I really wanted to be a pro-wrestler
I'll return to the story of wanting to be a professional wrestler, but even
when I left Kansuiryu and devoted myself to karate locally, I still had a dream
of becoming a professional wrestler. I opened my own place to create a club,
while officially attended the Seishin Kaikan, and for a while after becoming the
chief of the Chita branch, I felt I would no longer become a professional
wrestler, but then I received notice about All Japan Pro-Wrestling recruiting
and I felt I could not abandon my dream. It was the winter of 1987 after the
Kansuiryu had stopped. I had always been a fan of Giant Baba, so I had a
stronger desire to enter All Japan more than New Japan. It was only after I
started doing karate that I was inclined to join New Japan, because they had
announced the recruitment of trainees in All Japan, I was sent the necessary
documents such as resumes to the All Japan office.
I received notification that the recruiting would be at the Aichi Prefectural
Gym and I would have an interview with Mr. Baba, it seemed like everything would
go smoothly. I had my important interview and if all would go well I would be
recruited by All Japan. At the interview, Mr. Baba, who I admired, asked me,
"What are you doing?", I remember answering "I'm a freelancer now. I'm just
doing a part time job." At that moment, in my heart, I was soaring, "Now I am
available to join All Japan."
After that interview, I received the notice by post card that they would like to
have a final interview at Ryogoku Sumo Hall again, but this time Giant Baba
would not be there as he had decided to go to Beijing. However, when I arrived
at the Sumo Hall earlier than the promised time written on the postcard, I
noticed something was wrong.
It was not an All Japan show but a concert by Miyuki Nakajima that was being held at Sumo Hall. I hurriedly headed to Budokan Hall, but the promised time had already passed. At the reception desk of Budokan Hall, when I told them that I had come for an interview to join, it was Mr. Baba's wife, Motoko.
But she was angry, "What time do you think it is?" Mrs. Baba did not want to speak to me just because I was 30 minutes late. Anyone else could have interviewed me but that was also refused by her. They don't care that I traveled from Aichi Prefecture. It's true that I was 30 minutes late, but it was due to the failure of the All Japan Pro-Wrestling side who had written the wrong location on the postcard. I can't withdraw as it is, so I asked Mr Iiyama, who was the public relations officer who issued the postcard, to protest, "Doesn't the postcard written say Ryogoku Sumo Hall?" He acknowledged his fault and promised, "I'll do something about it. I'll give you another notification, and I'll be able to interview you at the next Aichi show instead."
Mr. Iiyama said, "In the mean time, watch the Real World Tag Team Tournament
1985 Finals for the time being. After all the matches, I watched the awards
ceremony with Stan Hansen and Ted Dibiase who defeated Jumbo Tsuruta and
Genichiro Tenryu to win the championship. I waited until the end of the show,
but didn't receive any notification from Iiyama, so I decided to give up getting
started in All Japan. It bothered me to go come from Nagoya to Tokyo to be
labeled as the guy who was 30 minutes late for an interview. But I had the
opportunity to talk to an employee at All Japan and I talked about my case with
them. He told me he would report to Mr. and Mrs. Baba that it was his mistake
about the postcard and I asked him,
"Why can't Mrs. Baba know the truth that it was Iiyama that messed up?" He said
it would be a big situation if he did that, so he would handle it instead.
But I think he used two tongues (lied), as after that, he said "I sent your
resume to All Japan", but this time I got a straight rejection notice about
joining. I wasn't convinced, so I spoke with Raku Nagagen at an All Japan show
and asked him why I failed. He said, "You're still too small, so I hope you grow
up some more." However, the real reason seems to have been different. The
following month, there was a split in All Japan Pro-Wrestling and Riki Choshu
had returned back to New Japan. After all, it was bad time to send a resume as
they were not recruiting anymore. The month prior they were still recruiting
when Mrs. Baba refused to interview me.
I then took the introductory test of New Japan Pro-Wrestling the following
month after I turned 21 and failed. On the day of the introductory test,
Katsutoshi Niiyama (FMW), Hiroyuki Kotsubo (Tsubo Genjin), and I all went
together to to the New Japan Dojo from the Todoroki Station. We walked together
and talked about our future dreams. Niiyama and Kotsubo had taken the
introductory test for New Japan the previous year, and when I asked, "Did anyone
pass it last year?" and they told me "No everyone failed. If you don't have a
track record, they won't accept you."
At that time, I had a track record of finishing 3rd in the International Sumo
Championship, so I said, "I have done something," but in the end, all the test
takers of that year were unsuccessful.
A few years after I passed the exam, I formed the Piranha Army with Kim Duk and
Masanobu Kurisu in the New Japan ring, and I had two matches against Director
Aoyagi, I talked with Koji Kanemoto, who was still young. I had the opportunity
to talk to him, and I realized that I was the same height as Kanemoto. Besides
that, Kanemoto was skinny. I did not want to be rude, but I really wanted to
ask, so I asked him, "How did you get in (in New Japan)?", He said, "The timing
was good. The point is that recruiting new recruits for professional wrestling
has the meaning of doing the chores, and it is also the job of the trainee to
make the ring. If you send a resume when there are not enough wrestlers, you
will pass easily, but on the contrary, if it is an excessive time where there
are a lot of new wrestlers like the current New Japan, it will be difficult to
be hired he said.
Pro-wrestling I watched on a nostalgic TV
The first thing I was interested in pro-wrestling was that I accidentally turned
on the TV at 8 o'clock on Friday and said, 'World Pro-Wrestling?" Then, I was
watching the match between Antonio Inoki and Andre the Giant without knowing the
rules, and before I noticed it, the match was over. Then I got interested and
started watching professional wrestling broadcasts every week.
However, when I was in the second year of elementary school, I read a book called "Introduction to Wrestling," which was mainly featured by Mr. Baba, and since then I became a fan of Mr. Baba because of the influence of the book, so when I was little I showed my grandmother the book and watched the show with her. I remember cheering for Mr. Baba in front of the TV, but when I first started watching professional wrestling, Mr. Baba never would come out though, so my grandmother said, "Why does Mr. Baba not come to help Mr. Inoki? We watched Inoki beat Andre the Giant who was 2 meters and 28 centimeters (7 foot 4 inches) after taking him to the ground. I was sick of seeing Inoki after winning.
Neither of us knew at all that there were two professional wrestling groups.
I noticed that when I was in the third grade of elementary school, my brother
told me that they showing professional wrestling on Saturday, so then I paid
attention to the TV section of the newspaper every day and finally understood
that there are two groups in professional wrestling. Then I started watching
"All Japan Wrestling Broadcast" without fail, and became a fan of Mr. Baba more
than ever. There are quite a few scenes where Mr. Baba was being killed, but in
the end, Mr. Baba would win.
Although I was in elementary school, I gradually understood how great Mr. Baba
work inside the ring was. So I didn't like Inoki or "World Pro Wrestling" and I
watched only "All Japan Wrestling Broadcast" most of the time. However, although
I liked Mr. Baba, I couldn't like Mr. Onita when I was watching "All Japan
Wrestling Broadcast" at that time.
Atsushi Onita was the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Champion, but he couldn't fly compared to Tiger Mask at the time, his German Suplex was shaky, and he looked weak, but when I was watching professional wrestling on TV, Mr. Onita had the image of being a younger brother of Terry Funk. He watched Terry cry when he won the title abroad, and Onita stopped Terry from getting excited and rampaging. I was impressed by that kind of hot bloodedness he had, and I always thought, "Mr. Onita loves Terry like his brother."
When I went up from W*ING to FMW. It seems that Mr. Onita had promised to
call Terry several times a year after he had blown up the electric current with
Terry, but he did not call him for a while, and suddenly he called him just
before he retired. A match between Terry and Sabu was organized in Nagoya, and
after that match, Terry sat in the waiting room in a state of absentmindedness,
full of blood. Atsushi Onita, who due to the past relationship would go up and
hug, and ask "Terry, are you okay?" image of the past, would hug him asking,
"Terry, are you okay?"
Instead I heard Onita who was by my side, say in Japanese, "This guy is
interesting," so he doesn't think Terry knows what he's saying, but when I
watched them on TV a long time ago, I had the image of a teacher-apprentice
relationship. It was quite surprising that Mr. Onita called Terry "this guy" to
me, when I use to watch how close they were on the old TV, maybe it was because
he was successful now in FMW and became a legend? I don't know, but after that,
Terry went up to IWA Japan. Terry might have been able to understand what Onita
said about him.
Longing for professional wrestlers
Going back to the old days when I was a boy, there are many nostalgic
professional wrestler names. I am quite familiar with wrestlers of the older
generation. When I was in New FMW, I was on the bus with Kanemura and Hido and
the foreign wrestlers, and we played a game of naming wrestlers from the past,
but you could not say famous names like Butcher or Hansen. you had to obscure
maniac names. Great Gama, Stanislaus Zbyszko, Klaus Wallas were mentioned. Great
Gama was an Indian hero who defeated Stanislaus Zbyszko who was the first
champion of America.
There was a picture shown in "Weekly Wrestling" once that the Indian wrestler
got both shoulders on the floor and I understand that he won in in 10 seconds.
Even in the W*ING era, I was familiar with old wrestlers, so I talked with the
office about who to call while looking at the foreign wrestler directory. At
that time, the candidate was Brute Bernard, who was a villain in Canada just
before Tiger Jeet Singh that appeared in the directory. However, Bernard had
already died by that time. Then there was Abdullah Tamba who I could not get,
which was a pity as he had faced Tiger Mask before. Tamba was a wrestler who
came to New Japan and was called a flying butcher that could slash the spinal
cord. I wanted to pair Tamba with the Headhunters and have three flying
butchers, but at that time Abdullah Tamba had hair on his head and was no longer
a Butcher.
