FMW King Of Fight 06/19/98 DirecTV PPV

Korakuen Hall
Attendance 2,500

Previously In FMW…

Hisakatsu Oya vs. Hideki Hosaka

Oya looks absolutely gutted at having to start the show against Hosaka, a man who is regressing so much that I imagine he’ll simply be a brown stain on the canvas by 1999.

Decent stretching session starts us on the mat with Hosaka realising that wearing Bret Hart’s gear doesn’t give him his powers. Aye mate, this ain’t Kid Chameleon. Oya lets his guard down and gets taken to the ropes so he gets mad and begins stretching harder, but Hosaka is somehow able to apply a modified STF. This goes on for a while. Oya makes it watchable by practically yelling “oh i hope he doesn’t grab my ankle OH NO HE DID AHHH MY ANKLE”. Hosaka gets a meaty Octopus Stretch locked in, which looks genuinely painful. You don’t often see that move done by bigger guys on smaller guys because of the real pain you’d have to put a guy in to make it work. Oya flies with a high lariat to lock in his own, equally tight Octopus Stretch but Hosaka wrangles out of it. Hosaka blocks a Backdrop Driver by being fat but after landing a Frankensteiner, Oya realises that’s not true and manages a second attempt. Hosaka does his best to attempt the worst ever Japanese Leg Roll in recorded history to the laughter of the crowd, leading to Oya to Backdrop Drive him again and finally finish with the Octopus Stretch at 15:31 with Oya very flustered as he heads out the ring.

Aside from the leg roll, this was a much better outing for Hosaka who was wrestling as if his job was on the line. I mean if he can’t have a watchable match with Oya then maybe he should skip the showers and head straight to the glue factory,

Afterwards, Kuroda cheers his team-mate up by giving him a kimono. Well it’s nicer than a P45.

We get a recap of more Team No Respect drama: On the May 5th Show (which is traditionally the date of FMW’s biggest show of the year but they just did the big April PPV so they couldn’t immediately follow it with another), Onita’s ZEN was defeated by Team No Respect with the stipulation being that he would have to kiss Ito’s boots if he wasn’t able to win the tag titles. He didn’t win but refused to follow through with the stipulation until all of TNR held him down and shoved it in his mouth.

I’m shocked a man of integrity like Onita would go back on his word. May 5th would end up being the last ZEN-branded show as Onita was so embarrassed by this he decided to end the ZEN group. It was going nowhere so it was for the best.

Oh so then on May 25th & 26th, TNR had matches involving Hideki Hosaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda with the stipulation that they’d have to join TNR if they lost and surprise surprise, both men lost so they’re now unwilling members. So we get skits of them having to stand up at a meeting rather than be allowed to sit down, before having to wrestle wearing big pants.

Speaking of which, here’s another Onita match:

FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles

Atsushi Onita & Koji Nakagawa vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Yukihiro Kanemura 05/31/98

Onita is doing his best to help his ex-comrades with the one member of TNR that hasn’t been kidnapped or signed to WCW. Highlights-only which is just as well as it’s a one-camera production that resembles that one 1997 Raw from Germany.

Big brawl until Nakagawa stops Ito from using his crutch on Onita to…smash the crutch over Onita himself, as Nakagawa betrays Onita to also join Team No Respect. You can tell it’s 1998 because everyone wants to join the big evil heel faction. Onita takes a powerbomb onto some chairs before sodding off for two months because he lost to Fuyuki again. What a pro.

So TNR gains yet another member as it’s explained by Ito that Nakagawa had been losing all his matches these past few months DELIBERATELY because his shoulder is actually fine as he unwraps his bandaged limb. He was Pete Rose-ing all this time! That’s a hell of a way to push someone who had been eating pins all year but it’s the right time and company to try and make it work.

We get clips of Nakagawa’s new heel-ish temperament which involves using scissors on Tanaka before landing a Falcon Arrow on Hayabusa, because he has (say it) No Respect!

Hido (Team No Respect) vs. Super Leather (Team No Respect)

Team No Respect has realised they’ve done an Embracer Group and acquired too many people. These two have the worst win records so whoever loses tonight is out. Ito yells at Leather backstage “You lose three times God Dammit!! We don’t need losers!!” Get his ass.

