FMW - Television Tropes & Idioms

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was a Japanese Professional Wrestling promotion founded by Atsushi Onita in 1989. He started it due to the two main promotions, Antonio Inoki's New Japan Pro Wrestling and Giant Baba's All Japan Pro Wrestling, rejecting his ideas about how "everything should be allowed in Puroresu". Onita expanded on the brawling style he had encountered in Jerry Lawler'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 wrestling", though it is more respectfully labeled "Hardcore." While Onita was the focus, and many Japanese wrestlers (W*ING Kanemura, Masato Tanaka, Hayabusa, Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke) made their names there, it also was the promotion where American wrestler Mike Awesome made his career as "The Gladiator" and also where 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 ECW. The company closed down in 2002.

FMW's Anniversary Show, generally held on May 5, was their equivalent to WrestleMania, the show that the whole year centered around.

The basics can be found at The Other Wiki

Tropes associated with FMW

10-Minute Retirement: Atsushi Onita
The Ace: Atsushi Onita
Action Girl: Megumi Kudo, Kyoko Inoue.
- Dark Action Girl: Shark Tsuchiya and her Mad Dog Military
Arch-Enemy: The Japanese wrestling mainstream
Ascended Extra: Randy Neverman, who had previously been a jobber in WWE under his own name, was the first FMW WWA Brass Knuckles Champion as Beast the Barbarian.^note
Batter Up: Often wrapped in barbed-wire.
Chainsaw GOOD: Leatherface
- Captain Ersatz/Writing Around Trademarks: Super Leather
Chairman of the Brawl: 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.
Cross Over: Professional boxer Leon Spinks held the FMW W.F.D.A. World Martial Arts Title for two months in 1992.
Darker and Edgier: FMW was very violent.
Facial Markings: Mr. Pogo, the Gladiator
Foreign Wrestling Heel: Terry Funk, the Gladiator, Victor Qui�onez, Kevin Sullivan
Fun with Acronyms: Terry Funk's Heel faction, Funk Masters of Wrestling.
Garbage Wrestling: The Trope Namer.
Gimmick Matches: MANY. One of Onita's chief innovations was taking down the ring ropes and replacing them with barbed-wire.^note This led to the barbed-wire being attached to electrical charges and/or C4 explosives.
Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death: Oh, so much.
- 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 Death Match."
- At the 8th Anniversary Show (held on April 29, 1997, instead of the usual date of May 5), Megumi Kudo defeated 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 FMW World Women's Title.
I Have the High Ground: Hayabusa was the top high-flyer in FMW.
It Is Pronounced Tro-PAY: While the name Onita reads like it would be pronounced "Oh-NEE-Ta," Japanese audiences pronounced it as "Oni-TA."
Legacy Promotion: ECW in the U.S. and Big Japan Pro Wrestling.
Loser Leaves Town: At the 10th Anniversary Show, which was held on November 23, 1999 as their November PPV, FMW WEW Singles Champion Masato Tanaka d. Kodo Fuyuki in a "Loser Leaves FMW Electrical Thunderbolt Cage Death Match."
Non-Indicative Name: Despite the words "Martial-Arts" being in the name, I Know Karate was not a high priority.
Our Titans Are Different: At 6'6, when Onita, Tarzan Goto, W*ING Kanemura, Koji Nakagawa, Mr. Pogo and others were usually under 6', Big Titan (Rick "The Fake Razor Ramon"/"Ric Titan" Bogner) was a definite Type 2.
Playing with Fire: The Onita/Tarzan Goto vs. The Sheik/Sabu No Ropes 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 65 years old, was left in the ring with the fire burning down everything. He had to be rushed to the hospital and treated for third degree burns.
Power Stable: There were a variety of factions in FMW. The following list is only some of them.
- ZEN (led by Onita after his heel turn)
- Team Canada (led by Ricky Fuji and featuring the Gladiator and Big Titan [Rick "The Fake Razor Ramon" Bogner])
- Team No Respect (led by Gedo and Jado and who made the supposedly "outrageous" DeGeneration X look mild and polite)
- Lethal Weapon (featuring Mr. Pogo, Ricky Fuji, the Gladiator and Hulk Hogan's nephew Horace Boulder)
- The Puerto Rican Army (led by manager/promoter Victor Qui�onez and featuring the Head Hunters, Mr. Pogo and the Gladiator).
- The Sheik Army (led by 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.^noteWWE's Tiger Ali Singh)
- Mad Dog Military (led by Shark Tsuchiya and featuring Yoshika "Crusher" Maedomari, Noriyo "Combat" Toyoda and Bad Nurse Nakamura)
Real Song Theme Tune:
- Atsushi Onita: The Troggs's "Wild Thing"
Ring Oldies: Terry Funk, the Original Sheik, Tiger Jeet Singh
The Rival: Victor Qui�onez's International Wrestling Association Japan (the one which held the King of the Death Match Tournament on August 20, 1995).
- Also, W*ING.
Sinister Scythe: Mr. Pogo used one.
Something Completely Different:
- Averts Seinfeld Is Unfunny because of how much of the really out there gimmicks (explosives, etc.) were not brought over to the U.S. by ECW. CZW has tried, but has not risen to the level of FMW at its best.
Start My Own: What FMW was, Onita created the promotion because the majors didn't want to work with him.
Stuff Blowing Up: C4 explosives and landmines.
Take That: The Great Nita, Onita's parody of New Japan Pro Wrestling's the Great Muta.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill