TARZAN GOTO OF THE DAY #2

Atsushi Onita v. Tarzan Goto Exploding Barbed Wire 9/4/90





This is the first ever exploding barbed wire match. It is a gimmick Onita would later go on to perfect, this was pretty damn good as a stand alone match, and an especially good debut of this lunatic idea. Like most of these matches, Onita starts out eating a big beating, Goto attacks at the bell and drives him immediately into an explosions. Then we get a lot of bleeding and crazy facial expressions from Onita, as Goto works him over. Really nice powerslam and headbutts from Goto here, as he really is a bull. The match was really worked like the debut of a nutty gimmick, as Onita kept kind of accidentally setting off the explosions, like he hadn’t mastered the new ring positioning yet. Onita survives and survives, until he is finally able to Headbutt Goto into the barbed wire, after which he hits a batch of powerbombs and DDT’s until Goto can’t get up. Very weird to see a Puro match with so little back and forth, basically Ontia gets mauled, until he turns the tide and then Goto gets mauled until he loses. I really enjoyed this, it wasn’t a great wrestling match but Onita does these kind of Grand Guignol spectacles better then anyone ever.