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[1991-11-10-SWS] Genichiro Tenryu vs Ashura Hara


Loss

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  • 4 months later...

Pretty good match with lots of stiff shots, but also pretty run-of-the-mill. SWS hasn't really produced any GREAT Tenryu singles matches this year, just lots of good ones, and they all seem to follow generally the same template. Yatsu and Haku attack both guys after the match, I'm guessing to set up a tag down the line.

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  • 1 month later...

Good stiff-fest, but this still comes off as Tenryu slumming it, even against his old partner. His staying would have changed things in all sorts of ways but all these matches really do is make me want to see Tenryu work Misawa or Kawada in a competitive match. It does have me looking forward to the Hogan match, though. Other than Tenryu heaving that giant trophy the post-match attack is about 1/50 as cool or intense as your typical Memphis beatdown.

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  • 11 months later...

I'm higher on this than anyone else as I thought it was pretty great and Tenryu's kicks to Hara's shoulder were straight up nasty. I also enjoyed Hara not backing down and throwing Tenryu around ringside in response. The aftermath with Haku/Yatsu was dumb but this was my favorite Tenryu SWS singles match so far this year.

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  • 1 year later...

I'm higher on this than anyone else as I thought it was pretty great and Tenryu's kicks to Hara's shoulder were straight up nasty. I also enjoyed Hara not backing down and throwing Tenryu around ringside in response. The aftermath with Haku/Yatsu was dumb but this was my favorite Tenryu SWS singles match so far this year.

 

Agree. Terrific match, with some awesome selling and bumping by Tenryu. Sure, it goes way beyond what's needed in term of stiffness, and you get the feel that's the only way to get a compelling single match with Hara, but it tells a story and the work is pretty much spotless, for what they try to accomplish (well, the last powerbomb didn't look so good). Yeah, Hara's bruise was nasty. Best SWS match ever, and probably Tenryu's best single match in two years (which is more telling of the fact Tenryu didn't get much of a chance after leaving AJ, as he's straight awesome here).

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Wasn't really feeling this. Tenryu works from underneath too much in SWS and against a guy as immobile as Hara it's really not that interesting. I kept wanting Tenryu to switch back on offence where he was dishing out one mother of a beating on Hara's shoulder. Hara being forced to sell that more would have been a hell of a lot more compelling than him staying in the same spot all the time and delivering clotheslines. This really wasn't all that dissimilar from the Yatsu match. The strikes were arguably better, but again there was a my turn/your turn feel to it and the transitions left a lot to be desired. Nothing makes a pro-wrestling match more ordinary than dull transitions. And as for the finish... if yesterday I thought Onita botching the powerbomb was some amazing Tenryu counter then today I'm not sure that you can actually classify what Tenryu executed as a 'powerbomb'. It looked more like a folding press. Aside from that Tenryu looked awesome on offence; we just didn't see enough of it.



On the whole, his SWS work has to be regarded as a failure in terms of both match layouts and the way he carried himself in the bouts. He was much more effective as the ace of WAR and the outsider in the New Japan feud than he was as the top guy in SWS. The promotion was plagued by troubles from day one, which was no doubt disruptive, but we can only really judge him by the in-ring product and that wasn't up to scratch regardless of the quality of his opponents. I don't know if I'd call it a strike or a black mark against him. Perhaps he learnt from it and that's why his WAR stuff was so much better. But I believe in a warts and all approach to wrestling and this was a big chunk of the early 90s that was third rate by Tenryu standards.


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  • 2 months later...

I agree with El-P; this was a tremendous match, as these two old partners straight-up beat each other half to death. I don't know why people seem to have trouble with Hara; I came into this match expecting to watch some washed-up old geezer who could barely crawl around the ring, and while he wasn't called upon to do much athletically, he sure looked like a real beast throwing clotheslines and headbutts. Could it have been a case of Tenryu giving away too much to an old friend and former partner? Quite possibly, but Hara still had to go out there and execute, and he did. Tenryu looked to be in real trouble many times, and though his kicks looked brutal, they still weren't enough to take Hara off his feet. In the end, it took a desperation powerbomb for Tenryu to escape with the three count.

 

The postmatch started off a little confusingly; for one thing, I had no idea who Tenryu was throwing the trophy at. But soon Yatsu and Haku appeared, and while we didn't exactly get the most brutal beatdown in wrestling history, it served its purpose, which was to reunite Tenryu and Hara and start a new feud for them against another one of Tenryu's old partners. Haku definitely looked good enough here in the little I saw of him to warrant his spot in the Royal Rumble, and I'm wondering what another singles run in the WWF in '92 would have been like for him.

 

Since Heenan wasn't managing anymote, maybe you take advantage of his Japanese experience and give him something close to what ultimately became Yokozuna, complete with Fuji as his new manager. I know he was a little small to be a believable sumo guy, but you could say that while he's learned the sumo ways and integrated them into his style, he still has all the other skills that made him so dangerous, and the only way to keep those skills was to lose most of the weight he'd gained during sumo training, It would have beat seeing Yoko haul his increasingly fat ass around the ring while only being able to chop, headbutt, and sit on people.

 

I'm also looking forward to the Tenryu match with Hogan coming up in December. Hopefully for all of our sakes, Tenryu will put up a better fight against him than Flair did in their MSG rematch.

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  • 1 year later...

I'm agree with those who thought this was pretty great. I love that right hand Hara throws from his knees. It caught Tenryu right on the jaw, and man did it look stiff. As mentioned, the bruise under the arm of Hara was nasty. I thought they both worked hard, and probably had the best match the two of them could have had. The only sort of weak spot is the ending powerbomb, but the action prior was so entertaining to me, it doesn't weigh that heavily. I'll also say it was my favorite Tenryu match of the year thus far.

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  • 6 months later...

I thought this was the best SWS match so far. Hara may be old and immobile, but he can deliver a lariat, headbutt and punch as well as ever. And Tenryu is great at selling everything. I do agree that Tenryu gives away too much as the "ace" of SWS. I also think his match structure leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe if it looked like his opponent cared about winning the match in the closing stretches instead of just trying to beat Tenryu to death it would look better. As it is, I may have issues with the structure, but the execution was really good (save the second powerbomb) on most everything. And everything was ridiculous amounts of stiff, which I fully expected from these two.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1991-11-10-SWS] Genichiro Tenryu vs Ashura Hara

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