Cactus Jack, the King of Hardcore
Kazuyoshi Osako (former president of FMW) and Kiyoshi "Micky" Ibaragi (former magazine reporter, former vice-president of FMW) split with Atsushi Onita in the spring of 1991. They quit FMW and founded W*ING (Wrestling's International New Generations), which had its opening show at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on August 7, 1991. They were helped by Victor Quinones, who had been a part owner of Capital Sports in Puerto Rico and a heel manager in FMW, since he, Jose Gonzales, Mr. Pogo, El Gran Mendoza, and El Profe, attacked Onita at the WWC office in San Juan, Puerto Rico on August 29, 1990.
W*ING had a large cult following for three years, until March 1994. They produced Mitsuhiro "Mr. Danger" Matsunaga, Yukihiro Kanemura, Head Hunters, gaijin (foreign) "monsters" such as Leather Face, Freddy Krueger, Jason the Terrible, Crypt Keeper, Lucifer (I won't unmask them at this time), and many kinds of death matches. However, W*ING folded because of Micky Ibaragi's careless financial management. Then, most of the wrestlers joined Quinones' new group, IWA (International Wrestling Association), when he found a new sponsor, the infamous Mr. Asano (Tatsukuni "Kinroku" Asano), who had owned Japanese style restaurants in Shinjuku (amusement center area of Tokyo), and his "Asano Office" had bought and run wrestling shows from various Japanese offices.
Mr. Asano, Cactus Jack, and Cactus' cross
First, Quinones had TV tapings for Japanese TV and a commercial video in San Juan, Puerto Rico on February 21-22, 1994. Shoji Nakamaki and W*inger (Takashi Okano) took part in the taping. Quinones, at the press conference in Tokyo on April 8, 1994, said the IWA would be an all-round-style-wrestling office of Japanese, American, Lucha Libre, and DEATH MATCHES. They had their opening show in a seaside park in Yokosuka, Kanagawa on Saturday, May 21, 1994. IWA consisted of the wrestlers who formerly wrestled for W*ING like Shoji Nakamaki, Kanemura, Nobutaka Araya, Masayoshi Motegi, W*inger, and Hiroshi Ono. Quinones also booked a lot of good gaijin wrestlers such as Terry Funk, Dick Murdoch, Dick Slater, Head Hunters, Canek, Crash the Terminator (Hugh Morrus in WCW), Miguel Perez Jr., Los Cowboys (El Texano & Silver King), and many more. Quinones had learned wrestling business style from Gorilla Monsoon since 1974, and he works for WWF Latino now. Actually, he is always open to misconstruction from fans, but he is one of the nicest men I've ever seen in wrestling business.
From 1994 to 1995, the IWA could draw very decent paid crowds at Korakuen Hall. They gave away a small number of freebies. Fans welcomed them, and they kept bringing unique gaijin wrestlers and having a great variety of the death matches when bigger offices had the same crew and same matches every month. They gathered fans' opinions thru questionnaires in the lobby at Korakuen Hall, and also made a mailing list to send out discount coupons.
Shoji Nakamaki, Masanori, and Abdullah the Butcher
Their monthly Korakuen Hall shows were very enjoyable, and Quinones could build up great storylines with Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, and Shoji Nakamaki. Nakamaki wasn't a good worker, but he was a very attractive man in the death match. Everything had worked very well until their biggest show at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium on August 20, 1995. One of their merits is that they produced Yoshihiro Tajiri, who is wrestling in ECW now. Tajiri debuted as a pro wrestler against Takashi Okano on September 20, 1994. Tajiri challenged for Dan Severn's NWA World Heavyweight title in Toms River, New Jersey on June 9, 1995 and in Williamstown, New Jersey on June 24, 1995. And, Nobutaka Araya and Okano, as "The Masters of Orient," wrestled for the USWA for two weeks at the beginning of July 1994. Araya dove from the balcony at Korakuen Hall on August 29, 1994 like Matsunaga did at the W*ING show on February 9, 1992. Unfortunately, they split with the IWA because of Mr. Asano's strong ego. He isn't a bad man, but he is too much of a character. He was stingy and treated them without respect. Now, Araya is wrestling for Gen-ichiro Tenryu's WAR, Okano is wrestling for Great Kojika's Big Japan Pro (Kojika is another character), and, perhaps, Tajiri will wrestle for Michinoku Pro in the near future.
The weather started to threaten rain when Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke, and Flyingkid Ichihara quit FMW, and ran at the IWA show at Korakuen Hall on May 1, 1995, just four days before Onita's match against Gen-ichiro Tenryu at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium. Mr. Asano favored Goto too much and totally destroyed the great storyline built by Quinones, Terry, Cactus and Nakamaki.
Cactus Jack and Masanori
[May 23, 1994 / Korakuen Hall] Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match (Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Death Match)---Yukihiro Kanemura beat Shoji Nakamaki
[June 18, 1994 / Tokorozawa, Saitama] Barbed Wire / Scramble Bunkhouse / Mascara contra Cabellera (Mask vs. Hair) Death Match ---Yukihiro Kanemura beat W*inger
[June 23, 1994 / Korakuen Hall] Barbed Wire Board / Chain Death Match ---Yukihiro Kanemura beat Shoji Nakamaki
[July 14, 1994 / Korakuen Hall] Undertaker (casket) Death Match ---New Jason the Terrible (Tracy Smothers) beat Jason the Terrible
[October 16, 1994 / Korakuen Hall] Barbed Wire Board / Glass Window Crash Death Match ---Head Hunters beat Shoji Nakamaki & Hiroshi Ono
[November 13, 1994 / Hachioji, Tokyo] Fire Tag Team Death Match ---Terry Funk & Hiroshi Ono beat Shoji Nakamaki & Nobutaka Araya
[November 16, 1994 / Korakuen Hall] Scramble Bunkhouse / Barbed Wire Board Death Match ---Terry Funk & Nobutaka Araya beat The Head Hunters
Lights-Out Death Match---Leather Face beat Hiroshi Ono
[November 17, 1994 / Yokohama Bunka Gym, Kanagawa] Texas Cage Death Match ---Terry Funk beat Leather Face
(Terry had a press conference in front of the Gym before the show, where he showed a check for $500,000 challenging Atsushi Onita to a winner-take-all $1 million match)
[December 13, 1994 / Matsudo, Chiba] Spike Nail / Barbed Wire Board / Hell Death Match ---Shoji Nakamaki & Hiroshi Ono beat Original Leather Face & Leather Face
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[January 2, 1995 / Korakuen Hall] No-Rope-Barbed Wire Death Match --- Terry Funk & Shoji Nakamaki beat Cactus Jack & Tracy Smothers
[January 8, 1995 / Honjo, Saitama] No-Rope-Barbed Wire / Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match ---Terry Funk beat Cactus Jack
[February 3, 1995 / Korakuen Hall] (1) No-Rope-Barbed Wire Death Match ---Cactus Jack beat Shoji Nakamaki (2) Ladder death match ---Hiroshi Ono beat Crypt Keeper
[March 7, 1995 / Korakuen Hall] No-Rope-Barbed Wire / Thumbtacks Death Match ---Shoji Nakamaki & Hiroshi Ono beat Cactus Jack & Leather Face
[April 2, 1995 / Tokyo Dome] Barbed Wired Board / Scramble Bunkhouse Death Match ---Terry Funk, Shoji Nakamaki, & Leather Face beat Cactus Jack & Head Hunters
[April 3, 1995 / Korakuen Hall] No-Rope-Barbed Wire / Bricks Death Match ---Cactus Jack & Crypt Keeper (Jose Estrada Jr.) beat Shoji Nakamaki & Leather Face
[May 1, 1995 / Korakuen Hall] (1) Barbed Wired Board / Glass Window Crash Death Match ---Head Hunter-B beat Head Hunter-A (2) Barbed Wire / Ladder Death Match ---Shoji Nakamaki beat Crypt Keeper
[June 2, 1995 / Matsuzaka, Mie] Ladder Death Match ---Crypt Keeper beat Hiroshi Ono
[July 5, 1995 / Korakuen Hall] Shoji Nakamaki, Hiroshi Ono, & Keisuke Yamada beat Tarzan Goto, Mr. Gannosuke, Dennis Power Goto (Southern Justice / Mideon Dennis Knight)
[July 11, 1995 / Osaka Gym #2] Barbed Wire Body Suits Tag Team Death Match --- Tarzan Goto & Mr. Gannosuke beat Cactus Jack & Bob Baragail
Cactus said, "I had seven stitches in my hand, 14 behind this ear, 12 in my head, and seven over my eye, as well as 2nd degree burns. For that, I got three hundred dollars."
Quinones split with Mr. Asano at the end of 1995 and returned to FMW in the spring of 1996. IWA is still run by Mr. Asano with booker Doug Gilbert, who works very hard under its bad business conditions (budget, no Japanese babyfaces, etc.). I can't forget the IWA's progressive days in 1994-1995. It might be a midsummer night's dream or madness, but they certainly gave us something four years ago.
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