[1991-05-06-FMW] Atsushi Onita vs Mr Pogo (Exploding Barbed Wire Death)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I've liked most of the Onita matches a lot, but this one was gratuitous in terms of the violence, and there wasn't much happening outside of the blood and explosions. Another notch in his legend, but not something I'll watch again.

[shoe]

For the most part the work was non existent. I was expecting a wild brawl culminating with someone getting knocked into the exploding barb wire. Nope we had guys holding on for dear life to not get thrown off. The explosions were pretty impressive.

[Childs]

This was probably the worst of the early Onita matches we've seen on the yearbooks. The explosions sounded impressive and popped the crowd, but the broadcast didn't do a good job of conveying what they meant to the wrestlers in terms of damage. And it seemed foolish for Onita to waste an explosion on Pogo's henchmen with half the match left to go. Onita was the master of dramatic comebacks. In this match, he didn't seem to be coming back from anything.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, the explosions seemed like they were there to look impressive--there was no perceptible damage to the wrestlers themselves. There was at least some good build to Pogo finally eating an explosion, but Pogo basically sucks so this came off as a one-man Onita performance.

[Kevin Ridge]

A fan launches his shoe that barely missed hitting Pogo in the head. He responds by throwing a chair at the fans. Nice outdoor setting. That explosion was loud. I wouldn't want to be lying on one of those barbed wire boards. Wasn't much out side of the visual/audio of the explosions themselves.

[soup23]

It is weird to say but this deathmatch needed more action. They teased up the explosions with good struggle but the end results felt a little anticlimatic even though the explosions looked really good. I also didn't sense Onita overcame enough in the end even with him going through the first two explosions.

[garretta]

I'm sorry, but I can't nitpick the work in this one like some of you can. I have no idea how to work in a match in a booby-trapped minefield or the equivalent thereof like these two crazy bastards just did. What I saw looked like just about what I would expect if I saw two guys trying to fight their way out of the jungle in a war movie, and no one faults people fighting in the jungle for a lack of action.

 

Claim all you like that this is performance art and allowances should be made so the match is more entertaining for the audience; I just thank God that both of them made it out all right, because that barbed wire and those explosives don't know that it's supposed to be a work. Are these guys supposed to want to play around in all that shit willingly? If I was signed to be in a match like this, I'd do exactly what they did to avoid it as much as I possibly could, and if the fans hated me for it, the hell with them. I just hope that every last one of them knew the risks that both Onita and Pogo took for their entertainment. Thank heaven no one in this country was insane enough to book a match like this, not even Heyman at his craziest.

[dawho5]

Yeah I can't get behind matches like this. Just too much.

[G. Badger]

This was the first exploding barbwire board match. Its all about tension and thrilling the audience with suspense. Everyone ate shit. It was great! Quinones and even a camera man nearly got blown up! Onita had a thousand yard stare- covered in blood, eyes wild like a man possessed. Its probably not the most dynamic match in the move department but, is fiercely brutal. At 13 minutes, this was really great.

[WingedEagle]

Gratuitous violence lacking the drama that subsequent outings with Funk, Hayabusa and others would offer.  I wonder if this is looked upon more fondly not just because it was apparently the first outing but by virtue of taking place outdoors during daylight.