Fearful Five-Inch Nail Death Match

Before I left FMW, I did a talk show, and on it, I announced my top 10 most dangerous death match rankings. At that time, first place was the five-inch nail death match (September 5, 1995) that I had at FMW's Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center show.

I will write about why it was the FMW match, and not the five-inch nail match of the W*ING era. First of all, the reason why I first decided to have a five-inch nail match with W*ING was because of the "Nail Death Match" at the Nippon Budokan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling on February 8, 1978, but at that time neither Antonio Inoki nor Umanosuke Ueda fell into them during their match I made an interesting discovery by looking at the pictures of the match they had. By all means, the length and thickness of the nails was not enough. The nails they used were not five-inch nails, but three-inch nails.

I thoroughly researched the characteristics of the new death match before putting it into practice. In a way, I became the new death match researcher. Then I went to a home improvement store and noticed the tips of the five inch nails and notice they were dangerous, but that I could do it. Because of the shape of the five inch nails the tips of the nails were cut around.

So while I was in FMW, I wanted to make it easier for the audience to see the five-inch nails and do it again. Then, when the five-inch nail match was decided, I proposed it to FMW and had various meetings with President Arai.

First of all, the venue was the Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center in Hokkaido, so I ordered a five-inch nail pod from a Sapporo dealer. If you hit the nail directly on the board, the board will crack, so we talked about how many nails to use at intervals of several centimeters, such as drilling holes and then hitting the nails. Actually, 3 inch nails can be inserted with a machine, but 5 inch nails can not be inserted with a machine, so the only way to make the board is by hand.

Therefore, unlike the barbed wire board, the work of making a five-inch nail board takes a lot of time and effort. That's why New Japan Pro-Wrestling's "Nail Death Match" probably used three-inch nails. Well, the reason why FMW's five-inch nail match in Sapporo was the most dangerous is that there was a big miscalculation with the nail board.

When I first saw the completed five-inch nail board that was loaded on the truck with President Arai to take to the venue, I noticed these nails were pointed. Unlike the five-inch nails used in W*ING, these five-inch nails were so sharp that you couldn't even touch the tip, as they weren't needles. When I saw the five-inch nail, I was informed for the first time that the sharpness of the tip of the nail was different depending on the manufacturer. I thought this was bad, but it made President Arai, really upset.

Arai stated "What should we do with this?" I had a dark look on my face and told Arai "I will still do the match." Arai told me "I don't think it's possible." but I told him "we have no choice, I have to do it!"

I wondered what would happen if Leather saw this five-inch nail board, and for the time being, I told President Arai, "Never show the five-inch nail board to Leather." That's why Leather wrestled the match the same way as the five-inch nail match in W*ING. Even in the locker room, my tension was transmitted to Kanemura, Hido, and Hosaka, and the waiting room was dominated by the tense atmosphere. It's been half a year since I got married, and I wonder if I'll be in a wheelchair after the match. ". Such a negative image scale ran around my head. Of course, I was afraid that I would fall, but more than that, I was worried about wheel chair life.

The fear of knocking Leather into the board was even greater than me falling into it. Although it is a death match, I can not be forgiven for doing something that would cut off the life of Leather as a wrestler. Such a sense of guilt steadily passed through my head.

There was a calculation that I could barely get my lower body paralyzed as even with W*ING's five-inch nail board I was seriously injured, but in the worst case, this five inch nail board will be not just leave me paralyzed, but I would die.

My fighting spirit was only getting smaller and when humans faced the fear of death, it was true that old events revived like magic lanterns. Past events came to my mind one after another and disappeared. At the time of the five-inch nail match, the five-inch nail board was brought in to the venue. The crowd got quiet when they saw the board.

I have to go up to the ring where this five-inch nail board is laid on the ring side. Perhaps because the audience saw the sharpness of the five-inch nail in front of them, the venue remained calm until just before the start of the match. Kanemura, Hosaka, and Hido did not say anything. I was still at a loss when I went up to the ring. To be honest, I wanted to run away. While waiting for the Leather to enter, I was still wondering, "Is it okay if I just leave?" I had no choice but to rely on my experience of doing death matches. I thought about how I hadn't been seriously injured in a death match so far.

For example, wrestlers are usually trained to fall off their backs when taking a bump, so they fall on their backs no matter how they are dropped.
In addition, since the human back has few vital points, even a five-inch nail should not cause a fatal injury. The most important thing is that when you should never be passive when you are falling on your back. A good example is Keisuke Yamada of IWA Japan, who seriously injured his arm in a glass death match. However, I will not survive taking a five-inch nail match by taking a regular bump onto it as nails are dangerous regardless of how you bump on to them.

The key to survival was to get the hips with few key points first while turning around from the back and falling. Therefore, I had no choice but to leave it to my instinct. After this match, with that in mind, GAORA's "Champs Forum" show asked Hido "What was the scariest death match you have ever seen?" He answered "nails".

After all, everyone was scared at that time. What is the horror of that match? I was really lucky to be able to survive in that death match. I fell on it with my hips well and it wasn't fatal. In the end, I later saw how I fell in my past five-inch nail match with W*ING, and I fell from my hips, so I wondered if that it was just instinct. It's ironic that the death match I did at FMW was the most dangerous. In fact, that five-inch nail was the scariest thing I have ever been apart of. After that, if I was once asked to do it again to do a "five inch nail death match" I would refuse.

The guys without shirts in Death Matches

Except when I was severely burned, when I moved to Big Japan Wrestling, I wrestled in all my death matches shirt less, and I had a problem with Shoji Nakamaki always wearing a t-shirt during his death matches. In fact, when it comes to death matches, the degree of danger is completely different between wearing a t-shirt and going shirtless. For example, in a barbed wire death match, if a piece of cloth is placed covered over the barbed wire, the audience will feel fooled. Wearing a t-shirt and doing a barbed wire death match is exactly the same thing as that. That's why the t-shirt and jeans style is the biggest trick in death match history.

For example, ordinary people can not pick up broken glass with their bare hands, but they can be touch it with thin gloves. During the W*ING era, while FMW wrestlers wore t-shirts, Kanemura and I promised that "only we two will definitely always do barbed wire death matches shirtless." When I went up to the FMW ring, Kanemura even called me, "Mr. Matsunaga, you need to keep your promise." So when Kanemura came to the FMW and started wearing t-shirts, I was a little disappointed.

Mr. Gannosuke of FMW would even wrap tape all around his stomach under his t-shirt during FMW's death matches, so he would have an extra layer of protection. Only two FMW wrestlers did not wear t-shirts. The Gladiator did not because he always thought "my muscles are my selling point!" so he would go shirtless through out the death match. The other was Megumi Kudo, the Jado Princess. She couldn't go shirtless because she was a girl, but she would wrestle in her normal costume during death matches and was more enthusiastic about it than the men, and she even was blasted in a electric explosion death match.

If the five-inch nail death match in Sapporo was the most dangerous death match, the risk of the later death matches were about the same. In fact, when I was in a scorpion death match, I was stabbed and got a fever after the match, and it was really dangerous in the construction site death match, if you happened to fall strangely. Especially in the case of me, fans were expecting the me to dive off of it, so I was lucky that I didn't fall incorrectly in the match.

Fans ask, "Isn't it dangerous to get caught in a barbed wire spider net?", but from my point of view, the barbed wire is not getting into my eyes, and on the contrary, the barbed wire is a substitute for a net or cushion. I have no choice but to protect myself when landing in it.
By the way, electric exploding blast matches are FMW's death match, but since it is known in advance how large the blast is going to be, for example, in one place, you know where to have your arm or head placed when the gunpowder blows out at you. Because of that, the risk is low for a death match that you can predict the danger to some extent.

Even when I actually tried it, the electric exploding blast seemed to be just a noisy death match if I was prepared for the pain. Certainly, that Death Match was a style that Mr. Onita started in FMW, so I admit that W*ING was the second generation, and visually, FMW's current explosion is more powerful.

So it is unavoidable that W*ING is said to be an FMW impersonator, but the extreme death match that W*ING did was superior to FMW in every aspect. FMW use to say about W*ING's death match that "FMW does a death match to settle the feud. W*ING just does a death match to do one." But if you were really trying to settle something with a death match then it should be give up only. Besides, I always thought it was strange that they happened to settle everything on May 5th of every year.

Taking Responsibility

Note: Seppuku is known in the Japanese culture of suicide by stabbing yourself in front of an audience with a sword. Matsunaga refers to seppuku in this chapter, but it has been confirmed from Matsunaga himself that when he says seppuku, he does not mean suicide. I am guessing he meant stabbing himself with a small dagger that would just cut him, but not killed him. This was confusing to Japanese as well with what he meant when he says seppuku in the book.

On May 5, 1996, at the FMW Kawasaki Stadium show, I was going to transfer out of FMW after this event, so I wanted to go out with a bang and go all out for my last match. Before the start of the show though, when the ring announcer's announcement that Matsunaga and Cactus had been canceled there was turmoil among the crowd.

I wanted to take responsibility. When the tone of the venue due to the cancellation of the match between Matsunaga and Cactus, I was planning on practicing seppuku to lower the tension.

If it happened, the impact of my seppuku would have killed all the later matches, and no matter what the match was, the crowd would not be into the rest of the show. I decided instead to go to the ring and announce to the fans "The match has been canceled, I suspect it is because WWF thinks I have hepatitis, but I do not have hepatitis" when explaining why the match between Matsunaga and Cactus was canceled and the audience would then go "Ah!" but because the crowd was still small, a new audience was still coming in, so every 15 minutes I came back out and repeated the same thing and gradually got used to the audience.

If the announcement had been made one time to tens of thousands of people all at once then the fans would gotten upset have gone "that's fucking stupid!" and "I want my money back!" and the W*ING fans would have rioted. In the end, I missed the chance of doing seppuku, and later told Mr. Arai, "I was thinking of how to take responsibility of upsetting the fans" and he asked "what method did you decide on?" but I couldn't say "seppuku".

