Added: 12/30

Kintaro Kanemura promoted his Kintaro Kanemura Retirement show on December 27, 2016 ending his career as a wrestler after 26 years. Kanemura is one of the more intriguing characters in wrestling. He loved the business so much and gave so much of his body for it. He wrestled a harder style for longer than Mick Foley. He was still a good worker into his late 30's despite such a punishing style. He was still able to put on a good match as of 2014. He started wrestling in 1990 and fell in love with being a wrestler right away. He was willing to put his body through anything and that included getting powerbombed into fire which burnt 75% of the skin on his back. He loved being apart of W*ING the early part of his career until it closed down and he enjoyed FMW especially under Kodo Fuyuki who he considers his mentor even though he had already main evented Kawasaki Stadium before even forming a relationship with Fuyuki. A lot of stuff changed for Kanemura after FMW closed and then Kodo Fuyuki died. Kanemura began promoting and his attitude began to change. He was no longer the friendly goofball and really a lot of wrestlers would considered him an asshole and a bully. Hayabusa didn't like him as a person. Gannosuke and him did not speak for years after a falling out. Then after just three weeks following Mirko Cro Cop coming into the ring and kicking him in the head so hard he suffered bleeding of the brain and was found backstage snoring with his eyes open he entered the Big Japan locker room drunk off sake. He went up to a female who worked for Big Japan's e-mail newsletter and began rubbing her vagina over her pants and talking dirty in her ear. It took a month of Big Japan hiding it but eventually it all came out to the public and Kanemura was forever tainted as it became a national story and Kanemura was expelled immediately. Kanemura was able to eventually get everybody who he effected due to his actions including the woman he harassed to accept his apology but it stuck with him for the longest time and he lost a lot of money and bookings as a result. Even with him going out of his way to have everyone know he has changed the past year I had the chance to be around him back over the summer and there is still an aura around him that he is an asshole if he doesn't like you. When he came over and spoke to me I was expecting him to say something not nice to me but all he asked me was if I liked him which I nervously said that I did.

After wrestling such a hard style after 20 years his body finally began breaking down on him in 2012 after he suddenly lost the feeling in his feet and he had to take several months off. He came back and just one month later he took a routine back bump and separated his shoulder as it was obvious his body was telling him to retire. He was able to make a come back but besides putting on a good performance for a promoted Korakuen Hall show back in 2014 he mostly was a shell of himself work wise because of how broken down he was. Ricky Fuji told me he believes no wrestler can stay retired but believes Kanemura will remain retired because his body is just so bad off. Hopefully now retired his body will be able to heal and he can live a normal life for a long time. 

Kintaro Kanemura's retirement ceremony ended up having all of the wrestlers on the card attend as well as Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Ryuji Yamakawa, Ikuto Hidaka, Yoji Anjo, and finally Atsushi Onita. Everyone took pictures in the ring before clearing out and leaving Kanemura in the ring along with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda who were in the corners. Kanemura stood there as the bell rang 10 times in memory of his career. Kanemura's name was introduced one last time and streamers were thrown in the ring while Kanemura as Tanaka and Kuroda came over and began doing one last TNR Brief Brothers Dance to Come out and Play. The theme then switched over to Kodo Fuyuki's Shoot It '95 theme and Kanemura held up the WEW World Title in the air and placed it down as a sign that the title was retiring after 17 years. 

Kintaro Kanemura's Retirement show drew an announced crowd of 1350 fans at Korakuen Hall show on December 27, 2016. The main event saw Kintaro Kanemura team up with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against the team of Daisuke Sekimoto, Kohei Sato, and Yuji Hino with Kanemura taking the fall in his final match after Sekimoto would get the win at 15 minutes, 41 seconds after hitting Kanemura with a Deadlift German Suplex for the win. More details and pictures of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Korakuen16.html

Super Battle FMW ran their final show of 2016 on December 23rd at the Takamatsu Symbol Tower Exhibition Hall where they announced a crowd of 350 fans for the show. The card was changed at the last moment like many times for this promotion as the main event became an 8 man with Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka, W*ING Kanemura going by that name for the final time in his career, and Hideki Hosaka against Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, NOSAWA Rongai, and Buffalo in a Barbed wire Board Death Match. Onita during the match would end up taking a double Brainbuster by Yaguchi and Hashimoto which would result in such pain for Onita that he would pass out due to the pain during the match. Tanaka would improvise and end up getting the fall over NOSAWA instead as he would get the win at 12 minutes, 28 seconds with the Sliding D. Onita would end up waking up and getting and an incredible pain stand up and do the planned TNR Brief Brother Dance to end the show. Onita would go back to the waiting room where and ambulance would be called and Onita would be transferred to a Takamatsu hospital where they would examine that he had suffered an iliac crest fracture which is the the lower back bone on your sides in your pelvis region. Onita was told it would take two months to recover from this injury and to make matters worth Onita would catch a cold while in the hospital. 

The semi-main event of the show was a former original FMW match as Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji reunited their team to defeat former Team Zero/Team Kuroda members Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Gosaku Goshogawara when Oya made Goshogawara tap out at 12 minutes, 48 seconds with an Octopus Hold. Kotaro Nasu defeated Keiichi Sato at 10 minutes, 19 seconds with a Right Kick. The women's match had Miss Mongol and Sachiko Yokozuna defeat Sawako Shimono and Aoi Ishibashi when Mongol pinned Ishibashi at 12 minutes, 14 seconds with the Cambaya C. The opening match had HASEGAWA and Takumi Sakurai defeat Hi69 and Toshiaki Terao at 9 minutes, 28 seconds when Sakurai would hit Terao with a Diving Body Press for the win. The next Super Battle FMW show will be on January 5th at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with the following show taking place on February 24th at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring again as it looks like the promotion is done with touring and will just be a Shin-Kiba once a month size promotion going forward.

Atsushi Onita announced that he would be making his next booking on December 25, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the final Apache Army show. Onita stated "As long as there are fans waiting for me, I can not take a break". Onita was taught by Giant Baba that if a card is relying on you to draw for the show than you can not miss that show. Dr. Hirao of the Hirao Clinic in the Shinagawa Ward of Tokyo was called and delivered four different pain killer shots to Onita in the back side prior to the show so that he would be able to walk around for the show. Atsushi Onita's match would become the main event of the show as he would team up with Raijin Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, and Hi69 against the team of HASEGAWA, Masaru Kameda, Toshiaki Terao, and Takumi Sakurai in a Street Fight Barbed wire Board Death Match. Onita would need to place his hand over Hi69's back to walk across the ramp to the ring. Onita would not be able to do much but he would manage to spit red mist in Kameda's face and follow that up with a chair shot to the head with Hi69 picking Kameda up and delivering a Death Valley Bomb and then finishing it off with a Stooga Splash off the top turnbuckle on Sakurai at 13 minutes, 15 seconds in the last ever Apache Army match. Onita would pour water over Sakura's face and then all the wrestlers and kids in the crowd would be allowed in the ring as they would all do one last TNR Brief Brother Dance for the end after 12 years of the Apache Army promotion which started back on August 30, 2004. 

Atsushi Onita would end up announcing that prior to the Kintaro Kanemura Retirement show that he would be unable to compete on the show due to his pelvic area injury. It would too soon for him to be able to get another pain killer shot and it was only a mid card match on the show and not the main draw of the show. He would announce on December 29th that his lower back pain had decreased and he would for sure be able to compete on the Shota AID show on December 31st although the singles match between Onita vs. Shota has been changed to a 6 man Street Fight between Onita, KAI, and Hideki Hosaka against Shota, Kenichiro Arai, and Trans-Am Hiroshi in a Street Fight as well as his All Asian Tag Team Title defense for the All Japan promotion on January 2, 2017 at Korakuen Hall with Onita and Masa Fuchi defending their tag team titles against Jun Akiyama and Masao Inoue. 

Kintaro Kanemura would challenge for the WEW World Heavyweight Title against Koji Kanemoto in the semi-main event of the final Apache Army show. Kanemura and Kanemoto would begin exchanging chops with another with Kanemoto delivering a spinning heel kick to Kanemura and grabbing him by the ankle for the Ankle Lock with Kanemura grabbing the referee and throwing him on Kanemoto to break the move. Kanemura would then set up Kanemoto and deliver a kick to the back. Kanemura would attempt to deliver a German Suplex but Kanemoto would get reverse and get behind him to attempt to deliver one instead with Kanemura kicking him low and going under with the Samson Clutch for the victory at 15 minutes, 53 seconds to become the last WEW Heavyweight Champion. 

Tomohiko Hashimoto and Keisuke Okuda defended their WEW Tag Team Titles against Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Tatsuhito Takaiwa with Kuroda getting the pinfall after hitting Okuda with a Lariat at 13 minutes, 48 seconds for the win. It would be the 10th time that Kuroda had won the WEW Tag Team Title which spans over 17 years. The random team of Tatsuo Nakano and Masamune would defeat the regular team of MIKAMI and Rion Mizuki at 13 minutes, 44 seconds after Nakano would finish Mizuki off with a High Kick. Shingo Garyu would defeat Yosuke Enemoto in a Boxing Rules Match at 1 minutes, 53 seconds in the Third Round via TKO. The twin brother team of Daisaku Shimoda and Rikiya Fudo would defeat The Blue Shark and Syuou Fujiwara after Shimoda would pick up the win at 15 minutes, 7 seconds after hitting Fujiwara with a Backdrop. Shimoda announced that he would be taking a long term break from pro-wrestling following this match. Nobutaka Moribe, Keiichi Sato, and SHINOBU defeated the team of Hazard, Kazunori Yoshida, and Kenichi Fujii after SHINOBU would get the win at 9 minutes, 43 seconds with a Diving Leg Drop on Fujii. Hayate would defeat Tetsuya Nakazato at 8 minutes, 15 seconds with a Hurricanrana in the scheduled opening match. The dark match on the show would have Wild Bear and Wild Seven defeat Naoshi Sano and Masahiro Sase at 6 minutes, 8 seconds after Bear would deliver a Backdrop to pin Sase.

HASEGAWA came out to announce that with the Apache Army closing that a new promotion would be taking over for it called "A-Team Pro-Wrestling" which will consist of all the Apache Army wrestlers minus Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda who will become a free wrestler. Kuroda is still expected to appear on shows though as the WEW Tag Team Title is expected to be defended in the promotion. HASEGAWA announced that the first show will be on April 16, 2017 at the Tokyo Kitasenju Theater 1010 and that he was excited that the promotion would have its own ring which is what the show was held on as the Apache Army in all its year never owned its own ring.

FREEDOMS would run at the Osaka Nishi Kumin Center on December 18, 2016 drawing an announced crowd of 302 fans. The main event had Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo team up for the last time in FREEDOMS in awhile as they defeated the team of Daisuke Masaoka and Kenji Fukimoto in a TLC Death Match after Extremo while holding on to fluorescent light tubes delivered a German Suplex to Masaoka to get the pin at 16 minutes, 12 seconds to get the win. Jun Kasai was scheduled to take on Naoki Tanizaki but at 5 minutes, 58 seconds the match was ruled a No Contest after GUNSO and Kabuki Kid ran in to attack Kasai. The match was made in to a tag team match with Kasai and Tanizaki defeating GUNSO and Kabuki Kid after Tanizaki got the pin at 6 minutes, 7 seconds with a Implant. GENTARO defended his UWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title for the first time after defeating Keita Yano at 11 minutes, 51 seconds after rolling him up with a small package for the win. Takashi Sasaki and Dyna Mido defeated the team of Yuya Susumu and AK at 14 minutes, 13 seconds after Mido scored the upset by using a Backslide to get the win over AK to earn themselves a shot at the King of Freedom Tag Team Titles on January 29th when FREEDOMS returns back to Osaka. GUNSO and Kabuki Kid's originally scheduled opponents earlier in the show were against Toru Sugiura and Dragon Libre in a FREEDOMS vs. Dove Pro match with GUNSO getting the win at 10 minutes, 56 seconds after putting away Libre with a Brainbuster. The opening match had the Osaka talent of Masamune, MIYAWAKI, and Hide Kubota defeat the other Osaka based team of Mammoth Sasaki, Akagi, and Yuki Tanaka when Masamune used the Kobebami to get the win at 12 minutes, 32 seconds over Tanaka.

Jun Kasai promoted his annual BLOOD X'MAS show at Korakuen Hall although this year it would end up being on December 26th instead as BASARA ended up getting the night time booking of the building instead this year. The show still did the best number for Korakuen Hall that the promotion as it has ever done by announcing a crowd of 1370 fans for the show which is 10 more than it did for last years show. The main event saw Daisuke Masaoka who has been built up as a Main Event Death Match wrestler for the promotion for the last two years challenge Violento Jack for the King of Freedom World Championship in a Scaffold Glass Board Death Match. The match would start with Jack right away getting the edge as he would powerbomb Masaoka into the glass board with cut up soda cans attached to them. Jack would charge at Masaoka but Masaoka would meet him with a knee to the face and then grab a bucket of thumbtacks that he would drop over Jack's body. Masaoka would then climb up the scaffold and deliver a dive off it on to Jack for a two count. Jack would come back with a lariat and climb up the scaffold and deliver a Swanton Bomb off it followed with a Package Piledriver but Masaoka would still manage to kick out. Jack would then place the second glass board over a stack of chairs with Masaoka under the board as Jack would climb up the scaffold. Masaoka would manage to get up and climb the scaffold and would grab Jack and jump off the scaffold sending Jack's head into the glass board. Masaoka would then get up and hit his signature Rokura off the top rope and then finally finish Jack off with another Rokura this time off the scaffold for the win at 15 minutes, 43 seconds to finally win the King of Freedom World Championship. Violento Jack would get up following the loss and fist bump Masaoka as a sign of respect before leaving back to Mexico with Masaoka as the new champion.

Jun Kasai who has been feuding with GUNSO since back in July when Kasai included himself in a tag match against GUNSO finally got a one on one Death Match against him for the semi-main event of the show. Kasai would face off against GUNSO in a Moonlight Dark Golgotha Hill Cross Death Match. The Moonlight is what W*ING and FMW have done in the past where the lights are turned off during the match. The Golgotha Hill Cross is a symbol of where Jesus Christ was crucified. Kasai and GUNSO would fight with GUNSO's theme music played which is a regular thing for him as it creates a cool atmosphere for his matches as the match started off with Kasai and GUNSO fighting on top of the stage with Kasai delivering a piledriver on GUNSO to floor of the stage at Korakuen. They would fight into the other side of the building where GUNSO would place Kasai on a table and deliver a dive off the top of the entrance on the south side of Korakuen Hall. They would make their way back to the ring where GUNSO would deliver a suplex to Kasai on the ladder and the cross. GUNSO would setup for a moonsault with light tubes but Kasai would get up and pick him up on his shoulders and drop him face first into the light tubes. Kasai would climb the ladder and deliver the Pearl Harbor Splash off it but would only get a two count. Kasai would then deliver a Reverse Tiger Driver on the cross and get the win at 13 minutes, 19 seconds to finally put an end to his feud with GUNSO.

Masashi Takeda would defend his DTU Ultraviolent Title against the man he won it from back on September 22nd in Miedo Extremo in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Kenzan Death Match. Miedo would pull out the Kenzans in the ring right away but Takeda would grab him and deliver a Urange on to them. Takeda would then release a German Suplex off the middle turnbuckle into fluorescent light tubes laying in the ring. Takeda would release another German Suplex but Miedo would no sell this one and counter with a German Suplex of his own. Miedo would deliver a frog splash on to the light tubes laying on Takeda but Takeda would manage to kick out. Miedo would finally put Takeda away with a Fire Thunder on the light tubes to win back his DTU Ultraviolent title at 10 minutes, 21 seconds before heading back to Mexico. Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Toru Sugiura took on Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei along with Kazma Sakamoto in a Tokyo Desert Homeless Man Going out of Business Death Match but the match would end up being stopped at 10 minutes, 22 seconds after Sakamoto would attack referee Kaisei Shimizu. The match would end up getting started the Brahman Brothers would request that Shimizu be put in the match so they could continue to attack him during the match with them announcing their partner to make it 4 vs. 4 would be Karate Brahman who would come to the ring in his underwear. The new match would not last long as Shimizu would end up getting the win of the restart at 1 minutes, 3 seconds after pinning Karate. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA won in a non title match after defeating GENTARO and Dyna Mido after Susumu would put away GENTARO at 8 minutes, 4 seconds with a Falcon Arrow. The opening match would have Yuko Miyamoto come out with barbed wire across across his head as another symbol of Jesus being crucified as he would defeated Kenji Fukimoto at 7 minutes, 51 seconds with a Samson Clutch for the win.

FREEDOMS announced the brackets for their One Day Tournament show on January 3, 2017 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Yuko Miyamoto, GENTARO, Mammoth Sasaki, and Toru Sugiura were given special byes through the first round of the show. Miyamoto will face off against GENTARO with the winner advancing to the semi-finals as well as Mammoth Sasaki taking on Toru Sugiura competing in the other second round match on the show. The first round matches with 5 minute time limits will be Takashi Sasaki against Dragon Libre, Jun Kasai against Yuya Susumu, Daisuke Masaoka against Kenji Fukimoto, and Masashi Takeda taking on Chikara. The one non tournament match on the show will be the Suicide Boyz team of MIKAMI and Tanomusaku Toba against Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei.

Mr. Gannosuke announced the main event for his promoted Hayabusa Memorial show on March 31, 2016 at the Kumamoto Circulation Information Hall. The main event will be Mr. Gannosuke reuniting with Jinsei Shinzaki as well as HARASHIMA returning under his Hayabucha gimmick as they will take on the team of Masato Tanaka, Mammoth Sasaki, and Yuko Miyamoto. Gannosuke also announced that he would return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for his Kishindo Returns 21 show in July.

Added: 12/16

Kintaro Kanemura wrestled in his final match in Osaka on December 7, 2016 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym for the Kumamoto Reconstruction Charity Dream show which was in front of an announced crowd of 3700 fans for Kanemura's actual final Death Match of his career. Kanemura participated in the main event with Yoshihiro Takayama and Buffalo against Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka, and Hideki Hosaka in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. Kanemura would be the first to use the exploding bat after placing Onita on a chair and smashing him across the chest with the bat causing an explosion so hard it not only would knock Onita off the chair but it would knock down Takayama and Buffalo who were holding him down on the chair. Onita would come back and spit red mist in Kanemura's face as Kanemura would be attempting to hit Onita with a chair. Takayama would then grab Onita but Onita would deliver a Stunner to him and Hosaka would follow that up by delivering a hurricanrana to Kanemura for the last time with Tanaka following that up by hitting his final Super Fly Splash on Kanemura with Kanemura kicking out. Onita would then grab the bat and turn on the explosives and hit Kanemura with it and that would be enough for Onita to once again pin Kanemura at 7 minutes, 18 seconds for the win. Kanemura would embrace Onita and Tanaka afterwards and would all do the TNR Dance together along with Hosaka and HASEGAWA to end the show.

Kintaro Kanemura would go on to participate at the Batsocafe show on December 12, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in front of an announced 119 fans for the show. Kanemura would main event the show against the promoter Yuiga as she wanted one match with Kanemura he retires with Kanemura getting the win at 10 minutes, 35 seconds in a Hardcore Match after smashing her over the head with a chair shot. Kanemura thanked Yuiga after the match and called her the Hardcore Queen. Yuiga stated she had never danced to Kanemura's song before and wanted to dance with everyone on the show. Takashi Sasaki, GENTARO, and Toru Sugiura who had wrestled earlier in the show to came to the ring. Sasaki and GENTARO who were dressed in their NANGO and BENTEN gimmicks for the show came to the ring. Kanemura would go up to Takashi Sasaki and apologize for everything that happened nearly 9 years ago. Takashi Sasaki would accept the apology with Kanemura embracing Sasaki and GENTARO which would then lead to all the wrestlers ending the show dancing together. 

Takashi Sasaki would later state that he saw the sincerity in Kanemura's face and that his lip was even quivering which was something he had never seen from Kanemura so he knew he was not acting. Sasaki stated he had been so mad at Kanemura (for his sexual harassment scandal that ended that version of the Apache Army promotion which resulted in Takashi Sasaki taking over the promotion several months later) that he had never wanted to see his face at times. Sasaki stated that he did make a mistake (allowing Kanemura to appear at a show to setup a feud between Sasaki's Apache Army and Kanemura's Apache Army in 2009 due to gain interest in a promotion that was dying business wise at the time which then resulted in angering the current sponsors so much that Takashi Sasaki had to close his Apache Army promotion and start up the FREEDOMS promotion) but that he had not seen Kanemura since. Sasaki stated he did not want to leave Kanemura into retirement still feeling the guilt and agreed to forgive Kanemura and that there would be a FREEDOMS offer match on Kanemura's retirement show on December 27th at Korakuen Hall.

Fire Pro put on its last show of the year on December 9, 2016 at the Saitama Kasukabe Multi Purpose Hall with the marketing as Hideki Hosaka's home town return with the main event of Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and HASEGAWA defeating the team of Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Buffalo in a Texas Street Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match with Onita picking up the win over Buffalo at 13 minutes, 42 seconds after finishing him off with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb. The semi-main event had a women's match of Kaho Kobayashi defeating Koharu Hinata at 7 minutes, 54 seconds with a Fisherman Supex. Leatherface, Naoshi Sano, and Wild Seven defeated the team of Guts Ishijima, Masahiro Sase, and Pandita when Leatherface finished off Pandita at 6 minutes, 54 seconds with a Guillotine Drop. The opening match saw the two Apache Army young boys compete as Toshiaki Terao defeated Takumi Sakurai at 7 minutes, 8 seconds with a Backdrop. No shows for the promotion have yet been announced for 2017 as the originally booked Korakuen Hall show for January 9, 2017 is no longer listed. 

Atsushi Onita originally was scheduled to face Naoshi Sano for Naoshi Sano's New Years Eve show on December 31, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Sano who has been paid by Onita for years to be apart of his Jado Army. Sano ended up changing the match after Shota announced that he would be having knee surgery in the early part of 2017. The match has been changed to Atsushi Onita against Shota for the main event and the show will now be a Shota Aid show with all the money going towards Shota's knee surgery. Fellow Guts World wrestlers have also agreed to participate on the show including Mr. Gannosuke.

Atsushi Onita and Masa Fuchi will defend their All Japan All Asian Tag Team Titles for the first time on January 2, 2017 at Korakuen Hall as they will take on the team of Jun Akiyama and Masao Inoue in a match between 1970's All Japan students and 1990's All Japan students. Onita went to Dory Funk, Sr. and requested in English that the match be a Hardcore Match since he was a Hardcore Legend with Funk denying the request and possibly setting up a match between the two down the line as well.

Super Battle FMW announced the full lineup for their first show of 2017 on January 5th at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will be different as all wrestlers in the match will be faces. Atsushi Onita and Hideki Hosaka will team up against Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match. Raijin Yaguchi and Tomohiko Hashimoto will team up to take on Hi69 and Madoka who will be making his debut for the promotion. Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu will team up against Aoi Ishibashi and Konami. Tomoryu and Raiden will team up against the masked team of Wild Bear and Wild Seven. Toshiaki Terao will look to make Super Battle FMW his new home with the Apache Army closing as he will take on Keiichi Sato in the opening match.

FREEDOMS held their Road to Blood XMas show on December 7, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing an announced crowd of 198 fans for the show. The main event of Daisuke Masaoka and Yuko Miyamoto against Violento Jack and Takashi Sasaki in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match with Violento Jack also including a board of half cut up soda cans that Jack would drop Masaoka on his back on them before placing them up against his face and delivering a running knee to the board right into Masaoka's face. Jack would attempt to finish off Masaoka with a Package Piledriver when Miyamoto would come off the top rope and deliver a flying drop kick at Jack allowing Masaoka to roll him up for the win at 13 minutes, 52 seconds to give him momentum going into Korakuen Hall for the title match. Jack afterwards would attack Masaoka and lay him out with a Package Piledriver and stating he did not respect Masaoka. 

GENTARO would win back his UWA Jr. Heavyweight Title over Miedo Extremo in the semi-main event after Extremo would attempt to deliver a German Suplex to GENTARO but GENTARO would end up falling on top of his body during the move and would end up getting the pin at 18 minutes, 2 seconds. Extremo would end up putting the belt around GENTARO's waist and raising his hand in victory as it supports my belief that Jack and Miedo will be leaving the promotion at the end of the year. The Unchain team of Jun Kasai, Masashi Takeda, and Kenji Fukimoto defeated Mammoth Sasaki, Toru Sugiura, and Ryuichi Sekine when Fukimoto pinned Sugiura with a Package Piledriver at 16 minutes, 46 seconds in what would seem to be the end of Sugiura's winning streak he had going for several months. Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei defeated the Ryukyu Dragon team of Guruken Mask and Hibiscus Mii when Kei would pin Guruken at 10 minutes, 18 seconds after rolling him up for the win in the comedy match. Chikara's Trial Series continues he would take on Yuya Susumu in a singles match with Susumu finishing Chikara off at 9 minutes, 8 seconds with a Torque Squeeze Sleeper for the win. Fuminori Abe won the opening match against Dragon Libre at 8 minutes, 44 seconds after making him submit to a Cross Armbreaker. 

Mr. Gannosuke challenged for the GWC 6 Man Teag Team Titles on December 3, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring which announced a very healthy crowd of 320 fans for the show. Mr. Gannosuke, Michigo Kageyama, and CHANGO challenged Masao Orihara, Dick Togo, and Ryan Upin but were unable to come away with the titles after Orihara woll roll up CHANGO for the win at 19 minutes, 31 seconds. This setup a Single Elimination Match between the two factions for the next Guts World's show on January 24, 2017 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring as Gannosuke will team up with Guts Ishijima, Michio Kageyama, and CHANGO against Masao Orihara, Dick Togo, Amigo Suzuki, and Ryan Upin. There was a heated interaction once again between Gannosuke and Dick Togo which I would not be surprised if it was to lead to a match between Gannosuke and Togo on May 5, 2017 at the next Korakuen Hall show.

Tokyo Sports announced for their 2016 awards that Hayabusa would posthumously be awarded their Special Prize for a Lifetime Achievement at their award ceremony in early 2017. This would be Hayabusa's second Tokyo Sports award as he also won the Fighting Sprit Prize in 1997. No word on who will accept the award for Hayabusa's honor although Mr. Gannosuke would be the most likely option.

I recently made a huge purchase after finding out the Hayabusa's white ring jacket was for sale. It had not been kept up with and had been hanging in a music store in Yokohama for years. A lot dirt has been collected on it and there is some definite wear and tear to it but that was probably what made it even possible for me to purchase it. I am working on fixing it up although it will be a very time consuming project. The goal is to clean it up as much as I possibly can before putting it in a display frame to protect it from deteriorating once again. Hayabusa first wore this jacket to the ring against Kodo Fuyuki on November 20, 1998 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym for the Double Titles. He wore it to the ring for several big matches including what was suppose to be his last match at Korakuen Hall as Hayabusa on August 23, 1999 against Yukihiro Kanemura, his return as Hayabusa on May 5, 2000 against Masato Tanaka, and his return to Kawasaki Stadium with The Great Sasuke against Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mr. Gannosuke in a Exploding Octagon Cage Death Match on May 5, 2001. He wore it for every show after Kawasaki Stadium up until August 24, 2001 when he switched over to wrestling just in red up until the end of his career two months later. 

The white one is the second best known jacket that he wore with the most well known one being his iconic brown jacket that was the original jacket that he had made to come across as a star right away in his match against Atsushi Onita on May 5, 1995 at Kawasaki Stadium. He would then wear it for all his big matches until this white one was made. The brown jacket is currently displayed at the Love and Dream Bar in Sapporo which you can see above. Several Dragon Gate wrestlers including Dragon Kid have stopped by the bar to take pictures with the outfit which has been kept up with over the years. There also was a red jacket that was created that he wore to the ring twice for his match against The Great Sasuke on December 11, 1996 and for his Real World Tag Team Tournament Match against Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama on November 27, 1997. I have no idea where that jacket has ended up but I am obviously very thrilled to own something so rare of his and will hopefully make it look as nice as possible again.

Added: 12/1

Atsushi Onita returned to Kawasaki Stadium for the first time in years on November 29, 2016. Onita who held his second retirement match on May 5, 1995 against Hayabusa which drew 58,250 fans which was the biggest show in the buildings history. Kawasaki Stadium would be demolished in 2000 and would be turned into a much smaller football stadium although it will still probably hold over 15,000 fans. Atsushi Onita who for years has stated that he wanted to retire on his 60th Birthday announced that he planned on having his retirement show at Kawasaki Stadium which is now currently being called Kawasaki Fujitsu Stadium on October 25, 2017 and it will be an explosive match just like he had always hoped. Onita stated he did not know who his opponent would be yet but brought up three possible names. Naoya Ogawa due to him being the closest to fighting Antonio Inoki that he would get, Akebono who Onita stated they were tied 1-1 in their series excluding their third match that saw Onita get the win without even pinning Akebono, and Satoru Sayama who Onita had been directly feuding with for a couple of years earlier this decade which has cooled off. Onita stated that he wanted his Fire Pro-Wrestling promotion, Super Battle FMW, ZERO1, and All Japan to all promote the show together. Onita stated he wants to fulfill a promise he made back in 1997 that he was never able to get done along with ECW and that was have an Exploding Death Match in the United States. He stated he knows it will be hard to pull off but he has wanted this for so long and wants to take on Sabu one last time in the match if he can get it to happen and he is in talks with Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore promotion about putting it together. He also wants to have one final singles match against his student Masato Tanaka. Finally he announced that after he retires he wants to do a nation wide tour to end bullying from society as he has wanted to do this for years but has been unable to do due to his schedule as he feels he is finally ready to step away from the ring for good.

Shark Tsuchiya made her first return in the spotlight in years as she attended a press conference along with Atsushi Onita to announced that she bad been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last year and that  she would be losing part of her leg as a result as well as this past May she was diagnosed with breast cancer and has lost her right breast. Tsuchiya announced due to her health problems that there would be an official retirement ceremony held her for on November 24, 2016 at Korakuen Hall. Eriko Tsuchiya at the age of 19 joined the FMW Dojo the first day it opened on September 15, 1989. She made her debut just two weeks later along with fellow Dojo women wrestlers Miwa Sato and Kumiko Matsuda at the first FMW show on October 6, 1989 as they lost to the Witch Warrior. Tsuchiya did not wrestle again until May 13, 1990 and by that time the roster had included Megumi Kudo, Combat Toyoda, and her long time partner Yoshika Maedomari. Tsuchiya and Maedomari would team up for the first time on July 26, 1990 where they would face off against Miwa Sato and who would end up being Tsuchiya's long time rival Megumi Kudo. Tsuchiya would face off against Megumi Kudo in their first singles match on August 22, 1990 with Kudo winning which she mostly did against Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya and Maedomari to try and develop distinct looks would both adopt colors for their image with Tsuchiya wearing a green outfit and dying her hair green to go with it as Maedomari would go with orange. They would both change their names to Shark Tsuchiya and Crusher Maedomari. Tsuchiya would win her first title on March 25, 1992 as she would defeat Miwa Sato for the WWA Women's Title but would lose it to Megumi Kudo on May 24, 1992. Tsuchiya would continue her rivalry with Megumi Kudo for the next 5 years which would include Tsuchiya main eventing at Korakuen Hall in the first ever women's No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match where she would lose to Kudo in a bloody match.

Tsuchiya would then have the biggest match of her career as she would main event the Yokohama Arena in front of a sold out crowd for Megumi Kudo's Retirement Match which would be a No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Double Hell Death Match where both Tsuchiya and Kudo would take enormous damage during the match with Kudo once again for the final defeating Tsuchiya. Following Kudo's retirement the women's division became obsolete. Tsuchiya would win the vacant women's titles against Aja Kong on September 28, 1997 at Kawasaki Stadium but the women's titles would vanish afterwards and so would Tsuchiya and Maedomari in 1998 as they would be put against each other in a series of short bad matches with one another until FMW would announce that it was retiring the women's division in the Summer of 1998. Tsuchiya and Maedomari were freelancers and would begin working for Atsushi Onita in 1999 as well as other women promotions like LLPW before becoming a part time wrestler at the turn of the new century. Tsuchiya would lose a lot of weight and be booked one last time for Tarzan Goto's Super FMW promotion on August 20, 2010 where she would team up with Tarzan Goto in a mixed match against Mr. Pogo's team. Although Tsuchiya was never liked by both fans due to her heel antics and by the internet crowd because she was not a good worker she was still an important part to FMW with her blood feud with Kudo as well as the person that created the infamous thunder FMW logo. 

Super Battle FMW drew an announced crowd of 900 fans for their Korakuen Hall show on November 24, 2016.. The main event saw the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles become the FMW 8 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles as Great Tiger, Tiger Mask El Masukardo # 3, Black Tiger # 5, and Black Tiger # 7 defeated Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, and Hi69 when Great Tiger pinned Hi69 with a Diving Headbutt for the Tiger Army win. Shark Tsuchiya's retirement ceremony was also held on the show. More details and pictures of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Korakuen16.html

Atsushi Onita in a interview afterwards stated that Super Battle FMW needs to return to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring as its home location right now and focus on getting 200-300 fans per show instead of running Korakuen Hall. He stated he will take over as booker of the promotion starting December 23rd and that he will focus on young wrestlers creating the new FMW. Onita stated when he is gone, it will make it easier for a foundation with a new structure. 

Fire Pro-Wrestling held a show at the Hiroshima Prefectural Fukuyama Industrial Exchange Center on November 23, 2016 drawing an announced crowd of 300 fans for the show. The main event had Mayogun # 1, Mayogun # 2, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Devil Magician along with Masashi Aoyagi in their corner defeat Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, HASEGAWA, and Takeshi Okada in a Exploding Onibo Jado Rocket Death Match after Aoyagi would grab the Exploding Onibo and use it on Okada for Mayogun # 1 to get the get the at 10 minutes, 39 seconds. The Mayogun would not be done though as they would also use the Onibo to hit Onita with it and then place Aoyagi's sword across Onita's throat in victory once again. KAI, Minoru Tanaka, and Hi69 put an end to the GUN's return hot streak after Mr. Gannosuke, Ichiro Yaguchi as Mr. Rocknosuke, and Michio Kageyama as Mr. Wannosuke would take the fall when KAI would use the Gannosuke Clutch that Gannosuke taught him back in April to get the pin at 14 minutes, 43 seconds over Wannosuke. Jiro Kuroshio and Yuki Yoshioka defeated Yuko Miyamoto and Nobutaka Moribe after Miyamoto would get DQ'd at 11 minutes, 37 seconds for assaulting the referee. Daisuke and Crab K*ING would defeat Onryo and Mayogun # 4 when Daisuke would finish off Mayogun # 4 at 12 minutes, 21 seconds with a Diving Body Press. The opening match had Shota Nakagawa pick up the win at 9 minutes, 20 seconds after getting the pinfall over Kohei Fujimura with a Moonsault.

Atsushi Onita and Masa Fuchi the first and second students to graduate from the All Japan Dojo in 1974 challenged for the All Japan All Asian Tag Team Titles against Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato on November 27, 2016 for All Japan's Ryogoku Sumo Hall show. Onita was never given permission to use his Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat during the match but he did bring it to the ring although he was asked by Fuchi to put it away. Onita would end up piledriving Aoki through a table and spraying Aoki with red mist in the face before Fuchi would get the win at 14 minutes, 17 seconds after putting away Sato with a Backdrop. Onita and Fuchi would become the 100th All Asian Tag Team Champions. Onita and Fuchi were presented the belts and trophies and brought in a framed picture of The Magic Dragon Kazuharu Sonoda who was the third All Japan Dojo student to graduate in 1975 who tragically passed away in 1987 due to a plane crash on his honeymoon to South Africa. He was also the uncle of former FMW women's wrestler Yukari Ishikura. 

The Super Fireworks promotion returned on December 1, 2016 at the Fukushima Wakamatsu City Castle Gym with the main event renewing the Onita vs. Funaki feud as Atsushi Onita and Hideki Hosaka teamed up against Masakatsu Funaki and TARU in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match with TARU getting the pin at 14 minutes, 21 seconds after hitting Hosaka with the exploding barbed wire baseball for the win. TARU afterwards would take Onita and tie him to a chair with his Super Fireworks Tag Team Title laid on him with TARU taking the bat and hitting the title belt causing an explosion on Onita and breaking the Super Fireworks Tag Team Titles into pieces. TARU afterwards would state that is what Onita gets for showing off his belt the way he was and that one day he will destroy Onita's tombstone the same way he did to his belt.

Raijin Yaguchi did an interview demanding the originally scheduled match between the Jado Army and the Tiger Army scheduled for Fire Pro's December 9, 2016 show at the Saitama Kasukabe Multi Purpose Hall be changed and Yaguchi would get a match with Onita instead. Yaguchi stated that when he was living in Boston, Massachusetts he read an article by Atsushi Onita that made him want to become a professional wrestler. Yaguchi over the years has become one of the few actual friends of Onita and he has been working along side of him for 15 years now and he heard Onita talk about possibly retirement opponents and did not even get mentioned. Yaguchi stated he wanted to have a Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match against Onita on the show e had become one of the few personal friends to Onita and that he was personally offended by Onita and wanted to take it out on him at the show.

FREEDOMS ran at the Nagoya North Sports Center on November 13, 2016 and drew an announced crowd of 136 fans for the show. The main event was a 4 vs. 4 Single Elimination Match between Jun Kasai, Mammoth Sasaki, Daisuke Masaoka, and Toru Sugiura against Violento Jack, Miedo Extremo, Yuya Susumu, and HAYATA with the FREEDOMS getting the win. Daisuke Masaoka managed to get the first elimination after hitting Extremo with a Trance Rave at 8 minutes, 35 seconds to get the pinfall elimination. Masaoka would then get tossed over the top rope by Violento Jack at 9 minutes, 30 seconds. Jack would then the next to be eliminated by Jun Kasai at 13 minutes, 51 seconds after he would get knocked over the top rope. Kasai would then follow the trend by getting eliminated right afterwards at 13 minutes, 55 seconds by Yuya Susumu. Mammoth Sasaki would then the next to be tossed over the top rope at 14 minutes, 44 seconds by HAYATA. This would leave the local boy Toru Sugiura alone against the King of Freedom Tag Team Champions. Sugiura would knock HAYATA over the top rope at 17 minutes, 20 seconds for the elimination and would then finish off Susumu at 20 minutes, 31 seconds with a pinfall after hitting him with the Swift Driver for the win. The semi-main event had Takashi Sasaki and Kengo Takai who came to the ring in matching Sasaki's attire as they defeated The Winger and Chikara when Takai nailed Chikara with a Hoflariat at 12 minutes, 27 seconds to get the win. Katsumara Shu returned to FREEDOMS to defeat Konaka Pale One at 11 minutes, 36 seconds after making him tap out to the Cross Armbreaker. GENTARO and Dyna Mido teamed up to defeat Yusaku Ito and Shinya Ishida when Mido got the win over Ito at 8 minutes, 30 seconds after rolling him up with a Samson Clutch. The opening match had Kenji Fukimoto defeat Dragon Libre at 8 minutes, 42 seconds after reversing a pin to get the three count. 

FREEDOMS returned to Korakuen Hall on November 17, 2016 drawing an announced crowd of 652 fans which can not be considered good but has to be expected. The show was promoted as The Winger's 25th Anniversary even though records although I have his debut as August 2, 1992 in W*ING. The main event was a Fluorescent Light Tube Ladder Death Match between Daisuke Masaoka and Yuko Miyamoto with the winner getting a shot at Violento Jack's King of Freedom World Title at the next Korakuen Hall show on December 26th. The ladder came into use as Miyamoto would deliver a Moonsault off it and would hit a Thunder Fire Powerbomb but would still be unable to put Masaoka away. Masaoka would come back with delivering Miyamoto's Fire Thunder to him and a drop kick off the turnbuckle busting light tubes across Miyamoto's chest before Masaoka would put away Miyamoto at 16 minutes, 37 seconds with a Modified Rokkura for the biggest win of his career and sets him up for the title match next month as FREEDOMS continues to push Masaoka as their new star. 

The Winger faced off in his 25th Anniversary Match against former IWA Japan friend TAJIRI with TAJIRI managing to get the win at 17 minutes, 33 seconds after nailing The Winger with a Buzzsaw Kick for the win as the two friends embraced afterwards. Violento Jack, Takashi Sasaki, and Shuji Ishikawa defeated the Unchain team of Jun Kasai, Masashi Takeda, and Kenji Fukimoto when GUNSO who has been feuding with Kasai in their Osaka shows the past couple of months would appear and attack Kasai to setup Jack delivering a Package Driver to get the win at 14 minutes, 56 seconds over Kasai. GUNSO would challenge Kasai to a Death Match next month at Korakuen Hall with Kasai accepting. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA would keep their King of Freedom Tag Team Titles against Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura after Susumu would make Sugiura tap out out at 12 minutes, 31 seconds to a Cross Armbreaker. Chikara's 7th Trial Match Series would take place as Chikara would lose to Isami Kodaka at 10 minutes, 20 seconds after Kodaka would score the win with a Arm Clutch Manjigatame. Miedo Extremo would win the UWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title away from GENTARO at 15 minutes, 56 seconds after putting him away with a German Suplex to become the new UWA World Jr. Heavyweight Champion. The opening match had The Winger wrestle in the first of two matches as he defeated the returning from injury rookie Dragon Libre at 6 minutes, 53 seconds with the Toke Esparda. 

Mr. Gannosuke took on Amigo Suzuki in a singles match at Guts World's Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on November 15, 2016 and despite Suzuki getting the early advantage after jumping Gannosuke he would end up getting caught in the Gannosuke Clutch and pinned at 7 minutes, 44 seconds. Mr. Gannosuke would come out after the main event as Masao Orihara, Dick Togo, and Ryan Upin would win the GWC 6 Man Tag Team Titles from the Kishindo team of Guts Ishijima, Michio Kageyama, and CHANGO when Amigo Suzuki would come out and attack CHANGO with a chair that would lead to Upin scoring the win. Gannosuke would confront Orihara who he has had a feud with for months and Dick Togo about the way they won their belts with Dick Togo giving Gannosuke the middle finger before walking off. Gannosuke would challenge Orihara and Togo to a match for the 6 Man Tag Team Titles and it would be setup for the next show on December 3rd at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with Gannosuke teaming up with fellow Kishindo members Michio Kageyama and CHANGO as they take on the Tonpachi Machin Gun members Masao Orihara, Dick Togo, and Ryan Upin.

Last week marked the 18th Anniversary of this website. This was probably the most eventful year in a long time for this website. The death of Hayabusa as heart breaking as it was put a passion in me that I had not had in years when it comes to this site. Redoing the Hayabusa Biography which included pretty much  his life story which took countless hours of translating and research to complete. Then to follow that up with creating a Hayabusa Music Video of his career that pretty much took up my life for over a week. Then to completely revamp the video tape library and add tons of rare FMW hand held shows that had never made it outside of Japan to finally turning every video I have into a DVD which was a huge project. Returning to Japan and attending a Super Battle FMW show at Korakuen Hall and getting to meet Atsushi Onita for the first time afterwards are things I will never forget. I also created an Instagram to post tons of FMW pictures. Although I do see the writing on the wall with Kanemura retiring later this month, Onita retiring next year, and Super Battle FMW losing its momentum that there might not as much to cover and report but I still want to continue to put the passion into this website as long as I can and hopefully that means a 19th and eventually a 20th Anniversary for this old website. 

Added: 11/6

Super Battle FMW ran an outside show much to what Onita's FMW would do regularly in the early 90's as they would hold a special show on October 23, 2016 at the Nara Tawaramoto Seiwa Logistics Parking Lot where they would have a Special Ring setup for the cloudy day. The main event would be Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, Hi69, and HASEGAWA defeating W*ING Kanemura, Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and NOSAWA Rongai in a Exploding Onibo Death Match as it would show that Kanemura will be participating in Death Matches again before his retirement in December but will not take any explosive bumps during the matches instead Onita would use the exploding Onibo on Hashimoto instead to get the pinfall at 9 minutes, 20 seconds for the Onita win. Tetsuhiro Kuroda would make his Super Battle FMW debut a he would team up with Takumi Sakurai as they would lose to the former ZERO1 team of Ryoji Sai and Rikiya Fudo when Fudo would pick up the win at 14 minutes, 44 seconds with a Diving Body Press over Sakurai. Keisuke Okuda and Keiichi Sato would defeat Daisuke and Kochi Takemura when Okuda would Okuda would use the Okuda Back Choke to make Takemura tap out at 10 minutes, 12 seconds for the win. Miss Mongol and Mami Matsuda would defeat Bambi and Sachiko Yokozuna when Mongol would score the win over Yokozuna at 12 minutes, 46 seconds with the STO. Toshiaki Terao would win a Three Way Match over Ricky Fuji and Pandita when Ricky would hit his 9999 DDT on Pandita but Terao would throw Ricky out of the ring and steal the pin over Pandita at 8 minutes, 41 seconds for the win. The opening match would be a Boxing Exhibition as Apache Army's Yosuke Enemoto would go to a draw against Tsuyoshi Yamaoka in two rounds of three minutes.

Atsushi Onita and Yoshiyuki Yamakon held a press conference at the Super Battle FMW office in Iidabashi, Tokyo on November 4, 2016 to announce that the Super Battle FMW owner Yamakon would be stepping down as owner of the promotion. Yamakon bought the company in August 2015 and was able to sponsor the promotion running Korakuen Hall six times starting back on December 22, 2015. Takahashi will be taking back ownership of the company he started after the Korakuen Hall show on November 24, 2016. The ownership of the company will go back to Takahashi who help start up the company and has remained President throughout. Takahashi announced that as a result of the ownership change that Super Battle FMW will be putting a freeze on running anymore Korakuen Hall shows for the time being. Prior to the change in ownership in August 2015 the biggest shows the promotion could run was Shinjuku FACE. This is not good news for the company that already has reduced touring or their big plan for running Kawasaki Stadium on May 5, 2017 and being able to afford explosives for one last Onita match there.

Kintaro Kanemura held a press conference at Toudoukan in Suidobashi, Tokyo on October 20, 2016 to make a official announcement about his Retirement show that he will be promoting on December 27, 2016 at Korakuen Hall. Kanemura who along with Toshiaki Kajimaru who is the President of the KAJI company that will be sponsoring the show announced the main event officially as Kintaro Kanemura, Masato Tanaka, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda will take on Daisuke Sekimoto, Kohei Sato, and Shingo Takagi which since he announced his retirement last year that match has always been the plan. Kanemura ran down his career which started at Pioneer Senshei in 1990 and then W*ING, IWA Japan, FMW, WEW, and then the Apache Army. Kanemura also stated he had worked for 46 different promotions in his 26 year career. Although no matches have been made besides the main event officially he listed the names of wrestlers that will be wrestling on the show in: Atsushi Onita, Ichiro Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, Buffalo, Hi69, Shiori Asahi, Yusaku Obata, Madoka, Raiden, NOSAWA Rongai, Gosaku Goshogawara, Minoru Tanaka, Mr. Gannosuke, Koji Nakagawa, Ricky Fuji, Onryo, Hido, TAJIRI, Magnitude Kishiwada, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Ryoji Sai, Rikiya Fudo, The Bodyguard, Kazushi Miyamoto, Yuji Hino, Kuga, Masao Orihara, Ryota Hama, Hayate, Nobutaka Moribe, TAKA Michinoku, Shinjuku Shark, Kazunori Yoshida, Razor Ramon RG, Naoshi Sano, Shota, Bambi, and Yuki Miyazaki. 

Kanemura announced how the show will be booked with the show opening with Independent wrestlers against one another followed by a Speed and Highflying Match, and then a Power Wrestler match, then a Fuyuki FMW reunion with the wrestlers that were there in FMW from 1998-2002, and then there will be an Onita Street Fight, followed by a Battle Royal, and then the main event with Kintaro Kanemura's Retirement Ceremony ending the show.  Kanemura also stated he would like the FREEDOMS wrestlers of Takashi Sasaki, GENTARO, Mammoth Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and The Winger on the show as well. Kanemura stated he wanted to  apologize to those wrestlers for everything that had happened back in 2008. Kanemura stated he also knows that Jun Kasai has held a grudge with him for years over the sexual harassment scandal so he knows it not a guarantee they will appear on the show. Jun Kasai for years hated Kanemura following the sexual harassment scandal and refused to be apart of any show with Kanemura on the card until this past June for an Apple Star show at Shin-Kiba. I was outside the building after the show next to Kanemura when he saw Kasai leaving with Kanemura stopping Kasai to give him a hug with Kasai returning it awkwardly. Kanemura knows that New Japan wrestlers can not not compete on the show but he hopes that Jado, Gedo, Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii, and NOAH's Naomichi Marufuji can at least attend the retirement ceremony. He is also negotiating to get Shinjiro Otani and Sanshiro Takagi on the show as well. 

Kintaro Kanemura appeared on his final ZERO1 show of his career on November 6, 2016 at Korakuen Hall as Kintaro Kanemura teamed up with Masato Tanaka as they defeated the team of Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa with Kanemura getting the win at 15 minutes, 11 seconds by cradling Takaiwa for the win. Kanemura got on the mic afterwards and thanked ZERO1 for bringing him and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in back in 2002 as they were the only two wrestlers following the end of FMW that were getting booked regularly by another promotion for the entire first year after FMW's closure. Kanemura, Tanaka, Otani, and Takaiwa all then did the TNR Dance together for Kanemura's ZERO1 send off. 

Fire Pro-Wrestling held their first show at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on October 21, 2016 drawing an announced 315 fans for the show. The main event would be Atsushi Onita as Devil Nita Man which would be him in Joker makeup, Hideki Hosaka as Darkside Panda Hosaka, and HASEGAWA as Witch HASEGAWA as faced off against Jesus Yaguchi, Ochimusha Hashimoto, and Mummy Rongai in a Barbed wire Board Falls Count Anywhere Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match with Yaguchi picking up the win at 13 minutes, 49 seconds with the Jesus Bomber on HASEGAWA. The semi-main event was an Actress Girls Halloween Match as Yumiko Hotta going by the name Magnificent Hottie teamed with Saori Anno going by the name Black Poteco as they defeated Eimi Nishina going by the Wonderland of Eimi and Natsumi Manki as Poi Carbell when Hotta used a Brainbuster to get the win at 11 minutes, 27 seconds with a Brainbuster. Wild Seven as Dracula Seven and Raiden going by Death Raiden defeated Masahiro Sase going by Mario Sase and Naoshi Sano under the name of Naoshi Sano Luigi when Raiden would pick up the win at 6 minutes, 39 seconds with a La Magistral. Pandita under the name Zombie Pandita and Gabbai Ji-chan under the name Dead Bai Ji-Chan defeated Leatherface and Kenichi Fujii under the costume Captain Cook Fujii when Gabbai used his Gabbaiton Bomb at 6 minutes, 58 seconds to get the win over Fujii. The opening match saw Shiori Akiba as Skull Akiba defeat Tam Nakano going by Witch Kid Thamrin at 8 minutes, 27 seconds with an Oklahoma Roll to open the show. 

Fire Pro-Wrestling began their tour on October 29, 2016 at the Aomori Hirosaki Hexi City Sports Center where they drew an announced 315 fans for the show. Fire Pro looks to be taking over the tour dates for Super Battle FMW with the change in ownership and only booking one show a month the last two months of the year. The main event saw Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and HASEGAWA defeat Mayogun # 1 who is obviously Raijin Yaguchi under a mask as they do not even try to hide who it is, Mayogun # 3 who is Gosaku Goshogawara under a mask, and Mayogun # 4 who I would guess is Tomohiko Hashimoto but do not know that for sue when Onita pinning Gosaku at 11 minutes, 34 seconds after Onita would hit him with the Exploding Onibo in a Scramble Bunkhouse Street Fight Tornado Lumberjack Death Match with Onryo interfering during the match and getting a piledriver through a table by Onita for his troubles. Mr. Gannosuke and Michio Kageyama who went by the name of Mr. Wannosuke to recreate Mr. Gannosuke's old GUNS group in WMF. Katsumi Hirano who was originally Mr. Iwaonosuke is no longer wrestling so the newest member of the blonde hair wrestlers is Kageyama who has already been dressing like Gannosuke in Guts World for a year. They defeated fellow Guts World wrestlers Daisuke and Joji Otani when Wannosuke pinned Otani at 13 minutes, 28 seconds with a Northern Light Bomb for the GUNS win. Yuko Miyamoto and Kenta Hattori defeated Onryo and Takashi Okada when Miyamoto pinned Okada at 10 minutes, 33 seconds with a Moonsault. Guts Ishijima finished off 666's Taro Yamada at 7 minutes, 7 seconds with the Ghost Buster. Mayogun # 6 defeated Jiang Li Chuan Yu with an Inside Cradle at 4 minutes, 48 seconds in the opening match.

Fire Pro ran their last night of the three show on November 3, 2016 at the Yokohama Radiant Hall where they announced a crowd of 300 fans for the show. The main event was a Scramble Bunkhouse Barbed wire Board Death Match as Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and HASEGAWA defeated Mayogun # 2 who was Raijin Yaguchi, Mayogun # 4, and Mayogun # 5 when Onita used a Backdrop on Gosaku as Mayogun # 4 to get the win at 8 minutes, 15 seconds for the Jado Army win. After the match, all the Mayogun members hit the ring as well as Masashi Aoyagi who is the leader of the Mayogun and began to choke out Onita with his sword. The semi-main event was the return of Ichiro Yaguchi as Mr. Rocknosuke for the GUNS as he teamed with Mr. Gannosuke for the first time since 2008 along with the newest members Michio Kageyama as Mr. Wannosuke as they defeated Minoru Tanaka, Keizo Matsuda, and Hi69 when Gannosuke finished off Hi69 at 13 minutes, 44 seconds with a Fire Thunder. Onryo and Aiger teamed up to defeat the team of Yuji Kito and Makoto when Aiger got the win over Kito at 10 minutes, 38 seconds using a School Boy. Rionne Fujiwara made his debut for the promotion defeating Shota Nakagawa at 10 minutes, 53 seconds after making him tap out to the Wakigatame. The women's match had Dump Matsumoto and Yumiko Hotta defeat Tomoko Watanabe and Yuki Shizuku when Hotta got the win at 6 minutes, 27 seconds using the Harite. Daisuke, Katsunari Toi, and Kenta Hattori defeated former Super FMW wrestler Crab K*ING, Yuiga, and Joji Otani when Daisuke got the pin at 13 minutes, 42 seconds with a Diving Body Press. Emi Nishina defeated Tam Nakano at 7 minutes, 20 seconds with the Somto. The opening match was a Midget Match as Pretty Ota defeated Mr. Buddhaman at 4 minutes, 28 seconds with the Shinkuunage.

FREEDOMS returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on October 27, 2016 drawing a great number for them in 315 fans as the main event was a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match between Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka as they would defeat Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka with Miyamoto picking up the win at 15 minutes, 32 seconds over Masaoka with a Moonsault. This match was to setup the match between the two at Korakuen Hall next month with the winner earning a shot at the King of Freedom Title. GENTARO defended his UWA World Junior Heavyweight Title over HAYATA at 19 minutes, 33 seconds with a Dragon Whip. Miedo Extremo and Kenji Fukimoto scored the upset over Violento Jack and Takashi Sasaki when Fukimoto used a cradle at 13 minutes, 47 seconds over Violento Jack for the win in a Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match. Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda defeated Yuya Susumu and Fuminori Abe when Takeda used a slam to get the win at 13 minutes, 24 seconds over Abe. Mammoth Sasaki defeated Chikara in his 6th Match of his 7 Match Trial Series when Mammoth got the win at 7 minutes, 5 seconds using a Reverse pinfall. The opening match had Toru Sugiura and Hi69 defeat Kenichiro Arai and The Winger when Sugiura used the Swift Driver at 9 minutes, 4 seconds to get the revenge win over Arai for his singles loss to him back in June. 

FREEDOMS held a show at the Osaka Hirano Kumin Hall on October 30, 2016 to an announced crowd of 325 fans for the show as the main event saw Masashi Takeda defend his DTU Ultra Violent Championship against Kenji Fukimoto in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Gadgets Board Halloween Death Match when Takeda would successfully defend the title for the first time after finishing off Fukimoto at 14 minutes, 56 seconds with a Dragon Suplex on a Gadget Board. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA defeated the team of Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo when HAYATA used the Hedkku on Extremo at 12 minutes, 38 seconds to successfully defend their titles for the second time. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura came out afterwards and challenged Susumu and HAYATA for the tag team titles at Korakuen Hall on November 17th. The FREEDOMS team of Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Daisuke Masaoka faced off against the Dove Pro team of GUNSO, Sakigake, and YO-HEY with GUNSO scoring the upset by pinning Kasai at 12 minutes, 26 seconds after rolling him up for a Small Package. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura defeated Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei after the Sugiura push continued as he would get the pinfall at 8 minutes, 43 seconds with a Swift Driver over Kei. GENTARO going by his alternative gimmick of BENTEN teamed with Keita Yano and Devil Magician as they defeated the tem of Takashi Sasaki, Yuki Tanaka, and Dyna Mido when Yano used a Hot Shot to get the win at 14 minutes, 22 seconds over Dyna Mido. Masamune and Hide Kubota defeated the team of Akagi and AK when Masamune used his Tonbogri to get the win at 10 minutes, 50 seconds over AK. Toru Sugiura opened the show by defeating Dragon Libre as the rookie makes his come back from injury as he would tap out at 7 minutes, 13 seconds to Sugiura's Crab Hold. 

The Apache Army promotion held their second last show on October 22, 2016 at the Nagoya Aichi Sportiva Arena with no attendance announced for the show. The main event had Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Hi69 and NOSAWA Rongai become a late add to the match as they would team up to defeat the team of Atsushi Onita still in his Devil Nita Man gimmick from the day before along with Hideki Hosaka, HASEGAWA, and Takumi Sakurai with Kanemura picking up the win after finishing off Sakurai at 10 minutes, 7 seconds with a Death Valley Bomb. Keisuke Okuda who is a former IGF fighter defeated Shibata easily at 4 minutes, 12 seconds with his Okuda Choke to get the in win the semi-main event. Raijin Yaguchi and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeated the local Nagoya wrestlers who turned out to be brothers Yasu and Hide Kubota with Yaguchi finishing off Yasu at 11 minutes, 12 seconds after hitting his Thunder Struck. Keiichi Sato was able to get the win over Takumi Sakurai at 11 minutes, 32 seconds after using a La Magistral to get the three count. The opening match saw Ricky Fuji and Pandita defeat Toshiaki Terao and Yusaku Ito after Ricky would hit the 9999 DDT on Terao but Pandita would end up stealing the pinfall to get the win for their team in the opening match.

Three matches have been announced for the last Apache Army promotion show on December 25, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event has officially been made with Kintaro Kanemura challenging Koji Kanemoto for the WEW World Title for what will most likely be the last match for the 17 year old title and Kanemura's final singles match. Most likely the final WEW Tag Team Title match will be the semi-main event as Tomohiko Hashimoto and Keisuke Okuda will defend their titles against Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Tatsuhito Takaiwa. The only other match announced so far will be a Jado Army vs. Apache Army match as Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, and Masaru Kameda will take on Hi69, HASEGAWA, Toshiaki Terao, and Takumi Sakurai in a Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match. 

Added: 10/18

The Apache Army held an emergency meeting on September 29, 2016 at Toudoukan in Suidobashi, Tokyo to announce that the Apache Army promotion was closing and would be holding their last show on December 25, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The move was expected with Kintaro Kanemura's retirement from wrestling on December 27th as Kanemura has been the symbol for the Apache Army since it was created. Tomohiko Hashimoto who runs the business side and HASEGAWA who is the biggest financial backer for the promotion talked about the possibility of starting up a new promotion next year under a different name. 

The Apache Army name started as a group in 2003 following the end of the WEW promotion after Kodo Fuyuki's death with his widow Kaoru promoting shows under the Fuyuki Army name. The former WEW wrestlers teamed together with Gannosuke's WMF wrestlers to compete against ZERO1 and then Riki Choshu's World Japan for a year before Kanemura and Gannosuke would have a falling out in 2004 and Kaoru would get out of the business. Kanemura then created the Apache Army promotion with the first show being held on August 30, 2004 at Korakuen Hall. The promotion did well for at an independent level until Kanemura would get involved a sexual harassment scandal that would not only see him banned from ever competing for Big Japan again where the incident took place but the Apache Army promotion as well. Takashi Sasaki who had been a member of the promotion took over duties and became the promoter of the Apache Army promotion in June 2008 with agreeing to sponsors that Kanemura would not appear for the promotion. Sasaki brought in Mr. Gannosuke after the Kanemura fall out but business really suffered after the Kanemura incident as the promotion had a hard time getting 100 people in for their Shin-Kiba shows. Sasaki would bring back Kanemura to try and setup an angle where Kanemura was upset about his promotion being taken from him but this only angered the sponsors that Kanemura would be allowed back. Sasaki would close his version of the Apache Army on August 8, 2009 and start up his own promotion with a brand new slate called FREEDOMS. 

Kanemura would partner up with Yuichi Sasahara to start up the XWF promotion which would be based around him on August 6, 2008 but the first show would be a financial disaster and every smaller show would be as well until the promotion would die a quiet death in 2010. Kanemura would then get together with Tomohiko Hashimoto who had also recently had his own promotion MAKEHEN close and the two would meet with Kazutaka Hasegawa a very wealthy single wrestling fan who would agree to finance a new Apache Army which would be a small promotion that would run the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring monthly starting on December 17, 2010. The monthly shows attendance would continue to decline until the promotion could no longer run monthly in Tokyo anymore after March 2013. The promotion would become a sporadic promotion running every so often mostly in Osaka where it still could do a good number at a small location every so often. Following Kanemura's retirement announcement for the end of 2016 the Apache Army would capitalize on this by running a show every month in 2016 in very small buildings. They will hold a show in Nagoya on October 22nd with Atsushi Onita on the card and then they will hold their last show on December 25, 2016 as they will return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the first time in 3 years and 9 months. The Apache Army closing will officially end the group name after 13 years, the name as a promotion after 12 years, and this version of the promotion after 6 years. 

The Apache Army ran their third last show on October 2, 2016 at the Tokyo Kitasenju Theater 1010 drawing an announced sell out of 138 fans to the show. The main event saw Koji Kanemoto defend his WEW World Title for the second time after making Hi69 tap out at 21 minutes, 2 seconds to the Ankle Lock. Kintaro Kanemura came out after the main event and challenged Kanemoto to a WEW World Title Match with Kanemoto accepting as the show would end with wrestlers and fans doing the TNR Dance together. Tomohiko Hashimoto and Keisuke Okuda won the WEW Tag Team Titles from Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda after Hashimoto put away Kuroda at 15 minutes, 42 seconds with the XCT for Hashimoto's fifth reign as WEW Tag Team Champ all with different partners. Rion Mizuki and HASEGAWA defeated Manabu Hara and Yosuke Enomoto when HASEGAWA pinned Enomoto at 10 minutes, 46 seconds with a Fisherman's Buster. Masamune, Hayate and Nobutaka Moribe defeated MIKAMI, Masaru Kameda, and Takumi Sakurai when Masamune pinned Sakurai at 18 minutes, 5 seconds with the Gauntlet Setsusei and the opening match had Freddy Krueger teaming with Syuou Fujiwara to defeat Kuniyoshi Wada and Toshiaki Terao when Kreuger pinning Terao at 14 minutes, 6 seconds after finishing him off with Two Stone Piledrivers. 

Fire Pro-Wrestling ran their second show at the Nagoya Aichi Nishi-ku Biwajima Sports Center with no attendance being announced. The main attraction to the show was Crusher Maedomari returning back to the ring to team with Atsushi Onita and Hideki Hosaka to defeat Raijin Yaguchi, Dump Matsumoto, and Mayogun # 2 in a Exploding Onibo Death Match when Onita and Maedomari both used the Onibo on Mayogun to get the win at 10 minutes, 40 seconds after Onita pinned Mayogun. Masashi Aoyagi who before the show declared war again on Onita came to the ring and with the help of Yaguchi and Matsumoto helped attack Onita using a sword while Matsumoto choked Onita out with a stick. Aoyagi declared that he would team with the masked Mayogun wrestlers to form the Aoyagi Mayo Army to go finally win the 27 year war between him and Onita. Minoru Tanaka who has become a regular for the Super Battle FMW promotion as he teamed up with Hi69 as they defeated the 666 Team of Onryo and Yuko Miyamoto when Hi69 used the Transformer Rave to get the win at 13 minutes, 46 seconds over Onryo. Mr. Gannosuke disciple and Nagoya native Michio Kageyama teamed with fellow local wrestler Eiger as they defeated another Nagoya based wrestler in Kengo Takai as well as 666's NENE mugen D.a.i when Kageyama got the win at 10 minutes, 45 seconds after hitting a Northern Lights Suplex on NENE to pick up the win. Kintaro Kanemura defeated fellow Apache Army wrestler Keisuke Okuda at 7 minutes, 42 seconds when he got the win after using the DDT. Mayogun # 4 and Hide Kubota defeated former Super FMW wrestler Crab K*ING and Setsusaru when Mayogun pinned Setsusaru at 10 minutes, 11 seconds after using a Fireball Bomb. 

Super Battle FMW returned after over a month off to run on September 22, 2016 at the Niigata Joetsu City Tourist Products Center as they announced a crowd of 500 fans for the show. The main event saw Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and local wrestler Shigeno Shima as they defeated the team of Raijin Yaguchi, NOSAWA Rongai, and Buffalo in a Exploding Onibo Death Match when Onita used got the pin over Buffalo at 12 minutes, 3 seconds after using the Onibo on him. W*ING Kanemura and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeated the team of KAI and Keiichi Sato when Kanemura used a cradle to pick up the win at 12 minutes, 39 seconds over Sato. Ricky Fuji and Hi69 defeated Minoru Tanaka making his Super Battle FMW debut and Kotaro Nasu when Ricky got the win at 13 minutes, 21 seconds after nailing Nasu with the 9999 DDT. Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu returned as team of as they defeated Kaori Yoneyama going by the name of Yone Mongol and Sachiko Yokozuna when Miss Mongol used a Running Senton to get the victory at 11 minutes, 57 seconds over Yokozuna. Niigata wrestler Diamond Fuyuaki defeated Pandita at 11 minutes, 16 seconds after making him tap out at 11 minutes, 16 seconds to the Figure Four Leglock in the opening match.

Super Battle FMW drew an announced crowd of 1000 fans for their Korakuen Hall show on September 26, 2016 called "September Fight". The main event saw W*ING Kanemura's last Death Match in Tokyo as he teamed up with Yoshihiro Takayama, Raijin Yaguchi to defeat Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, Ricky Fuji, and Gosaku Goshogawara when Kanemura smashed a chair over Goshogawara's head to get the pinfall for the W*ING Monster Army win. More details and pictures of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Korakuen16.html

Super Battle FMW ran the first show of their October Tour on October 4, 2016 at the Fukui Prefectural Industrial Hall Building # 1 drawing an announced 450 fans for the show. The main event saw Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Ricky Fuji defeat Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and NOSAWA Rongai in a Barbed wire Board Death Match when Onita pinned NOSAWA at 12 minutes with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb. The UWF team of Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Takaku Fuke defeated the W*ING Monster Army team of W*ING Kanemura and a new Leatherface with Fujiwara making Leatherface tap out at 9 minutes, 50 seconds with the Waki-katame. The other UWF match against FMW saw Daisuke Ikeda and Mitsuya Nagai defeat KAI and HASEGAWA when Nagai made HASEGAWA tap out at 17 minutes, 51 seconds with the ROD-katame. Miss Mongol won the women's match on the show defeating Miss Koharu after she pinned her at 10 minutes, 55 seconds with the Kanbaya C. The opening match had Kengo Takai who use to be a masked dog defeat a masked panda in Pandita at 7 minutes, 1 seconds after finishing off Pandita with a Lariat for the win. 

Super Battle FMW ran at the Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes for the first time on October 9, 2016 drawing an announced 600 fans for the show. The building was a regular that FMW ran once a year from 1991 to 2001. The main event had Atsushi Onita team with Daisuke and local wrestler The Atchi as they defeated the W*ING Monster Army of Raijin Yaguchi, Buffalo, and Leatherface in a Exploding Onibo Death Match when Onita got the pin over Leatherface at 12 minutes, 48 seconds after using the Onibo on him. The FMW vs. UWF match saw Minoru Tanaka and Tatsuo Nakano defeat Tomohiko Hashimoto and Gosaku Goshogawara when Nakano pinned Goshogawara at 10 minutes, 18 seconds after finishing him with the Gyaku kata gatame.W*ING Kanemura who was originally scheduled for the main event despite already having wrestled in his final exploding Death Match back in September was moved to the midcard for his last ever match in Hakata as he teamed with Freddy Krueger as they defeated the team of Keiichi Sato and HASEGAWA when Krueger pinned Sato in a telling sign where his career is at 11 minutes, 3 seconds after getting put away by a Brainbuster. Miss Mongol teamed with with Aoi Ishibashi to defeat Miss Koharu and Sachiko Yokozuna when Mongol pinned Yokozuna at 12 minutes, 47 seconds with the STM. Hitamaru Sasaki defeated Pandita at 9 minutes, 20 seconds with a Leglock in the opening match.

Hideki Hosaka announced that he will be running for City Council for the Sodeguara District in Chiba. Hosaka has had Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, Pandita, Wild Seven, Raiden, Naoshi Sano, and Shocker # 1 all with him while campaigning in a van with speaker as well as holding a pep rally at the Sodegaura JR Station on October 16, 2016. Hosaka stated that he will not give up no matter what the results are and he will do everything to blow new wind in Sodegauara. 

Atsushi Onita will also be returning to All Japan on November 27, 2016 at the Tokyo Ryogoku Sumo Hall as he will team up with Masa Fuchi as they will challenge for the All Japan All Asian Tag Team Titles against Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato. Fuchi was the second student to graduate the All Japan Dojo as he made his debut in 1974 against the first Dojo graduate Atsushi Onita. Both teamed and competed against one another through out the 1970's as well as teamed together in Memphis in the early 1980's. They will reunite to challenge for the All Asian Tag Team Titles to become the 100th champions. Fuchi has only held the titles once while Onita has never held the titles that have been around since 1955. Onita is looking to become the 6th former FMW wrestler to hold the titles along with Hayabusa, Mr. Gannosuke, Kintaro Kanemura, Kodo Fuyuki, and Tetsuhiro Kuroda.  Onita has requested that he be allowed to use an Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat during the match but All Japan has not agreed to this request yet. 

FREEDOMS returned to the Yokohama Radiant Hall on September 22, 2016 drawing an announced 249 fans for the show. The main event saw Miedo Extremo defend his DTU Ultraviolent Title against Masashi Takeda in a Fluorescent Light Tubes TLC Death Match with Takeda picking up the win after hitting the Reverse U-Crash on a ladder for the pin at 16 minutes, 28 seconds to win the DTU Ultraviolent Title. The third and final 20th Anniversary match for Takashi Sasaki took place in the semi-main event as Sasaki teamed with Tatsuhito Takaiwa as they lost to the team of Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka after Masaoka picked up the win at 17 minutes, 30 seconds with the Rokura. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA defended their King of Freedom Tag Team Titles for the first time against Violento Jack and Kenji Fukimoto when HAYATA put away Fukimoto at 10 minutes, 53 seconds with the Hedekku. The former tag team champions GENTARO and The Winger lost again as Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura defeated them when Sugiura pinned Winger at 12 minutes, 20 seconds with the Swift Driver. The opening match saw Chikara get a win in his 5th Trial Series against Kenichiro Arai at 10 minutes, 2 seconds after Arai was Counted Out. 

FREEDOMS ran an outside show on October 2, 2016 at the Yokohama Negishi Bridge Trade Shop Street for a two match show without a ring. The main event saw Jun Kasai and Toru Sugiura defeat Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo when Sugiura's push continued as he pinned Extremo at 10 minutes, 56 seconds after pinning him with the Swift Driver despite being hit over the head with a traffic cone as well as a cabbage. The other match had Takashi Sasaki defeat Kenji Fukimoto at 8 minutes, 35 seconds when Sasaki finished Fukimoto off the D-Geist for the win.

FREEDOMS and Ryukyu Dragon held a joint at an outside venue overseeing beautiful ocean in Okinawa on October 16, 2016 at the Okinawa Miyakojima Turbia District where a Special Ring was setup. The main event of the show had Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Guruken Mask team up to defeat the foreign team of Violento Jack, Miedo Extremo, and Ryukyu Dog Dingo when Guruken got the win over Dingo at 15 minutes, 29 seconds after finishing him off with a Moonsault. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura teamed up in the semi-main event as they defeated the team of Ultra Soki and Betta Fish when Sugiura got the win over Betta Fish at 14 minutes, 34 seconds with a Moonsault. GENTARO made Shuri Joe submit at 11 minutes, 34 seconds with the Octopus Hold in a singles match. The Winger's streak of getting pinned by women continued as he teamed up with Kenji Fukimoto to lose to the team of Hibiscus Mii & Hijya Kidman when Mii pinned Winger at 8 minutes, 34 seconds with a move called the Way of Art of the Ninja. Dragon Libre returned to action after suffering a knee ligament damage back on June 6th as he teamed with Daisuke Masaoka as they would lose to the team of Yuya Susumu and Churaumi Saver when Saver got the win over Libre at 11 minutes, 53 seconds with an Aqua Twist in the opening match.

Mr. Gannosuke who lost his GWC Heavyweight Title last month to Masked Mystery returned to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on October 18, 2016 for the Guts World promotion. Gannosuke teamed with partner Michio Kageyama as they defeated Daisuke and Joji Otani at 10 minutes, 7 seconds after Kageyama put away Otani with a Northern Lights Suplex. The next Guts World show will be November 15th. Gannosuke will be competing before that though as he will be on tour for Atsushi Onita and Yumiko Hotta's Fire-Pro Wrestling as he is scheduled for October 29th and 30th in Aomori and November 3rd at the Yokohama Radiant Hall. Gannosuke is also planning a 1 Year Hayabusa Memorial show on March 31, 2017 in Hayabusa's home town of Kumamoto with Gannosuke looking to book former FMW wrestlers on the show. 

I have re-organized my video library on this site. It is now broken up by the Onita era FMW which I have gotten in a ton of rare handheld shows added from that time period straight from Japan, the Hayabusa era of FMW, the promotions that followed FMW over the years, FREEDOMS will now have its own section, and there is a new Customs page which will have videos I put together myself as well as released by FMW or other companies that span months or years. I am also selling original cover art from videos I have master copies of in a DVD case. This goes for both DVD's as well as originally VHS cover art videos that I will need to transfer over to a DVD cover. 

Added: 9/17

Kintaro Kanemura would participate in his last "Explosion Death Match" on September 4, 2016 at Shizuoka Hamamatsu Acy City which was co-promoted by both the Apache Army promotion and the Super Fireworks promotion. Kanemura would team up with Raijin Yaguchi and Tomohiko Hashimoto as they would take on the team of Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and HASEGAWA in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. They would end up brawling around ringside until Kanemura and Hashimoto would hold Onita as Yaguchi would turn on the exploding barbed wire bat and smash him across the chest with it causing a huge explosion. Kanemura would then turn on the exploding barbed wire bat and Yaguchi and Hashimoto would hold on to HASEGAWA with Kanemura slamming the bat in to him causing such a loud explosion that Kanemura would be holding his ear afterwards. Hashimoto would grab the bat while it was non explosive and would go after Onita with it but Onita would respond by spraying red mist in Hashimoto's face. Hosaka would deliver a hurricanrana on Kanemura and then HASEGAWA would turn on the explosiveness of the bat with Onita handing HASEGAWA the bat to swing at Kanemura causing another huge explosion and HASEGAWA would make the cover to get the pin over Kanemura at 13 minutes, 2 seconds for the win over his friend. Onita and Kanemura would shake hands afterwards. 

Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda who first teamed up back on October 15, 1993 reunited as they took on the team of Yusaku Obata and Hi69. Obata who was a loyal follower for Kanemura for years growing up in the business until he had to take the offer put out by ZERO1 to join them in 2012 and has since been pushed as one of their top wrestlers including winning their Fire Festival Tournament this year as well as Hi69 with Kuroda managing to get the win at 15 minutes, 32 seconds after rolling up Hi69 with a Gedo Clutch to get the win.

Atsushi Onita and Kintaro Kanemura met at Toudoukan in Suidobashi, Tokyo on September 14, 2016 to announce that Kanemura's last ever Death Match would take place at Super Battle FMW's Korakuen Hall show on September 26, 2016 and it would be a Scramble Bunkhouse Street Fight Death Match. Onita would team up with Hideki Hosaka, Ricky Fuji, and Gosaku Goshogawara against W*ING Kanemura, Yoshihiro Takayama, Raijin Yaguchi, and NOSAWA Rongai. The FMW vs. UWF feud will continue in the semi-main event as Tomohiko Hashimoto and Kotaro Nasu team up to take on Tatsuo Nakano and Mitsuya Nagai. KAI and Hi69 will team up as Koji Kanemoto will make his debut for the promotion by teaming up with Minoru Tanaka. Naoshi Sano and Gabbaiji-chan team up to take on Kikutaro and Pandita and the opening match will have The Shockers # 1 and 2 against Raiden and Leatherface. Onita had originally made a challenge to IGF's Minowaman but that apparently was shot down as no response was ever given and the final Kanemura Death Match has been the main promotion for the show as of late. 

