Terry Funk was the best part of this episode for me. Seeing him in good spirits after the past few years truly put a smile on my face.

Hayabusa's loyalty to FMW might have been admirable, but it'll always make me wonder how his career would have gone had he accepted Liger's invite to be his protege in NJPW.

The crazy thing about Hayabusa was that he told in an interview that he was affraid of heights, and doing his aerial manoeuver scared him as well, but then he says "But people pay to see Hayabusa flying, so that's what I'm gonna do".

R.I.P. Eiji Ezaki, Hayabusa rules. Really sad what happened to him.

Best part of the episode was Jericho's spot-on impression of the FMW ring-announcer.

Gotta watch this episode, I was one of those “emotionally stunted people” who loved FMW back in the day =) Back when VHS and laserdisc wrestling shows/compilations were all over the place.

Ric Flair had to breath a sigh of relief when his name wasn’t mentioned on the FMW episode.

Whoever does the artwork for these things does such a great job.

Onita got real icy when he lit that square....

Hayabusa got me into FMW through KZfaq clips after I read Chris Jericho’s first book in middle school. If he didn’t get paralyzed he would’ve been great over here. RIP Eiji

I love that these artists loved Travis' work so much they are doing the best DAMN job possible while he's away. Good on their community of artists.

Even Shawn Michaels did an appearance at an FMW show! They had some great wrestling matches in FMW, and some great rivalries like Hayabusa vs. The Gladiator, and Hayabusa vs. Mr. Gannosuke, but they definitely didn't push those aspects of the company. The deathmatches took front and center.

Daaamm, these artists have no chill. Hope they're getting paid fat checks cause they fucking deserve it ❤️

Crazy that dude got hardcore wrestling in legitimate arenas. Was a very fascinating episode and I shed a couple tears when Hyabusa walked again.

FMW, regardless of its style, did contribute a handful of great wrestlers to the record books. Hayabusa was great. His tag match with Hakushi against RVD and Sabu in ECW made me want to see more of him. A great wrestler who ultimately died because of his craft.

Jericho has a lack of self awareness, Jericho called Arai a "chubby man, that wore a tuxedo too small for him" ... yet Jericho is a bloated man, wearing a leather jacket too small small for him, Jericho looking like Marvel's MODOK.

I was a huge FMW mark in the 90's. Didn't get ahold of too many tapes but they were exciting and seemed like forbidden fruit.

Watching Hyabusa was incredible

Shout out to BahuFMW for the site he created in the early 2000’s, chronicling FMW from start to finish 🤙🏼

The fact that Onita didnt do anything to help Arai after everything with the Yakuza is a fucking shame.

I thought this episode was one of their best. I'm not into Japanese wrestling or death match stuff, but the storytelling was great.

FMW, like ECW, was pretty cool and groundbreaking at the time because there was absolutely nothing like it. Doesn’t mean shit now that it’s over saturated. Have to give Onita credit for reinventing his career with this. This wasn’t in someone’s backyard, he created a lane and sold out stadiums. Idk if I could compare Onita and FMW to like… Janela or whoever the fuck.

Idk who Hayabusa was, until I learned about his accident in High School, and that he was an amazing in the ring, which he truly was. I wish that never happened to him because he deserved to be up there with the likes of Ultimo Dragon, Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, and a lot of greats before him. He is a legend in my book, may he rest in peace. Onita has a place in my heart because he changed the landscape of hardcore wrestling.

One interview Funk said he made 5000 dollars for that exploding ring match, after Onita raked in millions at the gate for that stadium event.

They did the deathmatch about as good as it could be done. I watched several shows on the tape trading scene and never was bored. Onita reserved the ridiculous ultraviolence as feature matches and didn't do it every single bout, and they really did push some great work. Also, the general vibe and emotion I got from the crowds at the FMW shows I watched struck me was as strong as the really great NWA/Mid South shows.

Onita, Foley, Funk, Heyman - Mount Hardcore

Wow. Brian got Jim to actually defend ECW. In a half-assed kinda way. 😂

Hayabusa would have had some amazing matches in WCW’s cruiserweight division had he come over in the late 90’s

Onita didn't just give the company away. He sold it to Arai but he wasn't originally planning to. He was just going to close the company down after his retirement in '95 when he did that big tour and made tons of money. His step dad however berated him for wanting to close down because everyone would be out of a job because of him. So, he then basically told Arai "you're buying the company" which he did because he was scared of Onita.