However, I seriously wanted to take responsibility and protect my own honor, while trying to lower the tension of the stadium, but there is another reason why I could not put seppuku into practice. There was the first ever women's exploding barbed wire match with Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda in Combat Toyoda's retirement match. It would have been bad for their match if I had done that to them. This was my last FMW show. I was no longer a necessary piece for FMW as FMW wasn't a necessary piece for me. After this, I went to Big Japan and was not suitable for FMW again. I don't think it was bad for FMW that I left.

Words to give about Mitsuteru Tokuda

Mitsuteru Tokuda. He did not practice, he did not study, it did not seem like he did anything. It can be said that it is good news for W*ING let him go as he had a high guarantee. He is known as a thief, a back stabber, and someone that always tries to confuse people.

He tried to be an ace candidate from the time of the launch of W*ING, but he was a completely just a self-proclaimed ace as he was a midcarder. But Tokuda, you won't be disappointed. The sound of your chop is burning in the ears of the fans. Forever as the king of eternal laughter.

This is a manuscript I wrote for a fan club magazine when Tokuda was dismissed from W*ING, but he was dismissed because he was told that "the image of W*ING is a little different now".

Do you remember the W*ING fans? When El Vigilante's chopped him, in Tokuda's last match against the Puerto Rican Army on February 5, 1993, it caught Tokuda's chest, and made a terrible noise at Korakuen Hall. There were cheers from the crowd of "Wow!" Tokuda then put Vigilante in the corner and hit a chop to him, and got the crowd to chant "weak, weak!" at which echoed around the building as they sighed.

The sigh of the fans came from a feeling similar to giving up, "What is Tokuda doing? It is an important match that he will be banished if they lose!" That match is still a hot topic among the people involved.

Also, one of the most memorable local matches is the one time he fought Freddy Krueger. At that time, Mr. Ibaragi also said, "I have to make the card with Tokuda," but in his case, I don't know what to do because he can not have a good match with anyone. Certainly there were some W*ING freaks that were looking forward to Tokuda's match.

However, in a sense, Tokuda was more like a joke to them and he was not taken serious by a professional wrestling fan, and although he had been in the ring of Wrestle Yume Factory in collaboration with Director Aoyagi, he left the group for the same reason as he left W*ING. It seems.

In the early days of FMW, there was a universal transfer case between Wakita (currently Super Delfin) and Shoji Akiyoshi (currently Jado), but at that time Tokuda said, "I will quit FMW." when in fact, he secretly told FMW about the meeting. Then when Director Aoyagi and I transferred to Pioneer Senshi, he did exactly the same thing. He was a man who had been in the professional wrestling world for a long time, but rather than practicing and trying to sell himself, he was thinking about how to pull the legs of others. It hasn't changed yet. No matter what kind of organization you are in, you will be dragging the legs of others. Still, you don't practice or study wrestling, so you will never change. He will always be dumb with a pale white body.

During the early W*ING era of the World Martial Arts Association, Tokuda was also a candidate for ace along with Akitoshi Saito and Koichiro Kimura. Then in the second W*ING era, I took the ace title away from Tokuda.

If he was really disappointed, he should have practiced harder or came up with some new ideas to sell himself. However, in his case, he did nothing. The only thing he tried to do was tell made up lies. He disturbed the harmony of the group anyway.

Yet, he takes advantage of the person who has the most power. During the W*ING era, he was talking badly about other wrestlers to Pogo. He often said, "Matsunaga intends to make W*ING about himself," which was a lie.

However, Pogo was completely fond of Tokuda, and he admired him very much, and everything became "Tokuda! Tokuda!". Even when Tokuda didn't go to practice, he said, "It's because Tokuda has a bad knee ...".

Still, Tokuda was saying bad things about Pogo in front of me, so one day Tokuda, suddenly stopped coming to the W*ING venue. The reason is that he didn't want to be a part of a wrestler vs. boxer match with boxer Jun Kikuwada. He is the only one in the territory that was dismissed in W*ING history.

Furthermore, during the FMW Pogo-Matsunaga Alliance era, he had been communicating with Pogo. Then I was told by Pogo that "Tokuda wants to join FMW again." If Pogo and Tokuda teamed up, it would be the same issues that happened in W*ING all over again. However, surprisingly, Pogo said, "I told him no. He was telling me bad things about Matsunaga and Toi. That's no good. "

Pogo was told about that everyone knew about Tokuda talking bad about everyone behind their back in W*ING. But Tokuda didn't know that. So he thought Pogo would be happy when he started talking bad about me again to him.

In the end, this story ended with a word from Mr. Onita, who heard about Tokuda trying to sell himself to FMW, and Onita just said "There is no impact in Tokuda's name." so he did not hire him.

After that, Pogo sent a call to West Japan for Tokuda, and he joined that group as they were starting an establishment in West Japan, they hired him probably because he was still handsome. Pogo was still positive saying without Tokuda, he said "I have no true partner without Tokuda in FMW." I responded back to that with a Weekly Fight reporter and said "I understand Pogo doesn't have a true partner in FMW but why would he want a partner in Tokuda? He's in West Japan anyway."

I heard a rumor that Tokuda was angry with me when he read it. I heard that he went to Director Aoyagi and told him what I said and said to him, "Matsunaga hasn't changed at all since his debut."

I felt sad for him. I think he did it because of the jealousy of being robbed of W*ING's ace and the feeling that he would be happy if he told the Director about my bad words, but he had a great deal of resentment. I think Tokuda's career is already inactive? What are you going to do when your family doesn't want you bothering them anymore?

Don't do such stupid things forever, you should do at least one push up to train your body. Stop talking badly about others, study professional wrestling, retrain properly and go up to the ring! The first thing you have to do is to be hit by a waterfall for about a thousand days and repent of yourself. I've seen many wrestlers, but I've never seen one be an appointed a successful wrestler. The world is well made, and no one is just given the top spot in a professional wrestling organization.

Saved by Kim Duk in Mexico

When I first met Kim Duk in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, my eyes were very sharp and surprised to find out that Duk was lonely. I didn't like to go out to eat meals alone and we would often go eat rice together. We also had a common bond with pachinko, where he would tell me, "There are no pachinko parlors in America." However, whenever I went to pachinko with Duk, for some reason the ball would always get stuck, but Duk would immediately hit the machine to keep the ball going, and Duk would continue to wait for me to finish the game. Thanks to that Mr. Duk would always say, "Matsunaga is good at pachinko," I had only played a little, but I gained a reputation of being good at pachinko.

After that, I met Duk again overseas after going through W*ING. At that time, I went out with Masayoshi Motegi on the "W*ING USA Tour" in August 1993, we went on an expedition for the American promotion ECW and Puerto Rico, and then when we finally arrived in Mexico, I had Adenitis. I felt like I was about to die. Unlike in FMW, I was always exhausting my energy in my matches in W*ING, so I often got feverish at the end of a tour.

Sure enough, I arrived in Puerto Rico after the match at ECW. When I was there, my throat was swollen, and when I crossed over to Mexico, I was barely able to breathe. I finally fell asleep. At that time, my meal couldn't go down my throat, and people around me didn't know about the illness. Also when I told the local promoters about my condition, they just said "It's okay, it's okay, you just need to stand in the corner. Please wrestle."

I really thought, "If you don't run away from here and go back to Japan, you'll be killed." At that time, Duk, who was working in Mexico, called me, saying, "Oh, Matsunaga! You're in Mexico?" I thought it was a call from heaven, and when I talked to Duk, about the situation, Duk immediately called for a doctor, and after getting some Penicillin, I finally got better and managed to get into the ring. So I am very grateful to Duk. Duk looked like a big mouse with that face, but he had a strong sense of justice, and he was also quite kind.

I lost to Ultraman Robin

In the W*ING era, Ultraman Robin had been trying to join W*ING and I told to come to a venue where a show was taking place and I would try and get him a job, and he arrived in his costume and sat down and watched the show. However, Mr. Ibaragi told me, "I don't want to spend that kind of money on him" so I talked with sales representative Shinya Endo, and ring announcer, Takuji Oho, and they said, "If you want Robin to work for W*ING he should do a death match as Little Black Sambo."

When I mentioned that to him, he laughed loudly at the horrifying death match of running around in the ring, saying, "What if I really melt and became butter?!" I met Robin for the first time in 1989 for the Onita and Aoyagi show when he was a the second of Mr. Onita, and after that, he wrestled on the "THE PREMIUM" show for Seishin Kaikan (July 13, 1991) as Ultraman Robin.

At that time, he was Ultraman, and he was an interesting character, so I decided to use him for an amateur wrestling show in Nagoya. Robin initially said, "I want to fight Kanemura," but in the end, I told him I would bring his own opponent, and on that day I brought in a high school student named Ultraman Diablo.

But the all the wrestlers were local high school students. Although Robin was Ultraman, he couldn't fly at all, and the audience was always sick of him, so in that case, having matches with amateur wresters in Nagoya was a better fit for him.

He felt that this professional wrestling group that was below him. He tried to fly out of the hall way through the entrance way like Ultraman, but he fell and made a terrible sound like a frog being crushed. After the match against Ultraman Diablo was over, as expected, he threw a tantrum, blaming his opponent for his failure of having a bad match.

Robin got on the mic afterwards as part of his tantrum and took the mask off of his opponent to show that the monster he had the bad match with was just a karate boy and blamed him for how bad the match was to the crowd.

There was an article in "Weekly Pro" at that time, that Robin had joined Shunji Takano's PWC, and at that time, he had a match that was so bad, the referee Mr. Hito became so angry he hit Robin during the match saying "This is not good!" at that time, it seems that the fans in the crowd were saying the same thing out loud. When I talked to Mr. Hito while in Big Japan, he told me that Robin had told everyone in PWC that he beat me in a match in Nagoya once.

After that I was asked as part of a magazine called "Rumor Express" with the question "Who would win if Shinobu Kandori and Ultraman Robin fought? At that time, when I answered, "I don't want to say who I would think would win," Robin seems to be furious when he read it. However, I think that Shinobu Kandori is stronger than he is, and would Robin really be willing to to try and beat up Shinobu Kandori?