Atsushi Onita appeared for the Apple Star promotion on August 17, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring teaming up with Hideki Hosaka, Ricky Fuji, and Hideki Hosaka against Akane Watase's Army of Raijin Yaguchi, NOSAWA Rongai, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Masahiro Sase in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. The fire martial was present during this show to make sure that no fire or fireworks were used inside Shin-Kiba 1st Ring as the building banned fire from being used in 2009. They had two exploding barbed wire bats with one of them only having smoke come out when used and that is what Onita used on Sase to get the win at 12 minutes, 20 seconds for the pin. Both Onita and Akane Watase had also spit red mist into each others faces during the match as well. Watase's Army was not finished with Onita's group after the match as they attacked them after the match and brought them outside Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Yaguchi used the regular exploding barbed wire bat that has fire works come out and smashed into Ricky's chest causing a huge burn scar across it as a result. Watase's Army laid Onita over Ricky's body and posed in celebration despite the loss.

Atsushi Onita started up a promotion with Yumiko Hotta called "Fire Pro Wrestling" to celebrate what will be Onita's last year in pro-wrestling before he retires again on October 25, 2017 when he turns 60 years old. The first show took place on August 26, 2016 at the Tokyo Differ Ariake. The main event was Onita reuniting with Chavo Guerrero, Sr. and build as a 30 year reunion between the two. Atsushi Onita had defeated Chavo Guerrero Sr. back on March 7, 1982 for the NWA International Jr. Heavyweight Title and after congratulating Onita for the win, Guerrero would grab him and deliver a German Suplex to Onita and then begin smashing the trophy that Onita had been rewarded busting Onita open as he would leave Onita in a bloody mess. 

The show would be considered a success drawing an announced crowd of 1,014 fans for the show to see Onita and Chavo Guerrero, Sr. would team up with Hideki Hosaka and NOSAWA Rongai against Kendo Kashin, Hideki Suzuki, Shogun Okamoto, and Black Undercover F who ended up not being any one of note in a mask in a No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match. Chavo Guerrero would bring a trophy to the ring to symbolize the trophy that he used to smash over Onita's body back in 1982 although this one was much smaller. Kendo Kashin would end up grabbing the trophy during the match and nail Guerrero with it from behind and then leave throw it right at Onita right as Chavo would turn around to believe that Onita had been the one to attack him. Chavo would begin attacking Onita including smashing the trophy once again with Black Undercover F charging Guerrero but Guerrero would grab Undercover F and deliver a German Suplex on him to get the win at 11 minutes, 15 seconds. Chavo would still be angry at Onita until Onita would hand the trophy to Chavo in a peace offering with Chavo accepting it and making up with Onita. 

The next Fire Pro-Wrestling will be held on September 19, 2016 at the Nagoya Aichi Nishi-ku Biwajima Sports Center with Atsushi Onita teaming up with Hideki Hosaka and Nagoya local and former FMW women's wrestler Crusher Maedomari as they will take on the team of Raijin Yaguchi, Mayogun # 2, and Dump Matsumoto. Then the promotion will return to Tokyo for October 21, 2016 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with a Halloween theme as Atsushi Onita will be a Devil, Hideki Hosaka will be a Panda that has gone to the Darkside, HASEGAWA will be a Witch and they will face off against Raijin Yaguchi who will go as Jesus as he is a very big Christian, NOSAWA Rongai will go as a Mummy, and Tomohiko Hashimoto will go as a Ochimusha which is a soldier that flees during war in a Falls Count Anywhere Death Match. 

Masashi Aoyagi has declared war on Atsushi Onita once again. Aoyagi who crushed his right knee in May 2015 after being in a motorcycle accident. Aoyagi was unable to kick and was force to retire back on October 4, 2015 in NOAH. Aoyagi suffered even more of a setback after the metallic plate that was placed in his knee did not end up match and he had to have surgery again back in October of last year. He ended up living in the hospital for four months and did not get out until February 2016. Aoyagi stated he wanted to come back to wrestling and challenge Onita one last time before he retires and Aoyagi will be arriving with his own army to challenge Onita at the next Fire Pro show on September 19, 2016 in Aoyagi's home town of Nagoya.

FREEDOMS held a special show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo on August 23, 2016 drawing 260 fans for the show. The main event saw Violento Jack and Kenji Fukimoto defeat Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match when Fukimoto used the Package Piledriver at 14 minutes, 40 seconds to get the pinfall over Masaoka for Jun Kasai's 18th Anniversary Match. Masashi Takeda who has a Vale Tudo background made short work of Toru Sugiura at 2 minutes, 2 seconds when the referee would be force to stop the match 2 minutes, 2 seconds for Sugiura's safety for the Takeda win in a Vale Tudo Rules Match. GENTARO would return under his BENTEN gimmick and defeat Konaka Pale One at 12 minutes, 12 seconds with a Headscissors Hold. Miedo Extremo would defeat The Winger at 13 minutes, 22 seconds in a Lucha Libre Rules Match with a German Suplex. The opening match would Takashi Sasaki teaming with Guruken Mask & Big Kamui who was Mammoth Sasaki wearing the Kamui mask as they would defeat Yuya Susumu, HAYATA, Keita Yano when Guruken got the win over Yano at 8 minutes, 39 seconds with the Guruken Driver.

FREEDOMS then held a show on September 3, 2016 at the Yamagata Sakata Workers Sports Center drawing a crowd of 185 fans for the show. The main event had Jun Kasai and Takashi Sasaki apparently make up after Kasai was over Sasaki as his partner due to all his losses back in June as they defeated Masashi Takeda and Daisuke Masaoka at 17 minutes, 22 seconds when Kasai got the pin over Masaoka with a Reverse Tiger Driver. Shishio which translates into The Lion defeated Onryo in the semi-main event of the show at 11 minutes, 30 seconds with the Like Crazy II. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura defeated Violento Jack & Miedo Extremo when Sugiura scored the huge upset at 12 minutes, 16 seconds by pinning Extremo with the Swift Driver. Yuya Susumu teamed with friends Fujita Jr. Hayato and HAYATA as they defeated GENTARO, Kenichiro Arai, and Chikara when Susumu made Chikara tap out at 12 minutes, 44 seconds to the Cross Armbreaker. Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated local talent Aizawa # 1 when he finished him off at 11 minutes, 9 seconds with the Death Valley Bomb. Kenji Fukimoto won the opener against The Winger at 7 minutes, 52 seconds when he nailed him with his signature Package Piledriver.

FREEDOMS ran their annual show at the Iwate Ichinoseki City Gym U Dome Main Arena on September 4, 2016 drawing an announced 721 fans which is slightly down from the 753 fans for last years show in the building. The main event was the first set of Takashi Sasaki's 20th Anniversary as he teamed with Shuji Ishikawa to defeat Violento Jack and Jun Kasai in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match when Sasaki pinned Jack 15 minutes, 32 seconds with a Right Leg Kick to the light tube to setup their Korakuen Hall main event match. Yuko Miyamoto and Daisuke Masaoka defeated Masashi Takeda & Kenji Fukimoto when Masaoka pinned Fukimoto at 11 minutes, 12 seconds with a Neck Breaker in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. The Great Kabuki, BENTEN, and Onryo defeated the team of The Great Sasuke, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei when Kabuki kicked Kei and got the win at 11 minutes, 42 seconds with a pinfall. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura scored another big win as they defeated Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Fujita Jr. Hayato when Sugiura pinned Takaiwa at 11 minutes, 56 seconds with the Swift Driver to get another big upset pinfall over Takaiwa. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA defeated the masked team of The Winger and Miedo Extremo when Susumu pinned Winger at 8 minutes, 47 seconds after delivering a Falcon Arrow for the win. The annual Ice Ribbon match to go along with this show had Hamuko Hoshi and Mochi Miyagi get the win over Tsukasa Fujimoto & Yukihi Maya whehn Hoshi pinned Maya at 8 minutes, 15 seconds with a Diving Body Press. Kenichiro Arai and Chikara got the win over Shinobu and Aizawa # 1 when Chikara pinned Aizawa at 10 minutes, 14 seconds after hitting Aizawa with a Saber Chop.

FREEDOMS held the "Takashi Sasaki 20th Anniversary" show on September 15, 2016 with the main event having Takashi Sasaki challenging Violento Jack for the King of Freedom World Championship in a Glass Board Weapons Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. Jack would end up using cut up soda cans as to rip into Sasaki's skin and Sasaki would come back by suplexing Jack into the glass board. Jack would end up picking up the win at 21 minutes, 21 seconds after hitting Sasaki with the Package Piledriver to successfully defend the King of Freedom World Title for the first time. GENTARO would come out afterwards and the Akrangers would pose to the crowd to end the show. 

Yuya Susumu and HAYATA would win the King of Freedom Tag Team Titles ending the almost 10 month reign of GENTARO and The Winger when HAYATA would use the Hedekku at 15 minutes, 33 seconds to win the titles. Shuji Ishikawa and Yuko Miyamoto would defeat Jun Kasai and Mammoth Sasaki in a Street Fight Hardcore Match with all the wrestlers dressed up casually including Miyamoto dressed up like he was about to go play basketball and Kasai dressed up like he was about to go out on the town for the night. A bloody Kasai would end up diving off the ladder to send Miyamoto through the table but Miyamoto would end up picking up the win at 15 minutes, 44 seconds after getting the pin on Kasai with a Moonsault off the ladder. Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto would defeat the team of Daisuke Masaoka and Miedo Extremeo in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match with Takeda who would use forks attached to a cinderblock as a weapon before putting away Extremo at 14 minutes, 22 seconds with a German Suplex. Chikara would continue his Match Trial Series as he would lose to Tatsuhito Takaiwa at 7 minutes, 57 seconds after getting hit with the Death Valley Bomb. Toru Sugiura would open the show teaming with Kengo Takai and picking up another win as they would defeat Guruken Mask and Churaumi Saver after hitting a Running Elbow Smash for the win at 11 minutes, 12 seconds over Saver. The show will air on Samurai TV. 

The Kintaro Kanemura Retirement Tour continued for the Apache Army promotion as they held a show on August 28, 2016 at the Tokyo Kitasenju Theater 1010 drawing an announced 138 fans for the show. The main event saw Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeat Hi69 and HASEGAWA to win the WEW Tag Team Titles after Kanemura finished off HASEGAWA at 15 minutes, 33 seconds with a Death Valley Bomb. Surprisingly, it is only the third time that Kanemura has won the title all three times with Kuroda.  The semi-main event was a 10 man tag as Koji Kanemoto, The Blue Shark, Keisuke Okuda, Hazard, and Syuou Fujiwara defeated Tomohiko Hashimoto, MIKAMI, Rion Mizuki, Masaru Kameda, and Kuniyoshi Wada when Kanemoto made Mizuki tap out at 22 minutes, 49 seconds to a Ankle Lock. Kazunari Murakami teamed up with Hiroshi Kosakai to defeat the Apache team of Toshiaki Terao and Takumi Sakura when Kosakai TKO'd Terao at 15 minutes, 42 seconds forcing the referee to stop the match after Kosakai laid out Terao out with a High Kick to the head. Manabu Hara defeated Yosuke Enemoto at 1 minutes, 40 seconds in the third round after making him submit to a Figure Four Leglock. Syuou Fujiwara defeated Kuniyoshi Wada at 12 minutes, 5 seconds with a Backdrop to open the show. 

Mr. Gannosuke defended his GWC Heavyweight Championship for the Guts World promotions 100th show at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE on September 11, 2016 against Masked Mystery in the main event. The match would end up going 36 minutes, 11 seconds as all Gannosuke big show matches have gone around that long with Masked Mystery working on the injured knee of Gannosuke during the match before rolling him up after Gannosuke would attempt a pin following a Thunder Fire to get the win and to become the new GWC Heavyweight Champion ending Gannosuke's reign after 4 months in his second defense. Gannosuke held Masked Mystery arm up in celebration following the match. Guts World announced that they would be running their next big show at Korakuen Hall on May 5, 2017. 

I spent several days last week putting together an entire career music video of Hayabusa from the introduction of his debut match on May 5, 1991 to his retirement ceremony after his passing on April 27, 2016. The video goes 17 minutes and 30 seconds and I was really proud of it afterwards especially for my first time making one of these. You can find the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPVA8uEKYIE 

Added: 8/13

Atsushi Onita had a bad day on July 24, 2016 at the Osaka Edion Arena # 2 as he would defend his Super Fireworks Title against Masakatsu Funaki in their first singles match against one another. Onita would attack Funaki right away and take it to the outside where he would throw Funaki in the crowd. Funaki would come back with kicks and bring Onita back in the ring with Onita spraying him in the face with red mist. Onita would then piledrive Funaki through a table and then turn on the explosion of the barbed wire bat but would miss Funaki and end up hitting the turnbuckle instead. Funaki would come at Onita with more kicks but Onita would drop him down on the mat and place him in a figure four leglock with Funaki taking awhile to reach the rope. Funaki would come at Onita with strikes and then kicks before knocking Onita to the ground and delivering a hard kick with Onita putting his arm in front of the kick which would later turn out to have fractured Onita's arm. Onita would manage to spray Funaki in the face with red mist again and smash him over the head with a chair and then deliver a Thunder Fire Powerbomb followed by a smash over Funaki's head with a board and then a back drop by Onita. Things would then come crashing down for Onita who would turn on the exploding barbed wire board as Funaki would end up reversing and sending Onita into the exploding barbed wire board intead. Funaki would then follow that up with a pump handle slam and then two shots of the exploding barbed wire to Onita before finally pinning Onita at 18 minutes, 59 seconds to win the Super Fireworks Title. Masato Tanaka came out after the match and challenged Masakatsu Funaki for a Super Fireworks Title Match against Funaki for August 11th but Funaki ended up having a fall out of his house and was unable to wrestle on the show. 

Atsushi Onita after the show would have x-rays take as it would show that he had suffered a fractured right arm due to Funaki's kick to it. Surgery was set up for August 1st and Onita would be told he would need to take 3 months off to let it heal. Onita feeling he was taught by Giant Baba to never miss a show you are promoted for and the people are coming to see you would refuse to take any time off and would make sure to attend all his bookings.

Atsushi Onita's first match since the broken arm would be on July 29, 2016 at the Ibaraki Mito Citizen Gym Sub Arena drawing an announced 580 fans for the show. Onita would state he took several pain killers before the match and bandaged up his arm in order to be able to participate on this show. Onita would team up with Hideki Hosaka who was also bandaged up due to his broken jaw as well as HASEGAWA and Ricky Fuji was added to the match to cover for Onita only having one arm to work with. They faced off against Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto in a new outfit, Buffalo, and Wild Bear who I believe is Pandita just in his original mask in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. Onita would dodge the first exploding barbed wire bat shot which Yaguchi would hit the turnbuckle but he would connect the second attempt after Hashimoto and Buffalo would hold him. Yaguchi would turn on the explosion for a third time to hit HASEGAWA but Hosaka would hit the button to turn it off and Onita would come in and spit red mist in Yaguchi's face. Onita would turn on the red exploding barbed wire bat and hit Wild Bear with it and get the pinfall at 8 minutes, 15 seconds for the FMW win. The FMW vs. UWF feud would continue as Tatsuo Nakano and Takuma Sano would defeat Ricky Fuji and Hi69 when Nakano would KO Hi69 at 11 minutes, 20 seconds with a kick to the head. KO'd Hi69. Miss Mongol and CPE team mate Sachiko Yokozuna would defeat Miss Koharu and Yone Mongol who is Kaori Yoneyama when Mongol would defeat Koharu at 11 minutes, 24 seconds with a reverse pinfall. The Hitachi Pro Offer Match saw Ribu Shoga and KOU-SAKU defeat Kento DiCaprio and Masaki Fukuda when Shoga pinned Fukuda at 11 minutes, 48 seconds with a Moonsault. Pandita opened the show by beating Shocker # 1 at 10 minutes, 18 seconds with the Pandita Swing.

Atsushi Onita would then have his surgery on August 1, 2016 which would go two hours with Onita having to stay in the hospital for two days due to the anesthesia he was put on. Onita was released from the hospital on August 3, 2016 with his arm in a new cast due to the surgery. Onita would head straight from the hospital to get ready for a match that day. Onita would make it to ZERO1's outside evening show at the Tokyo Hamatsu Toshiba Building 1st Floor Court Yard Special Ring where Onita would admit that he would still be dizzy from the anesthesia while participating in the match as he would team up with Masato Tanaka and Buffa to defeat Shinjiro Otani, Shiro Koshinaka, and Toshiki Iwaki when Tanaka would finish off Iwaki at 16 minutes, 21 seconds with the Sliding D in a Street Fight.

Atsushi Onita would then rest for 4 days until participating in Super Battle FMW's Ray Aid show on August 7, 2016 at the Tokyo Itabashi Green Hall with all the money made going to Ray's cancer treatment which would announce a crowd of 200 fans for the show. The main event was Shocker # 1 who is a masked gimmick that the promotion created that has no ties to the original FMW teaming with Raijin Yaguchi defeating Onita and Pandita when Shocker hit a Moonsault for the win at 16 minutes, 44 seconds over Pandita. Ray's friend Leon defeated Raideen Hagane at 13 minutes, 27 seconds with the Capture Buster. Katsuji Ueda defeated The Shooter and HASEGAWA when Ueda laid a straight right punch on Shooter to get the win at 6 minutes, 39 seconds with the KO victory. Ricky Fuji opened the show by defeating the new Shocker # 2 at 9 minutes, 9 seconds after making him submit to the chicken wing.

Onita will also compete at the next Apple Star show on August 17, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in the main event with what has been announced as Onita's Army of Onita, Ricky Fuji, Naoshi Sano, and Masahiro Sase against the Akane Watase Army who will have a Snow White gimmick with her partners being masked Raijin Yaguchi, NOSAWA Rongai, and Tomohiko Hashimoto in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. 

Prior to his injury it would be announced by Atsushi Onita that he would be starting up his own promotion as Super Fireworks and Super Battle FMW are ran by others as this would be the third promotion he would be an ace of. The promotion would called Fire Pro-Wrestling with the main event on August 26, 2016 at the Tokyo Differ Ariake. Onita will team up with his old arch rival from his All Japan days as Jr. Heavyweight in the early 1980's in Chavo Guerrero, Sr. and they would team up with Hideki Hosaka and NOSAWA Rongai against the IGF team of Kendo Kashin, Hideki Suzuki, Shogun Okamoto, and a Mystery Partner by the name of Black Undercover F which Kashin hinted it would be Masakatsu Funaki in a No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match. Onita also has put up for a sale a special metal ticket for $10,000 dollars that allows a fan to second him to the ring at the show as well as put on his jacket

Super Battle FMW announced prior to Onita's injury that they would run two shows in September with the first one on September 22, 2016 at the Niigata Joetsu City Tourist Products Center and then they would return to Korakuen Hall on September 26, 2016 which was endangered of being a financial disaster if Onita had decided to take the recommended three months off and missing this show. They also announced their October tour with the first show taking place on October 4th at the Fukui Prefectural Industrial Hall Building # 1, their debut at Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes on October 9th, and the next day the last show of the tour on October 10th at the Shimonoseki Strait Messe.

Atsushi Onita promoted two shows of his before the injury as well on July 17th and July 18th. The first show on July 17, 2016 at the Okayama Orange Hall drew a number of with the main event of Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeating Yoshihiro Takayama, Daisuke Ikeda, and Takuma Sano in a Jado Rocket Exploding Onibo Death Match with Onita hitting Ikeda with the Exploding Onibo at 11 minutes, 49 seconds to get the win. The spot of the match would see Takayama hit the turnbuckle button to set off the Jado Rocket which would come flying from the second floor at the turnbuckle ring while Onita was up against it causing a huge debris of the fire works from the rocket to fall on Onita. Daisuke and Nobutaka Moribe would defeat W*ING Kanemura and Hi69 after Moribe would get the win at 14 minutes, 3 seconds with a Frog Splash on Hi69. Onryo and Eiger would defeat Shachihoko Machine and NENE mugen D.a.i when Eiger got the win over Shiyachihoko at 14 minutes, 12 seconds. HASEGAWA won win the opening match over Okayama-ki Dumpling Machine at 7 minutes, 34 seconds with the Fiserhmans Buster.

Atsushi Onita's next show on July 18, 2016 would be held at the Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Industrial Hall West Exhibition Hall with the main event of Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto and Maple Kaiser defeating the UWF Army of Yoshihiro Takayama, Mitsuya Nagai, Takuma Sano and Devil Magician in a Exploding Onibo and Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match with both Onita grabbing the exploding bat and Takayama grabbing the exploding bat and both of them hitting each others weapons which would cause such a powerful explosion they would end up dropping both of them before Onita would use the Unibo on Ikeda and cover him for the pin at 11 minutes for the FMW Army win over UWF. KAI and Daisuke would defeat Hi69 and Sakigake when KAI pinned Hi69 at 16 minutes, 58 seconds with the Frog Splash. Maple Kaiser beat Undead Girufa at 8 minutes, 24 seconds in a Barbed wire Board Death Match with a Tombstone on the Barbed wire Board. Onryo and Eiger defeated NENE mugen D.a.i and Nobutaka Moribe when Onryo pinned NENE at 12 minutes, 28 seconds when he rolled him up with the Onryo Clutch. W*ING Kanemura defeated his friend HASEGAWA at 8 minutes, 12 seconds with a German Suplex and the opening match saw Shota Nakagawa defeat Hatsuhinode Taro at 7 minutes with a Missile Kick.

Megumi Kudo appeared at the Super Fireworks show on July 18, 2016 at the Akita Port Center Selion Plaza where she would sit in the front row to watch the main event of Masato Tanaka, Chigusa Nagayo and Go against TARU, Takuya Sugawara, Voodoo Mask in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match with TARU during the match grabbing Kudo and throwing her in the ring. TARU would begin attacking Kudo in the ring with kicks before turning on the Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat Death Match. Nagayo would rush to the ring and sacrifice herself with TARU hitting her with the Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat instead of Kudo. Nagayo would still end up picking up the win despite the blast to her as she herself would end up using the Exploding Bat on VooDoo Mask to pick up the win at 18 minutes, 22 seconds with Megumi Kudo coming in to the ring and hugging her friend for saving her. Kudo continues to train every day but there has been no update as far as her announcing an official return to the ring. 

Jun Kasai's second promoted show in July would take place on July 17, 2016 at the Hiroshima Industrial West Hall drawing an announced 684 fans for the show. The main event saw Violento Jack and Miedo Extremeo defeat the team of Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka as Jack would pin Masaoka at 17 minutes, 22 seconds in a Razor Ladder Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match after hitting him with a Package Piledriver on to the razor ladder for the win. Yuko Miyamoto would go up against Minoru Fujita in a Barbed wire Board Death Match with both going to a Double KO finish at 21 minutes, 8 seconds after both would end up falling on the barbed wire board and not being able to make it up to the ten count. The Great Kabuki made his FREEDOMS debut as he teamed with Takashi Sasaki and Mammoth Sasaki as they defeated GENTARO, The Winger, and Devil Magician after Kabuki would lay out GENTARO with an upper cut and score the pinfall at 13 minutes, 7 seconds for the win. Yuya Susumu would go up against Toru Sugiura who has started to get a little bit of a push from FREEDOMS after so many years but Susumu would end up making Sugiura tap at 12 minutes, 8 seconds to the Reverse Cross Armbreaker. Masashi Takeda teamed with Fuminori Abe to defeat Sakigake and Nidojiro when Takeda pinned Nidojiro at 10 minutes, 53 seconds with the U Crash. The opening match had Black Tiger # 5 and Masamune defeat Takumi Tsukamoto and Kenshin Kono when Tiger pinned Kono at 11 minutes, 16 seconds with a Diving Elbow for the win.

Jun Kasai promoted his third and final July Death Match Carnival show on July 31, 2016 at the Osaka Higashinari Kumin Center drawing 460 fans for the show. The main event was Jun Kasai and Masashi Takeda with Kasai finally managing to score some revenge as they defeated Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo when Kasai pinned Extremo at 16 minutes, 24 seconds with a Reverse Tiger Driver in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Sawtooth Ladder Death Match. Takashi Sasaki continued his winning streak after defeating Minoru Fujita in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match at 14 minutes, 56 seconds after delivering a Right Leg Kick to a light tube against Fujita's head for the win. Daisuke Masaoka finally managed HAYATA who had recently had Masaoka's number when Masaoka put away HAYATA at 18 minutes, 42 seconds with the Rokura in a Barbed wire Board Death Match. The Osaka team of GUNSO, Hide Kubota and Kabuki Kid defeated Mammoth Sasaki, Toru Sugiura, and Yuki Tanaka when GUNSO pinned Tanaka after a Guillotine to the head at 11 minutes, 4 seconds in a Street Fight Death Match. Yuya Susumu and Keita Yano defeated GENTARO and The Winger as well as Masao Ando and AK in a Tag Team Three Way Match when Yano would finish off AK at 10 minutes, 42 seconds with the Lasso from Matsubara for the win. The opening match would be the Brahman Brothers defeating Chikara and Dyna Mido at 6 minutes, 45 seconds when Kei would roll up Mido with a Jackknife for the win.

FREEDOMS ran at the OSC Shoanan City in Kanagawa which is an outside lot in between several stores. There were two showings that day. The first showing only had two matches as Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka teamed up to defeat Takashi Sasaki and Fuminori Abe when Masaoka pinned Abe at 10 minutes, 56 seconds after hitting him with the Rokura. The other match was Yuya Susumu and Minoru Tanaka defeating Masaya Takahashi & Shodai Nakagawa when Susumu pinned Nakagawa at 9 minutes, 5 seconds with the Front Crash. The second showing main event had Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura defeat Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka as Sugiura finished off Masaoka at 13 minutes, 9 seconds with the Swift Driver. The semi-main event saw Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo defeat Takashi Sasaki and Fuminori Abe after Jack finished off Abe at 11 minutes, 31 seconds with a Package Piledriver. Yuya Susumu easily defeated Shodai Nakagawa in the opening match of the second show after defeating Shota Nakagawa at 6 minutes, 18 seconds with a Falcon Arrow.

FREEDOMS returned to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for their Unchain Night which did very well with the crowd as they drew 311 fans for the show. The main event saw Jun Kasai challenge Miedo Extremo for the DTU Ultraviolent Championship in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match after Extremo finished off Kasai with a Fire Thunder on a light tube at 16 minutes, 33 seconds to defend his Mexican based title for the first time. Kasai and Extremo shook hands and kissed after the match. Violento Jack also defeated a Unchain member in Minoru Fujita in a Barbed wire Board Death Match when he finished off Fujita at 17 minutes, 11 seconds with a Package Piledriver on a barbed wire board for the win. Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Toru Sugiura started the complete sweep against Unchain members on their night when they defeated the Unchain team of Masashi Takeda, Kenji Fukimoto, and Captain Abnormal who is Masato Inaba in a mask and was a member of the group in 2012 before being kicked out of the group as Sugiura made Fukimoto tap out at 12 minutes, 41 seconds with a Reverse Cross Armbreaker. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA defeated Daisuke Masaoka when HAYATA got revenge for his singles lost back in Osaka when he pinned Masaoka at 10 minutes, 41 seconds with a Moonsault. The opening match saw The Winger defend his UWA Jr. Heavyweight Title which I have no record of him ever winning this title against GENTARO with GENTARO coming away with the title after defeating The Winger at 12 minutes, 12 seconds after finishing him off with a Lou Thesz Back Drop for the title change.

The Apache Army continued their Kintaro Kanemura Retirement Tour by holding a show at the Osaka Taisho Okinawa Hall on July 31, 2016 drawing an announced 158 fans for the show. The main event saw Koji Kanemoto and Kintaro Kanemura team up to defeat the team of Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Tomohiko Hashimoto when Kanemura would rotate Hashimoto's body at 15 minutes, 53 seconds for the win. Kanemura and Kuroda would challenge for the WEW Tag Team Titles for next months show. Hi69 and HASEGAWA defended their WEW Tag Team Titles for the second time by defeating the team of Masamune and Keisuke Okuda at 23 minutes, 12 seconds when Hi69 pinned Okuda with the Stir Car Splash. MIKAMI and Naoki Tanizaki teamed up to defeat Rion Mizuki and Takumi Sakurai when Tanizaki pinned Sakurai at 15 minutes, 32 seconds with an Implant. Shuri Okuda who formerly went by the name Basara and got her start back for the Super FMW promotion in 2010 had her Retirement Match against Kuishinbo Kamen where she got the win over Kamen at 3 minutes, 32 seconds with a School Boy. A 10 Gong Retirement Ceremony was held after the match for Okuda. Before her retirement match she was in a 6 person tag as she teamed with Hazard and Tadanobu Fujisawa as they defeated Kuniyoshi Wada, Syuou Fujiwara and Yoshiaki Iwata when Hazard pinned Iwata at 13 minutes, 3 seconds with a Lariat. The opening match saw Kengo defeated Toshiaki Terao at 8 minutes, 20 seconds after scoring a pinfall over him.

Mr. Gannosuke's 20th Kishindo Returns show on July 26, 2016 ended up being a huge financial success as they drew 311 fans for the show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event had Gannosuke face off against HARASHIMA going by the name Hayabucha and wearing the Hayabusa attire. HARASHIMA who had done this gimmick one time years ago in DDT would dawn the mask again at request of Gannosuke so that Gannosuke could wrestle Hayabusa one more time. Hayabucha would end up getting the win over Gannosuke with the Fire Bird Splash at 16 minutes, 1 second and afterwards both Gannosuke and Hayabucha would shake hands and point to the heaven in memory of Hayabusa. The semi-main event of the show saw Isami Kodaka defeat Buffalo with the Zetsuyari. In a very good match, Yasu Urano got the win at 11 minutes over Atsushi Maruyama. Masamune defeated Tatsuhiko Yoshino at 9 minutes, 52 seconds when he used the Honebami. Yuko Miyamoto made K-Dojo's Kyu Mogami submit at 9 minutes, 12 seconds to a Single Leg Crab. Miciro who just recently returned back to the ring defeated the Super Battle FMW regular Koharu Hinata at 9 minutes, 52 seconds with a Jungle Clutch and the opening match had Yuki Sato use a Leg Roll to get the win at 8 minutes, 47 seconds over Shota.

I have started working on a couple of projects over the last month. I have created a Instagram that you can find at BAHUFMWWorld which will include just random FMW pictures using the the hundreds and hundreds of magazines I have purchased over the years as well as FMW merchandise I have collected. I also have begun the process of turning all my VHS tapes into DVD's and ones that have lost quality I will be purchasing a DVD of the show to make sure I am selling every video at a high quality as I hope to just have DVD's within a year and no longer need any of my VHS tapes. I have also collected rare Super Battle FMW videos from this year as well. 

Added: 7/14

Super Battle FMW drew an announced crowd of 1600 fans for their Korakuen Hall show on June 21, 2016 called "June Blood". The show had 4 No Rope Barbed wire Death Matches. The main event was the FMW team of Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, NOSAWA Rongai, Ricky Fuji defeating the UWF team of Masakatsu Funaki, Yoshihiro Takayama,  Mitsuya Nagai, and Takuma Sano when Onita would made Sano submit to the Chicken Wing for the FMW win. More details and pictures of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Korakuen16.html

The one match show of Pandita vs. Kendo Kashin took place on July 8, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo. The match was started after Kashin had continually attacked Pandita after Super Battle FMW shows. Kashin during the match would begin to unmask Pandita and when he would it be revealed that Pandita was actually Atsushi Onita who would spray red mist in Kashin's face and would then piledrive Kashin through a table and get the pin at 10 minutes, 46 seconds for the Pandita win. 

The next FMW vs. UWF shows will be promoted by Atsushi Onita on July 17th and July 18th. The first show on July 17th will be at the Okayama Prefecture Wholesale Center Orange Hall with the main event of Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, and Tomohiko Hashimoto against Yoshihiro Takayama, Daisuke Ikeda, and Takuma Sano in a Jado Rocket which is a new weapon that Onita has introduced in demonstration and will be used first time at this show as well as a Exploding Onibo Death Match. Other matches on the show will be Onryo and local talent Eiger against former Toryumon wrestler Shachihoko Machine and 666's NENE mugan D.a.i as well as W*ING Kanemura and Hi69 against Daisuke and Nobutaka Moribe and the opening match of HASEGAWA against a Mystery Opponent.

The following show will be another Onita promoted show on July 18, 2016 at the Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Industrial Hall West Exhibition Hall. The main event will be Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi and Tomohiko Hashimoto against Yoshihiro Takayama, Daisuke Ikeda, and Takuma Sano in a Exploding Onibo Death Match. Other matches will be KAI and Daisuke against Sakigake and Hi69 in a semi-finals match. Gimmick wrestlers for this show of Maple Kaiser and Undead Girufa will face off in a Barbed wire Board Death Match. Onryo and Eiger team up against NENE mugen D.a.i & Nobutaka Moribe and the opening match will see W*ING Kanemura face off against his Apache friend HASEGAWA.

Super Battle FMW's next show will be at the Mito Citizen Gym Sub Arena on July 29, 2016. The main event will be a Street Fight between Atsushi Onita, HASEGAWA, and The Shooter against Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto and Buffalo. The semi-main event will be a FMW vs. UWF match as Ricky Fuji and Hi69 will take on the team of Tatsuo Nakano and Takumi Sano. Miss Mongol will team up with her CPE friend Sachiko Yokozuna as they take on Miss Koharu and her new partner Yone Mongol as it looks like the Mongol Army have broken up despite the Miss Mongol win at Korakuen Hall. The next match will be a Hitachi Pro Offer Match of Kento DiCaprio and Masaki Fukuda against Ribu Shoga and KOU-SAKU. The opening match will be Pandita against Shocker # 1 as July will be the first time since the opening of the promotion in April 2015 that there will be no Tokyo show for the month.

Megumi Kudo has began training on possibly on returning to the ring. Kudo who has been retired since April 29, 1997 and has not worked any matches even after being pressured by Onita in 1998 to work matches for his USO promotion. Kudo who is a part of the Super Fireworks promotion and will most likely work matches for that promotion along with Chigusa Nagayo announced that she will attend the Super Fireworks show on July 18, 2016 and make an announcement on that show. 

FREEDOMS returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on June 30, 2016 drawing an announced 148 fans for the show. The main event of the show saw Mammoth Sasaki and GENTARO take on Jun Kasai and Takashi Sasaki. Mammoth and Kasai would brawl in the crowd and Mammoth would end up holding on to Kasai not allowing him to make the save as GENTARO would begin delivering multiple suplexs to Sasaki before finally putting him away with one at 14 minutes, 45 seconds. Sasaki who had been going through a losing streak not scoring a notable win since February and losing several times would begin to get visibily upset over another loss. Kasai would get on the mic and tell Sasaki that he was over him and that they would no longer team because of Sasaki always losing. GENTARO backstage would even tell reporters that Sasaki should retire because of how much he has been losing lately. The semi-main event of the show saw Yuya Susumu and HAYATA defeat Daisuke Masaoka and Kenji Fukimoto with HAYATA pinning Masaoka at 15 minutes, 25 seconds with the Hedeku. Masaoka challenged HAYATA to a Hardcore Match for July 31st in Osaka following the match. Kenichiro Arai would defeat Toru Sugiura at 11 minutes, 28 seconds with a School Boy. Arai would trick Sugiura by beginning to grab Sugiura's wife who is also the FREEDOMS ring announcer. Sugiura would rush to his wife's aid but Arai would instead grab him and throw Sugiura backstage and lock the door. Sugiura would then make his way back through the entrance ramp with Arai in the ring waiting for him. Sugiura would go through the ropes and Arai would crotch Sugiura going through the ropes and then use the School Boy. Arai would ask to shake Sugiura's hand and would even go over to Sugiura's wife and shake her hand to show that there were no hard feelings. Sugiura would attack Arai and lay him out with a Brainbuster and then go over to his wife and kiss her passionately before leaving. The team of Brahman Shu, Kei, and Karate Brahman would defeat the team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda after Takeda would get DQ'd by attempting to hit a Brahman Brother with a a street sign but instead accidentally hitting the referee over the head with it causing the referee to end the match at 8 minutes, 19 seconds for the DQ. The Winger would defeat Chikara at 7 minutes, 55 seconds as Chikara goes through a Trial Series with this being match number 3. Hi69 would open the show by defeating Fuminori Abe at 11 minutes, 21 seconds with the GENTARO Clutch.

Jun Kasai promoted his first of three Death Matches in July starting at Korakuen Hall on July 13, 2016 drawing an announced 982 fans for the show. The main event saw Jun Kasai defend his King of Freedom World Championship against Extreme Mexican Wrestler Violento Jack in a Ultimate Kaiju Battle Death Match. Kasai would come to the ring in a similar mask as Violento Jack but with all the blood shed it would eventually come off as the two would involve a cactus, fluorescent light tubes, cinderblocks, a razor blade board, and a Tokyo Dome made out of paper would reveal to have BBQ sticks that would be used before Jack would put away Kasai at 17 minutes, 31 seconds with a Package Driver on the cinderblock for the win and to win the King of Freedom World Championship. 

The semi-main event of the show would be Masashi Takeda defeating his fellow Unchain partner Kenji Fukimoto at 13 minutes, 57 seconds in a Fluorescent Light Tubes and Gadget Board Death Match after Takeda would put away Fukimoto with his Reverse U Crash on a board with scissors sticking out to get the win. Takashi Sasaki would end his losing streak by defeating Extreme Mexican Wrestler Miedo Extremeo in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Barbed wire Board Death Match after putting him away at 14 minutes, 53 seconds with a Right Leg Kick to a fluorescent light tube. Ayako Hamada and Ryo Mizunami would defeat the King of Freedom Tag Team Champions GENTARO and The Winger in a non title Hardcore Match after Hamada would pin Winger at 12 minutes, 16 seconds with the AP Cross. Buffalo and Yuya Susumu would defeat the team of Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura after Buffalo would pin Sugiura 9 minutes, 22 seconds with a Small Package. The opening match would see Daisuke Masaoka and Fuminori Abe defeat HAYATA and GUNSO after GUNSO would get DQ'd at 5 minutes, 41 seconds. GUNSO afterwards would call out Jun Kasai and Kasai would come out and agree to participate in another match as Kasai and Masaoka would defeat HAYATA and GUNSO after Kasai would put away GUNSO at 4 minutes, 48 seconds with a Reverse Tiger Driver. 

The next Jun Kasai promoted show will be on July 17, 2016 at the Hiroshima Industrial Hall West Hall with the main event of Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka against Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo in a Razor Ladder Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. Yuko Miyamoto will face off against  Kenji Fukimoto in Semi-Final Death Match. The Great Kabuki will make his FREEDOMS debut as he teams with Takashi Sasaki and Mammoth Sasaki against GENTARO, The Winger, and long time rival to GENTARO in the Devil Magician. Yuya Susumu will go up against Toru Sugiura in a singles match, the team of Masashi Takeda and Minoru Fujita will take on the local team of Sakigake and Nidojiro. The opening match will be Black Tiger and Masamune against Takumi Tsukamoto and Kenshin Kono. 

The final Jun Kasai promoted show for the month will take place on July 31, 2016 at the Osaka Higashinari Kumin Center with Jun Kasai and Kenji Fukimoto teaming up in the main event to take on Violento Jack and Miedo Extremo in a Death Match. Daisuke Masaoka against HAYATA that was setup back on June 30th in Shin-Kiba will be a Hardcore Match between the two Osaka based wrestlers. Takashi Sasaki will take on Minoru Fujita in a Death Match on the show as well. GENTARO and The Winger will have a non title 3 way tag team match between Yuya Susumu and Keita Yano as well as Masashi Takeda and AK. Mammoth Sasaki will team with Toru Sugiura and Yuki Tanaka against GUNSO, Hide Kubota, and Kabuki Kid in a Street Fight Death Match. The opening match will have Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei against Dyna Mido and Chikara. 

Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura faced off against each other in a match for the first time since December 27, 2008 for Gannosuke's Retirement show. Gannosuke and Kanemura who were partners off and on through FMW, WMF, and Fuyuki Army from 1997 to 2004 ended up having a huge personal conflict between the two where they wanted nothing to do with another and would not be booked on the same shows as a result. The two made up in 2008 prior to Gannosuke's retirement show although they still are not friends and are just okay with one another. Mr. Gannosuke teamed up with Koji Nakagawa and Onryo to take on Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Masao Orihara in the semi-main event of the Apple Star show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on June 26, 2016. The show drew an announced 257 fans for the show but the promotion did not think they will sell that many seats for the show as around 100 fans had to stand for the first couple of matches due to no more seating before they had to bring out more chairs for everyone. Gannosuke and Kanemura went straight for each other as Gannosuke was being introduced and the two would begin to brawl in the crowd as Nakagawa and Kuroda would get paired up as well as Onryo and Orihara. Gannosuke and Kanemura would make it back in the ring and face off against one another before tagging out and it would be the last they would face off against one another. Gannosuke would go up against former Team Kuroda partner Tetsuhiro Kuroda during the match but Kuroda would end up scoring the win after finishing off Nakagawa with a Lariat at 13 minutes, 32 seconds for the win. Kanemura would get on the mic and say "Gannosuke. Lets dance." Gannosuke would walk right up to Kanemura and go face to face with him before both would end up kissing one another. Kanemura would then ask for the music to start and Kintaro Kanemura, Mr. Gannosuke, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Koji Nakagawa, Onryo, and Masao Orihara would all begin to do the TNR Dance. All the wrestlers would begin shaking hands afterwards before Gannosuke would say something to Orihara that would result in him pushing Gannosuke with all the wrestlers having to hold them back as Gannosuke and Orihara will be facing off against each other in a six man tag for Guts World on July 19th. This might end up being the last interaction between Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura with Kanemura retiring at the end of the year due to injuries to become a bouncer at a club in Roppongi. 

I visited Tokyo for my 7th trip between June 21, 2016 to July 1, 2016. After my 2013 trip I really did not think there was much else to do there but I was able to keep myself busy the entire 10 nights. Highlights of the trip included meeting Atsushi Onita and Kintaro Kanemura for the first time, talking with the man that found Hayabusa's body after he passed, visiting Shoichi Arai's grave, seeing Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura reunite and dance, and visiting Shirato Falls a waterfall right next to Mount Fuji. You can check out my Trip Diary which includes tons of pictures at http://fmwwrestling.us/Japan16.html

Added: 6/19

Atsushi Onita visited Ray this month in her hospital room on May 13, 2016. Ray went into the hospital originally on December 25, 2015 after suffering from a concussion from a match with Ayako Hamada on December 22, 2015. It was then found out that Ray had a tumor in her brain. It was then found out on January 21, 2016 that Ray had stage 3 brain cancer. The tumor was also found in a spot on her brain that she could not receive surgery on it. Ray then began radiation treatment as a result in March 2016 but it was then found out that she had water on the brain which can result in brain damage from so much fluid getting backed up. So she had an emergency surgery on May 6, 2016 and stayed in the hospital until May 14, 2016. Onita at his visited offered words of encouragement stating that he wanted to see Ray conquer this sickness and return to the ring. Onita stated that he will be holding a Ray AID show in Tokyo on August 7, 2016. Ray also stated that she would be making an announcement at Super Battle FMW’s show at Korakuen Hall on June 21, 2016 about her future. Ray previously had stated that she wanted to return to the ring at Super Battle FMW’s show on May 5, 2016 at Kawasaki Stadium.

Super Battle FMW returns to Korakuen Hall on June 21, 2016 entitled June Blood. The theme of the show will be that 4 of the 5 matches will be No Ropes Barbed wire Death Matches and three of the matches will be FMW vs. UWF matches. The main event will be Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, and NOSAWA Rongai against Masakatsu Funaki, Yoshihiro Takayama, Mitsuya Nagai, and Takuma Sano in Onita’s first No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match at Korakuen Hall since March 26, 2005. The semi-main event will be Masato Tanaka and Ricky Fuji against Alexander Otsuka and Tatsuo Nakano in a No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match. The 70 year old Katsuji Ueda will team with Tomohiko Hashimoto and Kazuhiko Matsuzaki against Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Daisuke Ikeda, and Takaku Fuke in a No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match. There will also be a Women’s No Rope Barbed wire Death Match between Dump Matsumoto and Miss Mongol which if Matsumoto wins then the Mongol Army of Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu will have to disband. The opening match will be the only non-Barbed wire Death Match as W*ING Kanemura teams with Katsunari Toi, Wild Seven, and Raiden against Gosaku Goshogawara, Pandita, Naoshi Sano, and The Shocker # 1.

Atsushi Onita promoted two shows in two days in Yamagata under his own name. The first show was held on June 10, 2016 at the Yamagata Mikawa-cho Townsman Gym drawing an announced 250 fans with the main event being a Street Fight Death Match with Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Daisuke defeating Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and NOSAWA Rongai with Onita putting NOSAWA away at 11 minutes, 21 seconds with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb. The semi-main event would be a Wrestle-1 match as Jiro Ikemen Kuroshio would defeat Kohei Fujimura at 13 minutes, 17 seconds with his version of a Moonsault the Ikemensault. Ricky Fuji would defeat WEW Tag Team Champion HASEGAWA at 10 minutes, 48 seconds with the 9999 DDT. Guts World's Tatsuhiko Yoshino and 666's NENE mugen D.a.i would defeat DNA's Rainbow Kawamura and Kenta Hattori when Yoshino would pin Hattori at 10 minutes, 38 seconds after hitting him with a Missle Kick. K-Dojo's Yoshihiro Horaguchi would defeat Shota Nakagawa at 8 minutes, 40 seconds after making him submit to the Texas Clover Leaf in the opening match. Kendo Kashin who previously attacked Pandita in the lobby of Korakuen Hall following the previous Super Battle FMW show there on April 27th appeared again before this show as he threw a net over Pandita and tried to kidnap him. This had lead to a one match show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in July between Kendo Kashin and Pandita. 

The next show on the next day would take place on June 11, 2016 at the Yamagata Sakata Gym drawing an announced 578 fans for the first ever Exploding Onibo Death Match which is a spiked club taking the place of the barbed wire baseball bat. The main event would see Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and NOSAWA Rongai defeat Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Ricky Fuji when Yaguchi would use the Onibo on Ricky Fuji to finish him at 9 minutes, 40 seconds for the W*ING Monster Army win. Daisuke would defeat Kenta Hattori in the semi-main event at 9 minutes, 46 seconds with the Sliding D. The Wrestle-1 team of Jiro Ikemen Kuroshio and Kohei Fujimura would defeat Yoshihiro Horaguchi and Shota Nakagawa when Kuroshio would get the win at 18 minutes, 20 seconds over Nakagawa. Rainbow Kawamura would make NENE mugen D.a.i submit at 7 minutes, 56 seconds to a Single Leg Crab. The opening match would have Tatsuhiko Yoshino and Wild Seven defeat HASEGAWA and Pandita at 11 minutes, 32 seconds with Yoshino would use a European Clutch to get the win over Pandita.

FREEDOMS held a special show at the Osaka Masaki Construction Site where they set up a Special Ring and drew an announced 217 fans for the show. The main event was Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka defeating Dove Pro's GUNSO and HAYATA in a Street Fight Death Match which saw Masaoka try and run over HAYATA and Gunso with his van before putting HAYATA away with the Rokura at 17 minutes, 17 seconds. The semi-main event saw Chikara defeat B168's Dyna Mido at 10 minutes, 24 seconds after a Count Out. Takashi Sasaki went to a Double KO finish at 14 minutes, 15 seconds against The Winger in a Garlic Sake Match where both were drunk by the end of it and unable to stand by the 10 count. Yuya Susumu teamed with Keita Yano and the Devil Magician as they would defeat GENTARO, Masamune and Hide Kubota when Yano would get the win over GENTARO at 12 minutes, 3 seconds with the Snow Country Driver # 2. The opening match was Tadanobu Fujisawa and Yuki Tanaka defeating Masao Ando and Dragon Libre when Fujisawa pinned Libre at 10 minutes, 43 seconds with a Kohei.

FREEDOMS and WAVE co-promoted a show on May 21, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Dream Park Festival. Since the show was out in a park the ticket sales were not counted. The FREEDOMS matches on the show had the main event of Jun Kasai and Ayako Hamada against Toru Sugiura and Rina Yamashita with Kasai getting the win over Yamatashita at 18 minutes, 26 seconds with a Pearl Harbor Splash. Yuya Susumu got the win in the semi-main event over Dragon Libre at 7 minutes, 23 seconds with a Camel Clutch. The Akrangers team of Takashi Sasaki and GENTARO would lose to the team of Daisuke Masaoka and Kenji Fukimoto after Fukimoto would put away Sasaki at 10 minutes, 48 seconds with a Package Piledriver in a match that would see both teams brawl all over the park.

FREEDOMS returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on May 26, 2016 drawing an announced 201 fans for the show as they worked with the Ryukyu Dragon for the show three days prior to doing a co-promotion show in Okinawa. The main event of the show was a FREEDOMS/Ryukyu Dragon match as Jun Kasai, Takashi Sasaki, Guruken Mask and Ryukyu Dog Dingo defeated Daisuke Masaoka, Kenji Fukimoto, Churaumi Saver, and Tida Heat when Kasai would pin Tida Heat at 19 minutes, 17 seconds with a Reverse Tiger Driver. GENTARO would go up against Captain Eagle would end up getting thrown out after 15 minutes, 28 seconds and ruled a No Contest. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura would defeat Shuri Joe and Ultra Soki after Sugiura would get the win after making Soki submit at 13 minutes, 6 seconds with the Dragon Sleeper. Susumu Yuya and Mabui-kun got the win over The Winger and Betta Fish when Mabui would get the win over The Winger at 11 minutes, 15 seconds with the Mabui Clutch. Masashi Takeda would win a singles match over Hijya Kidman at 7 minutes, 36 seconds with the Megaraba. Guruken Mask would open the show by defeating rookie Dragon Libre at 3 minutes, 38 seconds with a Lariat.

FREEDOMS and Ryukyu Dragon would then co-promote a show on May 29, 2016 at the Okinawa Kadena Dome drawing an announced 224 fans for the show. The main event was a FREEDOMS vs. Ryukyu Dragon 5 vs. 5 Series Match with the winner of the match facing another opponent from the other team until one team has all 5 members eliminated. The first match was Toru Sugiura eliminate Shuri Joe after finishing him off at 9 minutes, 25 seconds with the Swift Driver. Sugiura continued to help his team as he would next Ryukyu Dog at 5 minutes, 40 seconds after forcing Referee Stoppage on Ryukyu Dog. Tida Heat would come in next and finally eliminate Sugiura at 2 minutes, 11 seconds of their match by pinning Sugiura. Tide Heat would even the field as he would next eliminate Kenji Fukimoto at 6 minutes, 5 seconds of their match after rolling up Fukimoto with a Jackknife. GENTARO would come in next and eliminate Tida Heat at 7 minutes, 22 seconds after Tida Heat would end up getting counted out. Guruken Mask would be in next for the Ryukyu Dragon team and would eliminate GENTARO at 7 minutes, 40 seconds after eliminating GENTARO with the Guruken Diver. Jun Kasai would be next for the FREEDOMS team and he would end up going to a Double Count Out with Guruken Mask at 12 minutes, 19 seconds causing both to be eliminated from the match. This would leave just Daisuke Masaoka and Chuaraumi Saver left for both their teams and Masaoka would end up getting the win at 9 minutes, 54 seconds with a Raikura Aratame to eliminate Chuaraumi Saver and win the match for FREEDOMS. Other matches on the show saw Kikutaro defeat The Winger at 11 minutes, 9 seconds after rolling up Winger for the win. The Ryuku Dragon team of Captain Eagle, Betta Fish and Ultra Soki would defeat the FREEDOMS team of Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Dragon Libre when Soki would pin Libre at 15 minutes, 3 seconds with the Blue Thunder. Yuya Susumu would win the opener over Hijya Kidman at 8 minutes, 8 seconds with getting him to submit to the Camel Clutch.

