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A Barbaric Farewell: Atsushi Onita vs. Matt Tremont

This Saturday at CZW‘s Once In A Lifetime PPV event, two generations of brutality will collide in the main event, as CZW icon Matt Tremont faces off against the legendary (near mythical) Beast From The East, Atsushi Onita, in what is sure to be a blood and guts extravaganza as two men willing to sacrifice everything collide, in what will be one of Onita’s final matches ever.

Matt Tremont is no stranger to hardcore or deathmatches. He’s a decade into his pro wrestling career, where he’s won the CZW World Heavyweight Championship and the 2014 edition of CZW’s Tournament of Death, not to mention the 2012 IWA East Coast Masters of Pain, 2013 IWA Deep South Carnage Cup, and back-to-back 2014 and 2015 winner of the IWA Mid South King of the Deathmatch. Tremont is not afraid of violence and is a willing bleeder.

Atsushi Onita is the very definition of legendary. He was the first graduate of the All-Japan dojo in 1974, spending 11 years with AJPW, winning the NWA Junior Heavyweight title. His aggressive style soon piled up injury after injury and he was forced into early retirement in 1985 at the age of 28. He let his body heal up and three years later, returned to the ring, founding Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW) in 1988. An early precursor to ECW, FMW was a shoot-style promotion that emphasized brutality and weapons use, which Onita was heavily drawn to. He was a 7x FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion, 4x FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champion, and 4x FMW Brass Knuckles 6-Man Tag Team Champion. In 1995, Onita sold FMW and the new owners slowly began to move away from the deathmatch style that had made FMW so popular – they replaced Onita as the top star with a younger more athletic Hayabusa. By 1998, Onita left FMW all together and began to work as a freelance hardcore icon, which he’s done ever since. He returned to All-Japan last year and promptly won the All-Asian Tag Team titles, before announcing his retirement for October 31, 2017 with the promotion he started with.

The rest of the Once In A Lifetime card features:

CZW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Shane Strickland (C) vs. Masada
Lio Rush vs. Joey Janela
Triple Threat Tag Team Match: Storm of Entrails vs. Raijin Yaguchi & Hideki Hosaka vs. The Awakening
CZW Wired Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) will defend his title
Aerial Assault match (combatants TBA)

It’s available for iPPV or part of the subscription package for Highspots Wrestling Network at 7:30pm on Saturday August 5.