Genichiro Tenryu

[Frankensteiner]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoji Anjoh (7/21/96)

 

There was a lot of novelty value in this -- I mean it's Tenryu vs. Anjoh, think about that for a second -- but what really impressed me was how good the bout was. There was a point during the early Anjoh stalling where I thought, "okay this is pretty good when they're striking, but I'm not sure they have anywhere to go from here," but Tenryu really aced this by making his strikes look about as unpulled as they can be in a pro-wrestling contest. He didn't have any real shooting ability on the mat, so he made up for that by throwing the hardest looking lariats in his career, continuously going for the legal (and sometimes illegal) punch to the eye, and raising his chops up around the throat; though to be fair, UWF-i matwork was mostly about guys lying around in submission holds milking rope breaks, which is what happened here anyway. Those nasty strikes worked in the contest of Tenryu being pissed at Anjoh, but they also put him on a level pegging with Anjoh's killing game, and while Anjoh rolling through the powerbomb attempts was a bit questionable, it was undeniably dramatic. Really enjoyed the flurries of nasty strikes in this and he killer lariats. The crowd was super hot and it was hard to believe this ran less than 12 minutes as engrossing as it was. I'm not sure Tenryu is a good enough singles worker to rate as highly as he does for some people, but this was one of his better single matches of the 90s and an excellent performance from a guy not afraid to mix up his style.

 

If you get a chance, you should check out the Tenryu vs Nakano match. It's probably one of my favorite short matches ever.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Nobuhiko Takada (12/13/96)

 

This was good when they stuck to strikes as there was a nice contrast between Takada's polished kicking technique and Tenryu bulldozing tactics, but the matwork was awful, and a reminder of just how useless Takada was on the mat. Tenryu did his best to sell the double leglock spot they did, but they laid around in that thing forever and even when Takada got the crowd back by working his way into a standing base there was no payoff. When Tenryu went for a leglock of his own, I thought "here we go again," but he at least tried to fight through Takada's guard to punch him in the face. They also lost the crowd on the armbar counter to Tenryu's lariat. A crowd as hot as that should have lost their shit over that, but Tenryu blocking it and Takada having to slowly break his grasp sapped all of the tension from the spot. Ordinarily, that sort of detail would be praiseworthy, but it was clear from the molten finish with the goofy but awesome punch drunk selling that the crowd just wanted to bombs and nearfalls. I did like Takada's counter to the WAR Special, however. Overall, it wasn't a bad match. Takada's selling sucked throughout as did his taunts and mannerisms, but in a way that added to the dynamic of him being an outsider and another UWF guy who thinks his shit doesn't stink. Tenryu had a great 1996.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsuo Nakano (5/26/96)

 

This was a fun little bout. It was kind of a mix of Tenryu struggling with the fighting style and underestimating his opponent and then drawing heavily on his sumo background to cockily put away the lower rung guy. If I'd been watching this chronologically (instead of back and forward), my main takeaway would have been that Tenryu needed to work on his technique if he was going to survive these shoot guys.

[El-P]

 

Hiroshi Hase vs. Genichiro Tenryu (NJ 9/23/93)

 

There's not a lot about Hase that I like. I don't really like his look, I don't like his selling and mannerisms, and I don't like his moveset. He's not a guy whom I actively dislike, but he's not exactly an ideal opponent for Tenryu and I think that came through at times during this bout. Having said that, as a professional wrestler you can't always spend your time wrestling guys you match up well with. Sometimes you've got to take on opponents outside your bubble. I liked pretty much everything Tenryu did here on defence and attack, although after commenting on how easy it is to ignore his execution, he went ahead and did one of the worst sunset flip attempts on record. God it was bad. The bout in general was a mix of good looking stuff and questionable offensive choices. I'm still not sure what that running body press thing was that Hase did and why he didn't just do a baseball slide, and the counter to his Golden Arm Bomber was a flat moment. On the plus side, the Scorpion Deathlock was great and the Golden Arm Bomber he hit was a fantastic moment. The punch drunk selling and refusing to stay down is the kind of thing that would get shat on if it happened in a New Japan ring today, and you could say the same thing about the chop exchanges no matter how hard they were. The finish was unique. It's the kind of finish you wish you'd see more of because it was a different point of attack from the usual finishers, but at the same time the crowd didn't get it, which makes it clear why workers use signature finishers in the first place. Still, as a hardcore it was cool.

