FMW - Atsushi Onita vs. Hayabusa (Electrified Barbed Wire Exploding Cage Deathmatch, XPW Commentary)

Atsushi Onita’s famous retirement match from Kawasaki stadium, but with the added twist of English commentary from XPW’s Rob Black and Kevin Kleinrock. This was shown to hype a planned December 2000 exploding ring match between Onita (who was still wrestling five years after his retirement) and Sabu that never happened. Somehow, an arrangement between a perpetually-prosecuted pornographer and a guy called “Mr. Liar“ didn’t work out in the end. What hope do any of us have, really? Honestly, Black can get pretty annoying and grating as an announcer, and it’s probably way better in it’s original commentary-free version, (still better than some of those Tokyopop FMW releases, though) but it’s a fun curiosity that was absolutely mind-blowing to see during the 5-hour block of wrestling that the America One Network would put on every Saturday in the late 90s and early 2000s. The tape this is captured from is old and dirty and the channel didn’t come in all that well to begin with, so video quality is suspect but