[1997-12-22-FMW] Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki & Masato Tanaka vs Atsushi Onita & Mr Gannosuke & W*ING Kanemura

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I talked about this on an episode of Wrestling With The Past that will be available soon, but I really don't like it when promotions bill matches like this as War Games when they aren't really War Games matches. They need two rings in order to be War Games matches. Onita doesn't have the same superstar aura with shorter hair and different ring attire. Here he seems to be copying Bret Hart's look and it's odd. Now that I've gotten all the complaints out of the way that have little to do with the match's quality, I'll call this a fun brawl. As much as I like Onita, by 1997 though, he gets in the way and I'd rather him just leave because the younger stars are way more interesting and are more than capable of carrying the promotion on their own. At least he eats the fall here though, which is more than I expected.

[FLIK]

At least he eats the fall here though, which is more than I expected.

Call back to the Onita retirement match vs Hayabusa with Busa actually hitting the moonsault off the cage this time to get his win back 2 & 1/2 years later.

 

This is another match whear i'm curious if the post match angle got cut off or you just ignored it?

Gannosuke & Kanemura turn on Onita after he losses, Koji Nakagawa makes a surprise run in to make the save after he'd quit FMW a few weeks earlier.

 

This essentially sets up Onita & the rest of ZEN back as (tweener) babyfaces and leads to the birth of Team No Respect going into 98.

 

I'd recomend ppl check out a lot of the FMW stuff between Sept & Dec as the yearbook skips from Kanemura/Onita (Onita's heel turn) to this (Onita's face turn) but doesn't feature anything in between.

[Kevin Ridge]

Not a War Games obviously as only one ring and pinfalls allowed. I didn't realize that was Onita at first. Shinzaki gets handcuffed to cage, manages to get free and then gets handcuffed to other side of cage. Looks like he is sitting this one out. I thought Hayabusa was going to go for Phoenix Splash off the top of the cage but it’s a moonsault instead. Not as violent as expected. I prefer tag match from late November.

 

I did like how all the photographers were inside the cage when Onita was getting the beat down by Gannosuke and Kanemura.

[soup23]

We just get the very beginnings of the post match with them handcuffing Onita and Nakagawa coming out wielding a chair. Also some weird clipping I didn't notice here as the match goes about 18 minutes but the graphic says 14. I agree with Loss this shouldnt be called War Games but it was a hell of a lot of fun while it lasted with the chaotic action aspect that I enjoy in the Wargames and it featured some good spots and overall psychology. I was happy to see Busa pull out the win with a big moonsault from the top of the cage.

[PeteF3]

A multi-man cage match with weapons strewn about--this is every late '90s e-fed gimmick match ever. With six guys all in the ring in about 5 minutes, they may as well have just started the match with everyone right off the (barbed wire) bat, because the build-up to the entrances doesn't mean anything and no dramatic momentum shifts. And Onita is almost unrecognizable--not only is he dressed like Bret Hart but he's lost a lot of weight and grown out his hair. He really doesn't look good here but he does take Hayabusa's finish like a pro, at least. It occurs to me that I think this is only the second job I've seen Onita do on these Yearbooks--I can only remember the Tenryu match. All these complaints aside, this is pretty fun, with a really good performance by the babyfaces. Onita is turned on by his partners afterward and his alignment is set back to where it probably should always be.

[Zenjo]

A twist on the WCW Wargames with no real understanding why the original format works so well. It was more like a tornado six man with staggered dual entries. In a cage. With weapons. At times the work was bad and sloppy. But it had its moments as well. Onita jobbing had rarity value.

[El McKell]

I hate that the finish has Onita getting pinned while his partners double team a man already handcuffed to a cage. Then they turn on him for losing in the post match, like it's your own fault you morons.