Joining FMW
Transforming into a layered saber-toothed tiger
On May 5, 1993, FMW held a big match at Kawasaki Stadium for the first time in
two years, centered on Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk's "No Rope Barbed Wire
Current Bombing Super Large Time Bomb Death Match". In opposition to the FMW big
match, on the same day, W*ING had a rematch of the spike nail death match
between me and Leatherface at the old municipal stadium in front of Odawara
Station in Kanagawa, and this time I gave Leatherface the previous spike nail
humiliation. that I did the previous time.
Around this time, the W*ING roster was getting thicker. Shoji Nakamaki
transferred from FMW, and Nobutaka Araya, Hiroshi Itakura and others
participated in a business alliance with Oriental Wrestling. Inspired by them,
Yukihiro Kanemura also grew up to defeat the Miguel Perez and seize the WWC
Caribbean heavyweight belt after an overseas expedition. A cage war games match
was held on July 11th which was the main event of the Yokohama Bunka Gym, which
had 5,000 spectators. As a result, it became the last big match of W*ING. The
identity of the two "X" s who came to Japan as Freddy Krueger's partners were,
as rumored, Jado and Gedo on an expedition from EMLL in Mexico. Both of them
were at the meeting during the FMW era, but while I was surprised that they had
grown so much, it seemed that Pogo who left was also willing to look back on
W*ING.
On August 22, 1993 at Nishinomiya Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture, Pogo challenged
Mr. Onita to a "Barbed Wire Exploding Cage Death Match". By that time, the
discussion between me and Mr. Ibaragi had broken down. The Hollywood Nightmare
tour had began, but during the tour, I was invited by Pogo, and I decided to go
to the FMW ring. Ibragi complained at the press conference and said I breached
my contract, but this was just a threat. I only had an agreement of trust with
W*ING. I didn't sign a contract.
On September 1st, 1993 at the FMW Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center, I broke into
the building and attacked Mr. Onita in plain clothes. I along with Mr. Pogo,
Great Punk (Katsutoshi Niiyama) attacked Mr. Onita in the parking lot after the
match at the Tomakomai Gymnasium the next day, so Mr. Onita immediately had an
emergency press conference. "Do they have the right theory (W*ING) or do we have
the right theory (FMW)?
There is only one truth and we will find out in the ring! If Matsunaga was a
wrestler, come on!" By making an that statement, I was officially able to
participate in FMW at a large parking lot under Seibu Station on September 6th.
When I and Pogo merged, he withdrew from Team Canada with Ricky Fuji and we
formed our own corp at the top, along with former PWC wrestlers Dark Ranger
(currently Nanjyo Hayato), Hideki Hosaka, and Masaru Toi.
The Pogo-Matsunaga Alliance
My costume has also been renewed from the W*ING era, with a saber in one hand.
Saber-toothed tiger sword. I wore a black gown costume with the letters. Then, I
attached a saber, brass knuckles, and kiva teeth to my mouth as weapons. Weekly
Pro said, "Kiva fee is 10,000 yen ($100) to be put in every show, but in reality
it cost about 10,000 yen ($100) to have a dentist make them for me. Kiva is
fitted into the teeth like a mouthpiece. The most impatient thing I did was when
I bit Mr. Gannosuke's hand with it during the match, and when I noticed it, the
Kiva of 10,000 yen was broken. Also, I couldn't speak when I had the Kiva in, so
of course I couldn't speak on the mic, and after the match, I had to keep silent
even if the reporter asked me to comment.
I moved to my first barbed wire explosion match in FMW. The biggest
miscalculation was that I was tied up more than I expected. Despite being a
foreigner, FMW had no freedom compared to W*ING. For example, FMW had an
agreement that if a street fight match was organized in the main event, the
undercard would be banned from out of the ring fighting.
Therefore, even if I attacked with Gannosuke in the semi with Saber Tiger sword,
I couldn't fight outside the ring. Even if I wanted to compete in wrestling
normally, a fan who was expecting a brawl would say, "What, Matsunaga! You can't
go wild, right?.
I wanted to leave behind the abandoned lines and jump out, but when I fought
with Mr. Onita, I always felt a dilemma for myself that I couldn't do anything
other than a No rope barbed wire explosion death match.
On December 8, 1993, the match was at the Harumi-Tokyo International Trade Fair
Dome Hall and was my first big match after the transfer. This match, which was
the first indoor explosion match, was a no-rope barbed wire that allows the
current of the measuring bolt to flow is stretched through out, and a small bomb
that is 1.5 times larger than the conventional 20 shots per side (total shots)
is set.
At each corner, a veneer plate that is a barbed wire of the barbed wire is
attached. When touched, 10 small bombs (total number of shots) explode at once.
This was Mr. Danger's first barbed wire current blast match. A close examination
I had before the match revealed that I had overlooked the last surgery I had
during the W*ING era. I had been competing for a year from W*ING to FMW with the
bad knee.
I had suffered my knee injury in W*ING and needed, but when I got the surgery they overlooked that my other knee was also in bad shape. I had been competing for a year in FMW and W*ING on that bad knee.
earlier had missed another overlooked the last surgery I had during the W*ING
era. I had been competing for a year from W*ING to FMW with a bad knee.
Invitation from IWA Japan
On the other hand, W*ING had Jado and Gedo become their aces after I left the
promotion going into their show on October 31, 1993 in Kanagawa Prefecture.
W*ING held a "Skeletal Fire Death Match" at the old municipal stadium in front
of Odawara station. A battle between Jado and Gedo and Yukihiro Kanemura and
Shoji Nakamaki was formed, and Jado slammed Kanemura into the burning flames in
the ring, and Kanemura was burnt all over his back. He was severely burned and
forced to miss for a long time. Jado and Gedo moved to WAR at the end of "DANGER
ZONE Korakuen" on February 11th of the following year.
After that, Masayoshi Motegi transferred to SPWF, and Hido moved to Shin Kakuto
Pro-Wrestling. W*ING was now just Yukihiro Kanemura, Taro Kamen, Shoji Nakamaki,
and Takashi Okano. Even if you include Nobutaka Araya of Oriental Pro, there was
only 5 people left on the roster. The front office of W*ING was also losing
person after another. After passing through the front of W*ING one after
another, and finally finishing the Hachioji Amenity Trial Tama 21 show on March
13, 1994 , they was forced to suspend activities, and then IWA Japan was
established in the form of following after W*ING, with Nobutaka Araya becoming
the ace of the promotion.
Nakamaki and Okano got together and decided to leave W*ING as well. Only one
person remained with W*ING and that was Kanemura before he would be left no
choice but to join the others as well in IWA Japan. Kanemura became known as the
"Fire King". It seems the plan was for that be his nick name, but Kanemura did
not like it and stated he lost because of the fire, so why would that make him
become the king of fire.
Kanemura once invited me to join IWA Japan stating "lets do IWA Japan together!"
to "let's do it together!" However, in the early days of FMW, I had transferred
to Pioneer Senshi and felt I was betraying FMW, so I do not want to be seen by
people to easily betray FMW many times, and next time I will quit FMW properly.
I wanted to leave the company in good condition. So I refused Kanemura's offer,
saying, "It's not a bad idea, but I can't do it right now." After that, I met
with the owner of IWA Japan, Tatsukuni Asano, but at that time he said, "I want
you to show me your salary statement." that I had with FMW.
I told him I had a contract with FMW and I can not move to IWA Japan until May
5th next year (1995) when Mr. Onita retires at Kawasaki Stadium. That's what I
intended, but then my story of meeting with Mr. Asano got out and there were
reports that I was transferring to IWA Japan. I responded "I met with Mr. Asano,
but I am not going to IWA Japan". Onita hearing the reports came up to me and
told me that I just needed to stay in FMW until he retired, and then I can do
whatever I wanted to after that.
Becoming a salary man wrestler
When I transferred to FMW, I was living in an apartment without a bath and I
moved to an luxury apartment as I was making three times the money in FMW
compared to W*ING. For the time being, the guarantee was exceptional, so $3000 a
week was paid by converting the dollar into yen according to the yen exchange
rate at that time.
I was treated as a foreigner because it would make a difference compared in
their payroll, but the contract meant I actually made more because of the
exchange rate. The guarantee I got was over $10,000 for a month, and in the
indie industry, Mr. Onita was a special exception, I was only behind Mr. Pogo
and not by much. It's unclear how much Goto received, but there are rumors that
it was less than me.
I came to FMW and became a luxury indie making eight figures (in yen) a year.
But my heart was never filled. Because, at FMW, most of the death matches I
wanted to do were rejected. When I entered FMW, I was planning to do a death
matches that were more dangerous than in W*ING and make Mr. Ibaragi look bad.
But it just turned into me wrestling just for money. So I wanted to pay off my
debt in the first year, save for the next year, and leave this group as soon as
possible. However, FMW also has a difficult financial situation, and they wanted
me to take a lower guarantee within half a year after the transfer. But that's
not the first broken promise.
I stubbornly refused though. After losing to Onita at the Harumi Dome and
joining the regular FMW army, I formed a tag team with Sambo Asako. FMW did
their best with us, but they only cared about servicing the main event, and that
would only get me angry, so I decided to cut corners and only care about getting
the money.
I didn't complain when I was just dropped to the midcard, and even though I knew
well that in the FMW ring that I would fall from being "Mr. Danger" to just a
salary man wrestler, that no matter how much "fun" thinking "Lets make money!"
was, that work became quite difficult even while just trying to be a
professional wrestler for money. I pretend I am working hard for the company.
but it was mentally hard because it caused me stress. The money will be fine if
I remain, but if the money drops then I would become miserable in FMW.
With that in mind, I should have gone to IWA Japan even if it meant losing
money. I actually said it several times "I want to quit FMW." However, because I
got married around that time, there are also realistic things such as "The next
tour, there will be many shows, so it's okay to keep working here, but I will
leave after the tour" and then having the same thought the next tour came
around.
Then I was I scheduled with Mr. Pogo for a one-on-one match at the Osaka-Jo Hall
on August 28, 1994 which if I had transferred to another organization before
this show, would been a problem.
It was only the match before the semi-main event, but from the perspective of
FMW, they wanted the main event of Atsushi Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi in a "No
Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Barricade Death Match" which was the main event of
the first FMW show to be above on the card of the top feud in the history of
W*ING as a way to stick it to W*ING.
However, I was worried whether my opponent Pogo would get upset about that and
take it out on our match. I didn't want to betrayed by Pogo like I did during
the Fire Death Match in W*ING. However, during the Pogo-Matsunaga Alliance era
when I had just entered the FMW, Pogo apologized to me for the fire death match
at a bar while we were drinking and said to me, "I really want to apologize to
you Matsunaga ..." I asked, "What are you talking about?
He started talking about the Fire Death Match and I just said, "Just forget
about it" and forgave him. So I decided to believe in Pogo, and then two days
later Pogo made a statement to the media saying "I was yellow for talking to IWA
Japan, and that he would make me pay by bringing in a weapon that will cross the
line even in a death match."
Pogo ended up bringing up a gas powered flame thrower to the ring. We fought
outside the ring where we hit each other with a DDT and a Piledriver outside the
ring in front of the FMW fans and then used weapons such as a barbed wire bat
with me applying a W*ING Sleeper with the bat on Pogo. In addition, I laid my
high kicks as hard as I could to Pogo's head, and then Pogo struck me with a
flaming barbed wire bat. It was the moment when W*ING was revived for the first
time in the FMW ring. I lost the match, but I didn't lose the game that FMW
tried to play with me by having this match where it was on the card
I was able to show off the W*ING soul for the first time in the FMW ring, and I
felt like I got more than a win or loss. Pogo was also barking at that time,
"Did you see! We crossed the line. He praised me, even though we were enemies.
This was the W*ING soul. Pogo then said "Matsunaga! The next Death Match will
cross the line again, but it will be by me killing you!"
I couldn't help but laugh when I heard that. I never thought I would be
complimented by Pogo. Pogo was the one who killed W*ING. The main event,
Onita-Aoyagi, ended up being a mediocre battle, and the match between Pogo and I
robbed the cover from them and made the cover of Pro-Wrestling Weekly.
The FMW wrestlers were shocked by this. Tarzan Goto called me afterwards and
said "Do not ever have a match like that again in the future. You're lucky the
fire department was not called, but we are never allowed to run that building
again."
It was Pogo who actually used the fire, which has nothing to do with me, but it
was apart of our match. So when Goto told me that we could no longer run the
building because of the fire used in our match, I had no choice but to bow to
him and say "I'm sorry" to the officer of the company.
However, there is a theory that the real reason that they were upset was
because Onita's match didn't get the attention because of our match. It was
suppose to be the commemorative match for him receiving over 1,000 stitches, but
we ended up getting the cover of Pro-Wrestling Weekly as it was taken from him
by his nemesis W*ING. I ended up being punished as a result as I was moved back
to the undercard again, and some times in rural areas, I would even be put in
the first match on the show.
At best, I would be in the semi-main event against Goto, and most of the time,
they would just have me against Niiyama, Titan and Damian, and sometimes even
against Pandita and Battle Ranger.
After all, FMW was an organization that were not allowed to stand out above Mr.
Onita, so I stayed down the card as a result. It seems that the worst result was
achieved by letting me do whatever I wanted, and I would stay down the card
until Mr. Onita retired.
It took me a year to identify Tarzan Goto's personality, Mr. Onita would say,
"FMW is a family!", So I thought when I went from the foreign bus to the FMW bus
that traveling would have a friendly atmosphere. Actually, it turns out that all
they did was sleep and it was always extremely dark on the bus.
So, I would sit in the back seat and gathered the people from the early FMW like Battle Ranger and Miwa Sato, and try and make things more lively on the bus. Eventually, Megumi Kudo and other female athletes came to the back seats as well, and the atmosphere of the bus changed completely. At that time, it was Tarzan Goto and Mr. Gannosuke who took the seats in front of the bus.
At that time, most FMW wrestlers hated working with Goto and did not
want to interact with him. It is normal to say, "There are no seniors or juniors
in the ring. Don't hesitate to come to me about things!", but Goto was not like
that.
This is because Goto brings his officer style to the juniors to the ring. For
example, when Niiyama and Gannosuke challenge Goto to have a match in front of
the crowd, they can't say "Goto, lets have a match!", as that would be rude, so
it's always like "Goto-san, can you please have a match with me?", and the
audience always says "What are you doing, you should be more assertive! "
As Mr. Onita's retirement at Kawasaki Stadium on May 5, 1995 approaches, it was
already visible that the Tarzan Goto system after Mr. Onita retired would be
more difficult after Mr. Onita retires. For some time, FMW was gradually
becoming Goto's system of how to do things, and the harassment of W*ING was
escalating immediately as a result.
Goto forced an insane idea as a decision of the athletes' association, such
as no trash boxes being allowed in our locker room. So even though we are the
same contract employees, we can't throw away the athletic tape we use before our
matches in our own locker room. So the heel girls such as Shark Tsuchiya,
Crusher Maedomari, Bad Nurse Nakamura, and Killer Iwami who learned about this
would come in and tell us, "Please use ours," and bring their trash can and then
bring it back to their waiting room so that Goto wouldn't know.
However, I was planning to quit once when my contract was over, so I was
thinking, "Then, the wrestlers who will be left behind will be reminded of the
future." However, at this time, under the surface of FMW, Mr. Onita tried to
create a system without Goto, and Goto violently collided with each other to
create his own system toward the new system after Mr. Onita's retirement.
Because of that, Hayabusa didn't show up until Onita's retirement match because
he knew he would be crushed by Goto right away upon returning.
Then Onita gathered all the wrestlers except Goto. I was even apart of it. At
that time, Onita made it known to the wrestlers that Goto would not be in
position of power, and when Goto was informed of it, he thought that he that
meant he was no longer apart of FMW, so in the end, Mr. Gannosuke, Flying Kid
Ichihara, Tarzan Goto all quit FMW.
When Goto disappeared from FMW, IWA Japan's owner Asano contacted me and we had
such an exchange. "Mr. Tarzan Goto no longer is in FMW, if I bring in Goto-kun,
would Matsunaga stay in FMW then?" I thought for a moment and then told him
"yes"...
