History of FMW

[BAHU]

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.

Edited June 19, 2022 by BAHU

[BAHU]

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.

Edited September 6, 2022 by BAHU

[BAHU]

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.  

Edited February 5, 2023 by BAHU

[BAHU]

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.

Edited July 11, 2023 by BAHU

[Curt McGirt]

That was fuckin great. Lots of cool information and footage. I disagree about the Matsunaga/Onita match which I thought was one of the best ones either ever had, but that's just a quibble. Thanks for including all that Big Japan footage because I bought a five-hour BJPW tape with almost all that stuff when I was in middle school, maybe high school, and I still love that stuff. The scaffold match where Yamakawa gets powerbombed off it and almost dies is killer. 

[Curt McGirt]

Okay, one more complaint: No STOP THE MATSUNAGA?

[BAHU]

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.

[worldcupfever]

You really are doing the lord's work, @BAHU

[Curt McGirt]

I have no idea why I'm getting these posts so late in the game on my computer, but thanks so much BAHU!