[1999-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World in Tokyo Dome] Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is a good match, nice and nasty. Lots of eye poking and boot gouging and other small things to up the ante. They're also really laying in their shots. Tenryu was born to wrestle in front of crowds this big. Koshinaka was not. I think some type of tag involving Tenryu, Choshu, Hashimoto and Onita would have caused the Tokyo Dome to spontaneously combust, but it wasn't to be. Tenzan and Kojima win the tag titles when Tenzan pins Koshinaka. This didn't light my world on fire, but I do think it was a fun, hard-hitting match.

[tim]

There was some cool stuff in this match but it went too long and struggled to hold my attention over the whole span. Too lacking in direction or structure and the work wasn't enough to make up for it, got meandering at times. The blitz of big offense at the end for Tencozy was cool.

[Tim Evans]

Good match but would have been better in front of a better crowd. These Dome crowds are just awful. Tenyru just lights up poor Tenzan with chops and punches. Kojima/Tenzan looks pretty much the same here as they do now. Always like Koshinaka and his ass based offense. Wild to see NWO Japan still be a thing.

[soup23]

I thought this was a good and a glance at that HOF canidate caliber tag team, TenKozy. Koshinaka has looked fine in his later year stuff but this was all about the moments when Tenryu was in there and he still showed he could really go and work a crowd. Tenzan and Kojima both had nice runs on offense and their flurry at the end was particularly inspired and what was needed for a title change and momentum shift to the young guys. Good stuff. (***1/4)

[Zenjo]

The legend of TenKoji/Kozy/Cozy is born. This dragged a bit at times. Watchable fare but nothing standout. This arena is the death zone.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, the juniors were drawing a better reaction than this tag match. Don't know if it was acoustics, the fans not being TenKoji yet, Tenryu being out-of-sight/out-of-mind for too long, a combination of all three and more, or what. Nothing groundbreaking here but it was a pleasant enough workmanlike match. I did appreciate that Shiro stayed down after getting leveled by all those big moves in the closing stretch, instead of using it to kick off a 2.9-fest.

[Superstar Sleeze]

IWGP Tag Team Champions Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka vs TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) - NJPW 1/4/99

 

To my understanding, this is the debut match of the iconic late 90s/early 00s team of TenCozy, who have never really done much for me as a team. I think Kojima was originally a babyface in a young, power team with Nakanishi known as the Bull Powers as paired against NWO Japan. Something must have happened to have Kojima join NWO Japan. Tenryu & Koshinaka ended up defeating Chono & Tenzan in July of 1998 for the tag titles (jn a match I couldn't find, I have seen the June 98 tag). Tenryu/Koshinaka defended against a bunch of iterations of NWO Japan.

 

If they kept it to a meaty, bomb-throwing sprint I think this could have been great. Tenzan & Kojima are at their best when there is not a whole lot of thinking and they are just throwing bombs. Two heat segments on each of TenCozy was pointless neither is very good at selling and Koshinaka is totally useless. Tenryu in 1999 carried these three to a good match, but not a great match. Once it just came to hitting each other as hard you can this became a lot better. There was some weird late 90s/00s bullshit that crops up like Tenryu hitting a Super Ace Crusher, Kojima not selling it and hitting his own Ace Crusher. I love chaos spots like Kojima Ace Crushering Tenryu to the floor, Koshinaka flying from the apron with ass and then Tenzan wiping out everyone with a moonsault. That sequence will always get over with me. Kojima puts Tenryu down with an Ace Crusher (3rd one of the match and he catches Koshinaka with a German when he goes for the Ass Shot. Kojima decks him with a lariat and Tenzan polishes him off.

 

Good Dome tag match that could have been five minutes shorter. Very typical late 90s/early 00s puro. ***