Dark Side Of The Ring dives into the spectacle of violence that was FMW.
Dark Side Of The Ring producers Evan Husney and Jason Eisener spoke with WrestleZone about the slate of topics included in season 3B of the show, one of which is a retrospective look at the infamous FMW (Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling) promotion created by Atsushi Onita.
Evan Husney: “I think the world of FMW, it’s just mind-blowing. It takes your breath away when you see some of those set pieces and those matches with those exploding pools and exploding rings, the electrified barbed wire. All that stuff is so visually captivating. I think Onita as a person and his career I think is really going to captivate a lot of audiences and I’m really excited just to see just discover that cause over the quarantine that’s what I did. I went back and re-watched, dove into all these FMW matches. It’s some of the most entertaining wrestling I think I’ve ever seen.”
Husney also talked about covering the story of the late Chris Kanyon in episode two, which aired last Thursday. Husney said it’s a sad story, but he hopes people see how influential Kanyon was and learn from the episode.
EH: “You can kind of look at what wrestling is today, the modern style of wrestling and really trace it back to what Kanyon was doing. I think he was a pioneer for his time, but yeah, I mean that’s a heartbreaking story. Chris’ struggles outside of the ring were really heavy and i think this episode is really one of the most emotional of the second half. Still gets me every time I’ve watched it. I’ve seen it probably one hundred times and it gets me every time so that one I’m looking forward to discovering Chris as an inspiration.”
Dark Side Of The Ring will premiere its FMW episode of Thursday, September 30 at 9 pm EST on VICE TV.
Tonight — the epic rise and tragic fall of FMW, a pioneering Japanese promotion infamous for its grand spectacles of violence.
Featuring @onitafire123, @TheDirtyFunker, @RealMickFoley, @IAmJericho, @sexystorm6960 and others.
9pm on @vicetv and @CraveCanada ? pic.twitter.com/hvSUOaGS6Y
— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) September 30, 2021
