• INTRODUCTION: Here's another match review, this time from FMW. Enjoy!

• BACKGROUND: The team of Masato Tanaka & Gedo had recently defeated champions Kodo Fuyuki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (on 1/7/01 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan) to win the WEW World Tag Team Titles (FMW's version of the tag team titles). The match came to a finish when Gedo pinned Fuyuki (at 21:01). FMW held several shows within the next month and a half after that, but none of those shows saw the new champions defend their titles. Their first defense came in this match.

• SHOW INFO:

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Show
February 26, 2001
Korakuen Hall
Tokyo, Japan

WEW World Tag Team Championship Match: Kintaro Kanemura & Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Masato Tanaka & Gedo (C)

• ENTRANCES/PRE-MATCH: The feed starts off with a graphic (in Japanese) of the title match. The announcers are discussing the match (in Japanese, of course) while a woman is in the middle of the ring and reading the introductions off of a small index card of sorts. The funny-sounding, almost comedic, music of the challengers is already playing, and Kintaro Kanemura, wearing red pants (at least they sort of look like pants) and white upperbody ring attire, first comes out to a big pop. His partner, Ryuji Yamakawa, wearing a white cowboy hat, white upperbody attire, white lowerbody attire, and white boots, comes out a few seconds later from another area in the arena, and although he entered after his partner, he (Ryuji) reaches the ring first and climbs in. A moment or two later, though, Kanemura reaches it and climbs in, too.

Both of these men were major rivals in both BJPW and in FMW. The fans, by the way, are rythmically clapping to the music. They go into the center of the ring, stand back-to-back, and do a comedic dance of sorts to the tunes of their theme music. After a few moments, they stop dancing and both do a bacsk-to-back Shawn Michaels-like "show of my muscles and lean toward one way" pose. The two hardcore mofos then back up and wait for their opponents as they prepare for their chance to win the WEW World Tag Team Championships.

The music of the champions hit and Gedo, wearing a red headband that is so low on his head that it almost covers his eyes, comes out with the title tied around his waist. Former-ECW World Heavyweight Champion Masato Tanaka, carrying his title belt, follows him out and the two make their way into the ring. The woman in the ring introduces them. The two teams square off in their respective corners and get ready for the match. Ryuji takes his shirt and cowboy hat off as his partner, Kanemura, stretches on the ropes. Meanwhile, Gedo takes off his headband, and I must say that he looks to have below-standard dental work. Hey, I'm observant. The challengers quickly say some words to eachother before the match starts.

• THE MATCH: The referee signals for the bell, which rings, and we're ready to go. Gedo and Kanemura start off. They circle eachother and square off. They go for a tieup, and Kanemura immediately uses a kneelift to the gut, and then a chop. Gedo stumbles backwards into the corner, where he receives another chop (which we don't see, as the camera moves away from the action for a moment; we do hear the chop connect and Gedo moan, though). Kanemura whips him into the opposite corner and charges, but Gedo gets a knee up into his upper chest area. Gedo immediately lifts himself up onto the second-rope, leaps off and hits a nice diving huracanrana, sending Kanemura rolling into the middle of the ring. Gedo signals for Kanemura to get up, and once he does, Gedo charges, ducks a clothesline, bounces off the ropes, and hits a tilt-a-whirl headscissors takeover, sending Kanemura through the middle and top ropes and to the floor below.

Gedo signals for Ryuji to come in, and he does. Ryuji charges and misses a lariat. Gedo attempts a gutkick, but Ryuji catches it, so Gedo immediately uses his free (right) leg to hit an enziguiri kick, sending Ryuji out through the bottom and second rope. This occurs just as Tanaka, on the ring apron, charges and apron-dives onto Kanemura. Meanwhile, a woman standing at ringside (in the ring area) nails Ryuji across the back with a singapore cane shot. Once Ryuji climbs back to his feet, Gedo takes him down once again by hitting an Asai Moonsault from the apron and off of the second turnbuckle. Meanwhile, Tanaka rolls Kanemura into the ring and delivers a stomp onto Ryuji. Back in the ring, Gedo front slams Kanemura and hits a second-rope quebrada (springboard moonsault). He hooks Kanemura's leg, but gets 2.

Gedo tags in Tanaka, who climbs onto the top-rope and, once Kanemura is back on his feet, missle dropkicks his opponent into the opposite corner. He tags in Ryuji, who catapults himself into the ring. He charges Tanaka and tries a lariat, but it has little effect. Ryuji runs off the ropes and tries another lariat that gets the same effect. Ryuji runs off the opposite ropes, but Tanaka lariats him down. Kanemura runs in, but also gets sent down with a lariat. Tanaka yells out over the ropes to the crowd. Tanaka picks up Ryuji and hammers him, but Kanemura gets up, too, and forearms Tanaka from behind. Ryuji hammers him in the back of the head, and the two challengers double-whip Tanaka into the ropes, who ducks an attempted (non-joint) double lariat, bounces off the opposite ropes, and downs both men with his own double lariat.

Tanaka tags in Gedo, who comes in and yells for Ryuji to get up. Once he does, he receives two punches. Gedo runs off the ropes, but receives a sidekick to the gut. He doesn't go down, though, but he does after Ryuji uses a grounded leg trip kick. Gedo is sitting up, but Ryuji pushes him back down, runs off the ropes, and uses a leg drop. He again runs off the ropes and hits another leg drop. Cover. 2. He picks Gedo up and drags him toward his corner, eventually throwing him into the buckle. He tags in Kanemura, who enters and delivers a gutkick before whipping Gedo into the ropes and using a back body drop. Kanemura sits Gedo up on his knees and then runs off the ropes. The ringside woman that used the singapore cane before tries to trip him, but he doesn't fall.

He is effected by her nailing him in the groin, though, and Gedo, who's up by now, waits for him to charge before sending his foe down with a hard blow. Gedo uses a driving punch and a stomp, and then lifts Kanemura back up, uses an armringer, and drags him toward Tanaka, who he tags in. Tanaka comes in, delivers a gutkick, uses his own armringer, and transitions into a standing wristlock. After a few moments, he lifts Kanemura up and powers down with the wristlock, and then uses another armringer, followed by a snapmare. Kanemura is in a sitting postion and Tanaka locks on an armbar. He now transitions into an inverted armbar with a modified leg scissors.

He finally releases the hold, lays Kanemura down, and kicks his left hand. Tanaka grabs Kanemura's left arm and drops a leg onto it. Tanaka does a wierd-looking submission that looks like a Lou Thesz Press, but higher up on the opponents body than normal. He eventually releases the hold and lifts Kanemura up. Tanaka wraps Kanemura's left arm around the ring ropes, thereby stretching it, and tags in Gedo. Gedo climbs up onto the top-rope, leaps off and drops a flying fist onto the arm. Tanaka climbs out as Gedo applies an armringer on Kanemura's left arm, and then transitions into an armringer takedown. Kanemura is lying on the ring mat as Gedo bounces off the ring ropes and hits a frogsplash onto the arm. He now applies a grounded inverted armbar. As Kanemura starts rising, Gedo transitions into a regular armbar, and then uses an armringer. He drags Kanemura towards the corner and tags in Tanaka.

Tanaka enters and hammers Kanemura's bad left arm as Gedo climbs out. Tanaka brings Kanemura into another corner and kicks the arm. He then backs up, charges, and big boots Kanemura in the face. Tanaka then climbs onto the second buckle and delivers his signature Tornado DDT to Kanemura. Kanemura, now in the opposite corner, stands back up as Tanaka charges him. Kanemura sidesteps him and hurls his foe head-first into the middle buckle, and a steel chair that was mounted between the second and top buckles, so Tanaka's face also crashes into that (along with the buckle). The chair is sent flying onto the floor below. Kanemura then picks Tanaka up by the hair and tosses him out of the ring through the second and top ropes, and then runs to the other side of the ring and hammers Gedo off of the apron, sending him to floor below.

Kanemura flips over the top-rope and slides off the ropes and apron to the floor below, which is where Gedo now is. Kanemura picks up a steel chair and throws it at Gedo's back, and then whips him into a pile of already-set up chairs. Meanwhile, Ryuji picks up Tanaka off of the concrete floor and drags him awhile before ramming his head into the steel ringpost.