 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| Acronym | FMW (1989–2002, 2015–2018) FMW-E (2021–present) |
|---|---|
| Founded | July 28, 1989 (original promotion) |
| Defunct | February 15, 2002 (original promotion) |
| Style | Hardcore wrestling Sports entertainment |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Founder(s) | Atsushi Onita (original promotion) Akihito Ichihara and Yukihide Ueno (2nd promotion) Atsushi Onita and Hidetaka Kajiki (3rd promotion) |
| Owner(s) | Atsushi Onita (1989–1995) Shoichi Arai (1995–2002) Akihito Ichihara and Yukihide Ueno (2015–2018) Hidetaka Kajiki (2021–present) |
| Formerly | Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW |
| Successor | Initial: World Entertainment Wrestling Wrestlings Marvelous Future Later: Fuyuki-Gun Promotion Apache Pro-Wrestling Army Xtreme Wrestling Force Pro Wrestling Freedoms Pro-Wrestling A-Team |
| Website | Official website |
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion (FMW-E) is a Japaneseprofessional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, byAtsushi Onita asFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (フロンティア・マーシャルアーツ・レスリング,Furontia Māsharuātsu Resuringu) (FMW). The promotion specializes inhardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989. In the late 1990s, FMW had a brief working agreement withExtreme Championship Wrestling, and as well had 14 DVDs released in the U.S. byTokyopop. On March 4, 2015, FMW was resurrected under the nameChō Sentō Puroresu FMW (超戦闘プロレスFMW). With the resurrected FMW not holding any events since 2018, Onita announced in 2021 that he would be starting Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion (FMW-E) in which the promotion would specialize inexploding death matches.[1][2]
The promotion was highlighted in the third season of theVice TV's pro wrestling docuseriesDark Side of the Ring in September 2021.
TheAtsushi Onita era ofFMW originally consisted of a promotion that featured not onlyprofessional wrestling but the bestmartial arts fighters in the world. Onita would bring in American talent that were known inJapan likeJos LeDuc andDick Murdoch, as well female talent and midget wrestlers.
As the years progressed with FMW, Onita decided to phase out themartial arts aspect of the company and focus strictly onprofessional wrestling. Onita would go on to have violent and bloody matches like the first everbarbed wire match in the company where he would team withTarzan Goto as they took on the team ofMitsuhiro Matsunaga andJerry Flynn. Onita would use realbarbed wire which resulted in him receiving a nasty gash on his arm.
Onita would take it one step further as he would go on to have the first ever explodingbarbed wire match in August 1990, as he challenged his rival,Tarzan Goto. As the years would progress further, we would see an influx of American & Foreign talent begin to appear in FMW with talent ranging fromChris Jericho,Lance Storm,The Original Sheik,Sabu,Damián 666,Dr. Luther,Leon Spinks,Tiger Jeet Singh and so forth.
During these years, the youngEiji Ezaki started to slowly work his way through the ranks. He was known as a prodigy in the world of wrestling and like a-lot of promotions inJapan do, send him on excursion away from the company as they will learn and develop. Ezaki would go on excursion to Mexico and wrestle for a couple of different promotions and developed the character ofHayabusa. Hayabusa became a fan favorite in the promotion for his high flying style and it was known that Hayabusa was the "ace" of FMW.
Onita was fixing to retire once again fromprofessional wrestling and his retirement match was held at the annual May 5,Kawasaki Stadium show. This was FMW's biggest show of the year and Onita would take on Hayabusa in an explodingbarbed wire cage, timebomb deathmatch.
This match now signified a changing of the guard as Onita would retire and Hayabusa would step up and be the face of FMW.
Onita would go on and sell the company to FMW ring announcer,Shoichi Arai.
TheShoichi Arai era of FMW would end up issuing changes to the promotion and gave the promotion a new look and feel. Arai would slowly phase out the deathmatches thatAtsushi Onita would help popularize and what put the company on the map and would bring in a more "sports entertainment" look and feel for the promotion that would be almost similar to that of theWWE. In a nod to the WWE, the old Brass Knuckles and Independent championships were abandoned and replaced with new titles, theWorld Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) championships.
Arai would enlist the help ofprofessional wrestler,Kodo Fuyuki as both men would usher in this new era. Having Fuyuki as thebooker, he would put forth his vision on how FMW should be run as Arai would sign the checks and book the arenas for the promotion.
During this time, Onita would return toprofessional wrestling and start a faction that would rival FMW and they were known simply asZEN. This group was loosely based onWorld Championship Wrestling's group known asThe New World Order. Onita would run shows under the ZEN label and these shows would feature FMW talent.
Hayabusa would continue to be featured as the ace of FMW and would go on to feud with the likes ofMr. Gannosuke,Kintaro Kanemura, and,Tetsuhiro Kuroda.
As thebooker of FMW,Kodo Fuyuki also continued to wrestle and he would go on to help form the topheel faction known asTeam No Respect. In 2000, FMW would sign a distribution deal withTokyopop which would help get their product out to a Western audience as FMW could now be seen officially onVHS andDVD in theUnited States. They would go on to release 12 programs which were old FMW cards shortened down to feature the best matches or they were compilations of specific talent like Hayabusa. They also featured dubbed commentary from Eric Gellar and John Watanabe. Later releases would feature Dan Lovranski replacing Eric Gellar.
As the years progressed, the audiences for the live shows began to decrease and Arai would slowly sink further and further into debt. Tragedy struck the promotion on October 22, 2001, during a match with Hayabusa and Mammoth Sasaki. Hayabusa attempted aspringboard moonsault—one of his signature moves—but he accidentally slipped on the ropes and fell directly on his neck, breaking it andparalyzing him. As the crowds continued to decrease, the amount of debt became too much for Arai, as he finally decided to announce that he has filed for bankruptcy and FMW would go on to have their final show on February 4, 2002. As 2001 came to a close, it was stated that Arai owed the sum of what would be the equivalent of one million US dollars toyakuza due to the money he would constantly borrow but never pay back. Running out of options, on May 16, 2002, Shoichi Arai would commit suicide so his family could collect the life insurance to pay back the money owed to the yakuza.
The talent divided into two promotions: Kodo Fuyuki's World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW), the name of FMW's title governing body since 1999, andMr. Gannosuke's Wrestlings Marvelous Future (WMF). Some of the talent also made appearances on Onita's special shows.
Following Fuyuki's death in 2003, most of the WEW talent under Kintaro Kanemura formed a successor promotion,Apache Pro-Wrestling Army, which continued the WEW championships until 2016 when Kanemura retired and closed the promotion. Since 2017, the WEW championships have been administered byTomohiko Hashimoto's Pro-Wrestling A-Team promotion.
On April 3, 2015, Hideki Takahashi, Hayabusa and Choden Senshi Battle Ranger held a press conference, announcing they were reviving FMW under the new name "Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW". Takahashi would serve as the president and Hayabusa as the executive producer of the promotion, which would also feature participation from Atsushi Onita. The promotion held its first event on April 21.[3][4] On October 30, 2015, they announced that they were reviving theFMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, as they set a match to determine new champions on December 22.
In 2016, two tragedies had befallen FMW. On February 17, 2016,Ray would announce that she had inoperable stage three brain cancer after being diagnosed with a tumor in December 2015. She would succumb to the disease in 2018, she was 36 years old. On March 3, 2016,Haybusa would pass away at his home from a brain aneurysm, he was 47 years old.
On October 31, 2017, FMW founder Atsushi Onita retired after 43 years in the ring. The promotion held its most recent event as Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW in 2018. Although not officially closing once again the revival seemed to have been forgotten about.
In 2018, Onita would come out of retirement at a Pro-Wrestling A-Tean (Apache Army's successor promotion) event.[5] After this he would come back as a wrestler having matches withCombat Zone Wrestling,Big Japan Pro-Wrestling,World Wonder Ring Stardom andDDT Pro-Wrestling.
In 2021, Onita announced that he would be startingFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion, a promotion under the FMW name that specialized in exploding death matches, a match type in which Onita became famous for. The new promotion will have Hidetaka Kajiki serving as president. Onita stated he got the idea for the promotion afterAll Elite Wrestling's 2021Revolution PPV in which the event held an exploding barbed wire death match and seeing that there was still a market for these types of matches internationally in the pro wrestling world and with the popularity ofonline media streaming the new promotion was formed.[2][1] The promotion, however, held its last card to date on December 19, 2021, after which Onita went freelance yet again. In October 2022, FMW-E started back up promoting cards.
Deceased individuals are indicated with a dagger (†).
| Championship | Date of entry | First champion(s) (Tag team name) | Date retired | Last champion(s) (Tag team name) | Years active | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship | 1989 | Jimmy Backlund | April 1992 | Dr. Luther | 1989–1992 | FMW began using the title shortly after the promotion's creation and recognized it as itsjunior heavyweight championship. However, the title changes in FMW were not recognized by theAmerican Wrestling Association (AWA). |
| WWA World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship | January 7, 1990 | Beast the Barbarian | February 27, 1991 | Atsushi Onita | 1990–1991 | The title was initially established as the WWA World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and later replaced by the WWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship. |
| WWA World Women's Championship | November 5, 1990 | Combat Toyoda | February 15, 1994 | Crusher Maedomari | 1990–1994 | The title was unified with the newFMW Independent Women's Championship in 1994. |
| WWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship | February 27, 1991 | Grigory Verichev | August 28, 1993 | Atsushi Onita | 1991–1993 | The title replaced the formerWWA World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship as the company's primary championship. It was replaced by theFMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship in 1993. |
| WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship | December 9, 1991 | Atsushi Onita andTarzan Goto | September 19, 1992 | Grigory Verichev andTarzan Goto | 1991–1992 | The title was initially created as the WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship and vacated it in 1992 to be replaced by theFMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. |
| WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship | April 1992 | Dr. Luther | 1993 | Dr. Luther | 1992–1993 | FMW renamed the previousAWA World Light Heavyweight Championship as the WWA World Martial Arts Junior Heavyweight Championship to distinguish it from the AWA-recognized championship. The title was retired in 1993. |
| FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship | August 27, 1993 | Atsushi Onita | August 25, 1999 | Hayabusa | 1993–1999 | FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship replaced the formerWWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship as the company's premier title. The title was abandoned in favor of theWEW Singles Championship in 1999. |
| FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship | October 28, 1993 | The Great Sasuke | May 31, 1999 | Naoki Sano | 1993–1999 | FMW introduced the title as a replacement to theWWA World Martial Arts Light Heavyweight Championship. FMW discontinued the title after May 31, 1999, and the title has since been defended in various Japaneseindependent promotions. |
| FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship | January 18, 1994 | Big Titan andThe Gladiator | June 16, 1999 | Gedo andKoji Nakagawa | 1994–1999 | The title replaced the formerWWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship as the company's tag team title. The title was renamed byKodo Fuyuki as theWEW World Tag Team Championship in 1999. |
| FMW Women's Championship | February 15, 1994 | Megumi Kudo | September 28, 1997 | Shark Tsuchiya | 1994–1997 | The title was created as the FMW Independent Women's Championship during a tournament andunified with the WWA World Women's Championship. The FMW Women's Championship was then represented by both the FMW Independent Women's Championship and WWA World Women's Championship belts. The title was deactivated in 1997 as the women's division of FMW ended with the departure of the final champion Shark Tsuchiya. |
| FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship | May 5, 1996 | Puerto Rican Army (Headhunter A, Headhunter B andSuper Leather) | October 27, 2016 | Atsushi Onita,Hideki Hosaka and Sean Guinness | 1996–1998 2015–2016 | The title was awarded to the departingAtsushi Onita as a tribute for establishing FMW and making it a success and was abandoned as a result. The title was later brought back in the resurrected FMW in 2015 and abandoned in 2016 in favor of the newFMW World Street Fight 8-Man Tag Team Championship. |
| FMW World Street Fight 8-Man Tag Team Championship | November 24, 2016 | The Tiger Clan | August 2018 | The Tiger Clan | 2016–2018 | The initial champions were The Tiger Clan (Great Tiger,Tiger Mask #3,Black Tiger #5,Black Tiger #7) The titles would go defunct in 2018 as Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW would become dormant. |
| FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship | August 1, 1996 | W*ING Kanemura | August 25, 1999 | Masato Tanaka | 1996–1999 | The title was originally designed asAtsushi Onita'sFMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship title belt for his retirement match atFMW 6th Anniversary Show but could not be available at the moment and was finally shipped to FMW in 1996 and used as the company's second world title. The title was abandoned in favor of theWEW Single Championship in 1999. |
| WEW World Tag Team Championship | June 16, 1999 | Gedo andKoji Nakagawa | February 15, 2002 | Kodo Fuyuki andThe Sandman | 1999–2002 | The formerFMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship was renamed and changed to the WEW World Tag Team Championship in 1999. The title has been defended in World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW),Apache Army and A-Team after FMW's closure in 2002. |
| WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship | July 31, 1999 | Team No Respect (Gedo,Kodo Fuyuki andKoji Nakagawa) | February 15, 2002 | GOEMON,Hayabusa andTetsuhiro Kuroda | 1999–2002 | The title was defended in World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) after FMW's closure in 2002 until being retired in 2004. |
| WEW Hardcore Championship | September 24, 1999 | Kintaro Kanemura | May 22, 2001 | Kintaro Kanemura | 1999–2001 | Kanemura retired the title in 2001. |
| WEW Singles / World Heavyweight Championship | September 24, 1999 | Kodo Fuyuki | February 15, 2002 | Kodo Fuyuki | 1999–2002 | The championship was created as the WEW Singles Championship before being renamed the WEW World Heavyweight Championship. The title was defended in World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW),Apache Army and A-Team after FMW's closure in 2002. |
| WEW Hardcore Tag Team Championship | April 25, 2000 | Hideki Hosaka andYoshinori Sasaki | February 15, 2002 | Daisuke Sekimoto andMen's Teioh | 2000–2002 | The title was defended inBig Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW),Kaientai Dojo,Pro Wrestling Freedoms, and several Japaneseindependent promotions after FMW's closure in 2002. |
| |||||||||||||||||||
