Atsushi Onita
Atsushi Onita (大仁" 厚
Ōnita Atsushi) is a
Japanese
professional wrestler and a wrestling legend, who is best known for his work in
FMW. He set a new record for the most stitches needed as a result of a wrestling match when he needed 111 stitches after a very violent match.
He was the first true graduate of the
All Japan Pro Wrestling dojo (
Jumbo Tsuruta had debuted first, but he had trained in
Amarillo, Texas, with
Dory Funk Jr. and
Terry Funk). 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
Giant Baba, who had accepted him into the dojo despite not having graduated from high school. In the late 70's early 80's he and Fuchi toured
Memphis, Tennessee, winning the AWA Southern tag team title three times.
When the junior heavyweight boom started in Japan under
Tatsumi Fujinami and
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, 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
New Japan Pro Wrestling'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.
He returned in 1989 on an independent card, and pretty soon 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, as well as
the Sheik,
Terry Funk and even boxer
Leon Spinks. His last defense, in May 1995, saw him defeating
Hayabusa, who succeeded him as the promotion's ace.
After a sabbatical, Onita returned to the ring in 1997 as the leader of -like stable ZEN, by which he attempted to return FMW to its old death match ideology. Already, however, Shoichi Arai and Hiromichi Fuyuki were toning down the death match content, which lead Onita to leave FMW altogether and promote his own ventures. He used the promotional names "USO" (
all caps version of the Japanese word for "lie"), "Jado" ("evil ways"; not to be confused with the
wrestler of the same name), "Onita Pro," and "Project X."
In 2001 he was elected to office, following
Antonio Inoki and
Hiroshi Hase to a seat in the
Japanese Diet. In the same year he returned to AJPW for one night only, at the Tokyo Dome, to team with Terry Funk against
Abdullah the Butcher 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 (he appeared in the last card to address the crowd, despite the promotion no longer being associated with him or his promotional ideology), Onita began a sabbatical that may signal his true retirement (previous retirement announcements of 1985 and 1995 were not kept, so Onita may have wanted to retire without much fanfare and indicating that he may return at any time).
*Height = 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
*Weight = 240 lb (109 kg)
*Birth Date =
October 25,
1958Titles
*3-time
AWA Southern Tag Team Champion (with Masanobu Fuchi)
*3-time
NWA International Junior Heavyweight Champion
*4-time
FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion
*3-time FMW Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion
*1-time FMW Martial Arts Tag Team Champion (with Tarzan Goto)
*3-time FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champion (once with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, once with Mr. Gannosuke and once with W*ING Kanemura)
*2-time FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Champion (once with Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Hido and once with Kuroda & Koji Nakagawa)
*2-time World Barbed-Wire Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Champion (once with Shigeo Okumura & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa and once with Kikuzawa & Exciting Yoshida)
:*He is a member of the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996):*1993 Best Babyface:*1994 Best Babyface:*1994 Most Charismatic Wrestler
