-Good things about Arai-


I said many things about him, but he wasn’t completely a bad man.

As I mentioned quite a few times, he was a good guy. He sacrificed himself and worked so hard. He was full of volunteer spirits. But he never used his pocket money to pay to wrestlers. He didn’t have money. He could only give wrestlers his sincerity, not money.

He could drink a lot.

I heard about silly stories when he was drunk. He never got that drunk after he was appointed as CEO.

I know he and Onita’s funny stories at drinking occasions, but I only hear private stories, no one ever mentions it to the public. I guess people are afraid of getting sued by Onita.

And as I said before, Arai was so good at apologizing. He was so determined and patient as a business man, and was able to memorize important things and write them down and record by using a tape recorder.

When I met him first I noticed him mumbling to the voice recorder saying what time and where or something.

I couldn’t ask him what he was doing because it looked a bit awkward...but after we got used to each other I asked.

He said, ’I’m very forgetful for all sorts, so I am recording the schedule and appointments.’ He is also writing them down though? It makes me laugh if I imagine he is playing back the tape after he goes home! He was always carrying that tape recorder and everyone said it’s strange.

I have seen that a detective in a film or TV drama using it though, I find it so odd seeing it in the real life and was so hard not to laugh every time when Arai was recording his mumbles, but he was also writing it down and the words were too tiny to see. Oh and then he still forgot his appointments! Sorry, I meant to remember good things about Arai, but it doesn’t matter because it’s true?

His private life? I don’t know it at all. We only spoke about work.

But I heard they were a good family. Of course it’s before their divorce though.

Once he spoke about his private life.

‘I went to my daughter’s kindergarten class open day. I was shocked.’

‘Why?

His teacher said to my kid

‘You are lucky because your grandfather just showed up.’

He was so upset. Maybe he looked much older to the teacher. That was the only private thing he told me.


-Mr. Arai as a business owner-


There wasn’t actual partner of Arai for his job. After a few people left, he was doing all by himself including calculating the travel expenses. The admin girl at the office told me. He is apparently checking all of the receipts including staff and wrestlers.

Long time ago, I told some staff to cheat the expenses in joking way. Then he said ‘Oh no no, Mr. Arai is checking them all.’

He was apparently checking every little penny.

He is a stingy man.

I guess it’s good to care, but he was sometimes weird.

For example if he finds the odd balance on the receipt, he says no and refuse to pay out. But on the other hand, sometimes he just says ’Ummmm,that’s strange...’ then moves on.

If you are too careful with money, you wouldn’t be able to trust people. I often heard Arai said

‘It is a con!’ And also, ‘This is an illegal action!’

When there was a dodgy guy who seemed to use money, Arai was so irritating.

‘I’m gonna sue him! I won’t forgive him!!’

So I said to him  ‘Oh yeah? You should sue him.’

Then he became quiet.

But sure he can just sue them, right? If they are suspicious, fire them.

He has evidence receipts. But he reacted nervously.

‘Oh, yes, but, it's strange...The receipt is strange.’

So what? Basically, he can’t even tell off anyone by himself.

Towards the end of FMW, he was going through every single receipts.

It’s just common that there are some suspicious ones once in a while in any company businesses.

If he thinks it’s really suspicious, he should have questioned them to their face, but he was just complaining to people around. So childish, but I can understand him.

If the business is not going well and the employees waste the money, you would get so angry. While business owner is trying to find the financial solutions, employees spend for silly things...you would say ‘Idiots!!’

You need to be prepared with small discrepancies and at the same time, let the staff work hard at their position. If the actual cash was stolen, that’s a problem. You still have receipts and you can carry on the business as usual.

I guess Arai had a confidence not to make any discrepancies even with 10yen. That’s amazing because I can’t do it.

Then if he couldn’t trust his workers, no one will follow him as the peoples are just machines to him.

He cared too much about small details and couldn’t focus to bigger things. He looks at the tree but not the forest.

He couldn’t take a clean side and dirty side as both. He wasn’t balanced and flexible. Oh hang on, he actually had a dirty side I guess? He was making things very vague.

If someone like him is a top of the company, surely they will go wrong.

What do I want to learn from Arai?

Maybe...his submissive attitude?? Not making everyone angry?

I don’t think I can do it.

Before I joined FMW, someone told me how great Arai’s attitude is.

‘If Fuyuki promotion has someone like Arai, your company will go very well.

He has great attitude and very polite.‘

I still remember the conversation and believed that he could lead to the success of the company.

He was able to do his job properly if he was asked.100%. He was working so hard without sleeping. It was amazing. I was wondering when he gets sleep. That’s how much he was working hard. His working ability as a normal member of staff was very high. He was just not good enough for company’s management.

I heard that Onita chose Arai on purpose because he wanted FMW to close down...I’m not sure if it’s true.

But it lasted more than he expected.

I think his polite attitude definitely helped to survive longer and everyone helped him too.

Also, Japan’s economic bubble had left over effect. Communication Satellites Channels had just launched and there were lack of contents. There were more ways that indie wrestling can survive.

