Genichiro Tenryu v Abdullah the Butcher (All Japan, 11/5/79) - GOOD
I can't really think of anything more you'd realistically want out of Abdullah the Butcher v Tenryu in 1979. You pretty much knew that Abdullah was going to try and savage Tenryu and he did that, unceremoniously chucking him out the ring after about a minute. What you maybe weren't sure of was how Tenryu would respond. I struggle to even comprehend a time when Genichiro Tenryu was younger than I am now, but he was a mere 30 years of age in '79 and hadn't yet developed that jheri-curled mean streak. I guess he always had it deep down, and maybe if he'd spent more time wrestling Abdullah it would've flourished years before Choshu sparked it fully to life, because I wasn't expecting him to grab the ring bell hammer and clonk Abdullah in the head with it repeatedly. Obviously Abby took it from him and paid him in kind, using the handle of it to jab Tenryu in the throat. By the four-minute mark both were bleeding and all was right with the world. I also tend to forget how great Abdullah's elbow drop was. Maybe I'm so used to seeing him stab people in the face with stuff, but his regular pro wrestling elbow drop really was sensational looking. He absolutely flattened Tenryu with this and because he was still a little NIPPIER in '79 he could really build up some steam leading into it. I loved this for what it was.
Tenryu is wearing his green kneepads here, which tells me he knew he needed to pull out some stops in order to reach the same level of SWANKNESS as Okuma's lightning bolt tights. This was 10 minutes and you probably know what you're getting and probably know who's taking the L at the end of it all. It wasn't nuclear like some of the Tenryu/Choshu matches, but it's hard to go wrong with even somewhat tepid Tenryu v Choshu. They get uncooperative and take swipes at each other from outside the ring and then the one receiving the swipe will stop and stare at the other with pure venom, eager to deliver receipts when the moment is right. Both spill to the floor at a few different points and I'm wondering if even the crowd weren't dead certain this was ending with Okuma staring at the lights, because the pop for them getting back in before the dreaded count out was mild at best.
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