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59-519: Kazuyoshi Osako and Kiyoshi Ibaragi were former FMW employees who formed their own hardcore wrestling promotion W*ING to compete with FMW but the company was unable to compete with FMW after the company's top fan favorite Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and top villain Mr. Pogo both defected to FMW in 1993. Another W*ING wrestler Hideki Hosaka defected to FMW as well and W*ING ultimately met its demise on March 21, 1994. The group consisted of former wrestlers from

118-682: A barbed wire spider net deathmatch . Hayabusa was injured after the match and Tanaka teamed with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Ricky Fuji of Lethal Weapon to defeat Matsunaga, Kanemura and Hido in the first WarGames match in FMW on February 23. The event also saw Super Leather win the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship from Hisakatsu Oya, who substituted for the champion The Gladiator. After the WarGames match, Puerto Rican Army debuted in FMW and attacked FMW and W*ING and

177-545: A falls count anywhere match to win the vacant Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship on October 28. W*ING would wrestle Onita and his FMW wrestlers in several matches throughout the fall of 1994. On January 21, 1995, Pogo competed under his alter ego Pogo Daiyo and defeated Onita to win the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to reach to the top of FMW's championship hierarchy. On February 6, Hideki Hosaka defeated Ricky Fuji to win

236-629: A lumberjack match . Hideki Hosaka lost the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship to Koji Nakagawa on the same event. Horace Boulder was brought in as the newest member of W*ING in April. Tarzan Goto quit FMW in April due to refusing to job to Onita in Onita's retirement match at 6th Anniversary Show and Onita chose Pogo for the spot but Pogo refused it because he was not approached first. As

295-611: A six-man tag team match to Kishin Kawabata , Takashi Ishikawa and Apollo Sagawa. Pogo and Kanemura lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Lethal Weapon members Love Guns (Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji) after a miscommunication took place between Pogo and Kanemura. After the match, Pogo blew fire on Kanemura to quit W*ING and joined Lethal Weapon. Gladiator and Horace Boulder followed him to Lethal Weapon as well. This positioned Lethal Weapon as

354-553: A Caribbean Barbed wire Thumbtacks Death Match. It would also end up being the very last show for Super FMW, although another show was originally scheduled for November 10, 2019, but due to poor ticket sales, it was rescheduled to March 29, 2020. Unfortunately, the show would be canceled due to COVID-19 and Super FMW quietly folded. Goto was married to Despina Montagas , and they have three sons. He had since remarried in December 2016. On May 29, 2022, Goto died from liver cancer at

413-471: A barbed wire deathmatch after Kanemura pinned Tanaka and the match stipulated that the winning person would face Onita at Fall Spectacular which would take place on September 28 at the Kawasaki Stadium . This earned Kanemura, a match against Onita at the event. W*ING promoted its final show on July 13, which was headlined by a barbed wire double hell deathmatch between Kanemura, Hido and Hosaka and

472-692: A feud between W*ING and Lethal Weapon. The formation of this faction would slow down W*ING's momentum as Onita chose Goto to succeed him as the promotion's ace and Goto replaced Pogo's spot as the top villain. On February 24, W*ING members Yukihiro Kanemura , Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Hideki Hosaka took on the new Lethal Weapon group in a losing effort. Later that night, Pogo and Gladiator lost their tag team titles to Onita and Mr. Gannosuke but Pogo regained it with Yukihiro Kanemura on March 7. On March 15, Onita and Pogo competed in their alter egos "The Great Nita" and "Pogo Daiyo" respectively, with Nita coming out victorious. However, on March 30, Pogo Daiyo defeated Nita in

531-606: A high-profile Caribbean barbed wire barricade spider net broken glass death match for Jack's King of the Deathmatch title which he had won in IWA Japan . Jack retained his title. After the event, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Jason the Terrible left FMW as Matsunaga joined Big Japan Pro Wrestling , reducing W*ING to only three members W*ING Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka and Hido. On June 12, W*ING Alliance held their first event under

590-481: A referee was present to make the pinfall . The OVW Hardcore Championship had a trashcan passed from wrestler to wrestler rather than a belt. The GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship had a unique stipulation in that if a challenger who was outweighed by the champion survived 15 minutes, he won the match and the title. Tarzan Goto Seiji Goto ( 後藤政二 , Gotō Seiji , August 16, 1963 – May 29, 2022) , better known by his ring name Tarzan Goto ( ターザン後藤 ) ,