Then was a wrestler who Nagasaki toured with in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, a Canadian lumberjack brought in by Mad Dog Vachon's younger brother Butcher Vachon in the Great Gustav but when I called him on the phone he told he me had been messed up by some sloppy New Japan young boy wrestlers and retired. Then there was the wrestler that I wanted to fight most in Tor Kamata but Ibaragi didn't listen to me when I requested bringing him in. Then there was Kintaro Oki who I just wanted to see as an active wrestler in W*ING. These wrestlers are the phantom projects that I could not fulfill to bring into W*ING.
Karate vs. Pro-Wrestling - The first fighting battle
In memory of Kajiwara Ikki 10 years after his death. Aoyagi returned to the
karate family for the "Festival of Martial Arts". The head of it is the Karate
Kenpo Federation. Kumite was shown with Byakuren Kaikan and Masayasu Sugihara.
Director Aoyagi absence dates back 8 years to the "1989 Martial Arts Festival".
He played the leading role in the battle with Atsushi Onita, who became a hot
topic for the first battle between Pro-Wrestling vs. Karate. In the end, I think
this fighting battle changed the fate of Director Aoyagi and myself. The karate
practitioner, who should have finished his battle with Masaaki Satake the
previous year, has now become the center of attention in the first wrestler vs.
karate martial arts battle.
On June 8, 1989 at the Masaki Dojo in Azabu, Tokyo, a martial arts battle was
announced between Atsushi Onita and Masashi Aoyagi. At the press conference, Mr.
Onita said "Pro-Wrestling has been my life since I was 16 years old. I can't
lose to a karate representative." It was a long time ago that Director Aoyagi
was selected as an opponent for Mr. Onita, who eventually became a stepping
stone in the establishment of FMW. The seconds on Onita's side are TPG wrestlers
Shoji Akiyoshi (Jado), Keiji Takayama (Gedo), Hiroto Wakita (Super Delfin), and
Atsushi Ouchi (Ultraman Robin).
Mr. Onita who went up to the ring was wearing upper body gym shirt, blue long
tights and black boots, and I did not wear my white two-shoulder costume like at
the time of FMW as I was on the karate side in this battle. However, from the
perspective of a professional wrestling fans, the Martial Arts ring was the
enemy. Many karate fighters and kick boxers gathered at this show, and
professional wrestling fans were swearing at them. The professional wrestling
fans were excited and created a strange mood. Director Aoyagi, who hit a right
low kick to a left high kick to the start of the match, took Mr. Onita down, and
laid a kick and straight hits to the face. Mr. Onita took Director Aoyagi to the
mat and began working over his joints.
Then at the moment the beginning of the second round of the match Aoyagi shouted
"Come on!" when facing Mr. Onita in the center in the ring and collapsed after
eating Mr. Onita's elbow.
Mr. Onita mercilessly hit and kick Director Aoyagi who collapsed near the rope.
Three or four excited karate officials stood up in the apron. Mr. Onita provoked
such a person involved in karate, and for the first time, professional wrestling
fan begin to call Mr. Onita's name, who had been in a fierce battle until then.
Director Aoyagi then drove Mr. Onita with a straight fist, a front kick, a knee
kick, and an elbow strike. An excited me and Saito stood up at the ringside and
cheered on Director Aoyagi.
At this point, the 2nd round was over, and in the 3rd round, there was an
announcement of "Please seconding members of the Seishin Kaikan crouch down"
that we heard as Director Aoyagi was fluttering, and he was hit by a series of
kicks and cornered by Onita. Onita was irresistible knocking Director Aoyagi
down and out of the ring.
Keiji Takayama and the others would throw Director Aoyagi back in the ring, and then he would be caught with a kick in the center of the ring again as Onita would place him a armlock. Director Aoyagi would escape to the rope with energy as the 3rd round would end here.
In the 4th round, Director Aoyagi was desperate, and he grabbed Mr. Onita and
hit a low kick, a middle kick, a knee kick, and a rush of a straight fists, Mr.
Onita then tossed Director Aoyagi out of the ring and attacked him with chair.
Excited karate officials jumped out again, and the second of both armies got
mixed up and the match was interrupted. The audience was all standing and
Korakuen Hall was on the verge of rioting. "I'm sorry ... don't get so excited,
everyone or the match will be canceled, so please don't touch the seconds."
Director Soeno said over the microphone.
At the same time as the bell of resuming the match, Mr. Onita began hitting the
Director Aoyagi with illegal head butts. A dull sound is heard, there was one
shot, two shots, and then three shots, and The Director's forehead was cut and
the mat was stained with blood.
