[1994-11-29-WAR] Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Kitahara

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Phil Schneider]

This is exactly what we thought it was, the two stiffest nastiest fuckers in WAR, kicking and chopping each other unnecessarily hard. Kitihara comes out firing, backing Tenryu in the corner with kicks, and Tenryu stops conversation with a thunderous chop to the throat. That is pretty much the story of the match, not a ton of moves, mostly both guys cracking each other. Tenryu is very good at working near falls against lesser guys. He gets drilled with a couple of head kicks just barely beating the count, and really puts Kithara over as a dangerous guy. Of course he mutilates him with stuff, nothing I love more then reckless Tenryu clotheslines and he delivers a couple of corkers. Nothing complicated about this match at all just a batch of violence.

[Kevin Ridge]

Enjoyed this one as was some great stiff strikes. Tenryu’s chops ring out loud. The plus of not having commentary talking over them. Kitahara lays his own kicks that damange Tenryu. Tenryu gets in well aimed knee to the groin. At one point Kitahara gets Tenryu down in the corner and Tenryu rises with a right to the side of his face. Finishing clothesline got him nice and good in the throat.

[Loss]

They really get the balance of the match just right, as Kitahara comes after Tenryu with big flurries of offense, then Tenryu cuts him off by slowing down the pace. Tenryu doesn't need to hit Kitahara as many times as Kitahara needs to hit him to have the same impact. Tenryu does a great sell of Kitahara's high kick in the corner, bouncing from the apron back inside the ring. Good, basic match that gets over the key points really well, and I liked how Kitahara came out of this looking good even in losing.

[Phil Schneider]

Back when I was watching a bunch of WAR, one of the things that really impressed about Tenryu was his ability to work with lower ranked guys. He was a master at walking the line between giving a guy too much and giving a guy too little. Everyone comes out of these matches looking better

[Exposer]

This is was a very good match with a lot stiffness. Tenryu does do an excellent job of making Kitahara look great here. All the strikes connected in some way and were violent as hell.

[soup23]

Great stiff wrestling. Loved the flurries by Kitahara being thwarted by Tenryu. Probably Tenryu's best showing since the Onita match.

[PeteF3]

Slow-paced but a good fundamental little match. Kitahara gets some good runs of offense but is low enough on the totem pole that Tenryu doesn't even need to bust out the power bomb to put him away.

[Jetlag]

This was what the matchup promises. Two guys infamous for doing grossly violent things to their opponents doing grossly violent things to each other. It stards with both guys working a standard side headlock sequence and then Kitahara going "Hm, that isn't going to work" so he starts just clobbering Tenryu with thudding kicks left and right. Tenryu fires back with throat chops and kicking Kitaharas head like a football constantly. I love the savate kicks Kitahara will mix in, and Tenryu is really great at selling an assbeating from a kicker. He is much higher than Kitahara in the hierarchy, but he will sell that he got caught in a painful spot. So it's basically a constant stream of Tenryu trying to brush off Kitaharas kicks until "Damn, he kicked me in the elbow! Ow, now my chin, too!". Great spot where Tenryu tries for the Flair turnbuckle spot but Kitahara just kicks him in the face and he slowly sinks over. By the end Kitaharas legs were giving out because he just spent 10 minutes kicking Tenryu as hard as humanly possible. This is exactly what you want.