[1997-08-10-NJPW] Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Tenzan earned this shot as a result of his win over Hashimoto during the G-1. For some reason, I thought this was the final. Good match, but not more than that. I liked the deliberate pacing and stiffness of this, but I'm not sure Tenzan got enough offense to put him over as a real threat. Either that or the crowd didn't buy him having a shot here. It's hard to say. Solid match, but I think it could have been better.

[Kevin Ridge]

I lean more towards the crowd not buying him as they seemed quiet for most of match. The head dropping might be getting overboard in 97 but damn do I love the brainbuster from Hash. He and Chono have a post match face off.

[Childs]

I don't have a lot of use for Tenzan, but Hash beat him into a pretty good performance. Hash just brought so much fire to these short, brutal matches that the opponent didn't have to be great.

[soup23]

Tenzan didn't seem really ready for this spot and was extremely limited in what he did. Hashimoto still sold for him in a huge way on his punch and kicks making his comeback feel like a treacherous effort on his part. This match was good evidence for how good a worker Hashimoto can be overall. The building looked really large and its odd they did this type of match so quickly after the G-1.

[PeteF3]

Decent slow-paced match, but Tenzan is like a Japanese Carl Oulette with worse execution. I'm not a big execution guy but with Tenzan it's so noticeable as to be distracting--and like Oulette he doesn't really know how to pace or work a full control segment outside of big spots--he is very good at standing and trading blows, though. Hash as usual carries this--at one point he levels Tenzan with a chest kick so hard that Tenzan takes a flat back bump and his entire upper torso literally bounces off the mat. Hash Hulks Up and decisively puts Tenzan away.

[Zenjo]

Tenzan gets his reward for defeating Hash in the G1 Semi-Final. It wasn't a rewarding match for the viewer. A slow and plodding strikefest that I was hoping to finish several minutes before it did. Tenzan needed a few more years of seasoning and wasn't ready for the IWGP title scene.