FMW Entertainment Wrestling Power Live 05.05.99 DirecTV PPV

Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium
Attendance: 2,800 (Announced as 4,900)

Previously in FMW…

It’s the annual 05/05 FMW mega show and…hey, where is everyone?

Lights are firmly in the “off” position as Shoichi Arai reminds us that this is the Entertainment Wrestling era. I think people are already trying to forget.

Armageddon (Armageddon 1 & Armageddon 2) vs. Super Leather & Flying Kid Ichihara

Armageddon aka Three Minute Warning head out to a theme from a Western film. Yeah that’s exactly what you think when you see two giant Samoans wearing street gear. It’s no less silly than Leather and Flying Kid teaming up. Hang on, the last time we checked in with Leather he was heel and teaming with Gannosuke? Why’s he with this useless cruiserweight?

I don’t know which of the lads is supposed to be 1 or 2 so I’ll refer to them with their WWE names. Umaga tells the crowd to shut up even though they weren’t saying anything to begin with. Kid gets slammed around while Rosey calls the crowd gay. They’re similar to The Headhunters because they have impressive size but don’t know how to put a credible match together yet. Rosey misses a moonsault which impresses the crowd. Leather clotheslines them both down but makes the mistake of trying to slam their heads together. They’re Samoan, the only thing thicker than their skulls is Leather’s criminal record. Umaga lands a Samoan drop before a top rope splash ends it matter-of-factly at 5:57. Umaga appeared to lift Kid’s shoulders up before the three but the ref counted it anyway. Jamal looks a bit confused but he always looked like that. Match was a passable showcase for the big lads.

Umaga tries to get the crowd to clap with him after the match but when they don’t join in he throws their drink at them. Fair.

Takeshi Morishima vs. Yoshinori Sasaki

It’s baby Morishima! Man these two could have had such a great match years later.

Sasaki has been battering babies to prepare for this so he forgoes the usual mat wrestling to shove Morishima to the canvas. Future NOAH GHC champ Morishima is still in plain black gear so he has to go through the usual chinlock/hammerlock basics or he gets shot. Sasaki dislikes this and sends him into the guard rail and lands some chair shots before slamming him on the concrete. Crowd don’t react much because they can barely see anything on the outside because it’s darker than a Robert Eggers film. Sasaki lands the sumo slaps into the corner and manages a double underhook suplex. Morishima ignores it so he can land a sit-out top rope dropkick for two. Chokeslam by Sasaki doesn’t finish and the crowd are getting behind the local hero now. Morishima makes a weak comeback as I think Sasaki is better than him right now. Oh and as soon as I type that a Scrap Buster (Boss Man Slam with no turn or impact) wins it for Morishima at 9:34.

Not a bad match between two young uns but not anything I’d recommend you go and find.

Jado vs. Gedo (Team No Respect)

Jado left Team No Respect in January because they’d turned face and he is not face. He was also injured and stuck to commentating so he didn’t like finding out on TV. Meanwhile, Gedo’s gear still has both their names on. Aw.

Oh I’ve just noticed Jado’s mate Go Ito is the special ref so it’s going to be one of those matches. Gedo gets Jado in the corner but the ref makes him break it up etc etc etc. Jado cheap shots and uses eye rakes but the ref does nothing. The refs never enforce those anyway in FMW so that doesn’t mean anything. After a lifeless brawl in the crowd, Jado pushes the ref over and rings the bell over Gedo’s bell-end. Gedo pushes the bag of coke Jado has smuggled into the ring into his face and low blows him too. Again, all of this is currently legal in FMW which goes against the story they’re telling, which is only happening because they’d seen it in WWF. Gedo yells SUPERFLY and lands a Frog Splash, that’s not what Snuka did. He murdered. Jado kicks Gedo directly in the balls directly in front of the ref, further establishing this match is useless. Ito semi-accidentally takes a lariat and takes a nice flip bump in the process. Jado lariats Gedo who takes the Rikishi sell to out-do the ref. Kanemura runs in to assist his team mate, with Gedo responding by…hitting Kanemura with a chair and turning on him? Huh? The pair then Superbomb Kanemura before pretending to be dramatically down while the ref recovers to witness the three count with Jado letting his mate pin him now they’re bezzies at 10:12.

This was a bad parody of Attitude Era. The bit at the very end where both men pretended to be hurt and in pain to mess with the ref was amusing but the whole thing was full of “why are you doing this, it doesn’t make any sense.” Which in fairness is very Entertainment Wrestling-y so you can’t accuse FMW of false advertising. Waste of time unless you want to be fascinated by something terrible.

Sugar Sato & Kaori Nakayama & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Toshie Uematsu & Sonoko Kato & Toshiyo Yamada

I sent this to Jabroni months ago because he knows more about Joshi than me so if you can read this text, it’s because he never got back to me.

FMW Jr. Title

Ricky Fuji vs. Minoru Tanaka

It’s the official repackaging of the Original Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship that FMW had used from 1993-1997 until then-champ TAKA vacated it to join WWF. It doesn’t even make it until the end of the month before it gets repackaged again. It’s the 1995 Al Snow of titles.

Fuji sends Tanaka into the guard rail immediately as he’s working heelish here despite getting a big pop during his entrance. Tanaka does a basic wrestling sequence to embarrass Fuji before taking him to the mat for some I guess you could be nice and call it competitive mat wrestling. Tanaka’s graceful dropkick and suplex just outclass Fuji in every way. I’m not a Fuji hater but it’s like watching Michael Owen score against that kid. Fuji attempts an ankle lock of some kind but Tanaka impressively strikes him away from the mat. Very small “Tanaka” chant breaks out as he sets himself up to take a rope stunner and absorb a Moxley tope from The Fuj. Ricky lands a Butterfly Bomb for a close two before busting out a series of Kamikazes. Commentators are reacting far more than the crowd. Tanaka comes back with lovely knees and kicks before turning a kick-out into a cross armbar. A wonderful rolling ankle lock out of nowhere is escaped and a stunner of all things doesn’t end it for Fuji. So Tanaka applies the armbar again, Fuji turns it into a pin, with Fuj turning it back into the armbar to end it at 12:00.

This was all very perfunctory until the last few minutes as Fuji works best when he shuts up and does what he’s told. Tanaka looked wonderful and the mix of counters and holds out of nowhere helped make this not crap.

And this was the last time this belt was seen on an FMW show as Tanaka would take it to Battlarts before it would pass from company to company like Mr. Burns’ teddy bear. The title is still around to this day.

We get highlights of Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda finally defeating Hayabusa & Kodo Fuyuki for the Brass Knuckles Tag Titles. On a show two days prior to this. What? Oh and also, earlier that night they squished Koji Nakagawa & Gedo to redeem themselves for their televised loss last time around. What the hell was the point in that then? That’s twice this year FMW have done a tournament final that’s only had the highlights aired on TV. Why bother holding a tournament if you’re not going to air the finals?

After being KO’d by Tanaka, Hayabusa woke up Fuyuki with a bucket of water which resulted in Fuyuki leaving the ring mad. Ah I’m sure they’ll be OK.

Anyway, new champs.

Ah so tonight it’s FMW Brass Knuckle Tag Team Champions vs. the current AJPW All Asian Tag team champions they couldn’t defeat previously? OK fine I can understand that and that makes sense for a big match…but hey wait, what’s that stipulation?

Winner Of The Fall Gets A Title Shot In The Main Event

Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Masato Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

What?? That’s how they’re figuring out the main event? No wonder this show drew terribly. Also neither team brings their respective titles with them because neither are on the line, plus I’m sure AJPW wouldn’t have been happy with one of their champs taking a pinfall loss which kinda gives the finish away if you’re paying attention.

Tanaka and Hayabusa start off countering each other’s moves until Kuroda sneaks in to try a sneaky German. Hayabusa shrugs him off to land a springboard plancha over the guard rail and into the second row, wow.

