Bret v Perfect...for the crown! (almost)

Bret Hart v Mr. Perfect (WWF King of the Ring, 6/13/93)

Really fun Curt Hennig performance, upping the surliness and playing subtle heel in what's probably my second-favourite WWF performance of his. He wasn't down for the sportsmanship at all and had no compunction about pulling hair or throwing pot shots, all with a scowl on his face. He was getting yoinked into those headlock takeovers almost side on at points and made it look like Bret was just snapping him over. The more frustrated Perfect got the quicker he tried to run at him after each takedown, but Bret was ready every time and just used that momentum to corral him with another headlock, a man entirely unperturbed, at the peak of his powers, who knew he could weather any storm even if he only had 30 minutes to do it. The first transition effectively being a knee to the gut maybe never had the impact behind it that you'd want, but the fact it was a cheapshot meant it at least progressed the story of Perfect being willing to take a shortcut or two. They progressed that again in a few cool ways, the first being when Perfect held the ropes open for Bret to get back in the ring only to kick him in the guts when he was halfway through. They upped that another step later on when Bret wound up on the apron so Perfect just smashed him off and into the barricade (where Bret cracked his knee on a crate that apparently wasn't supposed to be there). The work on Perfect's leg after the comeback doesn't last too long, but it let him take his bumps on the top of his head after every leg kick and then they rolled out the figure-four, which plays on a bit of history between Perfect and Flair (which Heenan sort of touches on on commentary). The stretch run is really good, nothing elaborate but tight and focused and very much in line with the best Bret Hart matches. Perfect tries to rip Bret's head off with a nasty looking sleeper hold and then Bret seems to realise he should stop playing nice and about uppercuts Perfect into another dimension. There are some neat subtle selling moments from Perfect as well, like when he trips as if his leg gave out after Bret breaks the sleeper, then of course we get the finger-bending as Bret tries to apply the Sharpshooter. And any match with finger-bending is at least worth three and a half stars prolly. I thought overall Bret was just the right sort of foil, something he was always great at and I don't mean that in a backhanded way either, but this was a Mr. Perfect show and probably his last great match. 

And Tenryu Recalls what She said - that She Wanted Him Dead but there Ain't no Grave Deep enough

Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen v Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 12/6/89) - EPIC

Imagine coming into a match against Tenryu and Hansen wearing a helmet. Not even a proper helmet, just some flimsy protective headgear. Imagine the bullseye that paints. Could never be me, I'll tell you that much. Find yourself another partner, I'm on sick leave for a month. This was a war that went 100 miles an hour from the start and never let up. It almost had New Japan pacing and was frenzied and FEVERED but had a lot of the structural elements that would make the All Japan tags from the next decade so special. It was tremendous, basically. Hansen and Tenryu were a swarm immediately and you knew it wouldn't take long for them to isolate Yatsu. It took even less time after that for Hansen to rip the headgear off and from there he and Tenryu try and whack-a-mole Yatsu's braincells down to the single digits. Tenryu was vicious here, but he was more of a collected presence and it never felt like he was out to torture for the sake of it. What he did was in the service of winning and if that meant exploiting an injury then so be it. This is competition at the end of the day. It's just business. Hansen, on the other hand, was up for a different sort of business. He was feral and at even the slightest hint of danger would rush the ring and break up a pin or shut down momentum, sometimes with a stomp, sometimes a knee, a club, a smack, sometimes by just throwing his whole weight on top of someone. The crowd picked up on it too and they were quick to voice their displeasure, which gave the match a real heel/babyface divide that only increased the heat as it went. The eventual hot tag to Jumbo was nuclear and this was as good as I've ever seen him as the walking tall gladiator ruling his arena. The first running knee about took Tenryu's head off and he was slapping Hansen across the ear like he was trying to deafen the man. There was one amazing part where he knocked Tenryu flat then secured the mount and started raining down elbows and forearms like he was trying to break his skull open. Yatsu having his head taped back onto his shoulders down on the floor is the sort of thing those 90s tags leaned into heavily, and you can't blame them for that because the drama it produced was off the charts. While this is going on Hansen lariats Jumbo in the back of the head to swing the tide again, then we get a fucking Tenryu rocket launcher off the top with Hansen chucking him across the ring like Tenryu was Bobby Eaton! That first instance of Yatsu jumping back in to save his partner was molten. In stark contrast to when Hansen or Tenryu did it, any save Jumbo or Yatsu made for one another was met with glee. The crowd had thrown their lot in with those two and you can understand why when Yatsu's staggering around with sixteen feet worth of bandages keeping his brains from leaking out his ears. Hansen being isolated in the back half is a great look at him getting to show vulnerability, not something he got to do a ton of given who he was, but any time he did you knew it would rule. Yatsu's big revenge spot is amazing, ripping up the safety mats and hitting a bulldog on the concrete to split Hansen open. Both of them had a phenomenal exchange late on, exhausted and losing blood and/or motor functions, throwing wild shots, Hansen eventually taking one that only woke him up, responding by absolutely blitzing Yatsu with a dozen brutal open hand slaps and a full punt to the face. The last few minutes are sensational. Tenryu accidentally nails Hansen with an enziguri and you feel like Jumbo and Yatsu have a chance despite running uphill from the bell. Eventually they get Hansen in the ring while Tenryu is on the floor and Yatsu tries the bulldog out the corner, but Tenryu grabs hold of Hansen's trunks to block it. When Yatsu turns around he eats a big boot and a fucking Stan Hansen dropkick, and when Hansen raises his arm the roof comes off. The palpable sense of dread is insane and you're worried he might actually kill Yatsu if he connects with the lariat. Then Yatsu blocks it with a dropkick of his own and if there was any of the roof left on it came off right then. He goes for the German on Hansen, who tries to fight free, so Jumbo takes his last big swing with the high knee assist, only at the same time Tenryu whomps Yatsu in the back of the head with an enziguri. Hansen staggers into the ropes and rebounds with the lariat on Yatsu while Tenryu drags Jumbo to the mat, the latter trying to muster enough to break up the pin. A hell of a thing, this match. A hell of a thing. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu 

The Giant and the Claw!

Giant Baba v Fritz Von Erich (JWA, 12/3/66)

By christ give me all of the Fritz Von Erich. This isn't the first Fritz match I've ever seen, but it's probably the earliest and definitely the best representation of a psychotic German with a claw for a hand who wants to squeeze your head until your eyeballs pop out. He was a snarling menace here and it was incredible. Just the way he'd move around the ring growling nonsense, his low stance like he was ready to pounce, the roll of his shoulders, the way he'd snap his gangly limbs into motion, everything he did exuded danger. Straight out the gate he kicked Baba in the throat and clubbed him in the neck and from there he would stalk him down relentlessly, throwing referees and trainees and reporters and anybody else out the way as he did so. There was one instance on the floor where he picked up the referee by the neck and threw him back in the ring, then later he threw that same referee OUT the ring with enough force that the ref's shoe came off. He literally threw the wee fella out his shoes! And then he just picked the shoe up and chucked it at him in disgust. Some of the camera shots on the black and white footage of Fritz hanging over the ropes ready to go at Baba again made him look like some sort of looming Frankenstein. More than anything I loved how he properly threw his weight behind every attempt at the Claw, using his other hand to force the Claw hand ever closer to Baba's face, really leveraging his body to press all of his 260 pounds down on it. He made Baba fight with everything HE had to prevent it and this was really some of the best struggle over a hold I've ever seen. People were absolutely losing their minds for all of it. The first time Fritz went for it he smashed his own hand off the mat, which was awesome because it made even the application of the hold look like it could crush you, the way that hand came down like a piston. Baba immediately jumping on the hand was obviously great and in general his desperation at avoiding the thing all match put it over huge. That led to moments where they were both on the mat throwing strikes and Baba was frantically chopping Fritz in the midsection and chest and forehead. Fritz applying the Claw from his back at the end of the first fall is such a great moment, then Baba gets himself some COLOUR~ and the heat goes up another level for the remainder of the match. The brawling around ringside in the last couple falls is top drawer. Fritz is throwing Baba across tables and into ring posts, taking swings at people who get too close, then Baba will come back and Fritz starts to realise he might've fucked up here. Baba might be skinny as a rail but they call him Giant for a reason and Fritz had no interest in being chopping in the face by those big shovel hands. Fritz almost launching Baba out the ring with a Claw throw was fucking wild and at that point you can't help but feel Baba is justified in trying to smash that hand to pieces with a chair. I thought this was tremendous and easily one of the best matches of the decade. 

Hey, Driver, Tenryu's So Tired of the Ways of this Old World. Just Drive Until the Tires Melt, He'll Come Back When it's Healed

Genichiro Tenryu v Yoshiaki Yatsu (All Japan, 7/18/89) - GOOD

These two always have a good slobberknocker in them and this was no different. They were staring a hole through each other before the thing even started and then Tenryu went about slapping all of the teeth out of Yatsu's mouth. From there Yatsu actually took most of the match, controlling with an airtight headlock and shutting Tenryu down almost immediately whenever a comeback looked on the cards. Yatsu made real use of the bulldog as well, a couple times just running Tenryu into the turnbuckles like he was a battering ram. Tenryu would try for the enziguri at points but Yatsu was having none of it and ducked out the way, jumping right on Tenryu after each miss. Of course Tenryu is inevitable and eventually the match spills to the floor, at which point Yatsu gets his head smashed into a guardrail or a ring post and then has a full table thrown at him. The blade job is a mere trickle but we appreciate the visual. When Tenryu does finally connect on those enziguris Yatsu takes a few nice face-first bumps, and I liked how when he seemed dead in the water he pulled out a desperation sunset flip to counter the powerbomb. In the end it wasn't enough, but the run to the finish was heated and maybe on another day Yatsu would've hit seven more bulldogs and walked out the champion. Then again, maybe not. 

Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya v Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka (New Japan, 3/26/96) - GOOD

I don't think I need to say it again by this point, but there isn't a wrestler in all of history that I'd rather watch than Tenryu in a foul mood. When I first started watching wrestling from Japan I was all about the STORYTELLING~ and the layered psychology and how the wrestlers progressed both over the course of a match and then subsequent matches and then months and even years down the line. Like many of us getting into Japanese wrestling in the early-mid 2000s, it was still very much a 90s All Japan-dominated field, and the way that period of wrestling was talked about coloured my approach to watching and writing about wrestling going forward. And then the older I got the less I was interested in reading into the plot points and subtleties of every strike or move and what they all meant and more interested in the parts where people who didn't like each other just wanted to fight. I guess I've become a simple man in my old age and there's something about the simplicity of Tenryu punching someone in the cheek that just makes me smile. It feels good to know oneself even a little, you know? When he punched Koshinaka four times on the trot here it sounded like someone whacking a pock chop with a shovel and I found myself laughing at how unnecessary it was. A lot of what Tenryu did in this was unnecessary, really. He went straight for Akitoshi Saito before the bell, Saito standing minding his own business in his funky wee tracksuit only to get punched in the eye. A bit later Tenryu scooted out the ring unprompted and tried to throw Saito over the barricade, again for seemingly no reason. Koshinaka strayed too far towards the wrong corner at one point so Tenryu kicked him in the back of the head and Koshinaka never made that mistake again. The Tenryu/Fujinami exchanges were great and whet the whistle for their singles match at the Dome a month later. Seriously they just slapped the piss out each other and it was primal and amazing and this is the very best pro wrestling, let's be honest. Araya wasn't yet quite the surly menace he'd become so he got to play whipping boy whether he liked it or not. Koshinaka drove the point of his hip into the poor man's orbital bone several times, then Araya made an arse of a top rope hurricanrana so Tenryu came in, smashed Koshinaka to bits for a minute there, chopped his own partner on the chest and finally served him Koshinaka on a plate. "Go do it properly this time." I like that the crowd responded big when Araya hit that hurricanrana on the second attempt. It did not stop Fujinami from ripping his head off with a dragon sleeper, however. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Fujiwara v Super Tiger - the first singles match

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Super Tiger (UWF, 9/7/84)

It's been 15 years since I last watched this. I couldn't really remember anything about it specifically but I can tell you for absolute certain that it was still good. As far as first matches in a series go you'll struggle to find many better. The general talking point about this is that it went a long way in legitimising Tiger as more than just a flashy junior, and of course Fujiwara and how he approached the match is a huge part of that. I'm repeating another talking point but at the core of Fujiwara v Super Tiger you have a grappler versus a striker. Even if their series wasn't necessarily a referendum on which approach is superior, their actions every time out certainly provided a window into the strengths of both. Fujiwara was his suffocating best for most of this. It was already established in the July tag that Sayama could obliterate him with the right strikes, but Fujiwara could utterly dominate on the mat if it went there and sure enough Fujiwara wanted to take it there often. Maybe to highlight that dominance there was at least one occasion where he COULD'VE took it down to the mat but decided not to, just releasing Tiger's leg after catching a kick and casually walking away to reset. He wrenched Tiger into a nasty kimura at one point and Sayama was vocal in his desperation to get to the ropes. When Tiger tries to fight back on the ground he really gets nowhere. The best example is when he half secures the mount and tries to grab a kimura of his own. Fujiwara never panics, stays patient while shifting his weight from underneath, forcing Tiger to shift to a cross-armbreaker attempt that goes nowhere, then to a sort of triangle attempt that isn't much better, but by that point Fujiwara is back to his feet and just hoists Sayama into a sick piledriver. The piledriver was actually a big part of the match beyond that as you had this one, then Sayama's tombstone later where it looked like Fujiwara's head got driven through the mat, and then Fujiwara's response to that where he had to fight through stiffer resistance before spiking Tiger with a Gotch-style version. Obviously where Sayama has a shot is the strikes. There was a part early where he rocked Fujiwara and the latter backed up into the corner. If you've seen enough Fujiwara you know he was trying to draw Sayama in, which he did and turned the tables to strike back, going to the headbutts that would always get him out of trouble. But you knew he backed away in the first place because he got caught and needed a reprieve, and just because he turned it into an advantageous situation didn't change that. The kneedrops make an appearance again and this one bounced Fujiwara's head off the mat like a basketball. A truly vile thing and at this stage of the rivalry they weren't even actively trying to kill each other. Like in the July tag Sayama's big shots looked devastating, but it was Fujiwara's selling that put them over the top. There's no better example than just before the finish, as Fujiwara catches Tiger's first roundhouse attempt only to get fucking decapitated with a flipping enziguri, Fujiwara selling it by going rigid and looking completely gone before even hitting the mat. Maybe Tiger knew it was academic after that and decided to submit Fujiwara with the chickenwing to prove a point. Who isn't a submission wrestler again? Stylistically this is still more pro style than what shoot style would become, but it's an awesome hybrid of a thing. The pro style moves came off like world-enders in a way they wouldn't quite if this was happening in New Japan, and things like the missed top rope moves were momentum-changers. And the strikes were lethal. You weren't getting kneedrops like this in no New Japan.