This is a FAN'S TRIBUTE-page to Atsushi Onita...
Atsushi Onita was born on October 25th, 1958 in Nagasaki, Japan. At the age of 16, Onita dropped out of high school to be a part of Giant Baba's All Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Nowadays, with his recent completion of high school, he is a sitting member of the House of Councillors as part of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. He is also the founder of the now-defunct Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW) promotion.
Wrestling biography:
When Tiger Mask was the top draw in the junior heavyweight division of New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the early '80s, All Japan Pro-Wrestling needed a junior heavyweight star as the answer to Tiger Mask. They picked Atsushi Onita, who was an assitant for Giant Baba in mid to late '70s. In '82, Onita defeated Chavo Guerrero for the NWA International Junior Heavyweight title, which was a title created by N.W.A. Los Angeles and New Japan. With this title, Onita became the top star of All Japan's junior heavyweight division (which wasn't big to begin with). After many matches with high flying moves, Onita injured his knee and was foreced to retire in '85.
In mid-'80s, the hottest thing in Japan was the UWF, which promoted "shoot style" matches. The idea of UWF style was to eliminate certain elements of wrestling in Japan, such as using ropes, brawling outside the ring, illegal moves, all while expanding on the idea of showmanship. Earlier in 1989, Onita went to a UWF show with "a letter of challenge" but was refused at the gate by the UWF president Jin, who said, "do you have a ticket for the card?" For some people, this was Onita's victory over UWF which refused Onita's challenge while claiming to promote "real stuff". In the UWF, certain tradtional pro-wrestling moves weren't used in order to keep the reality of the matches. Onita instead, chose the idea that everything should be included in puroresu.
On July 28, 1989, Atsushi Onita would announce he was starting his own promotion, Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW). On October 6th, 1989, the promotion held an event in Nagoya; a small independent show held by Onita who used the only 400 dollars he had to promote the show. The main focus would be independent wrestlers like Onita facing legitimate Karate fighters, like Masashi Aoyagi, who had never wrestled a professional wrestling match before.
The show would be a huge success, drawing over 1,000 fans in a sell out for the event. The fans would be extremely enthusiastic throughout the show, especially for the main event that would see Onita be brutalized and busted open by Aoyagi's hard kicks, until Onita's corner man seeing that Onita was not going to give up no matter what, decided to throw in the towel to prevent Onita from being seriously injured. Onita disgusted in Aoyagi's win would charge after Aoyagi, and a brawl inside the ring would occur between the wrestlers and the karate fighters, something that just had never been seen in 1989. Atsushi Onita would end up getting his revenge by defeating Masashi Aoyagi with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb on October 10, 1989 at Korakuen Hall.
FMW's notoriety would begin to expand from word of mouth, and pictures from the magazines of the brutal matches. Atsushi Onita was known by his fans as a poor guy, willing to fight for his beliefs, and was willing to shed blood in his matches. Onita and FMW's cult following would begin to get bigger as time would go by. A new style would begin to be emphasis in FMW, with Onita taking part in wild brawls that would take place all throughout the arena.
Due to the popularity in street fights for the promotion, Onita would decide to take it one step further, something that had never been done before. Taking the idea of barbwire matches that he had seen while in Puerto Rico, Onita would decide to put explosives on the barbed wire, with every time a wrestler being sent into the barbwire, an explosion would be set off.
On August 4th, 1990, Atsushi Onita's FMW promoted the first ever no-rope explosive-barbwire death match, where Onita defeated Tarzan Goto. Onita's idea of death matches started growing stronger since then, and he came up with the crazy idea such as surrounding the ring with mines, using time-bomb, etc.. This resulted his career to give him more than one thousand stitches on his body.
Throughout the early to mid 90's, Onita continued to hold shows across Japan, mostly at the legendary Kawasaki outdoor stadium. Thousands of fans witnessed Onita take on legendary names in wrestling like Gen'ichiro Tenryu and Terry Funk.
On May 5th, 1995, Onita had his retirement bout against Hayabusa, a young masked man with an extreme high-flying style. Although billed as Onita's "retirement match," Onita returns to wrestle just a few years later. Most notable is his invasion of New Japan Pro-Wrestling during the late 90's, where Onita made his company debut against Kensuke Sasaki on 1/4/99. Under a New Japan rule set, there were no deathmatch elements, yet Onita attacked Sasaki with a fireball, causing a diqualification.
On April 10th, 1999, Onita produced a 'No Rope Barbwire Explosion' match at the Tokyo Dome against company star, Masahiro Chono (this was one of only a few deathmatches produced in the promotion's history). During his time in New Japan, Onita provoked retired wrestler Riki Choshu to come out of retirement. The two finally met at Yokohama Arena on July 30th, 2000 and had an unforgettable match. Many considered it to be the most punishment Onita has ever recieved. Onita never gave up, yet the match was stopped due to Onita being unconscious.
Although currently a politician, Atsushi Onita still wrestles to this day.
Since his idea was totally different from the traditional pro-wrestling, many people called his stuff "a wrong way." Onita, however, responded, "a wrong way? Fine! But if you take the wrong way away from me, what would remain!?" His idea and attitude toward the sport made him not only an idolized figure of death matches but also one of the most charismatic stars in the history of puroresu.
Notable matches:
- Onita vs. Chavo Guerrero Sr. - (7/30/82)
- Onita vs. Tarzan Goto (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Deathmatch) - (7/4/1990)
- Onita vs. Mr. Pogo (Barbwire Barricade Explosive Land Mine Deathmatch) - (5/6/91)
- Onita vs. Sambo Asako (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Texas Deathmatch) - (8/17/91)
- Onita vs. Tarzan Goto (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Cage Bomb Deathmatch) - (9/23/91)
- Onita & Goto vs. Sheik & Sabu (No Rope Texas Tornado Tag Fire Deathmatch) - (5/6/92)
- Onita vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match) - (6/30/92)
- Onita vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match) - (9/19/92)
- Onita vs. Terry Funk (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Landmine Deathmatch) - (5/5/93)
- Onita vs. Mr. Pogo (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Barricade Deathmatch) - (7/24/93)
- Onita vs. Mr. Pogo (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Cage Bomb Deathmatch) - (8/22/93)
- Onita vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match) - (12/8/93)
- Onita vs. Geni'ichiro Tenryu (Explosive Barbwire Cage Deathmatch) - (5/5/94)
- Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Barricade Double Hell Deathmatch) - (8/28/94)
- Onita vs. Mr. Pogo (No Rope Barbwire Barricade Deathmatch) - (9/7/94)
- Onita vs. the Great Sasuke (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Landmine Double Hell Deathmatch) - (10/30/94)
- the Great Nita vs. Mr. Pogo (12/20/94)
- Onita vs. Hayabusa (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Cage Bomb Deathmatch) - (5/5/95)
- Onita vs. W*ING Kanemura (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Cage Bomb Deathmatch) - (9/28/97)
- the Great Nita vs. the Great Muta (No Rope Exploding Barbwire Barricade Landmine Deathmatch) - (8/28/99)
- Onita vs. Riki Choshu (No Rope Explosive Barbwire Deathmatch) - (7/30/2000)
Onita is currently a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.
You can visit their English site at this link:
Aside from full-time politics and occasional wrestling appearances, Onita has a music side-project. Onita has an album released in Japan, with another along the way.
credit to the following sites:
http://onita.co.jp
http://www.jimin.jp
http://en.wikipedia.org
Thanks to: Puroresu.com for added info.
