Laughter is Poison to Tenryu

Genichiro Tenryu & Ultimo Dragon v Samson Fuyuki & Shinobu Kandori (WAR, 12/8/95) - FUN

This is the first time I've seen Tenryu wrestle a woman, and all of his exchanges with Kandori were pretty fun. He won't hit her because he's a gentleman even though she's slapping him about the face and trying to take him over with judo throws (which he doesn't budge for). He shakes her hand at the start, then he points to Fuyuki like "you aren't as lucky," then he spits on his hands and rubs them together, then he does what he always does when he spits on his hands and rubs them together and mauls someone. This time that someone is Fuyuki. Fuyuki has to be one of the most vocal wrestlers ever. He squeals like a wild animal and kind of makes monkey noises before he cracks Ultimo in the kidneys with a chair. He's always grunting really loudly as well, and it felt like he was constantly shrieking in pain whenever he was in the ring with Tenryu (probably because Tenryu was kicking the shit out of him any time he was in the ring with Tenryu). Makes you think a Fuyuki/Larry Zbyszko tag team would be the loudest team in history, all "AAARGGG"s and "OOH"s. Ultimo was super solid in this. He and Kandori work fairly even and Kandori gets to look dangerous, and they more or less treat it like a straight up contest with no daft inter-genderness. There's a spot where he has Kandori's back so Kandori heel kicks him in the nads, then Ultimo tries it when Kandori has his back but naturally it doesn't work as well on vaginas. So one bit of inter-genderness. Not a great match, but it's a total WAR match, and that makes it charming if nothing else.


Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v Demolition (SWS, 9/17/91) - SKIPPABLE

This was probably one of the better Crush-era Demolition matches, but...well, it's not really something anybody needs to go out of their way to see. Crush and Smash are pretty fun shit talkers here, especially Crush who calls fans stupid idiots here and there. I'm not sure the Japanese crowd understood any of it, but they booed like they were supposed to, anyway. Had Crush wrestled Flair at any point before this? Because if he hadn't then I can't imagine anybody would have chopped him harder in his career than Tenryu. This probably would've been a fun match-up a few years earlier when Eadie was still fit to go.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu