Big Japan 7/30/10
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Ryuji Ito vs. Masashi Takeda *BJW Death Match Heavyweight Glass Fluorescent Light Tubes Title Match*
Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Yuji Okabayashi
Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa & Isami Kodaka vs. Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto & Kankuro Hoshino
Shadow WX & Ryuji Yamakawa & Yuichi Taniguchi vs. Abdullah Kobayashi & Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei
Men's Teioh & Onryo & Atsushi Ohashi vs. Tsutomu Oosugi & Hercules Senga & Daisuke Masaoka
Daikokubo Benkei & Mototsugu Shimizu & Kazuki Hashimoto vs. Shinobu & Ryuichi Kawakami & Takumi Tsukamoto

Super FMW 7/30/10
Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring

Tarzan Goto & Mr. Pogo & Yuta Nakata vs. Kintaro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi & Mystery Partner *Hardcore Rules Street Fight*
Yuka Inokuma vs. Reina Aikawa *New Half Championship Match*
The Winger vs. The Shooter
Nobuhiro Tsurumaki vs. Mystery Opponent

FREEDOMS 8/1/10
Chiba Blue Field

Takashi Sasaki & Jun Kasai & The Winger vs. Magnitude Kishiwada & Onryo & Antonio Honda
GENTARO & YOSHIYA vs. Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei
Mammoth Sasaki & Keita Yano vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yuji Hino
Kamui & HIROKI vs. Masashi Takeda & Madoka
Makoto Oishi vs. Kazuhiko Ogasawara 
Shinobu vs. Ken45°

Big Japan 8/8/10
Osaka Tsurumi Ryokuchi Hanahaku Memorial Park 

Ryuji Ito & Abdullah Kobayashi vs. Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa *Fire Death Match*
Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Ryuichi Kawakami
Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto & Kankuro Hoshino vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshihito Sasaki & Masashi Takeda *Falls Count Anywhere Death Match*
Shadow WX & Mototsugu Shimizu vs. Ryuji Yamakawa & The Winger *Barbed wire Board Death Match*
Men's Teioh & Daikokubo Benkei vs. Yuichi Taniguchi & Atsushi Ohashi
Yuji Okabayashi & Yosuke Takii vs. Kazuki Hashimoto & Takumi Tsukamoto

Big Japan 8/9/10
Nagoya Club Diamond Hall

Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa vs. Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto *BJW Tag Team Title Moonlight Darkness Death Match*
Ryuji Ito & Kankuro Hoshino vs. Masashi Takeda & Mystery Partner
Shadow WX & The Winger vs. Abdullah Kobayashi & Ryuji Yamakawa *Barbed wire Board Death Match*

K-Dojo 8/15/10
Chiba Port Arena Sub Arena

Taishi Takizawa & Kaji Tomato vs. HIROKI & Mystery Partner *STRONGEST-K Tag Team Title Match*
Marines Mask II vs. Isami Kodaka *Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title Match*
TAKA Michinoku & YOSHIYA & Ryota Chikuzen vs. Saburo Inematsu & Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi

Super FMW 8/20/10
Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring

Tenryu Project 8/25/10
Tokyo Shinjuku FACE

Yoshihiro Takayama & Tatsutoshi Goto & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda & NOSAWA Rongai *Tenryu Project 6 Man Tag Team Title Match*

Jun Kasai Productions 8/25/10
Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring

Jun Kasai Productions 8/26/10
Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring

FREEDOMS 9/12/10
Iwate Ichinoseki City Gym

FREEDOMS 9/21/10
Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring

FREEDOMS 10/11/10
Sapporo Teisen Hall

FREEDOMS 10/28/10
Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring

I have gathered all the results of matches from shows in 2010 that have FREEDOMS as well as former FMW/WMF wrestlers working on them and will continue to update it for the rest of the year. It can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/MiscResults10.html  (Last updated 7/25)

Added: 7/20

FREEDOMS return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on July 15, 2010 for their first show since their big Korakuen Hall show last month. They announced a crowd of 195 fans which has to be a disappointment coming off the show as well as a higher level main event than usual promoted for the show. The opening match saw Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Ken45° defeat the team of GENTARO, The Winger, and Ricky Fuji after Kei would hit a Buzzsaw Kick on GENTARO for the pinfall at 10 minutes, 58 seconds. After that match GENTARO would announce that he was leaving the FREEDOMS Army and joining the Kojika Army after coming to a mutual friendship with Great Kojika after their match at Korakuen Hall. GENTARO would make it very clear though that he still disliked the Brahman Brothers and Ken45° though. The next match was a Different Style Fight as Kazuhiko Ogasawara end up defeating Shinobu 45 seconds into the 3rd Round after a TKO following a High Kick on Shinobu. Takuya Sugawara then defeated Keita Yano at 10 minutes, 22 seconds using the Shiisanputa. The Kojika Army got another win as Onryo and Antonio Honda defeated the team of HIROKI and Madoka after Onryo hooked on the Onryo Clutch on HIROKI for the pinfall at 14 minutes, 20 seconds. Mammoth Sasaki made his in ring return to Shin-Kiba in the semi-main event as he teamed up with Kamui to take on the team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda which was also the first time that Mammoth and Takeda had squared off against one another. Takaiwa would end up getting the pinfall victory over Kamui using the Death Valley Bomb at 14 minutes, 23 seconds. The main event of the show would end up being changed as The Great Sasuke originally scheduled to team up with Magnitude Kishiwada to take on Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai would end up leaving the Kojika Army and joining up with the FREEDOMS Army. The newest member of the Kojika Army in GENTARO as well as Abdullah Kobayashi would insert themselves in the main event as the match would be changed into a six man with GENTARO teaming up with Abdullah Kobayashi and Magnitude Kishiwada against Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and The Great Sasuke with GENTARO getting the pinfall victory over Kasai after hitting a Flying Head Scissors.

The next FREEDOMS show will be on August 1, 2010 at the Chiba Blue Field. The main event of the show will be Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and The Winger teaming up to take on the Kojika Army team of Magnitude Kishiwada, Onryo, and Antonio Honda. The semi-main event will be a battle of the Kojika Army as GENTARO will team up with K-Dojo's YOSHIYA to take on Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei. Mammoth Sasaki will team up with Keita Yano take on Tatsuhito Takaiwa again as well as K-Dojo's Yuji Hino. K-Dojo's Makoto Oishi will face off against Kazuhiko Ogasawara and in the opening match Ken45° will face off against Shinobu. 

Super FMW announced the partial lineup for its July 30, 2010 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Tarzan Goto and Mr. Pogo will team up with Yuta Nakata again as the FMW Army as they face off against the W*ING Army of Kintaro Kanemura, Masayoshi Motegi, and a Mystery Partner in a Hardcore Rules Street Fight in the main event of the show. Yuka Inokuma will defend his Half Life Title against Reina Aikawa, and another FMW vs. W*NG match will see The Shooter take on The Winger. 

NHK a national station in Japan recently did a story on Hayabusa going over his career as a pro-wrestler and then after the accident showing clips of him and interviewing him about now being a professional singer. They do show of the later days of FMW in the clips in this segment including showing the actual accident itself on October 22, 2001. You can watch the segment by clicking the YouTube link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_aW3DJWlzo. Also, for fun here's a link of Ricky Fuji and The Great Sasuke singing "Runaway" by Bon Jovi back on January 1, 2008 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OIj-6jy9Wg&feature=related

I have recently added a whole bunch of results from 1991-1994 of FMW as well as tons of pictures spanning through all the FMW Results pages using a bunch of the magazines I purchased while in Japan. I also updated the Mammoth Sasaki Biography once again to include his recent return to wrestling. 

Added: 7/11

Mr. Gannosuke ran his tenth show under his own name when he ran the Mr. Gannosuke Productions "Kishindoh Returns 4" show on July 8, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The show only drew 192 fans which continued a drop that has happened for each of his shows since he started running them after his retirement. The reason given for this shows low attendance by others was that it was held on a weekday unlike his other shows and Dragon Gate was running at the same time at Korakuen Hall. 

The main event of the show saw GENTARO take on Yuko Miyamoto. It would be a rematch between the two in WMF back on January 12, 2004 when Miyamoto was just getting started in wrestling. Miyamoto started the match by going after GENTARO's knee by hitting a dropkick to it and then placing him in the Figure Four Leglock. Miyamoto would go for his hand spring elbow with GENTARO moving out of the way to gain control of the match. GENTARO would end up hitting a Hurricanrana off the top rope, but Miyamoto would end up fighting back and delivering the Fire Thunder but would be unable to get the pinfall over GENTARO. That would turn out to be Miyamoto's last chance at victory as GENTARO would gain control of the match and hit a back supplex, putting Miyamoto in a Octopus Hold, and then finishing Miyamoto with the Diving Elbow Drop at 19 minutes, 16 second for the win. Mr. Gannosuke would come in the ring afterwards thank both Miyamoto and GENTARO for such a wonderful match. Gannosuke would then tell the crowd that all the wrestlers from the show would be attending his Bar NOV later on in the night while Gosaku got in the ring and they ended the show by all four by doing a countdown leading to a dance. GENTARO would state after the show that he wants an Iron Man match against TAJIRI at the next Gannosuke show.

TAJIRI would take on Emi Sakura in the semi-main event of the show. Mr. Gannosuke had originally wanted to make this match back on his March 20th show due to both of them winning 2009 Tokyo Sports Awards but he was unable to get Sakura for that show. Most of the match between the two saw them mat wrestling as Sakura's game plan was to keep the match on the mat and try to roll up TAJIRI for the win. It would not end up working that way for Sakura as TAJIRI would end up reversing her La Magistral and getting the pinfall and the win over Sakura at 14 minutes, 28 seconds.

In a match between two wrestlers that would probably be working for FMW if it were still alive today, Masashi Takeda took on Keita Yano. Yano would start off in control of the match and when punching away at Takeda while against the turnbuckle Yano would make the "Suck It" sign at Takeda. Takeda would eventually end up hitting a spear on Yano and then delivering a Powerbomb and then finishing him off with a German Supplex to get the win at 14 minutes, 51 seconds.

Munenori Sawa would return under his Lingerie Muto persona to take on Ice Ribbon's Miyako Matsumoto. They would end up brawling up the stands of the Shin-Kiba and Matsumoto would end up climbing to the top of the back of the arena and hitting a dive onto Muto in the crowd. They would end up making back in the ring where Matsumoto would grab Muto's hand and climb the ropes and then begin using Muto's own moves as she would put him in the figure four leglock and then deliver the Shining Wizard on Muto before eventually making Muto submit to the Octopus Hold to give Matsumoto the win at 10 minutes, 8 seconds. They both would do Muto poses together after the match. 

In the opening match of the show Mineo Fujita would take on Daisuke in a rematch from the last Gannosuke show when Daisuke would suffer a knee injury and would be unable to continue to give Mineo Fujita the easy win. Mineo Fujita would end up hitting a dive over the top rope onto Daisuke on the entrance ramp that is connected to the ring and then follow that up by hitting the 619 while Daisuke who would still be on the entrance ramp. Daisuke would make a come back after Fujita would go for a dive and Daisuke would end up hitting a dropkick on Fujita, but Fujita would gain control of the match again and hit the Swanton Bomb and put Daisuke with the Gannosuke Clutch to get the win at 13 minutes exactly for the opening match win for Fujita. 

Mr. Gannosuke would start the show by coming out in the TNR 2000 t-shirt that was also being sold at the show and thanked all the fans for coming out. He told the crowd about his his new "Bar NOV" in Shin-Nakano and promised the fans many good matches on the show and he would be at ringside watching them right next to the time keeper. 

Tarzan Goto announced that that Super FMW will be returning to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for July 30th and August 20th shows. It was also announced that Kintaro Kanemura would be making his debut for the promotion at the July 30th show but no matches have been announced so far.

I recently was in Japan for the third time from June 20th to June 28th. You can find a report with tons of pictures on my trip by clicking at at BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2010 and you can check out more random pictures from the trip at Random Japanese Pictures.

Added: 7/2

FREEDOMS held their biggest show in the promotions history on June 21, 2010 at Korakuen Hall. A review of the show can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Freedoms621.html

FREEDOMS runs their first show since their big Korakuen show as they return to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on July 15, 2010. The main event will be Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai teaming up to take on the team of The Great Sasuke and Magnitude Kishiwada. The semi-main event will be Mammoth Sasaki teaming up with Kamui to take on the tag team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda. Former full time K-Dojo wrestlers HIROKI and Madoka team up to take on the team of Onryo and Antonio Honda. Keita Yano will face off against Takuya Sugawara in a singles match. Shinobu will also wrestle in a singles match as he takes on Kazuhiko Ogasawara. In the opening match, GENTARO will team up with The Winger and Ricky to take on Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Ken45°

Jun Kasai announced that he will be holding two shows promoted by himself on August 25th and August 26th at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The two shows will have a two day Death Match Tournament. The first show will have the first round matches and the second night will have the rest of the tournament. The two shows will be called "DEATH MATCH TOURNAMENT ~ PAIN LIMIT 2010"

Mr. Gannosuke opened up his own bar on June 26th called "Bar NOV" in the Nakano District in Tokyo. It apparently is a three minute walk by foot from the Shin-Nakano station on the subway. It is a Karaoke Bar with the hours being opened from 11 PM to 5 AM. Gannosuke stated he will be there most nights and that the first night it opened was a huge success. 

I recently returned from Japan a couple of days ago. I will put up my Japan Diary 2010 on here for next weeks update with tons of pictures and a full review of the trip. I was able to attend FREEDOMS Korakuen Hall show on June 21st, go to Mr. Danger's Steakhouse Restaurant on June 22nd, I skipped DDT's June 23rd Shin-Kiba show and went to Soldier's bar instead, I spent all day in Yokohama on June 24th, attend SMASH's Shinjuku FACE show on June 25th, Super FMW on June 26th in Shin-Kiba, and for my last night I went to Big Japan's Korakuen Hall show on June 27th. 

Super FMW held their June 26, 2010 "Dead or Alive" show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. I was able to attend this show and it was definitely what I had heard about from the promotion. It was probably the least fan friendly show I went to as besides Madoka and Basara sitting at their merchandise tables during intermission there were no other wrestlers that interacted with the fans during the shows. Tarzan Goto's table which some woman was in charge of consisted of his ring gear for sale at 300 dollars, his ring boots at 120 dollars, and a Tarzan Goto-Ippa show from May 10, 2010 for 30 dollars which I bought and the box proceeded to break by opening it with the show looking like it actually was held in Tarzan Goto's actual house. 

There were about 100 fans in the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring by the end as there were a bunch of late arriving fans to the show, some coming as late as two hours into the show which in hindsight was not a bad idea. The opening match was Makoto Hashi defeating Madoka which was a fine opening match, but neither wrestler were particularly over at all and the fans just really did not care at all about Hashi as he was seen roaming around the building the entire show and he might as well have been a fan as I did not see one person go up to him during the whole show. 

Bakabon no Papa, Crab K*ING, Tomonobu Sensation & Small Antonio Inoki defeated Batten Tamagawa & Kunihiko Mitamura & Mr. Poppo & Yoshie Tsuneo when K*ING pinned Tsuneo. I actually do not mind Goto getting a bunch of his young small indy pupils on the show and it's fine if you throw them all in just one match like this as they all really were trying very hard to entertain the crowd, but none of them besides maybe Crab K*ING have any talent and it ends up just being a bad comedy match, but it was fine for what it was to me. 

But then things went straight to hell. There was a 15 intermission which was pretty early for a intermission, then Yuka Inokuma came out and they turned off the lights and nothing proceeded to happen for the next 8 minutes or so. Inokuma just stood there in the ring, the building was dark and nobody said a thing and time just froze for 8 minutes. Hiroshi Wakashita finally came out as well as Small Antonio Inoki from the  last match came out and was now the referee for the show as I just figured that something happened to the referee during the show and he had to leave thus all the long stops for the show. Then the match proceeded to take place. Have you ever wanted to see a sumo wrestler take on a small transsexual wrestler and the whole lay out of the match is the transsexual trying to put on Fujiwara armbars the entire time on the sumo wrestler? Then this was your match. No heat whatsoever and I mean not one sound from anyone in the building. I really tried my hardest not to fall asleep several times during this match and the finish might have been one of the worst as Wakashita covered Inokuma for the pin and the referee counted to three and then time stood still again for ten seconds before the bell finally rang to end this horrible, horrible match. 

Aki Shizuku then came out for her match against Basara. Basara is very really good looking as you can see from the picture above and has a great look but she's not really good at all but neither was Shizuku so Basara ended up getting the pinfall at 8 minutes, 18 seconds in a bad match but atleast Basara looked good during it. Super Boogey KID & Super Jason KID then defeated Super Leather KID & Freddy KID after Boogey pinned Freddy. This match atleast woke me up as they brawled a bunch in the crowd so that was definitely a positive. 

They then had another 15 minute intermission and then had an older woman singer in a Sailor Moon outfit sing for another 15 minutes after that. The original referee then came back into the ring which nullified my theory that he had to leave thus having a wrestler obviously not suited to referee have to referee three matches. It was over 2 hours in before any wrestler having anything ever to do with FMW came out to a Super FMW show when Ricky Fuji came out to wrestle another transsexual wrestler in Reina Aikawa. The FMW Jr. Independent Heavyweight Title is a completely new belt as it looks like the 1998-2002 WWF World Title on crack. I love Ricky Fuji but I don't know if he ever could have gotten anything out of Reina Aikawa let alone at 44 years old. Ricky manage to get the win to defend his title for the first time. Bad match.

The main event was able to save this show from being the worst show i've ever been to as the main event saw Tarzan Goto & Mr. Pogo & Masahiro Sase & Yuta Nakata defeat Jun Kasai & Shadow WX & The Winger & Nobuhiro Tsurumaki when Goto pinned Winger in a Hardcore Rules Street Fight. It was an awesome and wild brawl. All eight wrestlers brawled all over Shin-Kiba with wrestlers throwing the fans seats across the building at one another. Mr. Pogo was very over with the fans screaming his name almost the whole time. Pogo used his knives in the match and a broken beer bottle was also used during the match. Every fan in ringside had to stand up the entire match because just about every chair was thrown at a wrestler during the show as The Winger was unmasked and bloodied during the brawl and eventually hit with a Facebuster on two chairs in the ring by Goto to get the win in a great brawl. Goto was then handed several fluorescent light tubes and he then proceeded to smash them over his head and then began to cut his chest with them before him and Mr. Pogo shook hands and raised their hands in victory to end the show. This show was the definition of a one match show in everyway. 

Added: 6/14

Tarzan Goto announced that his Shin-FMW promotion would from now on be called "Super FMW" instead and that he would be running on June 26, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Originally, Mr. Pogo had booked the date for his Shin-W*ING promotion with Tarzan Goto and the Super FMW Army participating on the show. But due to the poor attendance of the last Shin-W*ING show back on April 30th, Pogo was unable to run the show and instead got Goto to take the booking and in return Mr. Pogo will participate on the show. 

The main event of the show will be Tarzan Goto and Mr. Pogo teaming up with low level independent wrestler Masahiro Sase to take on FREEDOMS' Jun Kasai and The Winger as well as Big Japan's Shadow WX in a Hardcore Rules Match. In the random semi-main event of the show, Makoto Hashi showing that he's willing to work anywhere will take on Madoka who for months has shown he'll work and job anywhere. Although it was announced back on May 5th after Ricky Fuji defeated Masaru Toi that he was being recognized as the last FMW Independent Jr. Heavyweight Champion he will be defending his recognition of being the FMW Independent Jr. Heavyweight Champion against a Mystery Opponent on the show. Hiroshi Waka who is a former Sumo wrestler will be taking on a Mystery Opponent as well on the show. In the women's match on the show as it looks like they won't have any Transsexual wrestlers on this show for the first time as Basara will take on Aki Shizuku. In the opening match, it's a whose who of stars when Bakabon no Papa, Crab K*ING, Tomonobu Sensation and Pastal Crayon (a Japanese cartoon character) take on Batten Tamagawa, Kunihiko Mitamura, Mr. Poppo, and Yoshie Tsuneo.

Big Japan announced the lineup for their June 27th show at Korakuen Hall. Masashi Takeda and Isami Kodaka try to be elevated once again as they take on the team of Ryuji Ito and Shadow WX in the main event in what is only just announced as a Death Match so far. The semi-main event will be the Battle of the Sasaki's as Takashi Sasaki will take on Yoshihito Sasaki. Daisuke Sekimoto will square off like he did at last June's Korakuen Hall show against Yuji Okabayashi but they will each have two partners with them this time as Sekimoto will team up with Shinobu and Ryuichi Kawakami and Okabayashi will team up with Kazuki Hashimoto and Takumi Tsukamoto. In the odd pairing team of Yuko Miyamoto and Necro Butcher will take on Union Pro's Shuji Ishikawa and Kankuro Hoshino. Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa will team up to take on Ryuji Yamakawa and The Winger, and there will most likely be a Men's World on the show but that has not been announced yet. 

FREEDOMS announced a couple of more upcoming shows. After their July 15 Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show, they will be making their debut at K-Dojo's home of the Chiba Blue Field on August 1st, then run at the hometown of Takashi Sasaki at the Iwate Ichinoseki City Gym on September 12th, and return back to Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for September 21st. 

Just to remind everyone again, I will be making my third trip to Japan later this week on June 19th. I will be arriving in Tokyo hopefully sometime in the afternoon on June 20th. My plan right now is to attend the FREEDOMS' June 21st Korakuen Hall show, DDT's June 23rd Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show, SMASH's June 25th Shinjuku FACE show even though the tickets are really expensive compared to  other promotions, Super FMW on June 26th at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, and Big Japan on June 27th at Korakuen Hall before leaving on June 28th. I also am going to try and make it to Mr. Danger's Steakhouse in the Sumida Ward of Tokyo sometime as well. I also want to try and visit Yokohama sometime during this trip. I'll of course have another Japanese Diary posted on the trip a couple of days after I return. Due to being in Japan I won't be able to update the site during that time so it'll be a week before I can post FREEDOMS Korakuen results on the site and a couple of days after that before I can write up a recap of the show. I also have recently updated the Mammoth Sasaki Biography over at the Bio's section and will be updating it again in July to cover his return. 

Added: 5/28

FREEDOMS announced the full lineup for their first ever Korakuen Hall show entitled "WE'RE FREEDOMS! WE'RE GONNA WIN!" on June 21, 2010. The main event will be a series of 5 matches between the FREEDOMS Army and the Kojika Army. The team that gets 3 wins will be considered the winner. All five matches will have 15 minute time limits with the first match seeing HIROKI taking on the new Kojika Army member Magnitude Kishiwada, followed by The Winger taking on DDT's Antonio Honda, then TAJIRI will go up against Kojika Army member Onryo, then Takashi Sasaki will go up against another new member of the Kojika Army in The Great Sasuke, and the final match and main event of the show will be GENTARO against Great Kojika. The rest of the show will see Jun Kasai take on Necro Butcher in a Hardcore Rules Match, Mammoth Sasaki make his return to the ring for the first time in 15 months against Daisuke Sekimoto, Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda go up against Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara, and the opening match will be a 5 vs. 5 Captain Falls Single Elimination match between the FREEDOMS Army and Kojika Army with Kamui being announced the captain for his team with Ricky Fuji, Keita Yano, Madoka, and Shinobu against the team of Abdullah Kobayashi as the captain with Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, Ken45°, and Kazuhiko Ogasawara. Overall the show will have 9 matches on the card. 

FREEDOMS held their May 26, 2010 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring as the show to setup their upcoming Korakuen Hall show. Takashi Sasaki wrote how he was worried about the attendance for this show due to heavy rain and thunderstorms happening in the Shin-Kiba region the day before and predicted to happen as well during the show. But luckily the rain let up before the show and the standard 234 announced fans were able to attend the show with no weather problems. The main event saw Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei with Great Kojika in their corner announced a new member to the Kojika Army in Magnitude Kishiwada as well as their mystery partner against Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui with Kishiwada hitting the Last Ride on Sasaki for the pinfall at 15 minutes, 31 seconds. The tag team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda scored a victory over long time tag team GENTARO and The Winger when Takeda hit a German Supplex on Winger for the pinfall at 21 minutes, 58 seconds. HIROKI went up against the man that injured him and put him out of action for over two years in Tomohiro Ishii but HIROKI would fail to gain his revenge as Ishii put away HIROKI with a Lariat at 12 minutes, 38 seconds. The newest member of the FREEDOMS Army in TAJIRI teamed up with Ricky Fuji to take on Kojika Army members Onryo and Antonio Honda with TAJIRI getting the pinfall with a Schoolboy on Honda for the win at 12 minutes, 58 seconds. Magnitude Kishiwada teamed up with Takuya Sugawara as well earlier in the show as they took on Kojika Army members Abdullah Kobayashi and Kazuhiko Ogasawara with conflicting reports on who was DQ'd between Kobayashi and Ogasawara for trying to pull off Kishiwada's mask during the match. The opening match saw Keita Yano remind Madoka that it was a mistake to leave K-Dojo by defeating him with the Larsson.

Mr. Gannosuke completed the lineup for his July 8, 2010 Shin-Kiba 1st Ring "Kishindoh Returns 4" show by announced the semi-main event in TAJIRI against Emi Sakura. Gannosuke wrote that he wanted this match on his March 20th show but Emi was unable to be booked for the show and stated how they both started up in IWA Japan when Gannosuke was working there and both won Tokyo Sports Awards in 2009 and the match has great potential. To clear up a report I based off of what Gannosuke had said. Gannosuke was just stating that Yuko Miyamoto was trying to get rid of the image of just being a Death Match wrestler, he will still continue to wrestle in Death Matches in Big Japan, but that he was going wrestle in more straight matches so he can be known as more than just a Death Match wrestler because he has the talent to do just that and his match against GENTARO is suppose to help show that. 

Added: 5/12

FREEDOMS announced two matches of their biggest show in company history on June 21st at Korakuen Hall. Mammoth Sasaki will officially make his return on the show after 15 months out with a neck injury to take on former tag team partner and rival Daisuke Sekimoto in a singles match. Jun Kasai will also take on Necro Butcher on the show in what will most likely become announced as a Death Match. 

FREEDOMS also announced the full lineup for their May 26th Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show. The main event will be Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui taking on Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and a mystery partner who will be revealed as the newest member of the Kojika Army with Great Kojika in their corner. GENTARO and The Winger will take on the team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda, HIROKI will face off against the man that put him out for over 2 years in Tomohiro Ishii, TAJIRI and Ricky Fuji will team up to take on Antonio Honda and Onryo who will be making his FREEDOMS debut, Magnitude Kishiwada and Takuya Sugawara will take on Abdullah Kobayashi & Kazuhiko Ogasawara, and in the opening match Madoka will face off against Keita Yano.

Mr. Gannosuke announced that his Mr. Gannosuke Productions "Kishindoh Returns 4" show will take place on July 8, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Gannosuke has announced three matches so far with the main event being Yuko Miyamoto taking on GENTARO. Gannosuke wrote the reason for the match is that Miyamoto recently dropped the BJW Death Match Title and wants to get rid of the image of being known as a Death Match wrestler and GENTARO recently dropped the Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title and now wants to be considered a heavyweight so this match is for one of them to prove that they can succeed in their new style of wrestling. The other two matches announced are Mineo Fujita taking on Daisuke in a rematch of their March 20th match which had to be ended early on after Daisuke suffered a knee injury during it and Masashi Takeda against Keita Yano. TAJIRI will also be participating on the show. 

Added: 5/7

Atsushi Onita has retired for the 5th time. Atsushi Onita held his Retirement show (his third time promoting a retirement show) on May 5, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for the Shin-FMW promotion. It was 15 years to the day that Atsushi Onita retired against Hayabusa at Kawasaki Stadium with 58,250 fans attending. This time they drew 327 fans in the 350 seat building. The show also marked mostly likely the last time that the May 5th date and FMW would be connected together. Tarzan Goto requested that he apart of Onita's retirement match as he was originally scheduled to face Onita in Onita's retirement match in 1995 at Kawasaki Stadium before Onita refused to lose Goto and Goto bailed on being the leader of a promotion he felt would be a sinking ship without Onita ever putting him over to pass the torch to him. 

Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto teamed up together in the main event to face The Great Punk which was Katsutoshi Niiyama wrestling for the first time in years and The Shooter who unmasked right away at the beginning of the mask to reveal Mr. Gannosuke's former FMW pupil Banji Takada. Onita ended up getting the pinfall victory at 16 minutes, 46 seconds in the Street Fight after hitting Takada with the Thunder Fire Powerbomb for possibly the last time ever. Onita after the match when doing his routine got on the microphone and told the crowd he hopes he does to return to the ring sometime again before pouring water all over the crowd to Wild Thing before going to the back to talk to reporters. Onita told reporters he would like to come back but doesn't know if he will, and if he does it will definitely not be for awhile because he is running in a election for the House of Councilors this summer and just does not have time to wrestle. Tarzan Goto after hearing Onita talk about returning some day says he wants to wrestle Onita again even if it's at Korakuen Hall but definitely would like it for it to be the parking lot of Kawasaki Stadium for a real retirement match with Onita. Goto then announced that he was forming a Super-FMW Army and they would first be invading at the Shin-W*ING show on June 26th at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. 

Also on the show, since Super Leather was unable to make it to Japan at all throughout the week due to what was announced as an emergency, Ricky Fuji instead faced and defeated Masaru Toi to be known as the last FMW Jr. Independent Heavyweight Champion. FMW which originally created the title back in 1993 lost interest in it in 1999 and gave the title belt to Battlarts where the belt became simply known as the Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title. That title belt which still holds the FMW letters on it is right now possessed by K-Dojo with Marines Mask II holding it. Technically Ricky Fuji won the FMW 93-99 version of the title and will be regarded as the last FMW Jr. Independent Champion with Marines Mask II still being known as the Independent Jr. Heavyweight Champion. This would also most likely mean that Ricky Fuji would be known as the last FMW champion of anything. A fan who went to the show who hated the last Shin-FMW show in January feeling the undercard symbolized nothing and was horrible about FMW just like this shows undercard did only went out of respect of this possibly being Onita's last match. He liked the main event, but felt overall the show again was a disappointed and the lighting was so poor that he could barely see the ring from his seats which were not that far from the ring. 

Miss Mongol who teamed up with Apple Miyuki to defeat the team of Mio Shirai & Io Shirai in the only non horrible match early on in the show took a picture with Katsutoshi Niiyama after the show and stated she was very impressed with how Katsutoshi Niiyama was in the main event and how great of a shape he was in without having wrestled for in years. 

Yuko Miyamoto's near 17 month title reign as BJW Death Match Champion came to an end on May 4, 2010 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. Big Japan announced a crowd of 3,354 for the show as Miyamoto defended his title for the 5th time against Ryuji Ito in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Cage Death Match. Both Miyamoto and Ito bloodied each other in what was said to be an excellent match between the two. Miyamoto hit a Fire Thunder on Ito into the light tubes as his big move of the match, but Ito ended up getting the win after climbing up the cage and delivering the Dragon Splash off the top of the cage with light tubes laid across Miyamoto's chest to get the win at 20 minutes, 44 seconds for Ito's fourth title reign.

This is a report I got from my friend Max who is in Japan currently and attended the Shin-W*ING April 30, 2010 show. 

I just got back from the W*ING show and I thought you would be interested to know some stuff that happened. Crowd was not good. I would say the crowd at Shin-Kiba was at 40%. Super Leather didn't show up. He didn't come to Japan at all. Super Crazy replaced him. Kanemura got injured big time after a senton atomico. Crazy's ass landed on Kanemura's face, so his back head landed on the concrete. He couldn't get up for a LONG time. People were really scared. Then, he got up, but was super slow. Crazy kept telling the referee ''we gotta go, we gotta go''. They brawled a bit after to set up Kanemura's usual splash table spot. Then Kanemura pinned Crazy to everyone's surprise. Kanemura went straight to the backstage. The ambulance was there, but Kanemura refused to go to hospital because he has no health insurance.

Pogo couldn't use fire because apparently Shin-Kiba has banned fire now. They had a ten bell salute to Victor Quinones and Mr. Hito as well.

Kintaro Kanemura of course missed no shows from the head injury and was back in the ring just days later for ZERO-ONE's May 5, 2010 Korakuen Hall show. Kanemura who has faced the likes on May 5th of Ryuji Yamakawa, Vader, Shinya Hashimoto, and Riki Choshu would be facing off this year against Hartley "The Bull" Jackson in a Strap Death Match. Both Kanemura and Jackson would be tied to each other with Kanemura using the strap to choke Jackson while applying an STF to him. They would end up fighting in the crowd on the stage where Jackson would end up flinging Kanemura off it onto his back on the floor. Jackson would control most of the match, but Kanemura would end up getting the small package victory out of nowhere at 11 minutes, 42 seconds.

Both Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura's pupils in Mineo Fujita and Yusaku Obata would be paired against each other in the opening match on the show. Yusaku Obata would team up with Kamikaze and Rikiya Fudo against Mineo Fujita's team of Ken Saito and Yoshikazu Yokoyama with Obata's team being the much stronger team as Obata would end up delivering a Missle Kick to Yokoyama for the pinfall at 13 minutes, 12 seconds. 

FREEDOMS ran their biggest show drawing an announced 337 fans at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse on May 2, 2010. The main event saw Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai defeat the team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda when Sasaki hit the D-Geist on Takaeda for the pinfall at 16 minutes, 28 seconds. GENTARO ended up getting the win over HIROKI at 19 minutes when GENTARO made HIROKI tap out to a figure four leglock. TAJIRI defeated his former boss in Great Kojika after nailing him with a Buzzsaw Kick at 13 minutes, 30 seconds for the win. The team of Magnitude Kishiwada and Shadow WX defeated the much smaller team of Madoka and Kamui after Kishiwada would hit the Last Ride Powerbomb on Kamui for the win at 14 minutes, 23 seconds in a Hardcore Tag Match. Keita Yano faced off against Kazuhiko Ogasawara and for the second time in less than 6 months Ogasawara failed to make it back in the ring and was counted out for the Yano win. The team of The Winger, Ricky Fuji, and the returning Koji Nakagawa defeated the Brahman Brothers and Antonio Honda in the opening match when Nakagawa would roll up Brahman Shu with the Jackknife at 13 minutes, 58 seconds. The only match announced so far for the FREEDOMS May 26th show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring is HIROKI facing the man that put him out of action for over 2 years after injuring his spine in Tomohiro Ishii. 

The GUNS team of Mr. Gannosuke, Ichiro Yaguchi as Mr. Rocknosuke, and Katsumi Hirano as Mr. Iwaonosuke were revised for the first time since October 26, 2008 as Mr. Rocknosuke and Mr. Iwaonosuke teamed earlier in the day on May 2, 2010 at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse for the GUTS World promotion. They would be accompanied by leader Mr. Gannosuke as well as Gosaku in their corner as they would face the team of GENTARO and Ricky Fuji. Ricky would end up hitting the 9999 DDT on Iwaonosuke for the pin at 13 minutes, 25 seconds. 

I am officially going to Japan once again next month. I will be arriving in Tokyo on June 20th and staying until June 28th. I plan on attending the FREEDOMS June 21st Korakuen Hall show, Shin-W*ING June 26th Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show, and the Big Japan June 27th Korakuen Hall show. I also am deciding between going to the SMASH June 25th Shinjuku FACE show or the Big Japan June 25th Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse show. I also would really like to go to Yokohama and Kawasaki during my time there as well. Needless to say, I am very excited about this trip and I will definitely do another Diary of the trip for the site.

Added: 4/11

Atsushi Onita's Retirement Match for May 5, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring has been announced. Atsushi Onita will team up with Tarzan Goto in the main event against The Great Punk and The Shooter. No idea who will be under The Shooter mask as both gimmicks were played by Katsutoshi Niiyama and I would imagine he would be wrestling as The Great Punk for the match. Super Leather will return to Shin-FMW to take on Ricky Fuji who Leather defeated probably atleast 50 times without ever losing or being pinned by once. Miss Mongol will also return and team up with Apple Miyuki to take on Shirai sisters Mio and Io. The show will start at 12 Noon and seats around ringside are priced at around 60 dollars and bleacher seats are priced at around 50 dollars. 

FREEDOMS ran two shows last week as they ran at the Osaka Quartier World Pavilion on April 4, 2010 and announced 250 fans for the show. The top matches were the team of TAJIRI and Masamune filling in for the injured Asian Cougar defeating the team of The Winger and Ricky Fuji when TAJIRI hit a Buzzsaw Kick to Ricky Fuji's head for the pinfall at 13 minutes, 58 seconds. GENTARO who lost his Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title on April 2, 2010 at K-Dojo's Korakuen Hall show to Marines Mask II (formerly PSYCHO now under a mask) defended one of his other two titles in the VKF King of Wrestle Naniwa Title against Keita Yano who he defeated at 17 minutes, 54 seconds to successfully defend that title for the 7th time. In the main event which was a Street Fight, the FREEDOMS team of Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui defeated Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Ken45° with Great Kojika in their corner after Kamui hit a Swanton Bomb on Kei for the win at 16 minutes, 13 seconds. 

FREEDOMS then returned to the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on April 6, 2010 and announced a crowd of 224 fans. The opening match saw Hi69 return as HIROKI after 2 1/2 years out with an injury and make his FREEDOMS debut against a Mystery Opponent revealed to be Takashi Sasaki. The match ended up going 10 minutes before the time limit expired. The next match was Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara defeating Ricky Fuji and Keita Yano after Sugawara got a Jorge Rivera Cutback for the pinfall over Yano at 11 minutes, 29 seconds. SMASH's TAJIRI and Madoka defeated BJW's Abdullah Kobayashi and DDT's Antonio Honda after TAJIRI pinned Honda at 13 minutes, 45 seconds. The Semi-Main Event was an Handicap Singles Elimination Match Series. It was a 5 vs. 2 match with Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai taking on 5 members of the Kojika Army. Jun Kasai and Brahman Shu started off the match and both men eliminated each other as they both fell over the top rope at 7 minutes, 11 seconds. This left Takashi Sasaki against 4 other wrestlers. Sasaki started off by eliminating Brahman Kei at 10 minutes, 40 seconds, then eliminating Ken45° by throwing him over the top rope for the elimination at 15 minutes, 47 seconds, then making Kazuhiko Ogasawara tap out at 17 minutes, 53 seconds to a Crab Hold, but then Brahman Shu would return to the ring and beat down Takashi Sasaki with a chair attack allowing Great Kojika to pin Sasaki at 19 minutes, 22 seconds leaving Kojika to be the lone survivor in the match. The main event saw Tatsuhito Takaiwa team up with his new partner Masashi Takeda after their March 10th match went to a time limit draw, as well as Magnitude Kishiwada against the FREEDOMS team of GENTARO, The Winger, and Kamui with Takeda hitting a Supplex on GENTARO to get the pinfall at 18 minutes, 11 seconds. 

Takashi Sasaki announced the lineup for the upcoming FREEDOMS show on May 2, 2010 at the Yokohama Red Brick House which at the time will be the biggest show ever for the promotion until they run on June 21st at Korakuen Hall. The main event will be Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda teaming up once again against Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai. The semi-main Event will see HIROKI taking on his former tag team partner in GENTARO in HIROKI's first real test since coming back to FREEDOMS as HIROKI personally asked for this match after his match against Sasaki on April 6th at Shin-Kiba. TAJIRI will take on his former boss by facing off against Great Kojika, Kamui and Madoka will team up to take on Magnitude Kishiwada and Shadow WX, and the opening match will see Koji Nakagawa return to FREEDOMS for the first time since the September 2, 2009 Debut Show as he teams up with Ricky Fuji and The Winger against Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Antonio Honda. 

Big Japan announced the full lineup for their 15th Anniversary show on May 4, 2010 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. Yuko Miyamoto's near 17 month reign as BJW Death Match Champion will most likely come to an end as he will take on the promotions ace Ryuji Ito in the main event. Genichiro Tenryu will make his BJW debut by teaming up with Yuji Okabayashi against former FMW wrestler Yoshihito Sasaki and Daisuke Sekimoto in the semi-main event. Jun Kasai will team up with Trent Acid now going by just Acid and CZW's Nick Gage against Jaki Numazawa, Masashi Takeda, and Isami Kodaka, and Takashi Sasaki will also team up with American Independent wrestler Necro Butcher against Union Pro's Shuji Ishikawa and Kankuro Hoshino. Former BJW wrestlers Kamikaze, Masayoshi Motegi & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki will take on BJW booker Men's Teioh and BJW rookies Kazuki Hashimoto & Takumi Tsukamoto. The women's match will see Manami Toyota, Marcela and Ariya against Aja Kong & GAMI & Bullfight Sora, and the opening match will see Onryo team up with Daikokubo Benkei and Ryuichi Kawakami against Kikutaro, Shinobu, and Atsushi Ohashi. The finals for the BJW Tag Team Tournament with the winners becoming the new BJW Tag Team Champions will take place on April 28, 2010 at Korakuen Hall with Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa taking on Daisuke Sekimoto and Yoshihito Sasaki.

Hayabusa held his Phoenix Music Fiesta on March 23, 2010 at the Yokohama Star Ship with Mr. Gannosuke and Ricky Fuji as his guest singers for the show. Gannosuke wrote about how much fun he had and how he met Eiji Ezaki when both were around 18 and here they are about to turn 42 and their friendship still remains in tact. Hayabusa's next show Phoenix Music Fiesta will be on April 13, 2010 at the Yokohama Star Ship with Ricky Fuji and Command Bolshoi as his musical guests. He also announced that he will be performing live at JWP's Korakuen Hall show on April 18, 2010 and his new CD will be released in stores by Dragon Gate records on June 2, 2010. Mr. Gannosuke also announced that he was filming "Tonpachi Fellow of the Heisei Era 2".

