[1991-10-30-SWS] Genichiro Tenryu vs George Takano

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I liked their match in 1990 better. This was okay. The chair swinging stuff was excellent, but Takano is a limited wrestler, and Tenryu got less out of him this time than he did the previous time they locked up. It might be because it's back to back with the Tenryu/Yatsu match, but it felt like a dumbed down version of a very similar layout.

[PeteF3]

Takano had some more cool shoot-style stuff at the beginning, but he got away from that in favor of a lot of kicks and some stuff that didn't quite connect. Tenryu didn't have as much urgency here as he did last night, though his chair-toss directly at Takano's face was pretty awesome. The big elephant in the room with regard to SWS remains that it comes off as Tenryu + everybody else. You can't sustain a promotion in Japan where the ace's #1 rival is Hulk Hogan.

[Kevin Ridge]

Takano wasn't hitting stuff as clean with Tenryu. Some bad looking spots. While Takano can do some athletic spots for a heavyweight I just didn't buy him at all as a serious challenger to Tenryu in this match.

[soup23]

Go back and forth between this and the previous match. Takano tries some stuff he honestly shouldn't given his restrictions but he tries hard. He did look good on his dropkick and dive to the outside. Tenryu chunked the chair but did look more lethargic than usual. SWS feels fairly dire overall as a promotion by this point.

[DR Ackermann]

Really disappointing compared to the awesome match they had a year before this. 1991 has been a real down year for Tenryu. He seems uninspired and so does the crowd.

[garretta]

Tenryu looked like anything but a company ace here, as Takano took it to him at every turn for the vast majority of the match until Tenryu hit a pair of desperation lariats, then powerbombed Takano for the win. I know most aces wrestle like this at least occasionally in order to give the impression that they can be defeated on some glorious day in the not-too-distant future, but Tenryu looked washed up here, to be honest. There wasn't a bit of fire in him at any time except when he flung that chair into Takano's face. If Vince was looking at Tenryu as a possible challenger to Hogan for more than the occasional big Tokyo show (which he most likely wasn't), he would have changed his mind if he'd seen this stinker. Takano didn't have to do much to look good in comparison, but he turned in a solid performance, showing off some good-looking offense, particularly in terms of kicks.

 

This one's worth checking out if you're a Takano/Cobra fan; if you're a Tenryu fan, your man has certainly had better days, to say the least.

 

By the way, is it just me or did it look like Takano raided the Beverly Brothers' wardrobe closet for that awful purple jacket he wore to the ring?

[dawho5]

Takano throws everything but the kitchen sink at Tenryu. Tenryu gets in a good chair toss at Takano, but really takes a beating through 90% of this. Then Tenryu hits a few lariats and wins with a powerbomb. How does this make anyone look good?