I've liked some "hardcore" matches, but I've just never felt the need to watch wrestlers mangle themselves or their opponent. I realize wrestlers get hurt all the time, but if I'm watching wrestlers I like I don't really wanna see them stab, gouge, grate, staple, or maim each other. Wrestling is supposed to be about the story not the gore.

So Jim posed the question, "What would the casual person think of this (FMW)?" so i was one of those tape traders back in the day and discovered at our local Japanese video rental place that they had some FMW stuff. I rented this one show with the Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda retirement match and the crazy Terry Funk/Mr Pogo vs Hayabusa/Tanaka double hell, electrified barbed wire death match and showed it to some of my friends in my dorm. They were pretty much "are you insane?" there were a few spots like Pogo with the Scythe on Tanaka that made my friends cringe or Toyoda getting dropped on her neck. The entire time I'm just cracking up at their reactions, which is funny because I couldn't watch the live action version of Fist of the North Star (with Vader) because of an exploding head. Since then whenever possible, I show some of my casual friends these matches just to see what their reaction would be. I think most people are just like, "these people are nuts." Because FMW was pretty over the top. I mean, now the garbage wrestling for me became unwatchable because it's too nutty. Anyway, loved this episode. Felt too brief but i understood why. It's a shame that Megumi Kudo didn't get a mention because at one point she was becoming one of their top draws before she got smart and retired at her peak. they started getting her to do all those stupid death matches but at least in a few cases the people they brought in from outside were decent at times. liked that Riki Fujii had the chance to show up. It was cool hearing him speak English since people had mentioned back in the day that his English was pretty good. He didn't need a translator so I thought that was cool. Terry Funk was great. He has that warm, grandfatherly voice that's calm even though you know there's a nut inside. Heck, even he admits to it. The middle finger to Onita was hilarious and just so much a Funker thing. It was good seeing him after all the recent health issues. Sabu getting a chance to talk was cool because he got to mention the Shiek. Always nice seeing legends getting a chance to get a mention. Some people pointing out Chris Jericho narrating about himself was funny. Thought it was funny how he used his time to put himself over for the minuscule number of matches he had in FMW. from the tapes i had, i never had seen him there (not saying it didn't happen but he wasn't part of any significant show that i can recall) Arai's daughter talking about their eviction and the loan sharks/yakuza was sad. Arai committing suicide (allegedly) to pay off their debt is such a Japanese thing. I knew a gay guy in japan who was a tech worker and had issues with everyone company he worked for. apparently, the guy took out a huge loan and moved to hawaii without the intent of paying it back. but he had a boyfriend back in japan, a little japanese guy. my other friend, who was friends with this guy, said the gay guy kept wanting to return to see his boyfriend. but i'm like i would never want to go back because if they found out, i'm sure someone would be on his ass ready to make him pay back that money one way or another. the part with Hayabusa was sad. just an overall tragedy. FMW slowly dying was weird. i think it was just part of the decline of popularity of pro-wrestling in general in Japan around that time. a lot of federations were splintering up and FMW was no exception. seemed like everyone wanted to start their own little mudshow outlaw promotion so rather than having large, strong promotions that had TV time and connections, you had small promotions with crowds in the hundreds (or less) with their one star and some new talent people didn't recognize. also, you had all the shoot promotions getting bigger and sports entertainment growing huge out there. some of my friends who were wrestlers over there were constantly asking me to make copies of the stuff WWE was doing. they wanted to be cool like The Rock or Austin. so Fuyuki probably saw the writing on the wall and it would only be a matter of time before WWE finally made some huge strides inside of Japan (which they did). overall, really fascinating episode. i saw some people who wanted at least one more dedicated to FMW. i think for the casual audience it was fine but there definitely was a lot of good source material extra they could have drawn upon.

I was unaware of this promotion. That one girl got burned bad. Sabu got scarred bad. It seemed like a half way insane promotion, way beyond ecw completely unsafe. Was sad to see there top guy paralyzed.

