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79-605: In May 1995, Atsushi Onita went into retirement and sold Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling to ring announcer Shoichi Arai . Under Arai, the company underwent changes that would phase out the deathmatch style that popularized FMW in the early 90s. Arai enlisted Kodo Fuyuki to bring in a more "sports entertainment" look and feel for the promotion. In 1999, this resulted in the creation of the World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) governing body for new championship titles. Fuyuki had originally intended to rename

158-634: A lumberjack match on December 20 and would continue to use this alternative character on several occasions. Onita lost the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Mr. Pogo's alter ego "Pogo Daiyo" on January 21, 1995. On February 24, Onita and his pupil Mr. Gannosuke defeated Pogo and The Gladiator to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Pogo and W*ING Kanemura on March 7. Speculation arose over

237-555: A no rope barbed wire electrified dynamite land mine time bomb death match , which stipulated that if Onita lost, he must retire and if Kanemura lost then W*ING Alliance would be forced to disband. Onita defeated Kanemura, forcing W*ING to disband. Onita became upset at the W*ING Alliance members Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka and Hido , who were upset as no group would accept them and he became enraged at FMW leaders Hayabusa , Koji Nakagawa and Masato Tanaka on their leadership of

316-495: A weapons deathmatch . On August 21, Onita formed a group called Team Zero with Kuroda, Hosaka, Yoshinori Sasaki and Mr. Pogo #2 and the group feuded with TNR throughout the fall of 1998. Onita's former rival Mr. Pogo returned to FMW and the two feuded with each other, with Onita defeating Pogo in a match on November 20 to end their rivalry in FMW once and for all. This would be Onita's last match and last appearance in FMW as he left

395-509: A Japanese independent promotion . Onita sold FMW to Shoichi Arai and retired from wrestling in 1995 to pursue an acting career, which was unsuccessful, forcing him to return as a wrestler in 1996. After returning to FMW, he led stables ZEN and Team Zero but departed the company in 1998 after disagreements over his position in the company. He held the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship

474-640: A Six-Man Tag Team Tournament. On July 31, Onita teamed with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga to defeat Mr. Pogo and Hisakatsu Oya to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship . Around the same time, Onita renewed his feud with Masashi Aoyagi, who had returned to FMW and attacked Onita after a match. Their rivalry culminated in a no ropes electrified explosive barbed wire barricade double hell match at Summer Spectacular , which Onita won. Onita defeated Mr. Pogo to win his sixth Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship on September 7. After

553-404: A few appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), in 1999, establishing himself as a heel, since he was a FMW employee, the crowd would not accept him on a NJPW ring, which prompted him to gain a lot of heat. During that time, he would cut promos insulting his interviewers (such as spitting water in their faces, physically assaulting and threatening them) and future targets. On January 4, during

632-652: A few weeks after him. He was known as a loyal ring attendant to AJPW promoter Giant Baba , who had accepted him into the dojo despite not having graduated from high school. In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, he and Fuchi toured Memphis, Tennessee , winning the AWA Southern Tag Team titles three times. When the junior heavyweight wrestling boom started in Japan, originally in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) under Tatsumi Fujinami and

711-712: A hiatus as he was unhappy with his position in the company. He made an appearance for FMW's working partner Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) on June 26 by costing The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer , a match against Dudley Boyz to set up a no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch against Sandman in ECW but the match never took place as Onita returned to FMW on July 20 to rescue Shoichi Arai from an assault by Team No Respect. At Atsushi Onita Presents Liar, Liar on August 11, Onita released his former ZEN teammates Hideki Hosaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda from Team No Respect's slavery and saved Shoichi Arai's job as FMW President by defeating TNR in

790-560: A record seven times and headlined the first six editions of FMW's premier Anniversary Show event from 1989 to 1995. Onita was the first true graduate of the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) dojo ( Jumbo Tsuruta had debuted first, but he had trained in Amarillo, Texas , with Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk ), debuting on April 14, 1974. In his early days he teamed with dojo classmate Masanobu Fuchi , who debuted only