Added: 3/21

Atsushi Onita's Retirement match has been moved once again. Originally Atsushi Onita that he would be retiring in January this year, but then later announced that his retirement match would be on March 21, 2010 at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE.  Now Onita has announced that his Retirement Match will be on May 5, 2010 at Shin-FMW's Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show. It will be the 15 year anniversary of his most famous Retirement Match against Hayabusa and the day that he and FMW are best known for. It was announced that Onita would team up with Tarzan Goto on the show with the opponents not being announced yet. Goto stated that he wish he could have the show take place at Kawasaki Stadium, but that was financially impossible. Katsutoshi Niiyama and Flying Kid Ichihara who graduated apart of the first FMW class in the FMW Dojo from 1990 were announced on the show as well. Mr. Pogo has told a Japanese wrestling magazine when being interviewed that he was done with the Shin-FMW group.

Mr. Gannosuke held his "Kishindoh Returns 3" show on March 20, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring announcing 240 fans for the show in one of the lowest crowds he has done for a show he has promoted although this one also had one of the weaker lineups. The FREEDOMS' team of Jun Kasai and GENTARO defeated Dick Togo and former NOAH wrestler Makoto Hashi when GENTARO cradled up Hashi for the win in the main event at 20 minutes, 29 seconds.

 The semi-main event saw TAJIRI also cradle up Munenori Sawa for the win at 18 minutes, 23 seconds. 

Osaka Pro's Masamune defeated Madoka with the Kaminari Setsu to get the pinfall at 13 minutes, 42 seconds. The SMASH team of Akira Shoji and Hajime Ohara defeated the team of Yuko Miyamoto and Yuki Sato when Ohara hit the Muy Bien on Sato for the win at 12 minutes, 25 seconds. 

Mineo Fujita's match against Daisuke ended up becoming very short after Daisuke suffered a right ankle injury during the match causing the referee to stop the match and reward the victory to Fujita at 2 minutes, 51 seconds. In the opening match, Yasu Urano defeated Keita Yano with a Backside at 14 minutes, 35 seconds. Gannosuke announced afterwards that his next show will either be June, July, August, or September.

A note from the FREEDOMS March 10, 2010 Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show. Mammoth Sasaki and HIROKI came out after the Jun Kasai, Takashi Sasaki, and Madoka against Magnitude Kishiwada, TAJIRI, and Minoru Fujita match to make their announcements about returning. HIROKI will return to FREEDOMS on April 6th and Mammoth is still scheduled to return on June 21st at Korakuen Hall. 

The full lineups for the two FREEDOMS shows in early April have been announced. The first show will be on April 4, 2010 as it will be held the same day as a Secret Base show at the Osaka Quartier World Pavilion and fans can choose to buy front row seats for both shows at a discount 80 dollars. GENTARO will defend his VKF Wrestle Naniwa Championship against Keita Yano and Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui will team up in the main event to take on Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei & Ken45° with Great Kojika in their corner in a Street Fight. The April 6, 2010 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show will open with HIROKI making his FREEDOMS debut for the promotion that he will be a full time member of against a Mystery Opponent. Ricky Fuji and Keita Yano will take on Minoru Fujita and Takuya Sugawara, and TAJIRI and Madoka will team up to take on Abdullah Kobayashi and Antonio Honda. In a 2 on 5 Handicap Match, Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai will take on the Kojika Army consisting of Great Kojika, Kazuhiko Ogasawara, Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei and Ken45° in the semi-main event. Instead of a rematch between the two like I expected, Masashi Takeda and Tatsuhito Takaiwa must have must have won respect between each other after their 30 minute time limit draw and shook hands afterwards because they will be teaming up along with Magnitude Kishiwada in the main event against GENTARO, The Winger, and Kamui. 

Dradition announced its lineup for their March 30, 2010 "Dream Impact 2010" show at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE. Mineo Fujita will wrestle in one of the biggest matches of his career in the semi-main event as he takes on the legendary Tatsumi Fujinami on the show. Kamui will also team up with Ultimo Dragon to take on NOSAWA Rongai and FUJITA on the show. 

Yuko Miyamoto successfully defended his BJW Death Match Title for the fourth time on March 19, 2010 at Korakuen Hall against friend Isami Kodaka in a Double Glass Board and Indian Strap Death Match after Miyamoto got the pinfall on Kodaka at 17 minutes, 43 seconds with the match definitely not turning out to be the Match of the Year the two had been talking about having with one another. Big Japan also announced that Genichiro Tenryu would be making his Big Japan debut at the BJW 15th Anniversary show at the Yokohama Bunka Gym on May 4, 2010. Besides Tenryu, already announced as non official BJW wrestlers participating on the show will be Yuko Miyamoto, Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, The Winger, Isami Kodaka, Masashi Takeda, Ryuji Yamakawa, Kamikaze, Masayoshi Motegi, Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, Marcela, Ariya, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota, GAMI, Bullfight Sora, Minoru Fujita, Necro Butcher, and Nick Gage.

Due to the injury of Shinya Ishikawa, the team of Yoshihito Sasaki and Shinya Ishikawa were forced to vacate their BJW Tag Team Titles. Another tag team tournament has been setup this year, but will be much shorter than last year. Certain teams received Byes to the semi-finals of the tournament. Daisuke Sekimoto and Yoshihito Sasaki teamed up to defeat the team of Takashi Sasaki and Abdullah Kobayashi on March 19, 2010 at Korakuen Hall in a Block A 1st Round Match to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament to take on Shuji Ishikawa and Yuji Okabayashi on April 1, 2010 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa will team up to take on Masashi Takeda and Isami Kodaka on March 22, 2010 at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse in a Block B 1st Round Match. The winner of that match will move on to the semi-finals where they will take on Ryuji Ito and Shadow WX on March 28, 2010 at the Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes in a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. The finals of the tournament will be held on April 28, 2010 at Korakuen Hall.

Added: 3/10

FREEDOMS made the biggest announcement of the promotions 6 month history after their March 10th Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show by announcing they will be running at Korakuen Hall for the first time as a promotion on June 21, 2010. They also announced that Mammoth Sasaki will be returning to the ring after 16 months from his neck injury from a car accident that took place back on February 28, 2009 for the June 21st Korakuen Hall show. HIROKI will also be on the show as well. 

Before the announcement I was planning on returning to Tokyo for my 3rd trip to Japan in late June. So with the announcement being made right now the plan is to go back from June 20th to the morning of June 28th after attending the Big Japan Korakuen Hall show on June 27th the night before. I'm hoping Mr. Gannosuke announces for a show during that week.

FREEDOMS ran their March 10, 2010 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with an announced attendance of 227 fans. GENTARO successfully defended his Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title in the main event by making TAKA Michinoku submit to the Sharpshooter at 19 minutes, 5 seconds. It was the 6th defense of the title for GENTARO. The original semi-main event of the show ended up being just that as the team of TAJIRI, Magnitude Kishiwada, and Minoru Fujita defeated Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Madoka when Fujita cradled Madoka at 14 minutes, 31 seconds. Masashi Takeda and Tatsuhito Takaiwa ended up battling to a thirty minute draw which I would guess would setup a rematch between the veteran and the youngster. Ricky Fuji battled Kazuhiko Ogasawara to a Double Count at 8 minutes, 34 seconds and in the opening match the newest member of the Kojika Army was revealed to be Abdullah Kobayashi as he teamed up with Great Kojika, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei in a lost to The Winger, Kamui, Keita Yano, and Antonio Honda when Honda pinned Kojika after Kobayashi accidentally hit Kojika to setup the pinfall for Honda at 13 minutes, 31 seconds.

Added: 3/7

I recently exchanged e-mails back and forth with Fumi Saito who is a Japanese wrestling magazine columnist who I got to meet on my first trip to Japan in January 2008. I asked him questions about Shin-FMW and FMW wrestlers that I wondered about and that I had been asked about a lot.

Q: Does Shin-FMW planning on running again? I know they ran back on January 26th, but they have not announced a future show and I heard the ticket sales had not been good for the show.

A: I think January 26th show at the Shin Kiba First Ring was the last show they will be running. I spoke with some the people at the show, and none of them knew anything about the history of FMW. My friend, Michael Penzel, aka, Super Leather flew in for the show. He thought it was the FMW reunion show but was pretty disappointed when he found out it wasn't. 

Actually, the show was promoted by the same promoter who are running the Vader Time show. Michael/Super Leather was invited back for the next Vader Time show which is set for April 19th date. 

It's a shame that FMW name is being used but being used by people who know nothing about the history or value of the brand name. Onita is not involved with it. Tarzan Goto is no longer associated with them. All those ex-FMW guys worked the January show with the idea that somebody was going to revive the FMW theme. They were all disappointed when they found out there was no such direction. 

Q: Do you know if Gannosuke and Kanemura have reunited their friendship since Gannosuke has retired? I know they hugged at Gannosuke's Retirement show but did not know if that was for show or if they really were on good terms again. Also, was it ever revealed the exact reason their friendship ended in the first place?

A: It's very hard to know the details of those personal conflict. There are so many of them. For instance, there are guys like Hayabusa and Ricky Fuji who are good friends with everybody and want everyone to get along. Gannosuke and Kanemura shook hands at Gannosuke's retirement show. But it's not like those two will be running shows together. Neither of them have money to run shows on their own. Kanemura made a lot of enemies when he ran XWF two summers ago and didn't pay people. Gannosuke is coaching Ice Ribbon girls, and also filming a low budget movie right now.

There were numerous attempts at reviving FMW. Many people had tried and failed. You have to have EVERYBODY to make it. Just like ECW with WWE, it won't be the same. It will be run by people who wasn't there, if you know what I mean. It won't be the same anyhow.

Kanemura wanted to run a new company with FMW theme. Gannosuke had tried the same theme with WMF. There were many attempts in between. None had any success.

Q: Is there any health related issues to GOEMON? His body looks so horrible to even a couple of years ago and I know he is rarely booked. I noticed FREEDOMS quit using him as well. I didn't know if there was anything to it or he had just aged throughout the years and his body was not the same. 

A: I saw GOEMON (Koji Nakagawa) last week. Hayabusa had his live gig in Yokohama. I stopped there to say hi to some of the guys. I saw GOEMON there. It's not a health issue. He said he is just naturally a skinny like that. It was hard for him to put on weight to begin with.

Q: Is there any word on when Mammoth Sasaki will be making a return to wrestling?

A: Sasaki has not given up on wrestling. He also works at this toy shop (plastic models and radio-control cars and junk). I think wrestling is hobby for him. He knows he won't be making a lot of money with wrestling but he will wrestle on weekends. Very hard to make a fulltime living with wrestling these days.

The full lineup for the FREEDOMS March 10, 2010 show at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The semi-main event match announced is The Winger teaming with Kamui, Keita Yano, and Antonio Honda taking on The Kojika Army consisting of Great Kojika, Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and a Mystery Partner who will be the newest member of the Kojika Army. Great Kojika who turned on the FREEDOMS team earlier this year to team up with the Brahman Brothers will be making his first appearance in 2010 for the promotion. Ricky Fuji will take on Kazuhiko Ogasawara in the opening match. FREEDOMS also announced another show on April 4, 2010 at the Osaka World Pavilion (the Osaka equivalent to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring building but much nicer looking inside) just two days before their April 6, 2010 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring.

Atsushi Onita announced that his 5th Retirement will be on March 21, 2010 at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE. No matches for the show including who Onita's opponent would be have been announced for the show. Onita announced back on December 27, 2009 that he would be retiring in January of this year but a show never took place. After Onita lost the election for Governor of Nagasaki he announced that this show would again be his last match ever.

Hi69 will return to the ring for the first time since October 11, 2007 for a LOCK UP show when Hi69 teamed with Mammoth Sasaki and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, and Tomohiro Ishii where Ishii kicked Hi69 so hard in the chest it caused a dislocation in his vertebrae before Ishii would make Hi69 tap out. The Apache Army would put on a charity show on November 12, 2007 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring called "HI69 AID" with all the money being made in the show going to pay for Hi69's hospital bills. It would be announced that Hi69 would be out for one year due to the injury but it would turn out to cause him to be out for 2 1/2 years as a result. Hi69 will return to the promotion he started with in Kaientai Dojo on April 2, 2010 at Korakuen Hall going now just as HIROKI while teaming with MIYAWAKI against TAKA Michinoku and Yasu Urano. 

Kintaro Kanemura recently completed a three shot tour with the ZERO-ONE promotion. Kanemura first teamed up with foreigners from the early days of the promotion in The Predator and Bambi Killer on February 26th in Kumagaya to beat the team of Shinjiro Otani, Akebono, and Kamikaze when Predator pinned Kamikaze with a King Kong Knee Drop. Kanemura then challenged for the WEW Tag Team Titles by teaming up with former W*ING partner Magnitude Kishiwada on February 28th at the Osaka Prefectural Gym where they would lose to the WEW Tag Team Champion team of Kohei Sato and Kamikaze after Kamikaze would hit a Moonsault Press on Kanemura to successfully defend the titles for the second time. Kanemura would then take on the WEW Tag Team Champions again, this time in a non title match while teaming with Rikiya Fudo on March 2nd at Korakuen Hall. Sato and Kamikaze would once again come out victorious after Sato would nail his Polestar on Fudo for the pin at 9 minutes, 20 seconds. Kanemura after the match would shake hands with Sato who is a close friend of his and afterwards make it clear this his goal is to win back the WEW Tag Team Titles from them.

For those interested in early 90's FMW results. I have added a bunch of 1991-1992 FMW results over the last month that can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/FMWEarly.html and http://fmwwrestling.us/FMWStreetFight.html

Added: 2/23

Atsushi Onita failed to become Governor of Nagasaki on February 21, 2010 when he placed 3rd out of 7 running candidates. Hodo Nakamura, a former vice governor of Nagasaki won the election gathering 316,603 votes to become the new governor of the Prefecture. Tsuyoshi Hashimoto came in second in the election with 222,565 votes. Atsushi Onita ended up getting 98,200 votes to come in third in the election. 

Hayabusa made his first appearance in New Japan at Sumo Hall on February 14, 2010 since appearing at the Super J-Cup on April 16, 1994 at the Sumo Hall as well. Hayabusa was a special invited guest for Milano Collection A.T.'s Retirement Ceremony. Hayabusa was wheeled to the ring and presented flowers to Milano who was calling it a career after ten years. Hayabusa took pictures backstage with both Milano Collection A.T. as well as friend Koji Kanemoto. 

Hayabusa also wrote that as of January 2nd of this year, he has been going to the Walking Rehabilitation Center called Forest of the Heart (picture above of them working with Hayabusa) which has caused him the greatest improvement in his condition when it comes to walking in years. He still needs a cain to walk but he now can walk as much as he wants with the help of his cain compared to back in 2002 when he returned to Korakuen Hall he could only walk a couple of steps.

FREEDOMS ran a joint show with the Secret Base promotion as well as Pro-Wrestling Shop MACKY on February 20, 2010 at the Nagoya Sports Center with the show being entitled "Triple Threat" with the showing drawing an announced 215 fans. The two FREEDOMS matches on the six match show saw GENTARO team up with The Winger and Kamui to defeat the team of Shima Zion, Go, and Shigehiro Irie with GENTARO hitting a Diving Elbow on Irie for the pin at 15 minutes, 29 seconds. The other match was the main event of the show with Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai against Mototsugu Shimizu and Yamada Man Pound in a Dangerous Weapons Death Match with Kasai hitting the Pearl Harbor Splash on Yamada to get the pinfall at 19 minutes, 7 seconds.

FREEDOMS announced a partial lineup for their March 10, 2010 Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show. GENTARO defending the Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title against TAKA Michinoku will be in the main event of the show. The semi-main event of the show will see Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Madoka teaming up to take on the team of TAJIRI, Magnitude Kishiwada, and Minoru Fujita. The other match will be Tatsuhito Takaiwa against Masashi Takeda in a singles match. The Takaiwa vs. Takeda match has been made based on the two trading pinfall victories over one another in tag team matches. 

Kintaro Kanemura who looks to have gotten a full time spot for ZERO-ONE through friends Masato Tanaka and Kohei Sato will be appearing for the next three shows for the promotion. Kanemura will appear in the main event on February 26, 2010 at the Kumagaya Citizen Gym with two of the earlier wrestlers from the promotion in The Predator and Bambi Killer as they take on Shinjiro Otani, Akebono, and Kamikaze. Kanemura will then team up with former W*ING friend Magnitude Kishiwada and challenge for the WEW Tag Team Titles on February 28, 2010 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2 against the champions Kohei Sato and Kamikaze. It will be the first time that Kanemura will be challenging for the WEW Tag Team Titles for the first time since February 8, 2007. Kanemura will then return to Korakuen Hall and team up with Rikiya Fudo on March 2, 2010 and take on Kohei Sato and Kamikaze again.