Shinzaki tags in to take a kicking from the youngsters before Hayabusa saves so he can get stretched as this portion of the match is much slower and subdued compared to the previous matches we’ve seen this year. Kuroda slams Hayabusa’s leg across the ring post so he can land the Running Crowd Lariat. Very lengthy leg work segment on Hayabusa continues as crowd are still sat on their hands.

Hayabusa kicks both lads away to tag in a dropkick-throwing Shinzaki. Top rope shoulder tackle from 3/4 of the ring splats Tanaka. Tanaka can’t be hurt via normal means so he catches Hayabusa diving off the top to slam him instead. Kuroda ends up outside courtesy of Hayabusa and a follow-up Tope Con Hilo sends him into Shinzaki’s Knee Drop. Hayabusa’s follow-up swanton is avoided however as Kuroda finally goes for his first lariat, with Hayabusa dropping him with a German suplex instead. Hayabusa flies off the top and directly into a lariat, allowing Tanaka to tag in to powerbomb him for two. Tanaka lands the special-occasions-only Reverse Superplex for two proving that it isn’t for special occasions anymore so I should stop calling it that. Reverse powerbomb/DDT combo nearly wins for Kuroda, but Hayabusa is quickly up. So he turns another lariat attempt into a German suplex which Kuroda bounces off like he’s got a head full of Flubber to lariat Hayabusa. Crowd are nowhere near the levels of volume they should be for this.

Kuroda bonks Hayabusa’s head off the top rope to set up a Lariat for two. Tanaka wants in so he can throw elbows, but Hayabusa slaps him and tags out. Shinzaki Dragon Screws Tanaka across the ring before absolutely SMASHING him with the Pump Splash Stomp. Bloody nora. Crowd woke up for that. Tanaka gets stuck in the Nirvana Clutch and Shinzaki folds the guy in half while doing so. Tanaka doesn’t feel pain though and refuses to submit. Hayabusa lands a Firebird Splash for a very close two. Tanaka walks right into a Falcon Arrow but Kuroda breaks up the pin because no-one kicks out of that. Phoenix Splash misses on Tanaka so Kuroda takes out Shinzaki so he can lariat Hayabusa. Running DVD and elevated stunner can’t put Hayabusa away as everyone is throwing everything now. Hayabusa takes a running elbow from Tanaka but kicks out for the loudest pop so far. Diamond Dust connects on Hayabusa and that’s his big finish but Shinzaki just barely breaks it up. Kuroda lands an Emerald Fusion that gets 2.999 as Shinzaki is only able to defend his tag partner now. So Tanaka takes him out with a wild tope, allowing Kuroda to land a lariat on Hayabusa…for two. Kuroda lands a German suplex but Hayabusa won’t fuck off so Kuroda picks him up and lands two giant lariats while Tanaka holds Shinzaki down on the outside for the victory and the title shot later tonight at 24:01.

This was good but definitely a step down from their previous barnburners as I’m guessing they needed Kuroda to conserve his strength for later. That and they were sick of going balls to the wall like in previous encounters. Don’t get me wrong, this was still a lovely and exciting last ten minutes but the crowd being so quiet compared with how great the other matches have been made me focus on what it wasn’t rather than what it was. Still, the crowd were making noise for Kuroda which is what this match was about.

This was sadly Shinzaki’s last appearance as a regular for FMW. He’d continue to team up with Hayabusa in AJPW until they lost the All Asian Tag Titles and then that’d be the end of their bloody lovely tag team as he’d need to return to M-Pro.

Koji Nakagawa (Team No Respect) vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (AJPW)

To call the crowd’s reaction to Kikuchi “polite” would be rude.

Koji tries to work heel I think. It’s hard to tell. Kikuchi absolutely launches himself into a baseball slide to the outside to remove some of Koji’s memories. I don’t know anything about Kikuchi but he’s kicking like a mule so far. Kikuchi humps Koji in the corner to the point of uncomfortableness. Kikuchi is knocked into a tree of woe but pops up to execute a belly to belly like how Drew McIntyre does today. Crowd liked that. Match dies for a bit because Koji’s a Goth and they like death. Koji uses a ring bell but it gets no pop because we saw that spot earlier. OK I guess Koji is heel as he works over his much more impressive foe with dull offence as the crowd politely gets behind the intruder. Koji is greatly mis-cast here. He low blows Kikuchi a few times before the big lad reverses Nakagawa’s jack knife roll up for the win at 15:42.

I don’t know what the point of this was but this match did nobody any favours. Kikuchi looked decent against Koji but the same can be said of most house plants.

Mr. Gannosuke & Hisakatsu Oya & Yukihiro Kanemura & Hideki Hosaka & Hido vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone & Ryuji Hijikata & Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts)

Kanemura & Gannosuke had been feuding for months but decided to come together for the good of FMW to take on the evil invaders from Battlarts. This is under elimination rules. Crowd comes alive for this feud which has been one of the most heated things in recent months.

The Battlarts lads chant INOKI BOMBAYE as Katsumi Usuda tags in to immediately lay down on the mat like Inoki vs. Ali. Gannosuke takes the bait and heads to the mat, finding himself in an armbar immediately and requiring everyone to run in to save him. It was clearly bait mate, you belong in the comment section. Gannosuke ducks an enziguri to apply his own armbar and then all of Battlarts run in to break it up, setting up how this one is going to go. Kanemura soccer kicks Yone who responds with soccer punches. Oya enters but gets taken into Battlarts’ corner and battered. Luckily Hido is able to save the day with his stomps. I love how out of place he is in his jean shorts amongst all these shooters. Hosaka drops elbows on Ikeda as this has been a long opening section of people getting their stuff in like those early issues of Transformers comics where everyone says who they are and what their personality trait is. Yone gets isolated but there’s four very alert guys on the apron who are very quick to help their mate. Yone shrugs off a piledriver to apply an armbar on Hido with the Battlarts’ lads running in to cut off the FMW team for the first elimination via tap-out at 10:50.

Kanemura angrily airplane spins Yone leading to Gannosuke slapping Yone around too. Yone casually tags out so Ishikawa can attempt to remove Gannosuke’s arm. Battlarts keep their opponents in their corner as this is as old school (and smart) as possible. Crowd are biting on every armbar from the submission lads which is adding a lot of tension because they’re coming out of nowhere. Kanemura gets saved from Hijikata by Oya charging in to land a backdrop driver, leading to a big powerbomb from Kanemura to eliminate Hijikata at 12:25.

Usuda disseminates Kanemura before splatting his head with a big back kick.

Gannosuke shoves him off the apron and that…apparently eliminates him at 13:50? Huh? Even in this match there’s jobbing issues? Yeeeesh.

Ishikawa can’t knock Kanemura off the apron so he pulls him into the ring via sleeper. Kanemura keeps the momentum going however, resulting in Hosaka choking Ishikawa with his tonfa. Hosaka gets way too confident and attempts to pin Ishikawa with a spinebuster, but a quick cross face chicken wing reminds him who he is as he taps out at 14:27.

Oya takes Ishikawa’s momentary vulnerability to splat him with a backdrop suplex before locking in an Octopus Stretch. Crowd get revved up but Ikeda breaks it up. Oya misses a knee drop so he takes a backdrop suplex of his own from Ishikawa. Oya escapes an armbar and tries to dump Ishikawa out the ring but due to a big kick from Ikeda, both Oya and Ishikawa end up outside at 16:16.

