Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk - FMW Genten - Day 10: 4th Anniversary Show - Five Star Fridays

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FMW Genten - Day 10: 4th Anniversary Show

05/05/1993

Kawasaki Stadium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk - No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Time Bomb Death

An armoured referee stands at ground zero. FMW

 

Sometimes, the only way to prove you’ve learned the lesson means breaking the desk, burning the classroom, and dragging your teacher out of the fire. There's an inherent level of violence than can exist alongside respect, between a teacher and their student. Not always the violence meant to harm and maim the other, but the drive to prove something. To use every lesson given to you, every hold, every punch, every kick and every suplex, bastardize them in your own unique way, and prove to your teacher that every lesson was not given to you in vain. That you absorbed everything, you were as studious as ever. You took the lessons and made it into something wholly unique, louder and more violent than your teacher would have ever hoped or dreamed of. 

Now, the student stands as something of a master, a master of his own domain. A kingdom born of violence and blood, stained with blood and singed with fire, he rules the roost and seeks to be the one to prove something to his mentor. To his teacher, to turn the tides on this night and show his teacher something he's never seen before. But it's not in an effort to put the old man out to pasture, to cleanse the generation of old and prove that their way is wrong, that the future is now and it's high time you change or die. No, tonight is about validation. The student calls out his elder to prove that everything that was passed down to him, was put to good use. Every lesson was heard and transformed into something different. 

The teacher does not stand in the middle of something foreign or alien, he stands in the middle of something of his own creation, in a twisted sort of way. The rings of FMW came from the mind of Atsushi Onita, a man who sat beneath the learning tree of Terry Funk and owes his entire career to the Texas legend. Deep in the centre of Kawasaki Stadium in the heart of Japan, a student seeks not to prove his teacher wrong, but to tell him, through blood and bodyslams, that everything he did with him was right. His creation was out of a necessity to carry on the legacy taught to him by the Funk family, not out of spite or a desire to watch is crumple to the ground. It just so happens that the ring they stand in the middle of, would not have felt out of place in World War 1's No Mans Land. Ropes replaced with barbed wire and laced with bombs, and a ring set to detonate when the time runs out. Terry Funk and Atsushi Onita stand at ground zero, a proving ground, a place where lessons are taught in their most visceral, violent form. The art of professional wrestling. 

There aren't many examples better than this one of a student seeking not only validation, but to also validate his mentor, in a way only he knows how, this match stands alone as a crowning achievement as one of the greatest spectacles in the history of the sport. 

Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk - No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Time Bomb Death - FMW Genten - Day 10: 4th Anniversary Show

 

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Atsushi Onita - Breakdown & Background

The first graduate of the All Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo, Atsushi Onita trained in Amarillo Texas under the tutelage of  the Funk Brothers, Terry and Dory, Onita was loyal to All Japan as well as AJPW's owner Giant Baba after being accepted to train and wrestler for the organization despite never graduating high school. 

Training under the Funk's, with Onita idolizing the living legend Terry Funk, Onita spent time living with Terry's family in Amarillo, Texas. Spending roughly a month with the Funk family, Onita was welcomed in as an extension of the family from early on. Sitting beneath the mighty learning tree of one of, if not the greatest wrestling the United States every saw, Onita was like a sponge while living with Funk, learning as much as he could about wrestling.

A young Onita with Mitsuharu Misawa. AJPW

Cutting his teeth in the rings of Japan for both All Japan and New Japan, as well as Puerto Rico, Onita started his career as a junior heavyweight, a style often adopted by wrestlers of his stature and athletic ability. However, a knee injury early in his career forced Onito to change his style. Similar in many ways to when the long-time technical wrestler Steve Austin broke his neck at SummerSlam 1997, Onita's once high speed and aerial style had to be shifted to a more brawling, strike heavy style to work around his injury.

