Line #5 Wrestling/FMW


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fmw_3672.jpg]]
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3	Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese ProfessionalWrestling promotion founded by Atsushi Onita in 1989. He started it due to the two main promotions, Wrestling/AntonioInoki's Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and Wrestling/GiantBaba's Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, rejecting his ideas about how "everything should be allowed in ''puroresu''". Onita expanded on the brawling style he had encountered in Wrestling/JerryLawler's Continental Wrestling Association in Memphis, Tennessee and the use of barbed-wire in the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. Baba derisively labeled the FMW style "{{Garbage Wrestl\|er}}ing", though it is more respectfully labeled "Hardcore." While Onita was the focus, and many Japanese wrestlers (W*ING Kanemura, Wrestling/MasatoTanaka, Hayabusa, Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke) made their names there, it also was the promotion where American wrestler Wrestling/MikeAwesome made his career as "The Gladiator" and also where Wrestling/{{Sabu}} first made his name, and, as a result of competing in no-rope barbed-wire matches, became the "scarred-up freak" the world would come to know and love. Much of what FMW pioneered would later be brought to US audiences via Wrestling/{{ECW}}. The company closed down in 2002. It was revived in 2015, with Hideki Takahashi as president and Hayabusa as the main producer, now calling the company Cho Sento Puroresu FMW, with Atsushi Onita promised to participate in some form as well, which turned out to be in the ring!
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5	FMW's Anniversary Show, generally held on May 5, was the show that the whole year centered around. The Revival paid tribute to the tradition with a three day ''FMW 25+2 Anniversary Series Origin Return''.
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7	!!! "Frontier Martial-Arts Tropes":
8	* TenMinuteRetirement: Atsushi Onita, leading to the temporary departures of Mr. Gannosuke and Flying Kid Ichihara
9	* TheAce: Atsushi Onita, when he was actually around anyway
10	* ActionGirl: Megumi Kudo, Kyoko Inoue.
11	* {{Acrofatic}}: Vic Grimes, the rotund spring boarder. Also, Mammoth Sasaki.
12	* ArchEnemy: The Japanese wrestling mainstream
13	* AscendedExtra: Randy [=Neverman=], who had previously been a {{Jobber}} in Wrestling/{{WWE}} under his own name, was the first [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/fmw/wwa-bk.html FMW WWA Brass Knuckles Champion]] as Beast the Barbarian.[[note]]For about two weeks. That was as good as he got.[[/note]]
14	* AssShove: To win an Anal Explosion Match, you must stick a fire cracker in your opponent's ass and successfully detonate it.
15	* AuthorAvatar: Atsushi Onita, Kodo Fuyuki. The latter was much more involved with his own booking.
16	* AxCrazy: The Sheik, Sabu, Mr. Pogo.... Just read some of the match descriptions. It was a PROMOTION full of crazy.
17	* BadBoss: Kodo Fuyuki, enemy of garbage wrestling and lover of [[EvilerThanThou something even lower]] than "The Japanese mainstream" or invaders from Puerto Rico: sports entertainment!
18	* BadassBiker: Kuroda rode with a group of them when entering arenas.
19	* BearyFriendly: Wild Bear, who is a giant teddy bear.
20	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Megumi Kudo took some horrible abuse over her career, especially in her retirement match against Shark Tsuchiya (unofficially, the DistaffCounterpart to Tiger Jeet Singh) in 1997, but was able to pose for Japanese photobooks in 1999 and later.
21	* BodyguardingABadass: Katsuji Ueda was a legit kickboxer and Atsushi Onita’s bodyguard.
22	* {{Brainwash\|ed}}ing: Team No Respect did this to FMW President Hiroshi Arai's niece.
23	* ChainsawGOOD: [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]] Also went into CaptainErsatz and WritingAroundTrademarks territory with Super Leather.
24	* ChallengeSeeker: Onita, with a vein of {{Cloudcuckoolander}}. He even tried to get a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match against Antonio Inoki en PRIDE Fighting Championships (!) or against any K-1 fighter.
25	* CoolMask: Hayabusa
26	* {{Crossover}}: Professional boxer Leon Spinks held the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/fmw/wfda-ma.html FMW W.F.D.A. World Martial Arts Title]] for two months in 1992.
27	* DarkActionGirl: Shark Tsuchiya and her Mad Dog Military
28	* DarkerAndEdgier: Set out to be compared to All Japan and New Japan. FMW was '''very''' violent.
29	* DefeatMeansFriendship: Hido became Willie Takayama after being defeated by Willie Williams and teamed up with him against his former No Respect stablemates.