It’s two on two. Yone locks in a choke on Kanemura with Gannosuke saving by repeatedly kicking Yone in the face. Battlarts lads resume the armbars and head kicks in their own corner, with Ikeda taking this opportunity to really lay them in thick. Kanemura is too dumb to feel pain so he absorbs a ton of kicks to tag in Gannosuke. Falcon Arrow sets up the Nirvana Strangle on Ikeda but Yone of course disrupts it. Praying Powerbomb can’t put Ikeda away. Gannosuke and Kanemura land a 3D of all things but Ikeda kicks out. Hey fuck you, you’re not Tanaka or Chris Sabin. Kanemura’s big fat senton connects on Ikeda but Yone again runs in to allow Ikeda to dump Kanemura on the apron. With Gannosuke frantically attempting to save him, Ikeda baseball slides Kanemura out of the match at 20:31.

Gannosuke’s all alone, crowd are chewing their nails. Yone and Ikeda clobber him around the ring with lariats and kicks while the crowd are yelling “GANNOSUUUUKE” like he’s about to die in an anime. Giant leg drop off the top from Yone can’t put him away as Gannosuke has casually turned face very easily. Gannosuke manages a quick Manhattan Drop on Yone but Ikeda instantly kicks him when he’s near the ropes and here come the boos. Yone accidentally kicks Ikeda leading to Gannosuke landing a fucking brutal Fire Thunder Driver to dump him out at 22:58.

Ikeda wastes no time kicking Gannosuke full force in the face while he’s still pinning his comrade, which I have to admire the strategy of. Especially with Ikeda planting his foot into Gannosuke’s mush.

Gannosuke survives an ankle lock by reaching the ropes but is clearly hanging on for dear life. Gannosuke Clutch gets wrapped out of nowhere but Ikeda kicks out to lariat Gannosuke for two. Ikeda moonsaults Gannosuke but was supposed to miss as both men are slow getting up, with Gannosuke mule kicking Ikeda to snap his neck with a German Suplex. Gannosuke’s armbar again tickles the fan’s expectations but he gets the ropes. And then one low blow and lariat later and Ikeda fucking wins at 25:36. All that action and build for a Battlarts victory at the big FMW show???

That match was quite the ride with even the over-the-top-rope-i’m-not-losing-to-FMW-guys-lol eliminations not getting in the way of a good time as the emotion was high throughout as well as the tension. But that finish at the biggest show of the year? Imagine if Rocky Maivia lost his debut at Survivor Series 1996 and you’re nearly there.

Post-match, the Battlartists call FMW wrestlers “idiots” which starts another brawl, ending with Battlarts winning THAT before doing the Inoki 1-2-3-Baahh thing that Tony Khan loves so much. FMW couldn’t win the post-match brawl? I wonder if FMW got anything out of this feud other than headaches.

FMW Double Titles

Kodo Fuyuki (c) vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda

Fuyuki has been the champion since defeating Hayabusa in November 1998. This is his second defence of the Double Titles and this main event was made an hour ago.

Kuroda makes his entrance first and then Fuyuki…comes out to the heel Team No Respect theme? And is joined by…everybody?? Wait wait wait what.

So after months of being face and losing members, Team No Respect has reset out of the blue so Kanemura, Jado, Hido, Mr. Gannosuke, Gedo, Nakagawa are all here regardless of what they had been doing minutes beforehand.

I mean maybe you could say the rest of the card’s results caused this to happen (Gedo reuniting with Jado, everyone losing their matches, Fuyuki mad with Hayabusa after losing the tag titles) but that’s a stretch and a half. Crowd are too stunned to even react to Kuroda.

Fuyuki makes it clear he has the size advantage to start but Kuroda doesn’t care and knocks the big man down with strikes and arm-snaps around the ring post. Kuroda lands a DDT on the concrete and the Running Crowd Lariat and generally has a good time. Then TNR start grabbing his legs as he runs the ropes, allowing Fuyuki to grab a fork. Well if anyone would have one of those nearby it’d be him. Chunky bastard. Kuroda pries it away from him so Gedo dropkicks the ref so he doesn’t have to witness the rest of TNR assists Fuyuki in getting it back and busting Kuroda open so badly his blood ends up on the camera. Kuroda really is learning as he’s going as that’s a main event level bladejob. It helps get the crowd to react more as they’ve been nervously quiet the whole time.

Tanaka runs in to assist but TNR all beat him down with ease. Kuroda tries to bounce Fuyuki’s head off the top rope but instead Fuyuki pushes him to the outside where he eats shit smacking a guard rail. Kuroda is earning his custard tonight. Fuyuki lands a mocking version of the Running Crowd Lariat before a frigging Powerbomb on concrete gets the crowd chanting for Kuroda. Crowd urge Kuroda to mash the pad and get to the ring to avoid a count out with Kuroda’s face completely covered in claret. Also the ring announcer calls “sixteen” as “six-fifteen”. Why is he counting in English?

Kuroda makes it in at eighteen so Fuyuki instantly dumps him outside as Go Ito shows up as the replacement ref. But wait, is he in Team No Respect? He used to be but is he still? Fuyuki breaks a table piece over Kuroda which only motivates him into lariating Fuyuki for two as the crowd goes wild. Ito makes the counts so I’m guessing he’s not with TNR. Top rope lariat only gets two with Fuyuki landing his Nikita Lyons’ style spin-kick. Fisherman’s Buster can’t put away Kuroda so TNR distract the ref to land a Superbomb for two. Crowd very politely applauding away on Kuroda now. Fuyuki dumps him with a rough German Suplex but Kuroda has the ability to no-sell those cos he teams with Tanaka so he charges Fuyuki with another lariat.

Both men meet in the middle and start landing lariats until one man falls, which is Kuroda cos Fuyuki uses an elbow instead. Fuyuki lands a sweaty Yelling lariat but Kuroda kicks out, impressing the crowd. He ducks a second one to land Fuyuki on his big fat head with a German, but the boss kicks low to escape a second and RUNS INTO ANOTHER LARIAT 1…2…AHH kick out. OK that was sweet. Kuroda goes up top but Nakagawa ruins everything by hitting him off. Wait no he doesn’t, as Kuroda prevents a superplex by powerbombing Fuyuki off the second rope, crowd going wild, here comes the ref…to slowly count the pin. Ah, the fix is in. Fuyuki easily kicks out of the long-count as the crowd make their disgust known. Fuyuki can’t pin Kuroda after a powerbomb which makes you wonder why Ito doesn’t fast-count or ignore the kick out as the crowd have realised Kuroda can’t win. Yelling Lariat finally puts Kuroda away at 21:05.

This match was a necessary evil for FMW’s soft reset and still managed to give the crowd some hope that Kuroda could somehow get a shock victory. The parts near the end where Kuroda overcame all the interference only for everyone to realise the game was rigged from the start was very well done.

Oh wait, Hayabusa charges out to attack his once-friend. Team No Respect easily batter him as the crowd absolutely fill the ring with rubbish which is very rare to see in Puro. Fuyuki yells about being great until Tanaka, Hisakatsu Oya, Hideki Hosaka, and Ricky Fuji run out together to even the odds resulting in TNR doing a runner. Hayabusa yells in the ring about how mad he is at what’s happening, vowing to get those sons of bitches before shaking hands with many fans who have surrounded the ring for a bit of FMW love.

Overall: I mean they did advertise this as Entertainment Wrestling so having a PPV without an announced main event while presenting a show-long storyline (if we’re being generous) for a soft reset was exactly that. Sadly in the ring it ended up more Survivor Series 1990 than Survivor Series 1998.

Notes…

Tarzan Goto was approached to work this show but he insisted on having a No Fans match. FMW declined and Goto would never return to the company. I have no clue why he demanded that match stipulation, I can only assume he wanted to say “no” without saying it. Then again, maybe he was predicting the attendance.

This would be Go Ito’s last show because he was spent being a booker & a talent, so quit from the burnout. Hirai would approach Fuyuki about being the booker instead and he agreed.

Ah.

This is the moment.

Reportedly, the reason why people were throwing rubbish into the ring after the main event was because of a rumour going around that FMW was shutting down after this show.

In some ways they were right.

Next Week: Team FMW takes on Team No Respect! Again!

I’ve been Maffew