Loss Posted December 4, 2010 Report Share Posted December 4, 2010 Talk about it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted December 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Pretty compelling match. Fujinami is a bloody mess, to a point where this match is hard to watch at times. Still, Tenryu's shots looked great, and his casual facial expressions, not at all phased by the incredible amount of blood loss, are great. Tenryu makes fairly easy work of him. Not competitive enough to be a truly great match, but worth seeing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childs Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 I thought Fujinami got in plenty of stuff given the context of his shattered nose. I loved him calling back to his cruiswerweight days with the early topes and throwing desperate potato shots once Tenryu had him in trouble. Tenryu is probably the all-time-great dick. Can't beat his contemptuous little facials as he booted Fujinami in his busted nose. I liked the fact that he kept looking at the ref to stop it, because it made Fujinami's last rally all the more dramatic. Fujinami gushing blood on Tenryu's chest as he held him in the dragon sleeper was another tremendous visual. This, Muta-Shinzaki and Hash-Takada made for a perfect run of dome-show matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 This came in 3rd in my 'best Japanese matches under 10 minutes' tournament last spring, and did best for everything after 1990. The first time I watched it, way way back in my early puro watching days, I couldn't fully appreciate Tenryu's attitude and stuff like the little face punts. I just thought it was a squash that took too long to end. Now, it comes across as something really memorable. Was there any Tenryu/Fujinami interaction in '96 after this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 Did Fujinami break his nose or something? That was a ton of blood. This show almost looked like a FMW show or something. Good match and they beat the crap out of each other. Need to watch it again to fully appreciate it I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted February 13, 2011 Report Share Posted February 13, 2011 He broke the hell out of it, totally unplanned. For some reason, I found juicing like a faucet hardway out of the nose to be much more uncomfortable to watch than say Mutoh juicing out of the forehead all over the place in G1 1995. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ventura Posted June 2, 2011 Report Share Posted June 2, 2011 This was awesome. After the broken nose there was a feel in the air that something was wrong, which made it very real in my eyes. Watching a calm Tenryu slowly destroying the bloody mess of Fujinami was just sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted January 27, 2015 Report Share Posted January 27, 2015 No fancy-ass shit here (except those two topes). Fujinami starts off hot, goes for the tope one too many times, gets his nose busted, and then this is just a flat-out war. This isn't as good as it would have been around 1988 but it's a hell of a match for two guys on the downside (even though Tenryu is timeless, both from a conditioning and a style standpoint). Edit: Oh God--Tenryu's "hey, you gotta little somethin' on your nose" to Fujinami after the match is one of the greatest moments of the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 This was great. Tenryu was a complete dick and Fujinami dipped into the fountain of youth and may have turned in his best performance of the 1990's. Short match but really great why it lasted and full of fight. A vicious spectacle that adds to both GOAT cases. ****1/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Microstatistics Posted January 23, 2016 Report Share Posted January 23, 2016 I had heard Tenryu broke Fujinami's nose in this match but after watching this, it actually looked like he smashed his fucking face in with Fujinami pouring blood everywhere. Tenryu was just the biggest prick here by ruthlessly targeting the nose and doing it so casually. Tremendous heel performance and Fujinami gave great fiery underdog performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami - NJPW 4/29/96 Fujinami's face looks like a murder scene about 3 minutes into this. Tenyru caved his face in when Fujinami was going for a suicide dive and blood was pouring like a faucet from his face. Damn sure made this match compelling as hell and pretty uncomfortable to watch. Fujinami was on a roll with dragon screw leg whip and two BADASS suicide dives that make all the modern WWE guys look like nancy boys. Then Tenryu crushed his nose and it all changed. Fujinami did get a figure-4, but then basically passed out in his own figure-4 from blood loss. tenryu was the ultimate dick looking to the crowd like why is this guy being such a chump and just waiting to chop the hell out of him. It is classic Tenryu the big punches to the side of the head of the injured Fujinami drawing boos. The powerbomb, lariats and reverse elbow. Fujinami gets a Dragon Sleeper as a hope spot before Tenryu puts him with a Mack Truck Lariat! Post-match, Tenryu is like you got something on your face and Fujinami slaps the shit out of him. Way better than I expected. Thought it be two legends doing a greatest hits package instead it was a bloody, heated affair. **** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim Posted October 25, 2017 Report Share Posted October 25, 2017 I liked this a lot but not as much as others. Fujinami's topes at the beginning were awesome. Fujinami bleeds a bunch and some of his brief comeback teases are great, especially one where he's firing back with punches. But overall, I feel like this was largely just an exceptionally good competitive squash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKWebb Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 Incredible. This starts off super hot with the dives and then the violence creates the drama that leads to the great mannerisms and expressions from Tenryu. Fujinami, as noted, gives a great underdog fiery performance as it goes on. The slap at the end is pretty classic. Great match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makai Club #1 Posted July 19, 2023 Report Share Posted July 19, 2023 Out of all Tenryu's Tokyo Dome dream matches, this may be my favourite. There isn't a lot of meat on the bones but it's a simple match, made simpler by the fact that Fujinami's nose explodes within minutes. Fujinami gets the better of Tenryu and starts launching topes that send Tenryu crashing into the barricade head first but he pushes his luck on the 3rd attempt as Tenryu is able to scout it out and blocks it with what I can only imagine is a wicked punch to the nose (photographer is in the way so we miss the punch but we do see the follow up punches that land right on the mark). This puts Fujinami into an immediate vulnerable position. It's fight or flight time and it's amazing. Tenryu works the nose the only way he can, brutal punches and kicks, while Fujinami desperately attacks Tenryu's leg to get the quick win before Tenryu inevitably punishes him for his earlier mistake. The drama is palpable with Fujinami struggling to see or breath fighting for his life. Fujinami is able to snag a Dragon Sleeper but that was his last chance before being put away with a running lariat to end this classic. ****1/2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr JMML Posted September 5, 2023 Report Share Posted September 5, 2023 Tatsumi Fujinami vs Genichiro Tenryu (NJPW - 4/29/1996) A match as packed as you’ll ever see, Fujinami and Tenryu go back and forth in an absolute classic with iconic images that will last in your brain forever, this match is spectacular in every sense of the word, it’s incredibly violent as well, I personally think it’s the most violent match Fujinami has had so far in his career, considering I’ve covered almost 20 years that’s quite a feat, Fujinami isn’t known for being especially violent but the last five matches of his I covered have been pretty rough, not what I expected going into this, I came here for his technical skill but I won’t complain because violent Fujinami is as good as technical Fujinami and he isn’t young anymore so losing some of his quickness on the mat is perfectly understandable, the change from the late 70’s to 1996 is very impressive he never fails to surprise me and this match is no exception, the WAR vs NJPW feud is over but there’s still some resentment left in both Tatsumi and Tenryu, around this time Tenryu was involved in a feud with the ace of UWF-I Nobuhiko Takada, they had a legendary trilogy in 1996 spanning two promotions (WAR and UWF-I) but I’d say this match is better than any Tenryu vs Takada, Tenryu’s specialty is beating people without showing any emotion whatsoever while Fujinami’s is his facial expressions and they shine even brighter in brawls like this one, this match is famous for an especific moment, Tenryu busted Fujinami’s nose for real in one of their heated exchanges which resulted in Fujinami having a bloodied nose for the rest of the match, absolutely worth watching, a masterpiece, two veterans beating each other up, it can’t get better than this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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