869-528: A result, Onita reverted to being face along with ZEN. ZEN began feuding with the newly formed Team No Respect , which evolved from legitimate heat between Onita and Kodo Fuyuki , who was getting a lot of influence and booking power in the company. Onita wanted to return FMW to its old deathmatch style ideology while Shoichi Arai and Kodo Fuyuki were toning down the deathmatch content. On February 13, Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated TNR's Mr. Gannosuke, Yukihiro Kanemura and Jado to win

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948-456: A short period, he brought back his Great Nita persona, facing Keiji Mutoh's, The Great Muta in a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Explosive Land Mine match (also dubbed Double Hell Deathmatch ) on August 28, losing the match after Muta used Nita's kama to knock him down. One year later, he challenged Riki Choshu to a barbed wire deathmatch on July 30, 2000: Choshu accepted and came out of retirement to wrestle him. Choshu defeated Onita in

1027-584: A squash after launching him in the explosive barbed wires multiple times, and making him pass out while locking him in his finisher, the Sasori-Gatame. In 2001, he returned to AJPW for one night only, at the Tokyo Dome, to team with Terry Funk against Abdullah the Butcher and Giant Kimala. Whereas AJPW fans had already known Funk and Abdullah's willingness to brawl, Onita also played a huge part in

1106-570: A street fight. During this time, Onita also quietly ended his feud with W*ING Alliance as the group joined him in his feud with the Funk Masters of Wrestling. At the 8th Anniversary Show , the team of Onita, Masato Tanaka and W*ING Kanemura defeated Terry Funk, Cactus Jack and The Gladiator in a Texas Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch. Onita headlined the Fall Spectacular event on September 28, 1997, against W*ING Kanemura in

1185-503: Is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler . He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and is credited with introducing the deathmatch style of professional wrestling to Japan . He is a former All Asia Tag Team Champions alongside Yoshitatsu . Onita founded FMW in 1989, defeating martial artist Masashi Aoyagi under his own martial arts rules in

1264-705: The Barbed Wire Deathmatch Tournament . During this time, Mr. Pogo left FMW and Tarzan Goto turned on Onita once again to renew their feud and became Onita's arch rival. Onita defeated Goto in the first-ever no rope exploding barbed wire steel cage deathmatch at the very successful 2nd Anniversary Show on September 23 at the Kawasaki Stadium in Kawasaki , which would become the venue for FMW's major events in future. Onita and Goto reunited once again and they participated in

1343-810: The FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship . Title history [ edit ] Names [ edit ] Name Years WWA Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship January 7, 1990–February 27, 1991 WWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship February 27, 1991–August 28, 1993 FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship August 28, 1993–December 12, 1996 FMW Double Championship December 12, 1996–May 18, 1999 FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship May 18, 1999–August 25, 1999 Reigns [ edit ] Key No. Overall reign number Reign Reign number for

1422-615: The Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) banner titled Grudge in Nagoya and Grudge in Tokyo in October and headlined both shows against Aoyagi. He lost to Aoyagi at Grudge in Nagoya and defeated him at Grudge in Tokyo . Onita shortly after developed FMW into a full-time promotion, originally basing it around shoot style matches before transitioning the company into being Japan's first death match promotion – taking inspiration from

1501-716: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism . After retirement from politics, he lent his name and image to a Nintendo DS game, Atsushi Onita's Political Quiz . FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship Details Promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Date established January 7, 1990 Date retired August 25, 1999 Other name(s) WWA Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship WWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship Statistics First champion(s) Beast

1580-598: The Street Fight Tournament with former rival Grigory Verichev on December 7. He ended his feud with The Sheik by defeating him for the United States Championship on January 18, 1993; Onita later returned the belt to Sheik saying that Sheik deserved the title for holding it for over a decade. This earned him Sheik's respect and both men ended their feud and became allies. Onita's success streak continued as he defeated Terry Funk in

1659-471: The Summer Spectacular show on August 22. Onita successfully defended the title against W*ING's former ace Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch at Year End Spectacular , and then the two men became allies to feud with Mr. Pogo and his entourage. On January 6, 1994, Onita lost the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Mr. Pogo in a street fight. After losing

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1738-491: The World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . On October 19, Onita and Yukihiro Kanemura defeated Mr. Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship . Funk Masters of Wrestling came to an end as its leader Terry Funk left FMW, while the remaining members Mr. Gannosuke, Hisakatsu Oya and The Gladiator joined ZEN, which had now become the main villainous group in FMW against

1817-491: The World's Strongest Tag Team Tournament , which they won by defeating Grigory Verichev and Koba Krutanize in the final on December 9 to win the inaugural WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship . FMW phased away the martial arts style and emphasized on the deathmatch wrestling as its key feature during this time. Onita lost his World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship to Big Titan on January 15, 1992. Onita and Goto lost

1896-607: The Wrestling World Tokyo Dome event, he faced Kensuke Sasaki , losing by disqualification after throwing a fireball to Sasaki's face. Then on April 10, he wrestled Masahiro Chono on a No-Rope Explosive Barbed-Wire Death Match, ending in no-contest after both Chono and Onita were knocked out. Shortly after that, Onita allied himself with Chono and his Team 2000 faction against the nWo Japan . On July 21, he, Chono and AKIRA defeated nWo Japan's Hiro Saito , Hiroyoshi Tenzan and their leader, Keiji Mutoh . For

1975-548: The shoot style promotion Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) but his challenge was rejected and he responded by taking on martial artist Masashi Aoyagi in a ( worked ) martial arts fight for the World Karate Association (WKA) on July 2, 1989, during which Onita was disqualified for using wrestling moves on Aoyagi. In the aftermath of his fight for the WKA, Onita personally promoted two wrestling shows under

2054-543: The 100th All Asia Tag Team Champions . Two days later, Onita announced he was planning to retire from professional wrestling at a special event at Kawasaki Stadium in October 2017. On May 10, 2017, Onita announced his retirement tour, which would conclude with his final match on October 31. Onita's plans for Kawasaki Stadium had fallen through and his final match would instead take place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Onita claimed that this, his seventh retirement, would be his "true" retirement. On June 20, Onita and Fuchi lost

2133-724: The All Asia Tag Team Championship back to Aoki and Sato. Onita's retirement tour also took him to the United States, where he worked for Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) on August 5. Prior to his actual retirement, Onita retired the Great Nita character on August 27. On October 31, Onita's retirement took place in a six-man barbed wire match, where he teamed with Kai and Shingo Takagi to defeat Nosawa Rongai , Kazuyuki Fujita and Kendo Kashin by pinning Rongai. However, Onita came out of retirement,

2212-494: The Barbarian Final champion(s) Hayabusa Most reigns Atsushi Onita (7 reigns) Longest reign The Gladiator (490 days) Shortest reign Hayabusa (<1 days) The FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship was world heavyweight championship in the wrestling promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). It was one of the two premier championships in FMW, alongside

2291-1572: The Barbarian 1 10 Footnotes [ edit ] ^ The exact date when The Sheik rewarded the title to Tiger Jeet Singh is uncertain, which means that the championship reign lasted between 37 and 67 days. ^ The exact date when The Sheik rewarded the title to Tiger Jeet Singh is uncertain, which means that Singh's championship reign lasted between 19 and 49 days. References [ edit ] ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Japan: WWA Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories . Archeus Communications. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4 . ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Japan: FMW Brass Knuckles Title". Wrestling Title Histories . Archeus Communications. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4 . ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Japan: WWA Martial Arts Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories . Archeus Communications. ISBN   0-9698161-5-4 . ^ Hoops, Brian (January 15, 2019). "Pro wrestling history (01/15): Big John Studd wins 1989 Royal Rumble" . Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online . Retrieved January 18, 2019 . External links [ edit ] Title History at solie.org v t e FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champions Beast

2370-429: The Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship against Goto in the first-ever no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch at Summer Spectacular . After the match, Onita and Goto ended their feud by embracing each other and putting away their differences and then Onita began a legendary rivalry against Mr. Pogo, with Onita defeating Pogo in the first singles encounter in a street fight on August 25. Onita successfully defended

