47 Facts About Atsushi Onita

Atsushi Onita is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler.

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

Atsushi Onita 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.

Atsushi 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.

Atsushi Onita 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.

Atsushi Onita 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.

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

Atsushi 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Atsushi Onita lost his World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship to Big Titan on January 15,1992.

Atsushi Onita ended his feud with The Sheik by defeating him for the United States Championship on January 18,1993; Onita later returned the belt to Sheik saying that Sheik deserved the title for holding it for over a decade.

Atsushi Onita renewed his rivalry with Mr Pogo, who returned to FMW in the summer of 1993 and the World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship was replaced with the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship.

Atsushi Onita successfully defended the title against W*ING's former ace Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a no ropes exploding barbed wire deathmatch at Year End Spectacular, and then the two men became allies to feud with Mr Pogo and his entourage.

On January 6,1994, Atsushi Onita lost the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Mr Pogo in a street fight.

Atsushi Onita began his retirement tour which would conclude at the following year's 6th Anniversary Show.

Atsushi Onita reunited with Tenryu as the two teamed with Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow at WAR's 2nd Anniversary Show and the trio won a Six-Man Tag Team Tournament.

Around the same time, Atsushi Onita renewed his feud with Masashi Aoyagi, who had returned to FMW and attacked Atsushi Onita after a match.

Atsushi Onita accused Matsunaga of turning on FMW and mistrusting his loyalty and this angered Matsunaga, who then joined Kanemura and Mr Pogo to form W*ING Alliance and Atsushi Onita feuded with the group for the rest of his retirement tour.

Atsushi Onita lost the Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship to Mr Pogo's alter ego "Pogo Daiyo" on January 21,1995.

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga had been the original choice but citing that W*ING had failed with Matsunaga as the ace, Atsushi Onita had to change the decision and give the spot to Tarzan Goto, who would be Atsushi Onita's opponent in his retirement match at the 6th Anniversary Show.

Atsushi Onita's acting career flopped and he ventured a return to wrestling.

Atsushi Onita convinced the FMW wrestlers to challenge Puerto Rican Army at the 7th Anniversary Show and announced that he would be present in the crowd at the event.

Atsushi Onita sold off his jacket that he wore for his retirement match at the 6th Anniversary Show to assist FMW team get the money for their match against the Puerto Rican Army.

Atsushi Onita had supposedly returned to the company for only one match until he began working part-time for the company on March 14,1997 by teaming with Koji Nakagawa, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda to defeat The Headhunters, Hisakatsu Oya and The Gladiator in a street fight.

Atsushi Onita headlined the Fall Spectacular event on September 28,1997 against W*ING Kanemura in a no rope barbed wire electrified dynamite land mine time bomb death match, which stipulated that if Atsushi Onita lost, he must retire and if Kanemura lost then W*ING Alliance would be forced to disband.

Atsushi Onita became upset at the W*ING Alliance members Kanemura, Hideki Hosaka and Hido, who were upset as no group would accept them and he became enraged at FMW leaders Hayabusa, Koji Nakagawa and Masato Tanaka on their leadership of the FMW team.

Atsushi Onita wanted to return FMW to its old deathmatch style ideology while Shoichi Arai and Kodo Fuyuki were toning down the deathmatch content.

Atsushi Onita made a few appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, in 1999, establishing himself as a heel, since he was a FMW employee, the crowd would not accept him on a NJPW ring, which prompted him to gain a lot of heat.

Shortly after that, Atsushi Onita allied himself with Chono and his Team 2000 faction against the nWo Japan.

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

In 2002, following FMW's closure Atsushi Onita appeared briefly in WEW, run by Hiromichi Fuyuki.

The storyline saw Atsushi 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 Atsushi Onita and Fuyuki before Fuyuki abruptly announced his retirement due to cancer that would eventually claim his life in March 2003.

Atsushi Onita attempted to resurrect the FMW name with another promotion, but the promotion would fold after only three months.

Atsushi Onita would retire on September 23,2003, losing a death match to The Great Sasuke, but this would not last long.

Atsushi Onita fought yet another retirement match on March 26,2005, being pinned by Genichiro Tenryu.

On July 11,2016, Atsushi Onita announced the foundation of a new promotion named Fire Puroresu, which was set to hold its first show on August 26.

Two days later, Atsushi Onita announced he was planning to retire from professional wrestling at a special event at Kawasaki Stadium in October 2017.

On May 10,2017, Atsushi Onita announced his retirement tour, which would conclude with his final match on October 31.

Atsushi Onita claimed that this, his seventh retirement, would be his "true" retirement.

However, Atsushi Onita came out of retirement, the following year, on October 28,2018 for Pro Wrestling A-Team.

On May 6,2021, Atsushi Onita announced the formation of a new promotion that would focus on Explosion Matches.