Around this time, in 1990, Onita left New Japan to form his own professional wrestling company known as Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, or FMW for short. Onita wanted to go his own way and create a promotion and push the boundaries of what wrestling looked and felt like. Incorporating highly violent deathmatch style wrestling, as well as martial arts-based matches, often featuring matches pitting one style vs another, Onita's FMW was meant to go against the grain of the more traditional companies which he worked. This is not to say that he was completely unfamiliar with the wrestling he got himself involved in; he spent his time in Puerto Rico, known for being a territory of bloody, violent matches, Onita was at the very least familiar with the deathmatch style of wrestling he was now incorporating into FMW. 

The new look of Onita. FMW

It was while wrestling in FMW that his knee injury occurred, during a no-rope, barbed-wire match against Tarzan Goto, forcing Onita out of action to recover as well as giving him time to think about how he would re-brand himself after suffering a style-altering injury. The image of yet another Japanese junior heavyweight no longer fit Onita, especially with his involvement in the boundary-pushing FMW. He needed a look and feel that felt truly different, another break from the norm. Adopting leather jackets, tattered jeans, brandishing weapons, chain smoking and coming to the ring to a remixed, much heavier version of The Troggs' "Wild Thing," Onita's transformation was complete. Whatever mould he fit before or space he was slotted into, he completely shattered. If the creation of FMW wasn't statement enough, his change in appearance was the final piece. Atsushi Onita was a different breed.

 

Terry Funk - Breakdown & Background 

Starting his professional wrestling career in 1965, Terry Funk began working in his father Dory Funk Senior's Western States Sports promotion in Amarillo, Texas. Funk spent the first 15 years of his career working for the company until it was sold in 1980 to wrestlers Blackjack Mulligan and Dick Murdoch. From there, Funk started working for Championship Wrestling from Florida where he won the NWA Worlds Championship in 1975 from Jack Brisco, as well as wrestling for Japan Wrestling Association. When the companies top stars Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba split from JWA to form their own companies, Inoki with New Japan and Baba with All Japan, Funk went with Baba to All Japan, staying loyal to the company whenever he visited Japan. 

Terry Funk, NWA Champion. NWA

In 1983, Funk retired from wrestling in Japan, where his all-American, "cowboy" persona deified him to the Japanese crowd. In an era where the top Japanese heels were predominantly American or non-Japanese wrestlers, known as "gaijin's," the Funk families rise to near God-like status cannot be understated. They adored his authenticity and respect to the craft as well as his outright refusal to give in, even when the odds are stacked against him about as much as possible. That, and the success of his "Great Texan" album, Funk was well loved in the land of the rising sun. 

In 1984, Funk returned to Japan, breaking his highly emotional retirement by first wrestling in St Louis before returning to AJPW later in the year. 

Funk always seemed to be on the cusp of trends, doing things that would soon become adopted by fellow wrestlers, or wrestling for companies just before they made it big. A prime example of this notion is when Funk joined the WWF in June of 1985. Having previously wrestled under Vince Senior's WWWF years prior, Funk's return to New York came during the earliest days of their national expansion, mere months after the debut of WrestleMania. Funk repeatedly challenged WWF champion Hulk Hogan, always coming up on the losing end, eventually leaving the company in 1986 when the stifling atmosphere of the WWF proved to be too much for the wild, hard to lock down Texan. He spent two years in WCW, from 1989 to 1990, having a fantastic match with Ric Flair before returning to All Japan once more, this time, with a different edge. 

Funk & Sabu. Standing in a barbed-wire enclosed ring. ECW

The pure wrestler started to show some far more violent tendencies upon returning to Japan in 1990. Not necessarily as violent or proficient with weapons as some of his contemporaries like Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher or The Shiek, Funk was no slouch when he was forced to get violent. He knew how to swing a chair with just as much vigour as the man he stood in the ring, or among the crowd, with. Wrestling for ECW while it was still Eastern Championship and not Extreme, Funk brought his wild violence with him, helping to usher in that same violence that the Philadelphia-based promotion would become famous for. 

 

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Collision Course - Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling

By 1993, FMW had carved out it's niche in the wrestling world. The martial-arts focus of early FMW was slowly fazed out, with Onita focusing more on professional wrestling, especially the deathmatch style of wrestling. Onita had proven over the years that he wasn't just a booker, he was also the main star of the company, putting himself in harms way more often than not in some of the most violent matches his imagination could conjure up. FMW became a spectacle in the wrestling world, drawing in highly sought after magazine coverage of the promotion, with photographs of the violent matches being shared the world over by wrestling fans who had never seen something like this before, let alone believed it could possibly be real. In short, FMW became something of a cult icon among American wrestling fans, seeking out a far edgier product than what the WWF and WCW were pumping out week after week. 

Terry Funk, to his own credit, was further developing a harder, more violent edge. With more blood and violence in his matches than ever before, not to say he was always clean cut and free from crimson in his early years, Funk saw the writing on the wall early on, fans want blood. He knew people were seeking an edgier, more violent product. He could feel it when he wrestled for ECW while it was still under the branding of Eastern Championship Wrestling. He was one of the first people to call those fans "hardcores," referring more to their love and loyalty to the sport more so than the bloodlust the phrase would go on to represent. Funk knew that if he was to stay relevant in the sport he loved, he needed to adopt a different style, to flex his violent muscles and go where few others would be willing to tread. 

So, the match was set, in Funk's debut in FMW, it would be teacher vs student. Onita challenged Funk to a match of his own creation, a ring with no ropes, replaced instead with bomb-laced barbed wire. A 15 minute time limit was put in place, with the ring set to explode once the time limit was up, no matter if a pin was decided in the time limit or not. One way or another, there would be blood.  

FMW

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The Match - Onita vs. Funk

The best quality footage for this match starts with Shoichi Arai, the man who would take up ownership of FMW in 1995 with Onita selling the company to him, making an announcement to the crowd. If I spoke Japanese or there were subtitles for this one, I'd let you guys know what he said, but alas. There is handcam footage of the full event, but it doesn't help much at all. I'll only be referring to the main video feed for this match, unless I say otherwise. 

Danger, wrapped in destruction. FMW

 

The camera shows closeups of the ring, including a shot of the small explosives attached to the barbed wire. I'm not a bomb guy, so the best thing I can liken these to is cherry bombs. Someone with more explosive experience and knowledge out there can write in and correct me if you feel so inclined. 

We join both men by themselves backstage, first going to Onita. He's in a white jacket with his blue trunks and a small white bandage on his forehead. We can't see what he's wearing beneath, but from the bare legs alone, I know he's not wearing what I'd wear to a match that promises to be as gruesome as this one.  He's focused and surprisingly calm, given what's about to come. He marches from the sink, spits water from his mouth, and grabs a seat, collecting his thoughts before it's his time to go to the ring. 

Next, is Funk. Terry is standing around and pacing, on edge but readying himself for what's to come. Like Onita, he's no stranger to bloodshed, but the level of violence he's about to be a part of tonight is a considerable step above anything he's been in before. He's focused, seemingly calm on the outside, but no doubt saying a silent prayer that he climbs out of that ring unharmed.

The bell slowly chimes four times as we return to a shot of the ring, with a graphic appearing on screen announcing the main event match of the evening. Terry is announced as the first man out, with a very clearly dubbed over song in place of his signature "Spinning Toe Hold." Blue poncho, cowboy hat and towel in hand, Funk springs to the ring and speaks to the referee, clad in armor. He's slow, but certain in his movements, sliding beneath the bottom strand of barbed wire before removing his chaps and poncho and tossing them out to the floor. Getting in the ring itself proves to be a challenge, God only knows what lies in store for these two once they lock up.

Onita is next, the opening riff to "Wild Thing" piercing through the speakers as he marches from backstage, appearing through a cloud of smoke. It should be noted, Jon Moxley came down to "Wild Thing" as tribute to Onita, trying to chase that same feeling of chaos and violence that Onita brought to the ring for every match he had. 

A tense stare down. FMW

Inside the ring, it's a tense stare down, the first meeting in what has to have been years between teacher and student. A rush of memories flooding back for both men as they stand in the middle of one of the most violent bastardizations of pro wrestling up to this point. 

Funk is once again communicating with the referee, gesturing to emphasize his point, something to do with "pushing him into the ropes." I wonder what he could possibly be talking about. Both men are checked over and, once the referee is satisfied this can go on as planned, he calls for the bell to ring. 

The countdown has begun.

They circle each other in the middle, neither man too ambitious to start things off right away. Terry stands with his hands on his hips before moving in for a strong, solid lockup.  They fight in this lockup for a long, long time, the tension building in one of the most basic and fundamental moves in wrestling. Plain and simple, the lockup is all about establishing control of a situation. It's two bulls locking horns, pushing with all their might, and waiting to see who gives in first. Whose knees buckle under the pressure, whose arms can't bear to hold the other back. Who can get the better position and establish a starting point. Onita and Funk are starting this match, this bloody, violent war, with the most basic move possible, something these two must have done close to a thousand times in training. The teacher testing his student and, conversely, the student testing his teacher.

Back and forth they push, one mans advantage not lasting long enough for anything to really happen, with the other pushing back just in time to save themselves from certain doom. The crowd is with these two for the entire time, on the edge of their seats for a damn lockup. How crazy is that?! Funk seems to have the advantage in the hold, pushing on Onita despite him refusing to back up any further than he already has. He holds his ground and digs in his heels, knowing there's not much he can do from the position he's found himself in. Breaking the hold, Funk begins to assault Onita with strikes, staggering him to a knee with a chop and jelly-legging him with punches to the jaw, with one finding its mark just right.

Stumbling into catastrophe. FMW

With little warning, Onita's legs give out as he stumbles backwards. Where sturdy ropes or taught cables would normally be found to catch him, he finds bomb-laced barbed wire. He hits the wire back first, an explosion of sparks and smoke engulfing his torso. He staggers forwards, his top caught in the barbed wire as pieces of the hideous metal are pulled away from the strands. Fabric and skin are caught with little care as to which is torn by their razor-sharp point. 

He falls in the middle of the ring, the referee getting down to eye level to make sure Onita is still with us. Grabbing a tattered piece of his top, Funk tries to get Onita back to his feet, not ready to finish this match- this lesson, just yet. Back to the jaw he goes with right hands, staggering Onita and dropping him flat, knowing better than to stumble backwards like he did last time. 

Trying to shove him face first into the ropes, Funk finds more resistance than he was hoping for, so he tries to soften Onita up with a big piledriver in the centre of the ring. Floating over, Funk tests the waters with a pinfall, with Onita escaping early, his arms trickling with crimson. 

The smouldering wreckage. FMW

A swinging neckbreaker softens Onita up some more before Funk brings him to his feet again, firing him off into the rop- I mean, wire. Another vicious explosion engulfs Onita, the referee falling to his ass from the shock and sound of the explosion. He lays across the top strand as if he'd just fallen out of a building, his torso hinging on the vicious wire. 

The camera changes angles, and we can see Onita's body literally smoking from the explosions. His white top is marked with small black dots, bits of gunpowder are all that remains of the explosives attached to the wire, detonated by the force of a human body running into them. He pulls himself up off the ropes, with Funk already on top of him, laying a heavy handed chop into his chest for good measure. 
 

"Get up! Get up! Get him up you son of a bitch!" hollers Funk, the "get him up" line more directed to the people in attendance, chanting for Onita as he lays on on the canvas in a heap. Back to the fundamentals, Funk lays in heavy handed punches to the skull of Onita, dropping him to the canvas before dragging him to the wire. It's all Onita can do to hold the line, to push with all his might to not get sent into the wire face first. He pushes and pushed as Funk grabs his hair and tries to force him into the wire, Onita knowing there's little more he can do than what he's doing right this second to hold on for dear life. 

An eyelash from disaster. FMW

As Funk adjusts his grip, Onita is able to shift his weight around and change his position beneath his mentor, shooting his right arm around the back of Funk before snaking up his left to grab his own hand. Caught in a waistlock, Funk tries desperately to dribble Onita face first on the wire, but his efforts are in vain. Using his position to his advantage, Onita pops his hips and drives his elder back and over, drilling him with a back suplex. 

The opening he needed, he catches his break on the canvas and checks his wounds, but doesn't have long to rest, with Funk charging on all fours to drive his own head into Onita's. If Funk has learned something in his years in the business, it's keep the pressure on at all times, no matter what. Turning his own body into a weapon is a small price to pay to keep Onita on the back foot. Also, this is the first time I've seen the Junkyard Dog headbutt spot look good, this one looked mean and nasty.

With both men vertical again, Funk grabs Onita by the hair and tries to shove him into the wire, giving it everything he's got; but Onita holds fast. He manages to turn the tables on Funk, shoving him into the wire instead, with Funk crashing into the wire torso first, his bare flesh completely exposed to the sparks and explosives. Falling forward, Funk writhes around on the canvas like he was just doused in hot oil. He's quick to rise to his feet, but just because he's vertical, it doesn't mean he really should be. 

It really can't be understated how fucking good Funk is at selling. He's back on his feet and stumbling around like he just got tossed out of a bar because he drank half the top shelf and refused to pay his tab. With legs like jelly, he staggers towards the wire as the crowd, sat in stunned silence, rises to a crescendo of fear and panic as Funk stumbles closer and closer to the ropes. Surely, he's going to crash into them without stopping, surely! But at the last possible, and I mean absolute last second, he stops himself, staggering to the side and back to the middle. Funk is incredible.  

Barely able to stand; to save himself. FMW

With Terry barely able to stand, Onita drills him with a DDT and goes for a cover, but Funk escapes, both men now stained with crimson, leaking from everywhere and anywhere. Funk gets to his feet as the referee is in his face, checking to make sure he's ok- big mistake. Punching at anything that moves, the dazed and confused old Funker swings at the referee with a wild left hand, barely missing his armored helmet. He falls back to the canvas from the momentum of the swing, fighting back to his feet as Onita lays into him with big standing headbutts. 

Onita keeps laying them in, with Funk more and more uneasy on his feet with each one, but not totally out of it. Absorbing a headbutt, Funk snatches Onita by the torso and pulls him into the wire behind him, his student falling through the wire and out to the floor, rolling through sparks and smoke before landing on the outside. A strand of wire pulls at what remains of his tattered top, his back cut wide open as he slowly rises to his feet. Not content with ending the match this way, he holds his bleeding hand and rolls back inside, a punch drunk Funk swinging at Onita's prone carcass. 

With Onita struggling to stand and Funk struggling to avoid the wire, a timer suddenly appears on screen. For the viewers at home, this is counting down the final 5 minutes. But for those in the arena, they are treated to a haunting alarm. It blares out through the arena, warning everyone nearby that utter disaster is imminent. His head stained red and leaking, Funk looks around at the start of this alarm, caught off guard by the foreign sound, but knowing full well what it signifies, "wrap this up, NOW."

Cameramen at ringside can be seen frantically getting to their feet and clearing ringside as Onita gets to his feet, meeting Funk in the middle as both men exchange wild, pendulum-like strikes in the middle. They both know the end is near, they both know they need to clear out of this ring before the time expires, and it's suddenly become a mad dash for survival. They trade stiff headbutts in the middle, with a wild left hand of Funk dropping Onita flat out to his back. 

Funk's own undoing. FMW

Snatching the leg of Onita, the fans in attendance all know what comes next- the Funk families signature hold, the Spinning Toe Hold. Twisting Onita into a pretzel over and over, Funk tries to force his student to submit, but the crafty veteran still has a lesson or two to learn yet. Using his free leg, Onita adjusts his position and drives his left leg up into the face of Funk, sending him falling backwards into the wire with 3 minutes remaining on the clock. 

Staggering to his feet, Onita plants Funk with a DDT and covers for three! Onita survives! Oh wait! No! Funk springs to life with a strand of wrist tape in his hand, wrapping it around the throat of Onita! He wrenches back, trying to choke the life out of him! The referee tries to break it up, but gets an elbow to the back of his head for his troubles, falling to the ring with his helmet rolling off to the side. 

Brandishing the helmet, Onita uses it to stun Funk long enough to plant him with another DDT, only to drill his mentor with not one, but two powerbombs! The ring announcer is frantic as the bell continues to ring, trying desperately to tell both men "GET THE HELL OUT OF THE RING!" 

With one minute left, the alarm changes to a full-blown air raid siren, the kind that would given a veteran flashbacks of war.  The announcer is drowned out by the blairing horn, with Onita struggling to crawl to the ropes as Funk lays out in the middle. Onita crawls outside, free from danger, but only for a moment. 

Feeling a pang of remorse, with only 13 seconds left, Onita slides back inside the ring! He crawls to Funk and slaps his mentor in the face, trying to wake him up. 

The countdown is at 8 seconds left. He's pounding at Funk's face, grabbing at his hair, trying to save his teacher, his idol, his hero, from imminent disaster. They're close to the wire, close to escape, but there's no time left. 

With 1 second left, Onita covers Funk with his own body, shielding him from what is about to happen. For those that want to see the beautiful spectacle for themselves, I've included a clip of the end of the match below. 

 

 

The ring is engulfed in smoke and flames as explosives set around the ring go off in unison. Both men disappear in the haze, obscured by the literal fog of war. In a stroke of artistic brilliance, a moment straight out of a movie is played over the official broadcast.  

Video of smoke clearing through the barbed wire and bodies is dubbed over with a hauntingly emotional guitar chord, it's a moment that wouldn't feel out of place at the end of Die Hard or a Terminator movie. It feels truly epic, like these two men have just stood at the centre of an atomic blast meant to save all of mankind and are walking away. Not unscathed, far from it, but alive. They're drenched and dripping with sweat and blood, Onita pulling his wounded mentor to his feet amidst the smoky wreckage of the ring. The bloodlust is gone, the animosity no longer exists, this is a moment of respect and compassion. Funk extends an arm up the torso of Onita, feeling for the shaggy hair and patting his student on the top of his head, a universal sign of "thank you." 

It's a tough, emotional moment. They're stained with blood, soaked with sweat, and covered in pockmarks of gunpowder, it's a miracle either man can stand, let alone walk away from this match, but to do it together, my lord. I'm getting choked up just writing about it. 

Onita has a live mic and makes an impassioned speech to the crowd between heavy breaths. Again, if I spoke Japanese or subtitles were provided, this would mean something more to me, but alas. I choose to believe he's saying something about the character of Funk and how he was able to survive such a gruelling match, and how much he respects his mentor. That's just my headcanon.  

 

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Backstage, Funk and Onita share a locker room together, with Funk thanking Onita for "everything you did out there," of course referring to the effort he made to try and save him. I can't imagine he was thanking him for tossing him into bomb-laced barbed wire. 

"Thank you, I mean it from my heart. Thank you!" 

Funk goes on to say, mere moments after it looked like he was about to shake Onita's hand, "but I cannot be beat by you. No... next time, my rules. Next time, teacher's rules. You understand?"

Visibly upset, his hand still open at his torso, waiting for a handshake that will never come, Onita stands alone in the locker room, unsure of how to process what just happened to him. Sure, he won the match, he got the final pin, his name sits in the winners column next to Funk's as the loser, but did he truly win? The respect of his mentor that he so longed for, that he tried to earn for himself when he set out on his own to make FMW into something, did he win that tonight? He's still not sure. His face verges on shattering, his eyes welling up with tears. 

This battle may be over, but it seems there is still more fighting left to be done. To truly win over the heart of his mentor, more fighting must be done. But tonight, in Onita's heart, he knows that it's impossible for Terry to walk away from him tonight without feeling a hint of pride for his pupil. The courage to strike it out on your own, to go against the grain, to fight the most violent of fights over and over again, verging on regular self mutilation, all to earn respect. Despite what Funk's actions say after this match, deep down, he knows his teacher must be proud of him. 

Pride. Pain. Passion. FMW

For this, and so much more, Atsushi Onita vs. Terry Funk is a 5 star match.  

Until next time, be well, stay safe, and love one another.

Cliff Morgan

 

 

 

 

cliffmorganwstl@gmail.com   

 

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