Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada v Dan Spivey & Leo Burke (All Japan, 1/27/89) - SKIPPABLE
Spivey's mullet is wild. He looks like a bad extra in a Mad Max film. The wasteland has not been kind to him and that forehead might've been run over by one of those big fuck off monster trucks. He was pretty raw here and at first I thought this was going to be a real slog, but he grew into his role of towering bruiser as the match went on and by the end he was having some fun exchanges. It's still weird seeing Kawada as quasi-junior with the flying wheel kicks. He liked that spin kick to the gut as well, though in a few short years he'd be trading it in for straight punts to the eye. I haven't seen much of Burke at all. He was already a twenty three year pro by this point and I guess over the course of that career he'd become a master of the backslide because he went for it like twelve times (or twice). Tenryu never kicked anyone in the spleen or punched them in the eye but he threw some chops and hit a nice suplex. You don't really need this.
Genichiro Tenryu v Randy Savage (SWS, 4/1/91) - GOOD
There was pretty much no way I wasn't going to love this on some level. These are two of my ten favourite wrestlers ever and no matter how drastically my tastes in wrestling have shifted over my stupid life, one of the rare constants from the very beginning has been my adoration of Randy Savage. The first half of this was basically Savage working full Memphis main event. It ruled very much. We got all the Memphis horseshit -- him getting on the mic and telling everyone he's "GONNA GET TENRYU!", throwing his jacket at Tenryu, the stalling, the hiding behind the ref', the cheapshot, the bailing to the floor as soon as Tenryu lands an offensive move. One suit in the front row even gets in his face and tells him to get in the ring and fight. Initially Tenryu takes it all in pretty amicably, doesn't let it get to him and as Savage is bouncing around on the top rope Tenryu looks at him like "absolute state of this guy." Then Savage slaps him in the corner and Tenryu's had about enough. He doesn't slabber Savage like he would if it was one of the natives pulling that nonsense, but he chops him hard and Savage is mighty relieved he wore that vest to the ring. For someone whose approach to wrestling is so regimented and meticulously planned, I think Savage can still make it feel like a match is chaotic and off the cuff. Part of that is his personality and energy. It led to a couple moments of awkwardness here though, as one spot clearly didn't go to plan, maybe due to the language barrier, and so he just picked Tenryu up and did it again. When it didn't work the second time either you kind of wish he was more of an ad-libber. In the back half this almost turned into the battle of the top rope elbow. It was pretty amusing seeing the crowd react huge for Savage kicking out of a couple reckless falling elbows, then pop somewhat mildly for Tenryu kicking out of two Savage elbow drops. There are lots of American wrestlers with massive personalities who toned it way down when working Japan, but Savage wasn't one one of them and he worked this like it was MSG or the Mid-South Coliseum.
Complete & Accurate Tenryu
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