Tenryu's Prayed for Wisdom, now He Prays for Peace. It Seems the More He Knows now, the Less that He can Sleep

Genichiro Tenryu v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 10/11/89) - GREAT

I didn't think this was in the real upper tier of Jumbo v Tenryu, but it's still Jumbo v Tenryu in 1989 so by the same token the floor on that is always going to be fairly high. It was more of a slow-burner than their match from June, and like that match you can see them bringing elements that the 90s crew would take and develop and use to create those epics that folk would write longform essays about. They both know each other inside out, they know what the other is likely to try and so early on you get a bunch of great moments built around scouted strikes and regrouping, neither of them wanting to overplay their hand. It's sort of tentative, but the way they use it to let the heat boil is pretty much perfect. Then we get the payoff when Tenryu chops Jumbo in the throat off a break and Jumbo goes batshit mental. He chucks the ref' away and smashes Tenryu with one of the all-time great dropkicks, punts him to the floor and throws a table at him because he's had just about enough of all this. And they give us lots of setups and payoff throughout, some of them little, some of them bigger, a few of them paying off previous payoffs and building upon the narrative and all that good stuff. My favourite of these is probably Tenryu waiting for his moment and absolutely making Jumbo regret introducing that table. They've both matched up about three dozen times by now as well, so we're at the stage of the rivalry where they need to start thinking outside the box for ways to catch the other off guard. The powerbomb has been a staple in the feud, but they both have it scouted by now and either of them actually hitting it becomes increasingly difficult. There are a bunch of awesome struggles over it during the match, where the person on the receiving end goes dead weight to fight it, or if they're lifted up off the ground they start flailing legs wildly until someone takes a heel to the eye socket. Tenryu has evidently decided to cut away with some of the setup and just hoist Jumbo onto his shoulders with a double leg lift (very technical term because I am very smart), so by the end there's that lingering presence of the powerbomb and the idea that Tenryu has more than one way of hitting it. Jumbo rolling through into a pin is such a cool finish, not just because it ties brilliantly into the story but because it's Jumbo Tsuruta hitting a fucking hurricanrana. Of course this was badass. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu