Tenryu Knows that Dickel ain't Pappy, He's Broke but He's Happy, and as Drunk as Any Rich Man Could Be

Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v Yoshiaki Yatsu & Killer Khan (All Japan, 9/14/85) - GOOD

This was at its best when everyone was slapping each other about the face. There would be moments where someone would have a hold locked in and that would be fine and everything, but then wouldn't you know it someone would slap the other person in the face and things were just BETTER. Yatsu looked like he wanted to prove a point here, most likely the point that he could hang without Choshu in his corner, so he had a chip on his shoulder the whole way. Khan is a fun ruffian as always, super imposing, hit an awesome headbutt off the ropes and missed an equally awesome kneedrop. A missed kneedrop is an underrated quality to have and Khan has a better missed kneedrop than lots of guys. The work on Jumbo's arm is brief but good stuff and I really liked Khan taking off the elbow pad and wrapping the arm around the post repeatedly. I can only guess he was shrieking while doing it too and that always makes him seem like a feral maniac. 

Genichiro Tenryu v Randy Savage (All Japan/WWF, 4/13/90) - EPIC

Pretty much perfect pro wrestling. Big spectacle wrestling from two guys who do spectacle wrestling as well as anybody ever has? Of course I'm going to love it. Actually that does Sherri a disservice because her presence elevated this even more. She was an incredible menace here, a plague upon Tenryu and the ref' and the timekeeper and anybody else who peeved her. It might be her best performance as a manager and that is a HIGH bar. Her and Savage were 100% authentic, nothing about their act toned down remotely and if anything they ramped it up even more. The match hadn't started and they were already heatseeking and Sherri especially wouldn't be satisfied until someone tried to fight her. It fired up Tenryu even more than usual and he'd chucked his jacket at Savage before the match started. The opening was basically immaculate, with Savage ducking out the ring to avoid Tenryu winding up for a chop, Sherri letting the crowd know what she thinks of them for having the audacity to boo. I've seen Tenryu unleash hell on more people than I could ever recall, but his reaction after the first chop flurry here was biblical, pumping his arms and cussing out Savage who lay broken in the corner, the place erupting around him. It was unbelievable and he'd never get that animated after leaving someone in a heap. His outbursts would be sudden but he'd usually keep an air of calm about himself afterwards, all business at the end of the day. This felt personal, like it had been bubbling for hours, even days, which showed how far Savage and Sherri had gotten under his skin in a matter of minutes. No matter what Tenryu did though, Queen Sherri would be there. After the chop flurry Tenryu hit a flying cross body off the apron to the floor (it was awesome), but then Sherri would take a swing at him from behind and it would give Savage his chance to bite back. The timekeeper was apoplectic when Savage threw Tenryu off the Dome stage and onto the table and Sherri saw that as her opportunity to antagonise someone else, which she did expertly. I thought the wee fella was going to rip off his tuxedo. At one point Tenryu was trying to climb in the ring so Sherri clocked him with an enziguri, ran around the other side of the ring, put her shoe back on, then flashed the ref' her most genial smile when questioned. Savage was amazing taking all of Tenryu's shots, including a boot coming out of the corner where he went jelly-legged and cross-eyed and once again you wonder why Americans would come to Japan and think they had to be STOIC. I can't imagine Savage had ever suffered a powerbomb in his life and you could tell he was a little tentative about it, but Tenryu's celebration was as raw and visceral as I've ever seen from him. Sherri got an "up yours!" gesture and even when he won the Triple Crown Tenryu wasn't this animated. Perfect pro wrestling. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Flair and the Andersons v Magnum and the Rock 'n' Rolls!

Ric Flair, Arn Anderson & Ole Anderson v Magnum TA & Rock 'n' Roll Express (Elimination Match) (Pro, 8/3/86)

Fuck me if Magnum TA doesn't look like the future of the game. This was white LeBron with curls and a moustache, just a guy very obviously ready to explode. He was an amazing walking tall babyface here, a huge presence hitting everyone with press slams and belly-to-bellies while the crowd went full on apeshit berserk. He catches Ole - NOT a small individual - with a press slam, then throws Flair into the corner, roars like a lion as Flair comes running back out and heaves him into a press slam too. The pop for him hitting the belly-to-belly on Flair is ungodly but then if you thought he was merely here to throw some folks around you would be mistaken because his face in peril stint was magnificent. The heels essentially work over the scar tissue on his forehead which of course was fucking tremendous, raking his face across the ring ropes, grinding it into the mat, digging knuckles in there, all super nasty looking shit that probably gave Morton PTSD from a couple months earlier. Maybe Flair was just trying to disfigure anyone he thought was getting more attention from the ring rats than he was. Flair doing a reverse wheelbarrow thing where he drags Magnum around the ring as his face leaves blood trails on the mat is legitimately the first and only time I can remember him doing that. He never even did that to Morton and his whole motivation in that feud was to leave the wee fella as aesthetically undesirable as possible by the end of it. Morton himself was a rabid maniac around this time and tried to punch or rip someone's nose off at every turn. Prior to Magnum's elimination I think 90% of Morton's offence consisted of him punching someone in the nose, including Flair's when he came in the ring for the first time. He even headbutted him in the face at one point. The Horsemen breaking his nose really must've woken something in him, which leads to his own elimination when he drags Ole to the floor and tries to mash his face into the concrete, oblivious to the ref's count, driven purely by rage, fueled by several thousand shrieking women. Flair v Gibson to round things out is pretty great while it lasts, with Flair working over Gibson's taped up midsection. I love how Gibson sold them the whole way, almost like he was having back spasms and once or twice I wondered if he wasn't working thought a legit injury. Flair busted out a bow and arrow to work him over and that's another thing on the night that I'd never seen him do before or since. The extremely tepid DQ finish is extremely tepid, Morton merely shoving Flair as a response to being spat on and Tommy Young throwing it out, but otherwise this was fantastic and as blistering hot as anything else in wrestling at the time.