FMW declares bankruptcy and closes up shop

[Guest Sassquatch]

Credit Zach at Puropower.

 

"The FMW promotion, which was started by Atsushi Onita in 1989 and was taken over by ring announcer Shoichi Arai in 1995, has officially declared bankruptcy and will hold its last shows in March. Like the ECW situation with Paul Heyman, wrestlers were having checks bounce twice this month. In 1998, FMW had signed a $2.7 million 3-year contract to be a loss-leader with DirecTV Japan. However, the deal fell apart when DirecTV Japan was bought out by SkyPerfecTV in the new millennium. Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Yoshito Sasaki will work IWA Japan's 2/17 Korakuen Hall show. A lot of the FMW guys will either disperse into IWA-J (because Mr. Asano is a millionaire), Big Japan (Kanemura), or try to get into All Japan (Fuyuki's already trying to get his way back in through Tenryu)."

[Guest MRFTW]

Awww shit, ass, fuck and crap. I'm not surprised or anything, pretty much every piece of talent they ever had that was worth anything has allready either left the promotion or is injured and the feds best years have been long gone. I still liked FMW though, it was the first real puro fed I ever followed and got into, thanks mainly to the tokyopop tapes they put out over hear and I was sorta hoping they'd one day be able to rebuild into a bigger company like they once were.

[Guest HopeSpot]

That is a shame, it's always sad to see a promotion die espically a sentimental favorite like FMW. I'll remember FMW for guys who busted ass every night like Tanaka, Awesome, Haybusa, and Onita. They didn't have online fans kissing their asses on message boards across the world but still gave it everything they had night in and night out, there's something very respectable about that.

[Guest HopeSpot]

Fuck did I say Onita, shit I am tired. I meant to say Mr.Gannosuke. Sorry about that.

[Guest MRFTW]

Yeah, can't forget about Gano but even if he did pretty much only do hardcore matches Onita still needs to be mentioned in a list of great wrestlers that passed through FMW anyways, Kanemura too.

[Guest goodhelmet]

I enjoyed the hell out of FMW from about 95-99. But shoving Fuyuki down people's throats and bringing in talentless gaijin only hurt their product. I'm just glad Masato Tanaka is already in All Japan and I hope Hayabusa is able to walk again.

 

FMW R.I.P.