Added: 12/31

Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, and Mr. Gannosuke appeared on the Samurai TV show Battle*Men together on December 24, 2011 for a three minute discussion. Tanaka brought his IWGP Intercontinental Title to the show so they discussed his match against Tomoaki Honma the day earlier as well as his upcoming Tokyo Dome appearance. They then talked a little bit about FMW before the segment would come to an end. Mr. Gannosuke stated he enjoyed being on the show, but that he didn't get a chance to say anything before the segment was over even though they spent over thirty minutes in the waiting room. Hayabusa, Gannosuke, and Tanaka talked a little bit with each other after the show before they headed back home.

Jun Kasai announced at his promoted Korakuen Hall show on December 25, 2011 that in 2012 there would be another Death Match Tournament. If he does not win this tournament then he will retire from pro-wrestling, although he did not state whether it would be an immediate retirement. FREEDOMS returns to Korakuen Hall on May 2, 2012 so that is the show that will most likely be holding the tournament that will determine Kasai's future. You can check out the report of the Jun Kasai Productions Christmas Night Korakuen Hall show at http://fmwwrestling.us/Kasai2011.html

The FREEDOMS show of 2012 will be held at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will have Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui defend their WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles for the second time against The Brahman Brothers. HIROKI will defend his Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title against Tatsuhito Takaiwa in the semi-main event. The rest of the matches will see Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai against Takao Omori and former IWA Japan wrestler Keizo Matsuda who will be making his FREEDOMS debut. GENTARO teams up with SUSUMU against the former WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champions of Kengo Mashimo and Ryuichi Sekine, the Kojika Army of Great Kojika, Antonio Honda, and Ken Ohka face off against The Speeds of Sound of Tsutomu Oosugi and Hercules Senga and their partner Shinobu, and the opening match will have The Winger against Toru Sugiura. It will be the first FREEDOMS only show without Ricky Fuji on the card.

Mr. Gannosuke promoted his Kishindo Returns 8 show on December 29, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The show drew a crowd of 237 fans which is just very slightly up from his last show in September. The main event of the show saw Masashi Takeda become the new ace of the Kishindo Returns show with Munenori Sawa having retired as Takeda was able to score the upset win over Dragon Gate's Kenichiro Arai by hitting the German Supplex at 21 minutes, 3 seconds to get the win in a Hardcore Rules Match. The semi-main event had Hikaru Sato get the DQ win over Mr. Pogo after Pogo refused to stop cutting open Sato's forehead with a knife to force the referee to DQ Pogo at 6 minutes, 17 seconds to give the bloody Sato the win. In the first Style-E vs. Dragon Gate match of the night it was Dragon Gate's K-Ness getting the win over Style E's Kazuhiro Tamura at 10 minutes, 21 seconds after K-Ness delivered his Darkness Buster for the win. In the special WMF match of the night the team of Mineo Fujita and Isami Kodaka defeated Yasu Urano and Kamui after Fujita was able to roll up Kamui with a Gannosuke Clutch at 10 minutes, 46 seconds for the win. In a Real Pro-Wrestling match a upset was had as Keita Yano was able to get the win over GENTARO with his Keita Bomber at 9 minutes, 30 seconds for the win. A former Ice Ribbon Wrestler Confrontation saw two former Gannosuke students Makoto and Micro face off against one another as SMASH's Makoto defeated Micro at 5 minutes, 28 seconds with a Spear. The opening match saw the 666 team of Yuko Miyamoto and Tatsuhiko Yoshino defeated Guts Ishijima and CHANGO with Yoshino getting the win over CHANGO at 7 minutes, 19 seconds after delivering a German Supplex to lead into Yoshino facing off against NOAH's Naomichi Marufuji at the New Year's Eve show at Korakuen Hall. Gannosuke announced that that the next Kishindo Returns show will be held on March 29, 2012 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. 

Hisakatsu Oya returned to Korakuen Hall for the first time in over 5 years to participate in SMASH's December 30th show. Oya teamed with fellow Hokuto Pro wrestlers Takuya Kito and Lou Rururu against the now defunct IWA Japan wrestlers in Keizo Matsuda, Takashi Okano which is The Winger without his mask on, and Katsumi Hirano who is also known as Mr. Iwaonosuke of Mr. Gannosuke's GUN's group from WMF. The IWA Japan team took the early advantage as Okano was able to eliminate both Kito and Rururu early leaving Oya all by himself. Oya quickly grabbed Okano and delivered a Backdrop Supplex to Okano after he was caught celebrating and was able to get the pinfall on him for the elimination. Hirano would come in next and hit Oya over the head with a basket causing a bunch of Nutty Buddy ice cream bars to fly out of the basket but Oya would end up delivering the Backdrop Supplex to get the elimination over him. It would just leave Oya against Keizo Matsuda with Matsuda missing a lariat and again Oya would end up delivering a Backdrop Supplex and get the pinfall and elimination on Matsuda for the Hokuto Pro win team in a successful return to Tokyo for the 47 year old Oya.

Added: 12/11

Nanjyo Hayato ran his second FFF show at the 500 seat Osaka Oyodo Community Center on November 25, 2011. The show doesn't look to have done very well according to pictures and how the show was not talked much about afterwards and no official results were ever posted. There has also been no announcement of another show for the promotion yet. Like the show back in August pictures were of the former FMW wrestlers were taken backstage as Megumi Kudo posed with Kintaro Kanemura, Nanjyo Hayato, Masato Tanaka, and Kaori Nakayama who once again came to watch the show with her two sons. The only results I was able to find was that Masato Tanaka ended up getting the win in the main event over Nanjyo Hayato in a Hardcore Rules Match after finishing him off with the Sliding D. The brand new FFF Tag Team Titles were determined as the Kyoto Pro team of Gold Ginkakuji and Silver Ginkakuji defeated Ultimo Dragon and El Samurai after Gold pinned Samurai. Apple Miyuki won a 9 Person Battle Royal to be crowned the first Tempozan Champion and has since lost it to RIE in Kyoto Pro.

Nanjyo was also able to Megumi Kudo and Dump Matsumoto for two of his Kyoto Pro shows on December 3rd and December 4th with Kudo making a special appearance on the show and Matsumoto wrestling. Matsumoto and Nanjyo ended up getting very drunk while all three of them went out after the December 3rd show. Matsumoto and Nanjyo ended up suffering a huge headache that they felt even prior to the December 4th show while Kudo took pictures of them. 

The Winger promoted his first FREEDOMS show on November 23, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring which was to celebrate his 20th Anniversary in wrestling. The show ended up doing better than most of the usual shows in Shin-Kiba as they announced a crowd of 214 fans for the show. The Winger booked himself in two matches on the show with the main event against JWP's Kaori Yoneyama in a Drunken Tequila Death Match with both having to take shots of tequila during the match. Kaori Yoneyama ended up picking up the win after there was interference against The Winger with Yoneyama hitting a Diving Senton to get the win at 5 minutes, 59 seconds with Hailey Hatred who was at the show calling the match the most entertaining match of 2011. Tatsuhito Takaiwa ended up defeating GENTARO in the semi-main event after hitting a Death Valley Bomb off the top turnbuckle to get the win at 16 minutes, 24 seconds and earning himself a shot at the Independent Jr. Heavyweight Title at the January 9, 2012 FREEDOMS show. Jun Kasai, Masashi Takeda, and HIROKI defeated Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Kamui after HIROKI got the win over Kamui at 14 minutes, 55 seconds in a Hardcore Rules Match. The Winger's first 20th Anniversary match on the show saw him go up against 666's Senpai with Winger getting the win at 5 minutes, 17 seconds after rolling him up with the La Magaistral. Yukihide Ueno made his FREEDOMS debut under his old Battle Ranger gimmick from FMW as he teamed with Naoshi Sano in a losing effort to Onryo and Keita Yano after Onryo was able to get a Schoolboy on Sano for the win at 9 minutes, 17 seconds. The opening match saw Great Kojika and Antonio Honda win a Three Way Tag Team Match over Ricky Fuji and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and The Brahman Brothers after Honda rolled up Kei for a Schoolboy at 13 minutes, 29 seconds for the win.

Jun Kasai announced the lineup for his promoted "BLOOD X'MAS 2011" show at Korakuen Hall on December 25, 2011. The main event will see Kasai go up against Shuji Ishikawa in a to be determined Death Match. The most interesting match on the show will see Masato Tanaka appear for the group for the first time as he teams with Daisuke Sekimoto against Takashi Sasaki and Mammoth Sasaki in a Hardcore Rules Match. Masashi Takeda will take on a Mystery Opponent in a Death Match. The former WEW Tag Team Champions GENTARO and The Winger will face The Brahman Brothers in a Barbed wire Board Death Match. Kamui will go up against Kenji Fukimoto in a Street Fight Death Match. The opening match will see Great Kojika, HIROKI, and Ricky Fuji team up against Danshoku Dino, Shinobu, and Toru Sugiura. 

The Apache Army has announced the lineup for their 4 PM New Years Eve show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on December 31st. The main event will see HIROKI and Yusaku Obata put up their tag team titles on the line against Takeshi Minamino and Manjimaru. Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Shinobu team up in the semi-main event against Kohei Sato, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Kengo Nishimura. Arashi will put up his WEW World Title on the line against tag team partner Rikiya Fudo. Daisaku Shimoda will face off against YOSHIYA and the opening match will see former DDT wrestler Kenshin make his debut for the promotion by teaming with Keita Yano against Madoka and Shota.

Guts World Ring Announcer Mr. Gannosuke announced that the Guts World had parted ways with Gosaku Goshogawara real name Azusa Kudo after repeated canceling of shows as well as having a "personal life disorder". Gosaku who has a history of an alcohol problem and has lost jobs with other promotions over it including FMW in 1999 looks to have an issue that might keep him out of wrestling until he is able to get his life back in order. Gosaku canceled on appearing for their December 3, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring which was the final straw for them before releasing him saw the GUN's team return as Mr. Rocknosuke and Mr. Iwaonosuke were accompanied by Mr. Gannosuke as they defeated the team of Bear Fukuda and Spark Aoki after Gannosuke entered the ring and got the pinfall over Aoki with the referee not being able to tell difference in Gannosuke and the other two GUN's members actually in the match.

Mineo Fujita has been entered in his first Furinkazan Tag Team Tournament for the ZERO1 promotion. Fujita has been teamed with Shito Ueda although the two are not expected to do anything in the tournament as they are not even booked in a tournament match on the day of the finals. They were defeated by the NWA team of Schwarz & Weiss on December 8th at the Shinjuku FACE. Their next opponents will be former WEW Tag Team Champions Kohei Sato and Kamikaze on December 12th and then against Masato Tanaka and Fujita Jr. Hayato on December 14th. Their last tournament match will be on December 15th at the Zepp Nagoya against the team of Akebono and Daichi Hashimoto with the finals taking place on December 18th.

Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi ended up winning the Big Japan Maximum Tag Team Tournament on November 22, 2011 at Korakuen Hall after defeating Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa in the finals. Instead of getting a tag title shot for the BJW Tag Team Titles on December 18th at the Yokohama Bunka Gym for winning the tournament they have opted to defend their All Japan All Asian Tag Team Titles instead against Suwama and Takumi Soya. Ryuji Ito will defend his Death Match Title in the main event against Abdullah Kobayashi in a rematch of last years Yokohama Bunk Gym show in a Game Death Death Match. Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka will put up their BJW Tag Team Titles on the line against Yoshihito Sasaki and Shinobu instead as I am predicting this will be the end of their tag team afterwards. Shinya Ishikawa will go up against All Japan's Seiya Sanda and Takashi Sasaki will team with Kankuro Hoshino and Masato Inaga against Jun Kasai, Jaki Numazawa, and Masashi Takeda in a Death Match.

Hayabusa held his Phoenix Music Fiesta on December 6, 2011 at the AFR Yokohama. Ricky Fuji and Megumi Kudo also participated in the event with Kudo singing for the first time on Hayabusa's show as she and Ricky Fuji sang "Keep on Running" which was a song she sang as a single that was released by FMW on CD in 1992. The three took pictures after the show together. 

Added: 11/20

The FREEDOMS team of Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui participated in a show promoted by the company CORAZON and listed as Pro-Wrestling Business on November 8 2011 at the Tokyo Shinjuku FACE. They teamed up to take on the team of Sanshiro Takagi, Shigehiro Irie, and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata who was an honorary member of the TKG48 team for the show. It was the first time any of the three men had faced Nagata in the ring and Nagata would end up getting the win over Kamui with the Backdrop Supplex for his TKG48 team

FREEDOMS ran their three show tour across southern Japan from November 11th to November 13th. The first show was held on Fukuoka Kokura Northern Gym announcing a crowd of 172 fans. The top matches saw Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai renew their almost three year feud with the Brahman Brothers in the main event as Sasaki was able to put away Kei with the Michinoku Driver II at 18 minutes, 41 seconds for the win. GENTARO took on former ZERO1 Dojo graduate Osamu Namiguchi at 13 minutes, 41 seconds with a Backdrop Supplex. Mammoth Sasaki teamed with HIROKI and Kamui to defeat the team of Shuji Ishikawa, Yuko Miyamoto, and Shinobu when Mammoth picked up the win at 10 minutes, 36 seconds after hitting Shinobu with the 29 Years Old for the win. 

The next show was at the Hiroshima Hatsukachi Mominoki Forest Park Gym on November 12, 2011 drawing a sell out crowd of 400 fans for the show in Yuko Miyamoto's return home to Hiroshima show. The main event was a 17 Man Battle Royal that came down to Great Kojika and Yuko Miyamoto as the last two men with Kojika reversing a roll up to get the win in the Battle Royal. The top actual match on the show was Shuji Ishikawa and The Winger teaming up to beat Takashi Sasaki and Yuko Miyamoto when Ishikawa hit his Splash Mountain on Miyamoto for the win at 18 minutes, 1 seconds. Mammoth Sasaki teamed with Kamui and Toru Sugiura to take on Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and their partner Brahman Sakigake which went to a count out originally before getting restarted and going to another double count out to a combine time of 12 minutes, 25 seconds. Great Kojika defeated Naoshi Sano making his FREEDOMS debut on the show at 7 minutes, 4 seconds with a Iron Claw Slam.

The last show on the tour took place at the Hiroshima Industrial Hall East Pavilion on November 13, 2011 drawing a crowd of 317 fans. The main event was a teacher vs. student match as Mammoth Sasaki faced off against Yuko Miyamoto who he helped train in the WMF Dojo with Mammoth putting away the younger Miyamoto at 17 minutes, 2 seconds with the 29 Years Old on a Barbed wire Baseball Bat. Takashi Sasaki teamed with Jun Kasai and The Winger took on Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Brahman Sakigake with the match originally going to a double count out and then getting restarted with Winger rolling up Kei for the win at a total time of 16 minutes, 54 seconds. Kazuhiko Ogasawara returned to the promotion to defeat his former Kojika Army team mate GENTARO after TKO win at 8 minutes, 21 seconds using a Front Heel Drop. Secret Base's Amigo Suzuki defeated Kamui at 11 minutes in some what of a upset after using a Diving Headbutt to get the win. The November 11th and November 13th shows have already been released on DVD's. 

The next FREEDOMS show will be a return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on November 23, 2011 for The Winger's 20th Anniversary in pro-wrestling. The main event will have two matches with The Winger in it as he will first go up against women's wrestler Kaori Yoneyama and then 666's Senpai. Other matches on the show will have GENTARO take on Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Takashi Sasaki team with Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui as they take on Jun Kasai, HIROKI, and Masashi Takeda in a Hardcore Rules Match. Yukihide Ueno will make his FREEDOMS debut for the promotion as he will wrestle as his Battle Ranger Z masked gimmick from FMW while teaming with Naoshi Sano as they take on Onryo and Keita Yano. The opening match will have Ricky Fuji team with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi against Great Kojika and Antonio Honda and against The Brahman Brothers in a Three Way Tag Match to open the show.

The Apache Army made its debut at the Osaka World Hall Pavilion on November 6, 2011 without announcing a crowd number for the show. The main event of the show saw Yoshihiro Takayama team up with Tomohiko Hashimoto and Osaka Pro's Kuuga to defeat Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Arashi with Takayama hitting a Running Kneelift to Kanemura's face at 15 minutes, 24 seconds for the win. HIROKI and Yusaku Obata picked up an impressive win by defeating the Osaka Pro team of Naoki Setoguchi and Kazuaki Mihara after Obata delivered his Missile Kick on Seotguchi for the win at 12 minutes, 54 seconds. Osaka Pro's Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada defeated the freelance team of Madoka and Kengo Nishimura after Harada hit a Katayama German Supplex on Nishimura in a long 26 minutes, 28 seconds match. Apple Miyuki defeated comedy wrestler Shoichi Ichinomiya after she delivered a Spinebuster on a Firecracker Board at 8 minutes, 46 seconds to get the win. Osaka Pro's Tadasuke defeated The Dark Ranger who is not Nanjyo Hayato at 7 minutes, 25 seconds with the Outkast. Keita Yano and Daisaku Shimoda opened the show taking on Tadanobu Fujisawa and Apache Army Dojo student Takeshi Irei with Yano getting the win at 17 minutes, 23 seconds wtih the Calf Branding over Irei. The next Apache Army show will be on December 31, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with the show starting at 4 PM to avoid the New Years Eve celebration later that night. 