30	* DelinquentHair: Bad boy Hido did with a ''bowl cut''
31	* {{Delinquents}}: H became one due to his frustrations with Team No Respect
32	* DoNotCallMePaul: The Head Hunters (A&B) would address ''each other'' as "A" or "B."
33	* TheDreaded: The FMW Women's division quickly built up a fearsome reputation in the Wrestling/{{A\|llJapanWomensProWrestling}}WJ locker room. Newer feds JWP and LLPW on the other hand said "{{Bring it}}".
34	* DreadlockWarrior: Kick boxer Willie Williams
35	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first FMW shows featured pro wrestlers taking on fighters from other disciplines like karate and judo, with knockdown counts to imitate the Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation as originally envisioned, but quickly the promotion turned to showcasing many different divisions and styles of wrestling. Then came the death matches...
36	* EasySexChange: Azuska Kudo became the woman known as Gosaku and then decided to change back, which somehow turned not just her into him but him into the half spider Bio-monster DNA.
37	* EnemyMine: Victor Quiñonez's arrival from IWA Japan and his forming the Puerto Rican Army was impactful enough to get the regular FMW guys and the W*ING Alliance on the same side.
38	* [[ThreateningShark Everything's Even Worse With Sharks]]: Shark Tsuchiya
39	* FacialMarkings: Mr. Pogo, the Gladiator, Shark Tsuchiya
40	* FunWithAcronyms: Wrestling/TerryFunk's {{Heel}} faction, '''F'''unk '''M'''asters of '''W'''restling.
41	* {{Garbage Wrestl\|er}}ing: The {{Trope Namer\|s}}
42	** BatterUp: Often wrapped in barbed-wire.
43	** ChairmanOfTheBrawl: Mammoth Sasaki had his Home Run, where he would wrap a chair around his standing opponent's head and then smack him with a chair.
44	** PlayingWithFire: The Onita/Tarzan Goto vs. The Sheik[=/=][=Sabu=] No Ropes Barbed Wire [[RingOfFire Fire]] Death Match from the May 6, 1992 show, which went to a No-Contest due to the fire getting out of control. The Sheik, then in his 60s, was too slow to leave the ring as the fire was burning down everything. He had to be rushed to the hospital and treated for third degree burns, but in fact [[{{Determinator}} wanted to continue the match at ring side]] and yelled at Sabu for throwing water on him, since it prevented Sheik from throwing a fireball at Goto and Onita. Such was this match's [[GoneHorriblyWrong infamy]] that a disqualification was later declared in WWC when a {{fireball\|s}} was thrown in one of Sabu's barbed wire matches.
45	* GimmickMatches: '''MANY'''. One of Onita's chief innovations was taking down the ring ropes and replacing them with barbed-wire.[[note]]In Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the U.S, barbed-wire, if it was used at all, would be wrapped around the ring ropes or just around the turnbuckle pad.[[/note]] This led to the barbed-wire being attached to electrical charges and/or C4 explosives.
46	** GoryDeadlyOverkillTitleOfFatalDeath: Oh, so much.
47	** At the 7th Anniversary Show, May 5, 1996, Terry Funk and Mr. Pogo d. Masato Tanaka and Hayabusa in a "No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Time Bomb Land Mine Double Hell[[note]]This usually means two sides have barbed-wire in place of the ropes with no ropes on the other sides and something dangerous on the floor[[/note]] Death Match."
48	** At the 8th Anniversary Show (held on April 29, 1997, instead of the usual date of May 5), Megumi Kudo defeated [[WrestlingMonster Shark Tsuchiya]] in a "No Rope 200 Volt double hell Double Barbed Wire Barricade Double Landmine Crushed Glass Electrical Barbed Wire Death Match" to win the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/fmw/fmw-wm.html FMW World Women's Title]].
49	** At the 10th Anniversary Show, which was held on November 23, 1999 as their November [=PPV=], [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/fmw/fmw-wew-s.html FMW WEW Singles Champion]] Masato Tanaka d. Kodo Fuyuki in a "[[LoserLeavesTown Loser Leaves FMW]] Electrical Thunderbolt Cage Death Match."
50	* GrandfatherClause: The presence of Brass Knuckle title belts in a garbage promotion became more and more questionable as FMW got more and more extreme. Fans held the titles in high regard was the main reason.
51	* HardHead: Tarzan Goto's
52	* HijackedByGanon: NOSAWA's Monster-gun was a new faction revealed during the 2015 revival but was soon taken over by old favorite WING Kanemura, becoming the WING Monster-gun.
