[1997-11-24-WAR] Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Phil Schneider]

Man there is no one better and working a grim violent seedy match then Genichiro Tenryu. Match starts a little light hearted with Fujiwara complaining about Tenryu having too much grease, but gets violent quick. Tenryu traps Fujiwara in the corner with his sumo slaps, and finishes it off with a kick right between the eyes. Fujiwara gets a smile on his face like "OK motherfucker, you want to call this shit WAR, let's go to war." He drops in some nasty bodyshots and finishes up with a headbutt right on the eyebrow which cuts Tenryu open hardway. From that point on Fujiwara is like a hunting dog bringing down a wounded bear, he alternates between tearing and smashing the cut, and ripping at Tenryu's arm.

 

Most of the time the Fujiwara armbar is used as a quick counter, very rarely is he this focused on a bodypart through out the match. He drags Tenryu over the top rope and to the floor with an armbar, returning constantly to that arm throughout. Tenryu is pretty dominated, he fires back with nasty jabs and rights, and keeps going for kappo kicks, but a lot of that is shrugged off. One of the few faults with Tenryu as a wrestler is that occasionally his stuff isn't hit cleanly and looks weak. The cool thing about the way Fujiwara sells, is that if you don't land, he isn't going for it. Tenryu hits a crappy powerbomb, Fujiwara transitions slickly into an armbar, he wiffs a kappo kick, Fujiwara punches him in the eye. It isn't no-selling exactly because you never see him shrug off something landed solidly (except in that weird Kawada match), but it adds a realism to his fights. Finish was the only thing that kept this off the Epic list. Tenryu is finally firing back after eating an asskicking, he hits some nasty chops which Fujiwara grits through, until he catches him in the throat which stuns Fujiwara enough to get a flash pin. Kind of conceptually interesting, but it just looked sudden and off here. I get that a chop to the throat will stun you, but I just wanted something bigger.

[Loss]

Fujiwara throws some nasty punches to Tenryu's lacerated eye then casually wipes the blood off of his hand and on to the top turnbuckle. That says it all. I love the arm work and cavalier aggression - for lack of a better way to describe it - from Fujiwara. I popped for the surprise armbar after the powerbomb. I kept waiting for the mother of all comebacks from Tenryu, but it never came, sadly. That and a flat finish aside, this was a pretty angry match that was mostly what I hoped it would be.

[Kevin Ridge]

They got pissed off at each other right away. Fujiwara was milking the referee's 5 count over and over being on the verge of getting disqualified. Yeah, this needed a strong finish with Tenryu kicking the crap out of Fujiwara. He smacks him around a bit but it was way too short. Plus, Fujiwara got back up and put Tenryu in another armbar after the match!

[soup23]

Two grumpy bastards firing off with each other, sign me up. I really loved Fujiwara smiling after all the damage he inflicted or what was returned to him. His work on the arm was great and fierce. The match felt epic without being overly long. I do agree with Phil that the ending was slightly abrupt but I was glad that this match delivered in November of 1997.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was all right, but I kind of wanted it to be cooler than it was. Realistically, it was a few years too late as Fujiwara had lost a lot of muscle mass since that run he had in New Japan in '93-94. In the beginning I thought he was a bit frail looking and was worried for him when Tenryu laid in his shots; then he pummeled him back twice as hard and I felt a little foolish. Even at this age he was still a pretty dangerous man. The match was a tournament bout, which put a cap on how special it could be. Fujiwara toyed with Tenryu on the mat while still having one eye on a legit submission chance. He played a sort of bastard heel role and threw in some carny shit and even an audible "fuck" at one point. Tenryu bled from his favourite spot, and used his strikes and sumo technique to fight his way out of trouble as usual. Fujiwara backed off a lot of the strikes, showing glimpses of why he was such a great defensive wrestler, but he was a lot slower than in years gone by and his counters didn't really have the same snap to them. Tenryu sold pretty well and hit pretty hard, but Tenryu sells pretty well and hits pretty hard in every match. The mat work was okay, but it's not one of Tenryu's strong points and all he can really do down low is sell well. The finish would have worked better if Tenryu had hit a power bomb or enziguri after dazing Fujiwara instead of going straight for a cover, but i guess it was meant to be a flash pin. Would have liked to have seen this match in '93 or '94.

[PeteF3]

About as fun as you'd expect--both guys have probably already peaked despite their long post-middle-age careers, but this is still two grumpy old guys laying it in and beating the shit out of each other. Fujiwara is a supreme dick here, refusing to break holds past the ropes and should have been DQ'd on multiple occasions. Gives a little bit of poetic justice at the finish when Tenryu catches him with a shot to the throat. The ending is a little sudden and I'd like to have seen one more Tenryu power bomb instead of a straight cover, but this served its purpose nicely.

[Jetlag]

This was just a gritty old streetfight. Fujiwara was a total fiend here and him targetting Tenryu with punches aswell as torturing him on the mat was just nasty. I was a little annoyed with Fujiwara no-selling Tenryu so much and some of the uncooperative hard hitting exchanges near the end came across as awkward, altough that was what they were going for and the stubborn rolling kicks were great. Not a super classic but it delivers what you want from Fujiwara vs. Tenryu in spades. Also, I kind of enjoyed the finish mostly because I once heard an old carny german wrestler explain what makes these throat chops so dangerous ("the hyoid breaks, and you choke on your own tongue").

[Microstatistics]

Given the hate and violence that followed, in hindsight, the pre-match handshake is surprising. A total dream match that delivers in spades. Wonderful Fujiwara performance as he brought the violence and the tenacity while working as the aggressor while adding tons of neat little touches (complaining about Tenryu's arm being too slippery, wiping Tenryu's blood on the turnbuckle, completing disregarding the rope breaks). Tenryu was great working from underneath and selling for most of the match. Fujiwara's "no sell the smaller strikes but sell big when the opponent lands big" approach at the end worked well because of how drained Tenryu was. Finish itself was also logical and something fresh. Fantastic match. **** 1/4

[Superstar Sleeze]

Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara - WAR 11/22/97

 

WAR is on its last legs but produces one last stone cold classic as these two 80s deliver a violent, hotly contested affair. Fujiwara goes for an armbar takedown complains he can't get a good grip and goes to wipe his hands on the ropes and Tenryu hip check him. The ensuing strike exchanges were intense. Tenryu's sumo slaps and chops against Fujiwara punches and head butts. Fujiwara punches him so hard that he opens him up hardway. Fujiwara controls most of the match when he gets an armbar in the ropes. Fujiwara absolutely tortures the arm. Tons of armbar takedowns. There was one flurry of Tenryu offense (poorly set up Fujiwara just let him up) enziguiri and powerbomb and after the cover Fujiwara immediately grabbed an armbar. Another good Fujiwara spot was he was covering and just went for a double wristlock. This definitely felt one of those matches that Fujiwara completely had overwhelmed Tenryu with arm work and glorious punches to the head (open wound) that even though it felt like Tenryu had no chance you knew he would pull it out and they did it in a very inventive way. Tenryus desperation offense was awesome punches,kappo kicks and throat chops. He was swinging for the fences to win by knock out. Tenryu just lunged at him with punches to the head after a cover was great. Throat chop and Fujiwara goes down for a close three and Fujiwara immediately goes for a double wristlock but the match was over. I loved the finish as something realistic but rarely seen. Fujiwara dominated but Tenryu just was trying to eek out the win by phasing him enough with head rocking strikes. Tremendous action bolstered by star power, great Tenryu selling, awesome Fujiwara heAvy breathing & hard work and excellent strategies. Watch it for the brutal strikes and great story. ****1/2