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Atsushi Onita was best known for his work under the promotion that he developed, FMW, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. The company was based around martial arts and death matches. Atsushi wanted to create something under his vision for wrestling, thus giving birth to FMW which was quite different from anything people had seen around that time.
Atsushi created FMW because he wanted to prevail over one of his rivals, Masashi Aoyagi. FMW’s first two shows were successes that led promoters to continue with it. Slowly, FMW developed into a wrestling promotion consisting of extremely physical matches similar to what Onita witnessed when he toured southern promotions in the USA.
To create more publicity for the first-anniversary show for FMW, Onita was willing to go as far as he could have possibly gone and wanted to do whatever it took to make the show a huge success which led him to turn the real-life murder incident of wrestling legend Bruiser Brody into a wrestling angle. So, let’s dive deep into the story which was as ridiculous as it gets.
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Legendary Wrestler Bruiser Brody Is Murdered
Bruiser Brody was a legend in the pro wrestling world. He was extremely protective of his in-ring image and was almost everything that one would expect out of a pro wrestler. Brody was huge, with a terrorizing presence and a commanding appeal. However, he could be an extremely difficult performer to work with. Due to his demeanor being very intense, he rarely used to agree to lose and was labeled as crazy by promoters and fellow wrestlers.
As promoters were growing frustrated with Bruiser’s temper, they gave wrestler and agent Jose Gonzalez the task to handle him. Gonzalez went to talk to Bruiser in the dressing room showers. After a while, the other wrestlers who were present in the arena for the show heard arguing and screams. The talent rushed there only to see Brody stumbling out of the bathroom bleeding. It was quite evident that he had been stabbed by Gonzalez.
Promoters and wrestlers immediately called in an ambulance. However, it took a while to reach the arena due to heavy traffic because of the show taking place there. The medical team present at the scene also believed it to be just a wrestling angle for the show which didn’t help the situation. Gonzalez fled the scene even before anyone could arrive there. Bruiser Brody would be taken to the hospital and was declared dead the next morning.
FMW’s Controversial Angle Created Chaos For Atsushi Onita
In 1990, the Sumo Hall was booked for the first anniversary of the newly found promotion, FMW. Atsushi Onita was doing everything from his end to make this show talk of the town which ultimately resulted in a few tasteless decisions from his end. The event was scheduled to take place on October 19, 1990, and the promoters were pulling all the stops to create buzz for the show.
Atsushi Onita would meet Jose Gonzalez in a talent exchange meeting with Puerto Rico’s WWC promotion. Onita booked himself in an angle where Gonzalez would stab him just like he stabbed the late Bruiser Brody in real life to further set up another angle where Onita would vow to take his revenge on Gonzalez and set up their encounter in a one-on-one match in the future.
Following the script, Gonzalez and several others stabbed Atsushi in front of the media as a publicity stunt. Onita even had Japanese photographers document everything. As Bruiser Brody was a huge star in Japan, Atsushi wanted to capitalize on his popularity through this angle. Onita was bleeding in an exuberant amount, but the cut wasn’t deep enough for a hospital to admit him for the same. Luckily, he found a doctor who would stitch him up and even this was recorded by the photographers.
Atsushi Onita Faced A Lot Of Backlash For The Publicity Stunt
Atsushi Onita faced heavy criticism for the angle that he booked himself into. The 1st Anniversary show of FMW shifted from Sumo Hall to Komozawa Olympic Gym after the controversy as management at Sumo Hall found out about the controversy and the kind of matches FMW did and they didn’t want it to be part of the venue. Bruiser Brody was highly respected by the Japanese fans as he was a star of high caliber and any event he was announced for used to get sold out within a matter of time. Because of the angle with Onita and his history with Brody, Jose Gonzalez was replaced by Mr. Pogo as Onita’s opponent for the event.
Replicating this real-life murder angle surely put Atsushi Onita under a lot of fire. It is regarded as one of the most disgusting publicity stunts of any real-life incident in the world of wrestling, which hurt the image of Onita in the eyes of fans all over the world.