Tenryu Project show on November 10, 2011 as he teamed with former Team No Respect allies Jado and Gedo to take on the team of The Great Kabuki, TAJIRI, and THE KABUKI. Kanemura, Jado, and Gedo came out to Kodo Fuyuki's "Shoot It '95" theme song as Kanemura symbolized Fuyuki for the match by also wearing his signature purple robe. Kanemura ended up taking the fall after both TAJIRI and The KABUKI spit mist in Kanemura's face before THE KABUKI got the win over after a kick to the head. Kanemura complained afterwards to the referee citing all the mist on his face but the decision stood. 

Today marks the 13th Anniversary of this website. This site has actually now been around longer than FMW was as it lasted 12 years, 7 months. I know I am obviously biased here but I still feel that this site is the most in depth Japanese wrestling website for what it covers than any other site today. I know it doesn't cover the most interesting promotions as I tend to find myself spending hours upon hours still learning about the history of FMW over what is going on today. But thanks to everyone who has stuck with the site all this time and I am still planning on adding much more to this website over the next couple of weeks and months to come.  

Added: 11/6

FREEDOMS ran their October 27, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing their standard 151 fans for that building. The Kaientai Dojo team of Kengo Mashimo and Ryuichi Sekine put up their WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles on the line against Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui in the main event of the show. Mammoth would end up putting away Sekine after hitting his 29 Years Old on to a barbed wire baseball bat to get the pinfall and win the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles at 18 minutes, 50 seconds. The reign is Mammoth Sasaki's fourth reign and marks the first time holding the belt since he and Hideki Hosaka lost the titles for the last time on January 7, 2001 at Korakuen Hall in FMW. The reign also marks Kamui's first ever title won in his over 6 year career. Mammoth and Kamui would go on to defend the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles at the Kaientai Dojo show at Korakuen Hall on November 6, 2011 against the team of YOSHIYA and MIYAWAKI with Mammoth and Kamui successfully defending their titles after Mammoth would deliver a 29 Years Old on a chair, a chain, and a barbed wire baseball bat to get the win at 10 minutes, 55 seconds over YOSHIYA.

The rest of the matches on the FREEDOMS show saw Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and MASADA team up to defeat the team of Takao Omori, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei after MASADA hit the Skullfucka Buster on Kei for the win at 15 minutes, 1 second. GENTARO defeated Great Kojika once again after hitting him with a Superkick for the pinfall at 10 minutes, 5 seconds. Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated DEP's Toru Sugiura after nailing him with a Death Valley Bomb at 10 minutes, 41 seconds. The Winger and Ricky Fuji defeated the Kojika Army's Antonio Honda and Ken Ohka after Ricky delivered his Kamikaze onto Ohka at 13 minutes, 26 seconds for the win. HIROKI and Keita Yano opened the show going to a 20 minute time limit draw with Masashi Takeda and Masato Shibata.

FREEDOMS will run their first ever tour next week as they will run three shows in the southern part of Japan. The first show will be on November 11, 2011 at the Fukuoka Northern Kokura Municipal Gym with the main event of the show seeing Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai team up to take on the Brahman Brothers. Mammoth Sasaki will team up with both HIROKI and Kamui as they face off against the team of Shuji Ishikawa, Yuko Miyamoto, and Shinobu. The next show on November 12, 2011 at the Hiroshima Hatsukaichi Mominoki Forest Park Gym will be Yuko Miyamoto's return back home show as the main event will be an 18 Man Battle Royal with all the wrestlers from the show competing and the semi-main event being Takashi Sasaki and Yuko Miyamoto teaming up to take on Shuji Ishikawa and The Winger. The last show of the tour will take place on November 13, 2011 at the Hiroshima Industrial Hall East Pavilion will see Mammoth Sasaki take on Yuko Miyamoto in a battle of the former WMF wrestlers in the main event. It will be the first time that these two will be facing against each other in a singles match as Mammoth helped Yuko Miyamoto get trained in the WMF Dojo back in 2003. The semi-main event of the show will see Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and The Winger take on the Brahman team of Shu, Kei, and Sakigake. 

The next set of shows for FREEDOMS after the tour will be on November 23, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring has been labeled The Winger's 20th Anniversary in Pro-Wrestling show. Jun Kasai will then promote his Death Match on December 25, 2011 at Korakuen Hall. FREEDOMS will then open up 2012 on January 9th at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring followed by debuting at the Yokohama Raidant Hall on February 5th and then returning to the Osaka World Hall Pavilion on February 11th. They then return to Shin-Kiba for a show on March 13, 2012. 

Apache Army held their October 26, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with an announced crowd of their 200 fans for the show. The main event saw the heel stable called "Team Demolition" consisting of Kohei Sato, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Takeshi Minamino, and Manjimaru defeating the Apache Army team of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, HIROKI, and Yusaku Obata after Minamino hit a Toneri Tunder at 16 minutes, 17 seconds to get the win over Obata. Arashi and Rikiya Fudo defeated Fudo's twin brother of Daisaku Shimoda and Apache Kosakai when Fudo hit a lariat on Kosakai at 14 minutes, 30 seconds for the win and injuring Kosakai in the process. Madoka won the freelancer match over Keita Yano at 10 minutes, 55 seconds with the Ranhei. Kengo Nishimura defeated 666's Taro Yamada with a Swan Dive Frankensteiner at 6 minutes, 7 seconds. Shinobu opened the show defeating Shota at 10 minutes, 5 seconds with a Sex Bomber.

Mr. Gannosuke announced the full lineup for his Kishindo Returns 8 show on December 29, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will remain a Dragon Gate vs. Style-E Hardcore Rules Match of Masashi Takeda against Kenichiro Arai. Mr. Pogo taking on Hikaru Sato in a Street Fight has become the semi-main event of the show. Another Dragon Gate vs. Style-E match will take place as Kazuhiro Tamura goes against K-Ness. The former tag team of Mineo Fujita and Isami Kodaka reunites as they take on the team of Yasu Urano and Kamui in a special former WMF match. GENTARO will take on Keita Yano in a Real-Pro Wrestling match. SMASH's Makoto will take on Micro in a Former Ice Ribbon match, and Yuko Miyamoto will open the show teaming up with Tatsuhiko Yoshino against Guts Ishijima and CHANGO. 

Four teams remain in the Big Japan Maximum Tag Team Tournament with both A and B bracket finals matches taking place on November 22, 2011 at Korakuen Hall followed by the finals of the tournament taking place in the main event. The winner will receive a shot at the BJW Tag Team Titles on December 18th at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. The finals of the B bracket will see Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi take on The Brahman Brothers in a Hardcore Rules Match. The A bracket finals have Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa taking on the BJW Tag Team Champions Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka in a match announced as a Big Elements Death Match. Mammoth Sasaki will also be making his return to Big Japan as he will team up with Daisuke Sekimoto on November 9th at the Yokohama Nigiwaiza against Yoshihito Sasaki and Yasu Urano.

Added: 10/22

Today marks 10 years since Hayabusa was paralyzed slipping on the middle rope while attempting an Asai Moonsault. Hayabusa stated that although most would consider that an unhappy misfortunate day he treats October 22nd like his second birthday every year it comes around. He feels that the injury made him appreciate life more as a result. He remembers the words that Kodo Fuyuki told him right after he was diagnosed with cancer in April 2002 that as long he stayed alive that he was always still capable of his best days ahead. Hayabusa noted that since his injury that friends Shoichi Arai, Kodo Fuyuki, The Gladiator, Umaga, and Mitsuharu Misawa have all passed away so life is a very precious thing that he is glad to still have. He also noted that the original diagnosis for his injury was that he was going to be bed ridden for the rest of his life so even though he is restricted in things he is capable of doing that things could be much worse. Although its been 10 years since the injury he still considers it just 10 years and that he is still working on his goal of coming to the ring in his full Hayabusa costume and being introduced as Hayabusa one last time. He looks forward to year 11 to see how much improvement he has made like he does every October 22nd. 

FREEDOMS ran their annual Sapporo Teisen Hall show on October 9, 2011 drawing a crowd 258 fans which is just ten fans down from last year. The main event saw Munenori Sawa wrestle in his last FREEDOMS match of his career which will be ending next month when he faced off against FREEDOMS ace Takashi Sasaki in the main event with Sawa applying his signature Octopus Hold and getting Sasaki to submit at 13 minutes, 17 seconds. GENTARO who has turned face again and rejoined the FREEDOMS Army teamed with The Winger to take on the Kojika Army of Great Kojika and Antonio Honda in the semi-main event with Kojika getting DQ'd at 8 minutes, 55 seconds causing a restart of the match which resulted in Kojika getting a cradle on GENTARO for the win at a grand total time of 10 minutes, 42 seconds. Mammoth Sasaki faced off against Kengo Mashimo for a right at a shot for the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles and ended up getting DQ'd during the match at 7 minutes, 36 seconds. Mashimo wanted revenge after the DQ'd and accepted the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Title Match later this month in Shin-Kiba as a result. Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Tomoya Adachi defeated Jun Kasai and Kamui when Adachi hit his SOD on Kamui to get the win 12 minutes, 17 seconds. Ricky Fuji got a surprising singles win over Shinobu after a cradle at 8 minutes, 21 seconds. The opening match saw Masashi Takeda and Ryuichi Sekine defeat HIROKI and Toru Sugiura when Takeda deliver the Rikkinpo at 8 minutes, 25 seconds to get the pinfall over Sugiura. 

The full lineup for the FREEDOMS October 27, 2010 show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring will have the main event of Kengo Mashimo and Ryuichi Sekine defending their WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles against Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui as Mammoth looks to win back the title he was the first holder of and Kamui looks for his first ever title of his career. Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and MASADA will team up to take on the team of Takao Omori, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei. A rematch of the Korakuen Hall main event from June 21, 2010 will take place as GENTARO takes on Great Kojika. The Winger and Ricky Fuji take on the Kojika Army of Antonio Honda and Ken Ohka. HIROKI and Keita Yano face off against Masashi Takeda and Masato Shibata and Tatsuhito Takaiwa opens up against Toru Sugiura. 

The Apache Army announced the full lineup for their October 26, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The originally scheduled WEW Tag Team Title Match has been changed into a 8 Man Match as HIROKI and Yusaku Obata will team up with Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda against the team of Kohei Sato, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Takeshi Minamino, and a person going by the name of Manjimaru. Arashi will team up with Rikiya Fudo as they will take on Fudo's twin brother Daisaku Shimoda and Apache Kosakai. A freelancer match will see Madoka take on Keita Yano. Kengo Nishimura will take on 666's Taro Yamada and Shinobu will open the show against Shota. 

The Apache Army also announced the full lineup for their November 6, 2011 show at the Osaka World Hall Pavilion. The main draw of the show will be Yoshihiro Takayama appearing as he will team with Tomohiko Hashimoto and Kuuga as they take on the team of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Arashi in the main event. Most of the show will have an Apache Army vs. Osaka Pro feel as the semi main event will see HIROKI and Yusaku Obata compete in a non title match against Osaka Pro's Naoki Setoguchi & Kazuaki Mihara. Osaka Pro's Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada return to take on Madoka and Kengo Nishimura. Shoichi Ichinomiya will return to the Apache Army for the first time in years by teaming up with Apple Miyuki against a mystery tag team. The Dark Ranger will return to face off against Tadasuke and Daisaku Shimoda & Apache Kosakai open the show against DEP's Tadanobu Fujisawa and Apache Army rookie Takeshi Irei. 

Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda will also make their Okinawa Pro debut as Okinawa makes it Tokyo debut on November 4, 2011 at the Shinjuku FACE as they team with Naoshi Sano to take on Okinawa Pro founder Super Delfin, Gran Hamada, and Okinawa Pro's Mozuku Man on the show.

Mr. Gannosuke announced that he will his Kishindo Returns 8 show on December 29, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The top two matches will stem from his main event match from September as they will be Style-E vs. Dragon Gate matches. Masashi Takeda will take on Kenichiro Arai in a Hardcore Rules Match in the main event of the show. Kazuhiro Tamura will take on K-ness in the semi-main event of the show. Mr. Pogo will go up against DDT's Hikaru Sato in a Street Fight on the show and in a match of former Ice Ribbon girls that Gannosuke trained will see SMASH's Makoto against Micro. A couple of more matches for the show will be announced shortly. 

Nanjyo Hayato announced the top two matches for his upcoming FFF show on November 25, 2011 at the Osaka Oyodo Community Center as the main event of the show will be an old FMW battle as Nanjyo will take on Masato Tanaka in a Hardcore Rules Match. The semi-main event will be Ultimo Dragon and El Samurai against the Kyoto Pro mask team of Gold Ginkakuji and Silver Ginkakuji to crown the first ever FFF Tag Team Champions.

Added: 10/10

Two eventful days for Hayabusa took place last week. The first was on October 6, 2011 at the AFR in Yokohama where Hayabusa had his Phoenix Music Fiesta along side Mr. Gannosuke, Megumi Kudo, Ricky Fuji, Ichiro Yaguchi, Command Bolshoi, and several other musicians. Hayabusa, Gannosuke, Ricky, and Megumi took pictures together before the show as it was the first time Kudo was seeing Gannosuke in over a decade. In attendance was Tetsuhiro Kuroda who ended up meeting up with his former FMW friends after the show and taking pictures with everyone. Hayabusa posted a video on his YouTube account of him and Gannosuke singing a song together at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLx-yy3S4KE

Hayabusa traveled to Korakuen Hall the next day on October 7, 2011 to participate in the Mask Nobility Fiesta 2011 show to celebrate Mil Mascaras' 40 year career in Japan. The show ended up drawing a crowd of 1250 fans in attendance. Hayabusa was given the chance to book the semi-main event match where he put in two of his best friends Jinsei Shinzaki and The Great Sasuke teaming with Genichiro Tenryu revising his Big Hayabusa gimmick that he started in FMW back in 2000. They took on the team of Kensuke Sasaki, Prince Devitt, and El Samurai. Hayabusa did commentary during the match as Big Hayabusa ended up getting the win after making El Samurai submit to the Texas Cloverleaf at 19 minutes, 35 seconds. 

After the main event, all the wrestlers from the show entered the ring together and asked for Hayabusa to come in the ring. With the help of many of the wrestlers, Hayabusa was brought in the ring for the first time since his injury that's two weeks shy of ten years ago in the same building it occurred. Hayabusa posed with Tenryu still in the Big Hayabusa costume and then was in the middle of a group picture with everyone from the show next to Mil Mascaras and Dos Caras. Hayabusa afterwards stated that he had an amazing time as it brought back childhood memories as his first two favorite wrestlers growing up as a child were Mil Mascaras and then Tiger Mask I. Hayabusa also posed for pictures with Mil Mascaras and Akira Hokuto before the show started. 

Added: 9/30

FREEDOMS ran their 15th Anniversary of Takashi Sasaki's career on September 22, 2011 at the Shinjuku FACE drawing a disappointing crowd of 235 fans in the 650 seat building. It is also down from the disappointing number they did last December of 285 fans in the same building. They also debuted their new black FREEDOMS ring mat on the show. 

Takashi Sasaki who made his debut on September 22, 1996 in Goro Tsurumi's IWA Kokusai promotion main evented the show teaming with fellow Iwate native Shuji Ishikawa against Sasaki's long time tag team partner and real life best friend GENTARO and his new tag team partner Takao Omori. Sasaki would end up delivering the Michinoku Driver II on GENTARO to pick up the win at 19 minutes, 31 seconds. Afterwards, every wrestler on the show all of which have had something to do with Sasaki's career came out to the ring and celebrated with Sasaki and took a group picture with everyone in the ring to end the show. 

The DDT team of KUDO, HARASHIMA, and Masa Takanashi defeated the FREEDOMS team of Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Kamui after HARASHIMA got the win over Kamui with the Somato at 15 minutes, 10 seconds. Yuko Miyamoto defeated HIROKI ending his hot streak following beating GENTARO earlier in the month after Miyamoto reversed a roll up to get the win at 12 minutes, 25 seconds. 

The 69 year old Great Kojika teamed up with fellow Kojika Army members Antonio Honda and Ken Ohka to defeat the team of 63 year old Goro Tsurumi and Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei after Kojika made Kei submit to his claw hold at 9 minutes, 41 seconds. 

The team of Mammoth Sasaki, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Masashi Takeda defeated the Big Japan team of Yoshihito Sasaki, Ryuichi Kawakami, and Atsushi Ohashi after Mammoth delivered the 29 Years Old on Ohashi to get the win at 13 minutes, 9 seconds. Mammoth afterwards got on the mic and called Ryuichi Sekine to the ring. Mammoth stated to Sekine that he was apart of the first ever WEW Hardcore Tag Team Champions and he wanted to hold the titles again with Kamui. Sekine replied back stating that it doesn't matter if he was apart of the first championship team and that he would have to earn a title shot first before getting one. This angered Mammoth who grabbed Sekine and delivered a chokeslam before leaving the ring. 

Ricky Fuji defeated DEP's Toru Sugiura with the 9999 DDT at 8 minutes, 58 seconds and Munenori Sawa made Shinobu tap with the Octopus Hold at 7 minutes, 40 seconds in the opening match.

FREEDOMS announced the lineup for their afternoon show on October 9, 2011 at the Sapporo Teisen Hall. Takashi Sasaki will wrestle in the main event against Munenori Sawa for the first time before Sawa retires on November 7th at Korakuen Hall. Mammoth Sasaki will look to earn a shot at the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles as he faces Kengo Mashimo. No matter the result most likely, Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui will end up challenging for the WEW Hardcore Tag Team Titles on October 27th in Shin-Kiba. GENTARO who looks to be finished with the Kojika Army after the September 11th Iwate show teams with The Winger to take on Great Kojika and Antonio Honda. Jun Kasai and Kamui team up to take on Tatsuhito Takaiwa and former FMW/WMF wrestler Tomoya Adachi. The K-Dojo team of HIROKI and Ryuichi Sekine will take on Masashi Takeda and Toru Sugiura and Ricky Fuji will open the show against Shinobu. 

A special show on November 8, 2011 put on by a company called "Pro-Wrestling Business" will take place at the Shinjuku FACE with the FREEDOMS team of Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui appearing to take on the TKG48 team of Sanshiro Takagi and Shigehiro Irie and their partner New Japan's Yuji Nagata on the show. It will be the first time any of the FREEDOMS members will be taking on the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion in a match. 

Samurai TV announced they will be promoting the New Years Eve show at Korakuen Hall this year. FREEDOMS will be one of the promotions to participate on the show along with Big Japan, DDT, Union Pro, K-Dojo, Style-E, Kou-Hoku, 666, and Secret Base.

Apache Army returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on September 28, 2011 announcing a crowd of 200 fans for the show. The main event saw the expected result of Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda dropping the WEW Tag Team Titles to HIROKI and Yusaku Obata after HIROKI hit a Swanton Diving DDT on Kanemura and Obata to get the win over Kanemura to win the WEW Tag Team Titles at 17 minutes, 23 seconds. It is the first reign for each with the belts. Arashi defended his WEW World Title against Daisaku Shimoda for the third time after getting the win at 8 minutes, 22 seconds with a Powerbomb. Kohei Sato and Tomohiko Hashimoto teamed up for the first time in the promotion to defeat the Freelance team of Madoka and Keita Yano after Hashimoto hit the X.C.T on Yano at 10 minutes, 15 seconds. Apache Kosakai ended up injuring his leg while training in the ring and was force to back out of the mask. The Dark Ranger who I am just assuming is Nanjyo Hayato under his old FMW gimmick made his Apache Army debut teaming with Shinobu in a losing effort to the team of Shota and Kengo Nishimura got the win over Ranger at 10 minutes, 34 seconds. Rikiya Fudo defeated 666's Taro Yamada at 6 minutes, 30 seconds with a Lariat. 

Nanjyo Hayato and Megumi Kudo after the FFF show in August ended up working together and sang four songs together for an upcoming CD. There will be 6 songs on the CD with the four they sang together and two songs sung by Nanjyo himself. They recently did the photography and dressed up for the cover of the CD. You get the feeling Nanjyo is living his dream of 18 years in that picture. Nanjyo also announced that at the next FFF show on November 25th the newly created FFF Tag Team Championship will be decided. Masato Tanaka and Megumi Kudo have also been announced for the 11/25 show. The FFF 8/27/11 DVD was released last week to check out the 2 minute trailer of the show click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYpTcjGs4hc

The Mask Nobility Fiesta which takes place on October 7, 2011 at Korakuen Hall which will be celebrating Mil Mascaras coming to Japan for the first time 40 years ago will have the semi-main event match booked by Hayabusa. Hayabusa has booked three of his friends in Genichiro Tenryu who will be revising his Big Hayabusa gimmick, his best friend in Jinsei Shinzaki, and another close friend in The Great Sasuke as they team up against Kensuke Sasaki, New Japan's IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Prince Devitt, and El Samurai. Hayabusa will also be watching the match from ringside. 

Added: 9/18

Mr. Gannosuke promoted his Kishindo Returns 7 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on September 15, 2011 drawing an announced crowd of 228 fans which is an improvement compared to his last show that had a disappointing crowd. The main event of the show was a Style-E vs. Dragon Gate match as Style-E's Masashi Takeda and Kazuhiro Tamura teamed up against Dragon Gate's Kenichiro Arai and K-ness with the Dragon Gate team getting the win over the smaller promotion guys as Arai hit a Hanshin Tiger Supplex on Tamura to get the win at 17 minutes, 18 seconds. After the show, Mr. Gannosuke came out which has become a tradition for the show to do his trademark spots with Gosaku but with Gosaku not appearing on this show it was Daisuke that came out instead with Gannosuke delivering a Fire Thunder to him to end the show and send the fans home happy.

Munenori Sawa got a huge win in the semi-main event of the show as he defeated Dragon Gate's Super Shisa after making Shisa submit to the Octopus Hold. Gannosuke afterwards came to the ring as Sawa thanked Gannosuke for seven years ago giving Lingerie Muto a spotlight for the first time in WMF as this was going to be his final Gannosuke promoted show as he will be retiring in November. Gannosuke thanked Sawa as well and stated that he had been the ace of his promotion for the last two years and being the face of his shows and around this time the fans started chanting "one more year" at Sawa. Gannosuke then went to shake Sawa's hand and Sawa shook it and then pulled Gannosuke towards him and put him in the Octopus Hold to a loud ovation before letting go and apologizing to Gannosuke stating that it was a force of a habit. Keita Yano defeated Secret Base's Jun Ogawauchi at 12 minutes, 40 seconds with a Hofmann Clutch to get the win. Mr. Pogo defeated the Micro at 8 minutes, 15 seconds after a Chain Hanging caused the referee to stop the match in a Street Fight. Micro who is the former Chii Tomiya left her home Ice Ribbon promotion on August 28th and joined the Pro-Wrestling Wallabee promotion and changed her name to Micro. 

ZERO1's Mineo Fujita, 666's Yuko Miyamoto, FREEDOMS's Kamui, and 666's Taro Yamada opened the show by defeating Guts World's Guts Ishijima, Secret Base's CHANGO and Amigo Suzuki and the Satan Alliance Machine after Yamada hit a Diving Double Knee Drop on Suzuki to get the win at 19 minutes, 3 seconds. Gannosuke referred to this match as a homecoming of his WMF students although Taro Yamada was not one of his students he considered his other student that retired in Kenichi Kono's spirit in Yamada for this match. Gannosuke opened the show by thanking fans for attending this show even though the Dradition promotion was running show at the Shinjuku FACE at the same time.

FREEDOMS ran their charity show on September 11, 2011 at the Iwate Ichinoseki City Gym U Dome Sub Arena drawing an announced crowd of 516 fans which is up from the last two years considerably as it looks like the plan of taking a bus to bring in the fans from Tokyo was a good idea. The show drew a ticket profit of 585,500 Yen (around 7623 Dollars), 217,000 Yen (around 2825 Dollars) in merchandise and Takashi Sasaki donated 10,000 Yen (around 130 Dollars) with all the money being donated to help the area after the Earthquake. 

The main event of the show saw the Iwate native team of Takashi Sasaki and Shuji Ishikawa team up to take on the former BJW Tag Team Champion team of Mammoth Sasaki and Daisuke Sekimoto with Sasaki getting the home town win after hitting Mammoth with the Michinoku Driver II to get the win at 16 minutes, 38 seconds. The semi-main event saw an upset as HIROKI defeated GENTARO with the Trance Rave at 13 minutes, 48 seconds. Yuko Miyamoto, Masashi Takeda, and Shinobu defeated the FREEDOMS team of Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Kamui in a Hardcore Rules Match after Shinobu hit his S.E.X Shooting Star Press on Kamui at 17 minutes, 56 seconds to get the win. Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Kankuro Hoshino defeated the team of Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Shuou Fujiwara after Takaiwa hit his Death Valley Bomb on Fujiwara at 12 minutes, 26 for the win. In a Ice Ribbon Offer Match, the team of Tsukasa Fujimoto and Hikaru Shida defeated Hamuko Hoshi and Mochi Miyagi when Fujimoto delivered a Venus Shot on Hoshi for the win at 11 minutes, 27 seconds. The opening match saw Munenori Sawa and Ryuichi Sekine defeat Ricky Fuji and Toru Sugiura when Sawa applied the Octopus Hold on Sugiura for the submission win at 11 minutes, 9 seconds. 

After the show, the wrestlers and fans from Tokyo got on the bus and traveled back to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring throughout the night but early in the trip stopped at a underground mall where everyone got their own dinner which included Shuji Ishikawa and several fans getting some KFC. Takashi Sasaki, GENTARO, The Winger, and Kamui also appeared on Samurai TV's S-Arena show on September 13th to promote the upcoming Takashi Sasaki 15th Anniversary show at the Shinjuku FACE on September 22nd. Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui will also be appearing in CZW at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia along with Big Japan and K-Dojo on December 3rd. 

Mineo Fujita had a little bit of success during ZERO1's Tenka-Ichi Jr. Heavyweight Tournament tour. On the first night of the tournament on September 13, 2011 at the Shinjuku FACE a bye was given to Fujita from the first round. He competed in a six man tag team match instead as he teamed with Dragon Gate's Susumu Yokosuka and Michinoku Pro's Fujita Jr. Hayato as they defeated Takafuma Ito, Munenori Sawa, and Robby Heart when Fujita rolled Sawa up with the Gannosuke Clutch for the win. The next night on September 14, 2011 at the Shinjuku FACE, Fujita faced off against Super Crazy in the 2nd Round of the tournament and once again applied the Gannosuke Clutch to get the win to advance to the semi-finals. Fujita then faced off against Fujita Jr. Hayato on September 17, 2011 at Korakuen Hall with the winner advancing to the finals and although Fujita pulled out every highflying move from his arsenal he would end up getting trapped into Hayato's K.I.D. submission move with the referee being forced to stop the match after Mineo Fujita would refuse to submit to give Fujita Jr. Hayato the win. Fujita Jr. Hayato would go on to the finals and end up submitting to Munenori Sawa's Octopus Hold as Sawa would win the Tenka-Ichi Jr. Heavyweight Tournament just two months before his upcoming retirement.

Nanjyo Hayato announced the second FFF show to take place on November 25, 2011 at the Osaka Oyodo Community Center which is a 500 seat building so the promotion has already downsized after the first show only drew about 1/3 it could in the 1800 seat building. It also looks like the FMW theme of the promotion might already have been dropped as the main event of the show will be Nanjyo Hayato teaming with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi against Ultimo Dragon and El Samurai. Other wrestlers so far scheduled for the show will be W*ING Kanemura, Bad Nurse Nakamura, and Apple Miyuki. 

Apache Army announced two more matches for their September 28, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with Arashi defending his WEW World Title against Daisaku Shimoda and Keita Yano making his Apache Army debut by teaming with Madoka against Kohei Sato and Tomohiko Hashimoto. The Apache Army will also be returning to Osaka after their successful show last month there as they will be running the Osaka World Hall Pavilion on November 6th. 

Big Japan announced that they would be holding a Maximum Tag Team Tournament from September 19th to the finals on November 22nd at Korakuen Hall. The winner will get a shot at Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka's BJW Tag Titles on December 14th at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. There will be two brackets with the A bracket teams consisting of Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi, Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa, Abdullah Kobayashi and Masashi Takeda, Shadow WX and Kankuro Hoshino, and a wXw team. The B bracket will consist of Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka, Ryuji Ito and a Mystery Partner, Brahman Shu and Kei, Takashi Sasaki and Masato Inaba, Yoshihito Sasaki and Shinobu, and a CZW team. The main event of September 19th Korakuen Hall match of Abdullah Kobayashi against Kankuro Hoshino will be the number one contender for Ryuji Ito's Death Match Title. 

Hayabusa performed at Soldier's BUU Bar in Ikebukuro, Tokyo on September 17, 2011. Soldier who got into wrestling and joined FMW because of Hayabusa always ends up having his best business nights when Hayabusa performs at his place. Soldier also invited his brother for this performance who is in the picture above. Hayabusa's next big concert will take place on October 6, 2011 where he will be joined by Mr. Gannosuke, Megumi Kudo, and Ricky Fuji at the A.F.R in Yokohama. 

Added: 8/30

The FFF promotion ran its very first show on August 27, 2011 at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2. The show was a combination of an FMW reunion mixed in with former Osaka Pro talent as well as current Nagoya based talent. Nanjyo Hayato put the show together and promoted the show to the Osaka market as best as one man could for a new promotion these days. Nanjyo released information on the show on August 31st. Somebody that I know that went to the show said there was 400-600 fans in the building with Nanjyo announcing there was 599 fans at the show. That has to be considered disappointing number as if the legit number is 599 that is still only filling 1/3 of a 1800 seat building. Nanjyo stated that he had a lot of fun at the show and stated that there would be another show but has never given an actual date of when a next show would take place. He did announce that the show would be produced for a DVD by the same company that handles the Osaka Pro DVD's although they're known for taking several months to release DVD's of shows.

The main event of the show saw Nanjyo Hayato team up with Atsushi Onita and Nanjyo Hayato to take on W*ING Kanemura, Magnitude Kishiwada, and Ricky Fuji in a old  FMW style Street Fight Barbed wire Death Match. Onita ended up Piledriving Ricky Fuji through a table to set up the same spot that Miss Mongol did in her FMW reunion show last year as Nanjyo climbed the ladder and delivered a Moonsault off of it on Ricky to get the win at 10 minutes, 54 seconds. 

Backstage after the show many former FMW wrestlers took pictures with one another including Onita, Hayabusa, Nanjyo, Mammoth Sasaki, Megumi Kudo, Rie Nakamura and Kaori Nakayama who was in attendance for the show as she lives in Osaka and brought her two young children. While taking pictures with everyone Nanjyo stated they were a family together and that he was the foster child (an accurate claim in my opinion) to this FMW family as he was the punk kid that kept leaving and coming back throughout the years. He considered himself not a good son as he was not there for when who he considered the mother of the family in President Arai died and that it important for him that he is able to have the soul of the F.

The highflying semi-final match saw the former Osaka Pro team of Kajin Habu Otoko, Tsubasa and Condor take on the former FMW team of Battle Ranger Z which was Yukihide Ueno, Flying Kid Ichihara, and Nanjyo Hayato putting on his old Dark Ranger mask as Otoko ended up getting the pinfall over Dark Ranger Deadly with the Poison Senna Air Raid at 10 minutes, 20 seconds. 

Megumi Kudo refereed the 8 Woman Royal Rumble with the appeal of the match being the mystery original FMW woman's wrestler. The participants in the Royal Rumble were Kana, Ray, Mio Shirai, Io Shirai, Ray, Nancy Mari, and Shimono Sawako with Kana and Ray being the last two before Bad Nurse Nakamura would turn out to be the mystery participant. Nakamura would end up eliminating Kana but Ray would end up pinning Nakamura with a School Girl to win the Royal Rumble at 10 minutes, 40 seconds. Megumi Kudo afterwards stated that she loved working the show and sees FMW having succeeded into FFF.  

Mammoth Sasaki teamed up with former Osaka Pro and WMF wrestler Kengo Takai to defeat the team of Yutaka & Michio Kageyama after Mammoth delivered the Mammoth Home Run to Kageyama and then finished him off with the 29 Years Old at 7 minutes, 44 seconds. Hide Kubata and Yasu Kubata defeated Akihito and Toru Sugiura after Yasu hit the Yasu Bomb on Sugiura to get the win at 7 minutes, 22 seconds. The opening match saw Nanjyo revise his Osaka Pro Kabuto-O Beetle gimmick as he defeated Osaka independent wrestler Yuki Tanaka with a Falcon Crash at 5 minutes, 47 seconds. Very short match times overall for the show. 

The Winger ended up becoming the first two Death Match Tournament winner after defeating MASADA in the finals of the second night show. You can check out the report of the Jun Kasai Death Match Tournament for both nights at http://fmwwrestling.us/Kasai2011.html

Pro-Wrestling MACKEY which is an online merchandise store in Nagoya promoted a show called FREEDOMS vs. Nagoya Union at the Nagoya Sports Center although nothing was released information wise for this show. The only things of note that were talked about afterwards was that Bad Nurse Nakamura appeared at the show during the Ricky Fuji against Konaka Pale One match as she began choking our Ricky for her fellow white painted face friend although Ricky would still manage to come back and get the win following the 9999 DDT. The other thing of note was Abdullah The Butcher appeared at the show with many of the wrestlers taking pictures with him and Takashi Sasaki announcing that he wants to bring in the 70 year old Abdullah for a match against the 69 years Great Kojika in FREEDOMS.

Takashi Sasaki announced the lineup for his 15th Anniversary show at the Shinjuku FACE on September 22, 2011. The show will consist of wrestlers from Sasaki's present and past. The main event will see Takashi Sasaki team up with Shuji Ishikawa as he takes on Sasaki's long time partner GENTARO and Takao Omori. The FREEDOMS team of Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Kamui will take on the DDT team of Sasaki's past in KUDO, HARASHIMA, and Masa Takanashi. Sasaki's long time Big Japan partner Yuko Miyamoto will take on FREEDOMS HIROKI. The Kojika Army of Great Kojika, Antonio Honda, and Ken Ohka will take on Goro Tsurumi who was the main guy in IWA Kokusai which is the promotion that Sasaki started in who will team with Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei who have split from the Kojika Army. Mammoth Sasaki will team with Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda against Yoshihito Sasaki, Ryuichi Kawakami, and Atsushi Ohashi in a FREEDOMS vs. Big Japan Strong Match. Ricky Fuji will take on Akihito and Munenori Sawa will open the show against Shinobu.

