1996 - Year In Review, By Mike Lorefice

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Big Japan ran Korakuen Hall on 5/22 with a sick exploding balloon thump tacks death match. The balloon was in the air over the ring and at the 7:30 mark it exploded and dropped 30,000 thump tacks into the ring. Kendo Nagasaki & Seiji Yamakawa defeated Shoji Nakamaki & Axl Rotten when Yamakawa DDT'd Axl on the tacks. Yamakawa was powerbombed onto the tacks earlier in the match.

The main angle started at the Rikidozan show when New Japan wrestlers made fun of the poor working garbage promotions. This led to Big Japan wrestlers challenging New Japan to interpromotional matches, which were held on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome.

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling

Victor Quinones debuted with at FMW's 2/23 show at Korakuen Hall. The main event saw Masato Tanaka, Riki Fuji, & Tetsuhiro Kuroda defeat Hido, W*ING Kanemura, & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a War Games cage match. After the match, Quinones, Mr. Pogo, and the Headhunters attacked both teams. Quinones was brought in as FMW's booker and not surprisingly brought all his cronies with the bad gimmicks like Crypt Keeper with him.

FMW ran their traditional major show of the year on 5/5 at Kawasaki Stadium. The crowd of 33,231 was way down from the Onita days, but was still a success. Onita was in attendance to see the first ever womens no rope electrified explosive barbed wire death match between Noriyo Combat Toyoda & Megumi Kudo. This was the 28-year-old Combat's retirement match. Kudo won the match in 21:26 with the reverse Gori special bomb. This was a very dramatic match. Wrestling wise, this was the best of this type of gimmick match because they actually wrestled a strong match rather than just built to explosions. This made the few explosions more meaningful. In her win, Kudo captured the WWA World and Independent World womens title. You like to see people retire with a win, but this made sense because from this point forward Kudo would have to carry the women's division on her back. The main event was a no rope electrified explosive barbed wire time bomb land mine double hell death match. Mr. Pogo & Terry Funk defeated Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka in a very good, very bloody match. Hayabusa, who came back from his injuries too soon, was cut to hell and required 110 stitches. Tanaka was the luckier of the losing team as he only needed 65 stitches. Hayabusa's mask was ripped off after the match. This match was billed as being for the equivalent of $200,000. Hayabusa cried in the dressing room after the match because he lost his mask, the match, and "the company's money." Also on the card, TAKA Michinoku defeated Koji Nakagawa for the Independent World jr. Title in 15:49 with the Michinoku driver II. The Head Hunters & Super Leather became the first World Street Fight Six-man champions by defeating Horace Boulder, Hisakatsu Oya, & The Gladiator in 19:59. In a barbed wire barricade spider net broken glass death match, Cactus Jack remained King of the Death Matches by pinning W*ING Kanemura with an underhook DDT at 16:49.

FMW's major show of the summer was 8/1 at the Shiodome in Tokyo. Mr. Pogo was injured taking a bump off the ring apron into the boards with explosives, glass, & barbed wire. Pogo lay motionless, so Funk decided to light him on fire. Poor Pogo suffered a serious neck injury and was in the hospital with temporary paralysis. In his first match since 5/5, Hayabusa defeated Koji Nakagawa via count out in 21:42. Hayabusa got no reaction coming out and during the match for that matter, but that could be because both were faces or because the match sucked. Both men were way below par and the bad finish certainly didn't help. W*ING Kanemura defeated Masato Tanaka in the finals of the tournament for the newly created Independent World heavyweight title. This was one of the best FMW matches of the year. Kanemura got the victory at 14:47 with a ThunderFire powerbomb.

Head Hunters & Oya won the World 6-man titles on 11/16 in Osaka defeating Tanaka, Nakagawa, & Tetsuhiro Kuroda. After the match, they kept beating on the heels so Pogo & Hayabusa tried to make the save. Pogo was destroyed by the Hunters and sent back to the hospital. This set up the Hunters as opponents for Pogo in his retirement match on 12/11.

FMW's final major show was a sellout on 12/11 in Tokyo at Komazawa Olympic Park Gym. Onita returned to action, teaming with Pogo, Tanaka, & Kuroda to defeat Funk, Headhunters, & Oya. Tanaka pinned Hunter A with a back suplex in 23:04 of this Texas street fight tornado death match. This was the end of Quinones stint as booker in FMW. Hayabusa pinned Sasuke following his falcon arrow in 19:12. Thankfully the stupid death match stipulations for this match were dropped. Gladiator defeated W*ING Kanemura to unify the World Brass Knucks Title & Independent world heavyweight title. In a juice fest, LLPW's Shinobu Kandori defeated Megumi Kudo in 14:30.

