[1990-09-09-SWS] Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Isao Takagi

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Excellent match with lots of drama and meaningful momentum swings. This has the layout of one of the GOAT 90s All Japan tags without the same level of offense. I wish we could have gotten a real finish on what I think was the debut show, but the match proper was really, really good.

[Phil Austin]

What's the deal with the announcer switching between Japanese and English at random points?

[Childs]

It was striking how immediately this established the difference between a Tenryu-centric promotion and All-Japan. It wasn't built around escalating offense so much as escalating nastiness. Certainly worked for me.

[PeteF3]

This could have been really good if it were anybody else besides Takagi, who I thought was a complete millstone. And that's disappointing because he looked really promising in his one All-Japan '80s set match. I didn't get a single shred of sympathy, or toughness, or comeback ability, or much of anything as Tenryu and Ishikawa kicked away at him for what seemed like 3 hours. It was just Hiroshi Wajima "lay there and get hit" bullshit to me and doesn't come off as any more impressive here than there. Yatsu goes absolutely nuts in what's definitely the high point of the match, tackling Tenryu out of the ring and dropping a row of chairs on him. Then he obediently goes back to his corner and stands there for the rest of the match even as they continue to work over Takagi. Takagi gets counted out in the corner and the crowd is NOT happy with that result, even though it comes off as rather decisive.

 

I get that a new promotion would want to impart its own style and not come off as an imitator of either of the other two men's promotions but I found this to be an inauspicious start.

 

And yeah--that announcing was real, real distracting at times, with the bizarre English statements like how the temperature must be over 40 degrees, and "Rock and roll!" That the guy's English pronunciation was pretty good just made it even more jarring.

[soup23]

I fucking loved this. Tenry and Ishikawa were the greatest bullies possible to Takagi. Just peppering him with little kicks and keeping control. Yatsu has enough and flips his shit but it is not enough. The match never gets another hot tag. Real unique ending. I thought Yatsu showed more fire here by far than anything else since the 12/6/89 RWTL match vs. Tenryu/Hansen.

[Kevin Ridge]

The first from Tenryu’s new group. Yatsu has joined up with him. I’ve missed Tenryu. Match is edited weird with the replays shown throughout. Takagi takes a beating but that was still a crap finish especially if one of your first shows.

[Zenjo]

With the clipping and the wierd replays I had a hard time getting into this. The most memorable thing was how hideous the commentary was. STFU! I have SWS marked down as the worst major promotion until World Japan, so will have to see if that's right.

[garretta]

This is another one that was joined in progress originally, as opposed to being clipped especially for the set.

 

I really don't know what to make of this. Everything just seemed off; from the announcing to the offense to the finish. It almost seems like Tenryu wanted to have a shoot-style element to SWS, because I've never seen a so-called "regular" wrestling match end because a wrestler couldn't get up after repeated kicks to the head. It also seemed as if the finish should have come before it did; Tenryu noticeably stops kicking Takagi several times as if waiting for the ref to count Takagi out, then resumes when he realizes that that's not going to happen. It could have been a planned spot, but it looked way too tentative and awkward regardless.

 

As for the commentary, whoever was doing it had to be auditioning for Vince. There was no other explanation for the constant going back and forth between Japanese and English, which I've never heard before in quite that way. Now, why Vince would want a native Japanese announcer, even for the co-promotions he did with SWS, I have no idea. Come to think of it, the commercials we saw at the start of the segment were written in English too for whatever reason, though they were voiced in Japanese. I'm wondering if they were produced in Stamford, or at least with the help of WWF personnel.

 

This was a strange bout all the way around. Maybe it was just because it was SWS's first-ever show, and the bugs will be worked out later. I'm looking forward to seeing how this promotion progresses.

[drew wardlaw]

I actually really liked the finish of this. Tenryu just beat Takagi in a corner until he couldn't continue. Great shots of Takagi's battered face, awesome match.

[dawho5]

Finish worked for what the match was, but Yatsu needed to be more assertive if he was going to be a foil for Tenryu.