2449-517: The Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship against Pogo in a Texas Deathmatch at 1st Anniversary Show . Onita lost the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Grigory Verichev on February 27, 1991. Onita unsuccessfully challenged Verichev for the title in a rematch on May 5 and then received another title shot on May 29, where Onita defeated Verichev to regain the renamed World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship. On August 17, Onita defeated Jimmy Backlund , Ricky Fuji and Sambo Asako to win

WEW Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

2528-622: The FMW name with another promotion (called Onita FMW since he did not own the rights to the FMW name), but the promotion would fold after only three months. Onita would retire once again on September 23, 2003, losing a death match to The Great Sasuke , but this would not last long. Onita fought yet another retirement match on March 26, 2005, being pinned by Genichiro Tenryu . This also would be disregarded, as he would come out of retirement in May 2008 and would begin promoting his own cards again in July. In

2607-630: The FMW team led by Hayabusa. Onita and Kanemura were stripped of the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship in November due to Onita's inactivity and ZEN also lost the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Hayabusa, Hisakatsu Oya and Masato Tanaka during the Super Extreme Wrestling War tour. During this tour, Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura, along with Hido, grew upset at Onita for booking himself in

2686-421: The FMW team. On September 30, Onita held a press conference in which he publicly denounced himself as a FMW wrestler and formed a New World Order (nWo)-themed faction ZEN with W*ING members and FMW wrestler Tetsuhiro Kuroda . As a result, Onita turned heel for the first and only time in FMW history. On October 14, the team of Onita, Hido and Kuroda defeated Hayabusa, Koji Nakagawa and Masato Tanaka to win

2765-475: The Independent Tournament" was a sixteen-man single-elimination tournament held by Apache Army between July 25, 2012 and September 21, 2012. As of November 28, 2024, between the two lineages, there have been 30 recognized reigns between 17 champions and two vacancies (there are 2 reigns that are not recognized by FMW). Kodo Fuyuki was the inaugural WEW Singles Champion; Kintaro Kanemura was

2844-703: The United States. At the press conference for FMWE it was also announced that the first show would be held on July 4, 2021, at Tsurumi Fruit and Vegetable Market in Yokohama City. On October 31, 2021, in Trenton, NJ at the Trenton Thunder Ballpark, Onita stepped into the ring again with Matt Tremont to have an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch. The match was promoted by FMWE and Tremont's H2O Wrestling. Though he originally dropped out of high school, Onita returned to finish his education when he

2923-607: The World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship to Sabu and Horace Boulder in a no ropes barbed wire street fight deathmatch on May 7. Onita regained the World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship by defeating former boxing champion Leon Spinks in a cage match on May 24, which earned a rapid rise in popularity and stardom to Onita for having beaten a famous celebrity. A month later, Onita lost

3002-406: The World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship at ZEN's promoted show on May 5. Onita's team would lose after Nakagawa suffered an injury. Nakagawa continued to fake injury and would ultimately be revealed as the man responsible for breaking ZEN after he turned on Onita during a Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship match against The New Footloose on May 31. After the breakup of ZEN, Onita took

3081-414: The World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Onita's rivalry with Fuyuki would lead to a match between the two at 9th Anniversary Show , which stipulated that Onita must disband ZEN if he lost. Onita lost the lumberjack match and was forced to disband ZEN but he said that he would break the group only if Kodo Fuyuki, Yukihiro Kanemura and Hido would beat Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda for

3160-577: The Year End Spectacular event, the FMW team of Onita, Pogo, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeated Funk Masters of Wrestling's Terry Funk , Hisakatsu Oya and The Headhunters in a Texas Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch . Onita had supposedly returned to the company for only one match until he began working part-time for the company on March 14, 1997, by teaming with Koji Nakagawa , Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat The Headhunters , Hisakatsu Oya and The Gladiator in

3239-410: The children. This was all documented on film. Like fellow professional wrestler Scott Steiner , Onita has also claimed to have broken Wilt Chamberlain 's record of sleeping with 20,000 women. Coincidentally, his exit from politics was forced by a sex scandal in which he was alleged to have used government accommodations to host a threesome with a pornographic film actress and a female employee of

