Heisei Pro-Wrestling The End of Organization Book by Keizo Takasaki

FMW

Founded by Atsushi Onita with just 50,000 yen in capital, FMW was launched in October 1989 and became famous for its barbed wire death match in December of that year, and its expansion into an electric current explosion death match in August of the following year. The company grew to the point where it could hold events drawing tens of thousands of spectators to stadiums, reaching its first peak on May 5, 1995, when Onita's (second) retirement event drew a crowd of nearly 60,000 at Kawasaki Stadium.

In the same month, the "new FMW" was launched with Hayabusa, Onita's opponent in his retirement match, as its ace. Although the number of spectators dropped sharply at one point, the efforts of young wrestlers such as Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, W*ING Kanemura, and The Gladiator, as well as the rise of female wrestlers such as Megumi Kudo, gradually increased the group's recognition, and the lifting of the ban on death matches, which had initially been banned, helped the group regain momentum and allow events to resume at Kawasaki Stadium.

As for the company structure, the company that Onita established when he launched the company was called "Frontier Martial-Arts Pro Wrestling Co., Ltd.", which was later spun off into several subsidiaries. The head office was renamed "FMW Co., Ltd." Onita had intended to end the group after his retirement, but Shoichi Arai, who had been the ring announcer and public relations officer, became the representative and continued the group.

In August 1995, the name "Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling Co., Ltd." was revived. The new FMW seemed to be on track, but an unexpected event forced a change of course in a direction that the parties involved had not anticipated. Onita first returned to the ring on December 11, 1996 at Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium as Mr. Pogo's partner in his retirement match, on the condition that it was a "one-night only" return. However, prior to this, Pogo's retirement was brought up, and from around October, when Onita began hinting at a return, fans began to reject him. This is understandable.

After spending a year on a retirement tour and holding such a flashy retirement event, it was a bit much to return the following year. Moreover, Onita, who was supposed to return for a "one-night only" period, continued to return to the ring after that, and ended up at the center of FMW's battles without any warning.

Furthermore, he began to interfere more in matchmaking and the company's internal affairs, and the organization that had been on track began to fall into chaos. In November 1998, the issue of Onita trying to use FMW wrestlers without permission in his new promotion "USO" became the final trigger, and President Arai, after discussing with the wrestlers, decided to part ways with Onita. This was conveyed directly to him later that month, and Onita once again left the history of FMW. Another event had occurred six months prior to this that would greatly change the direction of the promotion.

The contract with DirecTV began in March 1998. DirecTV, which was searching for new content to launch its satellite broadcasting network following Sky Perfect TV (now SKY PerfecTV!), focused on FMW. Broadcasting began in April with the aim of creating new entertainment together. This was the beginning of the so-called "entertainment route."

The aim was to develop pro wrestling with a strong storyline, with many characters other than the wrestlers appearing, and to put it simply, a "Japanese version of WWE." There was also a negative reaction from some fans, but since it was the start of its business in Japan and DirecTV had abundant funds, FMW bet its company's future on this route.

FMW tried to find a way out of the entertainment route, but it bounced twice and finally went bankrupt. In the flow of Onita's expulsion and the start of the entertainment route, Hiromichi Fuyuki, who began participating in 1997, became the new center of the group. He played a central role in the ring as the boss of the heel group and commissioner, but from the middle of 1999, the 10th anniversary of FMW's launch, he also became a matchmaker.

Fuyuki began to take full control of everything in the ring. The entertainment route was a gamble that was put all its effort into, but it was soon at the mercy of various domestic and international circumstances. It turned out that the expenses were higher than expected, and the unpaid taxes weighed on them. In the midst of this, the Yokohama Arena event on November 23, 1999, which was the highlight of the 10th anniversary and which had been prepared with a huge budget, ended in the red, and the company was in a difficult position.

To make matters worse, DirecTV withdrew. The company had made a grand entrance into Japan, but due to poor business development, it was decided to discontinue operations and transfer the business to Sky Perfect TV early on.

