Trilly-Verse Explained: FMW
The fifth of seven(?) rosters on this nerdy Firepro excursion
Introduction:
Ah, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, how I love thee. For real, FMW was somehow more or less my first foray into Japanese wrestling as a kid (c’mon, YOU remember the first time you saw Hayabusa’s mask and wrestlers stuck in barbed-wire too!), and it has proven to be just the perfect amount of hodgepodge and variety that I value in wrestling so much as I continually delve deeper and deeper. Obviously, if you value true “match quality” many of its contemporaries lap FMW, especially in Japan, but there is just something so unique, so cinematic, so chaotic about each FMW show you watch that just hits unlike anything else. Here in the Trilly-Verse, I had to have an FMW analogue or remake and I truly do want it to feel like a “modern” version of the promotion in a sense. Essentially, this is my “hardcore” promotion, taking it’s cues from the real FMW as well as other 90s promotions like W*NG, IWA-Japan, ECW, the beginning of BJW and more. Much like the Trilly-Verse’s TNA in the US, FMW provides an alternative for the “edgy” crowd in Japan. It is hugely popular and can fill the occasional large-scale arena, but it doesn’t have the financial backing of NOAH (or even UWFi), and will run super small shows as well. Also, it is one of the few “international” promotions in the Trilly-Verse as it has racked up a HUGE fanbase in the US AND Mexico that allows it to run occasional shows in both locations. Rules (as we will get to) are virtually non-existent, and the crowd really craves blood. That all said, it isn’t strictly ALL WEAPONS, and it does have a robust roster of some of the best technical wrestlers in the world, but it IS all about variety. Expect gimmick matches, falls count anywhere, big scrambles, big multi-mans AND also epic 1 v 1 title matches. If you can’t tell - I love my vision for this promotion.
The Rules:
What rules? Ok, look - there ARE rules and there ARE matches with standard, “pro wrestling” rules, but the majority of matches are virtually a lawless land. There is no outside count in any match (at least for now, we will see how extended simulations look in regards to this). MOST matches are contested with Falls Count Anywhere rules or a stipulation that requires a specific match ending. DQ exists in some instances, but really is not enforced, same with weapon usage. Matches DO have time-limits, the standard being 30, with the occasional “tv” match being shorter and the big title matches being longer. In all candor, I’m working out how to make tag matches work - as I don’t really like the way that Tornado Tag matches simulate, but having “standard” tag rules doesn’t really make sense - plus I have a big 6-man belt that is the fuckin’ wild west (more on that below). It’s a chaotic time in FMW. Again, there are lots of standard exhibition matches, but I will also being using lots of features created from the Modpack for different match gimmicks as well. There will be some experimentation needed on my part, so once streaming or filming actually starts, don’t be surprised if there are changes to rules/presentation/etc.
The Titles:
FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship - The primary title of FMW, this is essentially an openweight title, despite it’s name. Because of the spectacle of the promotion, titles are important but slightly LESS than most other promotions in the Trilly-Verse. It can be held in basically any match type, from standard singles matches, to multi-mans to big barbed-wire explosion matches and more. It IS falls count anywhere and is pretty much only defended on big shows
FMW Hardcore Championship - As stated a bunch, almost every match is falls count anywhere, and NO DQ, but the Hardcore championship and division is specifically given to GIMMICK matches that the game and modpack can provide. From cage & octagon to barbed wire to landmine and more. These match types might occur in other matches (I WILL have an entire show with barbed-wire ropes), but this title specifically is for gimmick matches.
FMW World Tag Team Championship - As stated above, I don’t have the specifics of this title mapped out. My gut was to have it be tornado rules and just chaotic, but I don’t love the way that simulates, so it might just NOT have hard and fast rules and change from match to match. Regardless, it is a 2 v 2 title.
FMW Street Fight World 6-Man Championship - This is where chaos reigns and we get 3 v 3 matches without tags and hardly any rules. These matches will also be elimination matches for now, unless I notice that this results in frequent domination. If I ever learn how to remap the modified outdoor arenas I have seen some people messing with, these will be used too - but basically these are just big ass arena brawls.
The Roster:
This was one of the most fun rosters to put together for me. I knew who I wanted my ace to be (despite him having a relatively down couple of years), I knew who I wanted my primary heels to be and then I knew I wanted to blend a bunch of styles here. It feels VERY 90s in places, very modern in places, has roots in ECW, FMW, Lucha, comedy and my own dumb brain. It’s a ton of fun - I hope it comes across below. Like all the other rosters, there is a difference between babyface, tweeners and heels and it’s actually rather pronounced in FMW, BUT the company does cater to a sort of “smark” or “nihilistic” crowd who love to cheer anything insane, gross and brutal - so some nasty heels are “favorites” of the crowd despite working like real assholes.
Babyfaces:
SPLATTER
Entrance Theme: “Friends Like You” by Sick of it All
Hiromu Takahashi
Masashi Takeda
Arez
Perry Saturn
John Kronus
I am fully aware that as of this writing, despite winning the NJPW Junior Heavyweight Title again, that Hiromu has had a down few years - and that will happen when someone breaks their neck and then fucks up their shoulder. Adjusting from the most dynamic wrestler on the planet into something that won’t kill you is hard. That all said, there were a few years there where Hiromu was the best in the world and that’s what I wanted to convey here once again, putting him as the crazy ace of FMW in the Trilly-Verse. Alongside him, you have perhaps the best Deathmatch worker of his (or any?) generation in Masashi Takeda, one of my favorite current luchadors in Arez, who I am oddly turning babyface here and then I wanted a truly badass team that doesn’t seem to quite fit, but also…does? I’m a big fan of The Eliminators or the idea of them and love having them as one of the top teams here. SPLATTER is wild, they are loud, they are dangerous and the crowd eats it up.
Klown School
Entrance Theme: “Killer Klowns” by The Dickies
Psycho Clown
Doink
Pagano
Kuishinbo Kamen
Shaggy 2 Dope
Violent J
If we are gonna get crazy, we are gonna get crazy and I needed my ideal clown team as a fun babyface squad. Psycho Clown had to be the stoic leader, ready to bleed, and get the crowd on his side, and Doink - well, he’s gonna be like original Doink but with the crowd a little more into heelish shenanigans and jokes, he works as sort of an outlandish babyface. Pagano is here to bleed, Kamen is here to make people laugh and I thought it would be fun to bring back in ICP just for spectacle. Their stats are low, but I boosted them to keep it a little competitive. These guys are wild and crazy and love weapons.
starSHINE
Entrance Theme: “Shine on Me” by Chris Dane Owens
Kota Ibushi
Rey Fenix
MAO
Speedball Mike Bailey
Mascarita Sagrada
Now THESE are your traditional good guy babyfaces. I am still quite a big fan of Kota Ibushi, even if less than I was 5 years ago. He has such good babyface charisma and is such a weirdo that I wanted him in FMW and not NOAH or elsewhere. I got the name of the group from the old ridiculous song I have chosen as their entrance theme which has been stuck in my head for over 10 years (and has a movie coming out this year apparently??). Fenix is a hell of a flyer and I think a lot of his best work was in Lucha Underground, which has a little bit of a similar vibe as here. MAO is a lot of fun, great in plunder, Mike Bailey is such a white meat babyface and we have our first mini in Mascarita Sagrada! In-game he obviously doesn’t look THAT small, but I messed with proportions quite a bit to make him a least look a little different. I love this group, you love this group.
MDK
Entrance Theme: “Twinz (Deep Cover 98)” by Big Pun & Fat Joe
Nick Gage
New Jack
Mustafa Saed
Homicide
Are you getting the idea that babyfaces are a little different in FMW? All 4 men here were extremely over as babyfaces at different points in their career, mostly for just being crazy fuckin’ killers and that’s what we have here. MDK baby. These 4 say fuck the few rules that exist and do shit their own way. Don’t go into a MDK match expecting a technical classic, but DO expect blood and chaos. Gage is the leader, but they really operate like a big gang, where everyone talks, everyone can challenge for any title and everyone wants to just cripple their opponent. We got madmen in the crowd and MDK shirts are the highest selling in FMW.
