FUJIWARASMIRK

This was a No Rope Barbed Wire Current Blast Death Match for the WWA Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title, and the first of its kind in FMW.

It’s incredibly interesting, watching the process of something that would go on to define both a wrestling promotion and its top star being bult from the ground up in real time. FMW has already been experimenting with spectacle matches this year, with the great Onita/Kurisu Barbed Wire Barricade Mat match in February, but this feels like the first real crack at the type of insane stuff Onita and crew would go on to perfect in the coming years.

The unfamiliarity with the concept can be seen from the very first moments of the match, in which Tarzan Goto rattles off a few of his ordinary headbutts and sparks fly almost immediately as Onita touches the exploding ropes, and then gets hit with another explosion not long after that. You can feel the nervousness emanating from Tarzan Goto as he stares hesitantly at Onita as the ace slowly gets up. This is a new beast entirely for both competitors, and there’s a learning curve involved that’s captivating to watch them adjust to over the course of the 11-minute main event.

It helps, of course, that the match itself is really great on top of that.

It’s not perfect. While logically sound given the two or three times Onita’s leg grazes the ropes and he gets punished for it, the sections between the two on the mat are not the most compelling, and it speaks to them not knowing how to properly maximize the drama of the stipulation just yet. But the thrills of the style, the moments that make you tense up and your eyes bulge, are still there with two guys in Onita and Goto who are already great so great at what they do.

Onita comes into this bandaged up, and he again taps into this intense babyface energy incredibly well fighting from underneath due to the damage both his opponent and the explosions inflict on his body. He feeds off the crowd’s energy and devotement towards him, which propels him to get up after every ten count. I do find myself more invested in the moments when he’s raining down headbutts or getting caught with the big explosions, but even in those moments where he’s fighting through Goto’s submissions he makes them mostly work because he’s such a great guy when it comes to the different facial expressions he makes while in the holds, straining and clawing his way without the benefit of being able to grab the bottom rope.

Tarzan Goto, to his credit, is also phenomenal here. After the aforementioned headbutts, Goto comes up bloody as hell and it adds a lot to an already grisly match. Even with that, though, he works in control for most of this and stands out as a particularly angry and curmudeonly bastard for Our Hero to overcome. He drops some hellacious headbutts of his own, ripping open the bandage on Onita’s forehead and busting him open as well. There’s nothing sympathetic about the big guy in there just punishing the top star of the promotion and someone he was allied with against the likes of Kurisu and Dragon Master only four months prior. Goto provides an excellent bully for Onita to bounce off of, quite literally in fact for the only explosion bump that he takes near the climax of the match compared to the numerous ones Onita endures.

Again, it’s not perfect. The finish gets a little repetitive as Onita hits like three DDT/Thunder Fire Powerbomb combinations in a row to keep his opponent down for good. But it’s still really great, especially as a prototype for a style of bombastic match this promotion would go on to hone and master over the coming years.

Rating: ****