Tenryu Picked up the Guitar 'Round the Time He Turned Fourteen. Lit that Fire, Been Burnin' Tires, Hard Booze, Both Hands in Gasoline

Genichiro Tenryu v Ric Flair (Mid-Atlantic, 10/22/80) - FUN

Only a few minutes long, but a cool rarity nonetheless. Tenryu this early into his career isn't setting anybody's world on fire, but based on this one studio bout against one of the hottest babyface acts in the country at the time I feel like he easily could've settled into a great run in the States. Of all the things I'd associate with Tenryu I wouldn't have put selling an atomic drop at the top of the list, but his sell of an atomic drop in this was absolutely majestic and the Rick Rude in all of us shed a beautiful tear. 

Genichiro Tenryu & John Tenta v Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi (All Japan, 5/23/87) – SKIPPABLE 

This isn't one you need to hunt down, but it had some moments and above all else Goro Tsurumi doing some hidden foreign object shtick. The crowd could not give a single shit about any of it, yet Tsurumi will jump off that middle rope and punch you in the head and maybe choke you with something while the referee remains oblivious. Rusher is about 85 at this point and can't really do anything other than throw a few headbutts and hold Tenta in the corner, but the former are still Rusher Kimura headbutts and the latter allows Tsurumi to WREAK HAVOC to mild chagrin. Tenryu charging in and evening the score was pretty cool for a minute there, at least. A few nice belly-to-belly suplexes were hit and Tenryu got to plant someone with a powerbomb. If this takes place in the Omni we're looking at a four and a quarter star affair. Prolly. 

Genichiro Tenryu & Riki Choshu v Antonio Inoki & Koji Kitao (New Japan, 5/3/95) - FUN

Not as amazing as you'd hope from looking at the names, but it had its moments. Tenryu was the only one on the night who seemed particularly giving. He sold Inoki's enziguris and Kitao's knees like death and we even got a moment where tempers spilled and he hucked a chair at someone. As was his wont, of course. There was too much molten charisma here for this to have been completely dull, even if Choshu and Inoki maybe coasted on it a bit. They had some fun exchanges at least, and Choshu trying to behead a humongous man in a gi is always going to draw a reaction. I'm not really sure what the finish was about but if you'd put the house on this ending with some fuckery then I can tell you for sure that you would NOT be homeless. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu