[2000-10-28-AJPW-October Giant Series] Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00

This is probably the closest classic father vs son match we will ever get to see (sorry, David Flair). A lot of time has passed since Tenryu left in 1990 leaving Kawada leaderless in his war against Jumbo Tsuruta. Yet both men are in their classic yellow and black outfits ready to wage over the vacant Triple Crown. Kawada reminds me very much of myself in my teen years when I would play my father in tennis. I never just wanted to win. I had to win the "right" way by out-muscling him with raw power. Kawada just keeps coming at Tenryu with strike after strike looking to bludgeon his father-figure into submission. My father much like Tenryu was a lot wiser and was going to take his time let me make mistakes and find ways to win. Tenryu and my dad both hit hard back. Kawada and I both learned the hard way that tunnel vision is the enemy of success.

This starts off a lot more tentative than Tenryu and Sasaki as there is a great amount of respect between these two veterans. Eventually fires off the first salvo, a series of three wicked kicks to Tenryu back. Tenryu shakes it off and unphased just looks at Kawada as if to say, "Is that all you got, little man?". In that moment, I finally got Tenryu. Ditch says above "radiates contempt", I really saw it in that moment and everything about Tenryu really clicked for me. Tenryu retaliates with a kick to back and Kawada immediately gets up and starts kicking the back of his leg in an awesome spot. Then begins the macho posturing that just works in this match. Each man takes the other's best shot. Kawada fells Tenryu with a high kick so now from the ground Tenryu kicks the back of Kawada's leg so he responds with a knee drop. Tenryu rolls outside bested by his protege. Tenryu begins firing off a closed fist and Kawada does that excellent almost fall on his ass sell. Tenryu is looking for alternate avenues already, but Kawada just keeps coming with his kicks. So then Tenryu gets a hold of that leg and just wrenches it in a dragon leg screw. Tenryu is working smart progressing from a strike battle to the ground game where he does a great job working over Kawada's legs with a variety of holds like the Figure-4 and Sharpshooter. They then do an even better struggle over the vertical suplex than in Sasaki match.

This is where the match goes off the tracks for me a bit. You have Tenryu using the fist to control and work over the legs as a neat story and natural progress from the macho posturing early. But here Kawada blows off all the leg work and just fires off kicks with both legs. The King of Leg Selling pulling that shit was weird. I felt it hurt the progression of the match. I don't mind that Kawada goes back to all the strikes because that makes sense. Kawada has tunnel vision. He never content with just winning he has to win a certain way. In this match, it is clear he is going to win by bludgeoning Tenryu with strikes. He does that and Tenryu absorbs them and hits a lariat and immediately goes for a pin. Tenryu does not give a fuck how he wins. He just wants to win. Tenryu now with his standard offense: enziguri and falling elbow, but not enough. After being with that damn closed fist for 18 minutes, Kawada gives him a Fuck You! Closed Fist. They really built that up well as Tenryu sold that incredible. Finally, Kawada looks for a win with a Stretch Plum. In 2000, nobody thought the Stretch Plum would finish a match, but you feel that Kawada offense is progressing towards a victory rather than annihilating his opponent. Kawada attempts his powerbomb hitting a wicked Kappo Kick in between two attempts. Tenryu back body drops him and hits a lariat and goes right for the pin. Again, Tenryu is looking for a victory. Tenryu attempts his powerbomb and hits a Kappo Kick of his own to set his up, father like son! Tenryu powerbomb only gets 2.

Now we hit the home stretch, Kawada rattles off two back drop drivers in quick succession. Tenryu attempts to get up but stumbles out of the ring wiping out the camera man. As he gets back on the apron, Kawada kicks him fucking flush in the face and bloodies his nose. That looked wicked. Kawada on the outside whips him in the railing and kicks him over the railing. Back inside, Kawada is not pressing his advantage instead futzes around with more strikes. He cracks off his own enziguri, but Tenryu hits a clothesline immediately. The All Japan delayed selling is a bit annoying. Tenryu on the next exchange catches with a right to the back of the head that knocks Kawada out cold. He hits a Northern Lights Bomb for his first Triple Crown since 1989.

