Genichiro Tenryu v Manabu Nakanishi (New Japan, 1/4/04) - GOOD
This was Tenryu working a mid-2000s approximation of chest-puffed roid boy macho chop-a-thon. It's most definitely not my favourite environment for Tenryu, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'll be less bothered by him engaging in some of those rote exchanges than I will be by just about anybody else. Moments like popping up from a powerbomb to block Nakanishi coming off the top rope to hit a powerbomb of his own. You make exceptions for you favourites. "Tenryu's only playing to his audience, it's smart!" For a chop-a-thon the chops were certainly meaty, perhaps even MANLY. We also still get several moments where Tenryu sells like a man who knows he's letting his pride drive him when he'd most definitely be better served not trading chops with a slab of granite like Nakanishi. The grimaces and little staggers really put over the effort of each exchange, as opposed to going for the routine and yelling and squeezing his fists really hard. Now and then he'll remember that once upon a time HE was the guy forcing the old guard to reconcile their age, that 15 years ago HE was the one coming for the scalps of legends, where he'd give Nakanishi a proper look of indignation, like "who do you think you are?" only to five seconds later look like a man who himself was beginning to reconcile that it's not 1989 anymore. One thing he's not, however, is an idiot, so the moment he drops the chops in favour of punching Nakanishi in the eye socket is exactly why we buy a ticket to this particular dance. Tenryu reversing a torture rack into a bulldog in 2004 is also a very awesome thing to happen.
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