Atsushi Onita
Encyclopedia
Atsushi Onita (born October 25, 1957) is a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese former politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and active professional wrestler best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989 by Atsushi Onita that specialized in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989...

. He is credited with importing to Japan, as well as innovating, the deathmatch style of professional wrestling.

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1974–1985)

He was the first true graduate of the All Japan Pro Wrestling
All Japan Pro Wrestling
is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1972. All Japan Pro Wrestling still remains one of the most popular puroresu promotions still in operation.-The Giant Baba Era :...

 dojo (Jumbo Tsuruta
Jumbo Tsuruta
, better known by his ring name Jumbo Tsuruta, was a professional wrestler who wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling for most of his career, and is well-known for being the first ever AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, having won the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National...

 had debuted first, but he had trained in Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

, with Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk
Terry Funk
Terrence "Terry" Funk is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley...

). In his early days he teamed with dojo classmate Masanobu Fuchi
Masanobu Fuchi
is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling as a full-time wrestler, as well as a director. Fuchi holds the record for the longest AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship reign and has competed in All Japan Pro Wrestling longer than any wrestler on the...

, who debuted only a few weeks after him. He was known as a loyal ring attendant to 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
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, winning the AWA Southern tag team title three times.

When the junior heavyweight
Cruiserweight (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a cruiserweight is a wrestler weighing 220 lb and less, sometimes 215. The older term junior heavyweight, which was used to describe the division, is more favored in Japan, where many titles for lighter-weight competitors are called junior heavyweight titles...

 boom started in Japan under Tatsumi Fujinami
Tatsumi Fujinami
is a Japanese professional wrestler who is famous for his gimmick as "The Dragon." He is the one who is credited for inventing the Dragon Sleeper and the Dragon Suplex...

 and Tiger Mask
Tiger Mask
is a Japanese manga series written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Naoki Tsuji. The series was first published in Kodansha's Bokura Magazine from 1968 to 1969 and was later published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1970 to 1971...

 Satoru Sayama
Satoru Sayama
is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known as the original Tiger Mask. He's wrestled under his real name as well as the names Sammy Lee, and masked Super Tiger, Tiger King, Tiger Mask and The Mask of Tiger...

, Onita was picked as the ace of AJPW's makeshift junior heavyweight division. Baba was able to get Chavo Guerrero, Sr., who had been an early rival of Fujinami, over to AJPW's side, and Guerrero brought the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the first retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, Steve Keirn, was recognized as World champion only...

 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
Jim Crockett Promotions
Jim Crockett Promotions was a professional wrestling promotion owned by Jim Crockett, Jr. until the late 1980s. It was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance and was the forerunner to World Championship Wrestling .-Early history:...

 and Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre), and, while not as spectacular as New Japan Pro Wrestling
New Japan Pro Wrestling
is a major professional wrestling promotion in Japan, founded by Antonio Inoki in June 1972 and owned by Yuke's since 2005, when Inoki sold the promotion. Naoki Sugabayashi is the current President of the promotion and has held that position from 2007. Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, it...

's junior division, provided solid alternate wrestling to AJPW fans. In 1985 he had to retire due to accumulated injuries. By then he had already been replaced as the junior ace by the new version of Tiger Mask, Mitsuharu Misawa
Mitsuharu Misawa
was a Japanese professional wrestler. He made his professional debut on August 21, 1981 for All Japan Pro Wrestling . From 1984 until 1990, Misawa wrestled as the second generation Tiger Mask, as All Japan Pro Wrestling had purchased the rights of the Tiger Mask gimmick from New Japan Pro Wrestling...

.

Independent circuit and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (1988–1998)

He returned in 1988 on an independent card, and a year later, created his own promotion, FMW, basing it around death matches he had seen during his earlier stay in Memphis. His first "death match" was against martial artist Masashi Aoyagi, which he won. Over the next few years, until 1995, he had several death matches for FMW's heavyweight title, the World Martial Arts/Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship, defending it against former AJPW comrade Tarzan Goto
Tarzan Goto
, better known by his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler who has wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches againest Atsushi Onita and Pat Tanaka in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling ....

, as well as The Sheik
Ed Farhat
Edward George Farhat was an American professional wrestler best known as by his ring name The Sheik...

, Terry Funk
Terry Funk
Terrence "Terry" Funk is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley...

, Mr. Pogo
Tetsuo Sekigawa
Tetsuo Sekigawa is a Japanese professional wrestler who is very well known for his hardcore matches, competing in his most popular gimmick, Mr. Pogo.-Early years :...

 and even boxer Leon Spinks
Leon Spinks
Leon Spinks is a former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world...

. Also during this period, he starred in the movie Dan Gan (Japanese for "bullet"), which would later be adopted as the nickname for Onita's pupil, Masato Tanaka
Masato Tanaka
Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling in Japan and in Extreme Championship Wrestling in the United States where he was a one-time world champion, having won the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once...