I thought Kawada's performance offensively was very genius. He told a coherent story he was going to win in a very precise manner and he never backed down from that. I really didn't like that he blew off the leg selling. Tenryu was excellent in this as the father who still has gas in the tank, who can absorb a ton of punishment and still dish it out. I would have liked his leg heat segment go even longer and then having the Fuck You! Closed Fist transition back into Kawada's offense. I feel like they did the strike exchanges a little too often. Kawada smashing Tenryu's face in really added a lot to this match putting over his strategy and Tenryu's ability to absorb his best shot. I think the booking was smart as it gave All Japan two top dogs instead of one when they would have been ultra-thin. I liked the Sasaki match a lot for its progression and I would say these two were about even. I am probably in the minority for thinking that, but I think there is a lot these two could have done to improve the match. I hate to sound so negative because this match is ridiculously good and a MOTYC for 2000. When you are ranking the best matches of the entire decade, I believe an extra fine analysis warranted. I would say without a doubt if you want to understand why Tenryu is a GOATC then watch these two matches. ****

[Ditch]

"I think there is a lot these two could have done to improve the match. I hate to sound so negative because this match is ridiculously good and a MOTYC for 2000. When you are ranking the best matches of the entire decade, I believe an extra fine analysis warranted."

 

YES. Exactly how I feel about this. There are some pretty obvious flaws, especially how several minutes are spent on the leg only for Kawada to blow it off really badly. But the meat of the match is still high-level and I expect this to be on most, if not all, ballots. It will certainly make my top 50 and possibly top 25.

[dawho5]

I wanted to love this match so much. Both guys in it are personal favorites and they do so many things right here. Complaints first. The leg heat segment was, I think, misplaced. They took a match where Tenryu the former mentor was absorbing all of Kawada's best strikes and making his former protégé pay in spades, and then had Tenryu decide to attack the leg to weaken it. I get the idea that he is "wrestling smart", but I think within the narrative of the match it actually makes Tenryu seem the weaker of the two since he has to resort to that. Most of the time in All Japan matches, Misawa was the guy taking the bodypart work rather than giving it out. When he did, it was always seen as him starting to really feel what was coming at him and need to do something about it. So if it was going to have a place in this match, Kawada should have had his big offensive run, hit the stretch plum (huge victory for him and excellently done), the backdrops and kicked Tenryu off the apron, THEN when Tenryu gets back on offense he works the leg over as he just got blasted with some big stuff and needs to slow Kawada down. The no-selling of lariats by not going down is pretty off to me. But there was so much more that was good about this match. Kawada's strike sequences going progressively longer and leading to bigger things at the end was great. Tenryu's offense was pretty spectacular with the exception of a blown abisegiri. The kick off the apron was so very...it's the spot of 2000 so far. Kawada having to struggle mightily to even put on a stretch plum or hit a backdrop was so very worth it when he did. This was right up next to great without reaching it.

[Graham Crackers]

Okay, so maybe some classic Kawada leg selling could have made this the GOAT. Or maybe they should have just left that stretch out altogether. Could have, should have, would have, etc. The leg selling doesn't bother me too much as the leg stuff only lasted a couple of minutes but I can see why it gets to some people. It makes it obvious that the legwork was just there to fill time and I'd rather they just stick to the important bullet points. The rest of this match though! It's exactly what you want from Kawada vs Tenryu. This is violent, gritty stuff. One of the best All Japan matches of the decade and a match that will probably stay in my top 20.

[Superstar Sleeze]

By far one of the toughest matches to rank of the decade because there are stretches where they are wrestling at Match of the Decade quality, but there are enough mistakes to detract from the quality. DaWho, really hits the nail on the head on how the layout could have been improved. It really feels like they are wrestling two classic matches in one and that takes you out of the match. Kawada is always great in these "proving himself" matches.He has spent an entire decade trying to prove he was The Man to Misawa and now Misawa is gone so everyone thinks Kawada will ascend to his rightful place until the Old Big Dog has come back to his yard and he is ready to rule again. The tentative start with the tempers flaring was awesome, awesome. There was a great urgency and struggle to their movements. Tenryu kicking from the ground, Kawada with spirited kicks. Tenryu sees that he is losing his grasp and goes for the knee. That is fine with me. Tenryu is not Misawa. He is in fact a lot older than Misawa. It makes sense his grasp on the match is tenuous at best. Yes Tenryu is Kawada's senior, but this is a match that is for the Vacant Championship, they are very much equals. My problem is that after the great leg work and those amazing punches, they reset the match to where Tenryu is The Man and that Kawada has to prove himself, but he is not selling the effects of Tenryu's beatdown. Kawada uses the closed fist to take control and it tells Tenryu that he can give as good as he gets. The finish stretch is really well done with tons of stiff shots and grit and great mirror spots. Kawada blasting Tenryu off the apron and busting up his nose is all you need to know how important this match is. My other big issue is that once Kawada gets him back in the ring he does not do much. Why is he not trying polish Tenryu off and Tenryu is able to make his comeback. The match is too disjointed to be considered a MOTYC in a loaded year or even in a weak year. This should sneak into the top half though. ****1/4

[WingedEagle]

There were so many great, near classic moments in this. The high kick sending Tenryu off the apron to the floor. Tenryu pulling a Gran Torino and telling Kawada to get off his lawn with a a KO punch that puts Kawada down and sets up the finish. Before that, for whatever reason, perhaps expectations of seeing these two collide it never seemed to click as the classic you want. Which just means it was great rather than a MOTYC. They probably had to put Tenryu over decisively here as if you crown Kawada at this point you really don't have a credible challenger. At least this way you can pencil him in that slot, though I don't know if Muto & co. were in the fold yet. Really great action here, but somehow as good as it was you're left thinking it could've been more.

 

****

[Jordan]

Part of me wonders if this was just Kawada's approach to how an ace should work (title or not he was more or less The Guy at this point) when it comes to having your main weapon(s) attacked. Misawa has 1/20/97, sure, but he has other elbow selling performances where, out of the segment, he just kinda doesn't acknowledge it anymore either. Plus this was so focused into one section of work and not really playing off any out of match story (vs. Hashimoto '04 and Otani 03 we know coming in Kawada's dealing with a bad leg) that it feels more like a Tenryu tactic like dawho said and less about being a peak Kawada selling performance.

 

Moving on though there's too much greatness in between that possibly misplaced section for me to really care though. An absolute slugfest where they sold the message tremendously so they make up for it anyway. Kawada limping around as he tries to destroy his mentor doesn't sound as compelling to me. Plus it's 2000 and the crowd cares about a stretch plum attempt so that's a major plus in my eyes. And you get the awesome Kawada staggered selling, the knockout at the end, Tenryu starting off as if he still thinks Kawada is a little kid still before progressively realizing he might be losing, that apron high kick, and lots of other goodies.

 

I think 2000 gave us three MOTDCs from Japan (this, Akiyama/Misawa, and Ogawa/Hashimoto) and I think after viewing all three again this might be third with Akiyama/Misawa coming out on top. But what a year.

[Boss Rock]

Really great match with some excellent storytelling. Tenryu starts off as THE battle-hardened veteran. He's been through so many wars, every time Kawada hits him he gives him that "You're gonna have to do better than that, kid" expression. It almost gets to the point of no-selling but the longer the match goes on, the more and more visibly hurt Tenryu is. He really makes Kawada earn it through each kick and chop. Kawada overcomes some near KO-worthy punches and leg submissions to start absolutely dominating, busting open Tenryu's nose and battering him on the outside. But just as it appears Kawada has this in the bag, Tenryu proves that the old man still has some fight in him by landing some wicked lariats, a KO punch, and Ki Crusher for the win.

 

I thought Tenryu was a bit too dominant in the beginning for him to get a win, but Kawada weathering the storm and absolutely beating the shit out of him in the second half makes the victory well-earned.

[superkix]

There's a lot to love on with this match for sure, especially Tenryu's grizzled performance as he absorbs most of what Kawada's dishing out and serves it back twice as spicy. Loved all the stand up exchanges early on the match before Tenryu catches a foot and dragon screw legwhips Kawada down to set-up the legwork. The legwork was fine but ultimately meaningless -- but it did provide us with that awesome face punch sold perfectly by Kawada. Tenryu's such a big boss here, standing up to Kawada's peskiness, refusing to lay down, and Kawada's really struggling to get anything effective going, from the stretch plum to the back-to-back backdrops. The selling of exhaustion in this match is terrific, with Tenryu tumbling out of the ring and into the cameraman. Then he takes that nasty boot to the nose when he's on the apron. I thought the finishing stretch, with Kawada trying to take down Tenryu with kick after kick after kick before Tenryu explodes with the lariat, was pretty great, and the result is Kawada nearly KO'd from the blow, which allows Tenryu to put him away with the Northern Lights Bomb. One of the best matches of 2000 for sure.

[El-P]

The idea that everything has to be meaningful in the grand scheme of thing is a big flaw of pro-wrestling analysis. Be pragmatic people. The leg work was fine was what it was. It did not *have* to be a focal point of the match. Come on, this is 50 year old legend yet traitor to AJ coming back as the "savior", or might you say the imperialist old fuck coming to grab what was his eleven years before and taking it from the hands of the only faithfull All Japan legend and his own understudy turned Ace-that-never-really-was. So they beat the shit out of each other, showing themselves up, trading the master/students spots like nobody's business. Tenryu is bigger, stronger and meaner. Kawada is quicker, younger and has the All Japan spirit in him. Tenryu has seen it all, he's the Gold Saint to Kawada's Shiryu. Or rather Hyoga, because Kawada's bit of a bitch. Damn, Kawada kicking Tenryu off the apron was stuff classics are made of. Such as the selling of every damn punch or kick to the face. You can see where Kawada got it from. This is every bit of a classic. MOTYC (and yes, probably a MOTDC). 50 year old Tenryu, damn, this guy was the best.

