Why can't some people just let sleeping dogs lie? Our boy Tenryu was fairly quiet for the first half of this. Other than one moment where his rage almost got the better of him and he threatened to throw the ring bell he was damn near civilised. The early outburst might've even left him a little ashamed, emotionless as he was to any further prodding. Kojima takes a swing at him while he's standing on the apron and Tenryu is unmoved, literally so as he doesn't so much as blink in response. Didn't stare a hole through Kojima or nothin. Of course you wait in anticipation but maybe tonight will be different and he won't flip out and you don't really want that because why would you but it could also be cool as an anomaly one time? When Kea swings on him, again as he minds his business on the apron, he's so unbothered he even dusts his shoulder off. That's how unperturbed he is, how little his opponents are under his skin. Kea and Kojima isolate Araya for a spell and when Kojima spat on Tenryu I would've put the savings on him coming in rampaging. I'd have lost everything because once again he never rose to it. Then Kojima hits the ropes and out of nowhere Tenryu clobbers him with an enziguri from the apron, a real cannon of a shot and it did not look like Kojima expected to be getting hit in that moment. And really from there we're off to the races. Tenryu takes off the turnbuckle pad and smashes Kojima's face into it, throws blistering chops, punches to the jaw and eye socket, the full revenge tour that was expected deep down even if a small part of us questioned if we'd get it. Kojima in peril is good stuff and I loved Tenryu hitting his own flip senton as an insult. From the point he took the shackles off Tenryu was pretty much a total wrecking ball and looked as strong as he might've 10 years earlier. There was really only one instance of him properly being put on the back foot and that was late on when Kojima hammered him with a lariat. Because Tenryu was so dominant before then that one move landing felt huge and it was also the catalyst for them putting away Araya, much the same way all those boys would have to get Misawa out the road long enough to tear down Kobashi or Akiyama. Kea's never been someone I've thought too much about honestly, but he always hits like a bastard and his striking was world class here. At one point he hit a wild axe kick to the back of Tenryu's head and Tenryu sold it like he'd lost control of his limbs, almost falling into a Dick Murdoch face-first splatter. Kea will also open himself to BEING hit like a bastard and Tenryu lost the plot with him, dragging him to the floor and throwing a full table at him. I forgot Araya was one of those AGILE beefy boys and when he went up top I thought he was going to copy Kojima's elbow, which is the sort of petty shit you expect from Tenryu, but Araya was always pretty straight-laced. Then he hit a moonsault instead and I remembered he was wont to doing such things now and then. Everyone really leaned into establishing and playing off their status in the hierarchy and the match wound up being pretty awesome because of it, led by a wonderful second-half performance from Tenryu.
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