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91-516: 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

182-659: 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

273-530: 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

364-602: 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

455-459: A rivalry with FMW owner Atsushi Onita , as Fuji and Masanobu Kurisu lost to the team of Onita and Tarzan Goto in a match, a day later on May 13, marking Fuji competing in a FMW main event , just in his second match with the company. On June 2, Fuji competed in his first deathmatch , a stretcher street fight against Tarzan Goto, which Fuji lost. On June 6, Fuji received his first title shot in FMW as he unsuccessfully challenged Lee Gak Soo for

546-592: 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

637-549: A street fight , which Fuji's team lost. In the fall of 1991, Fuji and Asako participated in the World's Strongest Tag Team Tournament for the newly created WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship . They qualified for the play-off by scoring seven points in the round-robin stage and lost to the eventual winners Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto in the play-off. At 3rd Anniversary Show , Fuji teamed with Sambo Asako and The Great Punk against Big Titan, The Gladiator and Horace Boulder in

728-477: A stretcher street fight in a losing effort. On January 12, 1993, Ricky Fuji turned on his teammates The Great Punk, Mr. Gannosuke and Tarzan Goto in an elimination tag team match against the team of Big Titan , Dr. Luther , The Gladiator and The Sheik , which led to Fuji turning into a villain . He formed a faction with Titan, Luther and Gladiator called Team Canada, based on Fuji's own time in Canada in

819-435: A three-way dance . Fuji competed at FMW's first pay-per-view event 9th Anniversary Show , where he teamed with John Kronus in a loss to Jado and Gedo on April 30. On August 15, he resurrected his masked Black Tomcat persona from his days in Canada, for one night only on a Michinoku Pro Wrestling card, in which he lost to Super Delfin . Later that year, he joined Hayabusa's Team Phoenix to feud with Team No Respect . In

910-577: A Captain's Fall Losing Captain Leaves Town No Rope Barbed Wire Tornado Street Fight Deathmatch . Fuji then defeated Mercurio in his next major match at Summer Spectacular . In September, Fuji entered a tournament for the new Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship , in which he lost to Atsushi Onita, Jr. in the opening round. At Year End Spectacular , the team of Fuji, Titan and Gladiator defeated Sambo Asako, Katsuji Ueda and Grigory Verichev in

1001-463: 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

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1092-483: A couple major injuries, including a brain hemorrhage , which he fully recovered from. During his training, he would befriend other Japanese stars like Hiroshi Hase and his former NJPW Dojo mates Keiichi Yamada and Shinya Hashimoto . On June 28, 1988, Morimura made his professional wrestling debut in Stampede Wrestling against Hart's son, Ross , under the name Tiger Mask (not the same as Satoru Sayama ), at

1183-692: 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

1274-590: 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

1365-562: A loser leaves town match to Kid Chaos in June 1989, he unmasked and started wrestling under the ring name Ricky Fuji and adopted a rock star gimmick . During his time in the CIWF, he was scouted by the World Wrestling Federation after Bruce Hart introduced him to his brother Bret , but no deal was ever finalized, as they didn't know how to bring him in. Later that year, he would become

1456-405: A losing effort. A day later, on February 4, FMW held its last event and Shoichi Arai closed the company due to bankruptcy on February 15. Since FMW's closing, Fuji has been wrestling as a freelancer for various Japanese independent promotions , including Wrestling Marvelous Future, Apache Pro-Wrestling , and FREEDOMS . On September 17, 2011, Fuji teamed with Bambi and Yuji Hino to win

1547-473: A loss to Tarzan Goto and his wife Despina Montagas . At the promotion's 1st Anniversary Show in November, Fuji teamed with Akihito Ichihara against The Shooter and Billy Mack in a losing effort. In January 1991, Fuji teamed with Tarzan Goto to participate in a tag team tournament , in which the team qualified for the knockout stage by scoring three points in the round-robin stage . They were eliminated from

1638-541: A mid-card wrestler on the FMW side, often assisting him in his rivalries with Mr. Gannosuke and Kodo Fuyuki . Fuji competed in the opening match of the 8th Anniversary Show , teaming with Ricky Morton to defeat Hido and Dragon Winger . At Shiodome Legend , Fuji successfully defended the CRMW North American Middleweight Championship against Hayato Nanjyo. He lost the title to Gedo on August 31. At Fall Spectacular , Fuji participated in

1729-618: A mid-carder, who initially teamed and feuded with the promotion's founder Atsushi Onita on several occasions. He was a part of many groups including Team Canada and Lethal Weapon during the mid-1990s while also achieving success in the company's junior heavyweight division , winning the AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship once each. Masanori Morimura started training in