[Boss Rock]

The idea that everything has to be meaningful in the grand scheme of thing is a big flaw of pro-wrestling analysis. Be pragmatic people. The leg work was fine was what it was. It did not *have* to be a focal point of the match. Come on, this is 50 year old legend yet traitor to AJ coming back as the "savior", or might you say the imperialist old fuck coming to grab what was his eleven years before and taking it from the hands of the only faithfull All Japan legend and his own understudy turned Ace-that-never-really-was. So they beat the shit out of each other, showing themselves up, trading the master/students spots like nobody's business. Tenryu is bigger, stronger and meaner. Kawada is quicker, younger and has the All Japan spirit in him. Tenryu has seen it all, he's the Gold Saint to Kawada's Shiryu. Or rather Hyoga, because Kawada's bit of a bitch. Damn, Kawada kicking Tenryu off the apron was stuff classics are made of. Such as the selling of every damn punch or kick to the face. You can see where Kawada got it from. This is every bit of a classic. MOTYC (and yes, probably a MOTDC). 50 year old Tenryu, damn, this guy was the best.

 

Great call on the background to this match. Really adds a lot of context.

[soup23]

An excellent match. The toe to toe battles between the two men were outstanding and Tenryu really stood up to Kawada and made him earn the victory. The leg work is the only thing that really prevents me from putting this as right up there as #4/5 in my MOTY discussion as I thought it meandered a bit too much and was ultimately proven to be meaningfulness. The final moments were really dramatic without being overkill. A wonderful match overall. ****1/2 (9)

[fxnj]

I can see a number of different perspectives on the leg work. On one end, you could say that Tenryu just worked the leg a little for the sake of being a dick and Kawada no-sold it appropriately. I agree it was clear that it was never meant to be a focal point as the leg work was somewhat brief and Tenryu was still taking cheap shots at Kawada during it. On the other hand, you could say it hurt the pacing by killing the momentum that they'd been building to that point and meant that it took some time to get the heat back to where it was before the leg work. But you could also say maybe they brought the match down on purpose after they'd went all out in the first 10 minutes. Dunno. I think we are overthinking an ultimately minor segment of an incredible match.

[El-P]

On the other hand, you could say it hurt the pacing by killing the momentum that they'd been building to that point and meant that it took some time to get the heat back to where it was before the leg work. But you could also say maybe they brought the match down on purpose after they'd went all out in the first 10 minutes.

 

To me it didn't hurt the pacing at all and like you said I take it as a way to bring the match down a bit, which is needed if you want to pick it up again.

 

The whole "hurting the pacing" can really be the crux of argument about such sequences in matches. For instance I just watched the Sano vs Misawa match from 2003 and this is clearly the case where a figure four spot on Sano's part did hurt the pacing and dynamic for a little while because it didn't make much sense (Sano had been kicking Misawa's stomach repetitively, as well as using a top rope footstomp), to the point Misawa just seemed disinterested in selling it, almost in a way of expressing "well, this spot ain't going anywhere, I'm not selling this stuff".

 

Like I said I thought the leg work here was fine and didn't hurt the pacing nor the dynamic there. Maybe it didn't bring a whole lot to the match, but it didn't hurt it either.

[ohtani's jacket]

It had to have been a mindfuck for Kawada to wrestle both Sasaki and Tenryu in the same month after he'd been in the doghouse for arguing that All Japan should encourage interpromotional feuds. Then again, Kawada being Kawada he probably just shrugged it off. My perspective on this was a little different from the "Best of Japan" voters in that I wasn't really concerned with how this compared to the rest of the decade. My initial thoughts were how it compared to the other matches I've seen from October, then how it compared to the rest of 2000, and finally how it compared to other Tenryu matches. Tenryu is a great worker but he's not a guy who has a lot of MOTYCs let alone MOTD contenders. He has great matches but they're great Tenryu matches not MOTYCs. This was a great Tenryu match. It was much better than the work in the Tenryu/Hansen vs. Kawada/Williams tag. The focal point was Kawada and Tenryu laying into each other. If you don't like watching two workers whale on each other then you'd probably find this overrated but for fans of both men, it was exactly what you'd want. The criticism of the legwork was meaningless to me especially when Kawada sold the finish like death. The strikes in this match were almost at an Ikeda vs. Ishikawa level. Tenryu's punches were beautiful. Sasaki vs. Kawada was the better spectacle because of the heat but this was the better match workwise. My favorite All Japan match of the year.