The Apache Army returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on August 18, 2011 and would announce a disappointing crowd of 120 fans. Kohei Sato and Kamikaze would defend their WEW Tag Team Titles against Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda which Kanemura had been trying to win back for over a year and a half. Kuroda would end up getting the win after rolling up Kamikaze with a Samson Clutch at 17 minutes, 6 seconds to bring the WEW Tag Team Titles back home to the Apache Army. HIROKI and Yusaku Obata came out afterwards and made a challenge for the titles for the next Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on September 28, 2011 with the champions accepting the challenge. HIROKI and Yusaku Obata earlier defeated Madoka and Apache Kosakai in the semi-final match after Obata hit the Phoenix Splash on Kosakai to get the win at 15 minutes, 50 seconds. WEW World Champion Arashi teamed up with Rikiya Fudo as they took on the number one contender for the title in Tomohiko Hashimoto and Fudo's twin brother Daisaku Shimoda as Arashi would hit Shimoda with a Powerbomb to get the pinfall at 14 minutes, 27 seconds. Osaka Pro's Masamune would defeat Kengo Nishimura at 9 minutes, 43 seconds with the Honebami. The opening match saw Shinobu make his Apache Army debut defeating Shota at 8 minutes, 53 seconds with the SEX Bomber to get the win. 

Apache Army returned to the Osaka Minami Move On Arena on August 28, 2011 drawing an announced crowd of 250 fans. The main event saw Kintaro Kanemura on the opposing side against Atsushi Onita for the second straight night in Osaka as Kanemura teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Daisaku Shimoda against Atsushi Onita, Kuuga, and HAYATA with Kanemura's team getting the win after Kanemura would deliver a balcony dive on HAYATA and then finish him off with a kick to the chest to get the win at 14 minutes, 37 seconds. The semi-main event saw Arashi defend his WEW World Title for the second time successfully after defeating Tomohiko Hashimoto at 10 minutes, 16 seconds after hitting him with a Brainbuster to get the win. The Osaka Pro team of Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada defeated the number one contenders for the WEW Tag Team Titles in HIROKI and Yusaku Obata after Harada hit Obata with a German Supplex to get the pinfall at 18 minutes, 43 seconds. Osaka Pro's Zeus defeated Apache Kosakai after hitting Kosakai with the Jackhammer to get the win at 7 minutes, 24 seconds. Former FMW wrestler Kyoko Inoue made her Apache Army debut as she defeated Keiko Aono at 8 minutes, 22 seconds after delivering a Powerbomb to get the win. Tadanobu Fujisawa defeated Takeshi Irei who has been training under Kanemura as Fujisawa got the win at 7 minutes, 19 seconds with the Bomaie. The opening match saw Osaka Pro's Kanjuro Matsuyama easily defeat Naoshi Sano at 3 minutes, 16 seconds. 

Atsushi Onita pictured above with Popeye will appear at Miss Mongol's CPE show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on September 9, 2011 and team with Miss Mongol in a Street Fight Match against Ichiro Yaguchi and Hailey Hatred with CPE announcing the show having already sold out. 

Added: 8/15

The Apache Army ran in Kintaro Kanemura's home town of Mie at the Mie Tsu Prefectural Bunka Center not announcing a crowd number as it looks like they will only announce figures in Shin-Kiba. The lineup was switched around as Kintaro Kanemura got late notice that Masato Tanaka would be able to participate on the show. Tanaka was moved up into the main event with Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda as they took on the team of Arashi, Kohei Sato, and Ryouji Sai in what was build as Kintaro Kanemura's 20th Anniversary since his debut. Although he really made his debut on December 20, 1990 in Pioneer Senshei it was August 7, 1991 in W*ING that Kanemura's career really got started and this anniversary was celebrating that fact. Ryouji Sai would end up ruining the Anniversary as he would hit hit Nachi Waterfalls Double Diving Foot Stomp on Kuroda to pick up the win at 14 minutes, 59 seconds. Daisaku Shimoda and Apache Kosakai defeated the team of HIROKI and Yusaku Obata after Kosakai hit his Sumida Drop on Obata to get the win at 17 minutes, 9 seconds. Tomohiko Hashimoto who was moved down the card from the main event teamed with Shota who was moved up from the opener to defeat the team Tadanobu Fujisawa & Takeshi Irei after Shota hit a splash on Irei to get the pinfall at 12 minutes, 40 seconds in Takeshi Irei's Pre Debut Match. Yuu Yamagata ended up getting the win over HARU after putting on the YUU Lock to get her to tap at 7 minutes, 45 seconds. Gran Hamada opened the show by defeating Naoshi Sano at 6 minutes, 20 seconds with the Hamada Cutter. 

No details were ever released of Nightmare Pro's show in Gunma at the Star Festival Downtown Parking Lot on August 7, 2011 other than Kintaro Kanemura pulled out of the show and Mr. Pogo replaced him in the match with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Shuou Fujiwara going after the Star Gate 6 Man Tag Team Titles against Masayoshi Motegi, Koichiro Kimura and Kazuhiko Matsuzaki. I personally can't imagine a team of Pogo, Kuroda, and Fujiwara ever winning 6 Man Titles myself though.  

FREEDOMS announced a joint show with MACKEY's Shop (an online wrestling shop located in Nagoya) which will go by the name Nagoya Union on August 28, 2011 at the Nagoya Sports Center as Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai will team up in the main event against former Osaka Pro's Kengo Takai and DEP's Michio Kageyama who will be competing on the FFF show in Osaka the day before. GENTARO takes on Mammoth Handa in the semi-main event, Ricky Fuji will face off against 666's Konaka Pale One, The Winger and Kamui team up to take on the Kobata Brothers of Hide and Yasu, and HIROKI takes on Akihito in the opening match. 

FREEDOMS also announced the lineup for their charity show on September 11, 2011 at the Iwate Ichinoseki City Gym U Dome Sub Arena. Iwate natives Takashi Sasaki and Shuji Ishikawa team up to take on the former BJW Tag Team Champions of Mammoth Sasaki and Daisuke Sekimoto in the main event. GENTARO takes on HIROKI in a rematch of their May 2, 2010 match in Yokohama. Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Kamui team up to take on the Big Japan regulars of Yuko Miyamoto, Masashi Takeda, and Shinobu in a Hardcore Rules Match. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Shuou Fujiwara face off against Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Kankuro and Ice Ribbon will have a offer match of Tsukasa Fujimoto & Hikaru Shida against Mochi Miyagi & Hamuko Hoshi. The opening match will be Ricky Fuji and Akihito teaming up to take on TKG48's Munenori Sawa and Ryuichi Sekine. 

If the FFF first show on August 27th at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2 ends up being a financial loss it won't be because of Nanjyo Hayato's lack of effort in trying to promote it. Nanjyo has gone all over Osaka to promote the show including putting up posters of the show at every restaurant and bar that he can, he has been promoting the show and selling tickets at every Osaka Pro show he has been on, and was a guest on Samurai TV's S-Arena promoting the show as the return of Atsushi Onita to Osaka in a FMW style Death Match. Front row tickets have sold out so far. It is all based on this first show on whether or not more shows will follow afterwards. 

Hayabusa will be holding a concert the day after the show on August 28, 2011 with his special guest for the show being Mammoth Sasaki which is why Mammoth Sasaki will not be participating in the FREEDOMS/Nagoya Union show in Nagoya the next day. 

Added: 7/30

FREEDOMS ran their July 26, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing a crowd of 158 fans for the show which is almost the same number they did the previous month in the building. The main event of the show was a Hardcore Rules Best 2 out of 3 Falls Match pitting 6 of the 8 men that will be in Jun Kasai's Death Match Tournament. Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Kamui teamed together to defeat Takashi Sasaki, Mammoth Sasaki, and Masashi Takeda in a bloody fight that went all over the building. Mammoth ended up scoring the first fall after delivering a Mammoth Home Run and then following that up with the 29 Years Old on Kamui to get the 1-0 advantage at 9 minutes, 25 seconds. Mammoth continued to focus on Kamui in the second fall including delivering a Running Powerbomb off the ramp into the ring as well as a giant choke slam but Kamui was able to avoid getting pinned a second time. The Winger would instead manage to roll up Mammoth with a cradle and tie the match up at one fall a piece with the second fall going 3 minutes, 29 seconds. The final fall saw Takashi Sasaki and Kamui going at it with one another when Kamui out of nowhere would hook on his Kamui Clutch on Takashi to get the win for his team with the third fall going 5 minutes, 26 seconds. Kamui leaped for joy after scoring the biggest pinfall of his career. All wrestlers stayed in the ring as Kamui got the final promo of the show to hype up next months Death Match Tournament. 

Other matches on the show saw the new team of Takao Omori and GENTARO defeating the Kojika Army with Great Kojika having dropped the Great Deer gimmick, Abdullah Kobayashi, and Ken Ohka when Omori getting a cradle on Kojika for the win at 16 minutes, 50 seconds. Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated Ryuichi Sekine in a Different Style Fight rather easily after making Sekine tap to an Armlock at 4 minutes, 55 seconds. The Kojika Army team of Antonio Honda and Onryo defeated Ricky Fuji and HIROKI after Honda roll up with Ricky with a cradle for the win at 13 minutes, 22 seconds. It was the first of four cradle variations pinfalls on this show. TKG48 Karate Army members Sanshiro Takagi and Kazuhiko Ogasawara went to a Double Count Out finish right away with the Brahman Brothers right away at 17 seconds in before the match had to be restarted and Takagi and Kei ended up Double KOing each other at 5 minutes, 21 seconds. GENTARO opened the show in a Dark Match against DEP's Toru Sugiura with GENTARO getting the win with a Frony Necklock at 6 minutes, 51 seconds.

The tournament matches were announced after the show for the first night on August 24, 2011 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will be a rematch of the finals of last years tournament as Jun Kasai will most likely get his win back over 2010 Death Match Tournament winner MASADA. Mammoth Sasaki will take on FUCK promotion (small indy that is kept alive by the Yakuza) owner Kenji Fukimoto. Takashi Sasaki looks to get his revenge for his upset loss against Kamui and 2006 Death Match Tournament winner The Winger takes on Masashi Takeda who missed last years tournament after his eyelid was cut open by glass. 

Takashi Sasaki announced several more shows outside of Shin-Kiba in the near future. The next FREEDOMS show will be on September 11, 2011 in his home town of Iwate and will be a charity show for the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake. Sasaki has come up with a good plan to get fans in from Tokyo for the event. There will be a bus outside the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring that all the FREEDOMS wrestlers will be taking as well that will be leaving at 7 AM. The trip will take 7 hours and and is suppose to arrive 3 hours before the show. The bus will be leaving to go back to Shin-Kiba at 10 PM and is suppose to be back the next day at 5 AM. Takashi Sasaki also announced that there will be a 15th Anniversary show of his career on September 22, 2011 at the Shinjuku FACE. They will be returning to the Sapporo Teisen Hall on October 9th although no word on if there will be a 5 promotion show in the building the next day like there was last year. They will have a little mini tour in November as they will run in Fukuoka at Kokura Municipal Gym on November 11th and then run in Hiroshima at the Industrial Hall East Pavilion (last year they ran at the West Pavilion) on November 23rd. They also will be running at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on October 27th and November 23rd and the Jun Kasai Christmas Death Match will finish off the year at Korakuen Hall on December 25th.

Apache Army ran their "Rikimaru Memorial Show" on July 25, 2011 at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring announcing a crowd of 200. The show started with a 10 bell salute in memory of Takaai "Rikimaru" Inoue. The main event was the right to be the number one contenders for the WEW Tag Team Titles and get a shot next month in Shin-Kiba as Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeating HIROKI and Yusaku Obata as Kanemura used a cradle to get the win over HIROKI at 17 minutes, 2 seconds. Tomohiko Hashimoto and Apache Kosakai defeated Arashi and Shoichi Ichinomiya when Hashimoto made Arashi tap to a Cross Armbreaker to set him up for a WEW World Title shot next month. Osaka Pro's Kuuga and Madoka defeated Daisaku Shimoda and Kengo Nishimura when Kuuga used his Tornado Stomp to get the pin over Nishimura at 12 minutes, 58 seconds. The West Gate Offer Match saw Small Antonio Inoki and Small Giant Baba defeat the team of Kuniko Mitamega and Love Sexy Young when Inoki used an Enzuigiri on Young for the pin at 10 minutes, 47 seconds. The opening match was ZERO1 wrestler and Daisaku Shimoda's twin brother Rikiya Fudo team with Naoshi Sano to defeat Takeshi Takeshima and Futoshi Miwa when Fudo pinned Takeshima at 9 minutes, 25 seconds with a lariat to start the show.

Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke held their "The Triumph Return of Hayabusa vs. Mr. Gannosuke Talk Live" at the Kumamoto Circulation Information Hall on July 23, 2011. The talk show started with Hayabusa and Gannosuke talking about starting their careers with FMW to the audience and then followed it up by answering questions from the audience. The sponsor of the event is the man wearing the red Hayabusa mask with them named Murata who is a huge Hayabusa/Mr. Gannosuke fan (he also sponsored the Gannosuke show on November 22, 2008 in Kumamoto) and is famous for having created an Antonio Inoki bronzed statue which made him a lot of money. He had personally made Hayabusa and Gannosuke their own bronze statues but announced at the event that he made enough statues of them to be sold nation wide and both Hayabusa and Gannosuke will be selling them at their events for 15,000 Yen (193 US Dollars).

After the event, Gannosuke proceeded to focus on his upcoming Kishindoh Returns 7 show on September 15, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will be a Dragon Gate vs. Style-E match as Masashi Takeda and Kazuhiro Tamura take on the team of K-ness and Kenichiro Arai. Battlarts' Munenori Sawa who Gannosuke considered the ace of his shows will take on Dragon Gate's Super Shisa. WWS's Mr. Pogo will take on Ice Ribbon's Chii Tomiya, Keita Yano will face off against Secret Base's Jun Ogawauchi, and in the opening match ZERO1's Mineo Fujita, 666's Yuko Miyamoto, FREEDOMS' Kamui, and 666's Taro Yamada will take on Guts World's Guts Ishijima, Secret Base's CHANGO and Amigo Suzuki as well as the maked Satan Alliance Machine in the opening match.

Nanjyo Hayato announced the lineup for the debut of his FFF promotion show on August 27th at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2 with the show being a mixed of old FMW/Osaka Pro combined. The main event will be a Barbed wire Street Fight Death Match with Atsushi Onita, The Great Sasuke, and Nanjyo Hayato teaming up to take on the team of W*ING Kanemura, Magnitude Kishiwada, and Ricky Fuji. The semi-main event will be the highflying match on the show with Flying Kid Ichihara, Yukihide Ueno revising his old Battle Ranger Z gimmick, and The Dark Ranger which was an old Nanjyo gimmick in 1993/94 teaming up to take on Okinawa Pro's Kajin Habu Otoko and Osaka Pro's Tsubasa and Condor. There will be an eight woman Royal Rumble with Megumi Kudo as the Special Referee for the contest. Kana, Mio Shirai, Io Shirai, Ray, Nancy Mari, Shimono Sawako are booked for the match as well as announced as a former original FMW women's wrestler. Mammoth Sasaki will team up with former Osaka Pro/WMF wrestler Kengo Takai to take on Yutaka & DEP's Michio Kageyama. DEP's Akihito & Toru Sugiura take on Hide Kobata & Yasu Kobata and in the opening match Kabuto-O Beetle which was another former Nanjyo masked gimmick will face off against local Osaka wrestler Yuki Tanaka. Hayabusa will also be appearing on the show. Nanjyo has started up a YouTube channel for the promotion and has posted his first video which is him talking about the show which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px2HF0N94AE

I recently finished up a new section to the site called the History of the FMW Dojo which can be found be at http://fmwwrestling.us/FMWDojo.html which is kind of like a Yearbook format of the history of both the FMW Dojo as well as the WMF Dojo that proceeded it. I also have updated a little bit of the the FMW Now and Then page which can be found at http://fmwwrestling.us/FMWTheseDays.html as well as have added a ton of new pictures in the FMW Results pages mostly the Onita era of FMW.  

Added: 7/17

Apache Army rookie Rikimaru real name Takaai Inoue passed away on July 13, 2011 at 3:21 AM in the hospital after never regaining consciousness while working on mat and rope work in the ring at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with Kintaro Kanemura on June 23, 2011. As reported in the last update his fiancée was outside the building talking to someone when Kanemura called for her to come back in as Rikimaru had passed out. She called for an ambulance and they had an emergency surgery that day for 5 hours until Midnight that night. Rikimaru was diagnosed with an acute subdural hematoma which is the exact same thing that Nobukazu Hirai was labeled with the month before. The surgery was labeled a success but he remained unconscious afterwards like Hirai as well. I asked Naoshi Sano who came in as a last minute replacement for Rikimaru on the show about how it was looking while I was at his bar and all he would tell me was "not good". His friends and family still hoped and prayed he would regain consciousness but after 19 days of being unconscious following the surgery he sadly passed away at the age of 38. 

Rikimaru despite being much older than most rookies joined the Apache Army this past year. Kintaro Kanemura helped train him and befriended him as well. Rikimaru along with Kanemura and Tomohiko Hashimoto went to Miyagi after the Earthquake to pass out food to shelters on two separate occasions. Rikimaru made his unofficial debut on February 26th in a dark match against Tomohiko Hashimoto. He followed that up with two more dark matches on March 25th against Kanemura and April 28th against Tetsuhiro Kuroda which has made it on to YouTube. His official debut match ended up being his last as he wrestled and lost to Shinjuku Shark on May 27th. He was training for a match against Kazushi Miyamoto later that day when he passed out. No reason has been given on what caused his severe injury. His funeral was held on July 14th for friends and family.

Shinjuku Shark ended up in a motorcycle accident on July 12th and suffered an injury that will put him out of action for two months. He is out for the show next show next week and will most likely missed the three shows scheduled for August as well.

Apache Army announced their upcoming lineup for the July 25, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Only four matches were announced so one more match will probably end up being made. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda will take on the team of Yusaku Obata and HIROKI with the winning team getting a WEW Tag Team Title shot next month in August 18th at Shin-Kiba. Arashi will team up with former WAR and DDT wrestler Shoichi Ichinomiya who use to be known for wrestling as other wrestlers as they take on Tomohiko Hashimoto and Apache Kosaki. Madoka will team up with a mystery partner against Daisaku Shimoda and Kengo Nishimura. The opening match will have Naoshi Sano returning to team with Rikiya Fudo to take on Futoshi Miwa and Takeshi Takeshima. The Apache Army has also booked two more shows for Shin-Kiba on September 28th and October 26th.

The Apache Army also held a special one match show at the Yamagata Cherry Blossoms Wonder Land on June 26th with Kintaro Kanemura and Tomohiko Hashimoto teaming up to defeat Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Apache Kosaki when Kanemura hit the Blast YAMA Senton Special on Kosaki for the win at 12 minutes, 34 seconds.

FREEDOMS announced their lineup for their July 26th show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will be a setup for the following months Death Match Tournament as the 6 men announced so far all competing in the same match. Takashi Sasaki teams up with Mammoth Sasaki and Masashi Takeda against Jun Kasai, The Winger, and Kamui in a Hardcore Rules Two out of Three Falls Match. TKG48 go back to feuding against the Kojika Army as they face the Brahman Brothers. Tatsuhito Takaiwa competes against Ryuichi Sekine in a singles match. GENTARO who looks to have branched off from the Kojika Army to team with Takao Omori as they face off against Kojika Army members Great Kojika who seems to have dumped the Great Deer gimmick, Abdullah Kobayashi, and Ken Ohka in a handicap match. The opening match will see Ricky and HIROKI team up against the returning Onryo and Antonio Honda. They will also announce the other two men that will compete in the Death Match Tournament as well as brackets following the show.

Ricky Fuji will wrestle at the Tokyo Sumo Hall for only the third time in his career next week for DDT's big event on July 24th. Ricky will team up with friend The Great Sasuke as they defend their newly won Big Chinese Nakahara Tag Team Title Match that they won on July 3rd at a Union Pro show. They will defend their titles against the team they won it from in Sanshiro Takagi and Munenori Sawa. Ricky competed in two matches at the Ryogoku Sumo Hall for the Super J Cup in 1994 on April 16th as he defeated Negro Casas before losing to Jushin Thunder Liger later in the evening. He then returned in 2000 on April 9th where he lost to Gran Hamada. 

Hayabusa attended the Meteor Mask Fiesta July 17th show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring which was the Retirement show for the Masked Superstar Bill Eadie. Hayabusa commented that it was extremely hot as the show was held in the Afternoon and after the show he went drinking sake with Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Fujiwara asked Hayabusa to have a match with him and stated he did not mind waiting for Hayabusa as he's going to be old anyway as Hayabusa felt very honored by the request.

Added: 7/4

Nanjyo Hayato announced that under the promotion name of FFF which stands for F-Spirit Fantasy Fighters would be holding a FMW restart promotion with the show titled "STARTING OVER" and it would be held at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2 which was FMW's number two most commonly used building during the promotions run. The show would take place on August 27, 2011 and the main event will be a 6 man Barbed wire Street Fight Death Match. The wrestlers booked for the show are Atsushi Onita, Nanjyo Hayato, The Great Sasuke, W*ING Kanemura, Mammoth Sasaki, Ricky Fuji, Flying Kid Ichihara, Battle Ranger Z, Dark Ranger, Magnitude Kishiwada, Okinwa Pro's Kaijin Habu Otoko, Kengo Takai, YUTAKA, Tsubasa, The Kobata Brothers, Kana, and Ray. Hayabusa and Megumi Kudo will also be appearing on the show as it will be the first show that both Hayabusa and Atsushi Onita will be on together since the FMW November 20, 1998 Yokohama Bunka Gym show which was Onita's last FMW show. The plan is to run atleast once a month in decent size buildings like the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2 and Korakuen Hall and will try to everything that Super FMW was not. 

Apache Army's rookie Rikimaru suffered a serious injury on June 23, 2011 that caused him to miss the show as they had to call in Naoshi Sano an emergency replacement for the show. Rikimaru suffered an acute subdural hematoma which is the exact same injury that Super Hate suffered back in May which is bleeding of the brain. Rikimaru was training with Kintaro Kanemura in the ring before the show that day and Kanemura states that Rikimaru's fiancé was present and watching them do mat work and rope work. Rikimaru's fiancé stepped outside the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring to talk to some people when Rikimaru passed out a couple minutes later. Kanemura called for Rikimaru's fiancé to come back inside as Rikimaru was motionless. Rikimaru's fiancé called for an ambulance right away and he was rushed to the hospital where they found out he had bleeding of the brain and an emergency surgery was done and although the surgery was considered a success, he as of last word (June 27th) had not woken up yet. Kanemura most likely very scared as another scandal against him especially one like this right after the incident occurring in All Japan would be the spell the end of his career for good was very vocal that nothing out of the ordinary during the training was done and that Rikimaru's fiancé was present for pretty much the entire training and had her make a statement that all she saw was pro-wrestling when she was watching the training.

Former FMW wrestler Hideo Makimura passed away on June 29th at the age of 43. Makimura who actually started up in All Japan and made his debut in April 1991 ended up resigning from the promotion shortly after. He ended up joining the FMW Dojo where he was trained by Katsutoshi Niiyama along with fellow trainee Mamoru Okamoto starting in April 1996. He made his debut against Mamoru Okamoto in probably his most memorable match as it was the only time he was on a Commercial released tape on August 1, 1996 in Shiodome. Makimura ended up only making it 9 months before retiring on May 14, 1997 in his only main event match in FMW teaming with Hayabusa and Ricky Fuji losing to The Gladiator, Mr. Gannosuke, and Flying Kid Ichihara after Gannosuke pinned him. Makimura cited head injuries as the reason for the ending of his short career in FMW. He ended up getting a job as a truck driver for NOAH afterwards as he would help drive the ring and equipment from show to show as of a couple of years ago. No reason was given on why he died so young and his wake was one day after his death on June 30th and his funeral was one day after that on July 1st. 

Hayabusa appeared at Dick Togo's Retirement show on June 30, 2011 at Korakuen Hall. Hayabusa came out through the entrance way after the match got started and watched the match throughout until Togo ended up defeating long time friend Gedo with a Senton Splash at 25 minutes, 23 seconds. Hayabusa then came out to a huge shocked ovation from the crowd after his name was said by the ring announcer to hand flowers to Togo as Togo came over to him and took pictures with him. I did not manage to have the interview with Hayabusa as a combination of Fumi Saito being busy and the price tag that came with the interview being pretty high resulted in me not really pressing for it once I got there.

Takashi Sasaki announced on June 27th at Korakuen Hall prior to the Big Japan show the announced names that will be wrestling for the FREEDOMS show in Iwate on September 11, 2011. The regular crew of Sasaki, GENTARO, Jun Kasai, The Winger, Mammoth Sasaki, Kamui, HIROKI along with Shuji Ishikawa, Shinobu, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Daisuke Sekimoto, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Ryuichi Sekine, Yuko Miyamoto, Shuou Fujiwara, and Masashi Takeda will be appearing on the show. Sasaki would also announce that FREEDOMS would be returning to the Sapporo Teisen Hall on October 9th.

Jun Kasai also announced on June 27th at Korakuen Hall six of the eight names that will be competing in his two night Death Match Tournament on August 24th and August 25th. The names are Jun Kasai, Mammoth Sasaki, Takashi Sasaki, Kamui, Masashi Takeda, and The Winger. Two more names will be announced at a later date. Kasai also announced that for his annual December 25th Christmas Death Match show he will be running at Korakuen Hall due to the popularity of the show has had over the last two years in Shin-Kiba.

Mr. Gannosuke announced that he will be promoting his "Kishindo Returns 7" show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on September 15, 2011. He has not announced any names for the show yet. 

I recently was back in Japan for the fourth time from June 25th to July 1st. This might have been the most fun I have actually had while over there and was easily the busiest trip out of all the others. You can see a review of my trip at http://fmwwrestling.us/Japan11.html and some more random pictures from the trip at http://fmwwrestling.us/Japan2011.html

Added: 6/24

FREEDOMS ran their monthly show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on June 22, 2011 entitled "We're gonna win! We're gonna FREEDOMS!" with an announced crowd of 154 fans. The main event saw GENTARO push Takao Omori to the limit but it is quite clear that Omori will not be losing to anybody in the promotion in a singles match as he put away GENTARO at 21 minutes, 47 seconds with his Axe Bomber. GENTARO and Omori shook hands afterwards as it looks they will be forming an alliance now. The Kojika Army came to the ring afterwards although i'm not sure yet if GENTARO left the group or Omori will be aligning himself with the heel faction.

The FMW team of Mammoth Sasaki and Ricky Fuji defeated the team of Jun Kasai and HIROKI in a bloody brawl that would go all over the building with both Kasai and Mammoth being busted open during the match. Mammoth would eventually put away Kasai after hitting him with the 29 Years Old at 16 minutes, 5 seconds for the win. I'm guessing Kasai will get his revenge in a singles Death Match over Mammoth in the 1st round of his Death Match show on August 24th. The FREEDOMS Army vs. TKG48 Karate feud looks to continue as the team of Sanshiro Takagi, Kazuhiko Ogasawara, and Ryuichi Sekine defeated the FREEDOMS team of Takashi Sasaki, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and The Winger after Takaiwa was DQ'd at 11 minutes, 16 seconds. 

Munenori Sawa defeated Kamui in a singles match that would also end up as a brawl outside the ring before Sawa would roll up Kamui with his Bachi Bachi Cradle at 13 minutes, 29 seconds. Sawa was not finished after as he would begin to choke Kamui with tape around his neck afterwards. The Kojika Army of Keita Yano and Antonio Honda defeated Yuko Miyamoto and Akihito after Honda used a front cradle to get the pinfall over Akihito at 13 minutes, 9 seconds. The opening match saw The Brahman Brothers defeat the newly formed team of The Great Deer and Ken Ohka after Shu used his Zombie Kick to defeat Deer at 8 minutes, 16 seconds. 

The Apache Army ran their June 23rd show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring announcing 220 fans for the show. The main event saw the WEW Tag Team Champions of Kohei Sato and Kamikaze continue their record long run as champions by defending the titles for the 8th time by defeating Yusaku Obata and Apache Kosakai after Sato used a Piledriver on Kosakai to get the get the win at 16 minutes, 5 seconds in the main event. Arashi managed to defend his WEW World Title for the first time after defeating former FMW/W*ING/DDT wrestler Koichiro Kimura after putting away Kimura with a Powerbomb at 6 minutes, 3 seconds. In the upset of the show, the team of Kazushi Miyamoto whose match against Rikimaru was scrapped after Rikimaru failed to compete on the show and Miyamoto was moved up to team with Daisaku Shimoda and HIROKI to defeat the team of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Tomohiko Hashimoto after HIROKI pinned Kanemura using a Moonsault at 15 minutes, 5 seconds to get the win. Shinjuku Shark was moved down from the six man and Naoshi Sano was called in to replace Rikimaru as Shark also used a Moonsault to pin Sano at 3 minutes, 50 seconds. Hanako Nakamori defeated Ayumi Kurihara with an Atomic Bomb at 11 minutes, 5 seconds in the first Joshi match in the promotions history. ZERO1's Yoshikazu Yokoyama won the opening match by defeating Kengo Nishimura at 9 minutes, 45 seconds with a Spine Buster. They will return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on July 25th before their busy month of August.

Kamui celebrated his 30th Birthday at Soldier's BUU Bar in the Ikebukuro District of Tokyo on June 17th. Fans were allowed to attend and sing happy birthday to the drunken Kamui as he was given a birthday cake with a designed picture of him on it before blowing the candles out 

Added: 6/9

FREEDOMS ran their May 31, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. They announced a crowd of 168 fans. That number is up from last months horrible number but I would still not consider it a good number for the small 350 seat building. The main event of the show was changed to Munenori Sawa against The Winger in a singles match with Sawa rolling up Winger with a cradle for the win at 15 minutes, 12 seconds. Takashi Sasaki came to the ring after the match but before he could even make it inside the ring he was kicked in the face by Sawa. Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui against Takao Omori and Madoka was moved up to semi-main event as Mammoth would be able to a little bit of revenge on Omori who beat him in a singles match earlier in the month in Nagoya as Mammoth was able to put away Omori's partner Madoka with the 29 Years Old at 16 minutes, 41 seconds. 

The originally scheduled main event of Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai against the the TKG48 Karate Army of Sanshiro Takagi and Kazuhiko Ogasawara was pushed back down the card because of the finish which was Ogasawara getting DQ'd at 12 minutes after attacking the referee in the match. The Great Deer who apparently won the America Title from The Winger sometime in the last 7 months defended it against Union Pro's Ken Ohka and Deer was able to retain his title at 6 minutes, 1 second after using the La Magistral. Deer and Ohka shook hands afterwards which caused dissention between them and The Brahman Brothers afterwards. Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Masashi Takeda teamed up to defeat the team of GENTARO and Keita Yano after Takaiwa finished off Yano with a Powerbomb at 13 minutes. HIROKI, Ricky Fuji, and Ryuichi Sekine teamed up to defeat the team the Kojika Army team of Antonio Honda, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei after HIROKI hit the Trance Rave on Kei for the win at 14 minutes, 15 seconds in the opening match 

FREEDOMS announced their full lineup today for their next show on June 22, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will see GENTARO get a shot against Takao Omori in a singles match. Yuko Miyamoto who was originally suppose to team with Shinobu will now team with Akihito against Antonio Honda and Keita Yano in a match I can see being moved down the card. The FREEDOMS Army of Takashi Sasaki, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and The Winger will take on the TKG48 Karate Army of Sanshiro Takagi, Kazuhiko Ogasawara, and the newest member of the group in Ryuichi Sekine. Kamui will get a chance to take on Munenori Sawa for the first time in a singles match. Mammoth Sasaki will start what looks to be a Summer rivalry with Jun Kasai as Mammoth will team up with Ricky Fuji to take on Jun Kasai and HIROKI. The Great Deer and Ken Ohka will start their new tag team in the opening match against The Brahman Brothers. 

Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai announced upcoming shows in the next couple of months. They will run their regular monthly Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on July 26, 2011 and then Jun Kasai will promote his second annual Two Night Death Match Tournament. The first round tournament matches will be on August 24, 2011 at Shin-Kiba and the semi-finals and finals will take place on August 25, 2011 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Mammoth Sasaki has already announced that he wants to be in this years tournament as he missed out on being in last years tournament and that he wants to be able to face Jun Kasai in a Death Match some time in the tournament. Takashi Sasaki then announced the annual return to his home town of Iwate at the Ichinoseki City Gym U Dome Sub Arena on September 11, 2011 which will be the first time FREEDOMS will be running in that area since the Tohoku Earthquake and is the 6 month anniversary of the Earthquake. 

Apache Army ran their May 27, 2010 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring announced a crowd of 200 fans for their monthly Shin-Kiba show. The main event of the show saw Kohei Sato and Kamikaze defend their WEW Tag Team Titles against Yusaku Obata and HIROKI after Sato hit Obata with a German Supplex to get the cover at 21 minutes, 3 seconds to defend their tag team titles for a record 7th time. Kintaro Kanemura put up his WEW World Title against Arashi but was unable to successfully defend for the first time since his 2002-2003 reign when Arashi put away Kanemura at 7 minutes, 15 seconds to win the WEW World Title. Koichiro Kimura made his Apache debut teaming with Tomohiko Hashimoto to defeat the team of Tetsuhiro Kuroda and ZERO1's Yoshikazu Yokoyama after Kimura put away Yokoyama at 12 minutes, 53 seconds with a Powerbomb. Kazushi Miyamoto and Daisaku Shimoda defeated the regular tag team of Kenichi Yamamoto and Apache Kosakai after Shimoda hit a Backdrop Supplex on Kosakai to get the win at 16 minutes, 23 seconds. Shinjuku Shark defeated younger Rikimaru at 5 minutes, 55 seconds with a Moonsault. Madoka won the opening match against Kengo Nishimura with the Ranhei. 

Super FMW returned from the dead to announce a show for June 12, 2011 as they will be running at the smaller Tokyo Kitasenju Theater 1010 building. The main event will be Tarzan Goto teaming up with West Gate Pro's Tomonobu Matsumoto to take on Katsutoshi Niiyama as the The Great Punk and the masked Shooter # 2 in the main event. The semi-main event will be Gosaku revising his Azusa Kudo gimmick of a transsexual to challenge for the transsexual Half Life Title against Reina Ayukawa. No idea if I will be able to find results of this show as the promotion usually does a very poor job of releasing results of their show. 

I will update the News section one more time right before my trip to Japan on June 24th will the details of both Apache and FREEDOMS shows at Shin-Kiba this month. I don't know if I will be able to get to everything I have planned but I am going to try to go to Combat Toyoda's Roast Beef Restaurant in Chiba as well as Chocoball Mukai's Chocoball Family Bar in Shinjuku some time during the trip. I am also in very early talks about meeting with Hayabusa again and interviewing him sometime during the trip but the talks are very preliminary as of right now.

Added: 5/15

Hayabusa held his Phoenix Music Fiesta on May 10, 2011 at the AFR in Yokohama. Megumi Kudo who was originally scheduled to appear at Hayabusa's concert on March 29th before the Tohoku Earthquake took place, showed up for a talk show segment with Hayabusa before the concert. It was the first time in over 10 years that Hayabusa and Kudo had talked with one another. After the talk segment, Kudo took a seat and watched Hayabusa, Ricky Fuji, Ichiro Yaguchi, and Command Bolshoi perform while drinking sake and getting drunk. Also in the audience for the concert was Takashi Sasaki who was a special invited guest by Ricky Fuji, NOAH's Taiji Ishimori, and former FMW women's wrestler Miwa Sato. Hayabusa, Ricky, and Kudo ended up taking pictures with one another after the show.

The Anniversary of the Zepp Nagoya building was celebrated by holding three shows on May 8, 2011. FREEDOMS ran the middle show between Pro Wrestling Love and Sportiva Arena for the 3:30 show and announced a crowd of 243 fans for the show. The main event of the show which was originally scheduled to be an undercard match but was moved to the last match after realizing that the TKG48 vs. Kojika Army match would not be a quality main event match to end the show, so the VKF King of Wrestle Naniwa Title was put on the line and GENTARO ended up successfully defending it against Shigehiro Irie for the 18th time after making him submit to the Sharpshooter. 

The originally main event turned into the semi-main event as the Kojika Army defeated the TKG48 in a Elimination Rules Match. Top rope eliminations were allowed so every elimination besides the last took place as a result. The TKG48 had the early advantage as The Great Lingerie Muta eliminated Antonio Honda then The Great TAKA Michinoku eliminated Onryo and followed by The Great Ogasawara eliminating Keita Yano. This left The Great Deer all by himself against the TKG48 but he countered by eliminating The Great TAKA Michinoku, then eliminating The Great Ogasawara, and then The Great Lingerie Muta. This left The Great Deer against Sanshiro Takagi as The Great Daischou who the Great Deer ended up getting the pinfall over Daischou for the Kojika Army win which looks to be the end of the TKG48 vs. Kojika Army for now.

The rest of the show saw Takashi Sasaki and Jun Kasai defeat the team of Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Akihito after Sasaki hit his Michinoku Driver II on Akihito to get the pinfall at 15 minutes, 24 seconds. Takao Omori beat Mammoth Sasaki in a hard hitting singles match after getting the win by reversing a cradle for the pinfall at 13 minutes, 24 seconds. Magnitude Kishiwada and Masashi Takeda returned as a tag team to beat The Winger and Kamui in a Hardcore Rules Match after Kishiwada finished off Kamui with the Last Ride Powerbomb at 14 minutes, 7 seconds. The opening match saw Ricky Fuji, HIROKI, and Madoka defeat the DEP team of Toru Sugiura, Tomoya Shibayama & Nori da Funky Shibiresasu when HIROKI hit the Trance Rave to get the win at 10 minutes, 49 seconds over Shibiresasu.

Kenichi Yamamoto announced that the June Apache Army show will be on June 23rd at Shin-Kiba two days before I will be there so I will not be able to attend their monthly show as I was hoping. I was watching some recent Apache Army from this year and although Kintaro Kanemura is now 40 and broken down after 20 years of destroying his body and Tetsuhiro Kuroda's passion for wrestling died three years, they are still putting on easier to watch shows than many FREEDOMS shows in Shin-Kiba. The vocal Apache Army crowds are definitely the main reason as FREEDOMS puts on better matches with better workers, but the Apache Army which was known for its passionate fans up until 2008, still are able to get the vocal fans to scream and cheer for their favorite wrestlers despite the low number of people actually showing up. Ever since Takashi Sasaki began promoting his shows have suffered from a dead crowd for most shows as Sasaki's Apache Army and now FREEDOMS has really failed to pick up a audience that really loves their wrestlers like the Apache Army fans do.

Added: 5/5

FREEDOMS returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on April 21, 2011 and announced a crowd 138 fans at the show which is the lowest number for a show at Shin-Kiba since FREEDOMS started up in September 2009. Despite what was probably a good match was an uneventful main event in Takao Omori, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Masashi Takeda defeated the FREEDOMS team of Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui when Takaiwa hit his Death Valley Bomb on Kamui for the win at 18 minutes, 7 seconds. 

The semi-main event saw Sanshiro Takagi reveal his mystery partner to be The Great TAKA Michinoku defeating the team of The Great Deer and GENTARO after Takagi hit a Shining Wizard on Deer to pick up the win at 6 minutes, 2 seconds with interference from Great Lingerie Muta. 

Antonio Honda and Keita Yano defeated the team of Yuko Miyamoto and The Winger after Yano got the Jackknife Rollup on Winger for the pin at 13 minutes, 56 seconds. HIROKI defeated his K-Dojo tag partner Ricky Fuji after a Knee Kick to the head of Ricky knocked him out at 14 minutes, 4 seconds. Mammoth Sasaki used his 29 Years old on the younger Akihito to get the win in their match and offering his hand in respect to Akihito afterwards. The Brahman Brothers vs. Kazuhiko Ogasawara and Munenori Sawa turned out to just be a crazy brawl all over ringside with the match originally ending at 1 minutes, 48 seconds to a double count out. The match was restarted but the brawl outside the ring continued with another double count out taking place at 5 minutes, 34 seconds.

Apache Army held their monthly Shin-Kiba 1st Ring show on April 28, 2011 announcing a healthy 210 fans for their show. The main event saw Kohei Sato and Kamikaze defend their WEW Tag Team Titles for the 6th Time after Kamikaze hit a Moonsault on one report saying Kanemura and another report saying Arashi to get the win and defend their titles for the 6th time. After the match, Yusaku Obata and HIROKI who had earlier in the show formed a team challenged Sato and Kamikaze for a tag title shot at next months show with the champs accepting. Arashi also made a challenge to Kanemura for next months show for his WEW World Title with Kanemura accepting. 

Before their team was made a match between HIROKI and Yusaku Obata took place in the semi-main event of the show with HIROKI hitting the Trance Rave to pick up the win over Obata at 18 minutes, 32 seconds in the best match of the show. Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Madoka defeated Daisaku Shimoda and Kazushi Miyamoto with Kuroda hitting a lariat on Shimoda for the win at 13 minutes, 55 seconds in Shimoda's official joining of the Apache Army match. Shinjuku Shark defended his Apache Rocky Title against former All Japan and NOAH wrestler Tsuyoshi Kikuchi with Kikuchi getting the submission win at 9 minutes, 5 seconds with an Arm lock to become the second Apache Rocky Champion. Kenichi Yamamoto and Apache Kosaki defeated the team of Tomohiko Hashimoto and his mystery partner Futoshi Miwa as Kosaki finished Miwa with a Sumida Drop for the win at 12 minutes, 33 seconds. Rikimaru was tested in another dark match to start the show as this time his opponent was Tetsuhiro Kuroda who got the pinfall victory over him at 5 minutes, 55 seconds to start the show. The next show will be May 27th at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring with the usual lineup for the show other than former W*ING and DDT wrestler Koichiro Kimura making his debut for the promotion.

Big Japan returned to the Yokohama Bunka Gym for their May 5, 2011 and announced a crowd of 1338 fans which is a complete disaster of a crowd for a building that can hold up to 4900 people in the building and is the lowest number for the building in the promotions history. Ryuji Ito who has had an ongoing Death Match feud with Takashi Sasaki dating back to June 8, 2005 when Sasaki challenged Ito in the same building for the title. The result this time was the same as of their June 8, 2005 match as Ryuji Ito defended his BJW King of the Death Match Title for the 4th Time in a Block and Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match. The finishing spot saw Ito put the Block which was a Cinderblock with Fluorescent Light Tubes attached and hit his Dragon Splash on Sasaki to get the win in 23 minutes, 4 seconds.

Former FMW wrestler Yoshihito Sasaki teamed up with Shinya Ishikawa to challenge for Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi's All Japan All Asian Tag Team Titles with Sasaki taking the loss after Sekimoto hit him with his trademark German Supplex to get the pinfall at 20 minutes, 59 seconds to defend the titles for the 2nd Time. Yuko Miyamoto and Isami Kodaka who were teaming up in WMF back in 2006 defeated the team of Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa in a Cage, Ladder, and Barbed wire Death Match after Miyamoto hit the Fire Thunder on Numazawa to get the pinfall at 22 minutes, 25 seconds to capture the BJW Tag Team Championship.

Megumi Kudo and Atsushi Onita got a chance to meet for the first time in several years on April 22, 2011 at the Osaka Minami Move On Arena. Kudo who was in Osaka for vacation went to the Miracle Man Promoted Osaka Pro show in which Miracle Man went by his real and old FMW name in Nanjyo Hayato for the show. Kudo met with Onita and Nanjyo backstage before the show and took pictures with them and then watched the show from the crowd. Nanjyo ended up facing off against his old boss in a Street Fight in the main event and most likely paid a good deal of money to Onita to be able to get to Schoolboy him for the win. Nanjyo afterwards announced that although he would still be wrestling in Osaka Pro as Miracle Man, that he was going to officially become a freelancer and would work elsewhere as well and use his old Nanjyo name more often. Onita ended up taking out Kudo for dinner after the show as the two chatted about their FMW days together.

Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke will be having their second live talk show on July 23, 2011 at the Kumamoto Circulation Information Hall. The event is called "The Triumph Return of Hayabusa vs. Mr. Gannosuke Talk Live". It's the first time they are doing this since December 2008 when they had one right before Gannosuke retired. The picture of the poster was taken by Masato Tanaka while he was in Kumamoto and he e-mailed the picture to Gannosuke. 

Today marks the 20th Anniversary that Eiji Ezaki made his debut in FMW at the Nagoya International Center as a replacement for Akihito Ichihara as a tag team partner for Amigo Ultra on May 5, 1991as they defeated the team of Yukihide Ueno and El Pandita. Today also marks the 15th Anniversary of Combat Toyoda's Retirement Match against Megumi Kudo in a great Exploding Barbed wire Death Match on May 5, 1996 at Kawasaki Stadium with the main event of the show seeing Hayabusa require 110 stitches to his body after teaming up with Masato Tanaka in a losing effort to the team of Terry Funk and Mr. Pogo in a Exploding Barbed wire Ring Double Hell Death Match. It also marks the 10 Year Anniversary of the last ever FMW show at Kawasaki Stadium as well as the last ever Exploding Ring Match on May 5, 2001 as Hayabusa made his return to the ring for the first time in nearly six months by teaming with The Great Sasuke to defeat Team Kuroda members Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Mr. Gannosuke with Hayabusa pinning the man he started in wrestling with in Mr. Gannosuke. 

It also marks the the 1 Year Anniversary of Atsushi Onita retiring once again from pro-wrestling on the 15th Year Anniversary of his FMW retirement as he teamed up with Tarzan Goto to defeat the team of former FMW wrestler Katsutoshi Niiyama and Naoshi Sano in a near sell out of the 350 seat Shin-Kiba 1st Ring building for the Shin-FMW promotion. It will probably be the last ever link between FMW and the May 5th date that now goes back 20 years. One year later and the Shin/Super FMW promotion looks to have come to an end after drawing so few fans to their shows that they couldn't even make a profit just renting out a 1200 dollar building and paying wrestlers for their shows despite ignoring paying taxes for running a wrestling show. Atsushi Onita only stayed retired for 6 months and has been wrestling every couple of months and will be working against Mr. Pogo in a Street Fight Tag Match for Toryumon Japan "Battle Aid" show on May 6th at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring to mark the 20 Year Anniversary of their famous first ever Exploding Landmine Match in Osaka.

My fourth trip to Tokyo has been made official for June 25, 2011 to July 1, 2011. I won't be attending the FREEDOMS show that month as it was too far away from the other shows I would like to attend which are NOAH's June 26th Korakuen Hall show, Big Japan's June 27th Korakuen show, possibly the Secret Base show on June 29th at Shin-Kiba, and definitely the DDT Dick Togo Retirement show at Korakuen on June 30th. I also plan on going to Soldier's BUU Bar again during the trip as it was one of the highlights of last years trip as well as Naoshi Sano's Stanley Club Bar in Shinjuku one of the nights. I'd also attend the Apache Army but they have not announced a date for the show yet so it depends on what day it lands on if I will be able to attend. 

Added: 4/10

FREEDOMS ran their charity show to raise money for the victims of the Northern Japan earthquake with boxes all around the building for fans to donate their money and many of the wrestlers donated some of their pay check from the show as well which resulted in them raising 359,083 Yen (which would be around 4,200 U.S. Dollars). The show originally scheduled for March 14th was pushed back and took place on March 22, 2011 and held at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring where they announced a crowd of 189 fans for the show. 

The main event of the show saw Yuko Miyamoto put up his CZW Ultra Violent Underground Title against Jun Kasai in a Glass Death Match. Kasai would end up capturing the title in a bloody mess after hitting a Reverse Tiger Driver on the shreds of glass in the ring and getting the win at 17 minutes, 10 seconds to win the title and bring it back to America where he would end up losing it at the ECW Arena on April 9th in CZW against Danny Havoc. The Kojika Army against TKG48 feud continued on as The Great Deer, GENTARO, and Antonio Honda defeated Sanshiro Takagi, Shigehiro Irie, and newest member group to the group in Kazuhiko Ogasawara when GENTARO cradled up Ogasawara for the win at 10 minutes, 56 seconds. In a match changed up after the Earthquake Iwate's Takashi Sasaki teamed up with Iwate City's Shuji Ishikawa and Miyagi's Shinobu to defeat the team of The Winger, Onryo, and Keita Yano when Sasaki hit the Michinoku Driver II on Yano for the win at 11 minutes, 27 seconds with DDT's referee Yukinori Matsui assigned the match who also was from Iwate. Masashi Takeda and Madoka teamed up to defeat the Brahman Brothers after Madoka would cradle up Kei for the win at 8 minutes, 8 seconds. Mammoth Sasaki right before the show pulled out of his booking for both upcoming shows without a reason ever being given as to why. Mammoth been booked for future upcoming FREEDOMS shows though but he replaced in this match by Style-E's Kotaro Nasu who teamed up with Kamui to defeat the team of Ricky Fuji and HIROKI after Kamui pinned Ricky at 8 minutes, 26 seconds. The opening match saw Tatsuhito Takaiwa fail to put away the younger Akihito as the match ended up going to a 15 minute time limit draw as a result. 

FREEDOMS then traveled to the Fukouka Hakata Star Lanes on March 26, 2011 for an afternoon show with both shows during the week being filmed and put together as one two hour program to air on Samurai TV later this month. They ended up drawing an announced 256 fans for the show. Jun Kasai defended his CZW Ultra Violent Underground Title successfully for the first time in the main event as he defeated GENTARO in a Pool of Blood Death Match after hitting the Pearl Harbor Splash at 18 minutes, 41 seconds. The Kojika Army of The Great Deer, Abdullah Kobayashi, and Antonio Honda defeated the team of Takashi Sasaki, The Winger, and Keita Yano with Honda cradling up Yano for the win at 14 minutes, 23 seconds. Takao Omori and Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated the younger team of Masashi Takeda and HIROKI after Omori hit his Axe Bomber on HIROKI for the pin at 14 minutes, 27 seconds. Former Michinoku Pro wrestler Mt. Aso defeated Ricky Fuji after Ricky was unable to make it back in the ring and was Counted Out at 10 minutes, 47 seconds. Yuko Miyamoto and Shinobu teamed up in the opening match to defeat Kamui and Mentai Kid when Shinobu hit the Shooting Star Press on his former college friend Kamui to get the win at 15 minutes, 10 seconds. 

The Apache Army returned to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on March 25, 2011 announcing a crowd of 200 fans. The main event of the show saw Big Van Vader team up with his son Jesse White as well as Tomohiko Hashimoto to defeat the Apache Army members of Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and Tomohiro Waki when Vader hit a Reverse Splash on Kuroda to get the win at 14 minutes, 18 seconds. In a match of two guys making their debut for the Apache Army promotion with former WWE wrestler Luke Gallows taking on former NOAH wrestler Makoto Hashi with Gallows picking up the win after hitting his Gallows Pole on Hashi at 7 minutes, 56 seconds. Arashi and Shinjuku Shark teamed up to defeat the team of Madoka and Kengo Nishimura when Arashi hit a Powerbomb on Nishimura for the win at 10 minutes, 52 seconds. The Apache Army team of Kenichi Yamamoto and Apache Kosaki beat the ZERO-ONE team of Yoshikazu Yokoyama and Nick Primo when Kosaki hit a Sumida Drop to get the pinfall over Yokoyama at 18 minutes, 4 seconds. Kazushi Miyamoto defeated Yusaku Obata after hitting Obata with a Brainbuster to get the win at 8 minutes, 54 seconds. The opening match dark match saw Kintaro Kanemura defeat Rikimaru in another test for Rikimaru to get into the promotion after Kanemura made Rikimaru submit to the Figure Four Leglock at 5 minutes, 12 seconds. No lineup has been announced yet for their next show on April 28th. 

Mr. Gannosuke ran his "Kishindoh Returns 6" show on March 31, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The show drew a disappointing 187 fans which is the lowest for any show promoted under Mr. Gannosuke's name and tickets were 1000 Yen cheaper for this show than any other previous one. Munenori Sawa who considered by Gannosuke as the ace of the Kishindoh shows faced off against TAKA Michinoku in the main event of the show with TAKA getting the win over Sawa with the Heavy Killer. GENTARO defended his VKF King of Wrestle Naniwa Title for the 17th Time after making Kazuhiro Tamura submit to the Sharpshooter at 16 minutes, 2 seconds. Ice Ribbon's Miyako Matsumoto defeated Dragon Gate's Stalker Ichikawa and Ice Ribbon's Chii Tomiya when Matsumoto pinned Ichikawa with the Miyacoco Clutch at 11 minutes, 3 seconds. Dragon Gate's Kenichiro Arai defeated Keita Yano with a Diving Headbutt at 15 minutes, 47 seconds. In the opening match on the show, Gannosuke's WMF students of Mineo Fujita and Kamui faced off against another Gannosuke trained WMF student in Yuko Miyamoto and a friend of Gannosuke although not trained by him in Masashi Takeda. Miyamoto ended up getting the win for his team after hitting the Moonsault on Kamui for the win at 14 minutes, 4 seconds. 

Takashi Sasaki and Masashi Takeda ended up winning their respective blocks in the Death Match Survivor Tournament and will now face each other in the main event of Big Japan's April 18th Korakuen Hall show. This will most likely lead to Takashi Sasaki winning and main eventing against Ryuji Ito on May 5th at the Yokohama Bunka Gym show for the King of Death Match Title.

Hayabusa attended the SMASH March 31st Korakuen Hall show backstage where he got to meet up with Sabu after the show. Hayabusa and Sabu hugged and talked about the Earthquake as well as the Nuclear Power Plant problems since the earthquake. Hayabusa then posted YouTube links of his everyday training to one day get back in the ring as Hayabusa one last time. The first post was him standing up and doing Hindu squats for a minute which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcR1TCrKE2E the next video is 35 seconds of him showing his progress when it comes to walking which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0CTWKo0Bn8

Atsushi Onita traveled to North Japan to help with the rescue efforts following the earthquake. He has been working on cleaning up houses that were completely destroyed following the disaster which is what he is doing in the picture above. Onita will return to the ring on April 22nd in Osaka Pro as he faces off against Hayato Nanjyo who will become a freelancer following the show and will look to revise his Nanjyo much more as a result.

Added: 3/20

Following the 9.0 earthquake off the northeast shore of Japan in Sendai, Miyagi on March 11, 2011 many lives were forever changed and it will take years for the Tohoku region of Japan to be able to recover from such a disaster. 

Current Michinoku Pro President and former FMW regular Jinsei Shinzaki was one of the hardest hit when it comes to any wrestler. Shinzaki's house, and noodle restaurant in Sendai were damaged during the earthquake. Shinzaki's office where he worked on for Michinoku Pro and Sendai Girls was also completely destroyed beyond repair. 

Edit 3/24: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter wrote this on Jinsei Shinzaki's condition. He has two ramen noodle restaurants in Sendai, which is near the epicenter of the earthquake. Both were damaged but they are both back operational. He is not living in his car, although he sort of has been. He’s been driving nine to ten hours daily since the earthquake. His supplier is in Tokushima, and he gets his supplies daily shipped from Tokushima to Niigata. He then drives daily to Niigata to pick up supplies. He also brings ramen soup and cooks it up at shelters on a daily basis. He goes to shelters and allows people to eat all the ramen noodles they can, and said he’s been serving up more than 300 bowls daily at different shelters to people who have lost their homes in the earthquake. For many, it’s the first hot meal they’ve had since the earthquake. He said, it’s “a great day for ramen chef.” Michinoku Pro Wrestling, the company he works for, is touring Kyushu, a Southern island, since they can’t do much in their normal territory. Shinzaki opted out of the tour because he had to drive so much to keep his restaurant open and to feed the homeless. 

Ricky Fuji who lives in Chiba which is closer to Tokyo was more in a wrong place, wrong time situation as he was in Morioka, Iwate at the time of the earthquake. His band "Crazy Crew" which consists of himself, The Great Sasuke, Ken45°, and K-Dojo/FREEDOMS ring announcer Fuyuki were to have a concert in Morioka the night of March 11th. Ricky was staying in hotel when the earthquake hit. The hotel lost power and everybody in the building including Ricky and Sasuke were force to relocate to a shelter right by the hotel which happen to be a kindergarten school in Morioka. Ricky and Sasuke stayed in the shelter for 3 days before being allowed to leave as they both traveled to the Michinoku Pro Dojo close by on March 14th where they discovered that although there was damage to the building that the building was fixable. Ricky was able to take his first shower in 3 days while there and stayed the night in the building with other Michinoku Pro wrestlers that live in the Dojo before managing to catch a bullet train from Iwate to Niigata where he could then catch a subway back to his home in Chiba. 

Although Hayabusa lives in Tokyo and did not suffer any damage to his home he made it a point right away after the storm to try and do what he could for the people in north Japan. Hayabusa got a collection plate and began singing in the streets to help earn as much money as he possibly could for the people effected in the earthquake. Hayabusa also announced that his concert on March 29th that was scheduled to have Megumi Kudo appear was forced to be cancel as a result of the earthquake.

Mr. Gannosuke who lives even farther south in Nagasaki stated that he had been suffering chest pains ever since the earthquake due to anxiety attacks but will still be running his Mr. Gannosuke's Productions show on March 31st at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring.

Takashi Sasaki who lives in Iwate was in bed when the earthquake hit and felt his home shake greatly. Sasaki could not sleep for days following the earthquake out of fear of aftershocks. Sasaki announced the postponement of the FREEDOMS March 14th show at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring to March 22nd. The lineup will stay the same except the match that was originally suppose to be Takashi Sasaki and The Winger against Onryo and Keita Yano has been changed Takashi Sasaki who is from Iwate, Shuji Ishikawa who is from Iwate City, and Shinobu who is from Miyagi but was not there at the time of the disaster as they team up to represent North Japan against The Winger, Onryo, and Keita Yano with DDT's referee Yukinori Matsui who is also from Iwate. The show will be considered a Charity show as much of the profits of the show will go towards victims of the disaster, many of the wrestlers on the show will donate their money they make for the show for the victims, and there will be a collection box placed at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring so that fans can donate their money as well. 

Kintaro Kanemura announced the lineup for the Apache Army March 25, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Due to having Tomohiko Hashimoto on the roster he was able to use his connections to bring in Big Van Vader and son Jesse White who are also wrestling in All Japan and ZERO-ONE during the week for the show. Vader and Jesse White will team up with Tomohiko Hashimoto to take on Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and a Mystery Partner for the main event. Also, on the show the former Luke Gallows in Drew Hankinson will be making his debut for the promotion as he takes on former NOAH wrestler Makoto Oishi in the semi-main event of the show. Kenichi Yamamoto and Apache Kosaki team up once again to take on ZERO-ONE's team of Nick Primo and Yoshikazu Yokoyama. A change in the lineup was made and Tanomasaku Toba who was originally scheduled to face Shinjuku Shark was pulled off the show and Shinjuku Shark will now be fed to Arashi instead. Yusaku Obata instead of facing Arashi will now face off against Kazushi Miyamoto, Madoka will take on Kazushi Miyamoto pupil Kengo Nishimura and Kintaro Kanemura will face off against rookie Rikimaru in a dark match.

Korakuen Hall ended up suffering ceiling damage during the earthquake. Originally it was thought that the building would not be ready to run again for the rest of March and the SMASH promotion originally changed the date of their March 18th Anniversary show to May 2nd so that it could take place at Golden Week so that possibly more people would attend due to the week long holiday that the holiday brings in. The damage to the ceiling ended up being not as bad as originally thought and fixed after just a couple of days. After hearing that SMASH moved the show again to March 31st so that they could run their Anniversary show the same month that they ran their first show last year. Big Japan was also able to keep its booked date of March 21st in the building as a result of the fast fix up.

Added: 3/8

The Apache Army held their February 26, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring announcing a crowd of 170 fans which has to be considered a disappointment as they dropped almost 70 fans from their last show in the building from January. The main event of the show saw Kintaro Kanemura finally recapture the WEW World Title and bring the title back home after 2 1/2 years when Kanemura managed to use a backslide on Tomohiro Ishii at 13 minutes, 56 seconds. It was Ishii's third defense of the title and the first in over 2 years. Yusaku Obata returned to the Apache Army for the first time in over 2 1/2 years as he teamed up with Tomohiko Hashimoto as they defeated the team of Kenichi Yamamoto and Apache Kosaki when Obata hit a Low Sky Leg Lariat on Kosaki to get the pinfall at 12 minutes, 28 seconds. Tetsuhiro Kuroda got one of the biggest wins he had in a couple of years after he manage to defeat Arashi after rolling up Arashi with Kodo Fuyuki's old Samson Clutch for the win at 14 minutes, 4 seconds. Shinjuku Shark defended his Apache Rocky Title by defeating Iitomo Ariyama at 4 minutes after a punch forced the referee to end the match with Shark successfully defending his title for the second time. DDT's Tanomusaku Toba who is an old rival of Shark from years back came to the ring afterwards and challenged Shark for his title at the next Apache show. Madoka defeated rookie Tomohiro Waki after making him submit with a Crossface Lock at 5 minutes, 59 seconds. Rikimaru who is looking to join the Apache Army promotion had a Test Match with Tomohiko Hashimoto in the opening match with Hashimoto TKO'ing Rikmaru at 7 minutes 42 seconds. 

FREEDOMS ran their March 6, 2011 show at the Osaka World Hall Pavilion announcing a sell out crowd of 321 fans which is a huge success for the building and over 70 more fans than they drew at the same building 11 months earlier. The main event of the show saw the team of Magnitude Kishiwada and Masashi Takeda defeat Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui in a Hardcore Rules Match after Kishiwada manage to finish off Kamui with a lariat for the win at 15 minutes, 59 seconds. The semi-main event saw Jun Kasai team with Osaka Pro's Kuuga and Masamune to defeat the team of Onryo, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei when Kuuga hit his Tornado Stamp on Shu for the win at 15 minutes, 4 seconds. GENTARO and Great Kojika's new gimmick named The Great Deer defeated the team of Takashi Sasaki and Riki Office's Riki Sensyu when GENTARO ended up getting the pinfall over his old tag team partner Sasaki at 6 minutes, 55 seconds. The Winger defeated Keita Yano after Winger countered a Jackknife Rollup to roll Yano up instead for the pinfall at 12 minutes, 22 seconds. MIYAWAKI won a Three Way Match against Ricky Fuji and Ken45° after MIYAWAKI KO'd both Ricky and Ken45° to get the win at 9 minutes, 30 seconds. HIROKI opened the show defeating Yuki Tanaka with the WAR Special at 7 minutes, 15 seconds.

The next FREEDOMS show will be on March 14, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Despite Kasai losing in a tag match at a 666 show on February 25th when Kasai and Kamui lost to Yuko Miyamoto and Shinobu when Miyamoto pinned Kamui in a Lethal Weapon Death Match a match was still made between Miyamoto and Kasai for the CZW Ultra Violent Underground Title in a Glass Death Match for the main event of the show. The semi-main event will be Sanshiro Takagi teaming with recently disbanded from the Kojika Army Kazuhiko Ogasawara, and Shigehiro Irie against the team of The Great Deer, GENTARO, and Antonio Honda. Takashi Sasaki and The Winger team up to take on Onryo and Keita Yano. Masashi Takeda and Madoka team up to take on The Brahman Brothers, and Mammoth Sasaki and Kamui team up again to take on the team of Ricky Fuji and HIROKI. The opening match will see Tatsuhito Takaiwa against Akihito. 

Atsushi Onita will be making his second Osaka Pro appearance at the Osaka Minami Move On Arena on April 22, 2011. Onita will be facing former FMW wrestler Hayato Nanjyo who is Osaka Pro's Miracle Man returning under his old mask and name. Nanjyo who wrestled regularly in FMW from 1994 to 1997 and off and on in 98-99 until injuries took away what made him special which was his highflying risk moves. Nanjyo was similar to what Kamui is today for FREEDOMS. To check out more about Osaka Pro there's an awesome website that covers every about the promotion at http://www.osakahurricane.com.

ZERO-ONE ran their 10 Year Anniversary show on March 6, 2011 at Tokyo's Sumo Hall. The show was reported as a close to a sell out to the 11,000 seat building. Mineo Fujita and Minoru Fujita challenged for the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Titles against champions Takuya Sugawara and Okinawa Pro's Kajin Habu Otoko with retired wrestler SUWA as the Special Referee. SUWA ended turning heel in the match and helping Sugawara and Otoko keep the titles as he attacked both Fujita's after Otoko hit his Moudoku Habu Kuubaku on Mineo to cover him for the pinfall. Masato Tanaka ended up getting revenge on New Japan's Yuji Nagata as Tanaka finally got his long awaited victory over Nagata who he had failed to beat over the last couple of years as he finally put away the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion at 18 minutes, 20 seconds with his Sliding D. 

I've created another feature to the website which is a Complete history of FMW rivalries which you can check out at http://fmwwrestling.us/FMWFeuds.html which covers every singles or Three Way match for all the top FMW rivalries throughout the history of the promotion and elsewhere. A link to the page will also be put on the Title History section of the site as well as I look to add more to that section and make it more of a History of FMW fact page in the next couple of months. 

Added: 2/20

FREEDOMS ran their February 14, 2011 show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring announcing a crowd of 187 fans. While not necessarily a good crowd, it does at least stop the downward trend that Shin-Kiba shows booked by Takashi Sasaki had been suffering since September. The main event saw Yuko Miyamoto defend his CZW Ultra Violent Underground Championship against The Winger in a Lumber Jack Death Match in the main event to defend his title for the first time. Square logs and round woods were used in the match including Miyamoto holding one of the logs while hitting a Moonsault Press on the maskless bloody Winger to get the win at 17 minutes, 50 seconds. Afterwards, Miyamoto issued an open challenge to anyone in the locker room for the next title shot. Jun Kasai came out and told Miyamoto that Miyamoto had just beaten The Winger and Kamui and never defeated him. Kasai asked if he really thought he was a Death Match Champion for that. Kasai then challenged Miyamoto for the belt. Miyamoto replied that Kasai would have to wrestle at 666's February 25th show and if he were to win his match, then he can challenge for the title at the FREEDOMS' March 14th show at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. Kasai was upset that the 666 match wasn't even going to be a Death Match, but that he accepted it and was going to show Miyamoto that he was better than him. So Yuko Miyamoto vs. Jun Kasai looks most likely it will definitely be the main event of the next FREEDOMS show in March with I am guessing Kasai winning and bringing the belt back to CZW as he has been booked by the promotion coming up.

The Strong Style team of Mammoth Sasaki teamed up with Takao Omori and Tatsuhito Takaiwa to defeat the FREEDOMS Team of Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Kamui with Omori hitting his Axe Bomber to get the pinfall over Takashi Sasaki at 14 minutes, 28 seconds. In a match where if Great Kojika were to lose than he would be banished by the FREEDOMS promotion, the Kojika Army team of Great Kojika and GENTARO took on the TKG48 team of Sanshiro Takagi and Munenori Sawa with Takagi hitting his Sanshiro Stunner on Kojika to get the pin at 15 minutes, 36 seconds to end Kojika's tenure in FREEDOMS. Kojika got on the mic and said goodbye to all the members of the group on the show as the Kojika Army was finally put to an end although all the group members as of right now are still on the same side with one another. 

Masashi Takeda defeated Madoka with a German Supplex Hold at 11 minutes, 54 seconds to build up him being in a main event match at the next show in Osaka. Antonio Honda, Brahman Shu, and Brahman Kei defeated the team of Ricky Fuji, Keita Yano, and their foreign mystery partner going by the name of Kureishi Fuckin Spanish. Spanish ended up bringing a gun into the ring and pulling it on Honda, but Honda would end up getting the win over Spanish after cradling him at 12 minutes, 29 seconds. HIROKI opened the show defeating Yuki Sato at 12 minutes, 34 seconds with the Trance Rave.

Apache Army ran at Osaka Pro's home building the Osaka Minami Move On Arena on February 13, 2011 without releasing an attendance number. Kintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda teamed up to take on Osaka Pro's Kuuga and former Dragon Gate's Youhei Fujita. Fujita who use to go by the name RYOMA before a scandal took place in Dragon Gate about abusing their Dojo's pet monkey with RYOMA getting fired as a result. The match was build as Youhei Fujita's Re-Debut Match as well as his Last Match in Japan. Kanemura, no stranger to scandals himself ended up getting the win after hitting his Blast YAMA Senton Special on Fujita at 16 minutes, 22 seconds in the main event. Osaka Pro's Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada defeated the team of Tomohiko Hashimoto and Tomohiro Waki when Kotoge hit a Moonsault Press on Waki for the win at 11 minutes, 20 seconds. Kenichi Yamamoto made Apache Kosaki tap out to his Cross Kneelock at 11 minutes, 10 seconds. Osaka Pro's Zeus and Tadanobu Fujisawa defeated the team of Shoichi Uchida and Kengo Nishimura when Zeus hit a Brainbuster on Nishimura at 6 minutes, 59 seconds. Shinjuku Shark opened the show defeating the former FMW wrestler Hayato Nanjyo now currently Osaka Pro's Miracle Man as well as Apple Miyuki when Shark hit his Moonsault Press on Miyuki to pin her at 6 minutes, 59 seconds.

Apache Kosakai who does a better job at promoting Apache Army shows online better than their own website team announced the lineup for the upcoming Apache Army show on February 26, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. The main event will see Tomohiro Ishii defend his WEW World Title against Kintaro Kanemura. It will be Ishii's first title defense in over two years after he defeated Kanemura on January 10, 2009. Ishii who defeated Mammoth Sasaki back on July 12, 2008 for the title will hopefully finally drop the title so that the title can return home and can be a center piece around the promotion. Kenichi Yamamoto after making Apache Kosaki tap at the last show will now team with him and take on the team of Tomohiko Hashimoto and Yusaku Obata who will be making his first appearance at an Apache Army show since June 13, 2008. Tetsuhiro Kuroda will take on Arashi in a singles match, Shinjuku Shark will defend his Apache Rocky Title against the Joshi wrestler Ariya, and Madoka will open the show against rookie Tomohiro Waki. 

Mr. Gannosuke announced the lineup for his Kishindoh Returns 6 show on March 31, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. All the matches will be a 30 minute time limit, so either the main event or the opening match of the show will be Mineo Fujita and Kamui reuniting their team to take on Yuko Miyamoto and Masashi Takeda. GENTARO will take on Kazuhiro Tamura, Dragon Gate's Stalker Ichikawa will take on Ice Ribbon's Chii Tomiya, Dragon Gate's Kenichiro Arai will take on Keita Yano, and either in the main event or the opening match will be TAKA Michinoku taking on Munenori Sawa. 

Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa won back their BJW Tag Team Titles on February 12, 2011 at Korakuen Hall in front of the biggest number the promotion has done since November 20, 2009 in 1603 fans after they defeated Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei in a Nagoya Revenge Hell Fluorescent Light Tubes Ladder and Weapons Death Match after Kasai hit a Reverse Tiger Driver on Kei to get the victory at 19 minutes, 47 seconds. Jun Kasai's next Korakuen Hall opponent will be Masashi Takeda on March 21, 2011 as he faces him in a Death Match Survivor Tournament Match.

Eiji Ezaki revised the H gimmick for the first time since July 22, 2000 for his concert on February 14, 2011 at the Ota KUSHI-ZARU. Ezaki dyed his hair from blonde to gray to bring back his H look from early 2000. AKIRA attended the concert and met up with Ezaki after the show. His next Phoenix Music Fiesta will be on March 29, 2011 at the A.F.R Yokohama with his special guest for the concert being Megumi Kudo. Hayabusa wrote that he was very nervous about seeing Kudo for the first time in over 10 years as he sees her as his senior in FMW since she was already a star when he was coming up in FMW. Although he was not very much a fan of her work as he told me that he thought she was just a so-so worker. 

Added: 2/2

Hayabusa recently attended the GAORA's 20th Anniversary show on January 24, 2011at the Tokyo JCB Hall. Although Hayabusa only was backstage for the show he was able to meet up with many friends in Keiji Muto, Jushin Thunder Liger, and The Great Sasuke. He will also be having his next concert at Soldier's BUU Bar on February 10th which has already sold out. Having been to Soldier's bar before I can't imagine that the room could fit up to 20 people standing though. The next concert after that will be on February 14th in the Ota KUSHI-ZARU where he will be performing as H. It will be the first time that Eiji Ezaki will be bringing back his H gimmick since July 22, 2000. 

The Apache Army returned for their second show since starting back up on January 28, 2011 at the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. They announced a crowd of 238 fans for the show which is a success for the small promotion as they are on the upward trend since returning and doing better than FREEDOMS has done lately in the same building. Apache Kosaki wrote that there were definitely over 200 fans for the show which made it even more exciting to perform for. The main event of the show was long time partners and rivals Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda taking on each other for their 22nd ever singles match against one another in their career. Masato Tanaka managed to get the win after hitting his Sliding D to put away Kuroda after 15 minutes, 27 seconds for his 15th win singles win over Kuroda in his career. The semi-main event with former UWFi mostly opening match competitor Kenichi Yamamoto and ZERO-ONE's Kohei Sato teaming up to defeat the team of Tomohiko Hashimoto and Apache Kosaki when Yamamoto got the pinfall over Kosaki at 16 minutes, 44 seconds. The new Apache Rocky Title which has been created for Shinjuku Shark was defended successfully for the first time after Shark defeated Kikutaro after getting the pinfall with a Moonsault at 9 minutes, 13 seconds. The team of Arashi and Apache Kosaki took on the team of Tomohiko Hashimoto and Tomohiro Waki with Arashi hitting the Arashi Drop to put away the rookie Waki at 9 minutes, 26 seconds. Kintaro Kanemura opened the show by easily defeating Yuki Sato with a German Supplex at 5 minutes, 5 seconds. 

Mr. Gannosuke announced that he will be promoting his 12th show under his own name as Mr. Gannosuke Productions returns to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on March 31, 2011 for "Kishindoh Returns 6". Nothing has been announced as far a card is concerned. The only thing mentioned so far is that tickets to the show will be dropped 1000 Yen so ringside seats will be 5000 Yen and bleacher seats will be 4000 Yen. 

The Brahman Brothers recently captured the BJW Tag Team Titles on January 30th in Nagoya after defeating Jun Kasai and Jaki Numazawa in a Fluorescent Light Tubes and Ladder Death Match after Shu pinned Kasai. Kasai and Numazawa have been granted their rematch for the main event of Big Japan's next Korakuen Hall show in the main event as The Brahman Brothers will defend the titles for the first time against Kasai and Numazawa. 

I recently watched the New Years Eve Toshikoshi Pro-Wrestling show on December 31, 2010 at Korakuen Hall put on by FREEDOMS, Big Japan, K-Dojo, DDT, and Ice Ribbon. The comedy was very high on this show. GENTARO against Atsushi Ohashi in the 7 referee's match saw the 7 referees once again making it impossible GENTARO to get the win. All 7 had to count the three count and each of them would take turns counting one by one allowing Ohashi to be able to kick out right before the 21 count. All 7 of the referees then proceeded to be bumped out of the ring to prevent from calling Atsushi Ohashi's submitting while GENTARO placed him the Sharpshooter. All Japan referee Kyohei Wada then came to the ring and began refereeing and called for the submission but the bell ringer needed all the referee's to give their signal. Wada then told all the referees to quit with the clowning and call the match fair from now then on. GENTARO then pinned Ohashi once again and all the referee's counted three at the same time but then realized the DDT referee was still on the outside and again they couldn't call for the bell. As Wada was smacking him around for not being there to count the three, Ohashi would come up from behind and deliver a Supplex with all the referee's counting the three and finally signaled for the bell for the Ohashi win. In the One Night Tournament matches after the match had gone three minutes to the time limit than the Decision on who would move on was based on who would win in a battle Rock, Paper, Scissors. Funniest spot on the show is Danshoku Dino and Shinobu who are caressing one another in the corner during the 34 Promotion Royal Rumble and Jaki Numazawa using his chair to sit down and just watch them go at it. 

Added: 1/20

FREEDOMS ran their first show of 2011 on January 6th at the Tokyo Shin-Kiba 1st Ring drawing an announced 143 fans which continues the downward trend of crowds at Shin-Kiba. Takashi Sasaki was the center of attention on the show as he wrestled in two tag matches earlier on the show before facing 11 different opponents selected by GENTARO. The matches were only two minute time limits and over the top rules did apply for the match. Takashi Sasaki's first opponent was friend Jun Kasai who he scored the pinfall very quickly over by hitting a Reverse Tiger Driver and getting the pin at 36 seconds. Sasaki then faced off against in order Takao Omori, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Kazuhiko Ogasawara, and Ricky Fuji with all the matches going to two minute time limits. Sasaki ended up losing his first match to Keita Yano after Yano was able to cradle Sasaki up for the pinfall at 53 seconds. Sasaki then took on Kamui, The Winger, Great Kojika, and Mammoth Sasaki with all those matches going to two minute time limits. Sasaki's last opponent would be the only person who hadn't already wrestled earlier on the show and that was Goro Tsurumi who also went to a two minute limit draw with Sasaki to end the match. Tsurumi and Sasaki shook hands afterwards and Sasaki posed to end the show. 

Earlier in the show Great Kojika and GENTARO teamed up to face off against the new faction in FREEDOMS called TKG48 consisting of Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Shigehiro Irie with Great Kojika getting DQ'd at 3 minutes, 42 seconds. Takashi Sasaki, The Winger, and Ken45° faced off against the former WMF team of Mammoth Sasaki, Ricky Fuji, and Kamui with Sasaki using his Right Leg Kick to put away Kamui at 13 minutes, 32 seconds. Takao Omori defeated Masashi Takeda at 11 minutes, 33 seconds after putting away Takeda with his Axe Bomber. HIROKI and Madoka teamed up to defeat the team of Kazuhiko Ogasawara and Keita Yano after HIROKI got pint he pinfall over Yano at 10 minutes, 22 seconds. The opening match on the show which was a New Years Special Hardcore Rules Match saw Takashi Sasaki, Jun Kasai, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeat the team of Onryo and The Brahman Brothers after Sasaki hit his D-Geist on Kei for the pinfall at 11 minutes, 48 seconds. 

FREEDOMS along with Big Japan, DDT, K-Dojo, and Ice Ribbon joint promoted the annual New Years Eve show at Korakuen Hall on December 31, 2010. They announced the work number of 2011 fans for the show. The main event of the show was an elimination match with Mammoth Sasaki teaming up with Yuko Miyamoto, Kengo Mashimo, Kazuhiro Tamura, and Munenori Sawa taking on the team of Yoshihito Sasaki, HARASHIMA, Shuji Ishikawa, Fujita Jr. Hayato, and Emi Sakura with Over the Top Rules applying. Kazuhiro Tamura would get the first elimination after he would throw out HARASHIMA over the top rope at 14 minutes, 4 seconds. Tamura would then be the next to get eliminated after Shuji Ishikawa would throw him over the top at 17 minutes, 26 seconds. Munenori Sawa would throw Fujita Jr. Hayato over the top rope for the elimination at 19 minutes, 12 seconds. Emi Sakura would make her contribution to the match by getting herself and Kengo Mashimo eliminated at the same time at 23 minutes, 51 seconds. Yoshihito Sasaki would toss out Munenori Sawa over the top rope at 25 minutes, 38 seconds. The first pinfall elimination would come when former WMF Dojo student Yuko Miyamoto would eliminate former FMW Dojo student Yoshihito Sasaki at 26 minutes, 17 after Miyamoto would hit Sasaki with a Fire Thunder for the pinfall. Shuji Ishikawa would then eliminate Miyamoto at 27 minutes, 43 seconds after hitting him with the Splash Mountain leaving Mammoth Sasaki to go one on one with Shuji Ishikawa. The two would end up going at it with Mammoth coming out victorious after hitting Ishikawa with the 29 Years Old to get the pinfall at 31 minutes, 49 seconds and the victory for his team. 

Other matches on the show would be a 34 Promotion Battle Royal with each wrestler allowed to bring their own weapon. Jun Kasai would bring Takashi Sasaki's costume and wear it during the match as his choice of weapon and would act as Sasaki the entire match including eliminating Kikutaro using Sasaki's Right Leg Kick at 18 minutes, 47 seconds. The Brahman Brothers even though only one was legally in the Battle Royal would end up eliminating Kasai at 32 minutes, 22 seconds by throwing him over the top rope. Ricky Fuji also came to the ring with an Air Guitar as his weapon but Ricky ended up being eliminated officially after never entering the ring due to being too busy playing his Air Guitar to enter into the Battle Royal. The team of Kenny Omega, HIROKI, Tsutomu Oosugi, and Hercules Senga won the Eight Man Junior Match over the team of Minoru, Madoka, Kaji Tomato, and Kamui after Omega hit his Croyt's Wrath on Madoka for the win at 11 minutes, 24 seconds. Atsushi Ohashi scored the upset the win over GENTARO in a 7 Referee's Match after hitting the Aussie Supplex for the pinfall at 13 minutes, 15 seconds. Just like the other joint promotion show in October where GENTARO wrestled in a 7 Referee's Match the result was due to the referee's making sure GENTARO did not get the win. In a One Night Tournament 8 wrestler promoters battled each other in 3 minute time limit matches. Takashi Sasaki was eliminated in the 1st Round of the tournament by K-Dojo's promoter TAKA Michinoku after the match went to 3 minutes and the decision was made that TAKA had won the match. Great Kojika defeated Guts World promoter Guts Ishijima by getting a inside cradle at 2 minutes, 7 seconds then defeating Battlarts promoter Yuki Ishikawa by decision at 3 minutes to make it to the finals of the tournament before losing to JWP's promoter Command Bolshoi by decision after the match went three minutes.

FREEDOMS announced their next shows will be a return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on February 14th, followed by another show at the 1st Ring on March 14th. They will then visit the Osaka version of Shin-Kiba 1st Ring when they run at the Osaka World Hall Pavilion on March 6th and then run at Fukuoka Hakata Star Lanes on March 26th earlier in the day before Big Japan runs a show that in the building that night. 

Apache Army announced their return to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring will be on January 28th as they look to move forward and get to the same level that FREEDOMS is at right now. The main event wil be a match up of two former FMW wrestlers as Tetsuhiro Kuroda will take on Masato Tanaka. The semi-main event will be Tomohiko Hashimoto & Apache Kosaki (former MAKEHEN wrestler Hiroshi Kosaki) against Kenichi Yamamoto & Kohei Sato. Kintaro Kanemura will take on Yuki Sato in a singles match on the show. The comedy match on the show will see Shinjuku Shark defend his newly created Apache Army Rocky Title against Kikutaro and the opening match will see Arashi and Apache Kosaki (actually listed as Apache Kosaka but I am guessing it's a typo and Kosaki is working twice) against Tomohiko Hashimoto and the newest member of the Apache Army Tomohiro Waki. 

Apache also announced two more shows as they run their own Osaka show on February 13th but it will be at Osaka Pro's home of the Osaka Minami Move On Arena and then return back to the Shin-Kiba 1st Ring for a show on February 26th as it looks like they will be running similar to how FREEDOMS is running its schedule.

Super FMW announced its first show since November when they run at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring on February 5, 2011. The main event of the show will be Tarzan Goto teaming up with Nobuhiro Tsurumaki & Yuta Nakata & Reina Ayukawa against Yuko Miyamoto who has seemed to turn out to be Goto's newest rival in the promotion and his team of Gokuaku-Umibozu, The Shooter and a wrestler by the name of Mister F. The match will be a Scramble Bunkhouse Lethal Weapon Street Fight which means a weapon will be dangling above the ring in the middle with wrestlers trying to grab it to use. The only thing of note on the show is the return of Katsutoshi Niiyama to the promotion as he returns under his old The Great Punk gimmick when he faces Crab K*ING on the show. 

Big Japan announced a 10 man Round Robin Tournament with two different brackets diving the wrestlers into two different groups. The tournament will be called the Death Match Survivor Tournament with the winner of the tournament getting a shot at Ryuji Ito's Death Match Title on May 5, 2011 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. The A Bracket will consist of Takashi Sasaki, Shadow WX, Jaki Numazawa, Isami Kodaka, and Kankuro Hoshino. The B Bracket will consist of Jun Kasai, Yuko Miyamoto, Abdullah Kobayashi, Masashi Takeda, and CZW's Drake Younger. The tournament will spread from February to April with most of the matches taking place in March and the finals will be held at Korakuen Hall on April 18th. All the tournament matches will be Death Matches. 

I recently added a new feature to the site. It's a Now and Then of the FMW wrestlers with pictures of what they use to look like while in FMW and what they look like now or over the last couple of years as well as what they all have been doing recently. You can check it out at http://fmwwrestling.us/FMWTheseDays.html

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2011

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2010

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2009

BAHU's Japanese Trip Diary 2008

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

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)

Ceramic Wedding Bands

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