53	* HumiliatingWager: At ''FMW Making of a New Legend- Day 2'', June 15, 1999, Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Hido, Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura in a "Six Man Loser Eats Dog Food Ladder Scramble Match."
54	* {{Hypocrite}}: Kodo Fuyuki espoused the virtues of sports entertainment while demanding Hayabusa remove his mask because he didn't want "{{superhero}}es" in FMW. Then he turned around and gave the Hayabusa gimmick to Mr. Gannosuke, [[VillainBall albeit to further ruin Hayabusa's name.]]
55	* IKnowKarate: Among the "martial artists" who stuck with the company as it became "garbage wrestling", Masashi Aoyagi is the most famous, although Willie Williams is the best known to fans in the USA.
56	* IllKillYou: Shouted skyward by W*ING Kanemura about Wrestling/BallsMahoney, from the roof of a skyscraper.
57	* JapanesePoliteness: Through all the blood, broken glass and electrocutions, the crowds tended to sit in near silence, popping bigger for the more conventional fights (excepting top face Masato Tanaka, Hayabusa, Megumi Kudo's death matches) and wrestling matches but still mostly being silent. The English commentators suggested the quieter than usual responses to the garbage matches was StunnedSilence.
58	* {{Kayfabe}}: Katsutoshi Niiyama was fired in 1997 for breaking it by publicly celebrating with arch rival Koji Nakagawa.
59	* {{Keet}}: Tetsuhiro Kuroda took full advantage of FMW's referee's frequent neglect to count anyone out and would sprint all over the arena if allowed to by his opponents, in search of better weapons. He'd also {{no sell}} weapon strikes from non wrestlers while doing so.
60	* LicensedGame
61	** ''Virtual Pro Wrestling'' is nominally a Wrestling/{{WCW}} series but the "[[BlandNameProduct Dead Or Alive Wrestling]]" sections of the rosters are filled with FMW wrestlers.
62	** FMW did have their own video game, ''Onita Atsushi: FMW'', which played like a fighting game.
63	* MaleGaze: Unapologetic about it too, at least when it came to the non wrestling valets. A few of the wrestlers made threats to the cameras.(The male gaze didn't start until they started parodying the [=McMahon=]Russo trends during the WEW era. Naturally this would be the one thing they played straight, even if not 100% of the time)
64	* MaskedLuchador: Mascarita Sagrada, Wrestling/{{Konnan}}, El Hijo del Santo, Tinieblas Sr., Tinieblas Jr.
65	* {{Mooning}}: Riky Fugi, although he didn't want to, Team No Respect pulled down his pants while he was climbing a ladder.
66	* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Dr. Hannibal, Dr. Luther.
67	* NinetiesAntihero: You can find almost all your 1990s baby face archetypes here, but since it started 1989, [[UnBuiltTrope most like this were still fairly pleasant and affable, whatever their moral short comings might be]]. Tarzan Gotoh might have been the first to become consistently as bad as a heel.
68	* NonIndicativeName: Despite the words "Martial-Arts" being in the name, IKnowKarate was not a high priority. The name comes from the original idea of a shoot-style promotion which Onita concocted when he was refused entry to an Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation event. The promotion did actually start out by featuring pro wrestlers taking on fighters from other disciplines with several rules that were copied from the UWF, so the "Martial-Arts" part of the name is more of an ArtifactTitle now.
69	* OneLetterName: Hayabusa renamed himself "H," after Kodo Fuyuki forced him to stop using the Hayabusa gimmick and the Head Hunters are A&B. See DoNotCallMePaul above.
70	* OurTitansAreDifferent: At 6'6, when Onita, Tarzan Goto, W*ING Kanemura, Koji Nakagawa, Mr. Pogo and others were usually under 6', Big Titan (Rick "[[TheOtherDarrin The Fake]] [[Wrestling/ScottHall Razor Ramon]]"/"Ric Titan" Bogner) was a definite Type 2.
71	* PowerStable: There were a variety of factions in FMW. The following list is only some of them.
72	** [=ZEN=] (led by Onita after his [[FaceHeelTurn heel turn]])
73	** Team Canada (led by Ricky Fuji and featuring the Gladiator and Big Titan [Rick "The Fake Razor Ramon" Bogner])
74	** Team No Respect (started by commissioner Kodo Fuyuki, [[DragonInChief led]] by Gedo and Jado and who made the supposedly "outrageous" [[Wrestling/DGenerationX DeGeneration X]] look mild and polite)
75	** Lethal Weapon (featuring Mr. Pogo, Ricky Fuji, the Gladiator and Wrestling/HulkHogan's nephew Horace Boulder)
76	** The Puerto Rican Army (led by manager/promoter Victor Quiñonez and featuring the Head Hunters, Mr. Pogo and the Gladiator).