1820-511: 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. Ricky Fuji Masanori Morimura ( 森村 方則 , Morimura Masanori ) (born September 27, 1965) better known under his ring name Ricky Fuji ( リッキー・フジ , Rikkī Fuji )

1911-408: 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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2002-732: A show in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. After a couple of matches, he evolved into Black Tomcat. In August 1988, Black Tomcat was one of many wrestlers cut from Stampede, and joined the North Western Wrestling Federation and later won the promotion's Junior Heavyweight Championship, his first title, after defeating Steve Gillespie. In March 1989, Black Tomcat left the NWWF for the Canadian Independent Wrestling Federation, ran by Les Thornton . After losing

2093-562: 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

2184-549: 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

2275-432: A street fight. In early 1994, Fuji participated in a tournament for the new Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship , in which he was paired with Terry Simms, losing to Jinsei Shinzaki and Masaru Toi in a barbed wire street fight in the first round, leading to Fuji and Simms being demoted to Loser's Block B, where they ended up losing to Hideki Hosaka and Hisakatsu Oya in a barbed wire deathmatch. In April, Fuji entered

2366-522: 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

2457-509: A tag team match. On May 22, 2001, Fuji reunited with former Lethal Weapon member Hisakatsu Oya and Flying Kid Ichihara to defeat Azusa Kudo, Shinjuku Shark and Naohiko Yamazaki for the vacant WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship, winning the title for a second time. They held the title for two months until losing to Kodo Fuyuki, Mr. Gannosuke and Kintaro Kanemura on July 30. On February 3, 2002, Fuji wrestled his last FMW match, in which he teamed with Shinjuku Shark against GOEMON and Hisakatsu Oya in

2548-407: A twelve-man Royal Rumble match , where he lasted until the final two when he was eliminated by Tetsuhiro Kuroda . His success dwindled in FMW and was relegated to mid-card matches. He balanced competing in singles, tag team, and six-man tag team matches. On January 7, 1998, Fuji wrestled a special match under the ring name Morimura on a ZEN -produced show, defeating Sunao Gosaku and El Pandita in

2639-418: Is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Action Advance Pro Wrestling , where he also runs the day-to-day operations. He is perhaps best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he wrestled between the promotion 's early days in 1990 until the promotion's closure in 2002, making him the longest-tenured wrestler in the company's history. Fuji initially joined FMW as

2730-427: 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

2821-564: The 2000 Super J-Cup , where he defeated Sasuke the Great in the first round, but lost to Gran Hamada in the quarterfinals. The following month, Fuji defeated Crazy Boy in the opening match of the 11th Anniversary Show . Later that year, Fuji gained a victory over former tag team partner Chocoball Mukai in the opening match of the Deep Throat pay-per-view. At 12th Anniversary Show , Fuji teamed with Makita to defeat Morita and Yoshihito Sasaki in

W*ING Alliance - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-489: The AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship . Tarzan Goto would soon enter a feud with Onita and Fuji formed an alliance with Onita's rivals Tarzan Goto and Mr. Pogo in the summer of 1990. On July 22, Fuji participated in a thirteen-man battle royal , which took place in a ring placed in the Miyazaki Nichinan Sea . Fuji went on to win the battle royal by last eliminating Kim Hyun Hwan. At Summer Spectacular , Fuji

3003-474: 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

3094-554: The Last Match pay-per-view on August 25, Fuji teamed with Naohiko Yamazaki in a loss to Super Leather and Chris Youngblood . At 10th Anniversary Show on November 23, Fuji teamed with Chocoball Mukai and Flying Kid Ichihara to defeat Team No Respect members Koji Nakagawa , Jado and Gedo in a ladder match to win the vacant WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship . They lost the title to Nakagawa, Jado and Gedo on December 11, ending their reign at eighteen days. In April 2000, Fuji entered

3185-842: The NJPW Dojo in 1984, but left the dojo because he was "young and dumb". While at the NJPW Dojo, he wanted to be a UWF fighter instead. When he failed to join UWF, he realized he ruined his chances at beginning his career in Japan. He then left Japan in January 1987 for a training expedition in Canada , where he was trained in the Dungeon by Stu Hart and his right-hand man, Mr. Hito . During his time training in Calgary, he suffered

3276-762: 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

3367-655: The W*ING Alliance to capture the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship and their tag team was named Love Guns, Lethal Weapon's resident tag team. Following the departure of Tarzan Goto, Fuji and Oya would later recruit The Gladiator , Mr. Pogo and Horace Boulder into Lethal Weapon. The group would briefly takeover W*ING Alliance as the top villainous faction in FMW. Fuji and Oya lost the Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship four months later to Daisuke Ikeda and Yoshiaki Fujiwara on September 5. During

3458-512: The inaugural Super J-Cup tournament, where he defeated Negro Casas in the first round, but lost to Jushin Thunder Liger in the quarter-final round. The following month, in May, Fuji teamed with his Team Canada stablemates Big Titan and The Gladiator to take on WAR 's Fuyuki-Gun ( Hiromichi Fuyuki , Jado and Gedo ) in an interpromotional six-man tag team match at 5th Anniversary Show . During

3549-488: 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

3640-526: The Chiba Six Man Tag Team Championship after defeating Little Galaxy ( Hiro Tonai , Shiori Asahi and Yuki Sato). The championship is Fuji's first in a major promotion since May 2001. On October 2, Fuji, Bambi and Hino were successful in their first title defense after defeating Daigoro Kashiwa, Marines Mask II and Tigers Mask . On January 4, 2012, Kaientai Dojo confirmed that they signed Ricky Fuji for one year; he has remained with

3731-538: 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

W*ING Alliance - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-796: 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

3913-506: The Independent World Junior Heavyweight title from Hiroki, ending his nearly 15-month reign. He would hold onto the title for nearly four months, before losing the title to Nanjyo Hayato. On June 16, Fuji and Daigoro Kashiwa defeated Hiroki and Yuji Hino to win the vacant Strongest-K Tag Team Championship . They lost the title to Kazma Sakamoto and Kengo Mashimo on September 16. Upon Taka Michinoku's departure and

4004-519: 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

4095-546: 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

4186-528: 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)

4277-520: 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

4368-426: 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

4459-573: 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

4550-439: 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

4641-519: 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

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4732-670: The departure of Big Titan from FMW in December. On December 20, 1994, Fuji defeated The Great Sasuke to win the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship . He successfully defended the title against Battle Ranger Z in his first title defense on January 6, 1995. He lost the title to Hideki Hosaka in his second title defense on February 6. Soon after the title loss, Fuji formed a new faction called Lethal Weapon with Tarzan Goto and Hisakatsu Oya , although Goto would soon after leave FMW in April 1995. At 6th Anniversary Show , Fuji and Oya defeated Mr. Pogo and Yukihiro Kanemura of

4823-478: 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)

4914-434: The fall of 1995, Lethal Weapon began transitioning into fan favorites after W*ING Alliance betrayed both FMW and Lethal Weapon during a tag team match. Lethal Weapon would then side with FMW to feud with W*ING. Fuji headlined December's Year End Spectacular event by teaming with Super Delfin and Taka Michinoku against the team of Hayabusa , The Great Sasuke and Koji Nakagawa in a losing effort. Fuji participated in

5005-663: 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

5096-663: The fall of 1998, Fuji participated in an Over the Top Tournament to determine the #1 contender for the FMW Double Championship (the unified Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship and the Independent Heavyweight Championship ), where he lost to Masao Orihara in the opening round at ECW/FMW Supershow I . On May 5, 1999, Fuji took on Minoru Tanaka in a match for the vacant Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship , which Tanaka won. In

5187-562: The first WarGames match in FMW history on February 23, 1996, by teaming with Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat W*ING Alliance members Hido , W*ING Kanemura and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga , thus ending the feud of FMW and Lethal Weapon against W*ING. The match was followed by the debut of the new group Puerto Rican Army, which took over as FMW's new villainous group by luring away several key members of W*ING and Lethal Weapon. At 7th Anniversary Show , Fuji teamed with The Rock 'n' Roll Express ( Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson ) to defeat

5278-438: The first time in his career as he teamed with Onita on the following day against Pogo and Gran Mendoza in a losing effort. In September, Fuji entered a tournament for the vacant World Light Heavyweight Championship, defeating Jang Yong Wow in the quarter-final before losing to eventual winner Katsuji Ueda in the semi-final. On October 26, Fuji participated in Japan's first intergender tag team match , teaming with Megumi Kudo in

5369-606: 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

5460-522: 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

5551-485: The knockout stage by losing to Atsushi Onita and Sambo Asako in the quarter-final on January 15. He continued to team with Goto and Onita to wrestle Mr. Pogo and his allies in several matches. On May 29, Fuji was booked to win his first title in FMW by defeating Jimmy Backlund to capture the World Light Heavyweight Championship . He began feuding with Mark Starr after successfully defending

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5642-665: 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