Mr. Onita knocked down the referee who tried to pull him away from the head butts, and at that moment, the end of the match was announced and the bell rang. At the end, angry karate officials rushed in all at once, and it became out of control. The match saw both camps get very excited as it was invalid match and a no contest was announced, but the Director Aoyagi seemed unable to suppress the excitement while shouting "Come on Onita!" in this battle, and due to Mr. Onita's head butts, it was then announced that Director Aoyagi won by foul in the 4R 3 minutes. This match was his professional debut and helped lead to the concept of the initial FMW as it was.
FMW's Launch
FMW was launched on October 6, 1989 in the Aichi Prefecture. The show was called
"THE GRUDGE" at the Tsuyuhashi Sports Center and it attracted 4,000 spectators,
and there were karate matches, women's professional wrestling, and different
style fighting matches. Mr. Onita said "I don't know what will pop out."
The first fight was a karate match between Kenmei Shimizu vs. Keiga Qingdao, Boat People Joe vs. Monkey Magic Wakita,Jimmy Backlund vs. Mitsueru Tokuda, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Billy Mack, Witch Warrior vs. Miwa Sato & Kumiko Matsuda & Eriko Tsuchiya, Masanobu Kurisu vs. Sambo Kid, Atsushi Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi. I was still wearing white karategi as the number 2 karateka at Seishin Kaikan, I was not Mr. Danger, but even so, my wish came true as I made my professional debut.
I had a contest with a professional wrestler, and of course, he was not use
to the karate style, and no matter how hard I kicked him, he didn't move at all.
The result was a victory by DQ in 3R at 2 minutes 3 seconds, although I won my
debut match by foul victory, the content of the match was not praised. In
general, it is thought that the launching battle at the Tsuyuhashi Sports Center
was a joint performance between Mr. Onita and Seishin Kaikan, but in reality it
was a joint performance between Mr. Onita and Mr. Maki the co-sponsor. The FMW
launching event held at the Sports Center was actually split between Maki and
Onita, but the main event was the rematch between Atsushi Onita and Masashi
Aoyagi, so the Seishin Kaikan cooperated to handle a considerable amount of
advance tickets.
However, I remember that Mr. Onita was very angry because of the trouble with
Mr. Maki, the co-sponsor caused. After that, Mr. Maki pulled out and Mr. Onita
started to partition the own FMW entirely. When I went up to the ring of
professional wrestling, I was dismissed from the people who were doing karate
with me, but when I did professional wrestling, and I feel good about it. So,
when I went up to FMW, I became a professional wrestler as if I had thrown away
half my life to karate, but I would be lying if I said I did not still like
karate, but I can't eat if I just do karate alone.
Even after I became a professional, I asked Director Ishii if I could stay in
karate and remain an amateur doing that, but I regretted being told I could not
do that. Considering that, Director Aoyagi and I were inspired by the
"Martial Arts Festival". I started working for FMW, but I was really lucky.
It could have been Masaaki Satake of Seidokaikan or Ryuji Murakami of Shidokan
to fight Mr. Onita. It happened that Mr. Maki chose Director Aoyagi, and thanks
to the fact that I went along with Director Aoyagi, and became recognized by
professional wrestling fans.
So, if I ever quit professional wrestling, I would like to go back to karate
again.
A Match for Respect with Atsushi Onita
The key to FMW's success was the success of the new UWF. At the UWF Osaka
Prefectural Gymnasium show on December 22, 1988, Mr. Onita went to the UWF venue
with a letter of challenge at the order of Mr. Shinji Kami, but it didn't work,
and Mr. Shinji Kami, who was the president of UWF at that time, asked Onita "Do
you have a ticket?"
So FMW did the opposite of UWF's rule supremacy. If UWF banned out of the ring
brawls, on the contrary, FMW did only out of the ring brawls, and repeated death
matches that UWF hated.
If UWF only has big matches in large venues, FMW's would have Onita in a radical
match in a small gym. I would face Mr. Onita for the first time in a singles
match at the Takaishi Seaside Sports Center in Osaka on December 1, 1989. It was
a match because of the during the invasion of Onita and Director Aoyagi when I
jumped in the ring. Then after that match Mr. Onita demanded that he put a
barbed wire in the ring to prevent the intrusion of the seconds and fight the
final battle with the karate fighters in a tag match.
It was decided that I would team up with Director Aoyagi to participate in
Japan's first barbed wire match for Korakuen Hall on December 10, 1989. From the
perspective of professional wrestling fans, an unknown karate fighter will be in
the main event. The final battle between professional wrestling and karate
continued from the "Festival of Fighting" was the most memorable match in the
early FMW.
Looking back now, it was convenient for me that Director Aoyagi was injured and
missed right before the show. Thanks to that, I was able to fight Mr. Onita as
much as I could without hestitation to Director Aoyagi.