Asano then told me he would not bring in Goto then, but then afterwards he
changed his mind. Eventually, I couldn't go to IWA Japan, and instead Tarzan
Goto went to IWA Japan apart of "True FMW" and I decided to stay in FMW without
Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto.
Mr. Onita has no resentment
Since the old W*ING era, I never killed my opponent's character in a match, so
as a result, the W*ING characters Jason The, Terrible, Leatherface, The
Headhunters, Freddy Krueger are all still alive in wrestling working everywhere.
However, only Tarzan Goto and The Gladiator have survived as FMW characters.
The reason for this is that Mr. Onita killed others in order to save his
character. Mr. Onita was not a person who practiced that much, but he
brainwashed his fans and said, "I am the charisma of tears." to tell you the
truth, he was a very good person to promote himself, as Mr. Onita was wielding
money and power when I came to FMW from W*ING, but Mr. Onita in the past had
launched FMW for 50,000 yen ($500) and got up from a difficult place. I liked
that Mr. Onita who was grilling meat in the hotel during the early FMW days and
drinking coffee for free at the hotel restaurant. Therefore, even when I left
FMW for Seishin Kaikan, I wanted FMW to succeed and defeat the other companies
with large capital, the people with money and power, but it all changed once Mr.
Onta seized the money and the power.
Therefore, I wanted go to up and remind Mr. Onita about the the feelings he had
toward such people who wielded money and power in the past. I was swayed by Mr.
Onita back then, but I don't think I can't help. I was a wrestler who lived in
an apartment without a bath tub, and then suddenly got one of the highest
salaries in the indies, so it's natural that Mr. Onita would change when his
fortunes were different.
After the early FMW and Mr. Onita succeeded in the electric current blast, FMW
became a different organization. However, the early FMW and W*ING have something
in common. When Mr. Onita was introduced on TV, he said, "There is sambo, there
is karate, there is judo. It would be interesting to have all this combined,
wouldn't it? Fans' dreams would expand. They would not know what would pop out,
I was aiming for something like that with W*ING. I saw an old W*ING poster, and
there was Pogo, there was Leatherface, there was The Headhunters, there was a
monster like Kevin Sullivan, and and then there was me. A man with a beard and
blonde hair. I felt like W*ING represented the early FMW better than FMW
currently was, of course it was created by many of the original members of FMW,
so it took a lot of luck for W*ING to become what it became, but it seemed like
luck was always on our side.
FMW ran many shows outside, and it seemed like it would always rain heavily
right before the main event. W*ING was the opposite. It was suppose to rain
heavily during both the Fire Matches I had in 1992 with Mr. Pogo and 1993 with
Freddy Krueger, but the weather both those nights would stay clear, and I would
always say "The weather is on W*ING's side!"
I myself am a person who talks a lot, but on purpose, I created a quiet and
silent dangerous character, which is the opposite of Mr. Onita. On the other
hand, I played the quiet character for a long time and quiet does not get the
crowd reaction so I was going to change who I was after Onita retired. For
example, there are quite a few fans who like the Funks' brother Dory Funk Jr.
better. However, it is absolutely difficult to surpass the popularity of Terry
Funk.
Mr. Onita is a great wrestler who became legend and forerunner of the
independent scene, but I wanted him to retire and go away at Kawasaki Stadium on
May 5th.
I once reunited with Mr. Onita after I left FMW. I went to Urayasu, Chiba
Prefecture to see Combat Toyoda's street ramen shop in the city. I was having a
casual conversation with her when one of her staff members asked her "Is Mr.
Onita suppose to come by today?" she told me that he comes by every once in
awhile. Mr. Onita's car had been parked at a distance as Mr. Onita noticed my
existence and did not try and get out of the car. Mr. Onita usually drives a
Cadillac, but today it happened that he was in a jeep due to the heavy snow that
day.
Toyoda had noticed him in his jeep and said "Mr. Matsunaga, you should go out
and say hello to him." as there was no sign that Mr. Onita was going to get out.
In addition to Mr. Onita there was an acquaintance staff members of his in the
jeep, but the situation was awkward because I had been saying bad things about
him to the media since his retirement. I ended up going outside and greeting him
while he was still in his jeep and decided to leave after that.
From Onita's retirement to the New FMW.
Upon his upcoming retirement, Atsushi Onita had stated he would no longer appear
for FMW after his retirement show. Then there was an announcement that "death
matches would be eliminated" as Hayabusa was becoming the new star of FMW. I was
told by the front office that Hayabusa had said "Mr. Matsunaga is not too old to
have a wrestling match, is he?" I could wrestle, but I didn't want to give up
the title of "Mr. Danger". I had a meeting with Hayabusa where he stated "Why
are you staying in FMW? You should have gone to IWA Japan. You staying here
doesn't make sense."
However, while I confronted Hayabusa, I acknowledged that he had talent. I
told him, "It's okay that FMW goes the pro-wrestling route, but we need to watch
the situation for the time being. There has never been an indie that has
succeeded in going the pro-wrestling route. However, with you Hayabusa, maybe it
can be done. If I am wrong, I will withdraw from FMW right away."
I wanted to see if an indie promotion can really go without doing death matches,
and Hayabusa was going to have to regular wrestling matches every day in rural
areas. He showed off to the fans the Shooting Star Press, the Scorpio Splash,
and the Phoenix Splash while destroying his body to create a full blown new
creation image of FMW.
He did similar moves at Korakuen Hall like a Moonsault, but the result was what
I expected. The New FMW had a huge deficit after the first two tours and the box
office was not improving. I thought that it was only a matter of time that FMW
was going to close down, so I called Super Leather (the first Leatherface) to
join the New FMW to help it out from closing down.
