Genichiro Tenryu v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 4/29/96) - GREAT
God damn this was great -- definitely one of the best sub-ten minute matches I've ever seen. Tenryu is just the absolute greatest cunt ever.
Fujinami hits two topes early, then he tries a third one and Tenryu
blocks it by punching him dead in the face as he's about to jump through
the ropes. Fujinami's nose just explodes across his face. It's pretty
much a geyser of blood and everybody within a sixty foot radius gets
blasted by it. Couple sick visuals of him with Tenryu in the figure four
and the blood just pouring down his chest, then later on he locks in
the dragon sleeper and Tenryu's chest winds up covered in it as well.
Fuck, Tenryu gets so much over him he tells the ref' to come close and
tries to wipe it on him (which was fucking awesome. "Hey! HEY! Get the
fuck back with that. GAWD"). Tenryu zeroes right in on it and starts
punching and kicking him in the nose. He makes GREAT dickheaded facial
expressions while he's doing it. Amazing moment where Fujinami gets fed
up and starts potato punching him in the cheek bone and Tenryu sells it
like someone just yanked his molars out with pliers, then he cuts
Fujinami off by punching him in his broken nose with BOTH hands. AT THE
SAME TIME. DOUBLE PUNCH! The post-match
"You've got some blood on you" bit was so great as well. What an asshole. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if I
had to pick one wrestler to watch for the rest of my life, I'd pick
Tenryu.
Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Masao Orihara v Shiro Koshinaka, Kengo Kimura & Great Kabuki (WAR, 3/7/93) - GOOD
Not
as violent as the amazing Hashimoto tag from the same show, but still a perfectly good way to cap
off a Hell of a WAR card. Could've done with more Tenryu, but
everything could do with more Tenryu so it's not much of a criticism.
Besides, the Tenryu we do get is as good as you'd expect. He has a few
particularly awesome exchanges with Koshinaka and Kabuki. 1992 potato
farmer Koshinaka is so much more my thing than the Koshinaka I had to
sit through on the New Japan 80s set. 80s Koshinaka generally bored me
to tears, but this Koshinaka just punches guys right in the nose and
comes across like a hateful, grumpy bastard. Every time he and Tenryu
match-up you can buy the idea that they have no problem at all teeing
off on one another, and Tenryu's lariat towards the end was ridiculously
nasty, full force right under the chin. Tenryu and Kabuki only lock
horns a couple times, and it's always short, but man do they lay into
each other. There's this great exchange where Tenryu's throwing chops
and Kabuki's throwing his awesome uppercuts, neither guy backing down,
so Tenryu just hauls off and chops him in the throat. Kabuki sells it
like someone did him with a pocket knife and he never forgets for the
rest of the match. His revenge suprkick down the stretch felt like a
fucking revenge spot. Orihara takes a total shit-kicking here and works
THREE extended isolation segments. I thought he was pretty great
working as your defiant underdog that refuses to give the invaders the
satisfaction of beating him, and of course that prompts the invaders to
lay it in some more. The final Kimura running knee he takes was just
disgusting.
Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v Jumbo Tsuruta & Hiroshi Wajima (All Japan, 1/24/88) - GREAT
Tenryu's ring jacket says "CATCH US IF YOU CAN!" He starts this
out by jumping Jumbo at the bell, but it backfires and he ends up being
the recipient of a beatdown with a busted forehead. Wajima looks pretty
decrepit here but he headbutts Tenryu about ninety times upon
introduction to the match and that kind of ruled. I actually thought he
was fine in general as the old geezer that was out of his league,
especially with his willingness to get the shit stomped out of him. He
isn't all that interesting offensively, but there's one sequence with
Tenryu that culminates with him hitting a big backdrop that looked
pretty swank. The Tenryu/Jumbo stuff ruled again and Tenryu appears to
be REALLY putting it all together at this point. I'm probably overrating
this by putting it just outside the top 20, but structurally it was way
more up my alley than most of the tags before it and didn't suffer from
being too long. Kept up a good pace, had a good layout, plenty of hate
and ill will, stayed focused...yeah, this was good [EDIT: finished as my overall #45].
Genichiro Tenryu v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 8/31/87) - EPIC
Hell of a way to kick off the Jumbo/Tenryu series. This feels like
the closest thing to King's Road yet, from the early blocking of
strikes to the general layout. I really liked how they started it out,
with both guys clearly wary of getting too close to each other for fear
of getting popped in the mouth. They know how each other ticks as a tag
partner, but as a singles opponent it's a different ballgame and you
can't be too careful. First great spot comes when Jumbo cracks Tenryu
with a few nasty back elbows in the corner, so Tenryu responds by
RIFLING off a slap right to Jumbo's ear and the look of utter contempt
that Jumbo shoots him in return is glorious. I though Jumbo was really
great here as the big man on campus, busting out a few of Tenryu's own
signature moves and generally ramping up the violence because he refuses
to give up his spot to the guy that used to play second fiddle to him.
The first real stretch of offence comes when Jumbo tries to hit a lariat
which Tenryu partially blocks, but the force still has him reeling
enough that he staggers into the corner. Jumbo rolls down the knee pad
and follows up with a high knee, and while Tenryu's blade job isn't the
craziest thing you'll see, Jumbo goes to work on the cut anyway. They
kind of tease a finishing stretch after Tenryu hits a German suplex, but
Jumbo's still too fresh and keeps up the assault. That leads to him
going for another high knee in the corner, but Tenryu knows it's coming
and counters by ducking and ripping the turnbuckle pad away in the
process so Jumbo winds up kneeing steel. That was a fucking awesome
transition spot that I don't remember ever seeing before. Jumbo's
comeback with the HUGE backdrop was fucking great as well. I don't
dislike the fact they went with a count out for the finish, but I wish
they hadn't made it so painfully obvious. Still, all of the bombs and
shots they were throwing down the stretch ruled, and this wound up finishing as my #8 on the All Japan ballot (any my second favourite Jumbo/Tenryu match behind 6/5/89).
Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 12/6/86) - GOOD
I probably would've liked this less if I didn't already have a
pretty good idea that it was going to a draw beforehand, because it
becomes pretty clear early on that these guys are killing time. It's
worked almost 50/50 right down the middle in terms of how much each team
take on offense and it's basically your turn/my turn the whole way
through. Really, it's these four "doin' stuff" for half an hour. Not
really a match dynamic I tend to get much out of, but these guys have a
ton of shit to fill time with and the general level of hatred and
intensity is always high. Basically, I liked what they were actually
bringing to the table, if not the way they went about bringing it. Or
setting said table. Whatever; the SICK strike exchange between Tenryu
and Choshu is reason enough to watch this.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
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