I had literally never heard Sabu speak until I watched this.....he sounds like he's a Brooklyn dealer

Actually, FMW *DID* have some very high level, non-death matches: ,... but much of it was with talent that they brought in from other promotions: Women from All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, JWP , GAEA JAPAN and LLPW, some men from Michinoku Pro Wrestling, workers from various promotions in Mexico, etc. One of my personal favorite matches from one of the massive Kawasaki (Baseball) Stadium shows was Koji Nakagawa of FMW vs Taka Michinoku for the "Independent World Junior Heavyweight Title". Such a great match, no barbed wire, not getting thrown through tables, one working over the other's leg (not gonna say who,...watch the match, it's on KZfaq), and great selling and pacing. Fast paced and technical. At one point, Onita formed a stable of wrestlers that included Mike Awesome, named ZEN. They even promoted some shows under the ZEN banner, with an all black ring canvas with the word ZEN in large letters in the middle of the ring. There was a big tournament final between Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome that was VERY brutal, but almost all the action was in the ring,...a few planchas and suicida dive through and over the top ropes, plenty of stiff elbows, lariats, power slams and powerbombs in the ring. There was TOO MUCH of a dependence on the workers in gimmick death matches that took a toll on the workers bodies, as evidenced in the massive scares that many of their top talent (Tanaka, Hayabusa), had accumulated on their bodies. I have not yet seen this episode, or if what I'm about to talk about was mentioned in it, but in one death match, Mr. POGO was legit temporarily paralyzed during a match and Terry Funk didn't know and he kept beating on him. Megumi Kudo, their female ace, was actually an excellent worker, having worked matches while FMW's top star in cross promotional matches with other women from All Japan Women, JWP, GAEA, LLPW .....both on FMW shows, or the other promotions mentioned, shows.

Jim and Brian or great, listen to them all the time my favorite podcast the drive-thru and the experience keep on going

Hayabusa was and is my favorite of all time. The music. The look. The athleticism. The charisma. What a guy.

I love this episode of DSOTR. I started watching old footage of AJPW and NJPW recently…so I’m fairly new to FMW (huge fan of Hayabusa). That fire match was ridiculous

That ring announcer thing made me laugh, that would be like Vince McMahon turning the WWE over to Lilian Garcia.

Tupalo Consessions Stand brawl reminds me of that show "Destroyed in Seconds" i always remembered the car crashes and train wrecks but forgot about the context and analasys of what went wrong to cause said catastrophe

I really didn't need to see Hayabusa become paralyzed, not once but twice.

My exposure to FMW came courtesy of its agreement with ECW. Masato Tanaka was a madman, I saw Gedo and Jado work, allegedly Mike Awesome made his bones and good money there, and, of course, the tag title fight at Heat Wave '98 (Shinzaki and Hayabusa v. RVD and Sabu) was excellent. I hate to say it, but Vince McMahon may have been right about how far and how often you can go with extreme wrestling.

I'd love to hear Jim's reaction to Jun Kasai

Will "Potato me Sabu" be up on the store in time for christmas?

Would like to hear Jim review ECW One Night Stand 2005. Would he even consider watching it?

Congratulations on 250,000 subscribers Jim!!! Halfway there to the big 5-double-O thousand.

"Exploding police stations are tight!!" (as imagined by Screen Rant Pitch Meetings)

Corny obviously has little to say here as he's all but completely ignorant of anything that happened over in Japan. The episode itself was an ok introduction to FMW and hits a handful of major talking points (early martial artist vs. wrestler matches; Onita's injury/fall from grace in AJPW; bringing in Funk/Foley; the increasingly mad hardcore matches; the fire death match; Onita being deceitful; the "WWF" style sports entertainment days under Fuyuki/Arai; Hayabusa) but glosses over a few (the introduction of an actual women's division alongside the men's; the rise of Megumi Kudo as the unlikely ace of the company; Reverse Val Venis CHOCOBALL MUKAI!!!; the ECW alliance; ICP and ECW introducing FMW to American fans; Shawn Micheals smuggling bananas in his bicycle shorts). Onita gets plenty of time to say his piece, as well he should. But there are also enough voices casting doubts about Onita's sincerity to contrast the latter's "I'm just a poor boy/I did nothing wrong, really.../that intern WANTED to have a threesome with me but I was too much of a man for her." For what it is and the intended audience, the episode was pretty good. However more knowledgeable fans know that Bahu FMW is the real hero.

