[1994-05-05-FMW-5th Anniversary Show] Genichiro Tenryu vs Atsushi Onita (No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Cage Death)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

It's interesting how difference all the 5/5 death matches are. The Funk and Hayabusa death matches aren't really worked the same way as this one, and Kudo/Toyoda is something different from all of those. They tease big stuff way more than they deliver it, and both guys are charismatic enough to get a lot out of doing very little. Tenryu took one crash into the cage and Onita took two or three. The rest of the time, they work holds with dramatic teases of Irish whips and settle into a series of powerbombs at the end. I really liked this one, as Tenryu and Onita didn't do anything too ridiculous and still kept the crowd by keeping it simple. Great match.

[FLIK]

They tease big stuff way more than they deliver it, and both guys are charismatic enough to get a lot out of doing very little. Tenryu took one crash into the cage and Onita took two or three. The rest of the time, they work holds with dramatic teases of Irish whips and settle into a series of powerbombs at the end.

Yeah, that basicly sums up the Onita style death match philosophy, especially for singles. What they do to fill time changes depending upon the opponent (which is prob why the Hayabusa or Funk matches feel diffrent) but the foundation is all about teasing a handfull of big bumps into the wire/cage and then selling the shit out of them when they do happen.

[Loss]

What was the reason there was no countdown to an explosion here? Just curious.

[FLIK]

I think Tenryu just didn't want to do one so they cut that part out

 

There's a lot of Tenryu vs Onita 6 & 8 man death match tags in 99 that are really awesome (so hopefully will make the yearbook), and there's a few more in the early & mid 00's but Tenryu doesn't take very many major bumps in those either.

[El-P]

They tease big stuff way more than they deliver it, and both guys are charismatic enough to get a lot out of doing very little. Tenryu took one crash into the cage and Onita took two or three. The rest of the time, they work holds with dramatic teases of Irish whips and settle into a series of powerbombs at the end.

Yeah, that basicly sums up the Onita style death match philosophy, especially for singles. What they do to fill time changes depending upon the opponent (which is prob why the Hayabusa or Funk matches feel diffrent) but the foundation is all about teasing a handfull of big bumps into the wire/cage and then selling the shit out of them when they do happen.

 

Yep, that's the beauty of Onita. He's all about teasing, milking and selling. 99,99% of the (stupid) people who did "hardcore" never got that and only saw the blood and crazy bumps. Well, there's a reason why Onita made shitload of money doing deathmatches and why he would pack 40.000 people in a stadium despite having no TV and a very light supporting crew (FMW undercards from Onita era weren't exactly setting the world on fire, except the women's interpromotionnal matches). The gore was only a way to operate and not a goal in itself. You can see Onita work the same way against martial artists in the early days of the promotion. Just milking stuff to the max.

[Kevin Ridge]

These teases that were worked early in the match are great. Just a simple elbow and collar tie is able to get a crowd reaction when Anita is close to the cage. Them avoiding the cage the best they can just makes it mean a lot more when they finally start using it. Just a very smart way to work this type of match and not getting rammed a minute into the match. It wasn't incredibly gory but it didn't need to be. Well done match.

[Exposer]

I loved the ring entrances. Every Tenryu match feels like a big deal. The teases into the barbed wire were great and adding really good suspense to the match. When they did crash into the cage it made sense and wasn't egregious. They do the powerbomb sequence at the end with Onita getting in a few comeback spots. Tenryu wins with a final triumphant powerbomb to win. This was a great suspenseful match with some good near falls.

[soup23]

Brilliant way of using the cage to turn the momentum in the match. The only time that it didn't completely turn the time was when Tenryu in the end got frustrated and threw Onita in it basically sealing the match for him. Great match that if it featured less charismatic competitors would have been pretty bad but with these two, it worked masterfully.

[PeteF3]

These two do more with less than any two guys in Japan, or all of wrestling for that matter. The result is a match that verges on being a little *too* minimalist, but these two know how to milk the most out of every pause and every moment. There are only a few explosion spots but they're all sold big, usually by the opponent as well as the guy taking the move. Onita is one gutsy bastard but falls right when you're thinking that all the powerbombs are getting excessive.

[Zenjo]

Two promotional leaders collide. Considering the OTT match stipulations they certainly went for the 'less is more' philosophy. The problem is they didn't do enough. It was too stripped back and would've worked better as a regular bout from a match quality perspective. The gimmick probably sold more tickets so I can't criticize them for that. Tenryu got the win with a powerbomb 4th time lucky. That sucked as an ending, he should've busted out a different finisher when one idea wasn't working. It was a reasonably good match overall, just not as strong as I'd have hoped for.

[ohtani's jacket]

It seems one of the great shames of Tenryu's career that he spent two years of his 90s prime working feuds like this. I guess if you want to put a positive spin on it, you can truly say he visited everywhere and fought everyone, but I can think of a ton of Tenryu I'd rather see than an exploding death match. I don't get the appeal of Onita. There are times when he comes across as convincing such as in his mic performances or when he's dishing out a beating, but for the most part his stuff is like watching an Asian B film. I thought I was back on an 80s film project watching old Hong Kong action flicks the way he his hair was blowing about in the night breeze. I didn't think much of his selling in this. Offensively he was physically broken down, but selling is supposed to be his calling card. I really hated each and every one of his close-ups after a count of two. I know he was trying to sell how close it was to three, but that sort of wide eyed gaze makes it seem like you're not that out of it to begin with. I've really come to appreciate the subtlety to a lot of Tenryu's selling, particularly his grimacing, so I felt like Onita was overacting a bit much like a B film actor.

The backdrop for this was really pretty with the sun setting behind the baseball stadium (which is probably the prettiest Kawasaki gets, as it's kind of an ugly city.) I'm not all that familiar with FMW so I found the ring announcer odd. He sounded like a character from GeGeGe no Kitaro. The ref wearing googles was goofy. I don't know why Tenryu was wearing a belt. It didn't seem to play into the belt and his back wasn't highlighted in the pre-match video (unlike that goofy net he wore over his injured forehead or the oh so 90s angle of ripping up a VHS tape at the press conference.) I guess he had some sort of legitimate back strain going into the bout. Another thing I strongly disliked was Onita's theme music. That's a terrible cover of Wild Thing.

The match itself was divided into two halves: the first half where they were avoiding being whipped or thrown into the barbed wire, and the second half where they'd taken a few explosions and were much the worse for wear. The first half made sense from a psychological standpoint, but got old pretty fast. The second half was full of those close-ups I hated and too many power bomb attempts from Tenryu. I can't find the tag match that set this up online, but from the pre-match highlights the power bomb was a theme in the match with Goto and Hara, but four power bombs is overkill. Tenryu's extreme reluctance to take a bump into the wire, while understandable, also hurt the bout as it felt like they were running away from the gimmick at times. Even the bump he did take was pretty soft compared to the ones Onita took. A regular match without the cage would have been better. Tenryu bleeding didn't have much effect and watching him spread the blood with his sweaty wristband was a business exposing close-up from the video director. For some reason, the bout was really long and Tenryu won. I don't get why Tenryu won unless Onita often suffered losses like these where he looked honorable in defeat. I watched this twice and was indifferent to it both times.

[JKWebb]

http://placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-450-401/2/

 

#421

 

This match was good for what it was. I thought Tenryu delivered a better selling performance of the two. The tag match highlighted prior to this looked more appealing for my preferences, but I enjoyed this fine. I don't think I'm as high on it as some, and I don't think it'd be anything I'd return to. I'm with OJ thinking a regular cage match would have suited them better, and likely would have been excellent.