FREEDOMS ran their annual summer show on June 12, 2016 at the Fukuoka Kitakyushu Moji Red Brick Place although one month earlier than usual as next month will be dedicated to Jun Kasai promoted Death Match shows instead. They would draw an announced 195 fans for the show which is considerably down than last years show. The main event saw Mammoth Sasaki and long time local Southern Japan wrestler Mt. Aso as they would defeat Jun Kasai and Takashi Sasaki when Mammoth would finish off Takashi Sasaki at 14 minutes, 51 seconds with the 29 Years Old. Daisuke Masaoka and Toru Sugiura would team up to defeat the King of Freedom Tag Team Champions GENTARO and The Winger in a non title match when Masaoka would pin Winger at 12 minutes, 7 seconds with the Shubain for the pin. Unchain members Minoru Fujita and Kenji Fukimoto would first go to a Double Count Out with Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei at 1 minutes, 13 seconds. The match would get restarted and Fujita would end up placing Brahman Kei in a Rear Naked Choke which would enable him to pin Kei at 10 minutes, 31 seconds in the restart match. Kenichiro Arai would replace rookie Dragon Libre who ruptured a knee ligament on June 6th at 666's show in Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show and will be out for several months after just debuting a month earlier. Arai would take on Masashi Takeda who end up defeating Arai at 11 minutes, 55 seconds after Arai would be Counted Out of the ring. Yuya Susumu defeated local wrestler Nozomi Kubo at 8 minutes, 17 seconds after getting the win with the Falcon Arrow. GENTARO teamed with local wrestler Yoshihiro Hayashi and Tessei as they would defeat Toru Sugiura who teamed with other local wrestlers Hi-ju and Telouet Guerrero when Tessi pinned Guerrero at 15 minutes, 42 seconds with a Diving Double Knee Drop.

Kintaro Kanemura and Kazutaka Hasegawa held a press conference on June 16, 2016 at the Tokyo Takeshiba Coliseum. Kanemura stated that his retirement show will be on December 27, 2016 at Korakuen Hall but that his last Exploding Barbed wire Death Match will be on September 4, 2016 for the Super Fireworks promotion at the Shizuoka Act Hamamatsu. Kanemura stated that he remembers 20 years ago when Onita beat him on September 28, 1997 at Kawasaki Stadium in a Exploding Cage Death Match and that Kanemura never got a rematch with Onita. Kanemura stated that when he thinks of his career with W*ING and the Brief Brothers it keeps coming back to fighting with Onita. Kanemura stated he did not care if the match was a singles or tag match he wanted to face off against Onita in a Exploding Barbed wire Death Match on September 4th against Onita.

The Apache Army held their monthly Kintaro Kanemura Retirement Tour on June 19, 2016 at the Tokyo Kitasenju Theater 1010 drawing an announced 139 Fans. The main event saw Hi69 and HASEGAWA defend their WEW Tag Team Titles against Hayate and Nobutaka Moribe with Hi69 scoring the pinfal victory over Moribe at 16 minutes, 21 seconds after delivering a Stir Car Splash for the win for their first WEW Tag Team Title defense. IGF's Keisuke Okuda would come to the ring and issue a challenge to Hi69 and HASEGAWA afterwards for the WEW Tag Team Titles at the next Apache show on July 31st in Osaka with Okuda announcing his partner would be Masamune. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda teamed up to face off against Kazunari Marukami and Tomohiko Hashimoto with Hashimoto putting away Kanemura at 11 minutes, 30 seconds with the XCT. Buffalo defeated Takumi Sagurai who Buffalo had stated before the match did not even know who Sagurai as Buffalo would finish off Sagurai at 12 minutes, 13 seconds with a Lariat. Yosuke Enemoto went to a Draw with Takuya Sugita in the 2 three minute round match. The team of Hazard, Blue Shark, and SHINOBU defeated Kuniyoshi Wada and Syuou Fujiwara when Shark pinned Fujiwara at 11 minutes, 13 seconds after hitting a Moonsault on him. Rion Mizuki delivered a High Right Kick to finish off Toshiaki Terao at 8 minutes, 7 seconds in the opening match. 

Mr. Gannosuke’s 25th Anniversary Match took place on June 17, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the Guts World promotion as he defended his GWC Title for the first time against GENTARO. The match started off as a mat based match with Gannosuke placing GENTARO in the Scorpion Death Lock and GENTARO getting Gannosuke in a Figure Four Leglock. Gannosuke would try the Scorpion Death Lock but GENTARO would reverse it into the Sharpshooter. They would make it to their feet and the action would pick up as Gannosuke would deliver a Back Suplex, nail GENTARO with a lariat, and use the Gannosuke Clutch for two. Gannosuke would eventually use a Backslide that would get the win at 25 minutes, 15 seconds for the win and his first successful title defense. KAI came out afterwards and did the end of the show celebration dance with Gannosuke and his group. 

Mr. Gannosuke will promote his Kishindo Returns 20 show on July 26, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring which Gannosuke has stated has been doing the best ticket sales for a show he has promoted since his retirement show and the first Kishindo Returns show drew a sellout of 350 since then. The main event will be Gannosuke facing off against HARASHIMA who will be going by the name Habuchiko and will be dressed up as Hayabusa in the costume so in a way it will be the final Hayabusa vs. Gannosuke match. The rest of the matches will be Isami Kodaka against Buffalo, Yasu Urano against Atsushi Maruyama, Masamune against Tatsuhiko Yoshino, Yuko Miyamoto taking on K-Dojo’s Kyu Mogami, Koharu Hinata against the recently returned to action Micro, and Shota against Yuki Sato will open the show. 

I do not know how much updating I will be able to do while I am in Tokyo from June 20th to July 1st. But I will try my best. I will be attending the Super Battle FMW show on June 21st at Korakuen Hall as well as the After Party following it. I will be going back to Ricky Fuji's Gym on June 23rd, I will be going to Apple Star on June 26th and FREEDOMS on June 30th at Shin-Kiba. I will also be attending New Japan and Big Japan Korakuen Hall shows on June 27th and June 29th. I also have plans to go back to Naoshi Sano's Stanley Club some time as well as go to Shoichi Arai's grave site in Saitama while there as well. I will do a write up of the trip following my next update in July. 

Added: 5/17

Hayabusa's Retirement Ceremony would take place in the middle of the Super Battle FMW show on April 27, 2016 at Korakuen Hall. Original FMW women wrestlers Megumi Kudo, Combat Toyoda, Crusher Maedomari, Rie Nakamura, Yukie Nabeno, Keiko Iwami, and Miwa Sato. Megumi Kudo would read a letter to Hayabusa. "Hayabusa your departure was too sudden. The days spending together on tour are irreplaceable and precious memories to us. Among the Death Match style of FMW you built your own style. We had a prominent dream that you would lead the world of pro-wrestling. It is important to continue the dream and the true strength and tenderness you taught us Hayabusa. You are a Super Star in the world of pro-wrestling definitely. We dream of a return and if that dream does not come true then there would be no doubt regret. But because of you and your friends including Onita there will always be prosperity of the future in the world of professional wrestling. In addition your home in Kumamoto has been hit by an unfortunate earthquake. I think there will be an inheritance of your pro-wrestling love to everybody while delivering a smile to Japan. I am happy that you gave many years of good work in wrestling. Thank you and good bye Hayabusa." Kudo and Nakamura would then begin to break down during the 10 gong salute for and his theme music would begin to play with streamers getting thrown in the ring one last time in memory of Hayabusa.

A Hayabusa shrine would be setup on the 5th Floor of Korakuen Hall prior to the show. 2,000 fans would come by which was actually 200 more than that was announced for the sell out show. This would allow the public to honor Hayabusa since his funeral had been private and in all the way in Kumamoto. Hayabusa's brother Takanori would bring the urn of Hayabusa and place it in the middle between a bronze Hayabusa statue that Yoshinori Murata had created and a special goal 25th Anniversary Hayabusa mask placed under a framed Hayabusa photo. Jinsei Shinzaki, Mr. Gannosuke, Naomichi Marufuji, Mohammed Yone, Ichiro Yaguchi, Ray, Command Bolshoi, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Kamui, and Mammoth Sasaki all attended the memorial as songs sung by Hayabusa would be played over the speaker. Jinsei Shinzaki would speak to the crowd and state that he looked forward to meeting Ezaki again one day. Mr. Gannosuke would then follow as he would begin crying while thanking Ezaki for being his life long rival which pushed him to always want to do better. Ezaki's brother Takanori would then speak and then Ezaki's daughters would ask for their father to watch over them with warmth. A card would be given to all the fans to would enter inside the shrine with a picture of Hayabusa and a Falcon with a play on his catchphrase and then opened up would be a piece of a Hayabusa costume as well as the counted days of 9,070 which was how long he was a wrestler from May 5, 1991 his debut to March 3, 2016 his death. 

Super Battle FMW drew another announced sell out of 1800 fans for their Korakuen Hall show on April 27, 2016. It has been built as a 28 year old feud between FMW and UWF after Onita would go to a UWF show in December 1988 and issue a challenge to the promotion. UWF would send Onita away after not having a ticket and Onita would go on to form FMW in July 1989 which was originally a mix of UWF and standard pro-wrestling at the time. Atsushi Onita. Raijin Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, and NOSAWA Rongai would defeat the UWF team of Masakatsu Funaki, Yoshihiro Takayama, Alexander Otsuka and Takaku Fuke when Onita would pin Fuke with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb in a Barbed wire Board Death Match. More details and pictures of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Korakuen16.html

Super Battle FMW returned to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on May 14, 2016 announcing a crowd of a 380 fans for the show. The main event saw a Street Fight Falls Count Anywhere Death Match. The main event saw Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi, Hideki Hosaka, and NOSAWA Rongai defeat Yoshihiro Takayama, Mitsuya Nagai, Alexander Otsuka, and Daisuke Ikeda in a FMW vs. UWF match with Yaguchi finishing off Ikeda at 13 minutes after hitting him with the barbed wire baseball bat. Onita and Ikeda got in a fight afterwards with both teams having to pull them apart. Onita would get on the mic and state that he was upset that Masakatsu Funaki had not shown up for this show and then challenged Funaki to a No Ropes Barbed wire Death Match at Korakuen Hall on June 21st. Nothing has been announced officially on whether this will be a singles match or a 6 man match. The semi-main event saw the UWF team of Takaku Fuke and Takuma Sano defeat Tomohiko Hashimoto and Ricky when Ricky was about to hit a DDT on Fuke but instead got kicked in the head by Sano allowing Fuke to get Ricky on the mat and would get him to tap at 10 minutes, 44 seconds with a Sleeper for the UWF win. The women's match saw Miss Mongol team up with fellow CPE wrestler Sachiko Yokozuna and Raideen Steel as they would defeat Kagestu, Manami Katsu, and Shiori Akiba when Mongol would make Akiba submit at 12 minutes, 27 seconds to a Crab Hold. Kikutaro would win the comedy match over Pandita at 14 minutes, 46 seconds after reverseing a small package. The first match would be a 6 Man Battle Royal with W*ING Kanemura who has been working easier matches due to injuries winning it after last eliminating Kisarazu Clown at 10 minutes, 54 seconds after pinning him with the Kinnoji Crash. 

Atsushi Onita defeated The Great Sasuke on May 15, 2016 at the Aomori Hamanasu Hall to defend the Super Fireworks Title in a Exploding Barbed wire Baseball Bat. Naoshi Sano who has been in Onita's group for years randomly seemed like he was turning on Onita during the match. Onita turned the siren that turns the explosions on of the exploding barbed wire bat but Sano randomly turned it off. Onita then later turned it on again and Sano got up on the apron and Onita ended up spitting mist in his face before having to turn it off because Sasuke was already up on his feet. Sasuke would then spit mist in Onita's face and turn the explosions on to the bat. Sasuke then came off the top rope with the exploding barbed wire bat but Onita would move out of the way and Sasuke would crash on the mat with the exploding barbed wire bat going off on him. Onita would then finish off Sasuke with the Thunder Fire Powerbomb at 11 minutes, 49 seconds for the win. Onita afterwards would shake Sasuke's hand and ask for him to join him in his fight against UWF with Sasuke agreeing. Taro Nohashi would also challenge Onita to a Super Fireworks Title Match. 

FREEDOMS ran their annual big Golden Week show on May 2, 2016 at Korakuen Hall. They announced a crowd of 769 fans for the show which is not a overall good number but has to be about they expected on based off how the last show did in March with a similar card lineup. Jun Kasai who vacated his King of Freedom World Championship back on April 21st at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring when in a confrontation with Daisuke Masaoka vacated the title on the show stating he could defeat Masaoka in a level playing field match. Kasai would face off against Masaoka in a Four Corners of Death Match in the main event of the show for the vacant title. Masaoka would work on Kasai's knee first by smashing it with a chair and then delivering a frog splash on it. Kasai would fight back by slamming Masaoka on a board with knives on it and then attempt to deliver the Pearl Harbor Splash but Masaoka would turn the board around and Kasai would end up landing on the knives slicing up his stomach. Masaoka would then drop a ladder with fluorescent light tubes on it across Kasai. Masaoka would then bamboo sticks in Kasai's head but Kasai would go low and shove bamboo sticks in Masaoka's head as well. They would both beginning to headbutt each other with the bamboo sticks in their head. Masaoka would end up slamming Kasai in a board full of bamboo sticks getting them all over Kasai's back. Masaoka would stand over Kasai's body and then dumb thumbtacks over himself and Kasai's body. Kasai would hit the Rokura Kai on Kasai on the thumbtacks. Masaoka would go to the top but Kasai would get up and meet Masaoka at the top turnbuckle where he would deliver a Tiger Suplex. Kasai would then finish off Masaoka with three Tiger Drivers on the bamboo sticks to get the win at 22 minutes, 58 seconds to win the vacant King of Freedom World Champion making him a back to back champion. Kasai and Masaoka would fist bump and then kiss afterwards out of respect towards one another. 

GENTARO and The Winger defended their King of Freedom Tag Team Titles after defeating the team of Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. GENTARO was nervous throughout the match due to getting stitches on his shoulder last year following a Death Match against Masashi Takeda a year earlier. GENTARO would try to avoid the broken glass all over the ring but then Takeda would bring out a board of scissors attaching out and even though GENTARO would end up getting cut up by the scissors he would still end up pulling away with the win after rolling up Takeda with the GENTARO Clutch out of nowhere at 12 minutes, 43 seconds for the win and the 4th successful tag team title defense. Yuya Susumu would score a huge win teaming up with Minoru Tanaka and MIKAMI as they would defeat the team of Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa after Susumu would end up hooking a Cross Armbar on Takashi Sasaki and making him tap out at 13 minutes, 33 seconds for the win. Due to Kamui fracturing his arm he would be unable to compete on the show and would have to be in Darth Chikara's corner along with his father Mitsuo Moma as he faced off against Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Karate Brahman with Shu getting the win in a Elimination Style Match by throwing Chikara over the top rope at 10 minutes, 3 seconds for the Brahman win. The Brahmans stated that Chikara would never be apart of the Brahman name again afterwards.  The newly trained masked FREEDOMS wrestler Dragon Libre would make his debut against Mammoth Sasaki on the show. Libre would not shake hands with Mammoth prior to the match and would end up getting destroyed and stretched before Mammoth would put him away by making him tap out to the Boston Crab. Mitsuo Momota opened the show by defeating Kenichiro Arai at 8 minutes, 53 seconds after using a Small Package. Momota and Arai shook hands afterwards. 

FREEDOMS would run on May 8, 2016 for their annual Yokohama Nishi-ku Wisteria Trellis show which is located outside in what would be the Japanese equivalent of a strip mall. The two matches on the show would have Yuya Susumu make Dragon Libre tap at 7 minutes, 32 seconds with a Single Leg Crab and the main event would have Takashi Sasaki and Toru Sugiura defeat Kenji Fukimoto and Yukihiro Abe when Sugiura pinned Abe at 10 minutes, 28 seconds with the Swift Driver in matches on a mat instead of a ring.

FREEDOMS and Tower Records co-promoted a show at the Tower Records Building in Shibuya, Tokyo at their Sky Garden Rooftop with an announced 305 fans for the show. The main event saw Jun Kasai and Daisuke Masaoka team up to go against Brahman Shu, Kei, and Karate Brahman with their first match going to a double count at 1 minutes, 31 seconds and the restart ending at 9 minutes, 31 seconds total after Masaoka would hit his Rokura Kai on Kei for the win. It would be announced after the match that FREEDOMS would be holding a Beer Garden series every day at the building from August 21st to August 28th. The semi-main event saw Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Toru Sugiura defeat GENTARO, The Winger, and Kenichiro Arai with Sugiura putting away Arai at 16 minutes, 44 seconds with the Swift Driver. Kenji Fukimoto defeated Chikara at 8 minutes, 31 seconds after finishing him with the Package Driver in Chikara's first Trial Series Match. Susumu Yuya and MIKAMI opened the show by defeating Masashi Takeda and Dragon Libre after Susumu would put Libre away at 9 minutes, 59 seconds with a Camel Clutch.

The Apache Army ran on April 22, 2016 at the Nagoya Aichi Korean High School Gym which is the high school that Kanemura graduated from. The main event was MIKAMI, Rion Mizuki and Kotaro Nasu defeating Hi69, HASEGAWA and Takumi Sagurai when Mizuki would pick up the pinfall over HASEGAWA at 13 minutes, 48 seconds after finishing him off with a German Suplex. Kintaro Kanemura would wrestle at his old high school for the first time as he would team with Tetsuhiro Kuroda as they would defeat Tomohiko Hashimoto and Buffalo with Kanemura getting the win over Hashimoto at 11 minutes, 15 seconds after hitting him with the Bakku YAMA Senton Special. Tatsuhito Takaiwa would easily defeat Toshiaki Terao at 7 minutes, 14 seconds with a Death Valley Bomb. Kikutaro would use a sunset flip to pick up the win at 6 minutes, 40 seconds over Takaya Shibayama and the opening match would be Kengo Takai and Tadanobu Fujisawa defeating Yusaku Ito and Hasuka Makoto when Takai would make Ito tap out at 7 minutes, 42 seconds to a Single Leg Crab.

The Apache Army ran at the Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall on May 15, 2016 drawing an announced 240 fans for the show. The main event saw Koji Kanemoto successfully defend his WEW World Title against Kintaro Kanemura after getting Kanemura in the Ankle Lock and making him tap out at 14 minutes, 58 seconds for the win. Hi69 and HASEGAWA would go on to win the WEW Tag Team Titles after defeating MIKAMI and Rion Mizuki after HASEGAWA would score the upset pin after over Mizuki at 20 minutes, 23 seconds with a Fisherman's Buster to give HASEGAWA his first career title. Tomohiko Hashimoto teamed with Kotaro Nasu and Masaru Kameda to defeat Kazunari Murakami, The Blue Shark and Hazard when Kameda would get the pin over Shark at 14 minutes, 48 seconds with a School Boy. Daisaku Shimoda, Rikiya Fudo and Kuniyoshi Wada would go over on the young boy team of Yoshiaki Iwata, Takumi Sagurai and SHINOBU who is not Shinobu when Shimoda pinned Sagurai at 17 minutes, 2 seconds with a Backdrop. Yosuke Enemoto defeated Shin Terao at 55 seconds of the second round after knocking him out. Hayate and Nobutaka Moribe would defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Toshiaki Terao when Moribe would use a reverse roll up for the win at 11 minutes, 31 seconds over Terao.

Mr. Gannosuke would main event Korakuen Hall in a singles match for the first time since February 11, 2004 as he would challenge Daisuke for his GWC Title at Guts World's second ever Korakuen Hall show on May 8, 2016. Daisuke would start by working on Gannosuke's knee but Gannosuke would come back and begin working on Daisuke's elbow by ramming it against the ring post and then delivering two running arm drags. Gannosuke would then deliver a Falcon Arrow which he would scream "Hayabusa!" while delivering the move. Gannosuke would try for the Fire Thunder but Daisuke would manage to escape and deliver a lariat to Gannosuke. Daisuke would then deliver the Sliding D but Gannosuke would manage to get his foot on the rope. Daisuke would then deliver three straight frog splashes but on the third one Gannosuke would get his knees up. Daisuke would come back with a lariat but Gannosuke would catch it and place the Gannosuke Clutch for two. Gannosuke would then go for the kill as he would deliver a Praying Powerbomb and then finish Daisuke off with back to back Fire Thunders for the win at 33 minutes, 32 seconds. Gannosuke would win his first singles title being given the FMW Brass Knuckles Title back in May 1999 and it would be the first time he would win a singles title himself since defeating Masato Tanaka for the FMW Double Titles back on January 6, 1998. Gannosuke would be given the title as he would place it around his waist and then lead the chant with the rest of the roster to end the show. Gannosuke's first title defense will be against GENTARO on June 17, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the next Guts World show.

Apple Star announced an FMW match on their June 26, 2016 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The match they originally announced was Mr. Gannosuke teaming with Ricky Fuji and Koji Nakagawa against Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Masao Orihara. Since then Gannosuke has announced that he would be teaming with Koji Nakagawa and Onryo on the show instead as Ricky is booked for Hokkaido Pro that day. This will be the first time that Gannosuke and Kanemura will be facing off against each other in a match since Gannosuke's Retirement Match back on December 27, 2008. I will be attending this show next month. 

Yesterday marked 14 years since Shoichi Arai passed away back on May 16, 2002. I really would like to visit his grave in Saitama when I am in Japan next month. I have the location and directions of where it is located but it does not seem like it will be a easy trip. Arai's story is a sad one and it was even sadder after he passed away. Arai's daughter who was just 5 years old was never told her father passed away and she simply thought he was still alive but just never came to see her anymore after the divorce. Her mother remarried and did not allow her to speak of her "old father" anymore. Arai's daughter did not know about her fathers death until just a couple of years ago when she searched about him online and found out everything. Arai's ex wife was also very bitter that she consumed the debt that Shoichi had with the loan sharks due to FMW going bankrupt and had to pay it off to them until she got to a certain point that her father could pay off the rest. Mr. Gannosuke tweeted on May 16, 2016 that he felt sadness when he found out Arai had died that day and he now he has Hayabusa in heaven with him. 

Added: 4/24

Kumamoto, Japan was hit hard on April 14th and April 16th after a earthquake hit resulting in as of right now 48 deaths and over 3,000 injuries. The Super Fireworks roster was touring the region for the week when the earthquake hit. The foreshock of the earthquake took place on April 14th hitting Kumamoto with over a 6 on the seismic scale. The Super Fireworks show on April 15th which was actually the biggest show of the tour as Atsushi Onita was suppose to defend his Super Fireworks Title against TARU at the Kumamoto Downtown Plaza Hall had to be canceled to the buildings wall coming down after the quake. The Super Fireworks roster instead of having the show would help try clean up the debris surrounding the building. The main shock then took place in the early morning of April 16th in Kumamoto with the quake reaching a 7 on the seismic scale. The rest of the tour would go on. Atsushi Onita would visit the disaster area of Kumamoto City on April 19, 2016. Onita would get permission from the Kumamoto City Hall to visit an elementary school that about 100 people that were homeless were staying in. Onita would help hand relief supplies. Onita would be be joined by Hideki Hosaka, Pandita, and Tomohiko Hashimoto. Onita would meet with many of the people staying there and hear many stories about the lives that had been changed due to the devastation of the area from the earthquake. Hayabusa's mother and brother who both live in Kumamoto are fine following the disaster. 

Super Battle FMW's first show of the two day tour would start on April 6, 2016 at the Aomori Industry Hall as they would draw an announced 500 fans for the show. The main event would have Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, KIKUZAWA, and HASEGAWA defeat Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Onryo, and Buffalo when Onita would pin Buffalo at 11 minutes, 10 seconds after Hosaka would deliver the Tiger Driver on him and Onita would lay over him for the pinfall in a Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match. The semi-main event saw Ricky Fuji and Gosaku Goshogawara defeat W*ING Kanemura and Kotaro Nasu after Goshogawara would get the win over Nasu at 9 minutes, 37 seconds with the chokeslam.  Kagetsu and Leon would defeat Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu after Kagestu would finish off Mongol at 15 minutes, 51 seconds with a Dropkick. Onryo would make his Super Battle FMW debut teaming up with Aizawa # 1 as they would lose to the team of Masamune and Kikutaro after Masamune would get the win over  Aizawa # 1 when Masamune pinned Aizawa at 15 minutes, 51 seconds with the Thunder Off. The opening match would have Pandita getting the winner at 8 minutes, 20 seconds over Kisazaru Clown. 

Super Battle FMW ran the next day on April 7, 2016 at the Aomori Hirosaki Kasai Sports Center drawing an announced crowd of 600 fans for the show. The main event saw Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, Gosaku Goshogawara, and HASEGAWA defeat Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Onryo, and Masamune after Onita would score the pin over Masamune at 12 minutes, 35 seconds after Hosaka would nail him with the Tiger Driver. Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu defeated Leon and Kagetsu after Mongol would get the win over Kagestsu at 14 minutes, 35 seconds after pinning her. Ricky Fuji and Gosaku Goshogawara defeated W*ING Kanemura and Buffalo after Goshogawara would get the upset at 12 minutes, 35 seconds by pinning Buffalo with the Sand Storm. Kikutaro and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi scored the win over Pandita and Masamune after Kikutaro got the pin at 15 minutes, 35 seconds over Pandita. Kotaro Nasu got the win over Kisarazu Clown at 4 minutes, 33 seconds after making him submit to a Leglock.

FREEDOMS returned to the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on April 21, 2016 drawing an announced 226 fans for the show. The main event saw Yuko Miyamoto and Daisuke Masaoka defeat the team of Jun Kasai and Takashi Sasaki in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Scaffold Death Match with Masaoka getting the win over Sasaki at 17 minutes, 31 seconds with a Rokura off the Scaffold. Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Darth Brahman defeated GENTARO and Kenichiro Arai as well as Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto in a Three Way Tag Match after Darth Brahman after Darth Brahman would use a Karate Chop on Arai for the win at 10 minutes, 40 seconds. Darth Brahman would end up turning back face after the match and changing his name to Darth Chikara. Mammoth Sasaki defeated Yuya Susumu at 11 minutes, 6 seconds after hitting him with the 29 Years Old. Minoru Tanaka defeated The Winger at 11 minutes, 47 seconds with the HEAT Clutch. Kamui and Hi69 defeated Mitsuo Momota and Darth Brahman after Kamui scored the win over Darth Brahman at 7 minutes, 39 seconds with a Swanton Bomb. Tatsuhito Takaiwa opened the show defeated Fuminori Abe at 8 minutes, 2 seconds with a Death Valley Bomb.

FREEDOMS ran an outside show at the Yamaguchi Costa del Son Shunan drawing an announced 229 fans for the show on April 16, 2016. The main event of the show would be Takashi Sasaki, Daisuke Masaoka and Sakigake defeating the Unchain team of Jun Kasai, Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto when Masaoka would hit the Rokura on Fukimoto at 15 minutes, 36 seconds for the win. Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui would pick up the win in the semi-main event as they would defeat Susumu Yuya and HAYATA at 10 minutes, 53 seconds after Mammoth would finish off HAYATA with the 29 Years Old. The local Yamaguchi promotion match was Tsuchiya Crazy and Arnold Nishimura defeating Momi Sinensis and Dragon Warrior when Tsuchiya pinning Warrior at 8 minutes, 47 seconds with a Jikiden Back Suplex. GENTARO and Kenshin Kono defeated Devil Magician and Takumi Tsukamoto after GENTARO would gain revenge over Devil Magician by making submit at 9 minutes, 57 seconds with an Abdominal Stretch. The opening match was Minoru Fujita getting the win over The Winger at 9 minutes, 9 seconds with a Schoolboy.

FREEDOMS ran at the Hiroshima Marina Hop on April 17, 2016 drawing an announced crowd of 315 fans for the show. The main event saw Jun Kasai and Takashi Sasaki defeat Daisuke Masaoka and Kamui after Kasai would finish off Kamui at 17 minutes, 42 seconds with a Tiger Driver. The Devil Magician would team with Susumu Yuya going under the name Susumu Magician and Takumi Tsukamoto going by Takumi Magician for the match as they would defeat Masashi Takeda, Kenji Fukimoto, and HAYATA when Devil Magician would use the La Magistral at 10 minutes, 57 seconds to get the pin over Fukimoto. The first three matches on the show would be FREEDOMS vs. Dove Pro matches with Sakigake defeating GENTARO at 13 minutes, 25 seconds with the Sliding S, Mammoth Sasaki defeating Rey Paloma at 8 minutes, 23 seconds with the 29 Years Old, and the opening match would have Kenshin Chikano defeat The Winger at 10 minutes, 4 seconds with a German Suplex.

FREEDOMS announced the lineup for their May 2, 2016 show at Korakuen Hall. The show looks like it will be a struggle to draw again with them using the same formula as their show in March that did not draw very well. They actually should have Daisuke Masaoka walk away with the title at the end since this show is suppose to be their biggest show of the year and it is such a by the numbers card already. The main event will be Jun Kasai defending his King of Freedom World Championship in a Four Corners of Pain Death Match against Daisuke Masaoka who he defeated back in November forcing Masaoka to shave his head. The semi-main event will have King of Freedom Tag Team Champions GENTARO and The Winger defend their titles against Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto. Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa will go up against Susumu Yuya, Minoru Tanaka, and MIKAMI. Kamui will revise his Luke Kamui Skywalker character as he teams with Darth Chikara as they take on Brahman Shu and Kei with Karate Brahman in their corner. A masked FREEDOMS trainee will make his debut as he will go up against a FREEDOMS wrestler. The opening match will have Mitsuo Momota take on Kenichiro Arai.

Jonathan Rechner better known as Balls Mahoney passed away on April 12, 2016 at the age of 44. Mahoney made his FMW debut as part of an FMW and ECW talent exchange for the November 23, 1999 show at the Yokohama Arena where Mahoney challenged and lost to Kintaro Kanemura for his WEW Hardcore Championship on the show. Mahoney would join Kodo Fuyuki's ECW Japan on January 5, 2000 and toured and was a regular with the promotion until April 11, 2000 when he teamed with Masato Tanaka to defeat H who was knocked out by Mahoney during the match and came back as Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke in the main event at Korakuen Hall. Mahoney was suppose to return for the May 5, 2000 show in Komazawa where he would team with New Jack to challenge Hideki Hosaka and Yoshinori Sasaki for the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles but the FMW and ECW relationship would end prior to the show and he would be pulled from the card and would not return until December 21, 2001 when he would team with Horace Boulder and lose to Kintaro Kanemura and Mammoth Sasaki in a WEW Tag Team Title Tournament and Korakuen Hall. Balls would then return to Japan in April 2005 as he would work for Mr. Gannosuke's WMF promotion with his last match in Japan taking place on April 3, 2005 in Saitama as Kensuke Sasaki and Mr. Gannosuke would defeat Balls Mahoney and Soldier after Gannosuke would pin Mahoney with the Gannosuke Clutch. Mahoney also held the ECW Tag Team Titles with Masato Tanaka and was a regular tag team partner with Axl Rotten who also worked two FMW shows at Korakuen Hall in December 1999. Rotten also passed away passed away on February 4, 2016 at the age of 44.

Mr. Gannosuke would team up with Guts Ishijima and Michio Kageyama against the team of KAI, Kenichiro Arai, and Shota on April 24, 2016 at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE for the Guts World promotion. Gannosuke would take issue with KAI using the Gannosuke Clutch the way he has been using it for Wrestle-1. Gannosuke would show KAI how to do the move he invented correctly on Shota with Gannosuke then telling KAI how to do it step by step as KAI would place the move on Shota. KAI would end up getting the win after using the Gannosuke Clutch on Kageyama for the win with Gannosuke raising KAI's hand afterwards. Gannosuke afterwards would come out after Daisuke would successfully defend his GWC Championship against Buffalo in the main event to set up officially Daisuke against Mr. Gannosuke for the GWC Championship as the main event for the Guts World promotion show on May 8, 2016 at Korakuen Hall. 

The Video and Audio Project (VAP) company announced that they would be releasing a 2-disc Hayabusa DVD of his recorded All Japan matches from 1997-1999 on June 22, 2016. VAP which use to be the the video distributor for All Japan in the 1990's before All Japan parted ways with Nippon TV. VAP use to have exclusive footage deals with All Japan wrestlers back then and was the reason that Kenta Kobashi and Maunkea Mossman's match against Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki on September 28, 1997 at Kawasaki Stadium could not be recorded. The first disc will be all his recorded 1997 matches that made air and will go three hours. The second disc will be from 1998-1999 and go a little over two hours. The price of DVD when released around the $100 USD range. 

I will be returning to Tokyo, Japan for my seventh trip from June 21, 2016 to July 1, 2016. I will be attending the Super Battle FMW show at Korakuen Hall my first night there and my last night will be spent attending the FREEDOMS show on June 30, 2016 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. 

Added: 3/30

Super Battle FMW returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo on March 27, 2016 drawing an announced 280 fans for the show. The main event would see Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Sean Guinness defend their FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles for a second time as they would defeat Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Onryo in a Double Hell Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match when Hosaka would get the win over Onryo at 17 minutes, 30 seconds using the Building Bomb. Ray who is going through radiation to fight her brain cancer would come out to celebrate the win at the end of the match with Onita celebrating with her before him and Hosaka would pick her up over her shoulders in a warm moment to end the show. Mitsuya Nagai would defeat Kotaro Nasu at 10 minutes, 54 seconds using a Udemanji Suplex for the win to begin to build up the UWF Army. Former FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champion Daisuke Ikeda who held the title twice and once with Hayabusa would take on Ricky Fuji in the first Hayabusa Memorial Match with Ikeda defeating Ricky at 7 minutes, 47 seconds with the Schoolboy for the pin. Katsunori Toi would win a 6 Man Battle Royal at 12 minutes, 27 seconds after last eliminating Raiden. W*ING Kanemura would defeat his friend HASEGAWA easily at 7 minutes, 17 seconds after getting the win with the Kinnoji Flash. Leon would open the show against Aki Shizuku as they would go to a 15 minute Time Limit Draw. Ichiro Yaguchi would open the show and play a Hayabusa song along with Hayabusa guitarist Fumi Taniguchi and Sana Sakura in memory of Hayabusa. They would bring the Hayabusa picture and place it on a table for people to place their flowers to honor Hayabusa.

The other Super Battle FMW show on the tour would take place on March 24, 2016 at the Niigata City Industrial Promotion Center as they would announce 620 fans for the show. The main event would see Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Sean Guinness defend their FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles for the first time as they would defeat the team of Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and NOSAWA Rongai in a Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match when Onita would pin NOSAWA at 16 minutes, 54 seconds with the Thunder Fire Powerbomb. Much like a week earlier at Onita's promoted show Onita and NOSAWA would embrace with one another after the match as it would look the end of the one year feud between Onita and NOSAWA. Go Shiozaki would defeat Akitoshi Saito at 15 minutes, 19 seconds in the semi-main event of the show after using the Gowan Lariat for the win. Masato Tanaka and Ricky Fuji would defeat the team of W*ING Kanemura and Buffalo with Tanaka picking up the win at 13 minutes, 24 seconds after putting Buffalo away with the Sliding D. Kagetsu and WAVE's Hiroe Nagashima would defeat Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu after Kagestu would pin Koharu at 13 minutes, 52 seconds with a Brainbuster. Mr. Buddaman would defeat Pretty Ota in the mini's match after using a Body Press at 3 minutes, 7 seconds to get the win. Kikutaro, Sima Shigeno and Kizarasu Kid would defeat Naoshi Sano, Pandita, HASEGAWA when Shigeno would pick up the pin over Pandita at 13 minutes, 21 seconds with the Falcon Arrow.

The next Super Battle FMW show will be held on April 6, 2016 at the Aomori Industry Hall. The main event will be Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and HASEGAWA going up against Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Buffalo. The semi-main event will have Ricky Fuji and Gosaku Goshogawara against W*ING Kanemura and Kotaro Nasu. The women's match will be Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu against Kagetsu and Leon. Onryo will return to the promotion as he teams with Aizawa # 1 as they go up against Kikutaro and Masamune. The opening match will will have Pandita go up against Kisazaru Clown.

Super Battle FMW will hold a very similar show the next day on April 7, 2016 at the Aomori Hirosaki Kasai Sports Center. The main event will be the same as Atsushi Onita teams up with Hideki Hosaka and HASEGAWA against Raijin Yaguchi, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Buffalo. The semi-main event will be slightly different as Buffalo is booked in back to back matches as he teams with W*ING Kanemura against Ricky Fuji and Gosaku Goshogawara. There will be the same women's match as Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu will face Kagetsu & Leon. The undercard is slightly different as Kikutaro will team up with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi against Pandita and Masamune and the opening match will be Kotaro Nasu taking on Kisazaru Clown.

FREEDOMS returned to Tokyo Korakuen Hall on March 23, 2016 drawing an announced 688 fans for the show which is slightly down from last years show that drew 713 fans for the show although that show had Tenryu on the card. The main event of the show would be Jun Kasai defending his King of Freedom World Championship for the second time that night against Kenji Fukimoto in a 4 Corners of Pain Death Match. Kasai and Fukimoto would both end up sitting down on chairs and take turns smashing each other over the head with fluorescent light tubes before Fukimoto would knock Kasai off his chair and just dump all the light tubes on to him. Fukimoto would then pull out a fishing line and end up catching Kasai with the hook as Fukimoto would reel him in. Kasai would end up sending Fukimoto through a glass board and then deliver a brainbuster off the turnbuckle to the outside. Kasai would then begin using bamboo sticks to poke in Fukimoto's forehead before putting him away at 17 minutes, 14 seconds with a Reverse Tiger Driver through the bamboo board to defend his title for the second time. Daisuke Masaoka would end up coming out and challenging Kasai for a title shot at the next Korakuen Hall show on May 2, 2016. Daisuke Masaoka would defeat Takahashi Sasaki in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match to earn the credibility of getting that title shot by putting away Sasaki at 20 minutes, 30 seconds with the Schwein. GENTARO and The Winger defended their King of Freedom Tag Team Titles for the third time by defeating Yuya Susumu and Minoru Tanaka when Winger would get the win over Susumu at 11 minutes, 24 seconds by using the Toke Esparda. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura would get the upset win over Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa when Sugiura would get the win at 17 minutes, 48 seconds over Takaiwa after countering Takaiwa's Death Valley Bomb for the pin. Kenichiro Arai would get the win over Masashi Takeda at 5 minutes, 59 seconds via DQ after Takeda would get disqualified for attacking the referee. 

Darth Brahman, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei would defeat the team of Luke Kamui Skywalker, R2 Dyna2 Mido, and Miyako Leila Matsumoto after Darth Brahman would put away R2 Dyna2 Mido away at 8 minutes, 36 seconds with the Saber Chop. Jun Kasai's first King of Freedom World Championship defense would come in the opening match as he would defeat Mitsuo Momota at 8 minutes, 25 seconds after Kasai would put away Momota with the Pearl Harbor Splash to get the win and defend his title for the first time.

FREEDOMS would hold the last ever show at the Osaka Joto Kumin Hall as they would drew an announced 347 fans for the show. The main event would be Takashi Sasaki and Daisuke Masaoka defeating Jun Kasai and Kenji Fukimoto in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match after Masaoka would get the pin over Fukimoto at 18 minutes, 19 seconds with the Schwein on a Fluorescent Light Tube. The team of Buffalo, Tsubasa, and Yuya Susumu would get the win over GENTARO, The Winger, and Keita Yano when Tsubasa would use the La Magistral over Yano at 14 minutes, 14 seconds for the win. GUNSO and Kabuki Kid would defeat the former WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champions Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui in a Hardcore Match after GUNSO would put away Kamui at 13 minutes, 42 seconds with a Diving Leg Drop with a Barbed wire Bat. Minoru Tanaka and Masamune would defeat Hi69 and Josh O'Brien at 13 minutes, 2 seconds after Masamune would use a Japanese Leg Lock Clutch to get the win over O'Brien. Darth Brahman and Hiroaki Moriya would defeat Kenichiro Arai and Dyna Mido after Darth would once again the get the pin over Dyna Mido at 12 minutes, 28 seconds with the Saber Chop. Masashi Takeda would open the show defeating AK at 9 minutes, 59 seconds after getting the win with the Megaraba.

The Apache Army held their show for the month on March 25, 2016 at the Tokyo Island BumB Sports Culture Hall drawing an announced 100 fans for the show. The main event saw Koji Kanemoto defeat HASEGAWA in a non title match. HASEGAWA who was having his 50th match and was able to get a 2.9 cover over the WEW World Champion but eventually Kanemoto would end up making him tap out at 16 minutes, 12 seconds with the Ankle Lock. Kanemura would come to the ring and challenge Koji Kanemoto for a shot at the WEW World Title. MIKAMI and Rion Mizuki defended their WEW Tag Team Titles for the second time as they defeated Kazushi Miyamoto and Kuniyoshi Wada when Mizuki would pin Wada at 11 minutes, 11 seconds with a Hurricanrana. Kintaro Kanemura and NOSAWA Rongai would defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Takumi Sakurai when Kanemura would pin Sakurai at 14 minutes, 46 seconds with a Powerbomb. The team of Hazard, Shibata and The Black Shark would win over Tomohiko Hashimoto, Hi69 and Yosuke Enmoto when Shibata would knock out Hashimoto with a Straight Right Hook at 11 minutes, 37 seconds for the pin. Hayate and Shin Suzuki would defeat Nobutaka Moribe and Tetsuya Nakazato when Hayate would get the win over Nakazato at 9 minutes, 8 seconds with the Schoolboy. The opening match would see Hideki Hosaka make his Apache Army debut by making Toshiaki Terao tap out at 11 minutes, 13 seconds with a Facelock.

Mr. Gannosuke would take on Tatsuhiko Yoshino in the main event of Guts World show on March 22, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Gannosuke who at the start of the show came out to the ring with a Hayabusa picture for a 10 gong salute in memory of his friend of over 28 years. Gannosuke would dedicate the match to Hayabusa and would end up using the Falcon Arrow during the match before finishing off Yoshino at 19 minutes, 49 seconds with the Fire Thunder. Gannosuke would shout out loud "This is for you Eiji!" as he would win a shot at the Guts World Championship and the main event spot of the next Guts World's show on May 8, 2016 at Korakuen Hall. He will face off against the winner of Daisuke against Buffalo on April 24, 2016 at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE. Gannosuke who had brought a Hayabusa t-shirt to the ring would hug it afterwards and then end the show on the mic by screaming Hayabusa's signature closing line of "Lets have some fun!" as Hayabusa's theme music would begin to play to end the show.

Mr. Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki would hold their "Lets talk about Hayabusa tonight" event on March 29, 2016 at the Tokyo Koenji Pundit. Hirotsugu Suyama would MC the event. Gannosuke before the show told the crowd in attendance which included Chocoball Mukai that all the Hayabusa stories told during the show would not be allowed to leave the door so no specific stories were reported following the show. Gannosuke talked about knowing Eiji Ezaki as a child and told many stories of their college days that made the audience laugh. Both Gannosuke and Mammoth would tell stories about the day of him being injured that would make people in the crowd cry as well. Everyone would hold up their cup in memory of Hayabusa to attend the show. Mr. Gannosuke will take all the money made from the event and will hand it to Eiji Ezaki's mother when he is in Kumamoto on April 9th. I have spent many hours so far working on updating Hayabusa's Biography with many stories included that I hope to have it all completed by May 5th to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Eiji Ezaki making his professional wrestling debut.

Added: 3/13

Eiji Ezaki's hemorrhage death was a result of taking a blood thinner to prevent him from having a heart attack and it resulted in receiving bleeding of the brain from the hemorrhage. 

Quick correction from what was written from my previous update shortly after finding out about Hayabusa's passing. He did not miss his concert that evening. I was going off the report that was originally reported by most everyone. He was suppose to meet up with Masato Kawamura who is the owner of the KUSHI-ZARU Restaurant in his home town of Kamata, Ota, Tokyo the night of March 3rd to at the restaurant to go over things about his show that was scheduled for March 7th and never showed up or answered his phone. Kawamura then closed shop for the night and went over to Hayabusa's apartment afterwards around 2 am and that is when he found his body.

His body was taken to his home town of Kumamoto where there was a private ceremony on March 8, 2016 with just close friends and family where his body was laid to rest. The only wrestlers to attend were Mr. Gannosuke, Dragon Kid, and Mammoth Sasaki. It was announced that there would be a public ceremony to honor the life of Eiji Ezaki some time in April.

I have created a Memorial of Hayabusa page for the site. It can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/HayabusaMemorial.html - it includes quotes from several of the former FMW wrestlers, tributes from many promotions following his death, and my personal story about Hayabusa and my interactions with him. I will also begin working on updating his Biography soon. It will include his last years of his life, as well as stories he has told me, and I will be going through his memoirs will detail stories about his life outside of the ring. 

I was on MLW's Eastern Lariat Podcast on March 4, 2016 shortly after finding out about Hayabusa's passing. I speak with STRIGGA the host of the show for about 50 minutes about Hayabusa and go through his career and I also throw in a lot of FMW history information as well. You can listen to it at https://mlwradio.com/2021/03/02/eastern-lariat-special-the-life-and-death-of-hayabusa/

Mr. Gannosuke and Mammoth Sasaki will be holding an event called "Lets talk about Hayabusa tonight" on March 29, 2016 with Samurai TV color commentator/Occupation of the Indies voice Hirotsugu Suyama to be the narrator of the event at the Tokyo Koenji Pundit. Mammoth has promised that the event will not be boring or sad. That they will drink and celebrate Hayabusa's life and tell stories about their encounters over the years with Hayabusa. Tickets will be 1500 Yen (around $15 USD) and all the proceeds will go towards Eiji Ezaki's family.  

Super Battle FMW drew another announced sell out of 1800 fans for their Korakuen Hall show on February 26, 2016. Them being able to draw a crowd at the size would mean per the stipulation enforced before the show that the promotion would be able to keep going. Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Sean Guinness would win the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles over the team of Raijin Yaguchi, Sabu, and NOSAWA Rongai. This show would also be the last public performance of Hayabusa's life. More details and pictures of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Korakuen16.html

Kintaro Kanemura announced at the Korakuen Hall show on February 26, 2016 that he will be promoting his own Retirement show at Korakuen Hall for December 27, 2016 which is eight years to the day that Mr. Gannosuke originally retired. Kanemura has already announced his retirement match for the show will be teaming with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Kohei Sato, Daisuke Sekimoto, and Shingo Takagi. 

Atsushi Onita would end up suffering an over 11 inch cut across his stomach in the main event of the Korakuen Hall show on February 26, 2016. The spot would come while piledriving NOSAWA Rongai through the table while outside the ring. Onita would land awkwardly while crashing through the table resulting in the part of the table slicing up his stomach. Onita would not miss any time due to the injury. Because Onita.

Atsushi Onita held a press conference on March 5, 2016 at the ZERO1 Dojo along with Super Battle FMW President Hideki Takahashi and Ichiro Yaguchi who was a friend to Hayabusa and did many concerts with him over the years and who was openly emotional during the press conference. Onita stated that he first knew of Ezaki from his days in the FMW Dojo in 1991 as the boy from Kumamoto who was able to do an impressive drop kick. He remembers being the one to shave his head prior to him making his debut. He felt that even though he was Onita's pupil that they became rivals and that Hayabusa was able to take the difficult task of ace of FMW and run with it. Onita then stated that they had planned to run at Kawasaki Stadium on May 5, 2017 with that being the show that Hayabusa would return to the ring with no aid in his costume and be introduced one last time as a sign that he had returned. Onita stated that was the reason they have kept Super Battle FMW going so that Hayabusa would be able to return to his home of FMW. Onita then mentioned that he did not know if there was a reason to keep the promotion going without Hayabusa and that he would speak with everyone as far as making a decision on keeping the company going forward without Hayabusa.

Super Battle FMW ran their first show since the passing of Hayabusa on March 12, 2016 at the Saitama Miyashiro Town Community Center drawing an announced 300 fans for the show. FMW ring announcer from the mid 1990's Toshihiro Yamada returned following Hayabusa's passing to ring announce the show. He opened the show with a 10 bell salute for Hayabusa. Ray then appeared with Sana Sakura and Yatsuka Nakazawa who regularly performed with Hayabusa during his concerts. The main event saw Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, Ricky Fuji, and HASEGAWA defeat Raijin Yaguchi, NOSAWA Rongai, Tomohiko Hashimoto, and Buffalo in a Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match after Onita hit four Thunder Fire Powerbombs before finally putting NOSAWA away at 17 minutes, 57 seconds for the pin. Onita and NOSAWA shook hands afterwards. Ray then came to the ring and Onita got on the mic and announced that he would continue Super Battle FMW so that Ray would have a home to come back to after she beats brain cancer. Ray would begin to cry and Onita and Pandita would pick her up on their shoulders to end the show. Other matches on the show Miss Mongol and Kagetsu defeat Leon who is Ray's tag team partner and friend and will be replacing Ray while she is out fighting her cancer as well as Apple Miyuki after Mongol managed to reverse the pinfall at 13 minutes, 43 seconds to get the win. W*ING Kanemura and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeated Ricky Fuji and HASEGAWA after Kanemura finished off his Apache friend HASEGAWA at 11 minutes, 35 seconds with the Bakku YAMA Senton Special. Katsunari Toi won a 3 Way Match after defeating Pandita and Kisarazu Clown after hitting a Diving Footstomp to get the win at 9 minutes, 24 seconds after pinning Kisarazu. Buffalo opened the show by defeating Kotaro Nasu at 14 minutes, 15 seconds after finishing him off with the Lariat. Atsushi Onita also announced after the show that the May 5, 2017 show at Kawasaki Stadium will be a Hayabusa 1 Year Memorial Show.

Ray announced the good news that she would be able to begin radiation and begin taking anti cancer drugs to fight her brain cancer. Her first radiation appointment will be on March 16, 2016. This is great news as it was feared that Ray would not be able to even have a chance at fighting this deadly disease. 

FREEDOMS ran at the Hiroshima Industrial Hall in the West Hall of the building drawing an announced 725 fans for the show. The main event saw Jun Kasai and Yuko Miyamoto defeat the team of Takashi Sasaki and Daisuke Masaoka in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Sawtooth Ladder Death Match when Kasai would finish off Masaoka at 19 minutes, 45 seconds with a Reverse Tiger Driver. Shiro Koshinaka would team up with Masashi Takeda in the semi-main event as they would defeat Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura when Koshinaka would use his Samurai Powerbomb to get the win at 11 minutes, 38 seconds over Sugiura. Yuya Susumu and HAYATA would defeat the team of Minoru Fujita and Kenji Fukimoto when Yuya would pin Fujita at 14 minutes, 40 seconds with the Falcon Arrow. GENTARO and The Winger would defeat Takumi Tsukamoto and Devil Magician when GENTARO would get his win back after being pinned by the Devil Magician last August when GENTARO would make Magician submit at 13 minutes, 43 seconds to a Bow and Arrow. Gabbaiji-chan would defeat Nidojiro at 11 minutes, 2 seconds after pinning him. Kenichiro Arai, Darth Brahman and Sakigake would open the show defeating Kamui. Kenshin Kono and T akeshi Okada when Arai would pin Okada at 8 minutes, 43 seconds with a Small Package.

FREEDOMS would return to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on March 3, 2016 drawing an announced crowd of 158 fans for the show. The main event saw Kenji Fukimoto score an upset over Takashi Sasaki at 19 minutes, 4 seconds in a Needle Hell Death Match after delivering his Package Piledriver for the win to earn him a shot at Jun Kasai's King of Freedom World Championship on March 23rd at Korakuen Hall. The semi-main event saw Darth Brahman, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei defeat GENTARO in a Handicap Elimination Match. GENTARO would would send Shu over the top rope at 8 minutes, 11 seconds to eliminate him first. Kei would be the next to go at 10 minutes, 49 seconds after submitting to the Manjigatame. Darth Brahman would end up getting the win over GENTARO at 12 minutes, 51 seconds after sending him over the top rope for the Brahman victory. The Winger and Kenichiro Arai would take on the team of Yuya Susumu and Minoru Tanaka which would end at 13 minutes, 28 seconds after both teams would end up getting counted out. Kamui and Daisuke Masaoka would defeat Mammoth Sasaki after Masaoka would use get the win over Sugiura at 13 minutes, 55 seconds with a Crucifix. Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda would reunite their 2010 tag team as they would defeat Fuminori Abe and Kenji Takeshima after Takeda would score the win over Abe at 12 minutes, 4 seconds with the Rokkinpo. The opening match would see Mitsuo Momota would defeat Jun Kasai via DQ at 10 minutes, 42 seconds. Momota would issue a challenge to Kasai for the King of Freedom World Championship at Korakuen Hall on March 23rd as a result of defeating Kasai with Kasai accepting.

FREEDOMS ran at the Yokohama Nigizaiwa on March 5, 2016 drawing an announced 107 fans for the show. The main event would see Takashi Sasaki and Kenta Hattori against Kamui and Daisuke Masaoka with Kamui scoring a pin over Hattori at 6 seconds. The match would get restarted and Sasaki would end up pinning Masaoka at 10 minutes, 19 seconds with the D-Geist. Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura would defeat the King of Freedom Tag Team Champions GENTARO and The Winger in a non-title match after Sugiura would score the upset over GENTARO at 15 minutes, 54 seconds with the Swift Driver. Jun Kasai would defeat Darth Brahman with Karate Brahman in his corner at 10 minutes, 9 seconds by reversing a Backdrop at 10 minutes, 9 seconds for the win. Yuya Susumu would defeat Kenji Fukimoto at 8 minutes, 21 seconds via DQ after Fukimoto would begin hanging Susumu on the ropes and refusing to let go. Masashi Takeda would open the show by making Fuminori Abe tap out at 9 minutes, and 1 second to the Chicken Wing.
 

Mr. Gannosuke teamed up with Guts Ishijima and Michio Kageyama on February 23, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the Guts World promotion. They would defeat the team of Tatsuhiko Yoshino, Taro Yamada, and Shin Suzuki when Kageyama would nail Suzuki with a Left High Kick to the head and put him away at 13 minutes, 48 seconds for the victory. Gannosuke and Yoshino would challenge each other afterwards to a match as the main event for the next Guts World show on March 22, 2016 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The winner of that match would go on to challenge Daisuke for the GWC Title in the main event of the Guts World's May 8, 2016 show at Korakuen Hall.

Added: 3/4

Eiji Ezaki passed away at his home in Tokyo on March 3, 2016 from a subarachnoid hemorrhage meaning he passed away from bleeding of the brain. He was 47.  He did not show up to meet with Masato Kawamura at the KUSHI-ZARU Yakitori Restaurant by his home in Kamata yesterday.  The owner Kawamura went to his house today to find his body lifeless. Atsushi Onita stated he will hold a press conference tomorrow about it. Mr. Gannosuke and Masato Tanaka have expressed their heart break. I will also be updating his Biography one last time here in the next couple of months. 

Just a personal note. I woke up to many tweets with my name attached to them and then saw that they were all about Hayabusa and knew that wasn't good news. I had the honor of getting to meet Hayabusa four times and really get to sit and talk with him and ask questions in 2008, 2012, and 2013. Those were the highlights of my trips of just getting to sit and talk with him and him answer all my millions of questions to him. I actually have been planning on returning to Tokyo in June again and was hoping he would book a concert during that time so I would get to see him and talk with him again. I had the opportunity to get to just sit there for hours in 2012 and watch Hayabusa matches with him. Before I left I told him how much I respected him and how much of an inspiration he was to me and all of his fans. He thanked me. This news really is heart breaking for me personally. My heart goes out to his two daughters, his ex-wife Harumi, his brother, and his mother. 

Added: 2/24

Ray announced on February 17, 2016 in Tokyo at a press conference that the results had came back from her surgery back from January 21st and her biggest fear had come true. She announced that the results of the tumor in her brain came back cancerous. She announced that she was already at Stage 3 of the brain cancer and that the cancer cells had spread to the nerves of the brain leaving the doctors unable to operate on the tumor. There is no plan currently on what to do for her as of right now. She announced that she would attend the Super Battle FMW show at Korakuen Hall and speak with the fans on February 26th. There was fear that this would be announced as the day before the press conference as Super Battle FMW randomly scratched out Ray's return to the ring for the show and then announced the press conference for Ray to give the detail of her situation. 

Super Battle FMW ran at the Shizuoka Act City Hamamatsu on February 11, 2016 drawing an announced 200 fans for the show. The opening match was for the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles with the storyline being that Onita was being punished for taking the fall at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring and instead of wrestling on the main event he was put in the opening match instead. Raijin Yaguchi, W*ING Kanemura, and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeat Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Daisuke when Yaguchi pinned Hosaka at 11 minutes, 30 seconds with a Monster Choke Slam on the barbed wire board in a Weapons Barbed wire Board Street Fight Tornado Death Match to defend their titles for the 1st time. The main event of the show saw Shiro Koshinaka, Yutaka Yoshie, and Hi69 defeat the team of NOSAWA Rongai, Hikaru Sato, and Kotaro Nasu when Koshinaka got the win over Nasu at 18 minutes, 22 seconds with his Diving Hip Attack. Kengo Takai and HASEGAWA won the semi-main event match after defeating Ricky Fuji and Naoshi Sano when Takai finished off Sano at 14 minutes, 25 seconds with a Lariat. Miss Mongol defeated her partner Miss Koharu at 10 minutes, 59 seconds with the Kanbaya C. The second match on the show saw Katsunori Toi defeat Pandita at 9 minutes, 11 seconds with a Diving Foot Stomp. 

Hideki Takahashi did an interview on February 24th announcing that the Super Battle FMW will officially close down if the show does not sell out like the previous Korakuen Hall show back on December 22nd did. Takahashi stated that he did not know about the stipulation until Onita agreed to it after NOSAWA Rongai made the challenge. Takahashi was hesitant at first as many of the wrestlers did not want the stipulation to be put in place. Takahashi announced he was agreeing to it because he did not want the Korakuen Hall show to seem like a fluke. He stated he hopes that the old FMW crowd in Tokyo is there but that also he knows that a new crowd will need to appear to continue to let the promotion grow. Takahashi stated that he did not mean to confuse anyone when booking a match for Ray on the Korakuen Hall show stating that he was hoping the tumor would come back benign and that she would be able to wrestle on the show. Takahashi stated the 1st year of the promotion is coming up in March but he feels the promotion really found its footing in July with the Atsushi Onita's 40th Anniversary show on August 24, 2014 at Shinjuku FACE as the beginning of the direction of the promotion that he had seen when starting up the promotion. 

Takahashi made no mention of a statement he previously had made on February 22nd just hours after Kota Ibushi announced he was leaving DDT and New Japan to start his own promotion that he wanted to have Atsushi Onita face off against Kota Ibushi in a Barbed wire Death Match at a Korakuen Hall show this year for Super Battle FMW. 

Super Battle FMW announced the full lineup for the February 26th show at Korakuen Hall. The main event will be Raijin Yaguchi, NOSAWA Rongai, and Sabu teaming up with W*ING Kanemura agreeing to allow Sabu to take his spot in the main event match while they defend the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles against Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and a Mystery Partner which will be announced right before the start of the match in a Weapons Barbed wire Board Double Hell which is the barbed wire board on two sides outside the ring laying on the floor Scramble Death Match. Masato Tanaka's Mystery Partner for the show in what is now the semi-main event will be NOAH's Kotaro Suzuki against Tomohiko Hashimoto and Buffalo. Shiro Koshinaka, Ricky Fuji, and The Last Samurai will team up to take on W*ING Kanemura, Kotaro Nasu, and their Mystery Partner which has been announced as Yoshihiro Takayama. Dump Matsumoto and ZAP T team up to take on Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu. The Great Nita will team up with Naoshi Sano against Brahman Shu and Brahman. There will be the 10 Man Royal Rumble Battle Royal and the opening match will have Gosaku Goshogawara and Kagestu against KENSO and Aki Shizuku.

The Last Samurai that is teaming up with Shiro Koshinaka and Ricky Fuji was announced on February 19, 2016 as Canadian Independent wrestler 23 year old Daniel Parker who comes from Yuki Ishikawa's Battlearts Academy in Toronto who also has gone by the name D-Man/Matrix in ZERO1. Parker announced that he was grateful for FMW giving him a chance and that he hopes to competes for a Junior Heavyweight title in the future for the promotion. He stated he has done his research on FMW and has began watching matches with Atsushi Onita, Hayabusa, Sabu, Masato Tanaka, and The Gladiator. He is using The Last Samurai name based off the Tom Cruise 2003 movie. 

Super Battle FMW also announced that if the promotion continues to move forward after the February 26th show at Korakuen Hall that they will be returning to Korakuen Hall for April 27th and then again on June 21st as it looks like it will become a every other month ritual going forward running at Korakuen Hall. 

Atsushi Onita competed in what he announced was his last time ever in Kobe on February 21, 2016 at the Kobe Sambo Hall where he challenged for TARU's Super Fireworks Championship in a Exploding Tower Death Match where a ladder with exploding barbed wire wrapped around it. Onita would win back his Super Fireworks Championship after pinning TARU with a lariat at 13 minutes, 11 seconds to end his reign of over 5 months. Onita and TARU would shake hands after the match as it would look like the end of their feud that started over a year ago.

FREEDOMS returned to the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on February 10, 2016 drawing an announced 196 fans for their Valentines Day show. The main event would be Takashi Sasaki defeating Masashi Takeda, Kenji Fukimoto, and Daisuke Masaoka in a 4 Way Fluorescent Light Tubes Weapons Death Match after finishing Masaoka off at 14 minutes, 32 seconds with the D-Geist on a Fluorescent Light Tube for the win. GENTARO and The Winger would defend their King of Freedom Tag Team Titles for a second time after defeating Brahman Shu and Darth Brahman with Brahman Kei and Karate Brahman in their corner after GENTARO would get the inside cradle win at 10 minutes, 33 seconds over Darth Brahman to defend their titles for the 2nd time. Jun Kasai and Tatsuhito Takaiwa would defeat Mammoth Sasaki and Toru Sugiura after Takaiwa would finish off Sugiura at 16 minutes, 33 seconds with a Lariat. Yuya Susumu and MIKAMI would defeat Guruken Mask and Fuminori Abe after Susumu would make Abe tap out at 12 minutes, 8 seconds to the GATO Special. Kenichiro Arai and Hi69 would go to a Double Pinfall at 9 minutes, 31 seconds with both men's shoulders on the mat with the referee calling the match a draw. Mitsuo Momota would defeat Kamui in the opening match at 8 minutes, 19 seconds with the La Magisterial.

The Apache Army held their first show of the Kintaro Kanemura Retirement Tour where they will hold a show every month. The first show would be held at the Tokyo Island BumB Sports Culture Hall on January 31, 2016 drawing an announced 149 fans for the show. The main event saw a WEW Tag Team Title 4 Way TLC Hardcore Match between the champions Tomohiko Hashimoto and Kazushi Miyamoto, Kintaro Kanemura in his brand new Optimus Prime vest who teamed with Chikara, MIKAMI and Rion Mizuki, and Hi69 and HASEGAWA with MIKAMI and Mizuki coming away with the WEW Tag Team Titles at 15 minutes, 57 seconds after MIKAMI would pin Kanemura with the Swanton Bomb for the win. Koji Kanemoto would defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda in the semi-main event at 9 minutes, 57 seconds after making Kuroda tap out to the Ankle Lock to earn a shot at the WEW World Title on the next show. Daisaku Shimoda and Kuniyoshi Wada would team up to defeat the team of Blue Shark and Hazard after Shimoda would get the win at 14 minutes, 8 seconds over Hazard with a Running Knee Lift. An MMA match between Yosuke Enomoto against Shibata would end up getting thrown out in the 3rd round at 1 minutes, 51 seconds with it being ruled a No Contest. Yoshiaki Iwata defeated Toshiaki Terao at 7 minutes, 18 seconds and Mitso Momota won the opener by defeating Sakurai in Sakurai's Debut Match after finishing him off at 6 minutes, 28 seconds with Misawa's old Emerald Flowsion. 

The Apache Army would their second show on the Kintaro Kanemura Retirement Tour would take place on February 21, 2016 at the Osaka Okinawa Hall with no attendance being announced. The main event would see Koji Kanemoto winning the WEW World Title after defeating Tomohiko Hashimoto at 11 minutes, 18 seconds after making him tap out to the Ankle Lock. HASEGAWA would come out after the match and challenge Kanemoto to a non title match at the next Apache Army show on March 25th. MIKAMI and Rion Mizuki would successfully defend their WEW Tag Team Titles for the first time after defeating the team of Hi69 and Naoki Tanizaki when MIKAMI would score the pin at 18 minutes, 53 seconds with the School Boy over Hi69. Kintaro Kanemura would team up with HASEGAWA and face off against the legend team of Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Masanobu Kurisu for the last time in his career as Fujiwara would end up locking HASEGAWA with the waki gatame armlock and making him submit at 13 minutes, 30 seconds for the Fujiwara and Kurisu win. The team of Magnitude Kishiwada and Tetsuhiro Kuroda would team up against the team of Daisaku Shimoda and Kazushi Miyamoto with the match going to a 20 minute time limit draw. Toshiaki Terao would get his win back from the month before over Yoshiaki Iwata at 8 minutes, 51 seconds with a Running High Kick. YO-HEY would defeat Sakurai in Sakurai's second match at 9 minutes, 8 seconds after making him submit to the Face Lock. Tadanobu Fujisawa would win the opening match against the former Basara now going by her real name Shuri Okuda at 7 minutes, 39 seconds with a Lariat.

After Ray's announcement many of her friends sent Ray get well wishes. Hayabusa who has been having concerts with Ray for years announced that he hopes that she fully recovers and hopes to see her in the ring soon. Sana Sakura who also takes part in many of Hayabusa's concerts sent her well wishes and this picture of everyone from an Hayabusa concert from November 29, 2015. It included Hayabusa, Mammoth Sasaki, Fumi Taguchi who is Hayabusa's guitarist for many of his concerts, Sana Sakura who is a singer for Taguchi's group, and Yatsuka Nakazawa who performed many of the Dragon Gate themes. Prayers for Ray as she goes through this horrible time and that she will be able to over come it. 

Added: 1/30

Super Battle FMW returned to the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on January 24, 2016 drawing an announced 302 fans for the show. The main event would have the W*ING Monster Army win the FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles as the team of Raijin Yaguchi, W*ING Kanemura, and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeat the team of Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka, and Hideki Hosaka in a Weapon Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match when Yaguchi scored a clean over Onita after hitting his Jesus Bomber which is a lariat on Onita causing him to land on the barbed wire board and Yaguchi would get the win over Onita at 13 minutes, 51 seconds for the titles. The W*ING Monster Army celebrated their title victory and then announced that due to Onita's first pinfall loss in the promotion that he would not be allowed to main event the next show on February 11th and would work the undercard instead. The W*ING Army also announced that since the FMW team won their ownership of the promotion itself back on December 22nd that they put up their ownership on the basis that if the next Korakuen Hall show does not sell out then they would agree to close down the promotion. 

Super Battle FMW's first show of 2016 was held on January 22nd at the Nagoya Nakamura Sports Center drawing an announced 300 fans for the show. The main event saw the W*ING Monster Army of NOSAWA Rongai, Raijin Yaguchi, and Tomohiko Hashimoto defeat Atsushi Onita, Daisuke, and Hideki Hosaka in a Weapon Barbed wire Board Street Fight Death Match when Hashimoto put away Hosak at 12 minutes, 44 seconds with the XCT. Daisuke would end up cutting his hand pretty badly during the match due to the barbed wire. W*ING Kanemura and Buffalo would defeat Ricky Fuji and Gosaku Goshogawara when Kanemura would put away Goshogawara the same way he has been for years at 11 minutes, 45 seconds with the Bakku YAMA Senton Special. Miss Mongol and Miss Koharu would defeat the team of Cherry and Kagetsu when Mongol would pin Kagetsu at 17 minutes, 15 seconds with a Lariat. Local wrestlers Kengo Takai and Makoto Renka defeated Takaya Shibayama and Mammoth Handa when the former WMF wrestler Takai pinned Handa at 11 minutes, 5 seconds with a Lariat. The opening match saw HASEGAWA and Pandita defeat Kikutaro and Kisarazu Clown when HASEGAWA got the win at 13 minutes, 21 seconds with a Small Package over Kikutaro.

Atsushi Onita and Ray held a press conference on January 27, 2016 to announce that Ray who had suffered a concussion following her match with Ayako Hamada on December 22nd and when went to the Tokyo Women's Medical University to have a CT and MRI it was revealed that she had a brain tumor. A surgery was held soon after to remove the left thalamus and the results will come back in two weeks on the success of the surgery. She plans on returning to the ring for the February 26th Korakuen Hall show but it will depend on the results of the surgery. 

Atsushi Onita would then announce that he would agree to the W*ING Monster Army request that the Super Battle FMW promotion would close down after the February 26th show at Korakuen Hall if the show does not sell out. Onita then showed the signed documentation about the promotion closing based on the show not selling out. Considering there is a tour for March already booked it is pretty clear that this is just an attempt to make the fans feel pressured on attending the show with the threat of the promotion closing if the show is not a success. They also have not define what a sell out is as Korakuen Hall can fit over 2,000 fans but they announced a sell out for the December 22nd show at 1,800 fans with the noticeable empty seats in the crowd even the show was considered a success. If the show were to actually bomb it and there are many noticeable empty seats it would be interesting to see how they can even try to spin the show as a sell out in anyway. 

Atsushi Onita announced plans on January 28, 2016 to run Kawasaki Stadium one more time on May 5, 2017. This looks like it would be promoted by Onita himself. For how many times Onita has retired, he has for the last couple of years talked about retiring on his 60th Birthday on October 25, 2017 in a Exploding Barbed wire Death Match. This show would be his last time to have his style of match in a location that he is best known for through out the 1990's before if he were to actually quit this time. The Kawasaki Stadium that held Onita's famous Death Matches from 1991 to 1997 was closed down on March 31, 2000. It was destroyed and turned into a 3,000 seat football/soccer stadium the size of a standard high school football stadium. FMW and then Kodo Fuyuki/Kaoru Fuyuki promoted shows from 2001-2004 in the parking lot of Kawasaki Stadium which having personally walked through in 2011 is a huge space of land. The max number of fans for one of the shows came on May 5, 2003 drawing 18,500 fans following Kodo Fuyuki's passing. Atsushi Onita did not specify if the show would be held in the 3,000 seat football stadium or the huge parking lot. There was talk back in September 2015 about Super Battle FMW running a show on May 5, 2016 at Kawasaki Stadium as well with a Atsushi Onita vs. Mr. Pogo match but that seemed like just talk even at the time as Mr. Pogo is just too broken down to be expected to have any type of match that should be in front of a huge number of people. 

FREEDOMS held their first show of the year on January 3, 2016 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing an announced 276 fans for a One Night Six Man Tag Team Tournament. The 1st Round Matches saw the Brahman team of Shu, Kei, and Darth defeat the Osaka team of Kamui, Dyna Mido, and Yuki Tanaka when Darth Brahman would pin Dyna Mido at 9 minutes, 24 seconds with a Backdrop. The team of GENTARO, The Winger, and Kenichiro Arai would defeat the team of the returning Mr. Gannosuke, Mammoth Sasaki, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa when GENTARO would roll up Gannosuke for the pin at 10 minutes, 54 seconds to advance. Takashi Sasaki, Mitsuo Momota, and Toru Sugiura would advance to the next round be defeating Yuya Susumu, Minoru Tanaka, and MIKAMI when Momota would pin MIKAMI at 10 minutes, 33 seconds with another roll up. The final 1st Round Match would have Jun Kasai, Kenji Fukimoto, and Daisuke Masaoka defeat Masashi Takeda and his shoot style friends Katsumara Shu and Yujiro Yamamoto when Masaoka would pin Yamamoto at 11 minutes, 49 seconds with a La Magisterial. The beginning of the Semi-Finals would have GENTARO, The Winger, and Kenichiro Arai defeat Brahman Shu, Kei, and Darth when Winger would pin Darth Brahman at 10 minutes, 16 seconds with a School Boy with the fourth consecutive roll up finish. Takashi Sasaki, Mitsuo Momota, and Toru Sugiura would also advance to the finals by defeating Jun Kasai, Kenji Fukimoto, and Daisuke Masaoka when Sasaki would pin Kasai at 8 minutes, 27 seconds with the D-Geist. The finals of the One Night Tournament would have Takashi Sasaki, Mitsuo Momota, and Toru Sugiura get the win over GENTARO, The Winger, and Kenichiro Arai when Sugiura would score the win over Arai at 15 minutes, 20 seconds with the Driver Swift to win the tournament.

FREEDOMS then returned to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on January 19, 2016 drawing an announced 165 fans for the show. The main event would be Kenji Fukimoto defeating Daisuke Masaoka at 16 minutes, 14 seconds in a bloody Fluorescent Light Tubes Barbed wire Board Ladder Death Match after Fukimoto would put away Masaoka with the Package Piledriver as Fukimoto looks to becoming built up to be Kasai's first challenger for the King of Freedom World Championship. Jun Kasai would team up with the King of Freedom Tag Team Champions GENTARO and The Winger as they would defeat the team of Brahman Shu, Kei, and Darth Brahman when GENTARO would get the pin over Kei at 13 minutes, 53 seconds with a Jack Knife roll up. Takashi Sasaki and Kenichiro Arai would defeat the team of Masashi Takeda and Keisuke Okuda when Arai would would get the pin over Okuda at 15 minutes, 25 seconds with a Backslide in a Hardcore Match. MIKAMI would put up his Hakata Light Heavyweight Championship against Mitsuo Momota who had pinned MIKAMI on the previous show but MIKAMI would come away having successfully defended his title for the second time in this match after finishing off Momota at 9 minutes, 28 seconds with the Swanton Bomb. Yuya Susumu and Minoru Tanaka defeated the team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Kamui when Tanaka would make Kamui submit at 13 minutes, 52 seconds to the Minoru Special. The opening match would see Mammoth Sasaki returning to his traditional black tights that he wore from 2007-2011 and defeating Toru Sugiura at 11 minutes, 14 seconds with the 29 Years Old at 11 minutes, 14 seconds with Mammoth and Sugiura shaking hands afterwards.

Mr. Gannosuke promoted his Kishindo Returns 19 show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on January 12, 2016 drawing an announced 255 fans for the show and airing on NicoNico TV. The main event saw Mr. Gannosuke put over another one of the people he helped come up over a decade ago in Yasu Urano as Urano would end up scoring the victory over Gannosuke at 26 minutes, 33 seconds after Gannosuke would hit the Fire Thunder on Urano and then as Gannosuke was going for the pinfall Urano would then roll up Gannosuke and get the surprise win himself. Yuko Miyamoto would defeat Magnitude Kishiwada at 14 minutes, 19 seconds as he would manage to get the win with the Fire Thunder. Hikaru Sato would make short work of Buffalo at 7 minutes, 16 seconds after making him submit to the Cross Armbreaker. TAKA Michinoku would get the win over Tatshiko Yoshino at 8 minutes, 26 seconds with the Just Facelook submission win. Mineo Fujita and Kenichiro Arai would end up at first going to a Double Count Out at 4 minutes, 53 seconds. They would then restart the match and both would end up at 12 minutes, 55 seconds of the second match going to a Double KO. Makoto defeated Haruka Kato at 7 minutes, 36 seconds with the Rising Star Suplex. Atsushi Maruyama would open the show defeating Shota at 8 minutes, 16 seconds with a Cross Armbreaker submission victory.

Mr. Gannosuke worked two Guts World shows this past week. The first was on January 24, 2016 at the Okinawa Navel Kadena Arena where he would team up with Guts Ishijima and former FMW women's wrestler Drake Morimatsu as they would defeat the Okinawa team of Hibiscus Mii, Lecca, and Ultra Soki when Morimatsu would get the win at 17 minutes, 14 seconds with a Lariat over Soki. Gannosuke would then participate at Guts World's Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on January 28, 2016 where he would team with friends Guts Ishijima as they would defeat the team of Tatsuhiko Yoshino and Taro Yamada at 13 minutes, 39 seconds after Gannosuke would pin Yoshino with the Gannosuke Clutch in what would seem to be setting up Gannosuke and Ishijima challenging for the GWC Tag Team Titles down the line.

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2016

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2013

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2012

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2011

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2010

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2009

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2008

Apache Army/FREEDOMS/Super Battle FMW & Production Shows News 2015 (January - December 2015)

Apache Army/FREEDOMS/Onita & Production Shows News 2014 (January - December 2014)

Apache Army/FREEDOMS & Production Shows News 2013 (January - December 2013)

Apache Army/FREEDOMS & Production Shows News 2012 (January - December 2012)

Apache Army/FREEDOMS & Production Shows News 2011 (January - December 2011)

FREEDOMS& Production Shows News 2010 (January - December 2010)

Apache Army/FREEDOMS & Production Show News 2009 (January - December 2009)

WMF& Apache Army News 2008 (January - December 2008)

WMF& Apache Army News 2007 (January - December 2007)

WMF& Apache Army News 2006 (January - December 2006)