The director's substitute was Jerry Blayman a foreign wrestler who later joined
the Fujiwara group as Jerry Flynn. What surprised me was how Onita chopped up
his body so much as far as he did.
Despite being an enemy, Mr. Onita's obsession with the match was amazing as he
was willing to go so far. I saw him jumping into the barbed wire without
hesitation, it was like he willing to become one with the barbed wire.
The match was so painful that it felt like an illusion. My right shoulder was
injured, fresh blood was splattered, and the barbed wire covered our bodies
while the audience screamed and screamed. There was an unprecedented new
professional wrestling in FMW.
To be honest, Mr. Onita was shocked by the shock. The audience had not
experienced seeing this in a match, and he showed the audience how tattered he
was. Atsushi Onita became Charisma of Tears because of this match and how he
built this era. For those who overlap W*ING with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, the origin
of my death match was in FMW.
You may be surprised, but it is undeniable that I was influenced by the idea of
the early FMW, which brought barbed wire to professional wrestling for the first
time.
While fighting Mr. Onita, I learned from the person who would become the main
wrestler in both our first death match. Mr. Onita needed 25 stitches after this
match and it opened his eyes to "Jado Wrestling." He took a step, and at the
same time, he stayed overnight to awaken his enemy.
The suspicion and fun of the early FMW.
To be honest, I am grateful that my first professional wrestling was in FMW.
Perhaps if I had joined UWF instead of FMW, I would not have continued
professional wrestling.
The suspicion of professional wrestling entertainment is the opposite of U
style. At the time there was no promotion that made me feel more suspicious of
professional wrestling than FMW.
There was a Mixed Martial Arts Open Tournament held at Korakuen Hall on January
7, 1990. Participating fights were Atsushi Onita, Tarzan Goto, Masanobu Kurisu,
Beast the Barbarian from the professional wrestling side, The Shooter (Shoot),
Satoshi Imaizumi (Judo), Lee Wan Pyo (Kickboxing), Fumiharu Asako (Sambo), and
Katsuji Ueda (kickboxing), and myself as a karate representative. The winner was
Masanobu Kurisu who defeated Tarzan Goto in the final. I defeated Katsuji Ueda
in the first round of the tournament, but in the second round, I was beaten by
Mr. Kurisu with a chair and was blown away.
Mr. Kurisu in the FMW era, gives the impression that he is the most
unpredictable person. At the time, newcomers like Shoji Akiyoshi and Monkey
Magic Wakita, Kurisu did not compromise at all in matches with them. He said to
me before our match, "When you are a newcomer, you can't be disappointed in how
the matches go. If the wrestler is disappointed in how the match is going to go,
it's over for them."
We met again in Pioneer Senshi, and after that we went to the ring together in
New Japan Pro-Wrestling together. He told me he missed FMW. In the FMW era,
people often talked about hating it, but the early FMW was very kind to us. It
as clear that Onita's ideas were clearer than anything else. FMW created a fun
B-level movie atmosphere for everyone. Second and third class professional
wrestlers and fighters also appeared, but if Onita had ran a strong style like
Pioneer Senshi did, FMW would have failed. After that, due to the success of FMW
and the collapse of SWS, many different independent promotions began to start up
all over the place, although only FMW really managed to survive.
I was not in the early FMW for long, but at the time I had really had a lot of
fun. I was enjoying it and the guarantee was good. I was making 15,000 yen
($150) a match, but Director Aoyagi had only received 20,000 ($200) so there was
only a 5,000 ($50) yen difference between me who was a newcomer and him who was
well known.
Since FMW ran tours, I was able to make enough to live for the month. After
that, Director Aoyagi had us leave FMW to begin working with Pioneer Senshi, but
I really wanted to stay in FMW.
I could not forget the impact of the barbed wire death match and fighting
against Onita.
Shaking FMW
On March 1, 1990, Pioneer Senshi was the third other promotion besides FMW and a
new promotion Universal Wrestling Federation (later Universal Lucha Libre),
which directly imports Japanese wrestlers that were former FMW wrestlers called
TPG3 (Shoji Akiyoshi, Keiji Takayama, Monkey Magic Wakita), MASA Michinoku (The
Great Sasuke) from the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Wrestling School, and Japanese
free agents based out of Mexico in Gran Hamada and Yoshihiro Asai (Ultimo
Dragon) would become the fourth other promotion.
The inside of FMW's core began to shake. Young wrestlers had pulled out.
Masanobu Kurisu moved to New Japan. Director Aoyagi also said that he would
create a home for displaced athletes with no home promotion and the relationship
between FMW and Seishin Kaikan began to crack.
However, I didn't think that the new promotion that Director Aoyagi was thinking
about would work. At the time, there weren't many indies. So I called Wakita,
but he was already talking about pulling out of FMW to join Universal.
So then I called Mitsuteru Tokuda who said "I am going to follow Director
Aoyagi's group, I can't deal with FMW anymore." Tokuda was a judo expert in FMW,
but since he joined FMW as a wrestler, he was naturally forced to be a young boy
at the bottom and set the ring up. However, I often skipped making rings in
rural areas and would just drink coffee at a family restaurant before the shows.
Tokuda seemed to be quite dissatisfied with FMW. I didn't really want to quit
FMW at all, so the transfer story gradually boiled down and I felt a little
overwhelmed.
At the time, FMW's office in Magome, Ota-ku, Tokyo and there was a business
hotel that FMW used near by. I got a little suspicious call while I staying at
the hotel during a tour. He asked me if anyone was in the room with me. I told
him no. He told me he wanted to meet with me right away as there might be a ear
on the wall listening to me talk.
I left the hotel and it was Keiji Takayama who had quit FMW without making his
debut, even though a singles match had been organized for him at the FMW debut
show in Nagoya. He drove me to his home where Monkey Magic Wakita, Shoji
Akiyoshi, and for some reason Mitsuteru Tokuda were there.
Are you dissatisfied with FMW? I was asked. Dissatisfied? I'm not
dissatisfied with the company, but if I force to think about it, I do think
about my pay. I wonder if I can get paid a little more, but other than that I
have no other complaints.
"I am not aware of the market price of professional wrestling financial rewards"
I said to them. It seems that their purpose was to see if I wanted to come
Universal with them.
At that time, I didn't know anything about Lucha Libre or what Universal was,
but Tokuda kept repeating himself, by saying "I will definitely quit FMW. I will
definitely quit."
After that, I never thought that the events of this day would lead to a big
incident. When I returned to my parents' house after the barbed wire death match
at Korakuen Hall on December 10, 1989 when I fought against Mr. Onita and Mr.
Goto, I suddenly got a call from Tokuda.
Tokuda said something strange. "Mr. Matsunaga. Mr. Onita and Mr. Goto know you
are going to form a new group to oppose FMW," and Tokuda senses I won't appear
in the January 1990 tour anymore. I was suspicious and asked, "How would you
know the FMW front office would think that?"
Then Tokuda wasn't clear, he just said "No ... I don't know why, but I know." I
was distrustful of Tokuda's words, but when I checked the FMW office for the
time being, the staff asked me, "Mr. Matsunaga will you be participating in the
FMW Martial Open Tournament on January 7th?" I told them of course, why would I
not?
At that time, the FMW staff member said "Lets meet when you come out to Tokyo
for the show." So I went out to Tokyo for the show and met the FMW staff member
and I was informed of a surprising fact. They told me they knew about the
company I was going to be leaving FMW to join. I said "What are you talking
about? Please tell me everything."
"There is a wrestler that told me everything." "Who?" "Tokuda"
Tokuda had told the FMW staff member upon quitting FMW an exaggerated version
the story of my meeting with the others about leaving FMW as well.
I told him I had no interest in joining Universal. However, I could not make up
an excuse about Director Aoyagi leaving FMW to start up a new organization of
dispatched wrestlers when that was brought up to me.
On January 8, 1990, the day after the "Martial Arts Open Tournament" at Korakuen
Hall, I met with Mr. Onita directly at the restaurant behind the Business Hotel
that FMW uses. The reason for the hotel there is at the time, is that Mr. Onita
would bring meals and videos and lived there.
Onita had already became the front of the FMW office at this point. I heard all
these stories about him and knew what to expect, but he still made me feel
guilty when speaking with him. "Matsunaga-kun, you're not going to be working
for FMW anymore?"
I told him I did not want to leave FMW. Aoyagi's plan of starting his own
promotion of dispatched fighters changed in the form of participating for
Pioneer Senshi. I didn't want to go to Pioneer Senshi. I really wanted to stay
in FMW, but Aoyagi at the time had absolute authority.
I was able to speak with Onita and then I broke up with him. He told "Please do
well" and I wondered if I could ever go back to FMW again. I was feeling very
lonely, and I knew FMW was dealing with financial difficulty. Therefore, I had a
lot of desire to want to help Onita. At the time, Mr. Onita had no money, and
when I happened to look inside his wallet he only had 1000 yen ($10) in it.
"Matsunaga-kun, I only have 1000 yen now, but the world is doing well, but you
will be able to drink your coffee for free."
At first, I didn't understand what he was saying. However, when Mr. Onita left
his seat, I finally understood. While living in the hotel, Mr. Onita had become
acquainted with an employee of the restaurant under the hotel, so no one took
money from Mr. Onita when he came for his coffee.
I often thought about the company FMW, and I was grateful to FMW for being able
to climb into my dream and reach my goal of going into a professional wrestling
ring. I was prepared for a new and better life in FMW, but I was pulled to
Pioneer Senshi and I cried feeling I had betrayed FMW.
The Nightmare of Bionic Warfare
Discussions were held at the end in January 1990, but talks between Mr. Onita
and Aoyagi broke down, and the relationship between FMW and Seishin Kaikan was
completely destroyed. It seemed that he thought he would get about 10,000 yen
($100) more per match, but Onita was not satisfied with that and said that FMW
was not going to be using Aoyagi anymore.
After that, Aoyagi reached out to Pioneer Senshi and got a deal for 200,000 yen
($2,000) per match and my guarantee went up to 100,000 yen (1,000) per match.
However, there is only one match every two months so my monthly income is only
50,000 yen ($500). I could have continued to eat if I had stayed in FMW, now
suddenly I can't live.
I consulted with Aoyagi and I told him I can't afford to eat and told him I
wanted to go back to FMW. He told me "If you can't eat, you should go elsewhere.
FMW won't last long, it will collapse by the end of the year."
I thought that I was indebted to Mr. Onita and Mr. Goto, so I wanted them to do
their best. So I was willing to cooperate if possible. To be honest, I didn't
have a fighting spirit in the Pioneer Senshi ring. That's because from my point
of view, Pioneer Senshi wrestlers were not very professional.
Director Aoyagi faced Pioneer Senshei President Ryuma Go at the Nagoya
Tsuyuhashi Sports Center for the 1990 Martial Arts Festival. Compared to Onita
and Aoyagi the year prior in Nagoya, there was a lack of atmosphere with the
crowd compared to the murderous atmosphere of the FMW days.
The Pioneer Senshi fan base was too laid back, and I did not think Pioneer
Senshi was interesting at all. I was having a technical exchange with a Pioneer
Senshi wrestler and ended up getting injured. I felt uncomfortable after being
injured due to someone else's carelessness.
After being forcibly transferred and injured, the relationship between myself
and Director Aoyagi began to crack. Then Pioneer Senshi began to work with New
Japan Pro-Wrestling and had Animal Hamaguchi in the ring. There was the rivalry
of the Blonde Outlaws and Akitoshi Saito wanted to become a professional
wrestler and started training.
It was around that time that Saito took Aoyagi to the the waiting room of the
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and also promised to
introduce Mr. Ryuma Go to Director Aoyagi.
Aoyagi was so absorbed and boastful because he was able to go up to the ring of
New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and he just said "Go-chan, Go-chan" and and left Saito
alone.
The only part of the conversation about Saito was Ryuma Go said to Saito
"Saito-kun, you have a good body." That's it.
Saito went to see Mr. Ryuma Go hoping that he could start in a professional
wrestling ring, so he was quite depressed.
I couldn't be there with Saito that day, which I was sorry for, but I made an
appointment with Ryuma Go without telling Aoyagi,
I brought Saito with me to the Pioneer Senshi show at the Handa Citizen Hall to
discuss Saito joining and making his debut in the wrestling ring.
As a result, Saito made his debut as the third man in the Seishin Kaikan in the
ring with Masashi Aoyagi, and fought against Yukihiro Kanemura in a battle of
karate vs. professional wrestling, but I did not consider that I was taking care
of Saito because during the Pioneer Senshi era, I couldn't even take care of
myself.
There was a 5 vs. 5 competition between Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium with Animal
Hamaguchi's team against the Pioneer Senshi members who were Ryuma Go, Masahiko
Takasugi, Masashi Aoyagi, Masanobu Kurisu, and Hiroshi Itakura. I once appealed
to Aoyagi and Mr. Ryuma Go directly in the locker room, "Why can't I get in the
match?"
However, Aoyagi just said, "Talk to Go-chan, Go-chan ...", and Ryuma just said,
"Talk to Aoyagi, Aoyagi...", and I think I was quite impatient because they were
just using each other to escape responsibility....
I then went up to Aoyagi directly about being in the match and he just said "You
can't change the lineup of a show the day of..."
My distrust for Aoyagi after this was terrible. I was only getting paid when I
was in a match, and there was only one show every other month and now I am not
even on the show when one finally happens.
When I was in FMW, I was a main wrestler and I also did a barbed wire death
match. Nevertheless I was suffering from the regret that I left FMW for Pioneer
Senshi which would close down a year later anyway.
Director Aoyagi would end up pulling out and joining New Japan and the number of
wrestlers would decrease and Pioneer Senshi would close down naturally. Director
Aoyagi pulled me from FMW for this. However, I would just move to New Japan
around this time after abandoning Pioneer Senshi.