In the aftermath of this, FMW suffered a major blow as most of the large broadcasting fees that had been planned were not paid. The following year, in 2000, Hayabusa was out for a long time due to injuries to both elbows, and the number of spectators dropped sharply. Although they managed to get through the crisis by sending Masato Tanaka, who had been active in ECW, back to Japan and having Genichiro Tenryu appear as the masked "Big Hayabusa", there were many aspects of the entertainment route that were difficult to follow on a low budget, and they were unable to create enough buzz to turn the situation around for the group.

A rift also developed between Fuyuki, who was in charge of the site, and President Arai, who was working hard to keep the company afloat despite the difficulties, and in February 2001, five members, Tanaka, Jado, Gedo, Hideki Hosaka, and Kaori Nakayama, left the group. In August, Fuyuki suddenly announced his departure to participate in All Japan.

FMW was trying to keep going despite several issues going wrong, but on October 22, 2001, they were hit by a fatal misfortune when Hayabusa had an accident. In the main event of the day's Korakuen Hall event, a one-on-one battle between Hayabusa and Mammoth Sasaki, Hayabusa failed a lionsault (a moonsault press performed by jumping from inside the ring onto the second rope), damaging his cervical vertebrae and leaving him completely paralyzed.

President Arai had been managing the organization on the edge, having accumulated personal debts, but this accident led to a further decline in attendance and the organization finally became dysfunctional. The remaining members somehow managed to continue holding events, but in February of the following year, the company finally issued two bounced checks and went bankrupt. The last event was held at Korakuen Hall on the 4th of that month.

Three months later, on May 16th, President Arai was found dead in a park in Tokyo. This is how FMW came to an end, but the details are written in detail in "Bankruptcy! FMW Charisma Indie Pro Wrestling Was Ruined in This Way", published by President Arai himself in April 2002, just before his death, and `"Requiem FMW Why Did It Go Bankrupt?", published in January 2003 by Hiromichi Fuyuki.

When an organization collapses or goes bankrupt, testimony from those involved often increases after some time has passed, but it is unusual for the views of the parties involved to be expressed from multiple perspectives so soon after.

Tetsuhiro Kuroda, who remained with FMW until the end, testified, "My salary was deposited properly every month." "February 14, 2002. President Arai wrote the following about February 14th, when the first bounced check was issued. I will never forget the events of this day until the day I die. On this day, Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling Co., Ltd., where I serve as president, in other words, the professional wrestling organization FMW issued its first bounced check. In other words, "I was in a state where I was completely dishonored..." With this, two checks, totaling 2.04 million yen, had now been dishonored.

I was stunned and unable to move a muscle. I had overcome many hardships up until now. I had somehow managed to walk a tightrope. My bad luck had finally run out. Grief. Or disappointment. I felt neither of those emotions at the time. If I had to describe it, it was as if a rock had fallen on my head, and the sheer size and weight of it had paralyzed all my thoughts and emotions. Or perhaps I had fainted while still standing.

Fuyuki recalls that day as follows: "That day, when Arai was surrounded by debt collectors, I was somewhere else. Then, around five in the evening, I started getting a lot of calls and emails from people at FMW. They just kept saying, "It's really bad," and "Come back soon." I didn't know what was going on, but even I could tell from the atmosphere that something had happened to the company.

I had a vague feeling that maybe it had gone bankrupt. Anyway, I hurried back to the FMW office. When I got there, the creditors were surrounding the building. It's just as it is written in Arai's book. Around that time, Arai was surrounded by some beefy debt collectors at a coffee shop in Tokyo. I heard that there were more than a dozen creditor companies. That's a lot." So the wrestlers who received the sudden news gathered at the office, but let's hear from the testimony of a wrestler who actually went to the office.

This is Tetsuhiro Kuroda, one of the wrestlers who remained with FMW until the end. "I still remember it. It was Valentine's Day. To be honest, I had heard from someone about two weeks before that, 'It's pretty bad.' I thought it might be too late. So on that day, I was about to start training at the gym in Urayasu where I was living at the time, when I got a call from a young wrestler, I think it was Satoru Makita, who said, 'Sorry Kuroda, please come to the office right away.' I told him it would take some time, but he said, 'It's OK, come any time,' and his voice sounded really bad, so I said, 'Okay, I'll go.'

So I went to the office, and there were a dozen or so loan sharks lined up on the first floor. I was the last wrestler to arrive at the office, so when I went in, all the wrestlers from that time were there, "The president was kidnapped." That's how we heard about the bankruptcy.

Apparently Arai had been held captive by other loan sharks. We heard the story from Fuyuki. Arai's whereabouts were unknown, but we finally met him at about 3am. He looked depressed and even older. We talked for a bit, and at the end I couldn't help but say, "Please don't get any strange ideas." He said, "That's right."..."

President Arai sent a letter to all the wrestlers before he passed away. Kuroda also received one. "It was the day before or the day before that. I received the letter. I thought, "Oh, this is going to be bad..." I still have the letter." So what was the atmosphere inside the company during that time? With the company in a difficult situation, were the relationships and atmosphere on the ground also deteriorating?

Kuroda says: "No, that's not true at all. I was still paid until the end. About two years before the bankruptcy, the system went from being paid per match to a monthly salary system, and my salary was deposited in the bank account every month.

People often ask me this, but I think I only missed the last month's salary. I don't think my salary was ever late. The year before, Tanaka and a few others had left the team. I think at the time Arai had asked for people who wanted to resign. He said, "If you want to leave, you can leave." Tanaka and the others also didn't like the entertainment route very much.

As for me, I never thought about quitting. It's true that the entertainment route made me feel like, 'Are you going that way?' and it was difficult to talk on the microphone, but I was grateful for their help, so I stayed. If I hadn't been paid then, I might have considered it."

President Arai was firm in his decision to "pay the wrestlers' salaries no matter what," and it is said that he took on unreasonable debt to do so. The aforementioned book states, "We were unable to pay the wages for December 2000 and January 2001 until the day of the bankruptcy."

In other words, all other wages were paid. No one can answer why FMW disappeared. As we have seen in other chapters, the final days of a professional wrestling organization usually see a series of wrestlers leaving due to non-payment or delayed payment, and the atmosphere on the ground often deteriorates. However, this was not the case with FMW.

President Arai literally put his body on the line to prevent this from happening. People involved unanimously say that President Arai was "an earnest and good person." Kuroda also said, "Maybe he was too earnest..."

However, in Fuyuki's book, there are many parts that disagree with this image of Arai. For example, in the "Introduction," there is this passage: "Arai and I never argued. He was always nodding and saying, 'Yes, yes.' I don't know what he was thinking behind the scenes, but that was the cause of all the trouble. If you just take in the opinions of all the wrestlers and people involved and say yes to everything, you can't run a business. Well, he's a good guy in the sense that he listens to people's opinions. But in the end, that's all. That's never going to make you a sharp person. There were many times when I felt frustrated working with him. The biggest thing was that he was too much of an amateur at first."

This is something that only Fuyuki, who has been running FMW together with him, can say. However, in the world of wrestling, where there are many things that make you want to cover your ears about the actions of nonsensical managers, it is also true that President Arai has not had much trouble that would lead to scandals. Of course, no saint can run a company (especially a wrestling organization), so it is not okay to do nonsensical things. No one can answer that question. Kuroda says, "Looking back now, I think we could have done more. Back then, we left sales to the company, and the wrestlers, including myself, didn't do it at all..."

However, in the 1990s, when FMW was active, the wrestlers' own sales activities (at least publicly) were still almost unseen. Nowadays, fans can see wrestlers selling tickets using the Internet or their own connections (whether that is good or bad is another matter), but looking back at that time, even if the wrestlers thought that "sales is something the company does," they should not be blamed. After the demise of FMW, the wrestlers split into two promotions, WEW, led by Fuyuki, and WMF, but WEW ceased operations as a promotion following Fuyuki's sudden death in March 2003 (though it was renamed "Fuyuki Army Promotion", it ceased operations after its final show in May 2004). WMF was dissolved in 2008 after its management company withdrew.

After that, Tarzan Goto launched "Super FMW", and Hideki Takahashi, former FMW sales manager, launched "Super Battle Pro-Wrestling FMW". Onita also later founded another promotion bearing the "FMW" name. Whether or not it is a good thing that the name "FMW" has still not disappeared from the world of professional wrestling is something that I, at least, have no idea.