WEW Heavyweight Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

3318-459: The company after the match as Shoichi Arai refused to restore him as the promotion's ace due to Onita receiving backlash from FMW's roster due to his reputation as an egomaniac and selfish. He used the promotional names "USO" ( all caps version of the Japanese word for "lie"), "Jado" ("evil ways"; not to be confused with the wrestler of the same name ), "Onita Pro" and "Project X." Onita made

3397-514: The entire promotion to complete the reorientation from hardcore (FMW) to entertainment wrestling (WEW), but this plan was stopped by Arai. Eventually, both sides agreed on a new set of titles to replace the old FMW titles. As a result, from 1999 until the end of FMW in 2002, the WEW Singles Championship was the promotion's main singles title. Later, Fuyuki founded his own promotion (also called World Entertainment Wrestling) where

3476-465: The finals of a Grand Slam Tournament . — Vacated January 5, 1996 House show Tokyo — — The Gladiator vacated the title due to injury. 19 Super Leather February 23, 1996 House show Tokyo 1 94 Leather defeated Hisakatsu Oya for the vacant title. 20 The Gladiator May 27, 1996 House show Fukuoka , Fukuoka 2 489 Gladiator unified

3555-614: The first FMW World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion. 13 Mr. Pogo January 6, 1994 House show Tokyo 1 244 14 Atsushi Onita September 7, 1994 House show Sapporo , Hokkaido 6 136 15 Mr. Pogo January 21, 1995 House show Sendai , Miyagi 2 103 16 Atsushi Onita May 4, 1995 House show Sendai , Miyagi 7 1 — Vacated May 5, 1995 6th Anniversary Show Kawasaki, Kanagawa — — Atsushi Onita vacated

3634-601: The first time on January 17, 1990. Onita's first feud began in the summer of 1990 when Onita defeated Lee Gak-soo in a different style fight on May 19 and then the two showed respect to each other and teamed to defeat Mitsuteru Tokuda and Sambo Asako in a tag team match on June 2. Goto was irate at Onita for teaming with karate fighters and toning down professional wrestling and he brought in Mr. Pogo to FMW and Onita began feuding with Goto and Pogo. Onita defeated Goto in an empty arena match on June 24 and then successfully defended

3713-550: The first-ever no ropes exploding barbed wire time bomb deathmatch at the 4th Anniversary Show on May 5. Onita renewed his rivalry with Mr. Pogo, who returned to FMW in the summer of 1993 and the World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship was replaced with the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. Onita defeated Pogo in a no ropes exploding barbed wire time bomb deathmatch to win the vacant Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship at

3792-469: The following year, on October 28, 2018, for Pro Wrestling A-Team. Onita fought Matt Tremont to a no-contest. Later, the latter wanted him to be his tag team partner against Masada and DJ Hyde. On May 6, 2021, Onita announced the formation of a new promotion that would focus on Explosion Matches. The promotion is called FMWE, and they plan to have events shown online for fans to see all over the world. Onita also hopes to finally bring real Explosion Matches to

3871-454: The group for the rest of his retirement tour. As a result, Onita and Matsunaga broke up as a team and vacated the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship in October. On December 1, Onita debuted his alter ego "The Great Nita", which was based and stylized on The Great Muta . The team of Nita and Tarzan Goto defeated Hisakatsu Oya and Mr. Pogo in a no ropes exploding barbed wire double hell deathmatch. Onita would return as Nita to defeat Pogo in

3950-604: The inaugural WEW Heavyweight Champion. Kanemura has the most reigns at six and has the longest combined reign at 1,331 days (1,335 days recognized by FMW). He also has the shortest reign at 2 days. Tomohiro Ishii 's reign is the longest at 959 days. Kim Duk is the oldest champion when he won it at 70 years old, while Masato Tanaka is the youngest champion at 26 years old. As of November 28, 2024. Atsushi Onita Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Atsushi Onita ( 大仁田 厚 , Ōnita Atsushi , born October 25, 1957)

