This was very good in all of the ways you'd expect Tenryu v Kengo Kimura in 1993 to be good. Tenryu jumps him in the aisle as Kimura is making his way to the ring and it starts a SCUFFLE with all of Kimura's Heisei Ishingun buddies. Kimura looks at the ref' like "what is with this guy?" and Tenryu punts him in the eye socket. Now and then one of Kimura's boys will stick a hand in the ring to grab Tenryu's ankle, Tenryu will kick them as expected, then Aoyagi or Saito will jump in the ring and that'll bring the WAR lumpies around. It never broke into any full blown riots like the best of these will, but you can't go wrong either way. I've watched a lot of modern wrestling over the past six months and as I say that you already know where I'm going, but there is not one wrestler going today who can chop a man in the chest like Tenryu. He shut down Kimura with some absolute cannons here and Kimura looked like he was having a stroke. Kimura's leg lariats landed square on Tenryu's face. Tenryu's punts landed flush on Kimura's spine. You might kick out of one powerbomb but you will not kick out of two.
Genichiro Tenryu v Tarzan Goto (WAR, 7/6/97) - GREAT
If you thought Tarzan Goto was going to rock up to the WAR fifth-year anniversary show like a man who knew what decorum was then you would be sorely, embarrassingly mistaken. Akira Maeda even made an appearance and handed Tenryu a big bouquet of congratulatory flowers, for who knows how difficult it is to start and subsequently run for five years a renegade indy promotion more than our boy Maeda (I assume). Tarzan Goto cared for none of it. Tenryu treated this as a sporting contest to start, breaking clean off a rope break. As soon as the tables were turned Goto walloped him and Tenryu's astonished expression pretty much told you this was going to rule. Goto was a menace the entire way and after the first couple minutes of throwing at least one sick lariat while being punched several times in the face in response, he decided that dragging things off the rails was his preferred course of action. He did this by cutting off one of Tenryu's boots with a pair of scissors and then spending the next few minutes stomping and elbowing the exposed foot. When that didn't lead to a satisfactory outcome he picked up a glass bottle and smashed it over the referee's head. I'm not sure what the ref' did to deserve it but how could we even begin to understand the psyche of such a man? The ref's bladejob was ludicrous and even his full head bandage was stained dark red before too long. Obviously the longer this went the less shit Tenryu was willing to put up with and many punches to the jaw were thrown, many lariats to the throat were slung, many elbows from the top rope were dropped on Goto's tree trunk neck. The last one was putrid as it looked like Goto tried to roll out the way and the elbow landed side one. I'd be surprised if he could've turned his head properly for a week. This was basically everything Tenryu v Tarzan Goto entails.
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