to travel and tour in Japan and he was going to be the champion so he knew he would be pushed correctly so he chose ECW. Then towards the end of his ECW run he had not been paid for awhile and what really upset him and why he never felt any loyalty to ECW to begin with was because he was never paid by Heyman for Heatwave 98 a year and a half earlier.

History of FMW Volume 44 is up going over the first half of 2016. We cover the details of Hayabusa's sudden passing. Also, go over Super Battle FMW and the hot streak at Korakuen Hall they are going through as they begin a feud with UWF, Jun Kasai has his first real run as champion of FREEDOMS, Mr. Gannosuke challenges for the Guts Heavyweight Title, and so much more in this emotional episode.