Atsushi Onita

Atsushi Onita (大仁田 厚) is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler.

He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and is credited with introducing the deathmatch style of professional wrestling to Japan.

He is a former All Asia Tag Team Champions alongside Yoshitatsu.

Onita was the first true graduate of the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) dojo (Jumbo Tsuruta had debuted first, but he had trained in Amarillo, Texas, with Dory Funk Jr.. and Terry Funk), debuting on April 14, 1974.

In his early days he teamed with dojo classmate Masanobu Fuchi, who debuted only a few weeks after him.

He was known as a loyal ring attendant to AJPW promoter Giant Baba, who had accepted him into the dojo despite not having graduated from high school.

In the late '70s and the early '80s, he and Fuchi toured Memphis, Tennessee, winning the AWA Southern Tag Team titles three times.

When the junior heavyweight wrestling boom started in Japan, originally in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) under Tatsumi Fujinami and the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, Onita was picked as the ace of AJPW's makeshift junior heavyweight division.

Baba was able to get Chavo Guerrero, who had been an early rival of Fujinami, to jump over to AJPW's side, and Guerrero brought the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship with him, effectively establishing it as AJPW's junior heavyweight cornerstone.

Onita and Guerrero's subsequent feud over the title spanned three promotions (AJPW, Jim Crockett Promotions, and Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre), and, while not as spectacular as NJPW's junior heavyweight division, provided a solid alternative to heavyweight-style wrestling for AJPW fans.

Onita's last match prior to his retirement occurred on December 2, 1984, against Mighty Inoue.

He would be replaced by his former tag team partner Masanobu Fuchi as the new junior heavyweight ace of AJPW.

On January 3, 1985, Onita retired for the first time due to accumulated injuries.

Onita had previously taken a long hiatus from wrestling due to an injury, and was in the midst of an attempted comeback when he retired.

After over three years recuperating from his injuries, Onita returned to the ring in December 1988 for Pioneer Senshi, an independent promotion, losing a martial arts-inspired bout to Ryuma Go.

Onita founded FMW in 1989, defeating martial artist Masashi Aoyagi under his own martial arts rules in the main event of the second night of the promotion's inaugural event.

FMW later emerged as a full-fledged touring organization, moving away from martial arts-inspired shoot style matches and moving toward the rasslin'-inspired deathmatch style – which became popular with Japanese fans.

He was the promotion's top star, wrestling in main event matches at sold-out events, making FMW a financially successful company, particularly for a Japanese independent promotion.

He held the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship a record seven times and headlined the first six editions of FMW's premier Anniversary Show event from 1989 to 1995.

Following his return to the ring, Onita issued a challenge to the wrestlers of the shoot style promotion Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) but his challenge was rejected and he responded by taking on martial artist Masashi Aoyagi in a (worked) martial arts fight for the World Karate Association (WKA) on July 2, 1989, during which Onita was disqualified for using wrestling moves on Aoyagi.

In the aftermath of his fight for the WKA, Onita personally promoted two wrestling shows under the Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) banner titled Grudge in Nagoya and Grudge in Tokyo in October and headlined both shows against Aoyagi.

He lost to Aoyagi at Grudge in Nagoya and defeated him at Grudge in Tokyo.

Onita shortly after developed FMW into a full-time promotion, originally basing it around shoot style matches before transitioning the company into being Japan's first death match promotion – taking inspiration from the style of matches he had seen during his earlier stay in Memphis.

Even as the deathmatch wrestling style become the main trademark of FMW, the promotion would continue to hold shoot style matches.

Onita would bring in numerous karate and martial arts fighters to be part of the FMW roster in the early years of the promotion.

The first street fight of FMW took place on December 4, in which Onita and Dick Murdoch defeated Jos LeDuc and Masanobu Kurisu.

Onita was featured as the company's main star and the top fan favorite and headlined every show.

His first Barbed Wire Deathmatch took place at Battle Creation as he teamed with Tarzan Goto to defeat Jerry Blayman and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga.

After being eliminated by his frequent ally Tarzan Goto from the Battle Resistance tournament, Onita defeated Beast the Barbarian to win the WWA World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship for the first time on January 17, 1990.

Onita's first feud began in the summer of 1990 when Onita defeated Lee Gak-soo in a different style fight on May 19 and then the two showed respect to each other and teamed to defeat Mitsuteru Tokuda and Sambo Asako in a tag team match on June 2.

Goto was irate at Onita for teaming with karate fighters and toning down professional wrestling and he brought in Mr. Pogo to FMW and Onita began feuding with Goto and Pogo.

Onita defeated Goto in an empty arena match on June 24 and then successfully defended the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship against Goto in the first-ever no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch at Summer Spectacular.

After the match, Onita and Goto ended their feud by embracing each other and putting away their differences and then Onita began a legendary rivalry against Mr. Pogo, with Onita defeating Pogo in the first singles encounter in a street fight on August 25.

Onita successfully defended the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship against Pogo in a Texas Deathmatch at 1st Anniversary Show.

Onita lost the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Grigory Verichev on February 27, 1991.

Onita unsuccessfully challenged Verichev for the title in a rematch on May 5 and then received another title shot on May 29, where Onita defeated Verichev to regain the renamed World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship.

On August 17, Onita defeated Jimmy Backlund, Ricky Fuji and Sambo Asako to win the Barbed Wire Deathmatch Tournament.

During this time, Mr. Pogo left FMW and Tarzan Goto turned on Onita once again to renew their feud and became Onita's arch rival.

Onita sold FMW to Shoichi Arai and retired from wrestling in 1995 to pursue an acting career, which was unsuccessful, forcing him to return as a wrestler in 1996.

After returning to FMW, he led stables ZEN and Team Zero but departed the company in 1998 after disagreements over his position in the company.