[1990-01-14-AJPW-New Year Giant Series] Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask vs Genichiro Tenryu & Ricky Fuyuki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

Okay match, Tenryu punking out Misawa was the best part & Jumbo playing big brother was amusing. Felt like Misawa & Fuyuki were mostly along for the ride though. Finish is really clever, don't think i've ever seen that one before. Jumbo offers Fuyuki a handshake post match out of pity & Fuyuki accepts.....traitor.

 

Weird thinking about how everyone in this match is dead except Tenryu, something we're more used to seeing with older US wrestling not Japan.

[Loss]

Jumbo/Tenryu gimmick match - the idea of doing a singles match with these two, but throwing in two underlings to make it fresh and give them new ways to respond to things. Tenryu repeatedly takes this match to violent places where Jumbo clearly isn't comfortable. Being so protective of Tiger Mask is interesting. Tenryu tries to rip his mask off, throws chairs at him, brutalizes him with punches and more. Fuyuki tries to be a good soldier and follow Tenryu's lead. The mask ripping consistently gets loud boos and "Tiger!" chants.

 

Jumbo gets to a point where he's seen enough and runs into the ring and starts pummeling Tenryu, but the referee quickly sends him back to his corner. He finally gets the hot tag, which gets a nice pop, and the inevitable Jumbo/Tenryu face-off picks up the heat in a big way.

 

GREAT finish, as Tenryu tries to lariat Jumbo out of the half crab position. Jumbo collapses and ends up cinching in the hold even more, which makes Fuyuki immediately submit and gives Jumbomask the win. Tenryu walks away in disgust in the post-match, leaving Jumbo and Tiger to help him back to his feet. Fuyuki reluctantly accepts their help after prodding from the crowd.

 

Cool match.

[PeteF3]

This might be the most Southern tag match in AJPW history. Plucky babyface Tiger Mask gets brutalized and bullied around for a long FIP segment before making the hot tag and Jumbo goes nuts. They do a great job of holding off the Tenryu/Jumbo one-on-one confrontation while giving us a few violent outbursts to keep us satisfied while wanting more. Finish was very clever, and I actually thought it was a super-cheap DQ for a second. The set-up to it, with Tsuruta seamlessly knee-breaking Fuyuki off the top turnbuckle, was also pretty awesome.

 

An apparent schism appears in Tenryu's stable afterward.

[Childs]

This is the kind of match I'd show to a Tenryu skeptic. He made a whatever tag interesting just by being a great son of a bitch.

[FLIK]

He made a whatever tag interesting

Yup, that's Tenryu in a nutshell.

[Kevin Ridge]

Interesting to see Misawa at this stage as he hasn't become the guy yet. He's at the mercy of Tenryu at times with getting his masked ripped but Jumbo keeps coming to his aid which is something in itself. Cool finish with Tenryu doing in his own partner by mistake which he is in a submission. Both Tenyru and Misawa enter the ring and Tenryu lays him out with a lariat. I like how Tenryu is all baffled about what happened and then just takes off on his tag partner.

[soup23]

Really cool match with Tenryu being the ultimate prick to Misawa and me cheering on Jumbo being the big brother defender. I think on the All Japan set it was easy in some ways in 1989 to see Jumbo as sort of whiny and annoying in instances but here he played his role affectively and I did enjoy how he was the one to inflict the ending match crab.

[Cox]

I loved this match. Tenryu is such an awesome asshole here, and the long heat segment on Tiger Mask is done extremely well. I loved how they largely kept Tsuruta and Tenryu away from each other and made their interactions in this match mean something. After largely feuding for much of the past year, they probably didn't need to do much against each other anyway. The finish is great, with Tenryu first damn near lariating Misawa out of his boots, then nailing Tsuruta as well, but that causes him to yank on the half crab even more for the submission. Very, very clever.

[JerryvonKramer]

After participating in the All-Japan 80s project, these guys all feel like old friends to me. And this picks up right where that set leaves off.

 

The heels bullying Tiger Mask is sensational here.

[Zenjo]

Took a few minutes to warm up before Tenryu started ripping at Tiger's mask and heeling it up. Mitsy was very much a midcarder at this stage. One of the things the 80's set showed was that you could have taken him out of AJ before 1990 and I don't think anyone would have minded. The mask was like an anchor.

 

Thanks to Tenryu mainly this was good stuff and the extremely intelligent and well thought out finish was a joy to behold. Wonderful.

[stunning_grover]

This was marvelous. Jumbo Tsuruta worked over Fuyuki’s leg in a vicious way. Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa) showed some good stuff, but he hadn’t reached main event status yet. This was mostly about Tenryu vs. Jumbo though. Tenryu was the best performer in the match. Tenryu hit some really stiff moves. Fuyuki tried to unmask Misawa. Of the workers involved in this match, Tenryu is the only one that is still alive today. You have workers who are all about the big things in a match and you have workers who are all about the little things in a match… Tenryu is all about both. What an amazing worker. The finish of this match was quite unique to say the least.

[Laney]

I loved this match! They start things off with Tiger Mask & Jumbo working over Fuyuki's leg. Things get really heated when Fuyuki is able to tag in Tenryu. Tiger Mask pisses Tenryu off with his martial arts kicks and Tenryu just unloads on him and beats the shit out of him. The finishing stretch saw Jumbo going back to Fuyuki's leg and locking on a half crab. In a creative finish Tenryu tries to break up the hold with a lariat but it just causes Jumbo to lean back and put more pressure on the hold to cause Fuyuki to tap. Brilliant match.

[Bix]

Excellent match! Tenryu is amazing here. Loved the ways they gave Fuyuki credible near falls, like cradling Jumbo when Tenryu enzuigiri-ed him as he hit the ropes. Very clever finish with a well-executed post-match angle. The mask is such an albatross for Misawa at this point, though.

[cheapshot]

What a great, innovative finish! Match was a slow starter in my opinion but definitely picked up at the end. Enjoyed this one.

[garretta]

These are the kind of hard-hitting matches I remember from the 80s All-Japan set. Mask takes a real beating, but the spot of the match is Fuyiuki's knee being driven into the security railing. He actually undersold that through most of the rest of the bout, although it definitely played a role in the finish, which was certainly unique for its time. The turn wasn't really, but anyone who's been watching (or had watched in the past like me) knew that Tenryu wasn't taking responsibility for the loss. Rockers/Powers of Pain beats the match for Best Tag on Disc 1 in a photo finish because I'm a bit more familiar with the people involved, but it was closer than I thought it would be.

[Johnny Guitar]

Grumpy old man Tenryu is tremendous.

 

Like Eddy and Dragon its fun to see Misawa as the junior guy of his team knowing whats to come in the future. He takes a beating here.

 

I enjoyed the finish which i've never seen before, but is so logical that you wonder why it wasn't done more. Cool match.

[drew wardlaw]

You know who I loved in this match was Fuyuki. Played a really sleazy heel here and it worked great for me. Him getting his knee destroyed on the railing was gnarly, but him going in and tearing at the tiger mask after Tenryu had ravaged it was really cheap and awesome. Also him going for the rollup on Jumbo after a Tenryu kick. Just so infuriating and heelish. He's overshadowed here but I loved his work. Also, was Misawa bleeding from the nose or was that just like a tongue on the mask or something? Tiger Mask just gets a vicious beating from Tenryu and the mean veteran beating up a young person dynamic continues to be one of my very favorite things in wrestling. The leg work on Fuyuki pays off and what a cool finish! I've never seen that before, what a great idea. Really cool match, lots to like here.

[dawho5]

I enjoyed Tenryu as much as most here. Seeing Misawa as the plucky FIP was great also. Fuyuki helping Tenryu get the upper hand on Jumbo after the hot tag was an interesting twist. Jumbo having to fight through the superior teamwork was the wrinkle that made this match really pop for me. The ending was interesting with Tenryu eventually causing Fuyuki's doom and then walking away in disgust. What a glorious asshole move.

[Jetlag]

This was such a fun action packed match. Young, somewhat athletic, scrappy Tenryu is spectacular. Everything he did was brutally violent and he went at Jumbo and Misawa like a madman. The whole match was pretty violent and alway tipping there - you'd have somewhat regular sections and then somebody would get stomped in the face or dish out a painful looking kick to the tendon. Jumbo also brought the pain here and he is really fun when he is booting somebody in the face or making use of the kneecrusher. The little guys were fine and the match never lost steam. Great introduction to 90s AJPW with the hierarchies, impulsive layout, teamwork and counter-moves inplace that make the style what it is with an extra bit of hatred and chippiness to make it even better.

[Stiva]

Oh Tenryu, let me count the ways...Out of the park heel performance where he treats Misawa like he's just spilled his pint. As mentioned, this is the formula of a great tag with all the variables that can make it fantastic, present and accounted before. I LOVE this finish; a great way to have Fuyuki take the loss but keep him looking strong; it was all that asshole Tenryu's fault, damn it! Definitely one of my top 3 matches on Disc 1 as a total mark for Tenryu and great heat segments.

[cactus]

I really dug this.

 

Tenryu rough houses Tiger Mask in this, and here I was thinking Fuyuki trying to rip up and expose Tiger's face to world would be the worst thing the future Misawa would experience in this match. Jumbo eventually makes the save and tee's off with Tenryu and it's all so good. I really should go back and check out their 80's stuff again.

 

Don't even get me started on the finish to this, absolutely genius. Go watch.

 

★★★★¼

[Makai Club #1]

Tenryu truly does elevate anything he’s in, doesn't he? He outright bullies Tiger Mask, egging on Fuyuki to do the same, ripping the mask, pummeling him. Even for the finish, he smacks an ungodly lariat TM’s way. Jumbo is beside himself, constantly trying to come in to stop Revolution tactics but he gets the rub of 
the green when Tenryu hits him with a lariat while he has Fuyuki’s leg (a target established early on), knocking him deeper into  single leg, getting the tap. ***1/2
 

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This match fucks so much, my goodness. An absolute banger all the way through, no questions about it. I love how heated it feels every time Jumbo & Tenryu are in the ring, whether they are fighting each other or whipping the young guns, they radiate that big fight energy throughout this thing and its beautiful. Speaking of young guns getting whipped, I love the whipping Tiger Mask receives-- the way that whole section of the match begun with Tenryu saying "fuck you" to him & his cute little kicks by pushing him down by the mask? Oh so wonderful! Man that Tenryu, he was just a complete king in this match. You could say that he was the star of the bout & I wouldn't argue it AT ALL, but damn, all other 3 also (at least almost) matched him in their own ways; Misawa with his all-around rockin' young babyface performance + Fuyuki was the perfect little bro to Tenryu's complete asskicking-bully. I absolutely love the small package nearfall he gets on Jumbo after Jumbo runs into Tenryu's foot, and talking bout Jumbo, he was also simply brilliant. I already mentioned the big fight feel he gave off with his mere presence, and the beating he unleashes on Fuyuki's knee is great. I love how it becomes the main target of his attack very early on in the match, and then it's what gives his team the victory in the finish. Oh & that finish! So uniquely awesome & perfectly executed. Add the perfect Korakuen atmosphere into the mix, and you got yourself a truly kick-ass 2-on-2 tag match. ****

[Calvin]

It's a testament to how great Tenryu is that he can overshadow three other great performances through sheer violence alone. 

***1/2