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[1993-09-23-NJPW-G1 Climax Special] Genichiro Tenryu vs Hiroshi Hase


Loss

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  • 3 months later...

I want to give this a full review at some point. I don't have the energy now, but this was outstanding. Hase's selling is impeccable and this isn't too far behind Tenryu's best matches of the year. From an action standpoint, it may be his best. I felt it ended a little abruptly and could have used a few more minutes to build, but the match is still excellent.

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This is the sort of match that I think really shows how much better Hase was than Mutoh and Chono. He's able to do all the sort of trademark/rote NJ matwork/technical spots, but he's much better at going toe-to-toe, putting together an exciting finish, and having a watchable first 10 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, yet another 'Tenryu plus high-end opponent equals great match' instance.

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  • 2 years later...

You had the relative youth vs experience and the home defender vs the outsider. This was a sell out in Yokohama Arena, back in the days before the Yokohama fans got zombiefied. They created a nice atmosphere as Tenryu continued his run through the NJ roster.

 

Both tried to assert their manliness early on, which benefitted the veterans superior strikes. Hase's better athleticism allowed him to keep up in this keenly fought contest. He survived a lot of damage and briefly threatened the upset. With the pieces in place I felt like this should've reached higher than 'good' level. Yet there were times it was clear that they weren't on the same wavelength. One man would be waiting for a move and the other wasn't sure what they wanted him to do. They required more ring time together.

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  • 2 months later...

I found myself disliking the finish. Part of it was it came too soon with Tenryu just hitting a bunch of big moves. But also I found myself really getting behind Hase in the match. Crowd was too with the big chant for him. So it was disappointing though not unexpected to see him lose especially with it being by submission. I would have preferred a pinfall loss. Just didn't like the idea of him giving up after showing so much heart in match with his selling.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finish was a little unexpected, but it does nicely establish the WAR Special as a legit move, when Tenryu really didn't have anything besides the power bomb to put people away with before. Awesome little match--watching Hase one may want him to be pushed at the level of the other Musketeers, but at the same time he's SO good at being the gutsy underdog...it's not far off from Daniel Bryan now, in fact, if Bryan had less ridiculous facial hair.

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  • 1 year later...

There's not a lot about Hase that I like. I don't really like his look, I don't like his selling and mannerisms, and I don't like his moveset. He's not a guy whom I actively dislike, but he's not exactly an ideal opponent for Tenryu and I think that came through at times during this bout. Having said that, as a professional wrestler you can't always spend your time wrestling guys you match up well with. Sometimes you've got to take on opponents outside your bubble. I liked pretty much everything Tenryu did here on defence and attack, although after commenting on how easy it is to ignore his execution, he went ahead and did one of the worst sunset flip attempts on record. God it was bad. The bout in general was a mix of good looking stuff and questionable offensive choices. I'm still not sure what that running body press thing was that Hase did and why he didn't just do a baseball slide, and the counter to his Golden Arm Bomber was a flat moment. On the plus side, the Scorpion Deathlock was great and the Golden Arm Bomber he hit was a fantastic moment. The punch drunk selling and refusing to stay down is the kind of thing that would get shat on if it happened in a New Japan ring today, and you could say the same thing about the chop exchanges no matter how hard they were. The finish was unique. It's the kind of finish you wish you'd see more of because it was a different point of attack from the usual finishers, but at the same time the crowd didn't get it, which makes it clear why workers use signature finishers in the first place. Still, as a hardcore it was cool.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I didn't like this as much as most of you did. I never really felt like Hase had a chance; this could have had ten minutes cut off and still achieved the same purpose, which was Tenryu going through another New Japan star with relative ease. He didn't even have to do much on offense, as he got the job done almost exclusively with chops, enzugiris, and powerbombs before locking on his new submission finisher, which looked great.

 

Hase's crowning moment came early, when he got Tenryu up for a giant swing and was able to hold him up for at least thirteen revolutions by my count. Considering what a moose Tenryu is, that took some real doing. Unfortunately for him, it never really got that good again, despite the odd flash of offense here and there. I agree with most of you that his selling was phenomenal, but I would have liked it better if it had led to some kind of comeback, even if the ultimate result had still been the same.

 

Right now, there doesn't seem to be anyone on the NJPW roster who can stop Tenryu; he's scored two big victories in a row. I can't wait to see if that situation changes in the last three months of 1993.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-09-23-NJPW-G1 Climax Special] Genichiro Tenryu vs Hiroshi Hase
  • 2 years later...

Hase continues his strong form from the Summer against his fellow contender for WOTY, Genichiro Tenryu. These two have a truly great match together apart from the finish which came off weird with Tenryu hitting a bunch of enziguris which Hase sells by staggering followed up by a powerbomb. Another day, this would’ve come off very dramatic but it was flat in this instance. The rest of the match brought it though. Hase’s timing and selling was excellent as well as his fire which Tenryu matched of course. This was violent with hard strikes and great submission attempts. ****

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