. His last defense, in May 1995, saw him defeating Hayabusa
Eiji Ezaki
is a former Japanese professional wrestler better known as the masked Hayabusa , who worked primarily for Atsushi Onita's Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling promotion.-Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling :...

, who succeeded him as the promotion's ace. Around that time, he occasionally wrestled as The Great Nita, a Muta
Keiji Mutoh
is a Japanese professional wrestler who first gained international fame in the National Wrestling Alliance. He is mostly known for his work as The Great Muta in New Japan Pro Wrestling during the 1990s, but he has also competed in United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Taiwan...

-style gimmick. In August 1999, The Great Nita and the Great Muta would finally battle each other in a much-publicized "No Rope, Barbed Wire, Barricade Electric Land Mine, Double Hell Death match".

After a sabbatical, Onita returned to the ring in December 1996. In 1997, he became the leader of the nWo
NWO
NWO may refer to:*Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research, a scientific research organisation in the Netherlands*New World Order...

-like stable ZEN, by which he attempted to return FMW to its old death match ideology. Already, however, Shoichi Arai and Hiromichi "Kodo" Fuyuki were toning down the death match content, which lead Onita to leave FMW altogether and promote his own ventures.

Freelance (1998–present)

He used the promotional names "USO" (all caps
All caps
In typography, all caps refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters. All caps is usually used for emphasis. It is commonly seen in the titles on book covers, in advertisements and in newspaper headlines...

 version of the Japanese word for "lie"), "Jado" ("evil ways"; not to be confused with the wrestler of the same name
Shoji Akiyoshi
, better known by his ring name is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his work in New Japan Pro Wrestling with his tag team partner Gedo...

), "Onita Pro" and "Project X."

He challenged Riki Chōshū
Riki Choshu
Mitsuo Yoshida , better known by his stage name Riki Chōshū , is a Korean-Japanese professional wrestler who is most known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro Wrestling as a wrestler and a booker...

 to a barbed wire deathmatch in 2000: Chōshū accepted and went out of retirement to wrestle him.

In 2001 he returned to AJPW for one night only, at the Tokyo Dome, to team with Terry Funk against Abdullah the Butcher
Abdullah the Butcher
Lawrence Robert "Larry" Shreve best known as Abdullah the Butcher, and also at times The Madman from the Sudan, is a semi-retired Canadian professional wrestler known as one of the most brutal or "hardcore" professional wrestlers of all-time...

 and Giant Kimala. Whereas AJPW fans had already known Funk and Abdullah's willingness to brawl, Onita also played a huge part in the match, and his team emerged victorious.

In 2002, following FMW's closure Onita appeared briefly in WEW, run by Hiromichi Fuyuki. The storyline saw Onita blaming Fuyuki's "Entertainment Pro Wrestling" business strategy and supposed embezzlement of money for causing FMW to close, and appeared to be paving the road to an eventual match between Onita and Fuyuki before Fuyuki abruptly announced his retirement due to cancer that would eventually claim his life in March 2003.

Onita attempted to resurrect the FMW name with another promotion (called Onita FMW since he did not own the rights to the FMW name), but the promotion would fold after only three months. Onita would retire once again on September 23, 2003, losing a death match to The Great Sasuke
Masanori Murakawa
, , is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known by his stage name The Great Sasuke, as well as a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly legislator. He has wrestled in Japan and in the United States in various wrestling promotions...

, but this would not last long. Onita fought yet another retirement match on March 26, 2005, being pinned by Genichiro Tenryu
Genichiro Tenryu
Genichiro Tenryu , real name Genichiro Shimada , is a Japanese professional wrestler. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling...

. This also would be disregarded, as he would come out of retirement in May 2008 and would begin promoting his own cards again in July.

Political career

Though he originally dropped out of high school, Onita returned to finish his Education when he was in his late thirties. In 2001 he won the 19th House of Councilors election as a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party, following Antonio Inoki
Antonio Inoki
is a Japanese professional wrestling promoter and retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist who now resides between New York City and Tokyo. He was also the founder and former owner of New Japan Pro Wrestling before selling his controlling share in the promotion to Yukes...

 and Hiroshi Hase to a seat in the Japanese Diet. One of his first major acts in office was to launch a post-9/11 humanitarian mission to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, where he performed professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 matches in crudely constructed rings made of sticks and rope, to benefit the children. This was all documented on film.

Like fellow professional wrestler, Scott Steiner
Scott Steiner
Scott Carl Rechsteiner is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Scott Steiner. Steiner is perhaps best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling alongside his older brother Rick as the Steiner Brothers and as a member of the New World Order...

, Onita has also claimed to have broken Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...