4029-431: The late 2000s and early 2010s, Onita kept on bringing Death Matches, (though mostly six-man affairs with Ichiro Yaguchi as one of his frequent partners), to promotions such as Osaka Pro Wrestling , Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Pro Wrestling NOAH . On December 12, 2014, he returned to AJPW to team with Fuchi and defeat the promotion's current junior standard bearers, Último Dragón and Yoshinobu Kanemaru . In April 2015, FMW

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4108-428: The main event match on December 19 against Masato Tanaka instead of booking Gannosuke and Kanemura's match. This exploded when the team of Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki and Masato Tanaka defeated Atsushi Onita, Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura in a WarGames match on December 22. After the match, Gannosuke and Kanemura attacked Onita and quit ZEN, along with Hido and Koji Nakagawa joined Onita as ZEN's newest member. As

4187-440: The main event of the second night of the promotion 's inaugural event. FMW later emerged as a full-fledged touring organization, moving away from martial arts-inspired shoot style matches and moving toward the rasslin' -inspired deathmatch style – which became popular with Japanese fans. He was the promotion's top star, wrestling in main event matches at sold-out events, making FMW a financially successful company, particularly for

4266-427: The match, Onita vacated the title due to his retirement from wrestling to pursue an acting career. During this time, he starred in the movie Dan Gan (Japanese for "bullet"), which would later be adopted as the nickname for Onita's pupil, Masato Tanaka . Onita's acting career flopped and he ventured a return to wrestling. After a sabbatical (getting his high school diploma, as he had dropped out of high school when he

4345-612: The match, and his team emerged victorious. In 2002, following FMW's closure Onita appeared briefly in WEW, run by Hiromichi Fuyuki. The storyline saw Onita blaming Fuyuki's "Entertainment Pro Wrestling" business strategy and supposed embezzlement of money for causing FMW to close, and appeared to be paving the road to an eventual match between Onita and Fuyuki before Fuyuki abruptly announced his retirement due to cancer that would eventually claim his life in March 2003. Onita attempted to resurrect

4424-443: The match, former W*ING wrestler Yukihiro Kanemura made his FMW debut and attacked Onita to avenge the demise of W*ING. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga visited Kanemura at hospital as Kanemura was getting treated for some burns which he had suffered during a past match. Onita accused Matsunaga of turning on FMW and mistrusting his loyalty and this angered Matsunaga, who then joined Kanemura and Mr. Pogo to form W*ING Alliance and Onita feuded with

4503-586: The money for their match against the Puerto Rican Army. Onita made his next appearance on October 28, where his former rival Mr. Pogo begged him to come out of retirement and team with him against the Funk Masters of Wrestling in Pogo's retirement match at Year End Spectacular . Onita initially rejected Pogo's request and then rescued Pogo from an assault by Funk Masters of Wrestling on November 26 and agreed to come out of his retirement to team with Pogo. At

4582-460: The new junior heavyweight ace of AJPW. On January 3, 1985, Onita retired for the first time due to accumulated injuries. After over three years recuperating from his injuries, Onita returned to the ring in December 1988 for Pioneer Senshi, an independent promotion , losing a martial arts –inspired bout to Ryuma Go . Following his return to the ring, Onita issued a challenge to the wrestlers of

4661-538: The original Tiger Mask , Satoru Sayama , Onita was picked as the ace of AJPW's makeshift junior heavyweight division. Baba was able to get Chavo Guerrero , who had been an early rival of Fujinami, to jump over to AJPW's side, and Guerrero brought the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship with him, effectively establishing it as AJPW's junior heavyweight cornerstone. Onita and Guerrero's subsequent feud over

4740-417: The past. On March 30, Great Nita lost to Pogo Daiyo in a lumberjack match. Mr. Pogo refused to be Onita's opponent at 6th Anniversary Show and then Takashi Ishikawa was finally selected as the ace until Hayabusa interrupted Onita at a press conference and volunteered to be his opponent at the event as Hayabusa had been convinced by Shoichi Arai , whom Onita had sold the company around this time. Hayabusa

4819-472: The person to succeed Onita as the promotion's ace. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga had been the original choice but citing that W*ING had failed with Matsunaga as the ace, Onita had to change the decision and give the spot to Tarzan Goto, who would be Onita's opponent in his retirement match at the 6th Anniversary Show. Goto left FMW and took away his pupils Mr. Gannosuke and Flying Kid Ichihara as he was upset for putting over Onita again after having done it so many times in