WRLD Ultimate
Entrance Theme: “Go Go Round This World” by Fishmans
Kzy
Brazo de Plata/Super Porky
Johnny B. Badd
Koko B. Ware
Lee Moriarty
This is honestly one of my favorite units in all of the Trilly-Verse. I love all 5 of these wrestlers, I love the name (shoutout The Nonce), I love the idea of a Kzy-led group bouncing to the ring (in Porky’s case, quite literally) to the sound of Fishmans. I was proud of the simple edit I did for the logo, I love that Johnny and Koko both have B in their name so I can call them something punny as a tag team. I don’t know - this is another one of those teams like every promotion has that is just bright and colorful and kind of a mishmash of ideas and styles but works in this idealistic, babyface-centric way. Kzy is great, he’s the most consistent guy in Dragongate and he looks cool as hell. Porky (rip) is so fun and will be super over with the crowd. Badd and Ware, despite dealing with very silly gimmicks for much of their career are both fantastic pro wrestlers and Lee is just so damn likable (and hell, he’s become a really great heel in real life). This isn’t the highest profile or most dominant stable, but they are kind of the underground fave.
Tweeners:
Bones Brigade
Entrance Theme: “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains
LA Park
Barbaro Cavernario
Darby Allin
Moondog Spot
Moondog Rex
Park was a must. Everyone knows that Park is legit one of the best ever. Just uncontrollable chaos that is so much more than the chair guitar guy from WCW. He’s a fan favorite in this FMW but takes things a little too far (along with his squad), so that his group of skeletons are just on the “tweener” side of things. Cavernario, like Hiromu, when he is good, is one of the best in the world and maybe my favorite wrestler in North America. I’m not a huge fan of Darby, but his look and his feel fits right in here and then the bone-carrying Moondogs, who barely know how to wrestle are here to stomp around and make their opponents bleed. A very fun, chaotic group that will be hard to top when it comes to the Street Fight 6-Man titles.
Dem Boyz
Entrance Theme: “Pain (Mo’Dirt Remix)” by 2pac & Johnny Cash
Brodie Lee
Jay Briscoe
Mark Briscoe
Alex Colon
RIP Brodie. Brodie’s passing had a big effect on me, like many wrestling fans - just because he seemed like such a geniunely awesome dude, and was obviously a geniunely awesome wrestler who was finally getting able to show that again in AEW. I wanted to have a big, brawling team of dudes with beards who can just pound their opponents into the ground OR actually put on a technical classic and these 4 came up right away. The Briscoes still being as good as they are is crazy, and a trio of them with Brodie is such a fun thing to imagine. Colon, for his part, has been probably the best American Deathmatch worker of the last handful of years, so putting him here and letting him shine in the Hardcore division really works for me. This unit isn’t the hottest pushed or the most popular, but all wrestlers are near the top of their various divisions and can easily hold titles.
Bulls On Parade
Entrance Theme: “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine
“Bulldozer” Matt Tremont
”Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii
Pitbull #1
Pitbull #2
Big Bully Busick
Get it? It’s silly but how sick is this group? Sure the talent may be questionable to some (yes, there are even Ishii haters in this cruel world), but rest assured I am here to tell you that all 5 of these guys are dope as heck. This is obviously a babyface leaning tweener group, but they all play it very stoic and go about their business. Tremont, a divisive talent, at his best is a truly fantastic dramatic deathmatch worker. Ishii is one of the most consistently good wrestlers of all time, Big Bully Busick is just a brute with an awesome look and The Pitbulls are both horrendous and absolutely one of the most beast tag teams ever. This unit might actually define my vision of FMW better than any other.
Danse Macabre
Entrance Theme: “Sin” by Nine Inch Nails
Raven
Willow The Whisp
Christopher Daniels
Mortis
Wrath
I toyed with a few different stable ideas involving members of this team before combining and settling on this. I thought about going full 90s grunge and doing an update on Raven’s Flock AND then a weird Castlevania-goth unit with Daniels, but then I just took both and made them “edgy”. This group leans heel obviously, but because of their look and weirdo kids in the crowd, they are quite popular. Raven isn’t doing full on cult-leader here, but it isn’t far off, Hardy is being real weird under the mask, Daniels is in his earlier Fallen Angel gimmick and then Mortis and Wrath are gonna work their style but more…brutal. Danse Macabre feels like a throwback and is.