However, the Hayabusa side got notified of me wanting to bring Super Leather
into FMW, and the Hayabusa side issued a condition that, "it's okay to call
Super Leather, but please have him remove the mask when he starts." Why does
Super Leather need to remove the mask? Then he's not Leatherface! We argued
fiercely, but my opinion does not matter to the New FMW. Hayabusa didn't know I
had already called Super Leather asking him to come in.
I compromised and said, "Then I will paint the Leatherface paint on his face for
every show!" but when I watched a old W*ING era video, I knew the fungus of the
mask is what made him a scary character. This was around the time that my
contract had just been renewed and told Hideki Takahashi, the sales manager of
FMW to just cancel my contract. I told him I want to do something else.
You can't accept everything you are told in wrestling. I'm not confident I can
just relax for a year, but it's not a matter of guarantees. I don't understand
why Leather has to be unmasked, and I don't want to deal with anything that
doesn't make sense anymore. On this day, there were a lot of wrestlers that
wanted to resign their contract with FMW, but I was the one that was talking to
Sales Manager Takahashi in his office for about an hour.
Then as a compromise for me to stay, Takahashi decided to include in my annual
contract, a promise that I can leave whenever I wanted to leave. I believed in
Mr. Takahashi, but if I get sick of this company, I want to be able cancel this
deal. Immediately after this, a meeting was held in FMW and referee Go Ito
contacted me. "Leather doesn't have to remove the mask."
Due to all that trouble, I was able to communicate with the front office of FMW
and FMW began to appreciate my planning ability and match making skills.
Especially when the advanced tickets were so bad, and the consultation is
brought to me, President Arai, and match maker Go Ito to discuss a death match
plan and forcibly announce it.
I also trusted President Arai and Referee Ito. After that, my contract was
redone again along with other wrestlers, and my contract went down about
5,000yen ($50) a match, which mine went down more than anyone in the promotion,
which was I was fine with because it was for the sake of the company.
Hayabusa vs. Mr. Danger
Mr. Onita retired on May 5, 1995 at Kawasaki Stadium but at that time, IWA Japan was pushing the radical death match with the momentum to replace FMW. To be honest, I was impatient because of IWA Japan's break through. Except for Shoji Nakamaki using thumbtacks, IWA Japan's death matches were all devised from the old W*ING era.
What was even more frustrated was that even if I wanted something similar in
FMW, I couldn't get permission from the front office to do a highly radical
death match. IWA Japan took the initiative when FMW's death matches were
sluggish. IWA Japan should have had a good chance of surpassing FMW, but they
failed when they brought in "Real FMW" into their ring. The participation of
Tarzan Goto completely killed the color of IWA Japan. IWA Japan should have been
Yukihiro Kanemura, Nobutaka Araya, Shoji Nakamaki, and Quinones foreigners.
Years later when I talked to Takashi Okano who was with IWA Japan until the end,
he told me the image of the IWA Japan organization that followed the flow of
W*ING did not continue. FMW after Mr. Onita's retirement was mainly the New FMW
against W*ING and Lethal Weapon in a three group rivalry. The venues were hot
with W*ING fans there. However, the entertainment was only limited to big
cities, and the influence of Mr. Onita's retirement was greatly felt in rural
areas.
FMW held a press conference on August 2nd and went through the August and
September series. An overview of the World Brass Knuckles Championship League
Match called the "Grand Slam" was announced by the provisional champion
Hayabusa.
The participating wrestlers were Hayabusa, Katsutoshi Niiyama, and Masato Tanaka
from the new FMW. From W*ING it was me, W*ING Kanemura, and Super Leather. Then
final two were The Gladiator and Hisakatsu Oya from Lethal Weapon. Mr. Pogo
refused to participate in the tournament. I have a track record of selling out
Korakuen Hall with Pogo so I was booked against Pogo for the opening show of the
July tour on July 18th at Korakuen Hall.
At the press conference for the show, with my track record I dared to open my
mouth and said "W*ING is main eventing this Korakuen Hall show, it would be nice
if FMW wanted to hear W*ING's opinion a little. Let's do this match as a death
match! Also, there should be death matches in the Grand Slam Tournament as well!
I don't want to cause issues, so I will have a regular match with Hayabusa, but
let me have a death match with Kanemura, Leather, and The Gladiator because we
have proven our death matches attract customers. It's not a bad thing for FMW
either. I don't know what Hayabusa thinks of this, but everything I requested
was not done out of ego, but considering the condition of the FMW company, I did
not want FMW to go out of business. Tickets for Sapporo and Osaka weren't
selling.
The Death Matches that I came up would help draw the shows. On August 28th, in
the Shiga Prefecture, a Chain Death Match with me and The Gladiator took place
at the East Square of Yokkaichi City Hall.
On August 29th, in a non-tournament match at the Adogawa Sports Center in Shiga Prefecture a Fire Death Match took place with me and Mr. Pogo. On August 30th a Scrambled Bunkhouse Death Match, I took on Yukihiro Kanemura for the first time at the Osaka Prefectural Gym # 2.
On September 5, at the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center, I took on Leather in a five inch nail death match. I noticed when looking at my schedule that I was in a lot of death matches in a very short period of time.
Then after I had my Death Matches, Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka would then
wrestle their matches. I was wondering if I was being betrayed by FMW when they
were blatantly putting Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka above me on the card in a more
favorable position for them.