5733-546: The match, a miscommunication took place between Titan and Gladiator. Gladiator won the match for his team but then abandoned Fuji and Titan after the match. Fuji toured a few events for Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW) in June, where he won the vacant Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling's (CRMW) North American Mid-Heavyweight Championship by defeating Terry Boy on June 16. Fuji then returned to FMW, defeating Mach Hayato at Summer Spectacular . Shortly after, Team Canada disbanded after

5824-665: 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

5915-921: 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

6006-438: 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

6097-409: The past. Sheik would eventually depart the group to form an alliance with Atsushi Onita . Team Canada quickly became FMW's top villainous group and feuded with the likes of Onita, Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke , The Sheik and Sabu among others. At 4th Anniversary Show , Fuji teamed with his Team Canada stablemates Big Titan and The Gladiator, defeating Katsuji Ueda , The Great Punk and Tarzan Goto in

6188-444: The promotion ever since. On February 5, 2012, Fuji had a chance to win the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship at a Freedoms show against Hiroki , but failed. After the match, he got on the microphone and announced his goal of winning the belt by the end of the year, after looking at the "FMW" letters still engraved on the belt. On January 26, 2013, after nearly a year after his announced his intentions, Fuji finally won

6279-449: 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

6370-617: The promotion's final Junior Heavyweight Champion, before the promotion folded by the end of 1989. In January 1990, Fuji returned to Japan and trained with former NJPW star Masanobu Kurisu and was offered a spot in the upstart promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling by Atsushi Onita , which he accepted. Upon debuting for FMW in May 1990, Fuji quickly became over with the fans, particularly among female fans, due to his Shawn Michaels -inspired gimmick and promo skills. He debuted for FMW by defeating The Shooter on May 12, 1990. He quickly established himself as an arrogant villain and entered

6461-411: The renaming of the company to Action-Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW) in 2019, Fuji was chosen to run the day-to-day operations, as well as being in the active roster. In January 2020, Fuji announced that 2AW is now the Japanese affiliate for Allied Independent Wrestling Federations. On March 4, 2015, it was confirmed by Flying Kid Ichihara and Choden Senshi Battle Ranger that Ricky Fuji is confirmed as one of

6552-413: 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

6643-454: 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

6734-453: The seven FMW originals to rejoin FMW. On April 21, 2015, Fuji defeated Battle Ranger in the opening match of the promotion's first show in 13 years. Outside of wrestling, Fuji runs his own gym in Chiba called Endo's Gym, and also plays in two rock bands, Crazy Crew (which includes The Great Sasuke and Ken45° ) and The Heavyweighters. On September 7, 2022, Fuji collapsed at his home in Chiba. He

6825-478: 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,

6916-537: The summer of 1999, Fuji began feuding with the FMW President Shoichi Arai after Arai turned on FMW to join Team No Respect, leading to a match between the two at Haunted House , which Arai won after Giant Steele made his FMW debut and attacked Fuji. Fuji would eventually gain revenge by teaming with Masato Tanaka to defeat Kodo Fuyuki and Shoichi Arai at Hayabusa Graduation Ceremony on August 23. At

7007-660: The team of Crypt Keeper, Boogie Man and Freddy Krueger. On July 31, Fuji, Oya and Gladiator unsuccessfully challenged Koji Nakagawa, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda for the World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship . On September 15, Fuji's tag team partners Horace Boulder and The Gladiator turned on Fuji after the trio lost a match to Hideki Hosaka, Hido and Taka Michinoku. The entire Lethal Weapon group turned on Fuji to join Puerto Rican Army, thus forcing Lethal Weapon to disband. Following Lethal Weapon's disbandment, Fuji aligned himself with Hayabusa and began competing as

7098-666: 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

7189-669: The title against Starr in his first title defense on June 21. On August 17, Fuji entered the Barbed Wire Deathmatch Tournament , in which he defeated Starr in the quarter-final round before losing to eventual winner Atsushi Onita via forfeit in the semi-final. Fuji dropped the World Light Heavyweight Championship to Starr on August 24. At the 2nd Anniversary Show in September, Fuji was paired with Sambo Asako against Big Titan and The Gladiator in

7280-445: 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

7371-424: 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

7462-596: 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

7553-569: 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

7644-557: 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

7735-466: 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

7826-527: 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

7917-558: 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

8008-525: 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

8099-436: 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

8190-405: Was paired with Mr. Pogo and Katsuji Ueda as the trio defeated Kim Hyun Han, Lee Gak Soo and Sambo Asako in a six-man tag team match . Fuji received another shot against Lee Gak Soo for the World Light Heavyweight Championship on August 18 but failed to win the title. On August 20, Fuji and Pogo lost a street fight to Atsushi Onita and Sambo Asako, after which Fuji turned into a fan favorite for

8281-531: 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

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