Heels
KAIJU
Entrance Theme: “Twist of Cain” by Danzig
The Gladiator Mike Awesome
Big Titan
The Barbarian
Warlord
I wanted the top heels of FMW not to be like just some “smarter than thou” rulebreakers, but true badasses that the top babyfaces would have to claw and scrape to defeat - like real Final Bosses. True to original FMW, I knew Mike Awesome (in his Gladiator facepaint) was the one I had to put in the role as THE GUY to conquer. I added ol’ Fake Razor Ramon, Big Titan as his right hand man and then brought in the Powers of Pain as more painted up, roid-heads to dominate and destroy the tag team division. All of these guys are dominant, mean and the top of the food chain here.
La Peste Negra
Entrance Theme: “La Bestia Humana” by Caifanes
Negro Casas
YAMATO
Hechicero
Psicosis
Genki Horiguchi
In my head, I wanted to make this version of La Peste Negra a combination of some of my favorite skilled (and dastardly) lucha guys combined with two of my favorite Dragongate guys (who are both great as heels). Negro Casas is a major player in this promotion, despite always being put into the junior category when he goes to Japan (well, he IS small). In this world he’s maybe the most respected wrestler on the roster and feared by just about everyone for his technical prowess. This group will cheat, but they don’t have to, which makes their heel shenanigans more annoying. You have one of the best mat workers in the world in Hechicero, one of the most adaptable wrestlers on the planet in YAMATO, old school Psicosis for the pomp and circumstance and then Genki as the wildcard. A really fun, devilish unit.
DEATHWISH
Entrance Theme: “A Sinner’s Fame” by Trouble
Steve Corino
Bison Smith
Demus 3:16
Headhunter A
Headhunter B
I mentioned previously that ever since my young E-Fedding days I’ve gone with this trope of a “cult” leader that sometimes turns out to be a little racist or problematic in its execution and that is sort of the case here, but I wanted to tone it down a little bit. Corino is a real piece of shit in this FMW. He’s a main eventer, most akin to his late ECW days, but really his NWA, ROH, whatever days fit too. I’m a big Corino mark. Smith is like his big, nasty bodyguard and Demus and the Headhunters aren’t necessarily controlled by him, but he helps guide their insanity and cue up opponents to satiate their thirst for blood. Of all the heels in this version of FMW, Corino is the most “cowardly” but he can still compete with anyone when the time comes.
Los Boricuas
Entrance Theme: “Suave (Blass Remix)” by Calle 13
Victor Quiñones
Savio Vega
Carlito
Santana
Ortiz
Amazing Red
Victor is such a key component to so many promotions in the 90s that I had to bring him in here as (I believe) the only manager that is the HEAD of a stable in the Trilly-Verse (I guess Cornette as well). He’s going to be one of the biggest focal points as a heel, just really pissing every single person off and taking his group of Puerto Rican wrestlers with him. Savio is obvious, Carlito/Carly Colon is essential, Santana and Ortiz were more or less my favorite tag team of the last 5 years and then Amazing Red filling in and playing up the PR angle and wowing everyone with his moves? This new Los Boricuas are BAD DUDES, and despite some of them pulling off incredible matches, you’re going to HATE them.
East Coast Promises
Entrance Theme: “N.Y. State of Mind (Instrumental)” by Nas & DJ Premier
Adrian Adonis
Bam Bam Bigelow
Low Ki
J.T. Smith
Trent Acid
I originally wanted to make it a full on old school New YAWWWK stable (bring in Johnny the Bull or Big Vito and the Brooklyn Brawler), but I opted to include Pennsylvania and Jersey as well. This is pre ADORABLE Adonis, who I think is one of the most criminally underrated workers of all time. He’s backed up by the Beast from the East Bam Bam, Low Ki doing Low Ki shit and then two underground favorites who aren’t really that great but totally fit the vibe of both the unit and the promotion in JT Smith and Trent Acid. This is definitely the lowest of the units in FMW, though they aren’t jobbers or anything - they bring a bit of underdeserved swagger to their matches and love to gang up on their opponents.
Of course, like always - FMW has some unaffiliated legends that show up from time to time. Some you would expect (Onita, Hayabusa, Sabu), some maybe not so much (Goldberg, Santo). There are a few other names I’m hiding from here that will probably make appearances at a big show or two down the road that will be very funny, but here we go.
I love this promotion. It’s pretty true to FMW with a focus on brawling and absurdity, but there are plenty of excellent workers (both heavyweight and junior). I probably could’ve added some more martial arts type guys for that “different fight” feel, but that can happen down the road. Hope you enjoyed, only two more promotions left.
Up next: Portland Wrestling.