With the Winter Olympics going on in Vancouver, British Columbia right now, it brought back memories to Ricky Fuji who lived in Calgary in 1988 the last time the Winter Olympics were in Canada. It has caused Ricky to become nostalgic and post pictures of his time in Canada from 1988. The picture above is of him and Shinya Hashimoto from 1988 when the two were wrestling for the Calgary Stampede promotion.

Added: 2/13

Tarzan Goto promoted his second Shin-FMW show on January 26, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring and for the second time no attendance was announced of the show which is a not good sign as unlike the first show all tickets were regularly priced and not doubled.

The Lethal Weapon team of Tarzan Goto, Hisakatsu Oya, and Ricky Fuji teamed up for the first time together since April 20, 1995 to take on the W*ING team of Mr. Pogo, Super Leather, and The Winger in a Street Fight. When an obvious fake came out wearing the Leatherface mask a large amount of booing was echoed all over the building when it was obvious that this was not the real Super Leather. Tarzan Goto quickly KO'd the fake Leatherface when all of a sudden Super Leather's theme music began to play and out came Mike Kirschner revising his Super Leather gimmick with his chainsaw for the first time since August 2008. Ricky Fuji would end up getting sliced open by both Mr. Pogo and Super Leather but Tarzan Goto would end up hitting The Winger with a lariat for the pinfall at 18 minutes, 36 seconds. Kintaro Kanemura was seen watching the match in the building and it is believed he will be participating on the next show as he is friends with the promoter, but no future show has still been announced. 

Overall a report of the show was said to not be good. The main event was fine for what it was, but The Winger was the only wrestler in the match not over 40 trying to do an old style FMW Street Fight. GOEMON who teamed up with Masahiro Sase and defeated Madoka and Tomohiro Matsumoto when GOEMON rolled up Matsumoto at 9 minutes, 19 seconds was said to be decent at best. Reina Aikawa who defended Carrot to retain the New-Half Title after pulling Carrot's shirt off at 15 minutes, 12 seconds was said to be too long and with the crowd being quiet the entire time and then were confused by the ending as the stipulation of the shirt being pulled off as the way to win the match was never announced to the crowd. The two wrestlers are males playing females much like the old Azusa Kudo gimmick with the New-Half title being a transvestite title. Bakabon no Papa & Crab K*ING defeated Kunihiko Mitsamura and Batten Tamagawa when Bakabon pinned Tamagawa with a Michinoku Driver II was said to be way too long as a comedy match that was not funny at all. Daiju Takase defeated Shinjuku Shark with a Cross Armbreaker at 8 minutes, 9 seconds in a Different Style Fight in the opening match. The show was said to be too long due to the long entrances, too cold, and felt more like a Tarzan Goto Shin-FMW show from 1997 and not the real FMW that it's trying to recreate. It was announced both this show and the December 24, 2009 show will be released on DVD's in April.

FREEDOMS ran their February 9, 2010 show at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing an announced 213 fans of the show. The basis of this show was for the FREEDOMS team to get their revenge on all the outsider teams. Jun Kasai and Masashi Takeda teamed up in the main event to take on former FMW wrestler Magnitude Kishiwada and former New Japan/ZERO-ONE wrestler Tatsuhito Takaiwa in the main event. Masashi Takeda would eventually nail Takaiwa with the Spear to score the pinfall at 14 minutes, 26 seconds. The semi-main event saw GENTARO, The Winger, and Ricky Fuji team up and defeat the team of TAJIRI, Minoru Fujita, and Takuya Sugawara when The Winger hit a Diving Senton on Sugawara for the win at 14 minutes, 12 seconds. Takashi Sasaki and Kamui teamed up in the opening match to defeat Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei after Kamui would get Kei in the Kamui Clutch for the roll up victory at 10 minutes, 5 seconds. The only match announced for the next show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on March 10th so far is GENTARO defending his Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title against TAKA Michinoku who once held the title back in 1996 when it was the FMW Jr. Heavyweight Title after beating Koji Nakagawa at Kawasaki Stadium on May 5th.

Mr. Gannosuke announced the full line up for his "Kishindoh Returns 3" show on March 20, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event of the show will be Jun Kasai and GENTARO teaming up to take on the team of Dick Togo and former NOAH wrestler Makoto Hashi. TAJIRI against Munenori Sawa will be placed in the semi-main event of the show. Madoka will take on Osaka Pro's Masamune, Yuko Miyamoto and Yuki Sato will take on SMASH's Akira Shoji and Hajime Ohara, Mineo Fujita will take on Daisuke, and Yasu Urano will take on Keita Yano in the opening match of the show. 

I have updated the Profiles section of the site for the first time since 2006. I have added a bunch of new wrestlers to it and it can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/Profiles.html and you can always find it at the bottom of the Bio's page for basic information for former FMW/WMF wrestlers and current FREEDOMS wrestlers. 

Added: 1/18

FREEDOMS ran their first show of 2010 on January 14th at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing an announced crowd of 243 fans. The semi-main event saw Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Masashi Takeda against Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Minoru Fujita, and the debuting for the promotion Magnitude Kishiwada. Tatsuhito Takaiwa would end up scoring the pinfall for the outsiders team when he nail Takeda with the Death Valley Bomb for the win at 14 minutes, 25 seconds. Kishiwada will join Takaiwa, TAJIRI, Minoru Fujita, Takuya Sugawara, Hajime Ohara, and Asian Cougar as regular outsiders for the promotion. The main event saw GENTARO once again put up his Independent Jr. Heavyweight title on the line against Takuya Sugawara with GENTARO once again successfully defending the title for the 5th time after making Sugawara submit to the Figure Four Leglock. Ricky Fuji also took on TAJIRI for the first time in a singles match on the show with TAJIRI blowing mist in Ricky's face and inside cradling him for the pinfall at 10 minutes, 48 seconds. The main event for the next show on February 5, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring will be Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai teaming up to take on Magnitude Kishiwada and Tatsuhito Takaiwa with the semi-main event being GENTARO, The Winger, and Ricky Fuji against TAJIRI, Minoru Fujita, and Takuya Sugawara and also Asian Cougar will take on Hajime Ohara on the card. 2 more matches will be announced for the show. 

FREEDOMS has also announced that they will run a joint show with the Secret Base promotion on February 20, 2010 at the home of the very first FMW show in the Nagoya Sports Center. The main event will be Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai against Secret Base's Mototsugu Shimizu and Yamada Man Pound. The semi-main event will be GENTARO, The Winger, and Kamui against Shimia Zion & Go & Shigehiro Irie. FREEDOMS also announced that their biggest show to date will be on May 2, 2010 at the 500 seat Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse. 

Tarzan Goto announced the second show lineup for the promotion that is officially called "Shin-FMW". The financial backer for the promotion is the same man that was the backer for the MAKEHEN promotion before it went under last year. The second show will be on January 26, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with the main event being the original Lethal Weapon reuniting as Tarzan Goto, Hisakatsu Oya, and Ricky Fuji taking on Mr. Pogo, Super Leather, and The Winger. It will be the first time that the Lethal Weapon have been a team since Goto left FMW in April 1995 and it will be the first time Hisakatsu Oya's name has popped up on a wrestling card since Hayabusa's promoted show in January 2009. Since the name is Super Leather on the card and not Leatherface one would guess that it would be Mike Kirschner returning as the FMW Super Leather, but nothing is official on that. Most of the rest of the card will be filled up by cheap independent wrestlers but the semi-main event will have GOEMON in the match as he teams up with Masahiro Sase as they take on Madoka and Tomohiro Matsumoto. Shinjuku Shark will also be on the undercard as he takes on Daiju Takase in a Different Style Match. Tickets for this show will be standard compared to last months show where every ticket was doubled in price and the show did not come close to a sell out and no attendance was ever announced for the show. 

Mr. Gannosuke announced that his next promoted show will be on March 20, 2010 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring entitled "Kishindoh Returns 3". The only match announced so far is that TAJIRI will take on Munenori Sawa in a singles match. With that match scheduled, that looks to be the end of anymore GENTARO vs. Munenori Sawa matches with no winner ever being officially decided between the two. 

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2009

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2008

Apache Army/FREEDOMS & Production Shows 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)