Arai’s feud against Onita and Company F was so intense. The war between them was absolutely on fire and I felt Arai’s guts so much. That’s something you cannot witness anywhere else. That was absolutely Arai’s determination not to lose against them. It was kind of scary. I mentioned about a buy out offer when FMW was bankrupt, and he said no to it.

Also, when we tried to book Onita, he said he’d rather close down FMW and he’ll quit. What was that stubbornness??

I couldn’t do anything, so I was just watching angry Arai. Did he have a grudge with Onita?

Didn’t he just want to forgive Onita?

There must be more stories behind not written in his book.

If Onita was dirty with money or women, it is quite common in wrestlers and Arai should known that well. So I think it’s not only to do with Onita‘s bad habits.

As far as I know, Arai didn’t see Onita at all after Onita left FMW. They might have seen each other in unofficial occasions though...we never know.

If I describe Arai with one word?

I can’t.

Weird?

Anyway, he was a nice guy. Really. Not a bad guy. That was it.

The good guy didn’t have a choice and committed a very big bad thing at the end.

That bad thing was to bankrupt FMW.

Sometimes he was arrogant.

He said ‘I learned a technique to pull the money.’

I understand if bad guy do bad things.

He was a good guy but did something really bad and wasn’t cool at all. It was impossible to save him. He was also unlucky.

He said he worked so hard for wrestlers, but he was doing the opposite, but I'm sure he was a nice guy.

Look at Hayabusa and the other wrestlers. They never says bad things about Arai. That’s because they are two-faced. Some people say Arai was weak.

There's a bit of a difference. When we are together, he was quite a strong character and because he is a thick faced, he made a lots of debts. If you are in normal state, you’d stop borrowing.

Only one thing I wonder right now is...

Did he really love Pro-wrestling?

-Attraction of Indie Wrestling from a player’s point of view-


Good thing about indie wrestling is that it's free styled especially when you see the young wrestlers, you’ll notice they wrestle more freely than major wrestlers.

Major promotions has Sumo system even now, so you’ll see strong influence of seniority. Some indie promotions might have Sumo System though they are more relaxed. The indies are more flexible. It’s good not having the fixed basics.

Not only young Indy wrestlers...all the indie wrestlers are very challenging to do new things and it can creates good environment for entertainment wrestling.

Young wrestlers nowadays pretend to be cool, but they are actually quite sensitive and difficult to make them perform sometimes. Some might be thinking ‘God damn it, I don’t wanna do it.’ and I can sometimes feel that they really are thinking it’s boring. In that case, they should carry on what they were doing.

Audience are watching wrestlers carefully. They can not be selfish and they have to create something better for the audience.

Indie wrestlers are very flexible and adopt the situation so well. They have to feed themselves and that’s the way they can survive. Not like major wrestlers who just repeatedly train.

They are self employed just like a owner of small business, so they understand the world so well. That flexibility and response capacity will be the culmination of the entertainment wrestling.

‘Cheating the world’...it sounds bad, but that’s what I think of entertainment wrestling.

WEW business just launched and I would like us to team up with TV company.

I think we can work together and do something exciting. Just like New Japan and TV Asahi or Noah Nihon TV. I would like to find a company who can make a father-and-son relationship with us.

This is my target that to make a TV program with them but we let them into our side.

Not only wrestling people make the program, I would like to have a TV professional on our team and make the proper entertainment wrestling.

We make wrestling matches, and I want them to make other parts for the show.

We make the software, they make the hardware.

First of all, I’d like to have meeting with TV producers or directors .Maybe once a week meeting with them and want to create from zero.

I want to make WEW matches as a TV show. We will still have tours, however the ideas of having our own TV show won’t be changed. The meeting we used to have at FMW was also for deciding match details.

At WEW, we would like to be in charge of match details arrangements then hand it over to TV company to add the frame to it.

It was all first time when I was in FMW and I had trials and errors .But I want to step up more this time.

I learned a lot from my FMW time, so I’d like to show the audience a higher level of entertainment wrestling.

We don’t want people criticizing us saying it’s boring, or it’s like a school play.

I want to amaze the audience and make them think ‘How can they make such great stuff!?’



-Things I gained from FMW-



It was only three years, so many things had happened at a FMW. I met so many people and had rare experiences. Of course it was all a work though.

The biggest thing I gained was that I managed entertainment wrestling to be mine. I made people to recognize entertainment wrestling. I think it was me who spread booing action in Japan.

To be honest, I don’t care about the fact that FMW closed. I have experienced the promotions I worked for closed down before. It was my first time to work as a management though.

Joining FMW...Yes, it was good to join FMW. It was interesting. It was a good experience. It’s true.

Wrestling is good. It's very deep. Don’t you think it’s fun to watch? Is there any other more interesting things?

Taking about FMW this much might make people say I’m a liar or it’s different than the truth...but it doesn’t matter what is the truth.

There was a promotion called FMW.

Their business went down and they were bankrupted. But nobody left the wrestling business and that includes me and Hayabusa.

Except Arai.

Everyone is working hard in wrestling.

To survive.

This book is a requiem for the CEO who was too nice of a guy.

Written by Kodo Fuyuki
Translated by Emu Eaglestone 
Published on February 5, 2003