's record of sleeping with 20,000 women. Ironically, his exit from politics was forced by a sex scandal
Sex scandal
A sex scandal is a scandal involving allegations or information about possibly-immoral sexual activities being made public. Sex scandals are often associated with movie stars, politicians, famous athletes or others in the public eye, and become scandals largely because of the prominence of the...

 in which he was alleged to have used government accommodations to host a threesome
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...

 with an pornographic film actress and a female employee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation.http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/001957.html After retirement from politics, he lent his name and image to a Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 game, Atsushi Onita's Political Quiz.http://www.games.net/blog/32873/atsushi-onita-the-man-the-myth-the-game/

In wrestling

  • Finishing moves
    • DDT
      DDT (professional wrestling)
      In professional wrestling a DDT is any move in which the wrestler has the opponent in a front facelock, and falls down or backwards to drive the opponent's head into the mat...

    • Thunder Fire Powerbomb – innovated

  • Signature moves
    • Arm drag
    • Diving crossbody
    • Headbutt
    • Missile dropkick
    • Piledriver
    • Sleeper hold

Championships and accomplishments

  • All Japan Pro Wrestling
    All Japan Pro Wrestling
    is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1972. All Japan Pro Wrestling still remains one of the most popular puroresu promotions still in operation.-The Giant Baba Era :...

  • NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
    NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
    The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the first retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, Steve Keirn, was recognized as World champion only...

     (1 time)

  • Continental Wrestling Association
    Continental Wrestling Association
    The Continental Wrestling Association was a wrestling promotion managed by Jerry Jarrett. The CWA was the name of the "governing body" for the Championship Wrestling, Inc. promotion which was usually referred to as Mid-Southern Wrestling...

  • AWA Southern Tag Team Championship
    AWA Southern Tag Team Championship
    The AWA Southern Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team title in the Tennessee area from the 1940s through the late 1980s. It was originally named the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship from its inception through 1977, when it was renamed the AWA Southern...

     (3 times) – with Masanobu Fuchi
    Masanobu Fuchi
    is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling as a full-time wrestler, as well as a director. Fuchi holds the record for the longest AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship reign and has competed in All Japan Pro Wrestling longer than any wrestler on the...


  • Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
    Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
    Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre is a Lucha Libre-style professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City while running cards in Guadalajara, Puebla and elsewhere in central and southern Mexico...

  • NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
    NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
    The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the first retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, Steve Keirn, was recognized as World champion only...

     (1 time)

  • Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
    Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
    Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989 by Atsushi Onita that specialized in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their first show on October 6, 1989...

  • FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship
    FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship
    The FMW World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship was a premiere championship in the wrestling promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, or FMW....

     (7 times)
  • FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship
    FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship
    The FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship was a tag team hardcore wrestling championship contested in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.-WWA World Martial Arts Tag Team Championship :-FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship :...

     (4 times) – with Tarzan Goto
    Tarzan Goto
    , better known by his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler who has wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches againest Atsushi Onita and Pat Tanaka in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling ....

     (1), Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (1), Mr. Gannosuke (1), and W*ING Kanemura (1)
  • FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
    FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
    The FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship was a championship in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. It was active from May 1996 until May 1999. The title was then abandoned, but it was replaced in July 1999 with the World Entertainment Wrestling Six-Man Tag Team Championship. The final...

     (2 times) – with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Hido (1), Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda (1)

  • Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
    Jim Crockett Promotions
    Jim Crockett Promotions was a professional wrestling promotion owned by Jim Crockett, Jr. until the late 1980s. It was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance and was the forerunner to World Championship Wrestling .-Early history:...

  • NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
    NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship
    The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship started in 1979. It was formed by a split in lineage from the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship caused by the first retirement of champion Nelson Royal the same year. The first champion, Steve Keirn, was recognized as World champion only...

     (1 time)

  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    Pro Wrestling Illustrated is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.-History:The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979...

    • PWI ranked him #43 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500
      Pro Wrestling Illustrated
      Pro Wrestling Illustrated is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.-History:The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979...

       in 1999
    • PWI ranked him #123 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years
      Pro Wrestling Illustrated
      Pro Wrestling Illustrated is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.-History:The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979...

       in 2003

  • Tokyo Sports Grand Prix
    • Effort Prize (1979)
    • Match of the Year (1990)- vs. Tarzan Goto on August 4
    • Match of the Year (1994)- with Tarzan Goto vs. Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara on March 2
    • Outstanding Performance Prize (1991)
    • Special Prize (1989, 1991)
    • Wrestler of the Year (1990)

  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Best Babyface (1993, 1994)
  • Most Charismatic (1994)
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
    Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
    The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is a professional wrestling hall of fame that recognizes people who make significant contributions to the sport. It was founded in 1996 by Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is not...

     (Class of 1996)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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