77	** The Sheik Army (led by [[Wrestling/EdFarhat The Sheik]] and featuring his nephew [=Sabu=], the Gladiator, Mexican wrestler Damian 666, and the notoriously horrible Tiger Jeet Singh and his son Tiger Jeet Singh Jr.[[note]][=WWE=]'s Tiger Ali Singh[[/note]])
78	** Mad Dog Military (led by Shark Tsuchiya and featuring Yoshika "Crusher" Maedomari, Noriyo "Combat" Toyoda and Bad Nurse Nakamura)
79	* PowerTrio: Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke and Flying Kid Ichihara: "Shin FMW". The three would appear on the cards of other shows and even run their own cards separate from the rest of FMW sometimes.
80	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The promotion was filled with rejects from the major wrestling promotions.
81	* RealMenWearPink: Chocoball Mukai wore pink and black, [[Wrestling/BretHart not unlike a certain someone]].
82	* RedBoxingGloves: Hido can wrestle and expertly apply submissions in them.
83	* RingOldies: Willie Williams, The Funk Brothers Dory and Terry, the Original Sheik, Tiger Jeet Singh. When participation from the 57 Atsushi Onita was promised for the revival it ended up being as a wrestler, but he was still topped by Ultraseven at ''60''.
84	* TheRival
85	** Victor Quiñonez's International Wrestling Association Japan (the one which held the King of the Death Match Tournament on August 20, 1995).
86	** Also, WING. At ''WING Take Off 2nd'', June 12, 1996, there was a FMW (Tanaka[=/=]Koji Nakagawa[=/=]Tetsuhiro Kuroda) vs. W*ING ([=BADBOY=] Hido[=/=]Kanemura[=/=]Hideki Hosaka) Street Fight, which Team FMW won when Tanaka pinned Hido.
87	* SassyBlackWoman: [[Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} Sweet Georgia Brown]] for about a year, the second year. She'd take you in a street fight if you talked back too. Also, [[Wrestling/CarleneMoore Jazz from ECW]].
88	* SeriesFauxnale: ''FMW For Whom the Glory is Final ~ FMW Disbands Immediatly If it Doesn't Become a Full House Special'', for the 2015 revival, given that they did not disband but announced more dates.
89	* SinisterScythe: Mr. Pogo and Shark Tsuchiya used them.
90	* ShoutOut: Kaori Nakayama wore a headscarf as entrance attire in tribute to Wrestling/{{Sabu}}.
91	* SpiritualSuccessor: Unofficially, ECW in the U.S, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, NGX in Mexico and Xtrem Mexican Wrestling(XMW). Officially, World Entertainment Wrestling, [[FunWithAcronyms Wrestling Marvelous Future]], USO and Onita Pro, which all ended up folding together into The Apache Army, which went on to invade other promotions until FMW proper finally came back.
92	* TheStarScream: During 1991, when CSP began the reorganization process to WWC in Puerto Rico, Victor Quiñonez left to join FWM, then broke away with Micky Ibargi to form Wrestling International New Generation. It only took three years for Quiñonez to break away from W*ING and start IWA Japan.
93	* StartMyOwn
94	** What FMW was, Onita created the promotion because the majors didn't want to work with him.
95	** Commissioner Kodo Fuyuki got rid of the popular brass knuckles title belt and six man street fight title belts, adding "World Entertainment Wrestling"(WEW) title belts in their place. This started as CheapHeat but the new belts ended up being permanent.
96	* StuffBlowingUp: C4 explosives and landmines.
97	* TakeThat: The Great Nita, Onita's parody of New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestling/TheGreatMuta.
98	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Electrified exploding barbed wire, C4 explosives, fire, sickles...
99	* VillainOfAnotherStory: Wrestling/ShawnMichaels as a referee. Albeit, a referee who tried to steal the spotlight, a referee to whom seemed to miss the concept of "anything goes".
100	* WrestlingDoesntPay
101	** Chocoball Mukai, the wrestling porn star. Gedo, Jado and Koji Nakagawa tried to end his second source of income by kicking a ladder into his crotch.
102	** After Kodo Fuyuki gave the Hayabusa gimmick to Mr. Gannosuke, he cast Gannosuke in several porno graphic films in order to taint the Hayabusa legacy.

Context Wrestling / FMW