Why does Atsushi Onita’s entrance performance make people go crazy?

This memo was prepared and sent for a friend of mine who is overseas.
The friend recommended, so I’m putting it on the web.

My friend in the UK is researching on professional wrestling and asked me a question.
The question was about Atsushi Onita’s entrance performance at the 1999 New Japan Pro Wrestling event.

More specifically, why did Atsushi Onita’s entrance performance at the Tokyo Dome show on April 10, 1999(vs. Masahiro Chono) make so many people go crazy?

As everyone can agree, Onita’s entrance performance at that time is very attractive.
This entrance performance is known to have been praised by Jon Moxley, a famous hardcore wrestler in USA.

Incidentally, there is an argument that analyzes this entrance performance by comparing it to that of his opponent Masahiro Chono.
For example, the argument focuses on the fact that Chono entered in a Hummer, or that he smoked a cigar instead of a cigarette (which Onita smoked).

However, these arguments are “hindsight” arguments. Because Onita entered the ring before Chono did.
Therefore, this type of argument cannot provide an accurate answer to the question of why Onita’s entrance performance excited people so much.

What we want to consider is what the experience of Onita’s entrance performance was like for the fans who were in the Tokyo Dome at that time.
Therefore, what we need to focus on when analyzing this topic is not the specific differences between Onita and Chono.

Rather, it is about the contrasting contexts in which Onita and Chono existed.
In other words, it is to understand the structure of contrast that Onita and Chono symbolize.

I can answer the question by using some contrasts.
I can explain Atsushi Onita’s entrance performance in 1999 as an example of how contrasts constitute beauty.

The first contrast is between Tokyo Dome and Kawasaki Stadium.
The Tokyo Dome, where this match was held, is a venue representing Tokyo, the capital of Japan.
Therefore, it symbolizes the historical legitimacy and sophistication of the capital.
Three months before Onita’s performance in April 1999, three great tenors, Jose Carreras/Placido Domingo/Luciano Pavarotti, gave a concert at the Tokyo Dome.
The Tokyo Dome is home ground of the strongest and most prestigious baseball team in Japan, the Yomiuri Giants.
As for professional wrestling organizations, of course, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s home ground is the Tokyo Dome, and they used to hold their big events there many times during the year.

Now, where is Atsushi Onita’s home ground?
The answer is Kawasaki Stadium.
It is located in the suburbs, far away from Tokyo, and has no roof, so it is not a venue that can host music events.
Because it is old and decrepit, the rent is low, and Atsushi Onita’s organization (FMW) was able to rent it.
The FMW was able to hold a big match only once a year at the Kawasaki Stadium.
The main event of the big match was Atsushi Onita’s barbed wire bombing death match.
Onita has earned the status of himself and his organization by shedding a lot of blood.
No matter how you look at it, the Kawasaki stadium is a good fit for Onita.
It was the most suitable place to show the performance of a wrestling organization called “indie”, which had no authority and no funding, trying to spread its wings with all its might.

Onita’s entrance performance at the Tokyo Dome meant that the chairman of a weak “indie” organization that had gained cult-like popularity would single-handedly and abandonedly hit the home ground of Japan’s largest pro wrestling organization.
It is this understanding of the contrasting narratives that has led the many New Japan Pro Wrestling fans in the Tokyo Dome to throw paper cups and trash at Atsushi Onita.
It goes without saying, “This is the home ground of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Kawasaki stadium suits you. That’s the message.

The second contrast is between the entrance gown and the leather jacket.
It is easy to distinguish between New Japan Pro Wrestling and other wrestlers.
You can tell them apart by whether or not they are wearing noble attire when they enter the ring.
Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami come in wearing the traditional Japanese “haori”.
Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh come in wearing long gowns.
Their gowns are very high quality and well managed.
It means that they are top-notch athletes and also stars who are taken care of by several valets.

Atsushi Onita, on the other hand, wears a dirty, dingy leather jacket.
It is a leather jacket so stale and dirty that no one would pick it up if it fell on the street.
And on the back of the leather jacket is written the word “邪道”（in English “Evil Way”）.
This word is a Buddhist term that means “someone who has strayed from the path one should follow as a human being”.
No one wants that kind of leather jacket, and no one looks good in it.
The only man who would look good in it is Atsushi Onita.
He is not a mainstream wrestler in Japan, but an ” Evil Way “.
When a wrestler who perceives himself as “Evil Way” through “hanamichi”（runway to ring) of New Japan Pro Wrestling wearing a leather jacket, there is a reversal of values regarding right and wrong, center and periphery.

The third contrast is between rules and outside the rules.
Atsushi Onita walked the “hanamichi” in wearing a leather jacket and had two things in his hands.
They are a cigarette and a pipe chair.
The cigarette symbolizes “outside the law”.
At Tokyo Dome, the rule is that smoking is not allowed inside the venue.
The performers who perform there enter the venue while smoking cigarettes.
This is a clear indication that he is not following the rules.

So what are the rules that Onita does not follow?
It’s not just that he doesn’t follow the rules about not smoking.

This is the venue of a New Japan Pro Wrestling event.
What is the philosophy of New Japan Pro Wrestling?
It is the philosophy espoused by Antonio Inoki, that pro wrestling is the King of Sports.
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s philosophy is that pro wrestling is a sport and must be conducted fairly.
Onita, who went into the “King of Sports” ring, was holding a pipe chair in his hands.

The pipe chair shows the philosophy of Atsushi Onita.
It is the idea of “street fighting” that Onita established in the Japanese wrestling world.
He can hit a fighter with a chair, or he can throw a fighter on a desk.
In other words, to paraphrase the “street fight” philosophy, “outside the ring is the ring”.

In that entrance performance, the philosophy of New Japan Pro Wrestling and the philosophy of Atsushi Onita’s pro wrestling were at war.
It was a battle over the subject of “What is pro wrestling?”
The idea that “the inside of the ring is the battlefield” and the proposition that “the outside of the ring is the battlefield” are in direct conflict.
For Atsushi Onita, the true battleground is outside the ring, that is, the entrance performance.
In this sense, he has won his match with New Japan Pro Wrestling before the match even begins.