Mr. Pogo's Kokkuri (Ouija Board)

Mr. Pogo in the FMW era was doing whatever he wanted to do selfishly, taking advantage of the fact that FMW was a well-established organization.

In a sense, he was a beast. For example, if the gymnasium had only one shower, FMW would normally use that room for the women's locker room. However, Pogo once went to the locker room for the women and took a shower, saying, "There is no other shower at the venue."

"That's not something you should do. Would you go into the women's locker room to take a shower? I would just go back to the hotel and take a bath," said Tarzan Goto, who was disappointed with Pogo's actions.

Pogo could be crappy, but he could also be very generous. We would be treated by many supporters (sponsors) for meals, but they would ask for a lot of sake and food at the table, and at the end when I can not eat all of it, I am already full and would say "I have eaten everything I can eat". However, I felt like I had to continue eating all the remaining food from the dishes, to feel like they had taken care of me. That's why everyone always thought, "If this is the case and you have to eat everything, it would be better to just go eat ramen by yourself."

Sometimes when the FMW tours were over, Pogo would go "come to Honjo and play" and we would meet Pogo's Tanimachi (sponsor) who would take us to a entertainment club. Pogo was very happy while we were there. Apparently, he had a thing going with one of the women there, and once boasted, "There is a woman who likes me, and she looks like Sachiko Kobayashi." However, after Pogo disappeared, the remaining members said of the club, " she is similar to Akina Nakamori"

Also, during the tour, Pogo began to play various patterns of mischief when he was free. One of them was a prank that scared the wrestler who answered the phone by calling at the hotel in the middle of the night and pretending to be a ghost. One morning, when Kanemura, a super-scared person, was the target of this kind of mischief, I had a talk with the driver of the foreign bus of FMW, Hosaka and Hosaka. Hido said "I got a strange call yesterday in the middle of the night. I couldn't sleep because of that, and the voice was similar to Mr. Pogo", Hosaka then said "There was a strange phone with a voice like Mr. Pogo in my room also."

The bus driver said that Mr. Pogo, when he has free time, he will do that kind of thing, so I'm sure it's definitely Mr. Pogo." However, I said to Hosaka, "I'm going to get him back for it, so don't talk about it too much on the bus."

I saw Pogo sitting at the front of the bus. He had been grinning for half a day, so I was convinced that the criminal was Pogo. Also, Pogo loves mystical and magical beliefs for some reason, and he once made a big deal about Kokkuri (Ouija Board). Even if you looked around the whole world, Pogo is the only wrestler who gets drunk and then does Kokkuri.

During that FMW tour, when Pogo, Hido, and Gladiator were drinking at the hotel, I called Pogo's room and said "Pogo, I am obsessed with spirits! I am doing Kokkuri right now and I'm obsessed with it, but oh...ahh...yes...yes, ah, what's that? that's right, I understand." and then I hung up to leave him thinking I had been talking to a spirit and suddenly the phone cut the line.

I couldn't sleep that night because I just kept thinking "What the hell was I doing?" the next morning Hido came in my room and I asked him if Pogo made a big fuss after my phone call. Hido told me yes that Pogo believed I was talking to a spirit and he wanted to do it as well so he got out his kokkuri board while he was drunk and had The Gladiator rub his back while trying to speak with a spirit.

There's also a Mr. Pogo story from the W*ING era. At that time, Ryo Miyake was asked to summon Kanemura and Tokuda, and they were made to sit in front of Pogo. Pogo began to scream, "I'm calling the spirit from now on. Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san ...", and for some reason only Miyake was shirtless, and when Pogo worshiped Miyake's hand, Miyake said "Wow, Pogo-san, please stop. I'm scared! " Then Pogo screamed, "The spirit has come!", and Miyake jumped in the air and screamed "Wow!" All of it was acting to try and scare Kanemura.

After all that, Kanemura said, "Mr. Pogo...Miyake, I wasn't scared, I was laughing." It seems that got Pogo angry and chased Kanemura and Tokuda out of the room.

By the way, Pogo has always had connection with me, but in fact, during the FMW era, he once apologized for the fire death match that led W*ING to collapse. At that time, I had a strong feeling that "It was your fault that I had to come to FMW and had such a hard time!", and I couldn't really forgive him because of W*ING. So, partly because of that, I didn't attend when Pogo sent me an invitation to his wedding. However, when I met Pogo again in the ring of Big Japan Wrestling, maybe because it had been a while, I felt nostalgic when I saw Pogo's face. "It's been a long time," he said.

Legendary Namakura Combination

The wrestler named Sambo Asako, he and I formed the legendary Namakura Combination in the FMW era. He was a talented wrestler. Both Asako and I are from martial arts, and in a sense it laid the foundations for us in professional wrestling.

Asako never would practice rope work, and he would say "it's okay not to practice running."

The first professional wrestling show was held by FMW in Russia at the Khabarok Stadium from August 9, 1994 to August 11, 1994.

At that time, Mr. Asako, who was told that Russia was the worst place in the world, lied to Mr. Onita that his "passport had expired" because he did not want to go to Russia, but Onita already knew Mr. Asako's personality.