International Wrestling Association Japan

This group sealed their fate, or at least it seemed that way, by deciding to stop booking most foreign talent. The idea of saving on salary and transportation was a good one, but building a promotion around washed up wrestlers like Great Kabuki, Tarzan Goto, & Umanosuke Ueda didn't work. Even more important than losing the foreigners was the loss of Shoji Nakamaki. Nakamaki was the ideal IWA wrestler as he has no regard for his body. The main difference between him and the aforementioned aside from Nakamaki's willingness to take the craziest bumps is that Nakamaki was already over.

IWA's 6/4-6/8 tour drew poorly. They didn't even draw 1,000 at Korakuen Hall. This led to the cancelation of the planned Kawasaki Stadium show in August.

IWA copromototed two shows with ECW on 8/10 at Yokohama Bunka Gym and 8/11 at Korakuen Hall. The first show drew only 1,800 in the 4,900-seat arena, but the second show sold out Korakuen Hall. These shows had lousy lineups and based on what ECW aired of the second show were bad. Horrible working ECW scrub Buh Buh Ray Dudley had a terrible match with Katsumi Hirana the first night. The second night, Buh Buh lost to Tarzan Goto in a 4:38 main event. A main event that's shorter than 5 minutes should tell you something about that match. Eliminators had a stupid match where they treated Keisuke Yamada Takashi Okano as jobbers. Basically both groups, but IWA in particular, showed their lack of a talent base.

IWA suspended operations after the 10/26 show. At first it looked like the group was out of business for good, but they are restarting this month. With around 30 promotions running in Japan it's impossible for all or even most to be financially successful. 22-year-old worker Keisuke Yamada is now the president of this promotion.

Tokyo Pro Wrestling

The first debacle Abdullah the Butcher match came on 6/24 at Korakuen Hall. Abby faced Sabu and there was obviously a huge style clash. Abby wanted a bloodbath, but Sabu doesn't want to blade anymore. Sabu wanted to fly, but the ancient Butcher didn't want to take the crazy bumps. The match which headlined Korakuen Hall only sold 1,400 tickets. The poor match wound up being ruled a no contest at 4:27.

Tokyo Pro ran a free show at Atani Sun Beach on 7/23 that was reportedly viewed by 65,000. It didn't make Woodstock look like a backyard barbecue, but exposed the group to a crowd that was more than 30 times better than usual. Abdullah the Butcher & Daikokubo Benkei defeated Kishin Kawabata & Takashi Ishikawa.

Tiger Mask Sayama formed a strange team with Yoji Anjoh to capture the TWA tag titles on 8/25 in Yokohama. The duo defeated Abdullah & Daikokubo Benkei in the finals. I can't imagine seeing Sayama work with Abby. Also on the card Sabu pinned Black Wazma (2 Cold) and Gekko was DQ'd for dropkicking the ref, but the crowd hates screw jobs so he wrestled Dandy for 5 more minutes before the time limit expired.

Tokyo Pro had a major failure by drawing less than 1,500 at 6,500 seat Osaka Furitsu Gym on 10/8. Takada defeated Butcher in a match marred by one of the biggest style clashes of all-time. Takada basically took the $27,000 and ran in this one. Yoji Anjoh won presidency of the company when he defeated former president Takashi Ishikawa.

Goto's group, Fuyuki's group, & Anjoh's group all joined Tokyo Pro. This gives the group some major names although there will undoubtedly be an ego clash.

Takashi Ishikawa, who founded Tokyo Pro, wound up out of power due to the restructuring and left Tokyo Pro. Ishikawa returned to WAR where he worked before forming Tokyo Pro.

Tokyo Pro's final major show was 12/7 at Tokyo Sumo Hall. This again proved that this group doesn't have the drawing power to successfully run a large arena. Abby defeated Ryo Miyake in another one of those "match of year candidates." After the match, Harley Race attacked Butcher and they brawled out of the ring. Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke beat Anjoh & Shigeo Okumura in the main event. Anjoh continued the president angle by resigning due to disgrace of this loss.

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