Atsushi Onita Says He Feels Responsible for Ending to AEW’s Exploding Deathmatch

– Fanbyte’s Colette Arrand recently spoke to wrestler and deathmatch legend Atsushi Onita, who discussed the much maligned ending to the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch that headlined AEW All Out 2021 between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley. According to Onita, he felt responsible that fans were disappointed with the finish and that he wasn’t more involved with the process. Below are some highlights:

Atsushi Onita on American fans being disappointed with AEW’s exploding deathmatch: “I want to show American fans my original explosion match. I sometimes feel like I have to. American deathmatch fans have been disappointed twice, first with the explosion deathmatch CZW held in 2017, and secondly AEW’s. At the time of the CZW show, maybe because of costs, CZW said, ‘We don’t need Japanese engineers, don’t worry, leave it to us,’ and I believed them. I sent a cheering message to Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley, but AEW did the preparations for their explosion match on their own, and I wasn’t involved at all. However, I was disappointed that the fans were disappointed, and I felt responsible.”

His thoughts on Jon Moxley using “Wild Thing” as his entrance theme now: “Jon Moxley uses my theme music? Thank you, Moxley. I think if he has a spirit of JADO (evil ways), we might stand in the same ring some day. It would be interesting, wouldn’t it?”

Onita on FMW’s approach to the original explosion deathmatch: “We took small steps towards the original explosion deathmatch. FMW could not have a big one at first. After many trials and errors, we can do the explosion deathmatch today. Nobody can do it well their first time.”