[1993-08-03-NJPW-G1 Climax] Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs Jushin Liger & Tatsumi Fujinami

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Short, but heated and all action! Awesome match! Liger and Tenryu are great together as you'd hope. Post-match, Fujinami tries to make a beeline for Tenryu, but gets held back.

[Ditch]

I first saw Liger/Tenryu matched up in a tag from, I think, 2004. I was disappointed. Ah, but this more than made up for it. I wish there was more '90s Liger vs Heavies stuff.

[Resident Evil]

I don't. NJPW did right in the amount of times they had him against heavies. It was too disheartning to see him lose against the big guys the percentage of times he did. Show him losing any more and it would hurt his credibility too much with the fans.

[MJH]

I didn't like the match with Hashimoto at all the last time I saw it, so I'm in the same boat as Res in that regard. I always preferred Liger as the dominant force, anyway, rather than as an underdog.

[BackToBionic]

This was such a good, short match. I do agree that it was best to keep Liger away from the big guys most of the time, but it did produce some cool moments like the Fujinami-assisted powerbomb on Tenryu.

[FLIK]

Fun match, loved the Tenryu vs Liger Sumo Chop vs Shotei battle

 

So what was up with Kitahara rockin the street fight gear?

[Kevin Ridge]

Kitahara came to the party dressed like it was going to be an out of control brawl. Pretty fun match. Tenryu was such an asshole after the match just walking off in such an arrogant manner.

[PeteF3]

Glad to see Kitahara dressed appropriately. This is super-heated and fun as all hell--Liger vs. Tenryu is every bit as good as you'd expect and I want to see them wrestle each other 100 more times. Crowd was absolutely nuts whenever Liger went on offense against him, especially when he tried to take out his knees. In some ways it almost seems like Jushin was wasted in the juniors division--he wasn't SO small that he couldn't have been a credible heavy, though they did their best to separate him from the heavyweight pack by making him wrestle Tenryu like he was outweighed by 150 pounds.

[Ditch]

Liger is *really* short, but he could have pulled off the Mysterio-in-WWE vibe as well as humanly possible in Japan. That said, having him as the junior ace of the country helped the company cement itself as #1, and it's not like he would have drawn as an underdog midcard heavy.

 

The compromise would be having more mixed junior/heavy tags like this.

[soup23]

Shorter match than others in this feud but tons of fun as Liger and Tenryu are dicks to each other and Tenryus gestures in general at the end of the match are glorious with him completely dismissing the New Japan duo. I still think in some ways Fujinami being involved this feud has helped him have some relevance in the 90's but I can't help but think it is a step down from Tenryu dealing with Hashimoto and Choshu from earlier in the year. ***1/2

[DR Ackermann]

Probably my least favorite Tenryu vs New Japan match so far. Still fun, but I think Kitahara is out of his element. He doesn't know when to step up and be aggressive and when to sit back, if that makes sense. He looks especially lost and uncaring when Fujinami jumps Tenryu at the beginning. Also, Fujinami seems to be at his best since coming back from his injury when he's in there with Tenryu.

[garretta]

This was decent, but it wort of fell apart when Liger was in there. I can see Tenryu, one of the top heavyweight workers in the company, dominating him, but Kitahara outclassed him as well, which meant that Fujinami was in essence fighting a handicap match that everyone knew he'd never win.

 

Kitahara wasn't bad here once you got past his gear, but Tenryu's had much better partners in this feud.

 

The Fujinami/Tenryu stuff was the best, and the doubleteam segments on Tenryu's leg were a close second. it was the one time Liger looked like he belonged in there.

 

I liked Tenryu waving Fujinami away from him after the match. What more did he have to prove that night after beating Liger clean as a sheet? I'm sure there will be other days for The Dragon, though.

 

From the extended shots we got of everyone heading back to the dressing room, I was sure we'd either get a big brawl between Tenryu and Fujinami or Fujinami turning on Liger over the loss, neither of which happened.