Had an Ax to Grind so off Tenryu Went, Mad at the Sun for Coming up Again

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara v The Great Kabuki & Haku (WAR, 7/15/92) - GREAT

A step down from the previous night's classic, but still chock full of your lumpy WAR goodness. This never had the same ready-made hook of Orihara being junior heavyweight punching bag. On the one hand that meant we got some Tenryu in peril, and for a role you don't necessarily associate with him during his peak years he sure is great in it. On the other hand Hara isn't nearly as explosive coming in off the hot tag. Hara also took a couple stints being beat on, one of which in the back half that kind of dragged a bit, and as much as I love him he isn't as compelling a face in peril as Orihara. The second half of the previous night's match just escalated in violence until it reached horrific levels, so the back half of this being more about the abdominal stretches and camel clutches was never going to hit the same heights. But in amongst all of that you got exactly what you came for -- potatoes for days, nasty strikes, brutal partner saves, awkward powerbombs, hate, ill will, and an exasperated referee knowing he can't keep any of it in check. Hara and Haku were bringing the bazooka headbutts here, some where one guy would grab the other by the hair and conk him, others where one would bounce off the ropes and ram his head into the closest face or forehead. I've always had a soft spot for Haku and he clearly likes working Tenryu feds because he can cut loose and slabber folk like he was born to. This isn't him throwing rinky dink lariats and superkicks against Jimmy Snuka; this is WAR and if you don't smack a guy so hard that his sweat hits the back wall then you're doing it wrong. His first interaction with Tenryu was also amazing as, like the previous night, Tenryu's very first involvement had him trying to crush someone's windpipe with a chop. Only where Kabuki bided his time and hit back later, Haku immediately grabbed a chair and walloped him in the head. He was also giving Tenryu some of his own medicine by kicking him in the face as he crawled around trying to find his partner. Kabuki might've been even more agitated here than he was the night before. Any time someone hit the ropes near him you fully expected them to be kneed in the kidneys or kicked in the neck, and more than once that's what happened. He may not be as physically talented, but if we're comparing Japanese guys in face paint who worked 80s US territories then I'm pretty sure I'd take him before Muta. I know Muta never superkicked anyone in the throat with as much conviction as Kabuki. Not one of the true upper echelon WAR tags, but more than once it broke into a deluge of lariats and headbutts and everybody getting clobbered from all angles. And that's really what brought you here in the first place.


Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka v Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito (New Japan, 2/5/00) - FUN

This is a match I was interested in for the Tenryu and not a lot else. Don't care about Kojima, rarely care about Koshinaka, and Hiro Saito is comfortably behind Masa and Harley on any sensible person's list of pro-wrestling Saitos. The Tenryu bits were indeed fun and he was the best part of this by a mile, especially when he was chopping folk and punching Saito in the jaw. For his part Saito was alright firing back and his sentons certainly looked PLUMP. Koshinaka obviously couldn't be bothered and was mostly nothing. His hip- and butt-based offence will sometimes look okay if he's laying it in, but he wasn't really doing that and so you don't really care. Once or twice he was also being worked over and just decided he was fed up, stopped all pretense of selling and tagged out. Kojima had a few fun moments of chippiness, getting in Tenryu's face, throwing some shots the old man wasn't expecting, definitely the brightest non-Tenryu participant. Cool moment where he pushed Tenryu too far and got clobbered with an apron enziguri, crowd booed a little and Tenryu looked at them like "what did you honestly expect?" Tenryu taking a page out of Koshinaka's fuck it playbook and no-selling Saito's powerbomb was kind of lame, although the setup to it was well done. More of a proper heat segment on someone and this could've been pretty good, but it was basically your garden variety back and forth New Japan tag.


Complete & Accurate Tenryu