Seishin Kaikan / Voluntary box office "THE DOG FIGHT"
Pioneer Senshi lost the ability to run shows, and in the end, one show every two
months became zero shows. Then, it became a story that "If Pioneer can't run
anymore, let's do our own independent show." It was around this time that
Yukihiro Kanemura, a young Pioneer Senshi wrestler, became a member of the
Seishin Kaikan after talking to Ryuma Go. A voluntary performance of Seishin
Kaikan, "THE DOG FIGHT" was held on April 3, 1991 at Handa City Hall.
During this time, the American fight wrestler, The Bouncer, challenged Director
Aoyagi, so I was supposed to stand by saying, "It's not necessary to challenge
Director Aoyagi, fight me instead." I was informed that he had a serious
illness, enough that he had to enter the isolation ward, and canceled just
before he came to Japan. Instead, NAWF (Quebec, Canada) North American
Heavyweight Champion Brutal Bushwhacker, who was almost unknown in Japan and was
a strange wrestler appeared.
The name Bushwhacker name had been known in Japan by the tag team of Butch
Miller and Luke Williams who were active in WWF and had toured in SWS under the
name the Bushwhackers, but he was unrelated to them, and this show was before
W*ING launched, so indies show itself were still rare.
For some reason, the undercard, had female wrestlers Cutie Suzuki and Mayumi
Ozaki and MASA Michinoku and Monkey Magic Wakita of Universal. There was a
tournament where Brutal Bushwhacker would face Akitoshi Saito and I would face
Suter with the finals for the NAWF belt.
In addition, to being a professional wrestler Bushwhacker also had a job as a
tennis instructor. The reason I knew this because he gave his business card to
people involved on the show and his card had a tennis racket on it.
In the case of Bushwhacker, I am not sure if professional wrestling is his part
time job or if tennis instructor was, but the battle with Saito was a Different
Style Fighting Match of tennis vs. karate. Then I fought in the first round
against Suter.
The Suter is a wrestler who is also known as a mask wrestler. However, when I
fought him, I quickly realized he had a very good sense of professional wrestler
and was not Mitsuteru Tokuda. Suter, who was a good athlete had a cult following
with professional wrestling fans who want to know who he is.
Previously, when I did a talk show in Chofu, there were fans who asked me the
identity of The Suter was and I didn't know who he was. In fact, he eventually
came to my Mr. Danger steakhouse years later and gave me permission to disclose
his identity. The theory it was Mitsuteru Tokuda, but the true identity is Dick
Togo, who is currently active in WWF as the leader of Kai En Tai DX. He was a
trainee at the time before he made his debut as a swordsman in Universal.
Akitoshi Saito remodeling plan
In the end, Director Aoyagi went up to wrestle in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and
did not take Saito or me with him which resulted in me breaking up with the
director.
Around that time, Masanobu Kurisu, who was also in New Japan, contacted me,
"Would you like to go to New Japan with me and Kim Duk?", so Saito and I decided
to take Mr. Kurisu's invitation.
At first I thought that we were going to have a New Japan match at the Gifu
Industrial Gymnasium, but before that, we were planning to have a break-in and
beginning attacking others with Kim Duk.
However, when I called, Mr. Kurisu was away and I could not connect to his room.
Then, I decided to go directly to Kim Duk's room, and asked him to connect the
phone to Kurisu, and that was the first time I was meeting Kim. Then, after Mr.
Kurisu returned, we held the first meeting of the Piranha Corps.
Eventually, I was the only one to break into the Gifu Industrial Gymnasium, but
next I discussed plans to put Saito into the Piranha Corps. However, Saito has a
baby face, so it may be difficult to use him as a heel, so after talking about
the fact that you can not use him unless he makes his hair blonde, I understand
to tie myself to Saito, I will also become blonde. I contacted Saito, he
understood that he would dye his hair blonde, and we all go to the New Japan
ring together. However, Saito was in the face of fierce opposition from his
family. He couldn't dye his hair blonde. After all, Saito gave up joining
New Japan and he did not make his pro-wrestling debut.
I tried my best to get New Japan to agree to have Saito join without dying his
hair blonde, but in the end I could not force it any further and in the end, I
had no choice but to give up on Saito joining the Piranha Army.
However, when I was in high school, we would always out being wild together, and
I was disappointed as Saito had settled down and gotten married and I decided to
go wild for Saito who couldn't join me in New Japan, so I dyed my hair blonde
anyway.
Then I went to Kim Duk and Kurisu to show them my secret as I greeted Kim at the
Osaka Castle Hall in New Japan who was very surprised to see my hair. So I
decided to surprise Mr. Kurisu this time, and while I was wearing a hat the
whole time while talking to Kurisu in the dressing room, I suddenly took the hat
off in the middle of a story.
Mr. Kurisu was very surprised and made a fuss. "Why did you put that in your
hair? You're a professional! I was wondering why you were wearing that hat in
the dressing room. Kurisu then began to laugh out loud as we were now a trio. I
always think the name Piranha Corps is a crazy name considering my death match
route later on.