Atsushi Onita's
FMW promotion saw the epitome of hardcore wrestling and the Japanese Death Match. Onita himself led the way with some seriously insane matches against the likes of the legendary
Terry Funk and
Mick Foley. Every
PPV they put on had to be bigger and better than the one before, and to be honest, thank God that they stopped.
It started with the great tradition of
Barbed Wire matches, whereby the ropes would be replaced by strands of REAL
barbed wire. Ow.
From then on, the stakes just got higher and higher. Here are a few of the objects and stipulations that have made an appearance:
Electrified Barbed Wire
Exploding Barbed Wire (each strand laced with
C4 explosives)
Thumbtacks (liberally scattered across the ring)
Barbed Wire Boards (on the arena floor, in the ring, or propped up in a corner, these are wooden boards covered in barbed wire. Excellent for making an opponent
sandwich)
Nailed/Barbed Wire Baseball Bat (For true damage potential)
Barbed wire/flaming 2x4 (A plank of wood soaked in
paraffin and wrapped in barbed wire, set alight)
Broken Glass Net (Huge man-sized trays of broken glass, handily placed just outside the ring, in case you need something to break your fall from over the top rope)
Exploding Ring (Onita vs. Funk saw Onita lying in the ring as it exploded around him)
Infected Hyperdermic Syringe Match (just sick)
Loser Fights Crocodile Match (still slightly more chance of carrying the crocodile to a good match that
Billy Gunn)
Atsushi Onita is still alive. However, he is quite, quite mad.