Just about the perfect 3-minute match. I've called Tenryu the king of many things over the years and probably the king of this thing I'm about to call him king of, but he really is the king of the sub-5-minute blitz against your faux MMA dickheads. I can't imagine Tenryu and Nagai had ever really crossed paths up to this point. Even for a guy who'd been everywhere, from All Japan to New Japan to the WWF to FMW and every moderately-sized indie promotion in the country including his own, the only shoot style fed Tenryu rocked up to was dying days UWFi and at that point Nagai was still rolling around in RINGS with a full head of hair. So I guess it's understandable that Tenryu might not be familiar with his opponent on the night. When Nagai offers up a handshake Tenryu sort of laughs at him, looks at the referee like "who is this yahoo?" then turns around and slaps the jaw off him. While Tenryu may not be familiar with Nagai, WE at Whiskey & Wrestling headquarters (it is only I) and all of you reading this blog (it is only six of you) are familiar with Nagai and so we know his response will be swift and brutal. One thing Nagai is always going to bring is nasty kicks, and I love how Tenryu tries to show defiance, tries to shrug them off while being visibly rocked with every roundhouse to a creaking ribcage. It was a man in his 50s trying to show fighting spirit like the young muscly guys, but that sort of thing doesn't come easy to a man with that much mileage on the clock. The moment where he drills Nagai with a punch just before getting booted in the sternum again was truly impeccable.
Genichiro Tenryu v Masa Fuchi (All Japan, 2/22/04) - GOOD
This was Tenryu against an opponent who all objective reasoning would tell us is older than him, yet is in actual fact, somehow, four years his junior. Fuchi looks older, works older, and Fuchi sure felt like the old man in this match. Tenryu grabs him in a guillotine choke at one point and refuses to release it, so some of the ring boys get a little overzealous and Akira Hokuto, who for whatever reason is accompanying Tenryu on the night, wallops all of them with a kendo stick. When Tenryu finally lets go of the choke Fuchi rolls to the floor and stares dead-eyed at the ceiling. I loved how Fuchi played this, like he was completely out of it, all oxygen deprived to his brain, and I loved even more how Tenryu gave him zero sympathy and in fact kicked the shit out of him instead. Fuchi would stumble around and throw a useless slap and Tenryu would welt him up with chops. By the end Fuchi's chest was red raw and you wonder how that brainbuster never killed the wee fella.
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