Wednesday 2 August 2017

Even if Tenryu Crashes and Burns All the Way Down to the Embers, He'll Leave Them Something to Remember

Genichiro Tenryu, Ichiro Yaguchi & Shoji Nakamaki v Atsushi Onita, Sambo Asako & Shigeo Okumura (No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight Tornado Death Match) (Onita Pro, 5/13/99) - GREAT

Who knew Tenryu working a no rope barbed wire street fight tornado death match would be this fun? Man was that guy the ultimate journeyman in the 90s. He wrestled just about everywhere in Japan, working all these different styles from King's Road to what I guess was the approximation of Strong Style at the time to inter-genre (wow that doesn't sound pretentious at all) spectacles with Takada to crazy barbed wire deathmatches in Onita's scuzzy castoff indy. And he even showed up for a couple Royal Rumbles, just because. I have no idea why they decided to clip this. It's the main event of the very fist Onita Pro card, it's Onita v Tenryu, it had a rabid crowd, and above all else it was fucking wild. Why would you not want to show that in its full and unedited glory? Stupid people. They really just go hell for leather straight away and I love how Tenryu and Onita took centre stage while the others brawled away in the peripheries. Onita was rocking a big forehead bandage and Tenryu zeroed in on it and punched and elbowed the cut (with some awesome, brutal downward elbows) until it reopened. They also sold that first Irish whip attempt like they wanted no part of the wire whatsoever, eliciting a big "oooooohhhhh" reaction from the crowd. Match was all over the place in the best way possible. Guys brawled into the seats (whereupon seats were flung everywhere and used frequently as weapons), in and around the barbed wire, just everywhere in sight. Great bit where Tenryu and Nakamaki front suplexed Okamura into the wire and Tenryu used the body as a means of smooth egress from the ring, then Asako came flying into view with a crazy tope. Nakamaki and Yaguchi wrapped Onita in barbed wire and I loved how Onita, like a crazy fuck, spent the remainder of the match deliberately wrapped up so he could use it to his advantage. He was throwing himself bodily into people and they were getting their clothes and hair and face shredded by the barbed wire, then he gave Yaguchi a piledriver while his legs were still wrapped in said wire. By the end Yaguchi looked like he'd been savaged by a panther. If this was in full I'd be stunned if it didn't hit EPIC.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu

No comments:

Post a Comment