Look, full disclosure - I voted Tenryu #2 in the GWE poll but I can't help but wonder if that wasn't three spots too low. Honestly, as a match this might just be on the border of EPIC territory, maybe even truly belonging a rung below that. But make no mistake, this is an absolutely epic Tenryu performance. I've seen hundreds of Tenryu matches at this point and written about most of them here. None were quite the same sort of overbooked ridiculousness of this. It might be the purest form of sympathetic old man babyface Tenryu we ever got. They start out working a regular chain match, both of them attached by the wrist, Tenryu throwing chain-wrapped fists, all is right with the world. Then Chono takes a page out of the Verne Gagne playbook and goes off the advertised script last minute, having his cronies remove his wrist collar and attach it to the ring frame. It's no longer a chain match as opposed to a match where one wrestler is chained and the other is free to roam around with impunity. Tenryu wrestles most of the match chained to the ring and Chono does not. Chono instead goes hunting for a glass bottle, clonks Tenryu on the head with it, smashes it over the ring post and drives the broken end into Tenryu's forehead. Tenryu's not really someone I think of as a crazy bleeder, but this might be his Tenryu Scale match and his selling as his forehead is being carved up ran as close to the line of manic as I've ever seen from him. His general selling of the uphill battle he has the rest of the way is impeccable, dealing with blood-loss, the obvious restrictions imposed on him by the chain, fighting off his primary opponent who will rampantly cheat, and his opponent's backup who will interfere liberally. He uses the chain to keep himself standing, barely horizontal at points. He uses it to drag himself back to his feet. It's both his lifeline and his limitation. He kicks out of pin attempt and shakes his finger like he's possessed by the spirit of Ricky Morton, looking to the crowd for the energy he needs. Eventually Kensuke Sasaki comes out and smacks Chono with a stick to offset all the heel bullshit, and as Tenryu makes his comeback he pumps his fists and we all nod in agreement that professional wrestling is the best of all the professions. Gedo interferes with a top rope splash and Tenryu treats it exactly how it should be treated, by immediately popping up and killing him dead with a lariat. When Tenryu is finally released from the chain he rolls the shoulders like shit is really about to pop off now, then Chono tries to run only to be THWARTED by Sasaski and Nagata throwing him back in the ring. He's made his bed, now it's time to lie in it. I loved Chono going to the chain-wrapped shoulder tackles, escalating those by hitting one off the top rope. He won the '92 G1 with a regular shoulder tackle off the top, hitting one in chainmail should finally rid him of Tenryu. Every time Tenryu kicks out you WILL him to make that big comeback, and it never comes and at a certain point that feels inevitable, but it didn't stop us from clinging to hope. A one of one professional wrestler.
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