However, the "Grand Slam" Tournament was a hot topic as it was successful in the
box office with The Gladiator winning the championship. However, when I think
about it, I was never treated good while doing death matches for the New FMW. At
best, I was in the semi-main event, and at worst, I was in the match before the
semi-main event. Somehow I felt unrewarded.
Differences in venue popularity and ability to draw
Although the new FMW is said to be difficult to manage, it has been covered by
the efforts of the front office, such as President Arai and Referee Ito, who are
behind the scenes. I knew that so I should have been planning death matches and
cooperating with them. It is said that some of the New FMW wrestlers couldn't
sell tickets in advance, but when they wrestled on that day, the fans would
react very well towards them, and they would misunderstand that as they were
popular.
However, "being popular at the venue" and the ability to "draw customers" are
different. To be clear, getting cheers at the venue and those that have the
ability to bring customers to the venue are different. The wrestlers who are
popular at the venue think they have the ability to draw customers, but they are
mistaken.
Hayabusa who thought he had no choice but to disappear to Mexico had a belief
that he wanted to create a New FMW that would be different and focus more on
wrestling, but if tickets are not sold then FMW will just close down. Even
President Arai, who came to consult with us about increasing sales, must have
had a hard time with Hayabusa.
Tickets for Shinagawa Station East Exit Square on October 29, 1995 were not
being sold at all. I asked if we could do a fire death match because the show
was outdoors. I was told that "No, because the Shinkansen (bullet train) runs
just above where we would be having the show, and they may mistake the fire for
a danger signal and the Shinkansen may have to stop."
I stated "Then lets stretch the barbed wire like a spider web and place it
outside the ring. Lets do a new death match. It will be called a Barbed wire
Spider net Death Match." I was told by Arai that Hayabusa would be offended if
FMW were to announce this match, so if I could issue the announcement of this
match myself. I felt like I was doing death matches to help the promotion, but I
was hated by the 'New FMW' wrestlers for it.
Working with Sambo Asako on matches before Mr. Onita retired was a lot easier
for me. The suffering I was dealing with when it came to the New FMW was not the
same as when Mr. Onita was there.
On December 21st, even though the dream tag team of Hayabusa amd The Great
Sasuke was formed, which was an interesting thing to take place for the Yokohama
Bunka Gym, only 50 tickets were sold at first. After that, it was announced a
new death match would take placed called a "Caribbean Barbed wire Spiral Glass
Kenzan Death Match" which would be Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Hido, Jason the
Terrible, Super Leather, W*ING Kanemura, and Hideki Hosaka as W*ING. The match
would be entitled "W*ING World Death Match" and it would be held on the same
show.
Jason the Terrible who had joined us on December 10th after Mr. Ibaragi who had
restarted W*ING back up and partnered with ECW had suspended operations of the
3rd version of W*ING once again.
Barbed wire would be wrapped around the ropes on two sides of the ring, and a
box of glass with glass plates are placed under the ring on the two remaining
sides. Barbed wire would be then stretched over the pillars of 2400 mm (7.8
feet) x `1200 cm (3.9 feet) and fall in there, you will be met with barbed wire
glass and kenzans.
The "W*ING World Death Match" was announced as an additional match added for
the Yokohama Bunka Gym as well as Aja Kong and Bison Kimura added in a tag team
match with Combat Toyoda who was retiring soon along with Megumi Kudo and Mr.
Pogo vs. Masato Tanaka. There would also be a Brass Knuckles Tag Team
Championship Match with Battlarts involved and the advanced tickets became what
the promotion was hoping for.
Our W*ING match was announced as the match before the semi-main event. The W*ING
wrestlers had bad feelings about the placement on the card, so Kanemura said "At
Shinigawa there was a Barbed wire Spider Death Match and I am confident we will
be able to show something even more spectacular than that." Aja Kong had already
stated their match would "devour the Hayabusa & Sasuke match" to the media.
I spoke directly to Sales Manager Hideki Takahashi about the show, and told him
the true feeling that W*ING had about the placement on the card. "I am not the
match maker, and I will do the match, but W*ING has been treated so coldly and
terrible by FMW." President Arai called in to the meeting and said "No, no. The
order of the card has not been announced. We just announced the matches." and
our match was changed to the semi-final on the show.
Hayabusa's Absence
Also, in the New FMW, it looked like I was being targeted by different angles. Inside W*ING, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido were looking to change who was the leader of the group, and then I was being targeted by Hayabusa. From Hayabusa's perspective, I might have been the last bump in the road to him after Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto left. I rarely talked to Hayabusa during the New FMW era.
We teamed up a little against Lethal Weapon, but I felt like we were north
and south poles of magnets when coming together during our tag matches.
However, even though our match styles were different, we were both similar in
that our mic ability was not good, we were concerned about others and the
company losing money, and we both preferred a leadership position in pulling
others rather than someone else pulling us.
Hayabusa and I were also the first ones to buy the tuner for "SAMURAI TV". This coincidence happens because our personalities are very similar. We both had a common feeling for FMW. We both have been fighting for a year to not kill each others FMW.
It is natural that Hayabusa does not want FMW to die, but while fighting as
W*ING, I have experienced my promotion closing down, and I thought I could
destroy FMW while competing in W*ING. Another similarity, is we both had to miss
a lot of time. I missed a lot of time in the old W*ING era.
