[7.0] "If not for FMW there wouldn't of been the rise of Indie scene in Japan. It showed wrestlers could make a living outside of NJPW and AJPW. There was a level of creativity to a lot of what they did. They also some really awful ideas that backfired badly. Some of the "entertainment" era stuff just was crap"
[10.0] "The greatest hardcore promotion of all time. A roster full of legends like Hayabusa, Tanaka, Onita, Megumi Kudo, Funk and Foley. A archive of unbelievable matches. The spectacle, emotion and excitement that FMW could offer, typically in matches with barbed wire and explosions, is unwatched in the history of pro-wrestling. It's also a rare Japanese promotion that had a women's division and a men's division, which adds to the variety on offer. I typically don't like deathmatches but I love what FMW did, good wrestling and storytelling in the confines of a deathmatch, something some modern wrestlers could learn from, and FMW very rarely took things too far for my taste. The reason it's not a 10 is that it was inconsistent, the smaller shows weren't always great and some of the matches were very standard, never bad but just nothing exciting, Hayabusa as a wrestler encapsulates FMW, sometimes exceptional, other times he'd deliver standard Japanese style matches. Ultimately, FMW was a very special promotion that influenced the entire world of pro wrestling, ECW and by extension WWF and WCW took major inspiration from FMW and IWA-Japan."
[9.0] "While I haven't seen a whole lot, watching FMW shows is pure magic. The lighting, Onita's theme song, jam packed stadiums, people screaming "ONITAAA" in the crowd... The wrestling itself (in the main event, the undercard sometimes had great matches) was lacking but that's not what FMW was all about. FMW was about the spectacle, what crazy shit can they come up with next. And I don't know how but they struck the landing so many times. It's a shame Onita had his own head up his ass and thought he could be this huge movie star and left. He came crawling back in but things just weren't the same anymore. Even if you don't like deathmatches please check out some of the stuff on youtube. It's not even that violent compared to today's standards."
[10.0] "A true icon company for me. All my love for hardcore wrestling is for this one. A masterpiece for hardcore wrestling fans. I miss fmw a lot cause I loved It's unique matches which onita gave us."
[10.0] "This is the birth place of the modern deathmatch/gimmick match. FMW was a worker promotion willing to do anything to get popularity, no matter how illegal, corrupt or immoral. Despite that, FMW brought us some beautiful moments and gave a lot of guys their first big shot."
[7.0] "Just like ECW, FMW also influenced the modern-day Japanese deathmatch scene with W*ING, IWA Japan, and BJW adopting the deathmatch style of wrestling. The company was great when Onita was in control from '89 to '95, but after he gave all powers to Shoichi Arai, the company began to fall and Fuyuki wanted a sports entertainment style. FMW was great, although this is hard to rate higher than a 7."
[10.0] "I am discovering FMW now and this company amazes me. I have always hated deathmatch until I saw Onita vs Funk and most of all my 3rd favorite match of all time, Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda in Toyoda's retirement. These two matches introduced me to FMW, and they completely changed my mind about DM. FMW was and still is to this day the best mix between good wrestling and deathmatch, and I don't think any current deathmatch promotion will one day reach the quality of this company between 1991 and 1998 (Onita and Neo eras). Sadly, the last years of the company weren't good and even Hayabusa couldn't do anything to make up for the losses of Onita and Kudo who were clearly the two big stars of the company, but in their prime years they made deathmatch wrestling mainstream in Japan."
[9.0] "Easily my tied favourite promotion of all time. Early days were a strange mixture of different style mma-types matches - which while interesting in theory, weren't always the most exciting contests to watch, until later focussing on Deathmatch type matches. The Deathmatches while a little whacky at times, usually meant something in storyline terms to warrant them, and were always quite dramatic, quite the contrast to AEW's attempt at it. FMW also had awesome talent - both Male & Female, however I think Onita got top draw a little too often for my liking. FMW lost a lot of it's steam later on due to injuries to major talent and money difficulties. But when it was good, FMW was excellent."
[8.0] "FMW is one of the few Japanese promotions to feature both a men's division and a women's division. The star of the women's division was Megumi Kudo, she invented the double underhook back to back piledriver aka the Vertebraker or as she called it the Kudome Valentine. She had notable feuds with Combat Toyoda and Mayumi Ozaki. She also was part of the first intergender tag team match in Japan, teaming with Ricky Fuji against Tarzan Goto and Despina Montag as. She retired in 1997 her final match was against Shark Tsuchiya in a No Ropes Barbed-Wire Double Landmine Glass Crush Death Match. Megumi Kudo is one of the few wrestlers to win their retirement match and retire as champion. Unfortunately the FMW women's division didn't have a lot of depth and with the retirement of Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda they had a lack of baby faces and the division went down hill."
[10.0] "FMW martial arts era 89~91(7. 5), FMW Onita Deathmatch era 91~95(10), FMW Neo era 95~98(9), FMW Sports Entertainment era 98~01(4. 5), Final FMW years late 2001~ early 2002(6. 5) overall though it? s a 10"
[7.0] "As with ECW, it's hard to put FMW much higher because of their relatively short lifespan. They suffered greatly from the loss of Atsushi Onita, and never really recovered. Things were not helped when Hiromichi Fuyuki gained power and slowly turned it into a terrible WWE clone."
[9.0] "Maybe they held a deathmatch gone too far but they know how to entertain people, Atsushi Onita, the man who started it all to make sure that wrestling it's not a joke and I like it every match that include him and his longtime friend Tarzan Goto makes me think that their actions are worth to be watched"
[10.0] "Put deathmatch wrestling on the map in Japan in the early 90's, i enjoyed all era's of FMW from Onita era, neo FMW era. Such a shame they went out with a whimper though."
[7.0] "Haut mich heute (natürlich) nicht mehr vom Hocker, empfand ich in den Neunzigern aber schon als eine sehr willkommene Abwechslung zum "normalen Wrestling", habe mich immer auf neue Tapes gefreut und FMW startete in Japan eine ähnliche "kleine Revolution" wie die ECW in Nordamerika, bis sogar Muta in einem FMW-Style-Deathmatch bei New Japan gegen Onita antrat. Eine wichtige Promotion die sichtlich ihre Spuren hinterlassen und die Wrestling-Landschaft nachhaltig geprägt hat."
[10.0] "Ich kann nicht anders als dieser Show 10 Punkte zu geben, diese Show hatte mich immer begeistert, es war die perfekte ausgleichung der vielen stille und der vielen Wrestler und ganz klar neben der ECW die beste Hardcore Liga die es gab."
[9.0] "Die FMW hat mir um 2003 die Freude am Pro-Wrestling zurück gegeben. Qualitativ natürlich nicht das Maß der Dinge, aber ähnlich kultig wie die ECW und ein absolutes Muss für jeden Garbage-Wrestling Fan. Über die späten FMW Tage sehe ich lieber einfach hinweg."
[10.0] "Beste Liga Ever! Ohne FMW hätte es die ECW die man ja heute so abfeiert garnicht gegeben, haben das Deathmatch Wrestling auf die größe Bühne gebracht und sind wohl der Grund für die Existenz einiger geiler Indy Promotions, die zum Teil heute noch bestehen. Thank You FMW!"
