Saturday,
June 29, 2013
FMW,
like ECW, worked on a shock and awe principal that was even more
shock and awe than ECW. By the time Atsushi Ohnita had finally (and
it took a while by Japanese standards) shuffled off into the sunset,
FMW needed something new to compete in a crowded market. The late
nineties where a time of rebirth for wrestling world wide. WCW was in
its last legs, ECW as at the peak of its popularity before going into
its horribly painful for all involved death throes and the WWE was as
hot as it had ever been. Ohnita was one of the most bankable stars of
the prior era and when he finally called it a day FMW where left with
the problem of how to fill that huge void. In reality they couldn't
so they tweaked the product to try and find a new audience.
Their
idea was interesting to say the least, but in no way original. They
took one look at Vince MacMahon's evil company boss figure and said
“we can do that”. So in came Kodo Fuyuki and his evil
commissioner persona, creating a factional company, two groups vying
for new titles the World Entertainment Wrestling belts, having
retired the Independent World Brass Knuckles titles (the long time
cherished holy grail in FMW). The shift went from stories of honour
and toughness to political control. A much harder concept to
understand in a Japanese format because Japan really doesn't do story
lines. The violence became toned down, not entirely gone, clearly and
electrified cage match is no walk in the park but the main event is a
pure wrestling match H vs Mr. Gannuske (or fake Hayabusa) in a
regular NO DQ bout. Actually this was a throwback to the earlier era,
Gannuske and Hayabusa grew up together, trained together and where
old friends. In much the same way as Ohnita and Genichiro Tenryu had
been 6 years earlier. What really made this match special was the
special guest referee Shawn Michaels. Yes THAT Shawn Michaels, show
stealer, Icon that could still go (actually he couldn't then he was
in the midst of his
Undertaker-press-slam-into-the-coffin-bad-backness). This was
somewhat of an oddity for him to attend but he is not the only Gaijin
by any means. The WEW tag match with Kuroda & Hisakatsu Oya vs.
Raven & Tommy Dreamer is a nice slow burner of a brawl. Compared
with the returning Funk Brothers vs Yoshinori Sasaki & Naohiko
Yamazaki something of a spectacular. The Funk's brought back their
classic 70's approach for a nostalgia match of high quality. Kintaro
Kanemura vs. Balls Mahoney is another dream match for brawl fans, we
even get a classic Kanemura giving a promo-with-no-clothes-on-moment
which is always hard not laugh at.
The
tone is set by the two opening matches. Ricky Fuji, Flying Kid
Ichihara, & Chocoball Mukai vs. Koji Nakagawa, Jado, & Gedo a
lot more comedy and brawling, but a lot of fun to watch. If you have
never heard of Jado and Gedo by the way you should go look them up,
as they are now the bookers for the NJPW division they have been a
key component in the success of Fergal Devitt. No less fun is Kaori
Nakayama & Emi Motokawa vs. Miss Mongol, Malia Hosaka, &
Jazz, the handicap match that has some of the best female workers at
the time in heads up battle. In usual FMW style its pretty stiff but
relied a lot more on action than in days of Combat Toyoda and Megumi
Kudo. Emi Motokawa went on to be the top face of Ice Ribbon. Bad Boy
Hido vs. Willie Williams is good for what it is, a worked shoot
match, but nothing to write home about.
So
what was the story that came out of this card? Well the violence was
still there but placed in the background of an attempt to sell a
story. The end of Ohnita as a main event wrestler allowed
opportunities for Hayabusa, Tanaka and Gannuske to take the lead with
the company. The toning down ensured a more stable roster and the
higher production values developed a sense of style. The upshot was a
much more watchable product from the general publics point of view,
but gone was the spectacle. The move towards entertainment over
violence lost FMW its core audience and its biggest supporter Ohnita.
Though having a healthy roster was vital for long term survival, the
company couldn't ride out the loss of revenue to move back up to
bigger things and it slowly faded away. In 2001 Hayabusa slipped
while performing a springboard thus breaking his neck and ending his
career. Shoichi Arai then owner of FMW was 3 million dollars in debt
to the banks and another million in debt to the Yakuza (sadly the
main money source for a lot of Japanese wrestling promotions) he
declared bankruptcy, went into hiding and attempted to write a book
before finally committing suicide so his family could pay back the
Yakuza with the insurance money. They are still paying it back.
A
truly sad end to promotion that burned brightly for years but fizzled
out unceremoniously. Enjoy the show.