I started gaining momentum when I was injured during the February 1992 tour, and
I was only able fully compete in 6 tours in 1992 due to a broken left knee. He
had a full blown wound rupture, but the medical certificate that resulted in
Hayabusa being absent for a long period of time was understandable
Right shoulder sprain, left elbow ectopic calcification, left ulnar nerve paralysis, right knee sprain, left thumb and middle finger joint contusion, left eye iritis, secondary glaucoma. This was the price of having a heavyweight physique and fighting with an aerial style. He seriously believed that he would make such an impact the first time fans would see him on a tour, that when FMW came back the building would be sold out, so they could see Hayabusa using his aerial attack as a weapon even if it was hurting him doing it.
When I would watch his matches of a heavyweight warrior who could fly, I was hoping it would not kill off W*ING and send me off to a 'death match hell' that would result in me no longer doing death matches in FMW, but it turned out to be my second dance of the W*ING era of doing death matches in FMW.
Hayabusa's idea was ideal, but he was wrong. Most of the tickets being sold are by very few hardcore professional wrestling fans who always buy professional wrestling magazines. To put it rudely, local entertainment is supported by those who are not very familiar with professional wrestling. In other words, no matter how interesting the matches are, it rarely results in people going to the ticket agency to buy tickets.
Therefore, even if the first time around is interesting, it is unlikely it will lead in a spike the second time around. The interest in the sport of professional wrestling is still narrow. Unless the wrestlers have a national name with value such as Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, or Atsushi Onita there is no way to increase number of fans in a rural area.
However, during the W*ING era, at a venue in the Chukyo area in Nagoya, there was a rampage of Leatherfaces with chainsaws and all the fans came to gather towards the Leatherfaces. I feel like this is a hint to increase the fans in rural areas.
When Hayabusa came back from his long absence, he did not want to take back his ace spot from Masato Tanaka who had filled in for him while he was out. It's easy to see he cares about Tanaka as a friend who protected FMW while he was absent, but in the professional wrestling world, that kind of consideration is unnecessary.
Without Hayabusa, the New FMW would have closed down in less than half a
year. He should have came back as the big face. I think Hayabusa knows now, but
thinking about stamina allocation during a tour is different from cutting
corners in a match. At first, Hayabusa was all about "eliminating death
matches", but it seems that his way of death matches has changed a little as the
severe situation continued. After all, indies only can survive temporarily
without it.
I am suffering the ultimate stress
I had miss time in the New FMW after announcing I had a visceral disease in the FMW ring before I found out it was chronic gastritis caused by stress. At first I didn't think it was just caused by stress, so I went to the hospital where they said I had helicobacter pylori (spiral bacterium usually found in the stomach) which causes chronic gastritis (stomach lining is inflamed).
After that, my condition got worse and I only ate soft food. I started to lose weight and went from 100 kg (220 pounds) to less than 90 kg (198 pounds). However, since it was already decided that Hayabusa would be absent for a long time after the Chiba Park Gym show on January 10, 1996, I was told "if there is no Mr. Matsunaga on the shows, there will be no wrestler with name value for the rest of the tour. I couldn't take a rest even if I wanted to. Mr. Pogo was now a free contracted wrestler and was working for Tokyo Pro-Wrestling, Michinoku Pro, and West Japan Pro-Wrestling.
I had made a lot of money with other promotions where as FMW's Masato Tanaka and W*ING Kanemura were not wrestlers that could help sell tours based on their name value across regions. There was no Hayabusa, no Gladiator, and the tickets for the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center show in March were not being sold at all.
I was offered a consultation. Around that time, wrestlers that worked with
Victor Quinones like Terry Funk, Shoji Nakamaki, and The Headhunters and broke
into FMW at Korakuen Hall and called themselves F.M.W. (Funk Masters of
Wrestling). The card was announced as Masato Tanaka and Koji Nakagawa vs. The
Headhunters was announced for Sapporo but the impact was still weak and advanced
sales did not grow at all.
"Okay, okay. I am so sick I might not win against Pogo, but I will do it. I will
have a match with Pogo, then let me rest."
Considering the business condition of FMW, it was all I could do to give the front office some time to replace me afterwards to allow me to take some time off. However, before the match against Mr. Pogo took place, the topic of Atsushi Onita's return was coming out more and more to the media, and Mr. Onita announced he would be going to Sapporo.
I told President Arai, "What is going on with this? Mr. Onita is coming? I told you I would have a match with Mr. Pogo because the tickets were not selling. If Mr. Onita comes out the end of the show to call out Mr. Pogo on the mic, then what is the point of me?
All Arai could say was "I don't know." I will seriously hit Onita if he tries to come in after my match to do his post match mic appeal (Onita Theater). In the past, I could forgive Onita, because he was president, but now I can't stand for it.
Even if he said "Hey Matsunaga, what are you doing?" I would definitely hit him. When I first was contracted with FMW, Onita grabbed me by the chest. Now I was planning to say to him "Try that now."
I didn't mean to sound threatening to President Arai, but President Arai immediately apologized on the phone to me. "Mr. Matsunaga, is it okay that your match take place in the semi-main instead?" I told him that was okay as it was good for me to be moved to the semi-main event.
Thanks to the fanfare, the advance tickets were sold, but that's why The
Headhunters vs. Masato Tanaka & Koji Nakagawa became the main event. After that,
at the request of the promoter, I participated in two more matches on the
Hokkaido tour in which FMW could not refuse their request, and after that I was
allowed to take time off.
Phantom Japan-USA Death Match King Confrontation
I realized after awhile that I needed to stop relying on FMW, so I desperately thought about Death Match ideas in order to keep FMW alive, but FMW treats me so coldly that they would want my ideas when tickets were not being sold.
I wanted to have rematches with Super Leather and with Hayabusa and neither ended up happening. In September 1995, a two night Death Match Tournament that I began working on was eventually dropped.
