YMMV / FMW

• Fandom Rivalry: While the Japanese mainstream, All Japan and New Japan, have been mentioned several times, the revival managed to pick up CZW, of all fan bases. While FMW's faithful have always been somewhat dismissive of CZW, CZW's fans are sort of used to being dumped on and the FMW faithful in truth dump on a lot of garbage feds following in their wake, so it wasn't especially noticeable. When Atushi Onita himself went to New Jersey to work with CZW and called them cheap, though, that lead to some backlash. Although many CZW fans were still happy for the "Once In A Lifetime" chance to see him live.
• Friendly Fandoms: If there is a garbage fed besides W*ING or IWA Japan FMW fans are likely to tolerate, it's probably Big Japan Pro Wrestling, especially after the Death Match BJ vs Strong BJ split with guys liked Mixed Martial Artist turned hardcore specialist Masashi Takeda on one side and some of the best strong style wrestlers like Daisuke Sekimoto on the other. To a lesser extent, ECW gets some support for some good booking on the part of Paul Heyman, many wrestlers legendary for their technical and or work rate and prominent use of Masato Tanaka.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The American DVD series made it seem like Hayabusa was The Ace, when he was actually closer to third in popularity behind Tanaka and Kudo.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The tenth anniversary judgment day show was supposed to be the biggest in their history. At the time it fell short but was still viewed as a success. In hindsight, people argue that was the show that lead to the FMW's decline and closure. Despite Kodo Fuyuki's defeat, the "sports entertainment" he introduced never really went away(the brass knuckles title didn't come back while the WEW belt stayed), the variety of match types on the card decreased(nothing for different weight divisions), the women's division started to disappear(the baby faces were in a handicap match simply because there were only two left) and the booking became increasingly questionable(highlighted by the main event).
  • H was a little sloppier than usual during his match with Mr. Gannosuke on Judgment Day, where Shawn Michaels proclaimed talent like them would be the reason FMW would become the #1 company in Japan. H's paralysis after a botched moonsault would end up being what many considered the final nail in FMW's coffin.
• Heartwarming Moments: Three years after the company closed down, Masato Tanaka, Masaru Toi, Mr. Gannosuke, Megumi Kudo, Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, GOEMON, Onryo, Hido, Shark Tsuchiya, Hisakatsu Oya, Ricky Fuji, Miss Mongol, Gosaku Goshogawara, Kaori Nakayama and Hayabusa reunited to participate in Sumie Sakai's "We Love Sabu" benefit show, which successfully paid for Sabu's hospital bills after he was injured. ^note Ryuji Ito, Necro Butcher and Daisuke Sekimoto from Big Japan, Crazy SKB and Shinobu from 666, The Apache Army's Akrangers Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO, Asian Cougar, Asian Condor, Asian Monkey, Lingerie Muto, GAMI, Fang Suzuki, Seiji Ikeda and Eddie Edwards were also among those present while Sandman brought beer.
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • Nigel McGuinness would be happy to see that even in the promotion for which garbage wrestling was named, W*ING Kanemura had the sense to get his damned hands up!
  • The whole campaign against the mainstream. It was already kind of questionable in the 1990s when FMW was drawing crowds of 11,000 during it's down periods but in the 2010s, the industry had declined so much that such a number would have people calling you "mainstream" by default. In deed, FMW's garbage wrestling would be the only barrier to a mainstream audience by then.
  • Onita yelling at Hayabusa after his retirement match to never let him get in the ring again... which lasted all of a year, with Onita being one of the faces of 10-Minute Retirement in wrestling.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: One of the main complaints about the "sports entertainment" era. Not every FMW fan actually liked excessive garbage wrestling but those that did not found the promotion put on so many different match types that they could still get their money's worth while ignoring the blood baths. WEW coincided with things becoming more uniform and samey.
• Memetic Mutation: Oh my God! Those Japanese tables! They're so hard, they don't break! (W*ING Kanemura did a leg drop from ten feet off a scaffold, snapping one of the table's metal legs but still not going through it)
• Moment of Awesome: FMW's 6th Anniversary Show, which drew a crowd of 58,250 people. Only five "pure" puroresu promotions managed to do better, four of which (All Japan, New Japan, NOAH and the UWF) had legacies dating back to the JWA and the other, Tokyo Pro Wrestling, not having nearly the longevity. FMW did this without the benefits of network television, while operating in areas not known for pro wrestling fan bases.
• Nausea Fuel: According to Chris Jericho, the young boys in the FMW Dojo were submitted to sexual hazing, which included masturbating in a jar and drinking it.
• Never Live It Down: An example that not only affected this promotion, but also did the same with basically all Japanese promotions as well. For many western fans, FMW's matches were their introduction to Japanese pro wrestling, causing the stereotype that Japanese wrestling was, and still is, much violent compared with western promotions. While is somewhat true that Japanese pro wrestling has a reputation on being quite more intense than other promotions worldwide, FMW's Garbage Wrestling antics, along their violence, caused a long-time impression that still endure to this day, and still haunts other Japanese promotions, even those who didn't indulge in such extremes.
• Older Than They Think: IWA Japan's King Of The Death Match tournament is cited as an example of "Follow The Leader" and at least in name, it deserves to be. But it's also full circle, IWA Japan was started at least in part by as well as built itself up on wrestlers who defected from WWC, where FMW got many of its ideas from in the first place.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: Tarzan Goto always drew poorly when Atsushi Onita was not around to tag or feud with. "Shin" FMW was his attempt to try and overcome this, to become a top draw.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Megumi Kudo-Shark Tsuchiya match listed on the main page under Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death was Kudo's retirement match, meaning she retired as Champion, violating wrestling tradition which says you are supposed to lose your last match. This was just short of a year after Kudo had defeated Combat Toyoda for the title in Toyoda's retirement match (although Toyoda came back two years later, though in AJW, not FMW). They could have used Kudo to make a new star for the division by having that other wrestler defeat Kudo clean in Kudo's last match. It also ended up being pointless since Kudo vacated the titles in her retirement ceremony on June 13th, and Shark defeated Aja Kong for them on September 28th and never lost them, as they apparently became inactive at some undetermined point later that year. Thus, they made a big huge deal about Kudo having her last match and retiring as Champion...only to end up right back where they started five months later, much like how Lita regained the belt by defeating Mickie James after Trish Stratus had vacated it after winning it in her "retirement" match. The BIG difference is that, well, Trish didn't have to survive a "No Rope 200 Volt double hell Double Barbed Wire Barricade Double Landmine Crushed Glass Electrical Barbed Wire Death Match" against a selfish no-selling monster. That, and, unlike Toyoda OR Trish, Kudo never came back.
• Values Dissonance: It should be noted that the "Sports Entertainment" that nearly destroyed FMW still had a much stronger focus on ring action and was still more violent than the pro wrestling product in the United States described by those same two words. The FMW faithful are free to dislike it but should count their blessings Fuyuki didn't regress things nearly as far as he could have.
• Vindicated by History: After being shunned and dismissed by the Japanese wrestling mainstream for a decade, Onita got to bring his style of match to New Japan Pro-Wrestling. At NJPW Strong Style Symphony- New Japan Spirit 1999, April 10, 1999, on live national TV, he got to open the show in a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match against Masahiro Chono, which went to a double-knockout. At NJPW Jingu Climax, August 28th, 1999, again on live national TV, in his "The Great Nita" gimmick, he main evented against the Great Muta in a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Explosive Land Mine Death Match, which Onita lost. At NJPW Riki Choshu Revival, July 30, 2000 on PPV, Choshu d. Onita in a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match. While it may not seem like vindication for Onita to have been able to bring these matches to New Japan since he didn't win any of them, just consider how this was very different for New Japan. It's comparable to having Terry Funk or Sabu in a barbed-wire match main eventing on Raw against The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin.