FMW decided to capitalize on the huge success of the 2nd Anniversary Show on September 23, 1991 at the huge Kawasaki Stadium as the show drew a crowd of 33,000.[4] FMW booked their 4th Anniversary Show at the Kawasaki Stadium on May 5, 1993 to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the company and the huge crowd attraction was a dream match between the company's promoter and main star Atsushi Onita and hardcore wrestling idol Terry Funk. FMW signed Kawasaki Stadium to be the company's venue for future shows on May 5.[5]
On January 12, 1993, the fan favorite team of Sambo Asako, Ricky Fuji, Mr. Gannosuke and Great Punk took on the villainous team of Big Titan, The Gladiator, The Sheik and Dr. Luther in an eight-man elimination tag team match. Fuji turned on FMW by causing Goto to get eliminated by Big Titan and became a villain.[7] Fuji formed a stable Team Canada with Big Titan, Gladiator, Luther, Horace Boulder and Dr. Hannibal, which would lead to matches between FMW and Team Canada at 4th Anniversary Show.[5]
Miwa Sato, Eriko Tsuchiya, Yoshika Maedomari, Kumiko Matsuda and Yukie Nabeno represented FMW against LLPW's Eagle Sawai, Utako Ozumi, Yasha Kurenai, Midori Saito and Mikiko Futagami in a Captain's Fall match. Sato captained Combat Army while Sawai captained her team. Maedomari eliminated Futagami to gain the first elimination of the match. Sawai rebounded by eliminating Maedomari. Tsuchiya then eliminated Kurenai and Sawai pinned the opposing team's captain Sato following a Powerbomb to win the match. Eliminations for both teams tied at 2.[2][3]
Atsushi Onita headlined his fourth straight Anniversary Show against Terry Funk in a no rope exploding barbed wire time bomb deathmatch. As the name suggested, the ring would explode after each fifteen minutes into the match. Onita delivered a Flowing Snap DDT to Funk for the win just nearly four minutes within the explosion of the entire ring. Onita left the ring when thirty seconds were left but Funk was unable to move due to his injury and then Onita put himself on Funk to take the blast and the two embraced after the match.[2][3]
Reception
The 4th Anniversary Show was a huge success for FMW as the key attraction of the event was the main event match between Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk, which drew a crowd of 41,000, the biggest for FMW until then and the event brought a revenue of $1,800,000.[1]
4th Anniversary Show received mixed reviews from Ryan Mencuso of Puroresu Central. He rated the event 5.5 stars. He considered it "a two match show" rating the interpromotional match of Kudo and Toyoda vs. Toyota and Yamada "the high quality of match that fans expect from those 4 ladies" and called the Onita vs. Funk main event "a great spectacle to watch", with
"The worked shoot matches were really bad. The six-man barbed wire match wasn't good, but it could have also been much worse. Everything else was clipped into pieces. The Michinoku Pro six man tag looked really fun. In the end, Toyota & Yamada vs. Kudo & Toyoda along with Funk vs. Onita are the only things worth checking out from this show. If you haven't seen those two matches, then this show is worth watching. If you have, then don't bother getting this show."[2]
Aftermath
Following his win over Terry Funk, Atsushi Onita resumed his rivalry with Team Canada. In the summer of 1993, Mr. Pogo left W*ING and returned to FMW and restarted his feud with Onita. At Summer Spectacular, on August 22, Onita defeated Pogo to replace the WWA World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship with the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. By the fall of the year, another W*ING wrestler Mitsuhiro Matsunaga defected to FMW and W*ING began declining which forced the promotion to close in 1994. Many of former W*ING wrestlers began feuding with Onita and formed W*ING Alliance with the mission of ending FMW. Onita began a rivalry with Genichiro Tenryu and took part in interpromotional matches between FMW and Tenryu's WAR to build momentum for Onita vs. Tenryu as the main event of the 5th Anniversary Show.[16] Onita manipulated the crowd into attending the show by putting a retirement stipulation if he lost and he lost to Tenryu but then revealed that the retirement stipulation would be for May 5, 1995, a year later. Onita retired after defeating Hayabusa at the 6th Anniversary Show.[5][17]
Megumi Kudo's alliance with Combat Toyoda began to break up after the 4th Anniversary Show due to Aja Kong's disrespect towards Toyoda causing jealousy between Toyoda and Kudo. On June 28, Kudo, Toyoda and Miwa Sato lost to Noriyo Tateno, Eriko Tsuchiya and Yoshika Maedomari after Tateno pinned Sato.[18] Toyoda attacked Sato after the match and then Kudo tried to stop her but Toyoda attacked her as well and smashed a chair on Yukie Nabeno's head, prompting Kudo to attack Toyoda and Toyoda turnedvillain.[15] She reunited with Tsuchiya and Maedomari to reform their Combat Army under the new name Mad Dog Military. On July 24, Toyoda defeated Kudo to win the WWA World Women's Championship.[19]