649-408: A result, Pogo dropped the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Onita on May 4, just one day shy of the 6th Anniversary Show, so Onita could defend the title against his new chosen successor Hayabusa in his retirement match . At 6th Anniversary Show, Horace Boulder and Gladiator lost to Katsutoshi Niiyama and Masato Tanaka in a tag team match and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Hideki Hosaka and Hido lost

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708-562: A slow turn as fan favorites by joining FMW against the new Puerto Rican Army. On March 30, Faces of Dead lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Puerto Rican Army members The Headhunters after Super Leather turned on Jason the Terrible and joined Puerto Rican Army. W*ING competed in three matches at 7th Anniversary Show as Jason the Terrible defeated Nanjyo Hayato and the team of Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Hido and Hideki Hosaka defeated Puerto Rican Army members Toryu , Miguel Perez and Shoji Nakamaki. W*ING Kanemura challenged Cactus Jack in

767-559: A street fight and a barbed wire deathmatch respectively. On June 27, Super Leather debuted in FMW to replace the injured Kanemura as the newest member of W*ING by teaming with Hido and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga to defeat Horace Boulder, Mr. Pogo and The Gladiator in a street fight. Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka and Hido represented W*ING in the Young Lions Tournament, a round robin tournament consisting of newcomers of FMW, while Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda being

826-522: A tag team match on October 28, which Hayabusa and Matsunaga won. Super Leather and Hido questioned Kanemura and Matsunaga for turning on W*ING by siding with FMW. Hido joined Lethal Weapon but it was short lived as Matsunaga turned on Hayabusa during a tag team match against Mr. Pogo and Super Leather on November 20 while Hido and Leather turned on Lethal Weapon to reform W*ING and feud with FMW and Lethal Weapon. On January 10, 1996, Matsunaga, Kanemura and Hido defeated Hayabusa, Masato Tanaka and Koji Nakagawa in

885-427: Is often separated into distinct "levels" based on the graphic nature of the match: Hardcore matches tend to emphasize the use of certain weapons, the brutality of the attacks, moderate brawling techniques, and the extreme physical toll on the wrestlers, and thus many euphemisms for these matches are employed. The almost kayfabe -breaking accessibility of some of these weapons—often under the ring—to wrestlers has led to

944-495: The Heat Wave event , defeating Axl Rotten both nights. Goto also worked for International Wrestling Association of Japan from 1995 to 1999. Goto returned to one-night returns to AJPW in 2001 and 2002. In 1995, he formed Super FMW, which lasted from 1995 to 1998 in its first run and from 2009 to 2018 in its second run. His last match to date was on December 9, 2018, teaming with Reina Ayukawa and defeating Taro Ramen and Sase in

1003-588: The Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship , resulting in W*ING holding all of FMW's men's titles. The no rope barbed wire deathmatches between FMW and W*ING continued to headline FMW events into earlier part of 1995 to build momentum into Onita's retirement match at 6th Anniversary Show . During this time, Hisakatsu Oya left W*ING to form Lethal Weapon with Tarzan Goto and Ricky Fuji , thus beginning

1062-776: The Texas and Florida territories, dating from the 1950s. (The Texas title was taken by World Class Championship Wrestling when it split away). Brawling continued to evolve and grow in popularity in America through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Detroit territory was home to The Sheik , Abdullah the Butcher and Bobo Brazil , and featured long, bloody brawls. The Puerto Rico territory featured Carlos Colón , The Invader and Abdullah, and introduced fire as an element of violence. The Memphis territory featured Jerry Lawler , Terry Funk , Eddie Gilbert and Bill Dundee and introduced

1121-495: The American South. New match types were devised that resembled street fighting , such as matches which were held in a cage , Texas Deathmatches which incorporated weapons, and Lights Out matches which were 'unsanctioned' and took place after the rest of the scheduled card, once the house lights had briefly been turned off to signify the end of the event. The National Wrestling Alliance had brass knuckles championships in

1180-547: The Grand Slam Tournament and squared off against each other on August 31, where Matsunaga emerged victorious. Matsunaga turned into a fan favorite after showing respect to his opponent Hayabusa by shaking hands with him after Hayabusa defeated Matsunaga in a Grand Slam tournament match on September 24. This led to FMW and W*ING forming a brief alliance as Matsunaga teamed with Hayabusa to take on his W*ING Alliance teammate W*ING Kanemura and FMW's Masato Tanaka in

1239-816: The Hardcore-style matches that emphasize the spirit of JCW. Other euphemisms, such as the Good Housekeeping match and Full Metal Mayhem, emphasize the use of certain foreign objects as being legal (the former with kitchen implements and the latter with metallic objects). In a Fans Bring the Weapons match, wrestlers fight with "weapons" that members of the audience bring to the venue (most often brought are standard kitchen household appliances, like frying pans, toasters, or rolling pins, although its not unusual that fans occasionally bring in items that are far more improbable, like an artificial leg or LEGO); this

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1298-576: The Japanese promotions. A new gimmick , breaking wooden tables , was introduced to ECW through Sabu , nephew of The Sheik. Sabu had developed a gimmick of throwing himself through a propped-up table in Japan in order to entertain the crowd and get his character over as a wild and possibly insane man. He then started to put opponents through tables, a relatively safe spot which looked and sounded devastating. He brought it with him to ECW, where it became

1357-556: The NWA, the company changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling, and became the leading independent hardcore wrestling federation in North America. ECW coined the term "hardcore wrestling", but its usage there was slightly different from how it is used today. In ECW, 'hardcore' referred to a strong work ethic , high levels of effort, dedication to the fans, and lack of fluff or filler. Their level of violence rarely equaled that of

1416-583: The United States, he married female wrestler Despina Montagas. In 1988, he wrestled for World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. In 1989, he wrestled in Florida for Professional Wrestling Federation . In 1989, Goto returned to Japan after being proposed by the founder of the pioneering hardcore wrestling promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , Atsushi Onita . In August 1990, Goto had

1475-472: The United States, two independent promotions had brief but significant runs, serving as prototypes for Extreme Championship Wrestling. The Philadelphia-based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance held occasional supercards that featured big name stars among their own local talent, and showcased wild bloody main event brawls with Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik, Jesse James Sr. and others. The National Wrestling Federation (formerly known as Continental Wrestling Alliance)

1534-527: The W*ING banner titled W*ING Take Off 2nd , which was headlined by a street fight between Hido, Hideki Hosaka and Kanemura against Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in a losing effort. However, the W*ING Alliance received a positive reaction from the audiences of the old W*ING promotion. W*ING Alliance held more shows under the W*ING banner for the next few months. Kanemura and Hido participated in an eight-man single elimination tournament

1593-426: The W*ING promotion who joined FMW during 1993-1994 and held Atsushi Onita and FMW responsible for the company's end and their aim was to takeover and end FMW. Mr. Pogo and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga had been arch rivals in W*ING and they resumed their rivalry in FMW, which culminated in a street fight at Summer Spectacular on August 28, 1994, which Pogo won. Matsunaga was being groomed to succeed Atsushi Onita as

1652-589: The World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment, ladder matches , which had become more common, were now combined with tables and weapons matches to create Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches . ECW influenced wrestling organizations such as Xtreme Pro Wrestling , International Wrestling Syndicate , IWA Mid-South , Combat Zone Wrestling , and Juggalo Championship Wrestling , which carried on ECW's violent style after it went defunct. Hardcore wrestling has fallen out of favor in

1711-439: The advent of the now common "no holds barred" match marked the beginning of what is now known as hardcore wrestling. Methods were devised for wrestlers to make themselves bleed purposefully as part of their performance. During the 1950s and 1960s wrestlers such as "Wild Bull" Curry , "Classy" Freddie Blassie , Dory Funk, Sr. and Giant Baba were among those who introduced the bloody brawling style which caught on in Japan and

1770-533: The company as well. During this time, the Puerto Rican Army had become the Funk Masters of Wrestling and Kanemura faced Funk Masters of Wrestling member The Gladiator in a title unification match for Kanemura's Independent Heavyweight Championship and Gladiator's Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to determine the unified Double Champion at Year End Spectacular . Kanemura lost the match. In

1829-483: The empty arena match and fighting among the crowd into the concession stands , improvising attacks with whatever appliances could be found. More specialties such as ladder matches , scaffold matches and Dog Collar matches were introduced. The NWA eventually instituted a World Brass Knuckles Championship , which was active in the Tennessee territory from 1978 to 1980. In 1989, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW)

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1888-663: The fall of 1996, Atsushi Onita returned to FMW to fight Funk Masters of Wrestling and W*ING formed an alliance with FMW by siding with Onita. On April 25, 1997, Kanemura and Hido defeated The Headhunters to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship, ending Headhunters' year-long reign. At 8th Anniversary Show , Hido and Dragon Winger were defeated by Ricky Fuji and Ricky Morton in the opening match while Kanemura teamed with Atsushi Onita and Masato Tanaka to defeat Terry Funk, Cactus Jack and The Gladiator from Funk Masters of Wrestling. On May 25, Kanemura and Hido teamed with Onita to defeat Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda in

1947-583: The first-ever FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champions in the finals of a ten-team tournament defeating Gregory Veritchev and Koba Krutanize. He had several death matches for the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship against his former AJPW comrade, Atsushi Onita. On January 30, 1992, Goto captured the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship after defeating Big Titan . Due to the wind conditions, Goto's and Onita's fire deathmatch versus The Sheik and Sabu

2006-482: The first-ever exploding barbed wire match with Onita, which started a revolution between the small "garbage wrestling" organizations of Japan . Two months later, Goto and his wife Despina Montagas teamed up in Japan's first mixed tag team match, defeating Ricky Fuji and Megumi Kudo . He wrestled in many matches for FMW even one that he lost in which he tagged with Onita and lost to Sabu and Horace Boulder . In 1991, he and tag team partner Atsushi Onita became

2065-620: The focus of a feud involving multiple teams. The table spot became a staple of ECW events, and has become so commonplace that it is now incorporated into otherwise non-hardcore matches in almost every promotion. In Japan, hardcore promotions sprang up around the country, including Wrestling International New Generations W*ING , the International Wrestling Association of Japan and Big Japan Pro Wrestling . New elements included fluorescent light tubes, scattered thumb tacks , flaming ropes and live piranhas . In

2124-527: The frontman and leader of the W*ING Alliance. Kanemura was injured in an exploding barbed wire double hell deathmatch between W*ING Alliance and the team of Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on September 1, which put him out of action. On September 12, W*ING promoted their second show under the W*ING banner, which was headlined by Hido against FMW's ace Hayabusa in a losing effort. Dragon Winger joined W*ING in October and Kanemura returned to

2183-689: The major American promotions; the last major hardcore title was the WWE Hardcore Championship , which merged into the Intercontinental Title in 2002. However, WWE still features a yearly pay per view event based around hardcore wrestling called WWE Extreme Rules . In 2006, the MTV -affiliated promotion/show Wrestling Society X featured hardcore wrestling, but was cancelled after one season. The main rule behind hardcore can have various connotations. Thus, hardcore wrestling

2242-665: The mid-1990s, FMW eventually held female hardcore matches at the suggestion of Megumi Kudo . The first one was held between Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda as a deathmatch where the ring ropes were replaced with electrified barbed-wire with explosives. After the match, many female wrestlers had various brutal and bloody deathmatches in FMW with barbed-wire ropes, barbed-wire barricades, exploding barbed-wire barricades, electrified/exploding barbed-wire ropes, broken glass, or mixtures of any and all these. These matches often included various dangerous weapons such as barbed-wire wrapped chains, flaming barbed-wire baseball bats, and sickles . Most of

2301-928: The noun "plunder" in reference to them. For example, Street Fights and Bunkhouse Brawls are hardcore-style matches which emphasize that wrestlers need not be in typical wrestling gear when they are battling, while the No Holds Barred match emphasizes the no-disqualification rule, the "HardKore X-Treme matches are the version of hardcore rules match except weapons include flaming tables, flaming chairs, flaming weapons, razor wire, sheets of glass, and weapons that are covered in barbed wire, and Deathmatches that emphasize fluorescent light tubes, panes of glass, barbed wire, fire, thumbtacks, razor blades, gusset plates, syringes, needles, explosives, bed of nails, staple guns, concrete blocks, alive piranhas and all other foreign objects to provoke extreme and heavy bleeding. In WWE , Extreme Rules matches are hardcore-style matches that emphasize