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4898-409: The scores and then Onita debuted his "Mr. Liar" character by saying that he was not going to retire immediately and that the retirement stipulation would take place a year later. Onita began his retirement tour which would conclude at the following year's 6th Anniversary Show . Onita reunited with Tenryu as the two teamed with Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow at WAR's 2nd Anniversary Show and the trio won

4977-549: The specific champion Days Number of days held No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref. Date Event Location Reign Days 1 Beast the Barbarian January 7, 1990 Battle Resistance - 1st Open Tournament Tokyo 1 10 Recognized as first champion. 2 Atsushi Onita January 17, 1990 House show Tokyo 1 406 The title

5056-528: The style of matches he had seen during his earlier stay in Memphis. Even as the deathmatch wrestling style become the main trademark of FMW, the promotion would continue to hold shoot style matches. Onita would bring in numerous karate and martial arts fighters to be part of the FMW roster in the early years of the promotion. The first street fight of FMW took place on December 4, in which Onita and Dick Murdoch defeated Jos LeDuc and Masanobu Kurisu. Onita

5135-460: The title due to his retirement. 17 Hayabusa June 27, 1995 House show Tokyo 1 <1 Hayabusa defeated Hisakatsu Oya for the vacant title. — Vacated June 27, 1995 House show Tokyo — — Hayabusa vacated the title due to injury. 18 The Gladiator September 26, 1995 Grand Slam tour Tokyo 1 101 Gladiator defeated Hayabusa in

5214-555: The title due to injury and awarded it to Kanemura. As a result, the title was split from the Independent Heavyweight Championship, reverted to being Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. 26 Hayabusa August 23, 1999 Goodbye Hayabusa II: Hayabusa Graduation Ceremony Tokyo 3 2 — Deactivated August 25, 1999 Goodbye Hayabusa II: Last Match Sapporo , Hokkaido — — The title

5293-568: The title spanned three promotions (AJPW, Jim Crockett Promotions , and Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre ), and, while not as spectacular as NJPW's junior heavyweight division, provided a solid alternative to heavyweight-style wrestling for AJPW fans. Onita took a hiatus from wrestling due to injury in April 1983. He attempted a comeback in May 1984. His last match prior to his retirement occurred on December 2, 1984, against Mighty Inoue. He would be replaced by his former tag team partner Masanobu Fuchi as

5372-428: The title to The Sheik on June 25 because of an injury sustained from an attack by Tiger Jeet Singh before the match. Sheik would later reward the title to Singh. Onita lost to Singh in a jungle deathmatch on June 30, before defeating him in a no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch to win his fourth World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship at the 3rd Anniversary Show . Onita continued his success by winning

5451-545: The title to Tiger Jeet Singh for helping him in beating Atsushi Onita for the title. 11 Atsushi Onita September 19, 1992 3rd Anniversary Show Yokohama , Kanagawa 4 337 Title replaced by the FMW World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. 12 Atsushi Onita August 22, 1993 Summer Spectacular Osaka 5 137 Onita defeated Mr. Pogo to become

5530-677: The title was taken over, renamed WEW Heavyweight Championship and given a new lineage. The last champion for a long time was Kintaro Kanemura , who won the title in August 2002. When WEW folded in May 2003, the title was also declared vacant, before being reactivated in September 2006 at Kanemura's Apache Pro-Wrestling Army . In 2018, two years after Apache Army closed its doors, the title was revived in Pro-Wrestling A-Team, an offshoot founded by Tomohiko Hashimoto . The "Takeover

5609-847: The title with the FMW Independent Heavyweight Championship by defeating W*ING Kanemura on December 11, 1996 and the title was renamed to Double Championship. This was the longest reign of the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. 21 Masato Tanaka September 28, 1997 Fall Spectacular Kawasaki, Kanagawa 1 100 22 Mr. Gannosuke January 6, 1998 New Year Generation tour Tokyo 1 114 23 Hayabusa April 30, 1998 9th Anniversary Show Yokohama , Kanagawa 2 204 24 Kodo Fuyuki November 20, 1998 Scramble Survivor tour Yokohama , Kanagawa 1 179 25 Yukihiro Kanemura May 18, 1999 House show Tokyo 1 97 Kodo Fuyuki relinquished

5688-432: The title, Onita began his next feud with Genichiro Tenryu after the team of Onita and Tarzan Goto defeated Tenryu and Ashura Hara at Wrestling and Romance 's Revolution Rumble when Onita pinned Tenryu. Onita and Tenryu competed in a no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch at 5th Anniversary Show on May 5, which stipulated that if Onita lost, he must retire from professional wrestling. Tenryu defeated Onita to even

5767-446: Was 16), Onita made a surprise return to FMW on March 15, 1996, along with his former rivals W*ING Alliance to rescue FMW's team from an attack by the Puerto Rican Army. He convinced the FMW wrestlers to challenge Puerto Rican Army at the 7th Anniversary Show and announced that he would be present in the crowd at the event. He also sold off his jacket that he wore for his retirement match at the 6th Anniversary Show to assist FMW team get

5846-678: Was again resurrected with Onita as its central wrestler. On July 11, 2016, Onita announced the foundation of a new promotion named Fire Puroresu, which was set to hold its first show on August 26. On July 24, Onita fractured his right arm in a match, where he lost the Bakuha-ō Championship to Masakatsu Funaki , putting his participation in Fire Puroresu's inaugural event at risk. On November 27, 2016, Onita returned to All Japan, where he and fellow first class graduate Masanobu Fuchi defeated Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato to become

5925-622: Was featured as the company's main star and the top fan favorite and headlined every show. His first Barbed Wire Deathmatch took place at Battle Creation as he teamed with Tarzan Goto to defeat Jerry Blayman and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga . After being eliminated by his frequent ally Tarzan Goto from the Battle Resistance tournament , Onita defeated Beast the Barbarian to win the WWA World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship for

6004-573: Was in his late thirties. In 2001, he won the 19th House of Councilors election as a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party , following Antonio Inoki and Hiroshi Hase to a seat in the Japanese Diet . One of his first major acts in office was to launch a post- 9/11 humanitarian mission to Afghanistan , where he performed professional wrestling matches in crudely constructed rings made of sticks and rope, to benefit

6083-909: Was renamed WWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship on February 27, 1991. 3 Grigory Verichev February 27, 1991 House show Tokyo 1 91 4 Atsushi Onita May 29, 1991 House show Tokyo 2 231 5 Big Titan January 15, 1992 House show Kobe , Hyogo 1 15 6 Tarzan Goto January 30, 1992 House show Tokyo 1 55 7 Leon Spinks March 25, 1992 House show Tokyo 1 60 8 Atsushi Onita May 24, 1992 House show Tokyo 3 32 9 The Sheik June 25, 1992 House show Sapporo , Hokkaido 1 10 Tiger Jeet Singh August 1992 House show Sapporo , Hokkaido 1 The Sheik rewarded

6162-792: Was retired and replaced with WEW Heavyweight Championship . Combined reigns [ edit ] Rank Wrestler No. of reigns Combined days 1 Atsushi Onita 7 1,280 2 The Gladiator 2 590 3 Mr. Pogo 2 347 4 Hayabusa 3 206 5 Kodo Fuyuki 1 179 6 Mr. Gannosuke 1 114 7 Masato Tanaka 1 100 8 Yukihiro Kanemura 1 97 9 Super Leather 1 94 10 Grigory Verichev 1 90 11 Leon Spinks 1 60 12 Tarzan Goto 1 55 13 Tiger Jeet Singh 1 49 14 The Sheik 1 37 15 Big Titan 1 15 16 Beast

6241-428: Was ultimately selected to be Onita's opponent in his retirement match. Just one day shy of his retirement match, Onita defeated Pogo in a barbed wire double hell deathmatch to win his record-setting seventh and final Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship on May 4. The following night at the 6th Anniversary Show, Onita successfully defended the title against Hayabusa in a no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch. After

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