I think no one really touches on FMW's later years where they mostly stopped with the constant deathmatches in favor of the more common sports entertainment-based wrestling and their main stars were no longer guys like Onita, Funk, Tarzan Goto, Mr. Pogo, The Sheik, etc but rather ones like Megumi Kudo (who was their female ace and a great worker too by the way), Hayabusa (their top star and whose career-ending injury literally spelt doom for them as he was their biggest draw and they went bankrupt only 4 months later because of it), Mr. Gannosuke, Masato Tanaka, The Gladiator, Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Kodo Fuyuki just to name a few that were the true wrestlers in the company with big names occasionally coming from other promotions too like Michinoku Pro (namely Jinsei Shinzaki and The Great Sasuke) and ECW with a couple of the aforementioned older stars coming back every now and then for big storylines. Yes the company is mostly known for popularizing the crazy deathmatch style of wrestling, but they had more traditional wrestlers too as I said that ultimately wound up being basically their only draws once they moved away from what made them so much money in the first place, so like ECW, they also had their classics in the midst of all the carnage of the deathmatches or beauty in the violence if you will. I think Jim bases his impression of them only on their early history because that's what everyone remembers and what everyone looks at today as what we get with all these indie promotions doing sometimes more extreme stuff than what even FMW would do at its peak of popularity and he forgets that they too had wrestlers that could also work like the names I mentioned. It's not always my thing, but I honestly don't mind the violence we got then and what we get today because ultimately, some like it and others don't, which is the entire point of professional wrestling as a whole regardless of what genre of it you're watching.

I purchased vhs tapes thru RF Video when they were selling compilation tapes of Japan and some a few territories. I learned of FMW this way. But didnt expect to understand Onita via subtext or captioning. Didnt know about the Japanese mob involvement though I had heard of their existence.

nice comic style artwork on this one

I think that japan's samurai culture had a lot to do with the popularity of onita and fmw, the old bushido code in which bravery and honor are held above everything else except for family may not be as powerful in japanese culture as it was 100 years ago but most of their most important folktales and cultural heroes are samurai's and the people may well have considered him a modern day samurai.

I remember it was 1995 or 96....and I was living in dallas and we were just barely getting ECW And the channel was fuzzy but I do remember they show that match from FMW it was a barb wire exploding ticking time bomb match between Cactus Jack and Terry Funk that shit was crazy and I had to buy the tape which was $39.99

I came across FMW from an old KZfaq video from What Culture wrestling listicles . The words Exploding Pool Deathmatch just popped at me and lead to digging around KZfaq looking for that match. Someone uploaded it as a 2 hour tape and boy did it get me hooked.

I’m almost positive FMW was backed by some Yakuza types(because little known fact Yakuza are actually own businesses and are looked at like corporate entities and even pay taxes on some of their earnings) and shit might got a little crazy for Onita so he just bowed out.

I remember when I first saw FMW wrestling I was 9 years old in my sister had just got back fromI think it was London there was a place in Piccadilly circus that was selling wrestling stuff and she knew I was a big wrestling fan so she bought me three vhs's of fmw wrestling and gave them to me for my birthday I lost my ever-loving mind that day

That girl who had the fireball thrown on her was disturbing

Favorite Onita/Terry moment was in 96’ FMW show when Terry and pogo went over Hayabusa and Tanaka and Funk clucked in the ring like a chicken 🐓 and called onita a cheap imitation of him 🤣

FMW top 3 Hayabusa The Gladiator aka Mike Awesome Masato Tanaka I went to alot of XPW events mostly because Sabu was there. Went to the ECW PPV where they brawled with XPW. Epic Pro wrestling was fun. Sabu vs Jerry Lynn, American Dragon, Samoa Joe did a run in he f'n scared me, CZW guys were there and one of them (ruckus?) bleed gushingly with I think a legit injury. Point being I liked some of the garbage/HC kinda stuff and obviously a Sabu fan.

The match between Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk made me an FMW fan.

Wow... They almost didnt talk nothing about the episode 🤣 not Even mention Hayabusa (I know Jim doesnt care about Hayabusa, but at least talk about the severity of his injury, You don't have to be an FMW expert to comment on that). I felt click baited...

I’ve never been a fan of the death matches but I have to say I really enjoyed this episode

It was vastly different than anything we were seeing at the time and exposed wrestlers that had talent, but could not get into bigger companies to the rest of the world. It was such a spectacle at the time that you felt compelled to watch it. But once you saw the ring 'explosion' you didn't need to see it again. And I give credit to Onita for always thinking of new things to try.

I have never understood people saying that hardcore started in Tennessee. Abdullah was attacking dudes with chairs in 59

Depending exactly how you define "big money" you might be able to include IWA based on a handful of their bigger shows and possibly Big Japan as well.

No mention of great nita

Carlos colon did money doing bare ware and flaming ring matches

Hayabusa, Ricky Fuji and Megumi Kudo were my favorites in FMW.

I was huge fan of FMW back in the 90s…when I was a teenager. Now that I’m older it’s not really my cup of tea anymore. Like Corny said, once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.

Jericho looks like a middle aged mom.

FMW is excellent in my opinion. The only death match pro wrestling group that really succeeded in telling stories within the ring

I only ever saw FMW stuff on dodgy sixth-gen VHS copies of copies of copies, as a kid. Seeing the footage at a decent quality was eye-opening. ...I can't decide whether I want to hunt down decent copies of it all, now.

My feeling with FMW is that that is the limit of what I accept in regards to deathmatch wrestling. As Brian mentioned guys like Funk, Cactus and Onita himself weren't outlaw guys. Those were "real" wrestlers and you could put them in a normal promotion and they could work a normal match. Later you get nonsense like CZW where the story of their origin story is essentially some jerk-offs you never heard of started putting on shows where they cut themselves to all hell. Wrestling has always had blood and brawls and cage matches and chair shots so it isn't completely ridiculous for that to extend to exploding barbwire matches but that would have to be seen as the ultimate dangerous match. You can't have promotions where guys take that kind of abuse routinely or have wrestlers who are incapable of wrestling normal matches.

If anyone remembers the "Dead or Alive Wrestling" promotion in Virtual Pro Wrestling/WCW NWO World Tour/Revenge, those characters were based on FMW characters. They looked like themselves on Virtual Pro Wrestling and World Tour but sadly not on Revenge (IMHO that was one of its few flaws). After watching enough FMW matches, I thought it was badass, moreso than the attitude era. Wish I knew of FMW as a kid. I liked Hardcore stuff (being a Taker fan and from my knowledge, he wasn't Mick Foley or Terry Funk but he seemed tough enough). I liked playing as Hayabusa but after learning about Onita, he was pretty cool too.

Lousy imitators became the launching point for many fans who never saw the original.

I remember ECW used to sometime show segments of FMW matches on their broadcast.

Salute to BahuFMW!

A niche promotion in Japan was drawing such big crowds during a time when conventional promotions in the US were struggling. What a stark contrast. Japan was red hot while US was ice cold.

What bump did Brian mention at 15:15?

Man I love these "anime" style artwork.

The barbed wire matches were tame. I used to trade tapes back in the day, & they had Japanese hardcore matches where you had to lock your opponents in tanks full of sharks & Piranas….exploding Cactus & fire matches… 🦈💣🔥🌵🩸 They had a death match for basically every sick & twisted idea you could possibly think of…

Cartoon of gym really generous on those forearm muscles 🤣

Death match wrestling is a lot like indie wrestling & all the high flying spots & stuff. It’s great but in moderation. That’s what made the wwf/ early wwe era so special. There was something for everyone on the program.

Took me 3 sittings to watch it..FMW was hard to watch

Can someone clarify whose on this mount rushmore? Onita, Mick Foley, Terry Funk…& Hayabusa?

Kevin Sullivan also did the Golden Spike gimmick in CWF, great stuff

No mention of Onita versus Leon Sphinks in a shoot cage match

14:10 yes you can and its called the 11foot8 Bridge. But still watching a few of those kind of matches is ok. FMW had some good stuff sprinkle in there but the reputation never left them.