2360-438: The other three participants. During the tournament, the W*ING members competed against each other as Hosaka defeated Kanemura on July 18 and Hido on July 19 and Kanemura defeated Hido on July 22. Kanemura reached the finals of the tournament against Tanaka on July 30, which he lost but both men qualified for the Grand Slam Tournament for the vacant Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. Kanemura and Matsunaga were both entered into

2419-449: The promotion's ace . On September 7, Onita defeated Pogo to win the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and Yukihiro Kanemura , a former W*ING wrestler made his FMW debut by attacking Onita after the match. Kanemura and Pogo, both former W*ING wrestlers formed an alliance and convinced Matsunaga to join them to form an alliance of W*ING alumni but Matsunaga did not make the decision. Matsunaga visited Kanemura at hospital after Kanemura

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2478-413: The ridiculousness they involved. Hardcore contrasts with traditional mat-based wrestling, where solid technical skills are preferred over hardcore's stuntworks, blood, sweat, gore, and severe shock value . As professional wrestling entered the mid 20th century, promoters and performers looked for ways to heighten audience excitement. Blood , while initially taboo , was found to be a significant draw, and

2537-454: The rivalry between the two that had been stemming from 1994 and W*ING Alliance disbanded as a result. Hardcore wrestling Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Hardcore wrestling is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow

2596-483: The spirit of its former competitor, Extreme Championship Wrestling . Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) dubs the Hardcore match as " Ultraviolent Rules " match, the hardcore-style matches that could involve and emphasize ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, glass boards, fire, staple guns, and the spirits of Combat Zone Wrestling . In Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW), " Juggalo Rules " match,

2655-682: The team of Tanaka, Nakagawa and Kuroda, which the FMW team won. Kanemura and Hido lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship to Funk Masters of Wrestling's Mr. Gannosuke and Hisakatsu Oya on August 21. Kanemura and Onita headlined the Fall Spectacular event on September 28 at the Kawasaki Stadium by competing in a no rope barbed wire electrified dynamite land mine time bomb death match , which stipulated that Onita would retire if he lost and W*ING Alliance would be forced to disband if Kanemura lost. Onita defeated Kanemura to end

2714-445: The top villainous group in FMW and W*ING began losing its significance. Following Pogo's departure, Kanemura began rising as the focal point of the W*ING group and he changed his ring name to W*ING Kanemura out of loyalty to the group during a match against Masato Tanaka on May 17. On May 28, Matsunaga and Kanemura defeated their former W*ING allies Pogo and Horace Boulder in a street fight. Kanemura and Matsunaga both lost to Pogo in

2773-424: The two sides joined forces to battle the new group. In late 1995, Jason the Terrible joined W*ING Alliance and he formed a tag team with Super Leather called "The Faces of Dead" and they defeated Hisakatsu Oya and Horace Boulder to win the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship on January 5, 1996. Super Leather defeated Gladiator in a rematch to retain the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship on March 15. W*ING began

2832-596: The use of numerous items, including ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, shovels, glass, baseball bats (sometimes wrapped in barbed wire) and other improvised weapons used as foreign objects . Although hardcore wrestling is a staple of most wrestling promotions, where they are often used at the climaxes of feuds , some promotions (such as Big Japan Pro Wrestling , International Wrestling Syndicate , IWA-MS , Game Changer Wrestling , Combat Zone Wrestling ) specialize in hardcore wrestling, with many matches performed in this manner. Hardcore wrestling

2891-569: The wrestlers who competed in these deathmatches, including some non-FMW rosters such as Shinobu Kandori , Lioness Asuka , and Mayumi Ozaki , were sent to the hospital afterwards. ECW's popularity led to the major American promotions of the 1990s, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation , creating divisions devoted exclusively to "hardcore" wrestling (which mostly amounted to no-disqualification weapons matches). The divisions were at first largely centered around ECW alumni such as Mick Foley , Terry Funk, Raven and Sandman . In

2950-864: Was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches against Atsushi Onita in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). In 1979, Goto joined a sumo stable , Kokonoe , but shortly afterwards he retired from sumo. Sanshō key: F =Fighting spirit; O =Outstanding performance; T =Technique     Also shown: ★ = Kinboshi ; P = Playoff (s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Goto debuted for All Japan Pro Wrestling on February 19, 1981, against Shiro Koshinaka . While in AJPW, he

3009-557: Was an exploding barbed wire dynamite pool elimination match in which Mr. Pogo and Hideki Hosaka teamed with The Gladiator against Onita, Mr. Gannosuke and Katsutoshi Niiyama. Pogo's team lost the match. The W*ING faction would strengthen with the addition of Gladiator, Goro Tsurumi and Hido . The Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship had been vacated after Onita and Matsunaga split from each other due to Matsunaga joining W*ING. W*ING started gaining championship success after Mr. Pogo and The Gladiator defeated Onita and Mr. Gannosuke in

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3068-471: Was based in New York state. Both TWA and NWF featured Larry Winters and D. C. Drake , who engaged in a long blood feud. The two promotions ended about the same time, and National Wrestling Alliance Eastern Championship Wrestling took their place, with many of the same wrestlers and venues. Eddie Gilbert was the initial booker, and was replaced a few months later by Paul Heyman . After splitting off from

3127-616: Was called off. He later became a two-time tag team champion with Gregory Veritchev. In February 1995, Goto formed Lethal Weapon with Hisakatsu Oya and Ricky Fuji . However, upset about possibly losing to Onita in his retirement match, Goto announced that he was leaving FMW in April 1995, just two days after no-showing an event in Korakuen Hall. After leaving FMW, Goto wrestled throughout the Japanese indies. He also contested two matches for Extreme Championship Wrestling in July 1996 at

3186-542: Was first acknowledged as a major wrestling style in Japan with promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and W*ING . It then became successful in America with Extreme Championship Wrestling . The World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment capitalized on the success and introduced the WWF Hardcore Championship in the 1990s. The WWF soon began to turn the matches into comedy skits, illustrating

3245-564: Was founded in Japan, the first promotion dedicated largely to the wild brawling style. In the early 1990s, the Puerto Rican promoter Víctor Quiñones arrived in Japan, being invited to FMW as the special manager. FMW escalated the violence to legitimately dangerous new levels, with barbed wire ropes, timed C4 explosives , exploding wire ropes, and " land mines ", known as "deathmatch". The federation featured many future North American stars, and became very popular worldwide. Soon after, in

3304-525: Was getting treated for suffering some burns during a match in W*ING and Onita misunderstood it and accused Matsunaga of betraying FMW. An enraged Matsunaga turned villain and joined Kanemura, Pogo and Hideki Hosaka to form the W*ING Alliance to avenge the demise of W*ING from Onita and FMW. On September 25, Kanemura and Matsunaga took on Tarzan Goto and Hisakatsu Oya , which ended in a no contest after Oya turned on Goto and triple teamed him with Kanemura and Matsunaga to join W*ING Alliance. The next match

3363-436: Was held for the new Independent Heavyweight Championship . Hido was eliminated after losing to Super Leather in the quarter-final while Kanemura defeated Koji Nakagawa, Super Leather and Masato Tanaka at Summer Spectacular to win the tournament and become the first Independent Heavyweight Champion. Hido also succeeded at the event by winning a battle royal . Kanemura's Independent Heavyweight Championship win established him as

3422-534: Was popularized in the United States by ECW and is now a specialty in CZW. Below is a list of some common weapons. In promotions where Hardcore wrestling is present, a Hardcore title may come into existence. This form of title is defended under hardcore rules, and title changes are frequent. Some hardcore titles may have their own unique rules. For example, the WWE Hardcore Championship was defended under 24/7 rules, meaning it could be defended and won at any time, provided

3481-752: Was student of Jumbo Tsuruta . In 1983, he won the Rookie of the Year award at Tokyo Sports' Pro Wrestling Awards. In November 1985, Goto went to the United States to wrestle. His first stop on his excursion was in Kansas City for the NWA Central States Wrestling . He'd also wrestle for Jim Crockett Promotions on shows within the area. In June 1986, Goto moved to Memphis, wrestling for Continental Wrestling Association , where he teamed with Akio Sato and managed by Tojo Yamamoto . While in

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