News has broken that Tarzan Goto, alumni of the infamous Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), has passed away at the age of 58. Goto took part in some of the most incredible deathmatches in FMW’s history during his active career and continued to wrestle in various one-offs and FMW tribute shows until 2010, almost 30 years after his debut.
Tarzan Goto Passes Away
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Like Atsushi Onita himself, Goto began his career in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1981. Goto was trained by Japanese wrestling legends Jumbo Tsuruta and Giant Baba after making the jump from sumo wrestling to professional wrestling. Goto took to wrestling quite well and even won the Tokyo Sports award for best newcomer in 1983. Goto went on a foreign tour in the mid-80s after being seen by Harley Race and never returned to AJPW, instead getting married in America to All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling alumni Despina Montagas.
In 1989 he was invited by Onita to compete for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. It is here that Goto would leave his mark, winning the tag titles a number of times and holding the WWA Martial Arts Heavyweight title. Throughout his time in FMW, Goto regularly teamed with Atsushi Onita in various stipulation matches, this-included a notorious “no ropes barbed wire fire death match” that ended with the ring being engulfed in uncontrollable flames.
Tarzan Goto left FMW abruptly in 1995, this news caused shockwaves as Goto left just weeks before he was scheduled to be Atsushi Onita’s final opponent (he would instead be replaced by Hayabusa). After leaving FMW, he competed mainly in IWA-Japan including a brief stint as Ghost Face and even had a brief stint in ECW in 1996 as part of an IWA/ECW partnership.
Goto sadly passed away at the age of 58 on May 29, 2022, but he leaves behind a notorious career as one of FMW’s regulars during one of the most interesting eras in deathmatch wrestling history.