Hardcore made sense in the kayfabe era. It was used as a resolution to a "feud"....after that it was just a live horror show spectacle

Man the guy drawing these thumb nails deserves a raise

Nice. Good comments.

did they mention the 99 match of H vs "Hayabusa" with Shawn Michaels as the ref?

Have a lot of FMW wrestling videos on vhs and dvd in my collection. Atsushi Onita was a pioneer and a genius in promoting that style of wrestling and along with Mick Foley and Terry Funk help bring that style to North America and companies such as ECW , CZW IWA Mid South and GCW continued that style here while companies such as W*ING, IWA Japan ,BJW and FREEDOMS did such in Japan .Unfortunately after Onita retired in 1995 after an Exploding Barbed Wire Cage Timebomb Death Match against Hayabusa FMW searched to find an identity and Onita sold the company to announcer Shiochi Arai and Arai brought in Kodo Fuyuki who took the company a more sports entertainment style folded in 2002 after Arai committed suicide after owing money to the Japanese Yakuza .Onita has continued to do death matches and a few times has tried to do an Exploding Death Match in the states but to no avail . Last time was against"Bulldozer" Matt Tremont but it turned into a regular barbed wire match and became a 6 man match after Onita's contingent interfeered .Last i heard he has started a new promotion called FMWE that does that type of style . Onita has carved out a bloody , violent legacy in wrestling as the pioneer of the death match that will live in infamy forever .

This was without a doubt one of the best episodes they've ever done IMO. I felt bad for Hayabusa though. He was talented enough to make himself a bigger name in a serious promotion but ended up paralyzed working for a dying company. His death hit equally hard. Seeing him mutilate himself in a barbed wire cage match with his talent was hard to watch. Edit: I stopped listening halfway. It's clear that Jim just had one of his cases of creaming his pants about the old territory days again and barely talking about the episode itself.

To my knowledge ECW had only a handful of barbwire rope matches (not aired on TV) and never an exploding or electrified ring match, or used fluorescent light bulbs. They were at times influenced by FMW but they were also influenced by AAA- first American co. to bring in Mysterio Jr., Juvi, Psychosis, Michenoku Pro, definitely Super J, faux MMA shoot fighting, even southern-style wrestling. Far from strictly a death match company, ECW sampled all styles of wrestling from around the globe. The Bad Breed (Rotten's) were only a tiny bit of the menu during their heyday. ECW was a great company that doesn't deserve to be blamed for the worst excesses of today.

Where’s the new 605 episode ?!?!?

Say what you will about ICP, but those “Stranglemania” tapes are classics.

In my mind ‘ All new age Wrestling’ - Is The Wrecking Ball Rental Company’s Location Available ?‘ Then I’ll Build it ‘ Then They’ll Come

Leather Face!

I can only watch this series on KZfaq because I live in Japan. Is the production as shoddy as it looks on KZfaq?

Even in the 90s as a teenage fan I knew wrestling was a work and that it wasn’t real but I didn’t really have a grasp on the psychology of wrestling but even then I knew that the matches were people went through tables and used chairs and did things like that was better when you had two guys that were in an existing feud and they had maybe already had A handful of matches on a show like WCW Saturday night and then maybe had one PPV match and then they had a clash of the champions match and then the next PPV match that Cactus Jack would have would be the match that was a no disqualification match that would start in the ring and start as a wrestling match but then would progressively get more violent as the match went on. Unfortunately a lot of people that would see a lot of the Cactus Jack and Terry Funk matches only paid attention to the spots where they were taking head shots with chairs in going through tables and didn’t even bother to try to get the psychology part. Like I didn’t even know what match psychology was but even the matches he had with undertaker I knew there was a build up and then at the big match it would start as a match and then it would lead to the violence. Today and this is been going on for a couple decades now you’ll have two wrestlers that don’t even have an existing feud with each other, no beef, no problems at all it’ll be their first match ever and both guys start the match trying to kill each other and stab each other and throw each other through Barbwire. It just looks like two stunt men trying to do every stunt they can as fast as possible within 30 minutes and without the psychology it just looks stupid.