Well this had a whole lot of top drawer Tenryu fed goings-on. The problem with a lot of the SWS tags is that they feel sort of formless for stretches, where the action meanders a bit before it picks up again with some potatoes getting flung around the kitchen. It's not that WAR had amazing tag matches every time out, it's just that the bar was much higher and they seemed to perfect the formula they were going for almost immediately (that main event from the debut show is better than every tag match All Japan had in the 90s and I will fight anyone who disagrees). Everybody worked as stiff as possible in WAR as well so those moments of downtime still looked absurdly violent. I don't know if this is as close as SWS came to hitting the heights of WAR, but it's probably up there, even with those parts where they dick about in a leglock for a minute there. Tenryu and Yatsu truly despise each other and you knew this would rule when Tenryu threw the ring steps at him pre-bell. What was most cool though was how Tenryu's ire almost shifted to Nakano during the match, which only pissed off Yatsu even more and by the end Tenryu regretted ever slighting him in such a way. The first couple exchanges were great. You think Nakano and Fuyuki are going to do a parity stalemate after some nice sharp wrestling but then Nakano just jumps on him and tries to knee his head in. The first Tenryu and Yatsu exchange was like Misawa and Kawada only with more Jheri curl, both of them smacking flesh with a double lariat, both attempting an enziguri, both attempting a straight punt to the head, both looking at each other in plain disgust. The first chop Tenryu throws at Nakano might be the best moment of the match just for Nakano's wide-eyed "mother of Christ what was that?" reaction as he's slumped in the corner. The point where Nakano really got under Tenryu's skin was when he and Yatsu hit him with a double clothesline. Tenryu stayed on his feet and tried to shake it off, and right at the moment he went to fire back with a chop to Nakano, Nakano had the exact same idea. They both chopped each other at the same time and it was enough to make Tenryu livid. Nakano's face after Tenryu launched him into the corner told you he knew he'd made a mistake. The bit later where Nakano broke up a Tenryu pin and just wailed on him with some clubbering ruled. Yatsu going ballistic with a chair at the end was also unreal. It's far from unusual to see someone get scudded by a chair in a Tenryu fed, but Yatsu went so far beyond the pale the crowd started pelting him with garbage! Fuyuki crawls over to protect Tenryu only to be bludgeoned half to death and left bleeding everywhere. It was wild and a perfect setup for that eventual Tenryu/Yatsu singles match (which is tremendous, FWIW).
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