Mr. Onita, who was not falling for it, said, "This is not a small work! I need everyone" Thus, Asako was forcibly taken to Russia. Now, in Russia, there are many faces vs. faces and heel vs. heel matches, and on the second day, I had a tag match against Asako, and in Russia even though we were facing each other in the same match, we would come out together from the locker room to have the match.

However, for some reason Tarzan Goto came out of the locker room in the middle of the match. Asako, who noticed Goto and said to me "Hey, the Demon (Goto) is watching. Because the Demon is watching, let's get angry, and strike one another as hard as we can." which was something Goto encouraged in his matches, so we did, but when the match was over we went to the back and Goto was just sitting there drinking a beer by himself not having paid any attention to the rest of the match.

I asked Asako what did he think of our match and he said "It was okay, easy, easy." which Asako always said.

After that, when it was the W*ING Alliance era, at the Tokyo Jingu Pool Stadium where Kanemura made his debut in FMW where he teamed against Tarzan Goto and Hisakatsu Oya, and I noticed Asako who was at ringside as Goto's second, he was making a face at me and laughing at me. I thought the Namakura Combination is still alive!

After the match, Kanemura said to me in the locker room, "Mr. Asako is really interesting. He was laughing during the match." Kanemura had also noticed Asako doing it during the match and I was aiming to get Mr. Asako to brawl outside the ring with me, but the only time I tried to get him, he quickly escaped and I couldn't catch him.

Asako was injured in a brawl of eight man at the Iwakuni City Gymnasium in Yamaguchi Prefecture on October 11, 1994, and was carried by an ambulance after the match. He ended having to retire because of it, as his examination revealed that he had a severe rupture of the left knee and was absent from the Sasebo show the following day.

But I didn't notice the injury in Iwakuni, and I put a stomping on the injured knee of Mr. Asako who fell down as much as I could, saying "Namakura!" ... Mr. Asako would return at Korakuen on January 5, 1995. He had his retirement match at Korakuen Hall against Mr. Onita and retired after that.

When I wrote a 1995 New Year's card for him that year it said, "If Hayabusa takes over FMW for Atsushi Onita, I will continue the soul of our Namakura group for Sambo Asako." I wrote another card for him for the 1997 New Years card stating that I had left FMW in 1996 and that officially ended our Namakura group.

Does Megumi Kudo have a bad personality?

Have you heard the rumors about Megumi Kudo? That she had a very bad personality? I'm sorry to say this as she will be getting married soon, but this was the rumor was going around. However, if you talked to Kudo even once, you can easily tell this is a hoax. Actually her personality is so good. When I was in the FMW Army, Kudo and I were surprisingly close. At that time, Kudo knew I had a target on me, so maybe Kudo was willing to accept that. Anyway, Kudo is the only one in professional wrestling world who can be proud of her beauty. She can't go long without a male wrestler trying to get close to her. When I think about it now, the reason why she was accused of having a bad personality is, that a male wrestler who flirted with her got angry when she rejected him.

Because she was a special person I would often sit next to her on the FMW bus. We had a lot of silly inside jokes. For example, we would play games of what FMW wrestlers looked like certain characters or people. We would talk about how Keiko Iwami = Ambassador Magma, Combat Toyoda = Shinsuke Minami, Nanjyo Hayato = Sesame Street Doll, Kaori Nakayama = the fox in Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi, Hido = Kokinji Katsura. This was before her and Hido were dating that we played that game as I don't think she would be saying her boyfriend looked like Kokinji Katsura. I didn't even notice when Kudo and Hido started dating. The relationship between men and women are strange. Around this time, Kudo asked to go to an amusement park with me.

I told her that we would stand out and suggest I would cook barbeque in the mountains of Tachikawa City instead. This was when I was preparing  my singles match against Hayabusa and was practicing the depth of a moonsault on the river bank of the mountains. I ended up hitting the water but hitting my head on some rocks while coming down.

I was practicing this because I only thought I would only be wrestling Hayabusa on the next tour, and when I came down I heard Kudo laughing. "Mr. Matsunaga, you hit your head on a rock. I don't think you should try it in your match." I didn't listen to Kudo and used it in the match against Hayabusa, and even though I hit it successfully, I still lost the match.

I always felt Kudo had a good personality, but then I heard that her bad personality was behind the scenes. That she was bullying her juniors. I thought I would investigate and ask three of Kudo's juniors. I first contacted Keiko Iwami, who said Kudo never bullied anyone. She always encouraged me. Next was Miss Mongol (Aki Kambayashi). She said she never went out with Ms. Kudo privately, so they just had purely had a senior and junior relationship, but she also said there was no bullying with the FMW girls. The last person was Yukie Nabeno who told me she was nostalgic for Kudo. That Kudo was a tough person and was tough when teaching professional wrestling, but there was absolutely no bullying.

After talking to her three of her juniors, I felt reassured that Kudo was a wonderful female wrestler and was able to prove it. I wanted to say congratulations to Kudo and Hido. I will be still working on this book when they get married, so I don't know if I will be able to attend their wedding, but I will still send them a congratulatory gift even if I am absent.

Resurrection with peace of mind of W*ING

Kanemura who left IWA Japan appeared at the FMW show on September 22, 1994 at the Kiryu Civic Gym in front of me and said "Lets do W*ING together again."

At that time, I was nominated as the successor of by Mr. Onita before his retirement as the ace of FMW. Forming the W*ING team with Kanemura resulted in Mr. Onita feeling betrayed.

A week after Mr. Onita retired at a hotel in Ota Ward on May 12th, Kanemura, Hido, and I held a press conference to announce the reborn W*ING and that we would battle Mr. Pogo who had turned on the group at Kawasaki Stadium.

We also announced that the New W*ING would include Hideki Hosaka although he was not present at the meeting. There was a New W*ING but I could not overcome my unhappiness of FMW. I demanded a singles match with Mr. Pogo.

We asked FMW to make this a death match as that style of match would attract more customers. I think it would be stupid to refuse this.

The newly renamed W*ING Kanemura said "Fighting Pogo, the heyday of W*ING will be revived."

It was announced that approximately one year after entering the war with Mr. Pogo at the Osaka Castle Hall, there would be a rematch between us. This match was pushed down the card, but I got my small revenge on FMW as that match made the cover of Pro-Wrestling Weekly magazine which surprised fans.

That's because the fans who saw this match live and in the magazine greatly expanded their imagination of W*ING as the first time we made the cover, except that match was a mediocre match and the matches between Pogo and I were much better in FMW.

We wanted to bring attention of the revival of W*ING and make people not aware that W*ING had been revived in FMW, and brought back to the forefront with the New FMW with Mr. Onita retired.  It would help bring reborn W*ING fans back.

I was working hard with Kanemura under the slogan of a revival, but we saw a completely different reaction from the W*ING fans.

It started when Leather and Hido left the group after a couple of months. This left the fans confused because they did not know if they were suppose to cheer or boo the original W*ING wrestlers who had left the group. In the old W*ING it was clear who the fans were suppose to cheer and boo.

Let me explain this with an example. When Terry and Dory Funk, Jr. took on Abdullah the Butcher and The Sheik. The fans would applaud Butcher when he would pull out his fork even though he was a heel against wrestlers that were beloved. You can still applaud someone just because they are a heel. If Leather brings out his five inch nail brush, I would applaud if I was a fan whether he was a heel or not.

If Hido happened to betray W*ING, that is a Hido call, and if Leather betrays W*ING that is a Leather call. I decided to leave W*ING though after I left FMW.

Collapse of the Super Indie

On June 12, 1996, the New W*ING was launched in "TAKE OFF Second", but at that time, I was already working as an apprentice at a steak shop called "Steak Shima", so I did not cooperate with Kanemura and the others. If I could have made this show, I would be happy to represent W*ING with Kanemura's team, but the problem was the fact that Kanemura, Hido, and Hosaka couldn't do anymore of death match than I already did. They couldn't put into practice the idea of a new Death Match that they had in mind. I was wondering if I would have had the pull to do it, but I talked with Mr. Tarzan Yamamoto for his Weekly Pro magazine in a conversation, and Kanemura didn't like the content of what I said and we have been estranged since and have had no contact.

Of course, I have loved Kanemura since our days in Pioneer Senshi, and he is still an important younger brother to me. However, at the same time, Kanemura was also a man who had various problems and his hands were burned for a long time. However, Kanemura learned his wrestling theory from Iceman (Ricky Santana) while he was in W*ING, he taught him "Just because you are holding a barbed wire bat in your hands, does not mean you still can't run the ropes with it." Kanemura was also influenced by Jado and Gedo with his wrestling style. Kanemura wanted to create a new style by mixing regular wrestling with death matches, while my style was pursuing radical death matches. Kanemura on August 1, 1996 at the Rail City in Shiodome made a "Super Indie Declaration."

Riki Choshu, who saw a match of another promotions wrestler at "Rikidozan Memorial" in June of that year, criticized the Indies, saying, "You are not professional wrestling!" Kanemura felt Riki Choshu's words were meant for the clumsy indie wrestlers, so Kanemura responded with "the guys who don't practice aren't wrestlers, how can you group us all together?" FMW and W*ING wrestlers aren't the same as them. Don't group all indie wrestlers together."

With that said, Kanemura has said that even indies have a bottom level. However, if I said that in earnest, Kanemura didn't understand the true meaning of Choshu's remarks. Generally, Kanemura himself didn't have a dojo during the W*ING era, so he couldn't practice satisfactorily. When he joined FMW, he started taking practice seriously and we would train and practice at the gym together. He improved a lot in just about a year.

He had had been influenced a long time ago by Jado and Gedo while training with them and they would call him a "stupid tooth picked eggplant" although he would say it was ironic coming from them because he could say the same thing about their bodies, but he couldn't say it back.

He practiced a lot, but I would say the younger wrestlers in the Big Japan practice better than he does. They actually had a dojo in Big Japan, there was Great Kojika, and there was Kendo Nagasaki training them. But fortunately or unfortunately, indie is not a world that will be rewarded if you practice better than someone else.

