If Tenryu'd Known She was Religious then He Wouldn't Have Came Stoned to the House of Such an Angel, too Fucked Up to Get Back Home

Genichiro Tenryu v Akira Taue (All Japan, 4/9/90) - FUN

Pretty similar to their match from TV the same month, which means it had Taue punching above his station and Tenryu making him pay for it. This started with Taue getting the jump as Tenryu was being checked by the ref', taking it outside and laying into him with a chair. When Tenryu made his comeback he grabbed a headlock and a leg scissors which is about the last thing I'd have expected him to do by way of response. It was kind of cool if you look at it as him trying to contain the young punk for a minute so he can regain his bearings. After that he chopped him many times and very hard across the chest, which is about the first thing I'd have expected him to do by way of response. Tenryu is always super giving in this kind of match so Taue got to look like he could hang for a second there, but ultimately we all knew how it would end. Maybe next time, champ.


Genichiro Tenryu v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 8/8/93) - EPIC

Epic, all-time level slugfest and probably my favourite of their epic, all-time level series. What a match-up this is. It's largely built around strikes, and really, if you're going to have two heavyweights work 20+ minutes of striking then I can't think of two I'd rather watch. I can't even tell you how many times I've written on this stupid blog about current day strike exchanges in Japanese wrestling and how none of them come close to Tenryu/Hashimoto. Some hit harder, some hit cleaner, but I don't think any manage to make it all mean as much. "It's about the SELLING," I'll lament. "Nobody knows how to SELL it anymore!" And beyond being an old bastard yelling at clouds because there's not enough 1993 in 2019, I watch this and think yeah, fuck it, nobody knows how to sell that shit anymore. The striking in this told its own story, and more than one of them at that. Tenryu was dismissive, ornery and frantic, depending on which stage of the match you chose to look at. Hashimoto was gutsy, defiant and relentless, depending on whichever depth of himself Tenryu's horseshit had pushed him to. It might actually be my favourite Hashimoto performance and that covers an absurd amount of ground. One of the best things I've ever read about him was written by OJ on the PWO board, probably a good few years back now. It was about how Hashimoto was a man of honour, how he had bushido, how he embodied traditional Japanese values and carried himself the way a samurai should. Tenryu couldn't give a shit about any of that and will make a fight as dirty as he needs to. Sometimes he DOESN'T need to, he'll just do it anyway because it's in his nature. That sort of comportment pushes most men to dish out receipts in kind, but besides one moment early on where he flew at Tenryu in a rage, Hashimoto held his head high and resolved to win on his own terms. I mean he still tried to kick Tenryu's pancreas into the twelfth row but at least he wasn't a prick about it. As an awesome counterpoint, Tenryu was a prick about everything. The majority of his offence for the first three quarters seemed to be booting Hashimoto in the eye socket and chopping him in the Adam's apple. He was contemptuous as was his wont and maybe part of it was seeing how far was too far. At about the midpoint Hash catches him with a hip throw that lands him right on his shoulder, and Tenryu's selling the rest of the match is outstanding. Hash is just rifling him on the arm with roundhouse kicks, trying to tear his arm off, sort of using that as a base to start landing bombs. Last five minutes are off the charts. Tenryu's desperation selling was amazing and the sequence where he counters the German with a bulldog and a koppo kick was out of this world. Hashimoto's face before it as well, teeth bared, a total "fuck you and everything about you" look as he stares down the inevitable. His final dead-on-his-feet gambit before the penultimate powerbomb was everything great about Hashimoto. Phenomenal match, even better than the last time I watched it.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu