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Atsushi OnitaFormer Japanese politician and current wrestler
Date of Birth: 25.10.1957
Country:  Japan |
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Biography of Atsushi Onita
Atsushi Onita, a former Japanese politician and current professional wrestler, is best known for his work in the Japanese promotion FMW. He is considered an innovator of the 'death match' style in Japanese professional wrestling, which originated in Puerto Rico. This is why he is sometimes referred to as the Death Match Legend.
Early Life and Wrestling Career
Atsushi Onita was born on October 25, 1957, in Nagasaki, Japan. He became the first real graduate of the All Japan Pro Wrestling dojo. Although Jumbo Tsuruta debuted first, Onita trained in Amarillo, Texas, alongside Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk. During his youth, Onita was known as a loyal ally in the ring to a wrestler nicknamed Giant Baba, who accepted him into the dojo even though Onita did not finish high school. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he and Masanobu Fuchi visited Memphis, Tennessee, where they became three-time AWA Tag Team Champions.
After stepping away from the ring due to accumulated injuries in 1985, Onita returned three years later and joined the FMW promotion. He had his first 'death match' in the promotion against the martial arts master Masashi Aoyagi, whom he defeated. Over the next few years, until 1995, the Death Match Legend won the FMW Super Heavyweight Championship multiple times, defeating wrestlers such as Tarzan Goto, The Sheik, Terry Funk, Mr. Pogo, and even boxer Leon Spinks. Onita also appeared in the film 'Dan Gan' (translated as 'Bullet'), which later became the nickname of Onita's student Masato Tanaka. In May 1995, Onita defeated Hayabusa in a match and became the new leader of the promotion. He occasionally wrestled under the name Great Nita, adopting a gimmick similar to Keiji Mutoh (The Great Muta). In August 1999, Great Nita and Great Muta finally faced each other in the ring.
Political Career and Scandals
After a hiatus, Onita returned to the wrestling universe in December 1996. In 1997, he attempted to bring back the ideology of 'death match' in FMW but instead, the promotion's president, Shoichi Arai, and Hironobu Fukuchi dampened the popularity of 'death match', leading to Onita's departure from the promotion. In 2002, Onita briefly appeared in WEW, accusing Fukuchi of embezzlement, which reportedly led to the downfall of FMW. When a match between Fukuchi and Onita seemed inevitable, Fukuchi unexpectedly announced his resignation due to cancer.
As for his political career, Onita did eventually receive education in the late 1930s and became a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2001. Rumors suggest that Onita broke Wilt Chamberlain's record, having slept with more than 20,000 women. Ironically, he left the world of politics due to a sex scandal when he was caught using a government hotel room for his encounters with a porn actress and a representative from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.