On the other hand, when I was young, I was told, "This is what professional wrestling is," and if you thoroughly trained in fights and wrestling, that would be the end of it, and you didn't have to think of any ideas on how to get over or create a character. The indies can not just live off of people practicing more than others.

The Heisei Ishingun is the biggest example of proving my view of indie match. A young wrestler who was in W*ING when the Heisei Ishingun launched called me and said, "It seems that a part of New Japan will make its own indie independently from itself. It will be a great organization." But I said, "What are you saying? I don't see that at all. I predict failure." After all, the meaning of the two major promotions is different than the independents.

The independent wrestler do not have the major strength, but in order to cover it, they have to compete with ideas that major wrestlers can not do, so at the time of the "Super Indie Declaration" I was able to crush Kanemura with my words that I didn't think he practiced the most, as I practiced hard and in W*ING I was the only one with a good body and the rest of the promotion all had strange bodies.

I don't know why but Mr. Onita's "bleed instead of practice" was inherited by W*ING and not FMW. Hayabusa and Masato Tanaka had good bodies, but in fact Kanemura is just as good on the mic as Mr. Onita is. It's an ironic story.

A man who loved W*ING

I always regret that I left the younger W*ING wrestlers while joining FMW. I am glad it resulted in Kanemura and Hido being pushed to the main event after I left, and that established them for FMW to bring them in and pay them good money.

I was also glad that Ryo Miyake and The Winger wanted to bring W*ING back a year later. Miyake and Winger are rare type of professional wrestlers and although they do the work that given, they don't have much greed.

I want to collect former W*ING wrestlers and revive the group again. I want to tour all over the country with them, even if it was just one time. I still have a strong desire to give Miyake and Winger their dream if there is a chance. Also, Takuji Oho who was the one who had the strongest feeling for W*ING at the front desk. If he wasn't in W*ING, I wouldn't have been there.

I was grateful to Mr. Daiho, and I intended to meet the expectations of Mr. Daiho, who gave me tremendous trust during the W*ING era, in my matches. Endo-kun and Daiho-kun, who were idea men at the time, always came up with outlandish ideas and surprised outcomes for matches.

Daiho was a very strange person but he loved W*ING. It was a double wall for me. He refused to meet me after I went to FMW even though I was still friends with W*ING wrestlers. I met him again when I left FMW and entered Big Japan. When I say that I loved W*ING, there were many people who loved W*ING, whether it was Kanemura and I, Mr. Daiho, Winger, or Miyake.

Also, foreigner wrestlers such as Jason the Terrible, Leatherface, The Headhunters, and their boss Victor Quinones. Victor really supported W*ING.

As I learned later, it was Victor who paid for the travel expenses and accommodations of my last overseas expedition while apart W*ING that also took care of Kim Duk. In addition, the reason why W*ING was able to make it through such difficult deficits with management in the latter half of its history was because Victor took over paying the foreign wrestlers. Victor has since stopped by my Mr. Danger restaurant since it opened.

Until then, I had decided that no matter what kind of poor indie professional wrestler or person that came in, I would not treat them any different than any other customers because this was a business. However, I could not accept money from Victor and I will not take any money from W*ING benefactors Victor Quinones and the Headhunters.

Mr. Ibaragi also came to the store once as he was taken to the store by a former sale representative, Mr. Shinya Endo. I'm glad that each and every one of the former W*ING wrestler has come to Mr. Dangers. Mr. Ibaragi is not thought of well as a manager, but he cared about W*ING more than anyone.

I currently do not know where Ibaragi is now, but I want to cooperate with him on making W*ING goods and merchandise. I am waiting for that call.

The truth though is that the fans of W*ING loved it more than any wrestler or official of the company. They are called "W*ING Freaks". It is a disparaging phrase that was made up by FMW fans, but of course I am grateful to the W*ING Freaks.

After I joined Big Japan there would be W*ING fans that would tell me even though they loved W*ING, they never would watch FMW's W*ING. I was very encouraged by their words as they would tell me they wouldn't watch FMW as they didn't like being called "W*ING freaks" by the FMW fans.

When I would ask the Big Japan fans what other promotions they liked, they would tell me the original W*ING. Fans would come to my store and or the Big Japan venue and would tell me they knew W*ING was being held back. They knew it was like I was being held in a straight jacket.

I was asked by Hido "what kind of fans come to Big Japan's shows" and I told him the same fans that would come to W*ING and he made a very enviable face. Any wrestler that spent a short time in W*ING that wrestled for Big Japan said the same thing.

If I had talked to Kanemura about Big Japan, I think he would have made the same face that Hido made when I would have told him the same thing.

What's the difference between FMW and W*ING? There was never that sharpness in FMW like there was in W*ING. It felt like I was doing professional wrestling in slow motion on purpose in FMW. W*ING had a strong impact on FMW's movement in the photo game.

W*ING had a unique sloppy atmosphere and that's what made W*ING unique. I couldn't do that in FMW, but I have been able to in Big Japan.

After all, when I was in FMW, I was thinking back seriously, saying "It's not my time anymore." The fact that I was able to revive W*ING in Big Japan is proof that W*ING did not completely merge with the FMW ring.

Click here for Chapter 6: The Logic of "Lazy"