DR Ackermann

This was fun and got better a lot better after Dundee, Jarret and Tatum got in. Double J went overkill on the sunset flips there at the end doing 3 in about 2 minutes. Really liked the finish though.

As early as 1992 Austin was doing better work that Michaels at the same time, and that's only 2 1/2 years into his career. Austin wasn't great at that point, merely good. Michaels had much more experience and was given the opportunity to work with main eventers during the time period and underperformed whereas Austin was able to hold his own and not disappoint against wcw's upper card.

I take back what I said about Patrick. Yeah he had his flaws, but he was way better than most referees, actually took his job very seriously and could add a lot of small stuff to matches. New found respect for this guy.

Tenry had more charisma and was able to put over the possibility of losing to a lower card guy better than almost anyone. He and Kawada are very close and on paper I think Kawada would be better but Tenryu is one of the GOAT when it comes to creating drama within a match. Whether on offense or defense he can make a match ten times more interesting and exciting in the blink of an eye.

You're acting as if Tenryu wasn't in some of "the greatest matches of all time."

Well you're right about that.

Just to be sure, Fiera is the one with the bandana, correct?

The first G1 Climax 91 match with Chono is a must see too.

1990- Flair, Eaton & Fujiwara are near the top for the year. Tenryu has a chance at top 10 despite being inactive for a good portion.

Having great matches with the best wrestlers in the world for 10 years is great. Having great matches with everyone under the sun for 20 years is even better.

Was Simmons ever the best worker in any standout match?

Simmons was remarkably good fairly quickly. The fact that he got into wrestling relatively late in life and adapted so quickly is really impressive to me. If you go back and watch him in the late 80s & early 90s while keeping in mind that he debuted in 1986 I think people would be really surprised by how good he was. He was still rough around the edges at times but he grasped how to work very quickly. You could tell that he worked hard and took his wrestling seriously. However, as good as he got early on I don't think he ever got much better than that. I think he was at his best in a tag setting. I see Simmons as an underrated guy who I could call really good but not great.

At his peak, Tenryu was an awesome brawler/seller, heel/face. He was able to convey emotion and character remarkably well after 1986, especially when considering he seemed bland and colorless mostly before that.

Tenryu was better at doing more with less. The majority of the time he spent as a great wrestler he was broken down physically. He's a case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. He was great before, during and after Kawada ever was. Don't get me wrong though. I love Kawada.

Are you talking about this match? I just watched that today actually and was extremely disappointed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhVnkkoQTy0

I wonder if maybe Flair purposely botched the body press because he was aware of Windham's knee and didn't want to hurt him even worse.

Here are some. The ones that are underlined I either thought were very good or great. A lot of these can be found on Ditch's site. Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask II vs Genichiro Tenryu & Ricky Fuyuki AJPW 1.14.90 Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Isao Takagi AJPW 1.20.90 Jumbo Tsuruta, Kabuki & Mighty Inoue vs Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Ricky Fuyuki AJPW 1.25.90 Genichiro Tenryu vs Isao Takagi AJPW 1.28.90 Genichiro Tenryu & Tiger Mask II vs Riki Choshu & George Takano NJPW vs AJPW Tokyo Dome 2.10.90 Genichiro Tenryu vs Randy Savage WWF/AJPW Summit 4.13.90 Jeff Jarrett & Bob Orton vs Genichiro Tenryu & Kabuki SWS 10.10.90 Genichiro Tenryu vs George Takano SWS 10.11.90 Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura WAR 10.23.92 Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Koki Kitahara vs Shiro Koshinaka, Kengo Kimura & Masashi Aoyagi NJPW 11.23.92 Genichiro Tenryu vs Shiro Koshinaka NJPW 12.14.92 Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Ashura Hara vs Keiji Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto & Akira Nogami NJPW 2.5.93 Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa, Ricky Fuyuki, Tatsumi Kitahara & Ashura Hara vs Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Kido, Hiroshi Hase & Takashi Iizuka 5 on 5 NJPW 2.16.93 Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa NJPW 3.23.93 Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu NJPW 4.6.93 Shinya Hashimoto vs Genichiro Tenryu WAR 6.17.93 Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Masa Chono NJPW 7.14.93 Genichiro Tenryu, Takashi Ishikawa & Ashura Hara vs Shinya Hashimoto, Masa Chono & Tatsumi Fujinami NJPW 8.2.93 Tatsumi Fujinami & Jushin Liger vs Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara NJPW 8.3.93 Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Chono WAR 10.1.93 Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido WAR 10.11.93 Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto WAR 3.2.94 Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami NJPW 4.29.96 Tatsuo Nakano vs Genichiro Tenryu WAR vs UWFi 5.26.96 Naoki Sano vs Genichiro Tenryu UWFi 8.17.96

Also Tenryu has some vicious striking offense and Jumbo has one of the all-time ugliest punches.

His work may have been simplistic in general, but beginning somewhere between 87-89 he started working in all kinds of exciting spots and sequences into his matches. Until he leaves All Japan he blows Jumbo away during that periold as far as keeping his matches different, exciting and fresh. He does alot of cool stuff during this period that he probably wasn't able to do physically a few years down the road. It really makes me wish he had been just a few years younger when he reached his peak.

Popculturestu has some cool playlists entirely devoted to Memphis storylines https://www.youtube.com/user/popculturestu/playlists

That Choshu/Tenryu match would have been in Choshu's JPW. If Tenryu is being considered then I think you would have to consider Choshu who was definitely Tenryu's superior in the ring at that point.

His 1990 debut in New Japan against Liger is great too. Check that out.

Somewhere in the second half of the 80's to me. I would agree with this. His second run in New Japan is awesome. In early 86 he has the best Inoki singles match I've ever seen.

Dick Murdoch??