When I started losing weight due to the stress and became completely sick I was determine to quit FMW in May of 1996. Already thinking of my second life, I started working at a steak shop. I didn't feel like cooperating with FMW anymore. A US-Japan Death Match King decisive battle was setup with me vs. Cactus Jack on May 5, 1996.
I feel like FMW put me in this match to put me in a better mood because I had told them I wanted to quit FMW. My physical condition was still poor at the time I felt like I was not going to be able to win if I was even able to compete. What is FMW doing by putting in a match where I am not going to win because my physical condition is so poor? The fools should have come to me first and asked me if I was capable first.
I am canceling the Cactus match. This is my revenge towards FMW! At the time, I called Combat Toyoda who was soon retiring and to tell her, "I am starting up a steak shop, lets do our best away from wrestling with the general public!"
But then Kaori Higuchi, who was an FMW public relations officer was at Toyoda's home and she answered the phone of Toyoda, and I became overwhelmed. "Mr. Matsunaga, please be interviewed for Weekly Pro and Weekly Gong for the Kawasaki Stadium match with Cactus Jack."
"Oh, I am not going to do that match, so I won't do any interviews."
"Why? Is it because you are sick? You have not told President Arai about this..."
Her loyalty to FMW was tremendous with how she was speaking to me.
"Anyway, the match is useless without you Mr. Matsunaga, please be sure to do the interviews."
"The Japan-US deciding Death Match King should be Kanemura vs. Cactus instead."
"No, only Mr. Matsunaga. Kanemura is still too weak (as far as name value)."
"Woman, do you know how sick I am? Even if if I fight, I will disappoint the fans when I lose to Cactus. I don't like it, so if I am going to have a match with Cactus when I feel better, it's going to be for another promotion. IWA Japan would gladly have a Matsunaga vs. Cactus match. I won't do it with FMW."
"Please don't say that. It should only be Matsunaga vs. Cactus. Please."
She pleaded for almost two hours. I won't do it. I won't do it. In the end, I
lost. I understand Ms. Higuchi's loyalty, so I will appear only one more time
for this match. After May 5th, I will stop working for FMW.
Match against Cactus unexpectedly cancelled
However, two days before the Kawasaki Stadium show, WWF was notified that a
wrestler facing Matsunaga had hepatitis and they would not allow to wrestle. The
match between Cactus Jack vs. Matsunaga was cancelled. Of course, hepatitis was
a complete hoax, but why did it happen?
It is strange, but there is a theory that IWA Japan told Cactus Jack I had it so
that he would pull out of the show. Instead, Kanemura will take my spot and
fight Cactus. I instead will be dropped down the card and team up with Hido and
Hideki Hosaka against Shoji Nakamaki, Miguel Perez, and Toryu.
For me, I was motivated to fight Cactus, and was thinking of a completely new death match and I would use the Moonsault Press in the match. I met Ms. Higuchi who was the receptionist at the entrance and she laughed when she saw me. "It ended up that way anyway. I didn't want this either."
After the Kawasaki Stadium show was over, I had a discussion with President Arai about renewing my contract, but I had no intention of signing another contract with FMW.
"Mr. Arai, I finally understood why I had such health problems, it was because of my stress. When I started working at my steak shop, I was completely cured. I get sick just breathing the air of this company. When I think of Hayabusa being right near by, my stomach hurts and my illness gets worse and worse."
"I understand." Arai said back to me.
I also said some really cruel words, but President Arai was still a nice person. He just told me he was sorry.
When I think about it, FMW was the promotion that paid me beautiful money and let me travel all over country and world. Everything was so strict though, the money wasn't worth it.
Tarzan Yamamoto Challenge
Yamamoto was the editor-in-chief of Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine. He was very opinionated. Therefore, he had many allies and many enemies. He had made a challenge to all the strong wrestlers to see who was the strongest professional wrestler.
I felt like I was still the strongest even with my visceral disease. I might not have been able to defeat Cactus Jack, but I believe I can take on the editor-in-chief of a magazine. I will challenge Tarzan Yamamoto.
However, you may not understand what the challenge is. In reality, it's not a challenge. I want to have a conversation with the editor-in-chief. He is not a big man like Atsushi Onita or a stuntman like Hayabusa.
So I made the challenge to Yamamoto and in the magazine there was 5 consecutive weeks under the title "Mr. Danger Challenge" in Pro-Wrestling Weekly. I was still under contract with FMW at the time, and I had gotten permission from President Arai. Yamamoto was the one willing to learn more about the indies. He put me and Mr. Pogo in W*ING on the cover of Pro-Wrestling Weekly magazine. I challenged him to a discussion.
He asked me the comparison of W*ING and FMW and the dialogue resulted in me stating how I really felt about FMW. President Arai called me afterwards and was so angry even though he is a gentle person.
"Mr. Matsunaga you are still contracted with FMW! Because of this, I can not use you in FMW anymore. Why would you say such nasty things? Mr. Onita never trains? FMW wrestlers are not aware of the difference between venue popularity and the ability to attract customers?"
What's done is done. Mr. Onita and Hayabusa might have been offended, but I didn't say anything wrong. I am sorry to bother President Arai, but I won't apologize to Mr. Onita or Hayabusa.
If I was angry about FMW before, I am even more angry now. Do you understand how hard it was for me in FMW? You guys are weird when you get angry. Whether it was Mr. Onita or Hayabusa. I always did what I was suppose to. They were fools to me.
The year in New FMW was a blemish that couldn't compare to the Old FMW. I hate to remember those days. It was the worst year.