Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya v Taiyo Kea & Kiyoshi Miyamoto (All Japan, 4/27/02) - EPIC
Amazing. About 4 months ago I watched the Tenryu/Fuchi v Kawada/Araya
tag from '01, and I was surprised by how much I
wasn't blown away by it. I was kind of in a wrestling slump at the time,
but it didn't reel me in like a Tenryu match usually does. THIS,
however, was everything I wanted it to be. Anybody that is a fan of
Tenryu doing his thing needs to watch this, because he is just out of
this world spectacular in it. Miyamoto has probably been wrestling for
all of two weeks at this point, so the WAR lumpies fucking maul him like
this was some sort of hazing for a cult of sadomasochism (without all
of the creepy sexual undertones). Araya back elbows him in the face
about two minutes in and breaks his nose, and it all really goes from
bad to worse for him from there. Blood is streaming out of his snout so
the ref' goes to check on him. Tenryu walks over to see what the deal
is, then he just punts Miyamoto in the face and casually walks back to
his own corner. There's about six Tenryu exchanges with Kea and Miyamoto
that are seriously fucking great. Miyamoto slaps him across the face at
one point and Tenryu shoots him this look of sheer contempt and you
think "oh man he's gonna fucking SLAUGHTER this kid," then his
expression changes from rage almost to amusement, mocking Miyamoto and
telling him to keep bringing it. And the best part is Miyamoto actually
comes out on top of the exchange. When he scoots over to tag in Kea you
just know Tenryu is going to give him a receipt at some point...and fuck
does he give him a receipt. Really, some of Tenryu's selling of strikes
is just indescribable. He's the unequivocal master of this kind of
match. Nobody touches him. I could spend two hours trying to talk about
all of the amazing moments in this, but I don't have two hours to spare
right now. Honestly, this was excellent and pretty much a perfect
example of this kind of match. I need to watch Takayama/Misawa again, because
I'm thinking Tenryu might be the WOTY for '02 now.
Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v The Great Kabuki & Masaji Aoyagi (WAR, 1/8/93) - GREAT
Now
THIS is what I'm talking about. This is the first Tenryu main event tag
I've watched from the WAR stuff so far [EDIT: this was originally written way back in February last year!] and it already feels like
something I'm gonna love. Tenryu might be the best wrestler ever when it
comes to conveying a sense of contempt; this wasn't on the level of the
truly venomous Tenryu performances - although that is such a high bar -
but holy fuck does Aoyagi earn his ire here. Aoyagi is yet another one
of these WAR guys that I don't remember seeing before, but he kind of
looks like current day Keiji Mutoh if he went dressed as Mr. Miyagi for
Halloween. He's wearing a gi and ditches the top half when Tenryu starts
throwing chops at his chest. Tenryu sees this as a slight and starts
hitting him even harder, and before long he's kicking him in the eye and
chopping him in the throat while Aoyagi is crawling around the ring
bleeding. Hara is pretty great at throwing coconut headbutts, and he
fits right in there as a Tenryu teammate. I mean, when you're a
heavyweight teaming with Tenryu you really need to be able to throw
down. He definitely throws down. Thought Kabuki was really good here,
too. All of his uppercuts looked nasty, he catches Tenryu with a
superkick to the throat, and is generally a good match-up with both
Tenryu and Hara whenever he's called upon. There isn't a ton of him, but
when he's in you can't really ask for much more. Post-match has a big
pull apart and there's a moment where a chair comes flying into the
shot. You notice Tenryu isn't in the ring and know who threw that chair.
Tenryu's your star here (I didn't mention any of his selling, but man
is that great as well), but everybody brought it this was just a ton of
violent fun.
Genichiro Tenryu & Tiger Mask II v Riki Choshu & George Takano (New Japan, 2/14/90) - EPIC
All
Japan are INVADING and this crowd is AMPED to the trillionth fucking
degree. This was awesome. Absolutely any time Tenryu is in the ring
things are incredible and the crowd is completely losing it for every
exchange between him and Takano, and even more so between him and
Choshu. The Tenryu/Choshu exchanges are especially great because they
just obliterate each other. First time Tenryu gets in he charges at
Choshu and Choshu is ducking out of the way and dodging him, and
Tenryu's continually trying to change directions and grab hold of him so
he can break his teeth. He's not so much running at him, but just
recklessly bull rushing him in a pissed off fury of black and yellow.
Choshu hits a few ridiculous lariats and generally lays a hellish
beating on Tenryu. Tenryu throws chops that sound like a shotgun blast
and whips out a few lariats of his own with complete disregard for
Choshu's face. He kicks him in the eye, stomps on his nose and punts him
in the neck. I mean this is just volcanic hatred. Tenryu also seems to
have pissed in Takano's cereal because Takano keeps trying to rip his
head off with leg lariats and shit. There's one point where he slaps
him and Tenryu just starts laying into him with elbows to the face, so
Takano literally shoves him on his ass and the pop for this shit is
insane. Match actually takes a big dip any time fucking MISAWA gets in,
so that tells you how great the Tenryu stuff is. Granted, Tiger Mask
Misawa is a far cry from regular old Mitsuharu. He's good as the
outmatched underdog hanging and banging with the enemy, though. Doesn't
bring the same kind of barbarous stiffness that Tenryu or Choshu bring,
but he'll rifle off a kick from time to time that looks real nasty.
Also not shocking that he spends a chunk of time being worked over.
Structure is sort of similar to the tags on the NJ 80s set that really
wore me out, but I thought they were much better at working momentum
shifts into this and they weren't nearly as go-go-go here, plus there
were no tags on that set with the same amounts of monumental contempt as
there is in this; hate is the selling point here. Lots and lots of
hate. Stretch to the finish is amazing and I really can't do it justice.
It's literally great moment after great moment with it all building to
a huge fever pitch, guys trying to murder each other, crowd losing its
collective mind, etc. Way too much to try and hit on it all, but the
spot of the match for me is where Choshu goes to lariat Misawa in the
corner, and Tenryu steps in front of it and just gets beheaded. Finish
is arguably anti-climactic, but if you're gonna end it like that then
having everyone vaporize each other beforehand is a great way to make it
work. Just a terrific, terrific match.
Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 1/24/87) - EPIC
Man, when this match-up is clicking it is fucking CLICKING. This
was awesome and, to me, felt like the real coming out party for Tenryu
on the set. He’s been in some good matches and some great matches (and
one that reaches "transcendent" level), and he's had some good
performances and some great performances, but this is the one where it
seemed like he was well and truly Jumbo's equal. Before he still felt
like "Jumbo's partner" to me. A Hell of a partner, no doubt, but I was
still waiting for him to truly break through and hit that level that
I've seen him hit so often. The Jumbo/Tenryu feud kicks off shortly, and
after this I'm definitely buying Tenryu stepping up to "1a" from "number 2." The Tenryu love aside, all four guys rocked here. There is
an amazing sequence where Tenryu runs full speed at Choshu and swings
for the lariat, Choshu ducks it and comes back with an attempt of his
own, Tenryu ROLLS under that, Choshu comes back with another attempt,
Tenryu blocks that one, and finally takes Choshu down with a Russian leg
sweep, moving right into a cross armbreaker. At this point you also
start to pick up on the spots they like to roll out each time, like
Jumbo putting Yatsu in a prison lock and repeatedly slapping him in the
face or Jumbo and Choshu doing a double lariat KO spot. The new stuff
they're busting out is great (like the aforementioned Tenryu/Choshu
sequence), but the "signature" stuff rules just as much. Finish is a
little weird, but I liked it if for no reason other than the fact it
made Jumbo voluntarily pulling Choshu's shoulders off the mat during a
pin attempt a tolerable spot. Not on the level of the 1/28/86 match, but
of all the Jumbo/Tenryu v Choshu/Yatsu matches, this is my second
favourite and currently in my top 10 [EDIT: finished as my #16].
Genichiro Tenryu v Riki Choshu (All Japan, 9/3/86) - GREAT
I dug the shit out of their '85 match so I was looking forward to
this, and it didn't disappoint. The early matwork feels pretty gritty
and manages to capture a sense of struggle, and well, this whole match
basically feels like one big struggle. What they're doing on the mat
isn't amazing or anything, but it's fought for and they even bust out
some things I don't recall seeing from them before (Tenryu's bow and
arrow, for a start). Once they hit the ten minute mark they switch gears
with an awesome double lariat spot. They both wind up on the floor, and
that leads to Choshu hitting a backdrop on the apron that looked
suitably kidney-crushing. Tenryu beats the count so Choshu goes for the
kill, but Tenryu manages to counter the lariat by just booting him in
the ribs as he's rushing in. Tenryu working the ribs is the focus for
the next few minutes, and Tenryu punting people up in down is something I
can always get behind. Finish being the exact same as their first match
was kind of a downer, though. Feels like a top 50 match.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
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