Leather is motivated enough to have his special-occasions-only grey shirt on which gives him the strength to brawl with Hido into the crowd and end up with an umbrella in his hair which he ignores and carries on. That moment aside, it turns into every other crowd brawl with Leather teasing that he’s going to throw Hido off the balcony and into nothingness. It’s the spot that 99% of the time never goes anywhere but the crowd always go BANANA for it. Hido bleeds and takes a Tombstone on an un-set up table on the outside which kind of negates using one to begin with but I’m not a coke fiend disguised as a wrestler so what do I know. Hido comes back with lariats until Leatherface sticks him with a Baldo Bomb as this is dragging like nothing has ever dragged. Ref gets bumped so TNR run in to beat up Leatherface as they’ve realised he’s dump and put Hido on top to end this at 11:50.

Crowd were making noise during this match but I don’t know why. Maybe a small dog wandered in from off the streets.

Ito has a lot of fun telling Leatherface “we don’t need you because you are fucking trash!” as Hido flips him off.

The Gladiator Mike Awesome vs. Jado (Team No Respect)

Awesome tries trading shots but it’s not going anywhere so he decides to show off his jumping back elbow before dragging Jado outside for even more crowd brawling. This goes nowhere as Gladiator is struggling to get anything out of Jado so he sticks to his springboard shoulder tackle. After taking a really sloppy TKO, Jado takes over with a weak armbar that lasts for ages as Jado must be hungover to be this unexciting. Gladiator eventually spears him to take over with power moves like the still impressive Awesome Bomb and Awesome Splash. Jado slips out of a Running Awesome Bomb to land a big lariat only to immediately run into a big boot and a Running Awesome Bomb finally ends it at 11:55.

No idea why Jado was staggering around like Tammy Lynn Sytch on a hot day, but Awesome had better matches on Velocity than this. Rubbish.

Gladiator (through a translator) tells us TNR are getting in the way of his title shot with Hayabusa so he’s going to beat them all up until he gets it. “Gannosuke’s in the hospital so he ain’t worth a shit right now. Also Leatherface, you need to lose the mask cos the chainsaw ain’t doing it no more brother.” You can tell it’s 1998 because everyone’s shooting.

FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Titles

Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Yukihiro Kanemura 05/27/98

Hayabusa & Tanaka have been Brass Knuckle Tag Team Champions these past few months but you wouldn’t know it by watching these PPVs. Which are the only source of FMW on TV right now. Just saying. Anyway match looks really good through these highlights as Kanemura and Tanaka had crazy chemistry together. Kanemura back sentons Tanaka at 19:24 to win the tag titles.

FMW 6 Man Street Fight Tag Team Titles

Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka & Hisakatsu Oya vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Koji Nakagawa & Yukihiro Kanemura 06/01/98

More fun highlights of another hot match with Nakagawa getting the focus by actually winning a match for a change with a small package on Tanaka at 14:22. Also Kanemura takes a Tanaka lariat like this:

Masato Tanaka vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (Team No Respect-ish)

Tanaka’s last match before leaving for ECW. After his two losses to Hayabusa as well as the two losses listed above, it makes sense he’d need to go and get his shinebox.

Kuroda starts by lariating unwilling team-mate Hido out of the ring which causes TNR to leave him by himself. Crowd is already hot and showers Tanaka with streamers. Both men start off with a feeling out process before Tanaka gets so worked up he delivers a springboard crossbody to Kuroda while he’s stuck on the apron, which he isn’t expecting so he delivers a wild tope while making sure to crack his head on the way down. Ow. Kuroda comes back with the debut of his Running Crown Lariat (1) but Tanaka is no mood so he introduces Kuroda to a running chairshot. Kuroda ignores it to Lariat (2) Tanaka down but Tanaka ignores THAT to enziguri his opponent down. Hell yeah, the pace so far has been fast & furious. Tanaka takes Kuroda down with a sitting armbar to prevent more Lariats but Tanaka misses a charge in the corner while travelling as fast as possible. Kuroda lands a rolling armbar of his own with Tanaka howling and frantically bouncing around to escape. Tanaka sells and sells some more so when Kuroda releases him so he can chop and slap his flailing limb some more. Man, FMW is going to suck without Tanaka.

Tanaka is still able to land a desperate scoop slam to set up more running elbows and a wonderful lariat to send Kuroda spiralling out of the air. A tight frog splash gets two but Tanaka takes a German Suplex which he sells for half a second which is long enough for Kuroda to counter a Rolling Elbow into a Lariat (3). Diving elbow from Kuroda can barely slow down Tanaka who ignores Kuroda shrugging off a Tornado DDT to land a quick Diamond Dust so he can land the Tornado DDT for real-real. Tanaka attempts the Reverse Superplex that nearly pinned Hayabusa but Kuroda turns it into a face-smasher off the top. Another sliding Lariat (4) sends Tanaka down as the crowd are really into this now, really biting on the pin attempts. Kuroda lands another German, with Tanaka shrugging it off to elbow Kuroda who shrugs that off to Lariat (5) Tanaka who shrugs THAT off to lariat Kuroda…for two. Man this is great. Tanaka starts landing bigger and meatier moves but Kuroda is in the zone and kicks out of all of them to Dragon Suplex Tanaka and hold on for two more. Christ. Tanaka kicks out because his head is covered in thermite paint. Kuroda keeps on throwing Lariats (6 & 7) Tanaka’s way with the crowd going wild every time. Kuroda sees the Rolling Elbow coming and spikes Tanaka with yet another German but the man can’t be hurt that way so he kicks out. Tanaka recovers to hold on to Kuroda’s hand so he can elbow him repeatedly. That ruled. Kuroda can do nothing except take more moves and eventually after taking a running DVD, a wicked-looking suplex-into-a-stunner and finally a running elbow, Tanaka pins Kuroda at 17:38.

What a fucking great match. The breakneck pace gave Kuroda his best singles match to this point, demonstrating he could match D*A*N*G*A*N’s cardio and strength even when Tanaka was going as fast as he possibly could. Staggering tempo and action and a star-making performance from Kuroda. Very recommended, watch it here.

Tanaka says goodbye to the fans as he vows to earn his fame and fortune in the big city like Dick Whittington.

A week after this show he’d have his famous match against Balls Mahoney at Viking Hall and the rest is history.

Hayabusa & ???? & Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Koji Nakagawa & Yukihiro Kanemura & Gedo (Team No Respect)

With Tanaka gone and Shinzaki back in M-Pro, Hayabusa needs a new team-mate who is revealed as…Daisuke Ikeda from Fighting Investigation Team Battlarts! Oh. He’d made appearances in 1995 and gets a very nice reaction from the crowd but I’m only familiar with his work in the 2020s as a crotchety old man.

Kanemura starts off with Fuji but immediately hits Hayabusa on the apron so the Double Champ demands he tag in. Kanemura and Hayabusa go through a wonderful sequence with both countering the other until Hayabusa lets Ikeda take apart Nakagawa. Gedo ain’t impressed and counters a leapfrog with a Manhattan Drop. Ikeda is pissed and lands some kicks before Fuji goes lump-to-lump with Fuyuki until Gedo sneak attacks, presumably because Fuyuki needed help with Fuji. Ikeda and Hayabusa land double spinning kicks which don’t look great to be honest but it leads to all of Team FMW battering Kanemura then some dancing so OK.

Fuyuki tags in to welcome Ikeda to FMW but he takes a kicking which leads to Nakagawa saving to boos. His shithousery leads to Hayabusa getting worked over while the ref is distracted. Hey it’s like WWF! The American wrestling, the sports entertainment! That you can only get here on DirecTV! Hayabusa takes a sick powerbomb onto a barely-conceding table that he’s then elbow dropped through. Oof. Nakagawa naturally takes over to more boos until Kanemura tries to end it with a top rope elbow. Hayabusa tries fighting back so Kanemura kicks him in the dick but it’s not enough to stop The Ace who tags in Ikeda who responds with the kind of offence you’d see in a light heavyweight match on Raw during this time. Side suplexes, kicks and…more kicks. Oya starts delivering neckbreakers like he’s a badly designed helmet before it all breaks down leading to Hayabusa landing the Asai Moonsault to Fuyuki, the biggest base this side of Thunderbirds. Hayabusa of course ends up taking more abuse from TNR until Ikeda barely saves the day by landing Tatanka-style overhead chops on Kanemura’s big head.

Oya starts side suplexing bastards on their head so Hayabusa can land the 450 Splash on Gedo. Gedo ignores it for some reason to land a Frog Splash on Fuji for two. So then Fuji of all people gets the pinfall by no-selling that and dropping Gedo with a delayed spinning brainbuster at 20:21.

There was plenty of action here and it wasn’t dull while also accomplishing it’s goal of getting Ikeda over…but it was also only cromulent in terms of meaning anything, you know what I mean? Not bad but not the blowaway match you’d expect of the main event quality at the time.

Overall: A big bag of Revels here with the Tanaka vs. Kuroda match being highly recommended and the overall direction being fun to watch but the quality of some of the matches was amazingly terrible. Having longer shows sadly means having to show some of the undercard the company would have hidden away like a bad family secret. Also Ikeda is mid, fight me.

Next Week: Hayabusa gets bloody!

I’ve been Maffew.