Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Ashura Hara v Ric Flair, Earthquake & Typhoon (SWS, 4/16/92) - GOOD
This is setting up the Flair/Tenryu match the following night and it's a fun, sort of low key, lead-in tag that easily could've played in America. Flair spends half of the match shit-stirring and riling up Tenryu while refusing to actually engage physically with him. Tenryu is obviously annoyed and wants to FIGHT but Flair immediately tags in one of the Disasters before they need to lock up. Flair will scrap with Ishikawa and Hara, then Tenryu will make a quick tag and Flair will casually tag out, but not so casually that you're fooled into believing his reasoning stops at just antagonism. Earthquake and Hara have a fun beefy boy tussle and Earthquake really does have world class weeble-wobble selling. Hara absolutely clobbers him with a clothesline at one point and Earthquake's shoulderblock could've killed a moose. I don't know if I've ever seen the Flair/Tenryu matches from '92, but their All Japan match from '84 is not good and the exchanges here weren't really the greatest. They did have a couple great moments though, then Tenryu missed his leaping back elbow and Flair scurried to tag Typhoon who squashed Tenryu with a big running splash. I was a little surprised they opted for Tenryu in peril, but they did and wouldn't you know it but it worked. The finish was maybe a wee bit too intricate for a ring with this many guys not exactly known for their finesse, but if nothing else I'm interested in seeing the Flair/Tenryu match from the next night, at least on the off chance they light each other up like they did once or twice here. I would be willing to lay down a wee bitta cash that those two perhaps throw some chops at the very least.
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