4. Barbed Wire Electrified Dynamite Pool Double Hell Death Match
No comprehensive look at insane match stipulations would be complete without a visit from the grandaddy of ultra-violent Japanese wrestling leagues, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). In one particularly infamous bout, FMW founder Atsushi Onita teamed with Mr. Gannosuke and Katsutoshi Niiyama to take on the team of Mr. Pogo, Hideki Hosaka, and future ECW Champion Mike Awesome. This wasn't any normal six-man tag team match, though. The ring itself was an "island" of sorts, suspended in a tremendous pool of water -- wrestlers had to make their entrances on boats. The water itself was electrified, and so when wrestlers were tossed into the drink, a massive explosion would result. The ring had no ropes, and instead, the grapplers were held in by barbed wire strung from post to post. Of course, weapons such as barbed-wire bats and sickles were strewn about, just for good measure. In the end, Onita's team won when Onita scored the pinfall off a Powerbomb. Let's hope that this contest settled things, and the teams didn't have to clash in an even bigger bout the next month.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