 

 

Watched it for the first time. Loved it. It's been so long, I forgot how good Hase was. I have no issue with the body press through the ropes, it worked like a charm and Tenryu took a good bump outside. The punch drunk selling didn't bother me, it was like Hase was all "hey, you're flat enzuigiris don't hurt that much, I ain't going down for that weak shit". As far as the finish goes, no idea if the WAR Special was established in NJ as this point, but it was one of Tenryu's main offensive weapon. I'm pretty sure he never beat Hash with it though, as Hase was one or two steps below the top stars, but here he looked just like one. The sasorigatame spot was cool as hell. Great match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (4/29/96)

 

I thought this was ruined by the broken nose. It was a pretty spirited bout up to that point, but afterwards Tenryu didn't really know what to do, Fujinami couldn't continue properly, the ref was constantly worried about him and the entire thing was a disjointed mess. I'm surprised that people think this is one of the best short matches ever. It's just so flat after the accident like all the air let out of a balloon.

 

Genichiro Tenryu/Nobutaka Araya vs. Kazuo Yamazaki/Takashi Iizuka (WAR 11/09/96)

 

This was pretty good. If you're a fan of the WAR vs. New Japan feud from '93 then I recommend checking this out as it's the best reprise of those matches in the years that followed. It was hurt a bit by Yamazaki's strikes looking more pulled than any of the shoot style guys Tenryu went up against in '96, but he made up for it by showing plenty of contempt and animosity toward Tenryu, and his selling was such that I kind of wish they'd programmed him with Tenryu more often during the '96-99 period as I can imagine there being more value in a Yamazaki vs. Tenryu feud than there was in the reprised Hashimoto feud or the Tenryu/Koshinaka team. Araya is a guy I'm not all that familiar with and Iizuka was a bit part who played his part. This was all about Tenryu being a niggly instigator (yet again) and was fun to watch.

[jdw]

Would have been interested in seeing your thoughts of Takada-Tenryu's two matches in order. Basically a standard home & home series, each getting the win in their own park.

[ohtani's jacket]

Unfortunately, I'm restricted by whether the footage is online or not.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (12/15/93)

 

I'm glad I went back and watched this as the Tenryu vs. Fujinami dynamic was a fun subplot in the WAR vs. NJPW feud and this felt like a more complete match in lieu of their failed '96 bout. It also followed on chronologically from that electric 10/93 tag where Fujinami bled a lot. It wasn't quite as spirited as the opening to the '96 bout, but the sparks were there. The main problem was the length as they ran through enough stuff to fill a 20 minute match in only 12 minutes or so. They weren't really on the same page to start with either. Tenryu wanted to move straight into striking and punting away at Fujinami's eye, and Fujinami was trying to work from the typical NJPW base of stationary headlocks and leglocks that go nowhere. As usual, Tenryu sold well, and did a lot of cool detail work like pounding away on Fujinami's foot to try to break the hold, but in a semi-sprint like this those sort of holds ought to be scrapped. You add those to a longer bout, IMO, to flesh it out and give you more breathing space. By the time they started trading strikes, they'd entered into the home stretch and were mixing in a lot of counters and reversals that were a bit awkward for these workers. They were kind of tripping over themselves down the straight and the execution was hard to ignore on this occasion. Not really the bout I was looking for from these guys, but at only 12 mins it didn't take long to watch.

[jdw]

Unfortunately, I'm restricted by whether the footage is online or not.

 

I suspect it's online. I'm certain there are torrents of it. Ditch may also have it.

[ohtani's jacket]

 

Unfortunately, I'm restricted by whether the footage is online or not.

 

I suspect it's online. I'm certain there are torrents of it. Ditch may also have it.

 

 

I found the Bushido version of it on YouTube.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Nobuhiko Takada (9/11/96)

 

I was under the impression that this would be more of a worked shoot than it really was. Tenryu, for his part, worked it as a pro-wrestling match under UWF rules, while Takada, to his credit, worked each of the matches differently and did his best here to remain true to the shoot style credo. I don't like seeing pro-wrestlers do shoot style anymore than I like seeing pro-wrestlers decimated in PRIDE fights, but watching Tenryu bouts has become a hobby of mine in recent weeks and I kind of had to swallow my disbelief that Takada wouldn't destroy Tenryu under UWF rules if this were a realistic worked shoot. Tenryu fighting through the guard to deliver forearm smashes was cool. Tenryu bleeding from Takada's knees to the head was awesome. He also ate Takada's kicks extremely well. Tenryu doing pro-wrestling moves... not so cool... Tenryu chasing Takada outside the ring and back in... not so cool... The matwork was slightly better than the WAR bout to the extent that Takada varied the bout of attack, but it was still weaker than the stand-up. I guess if they'd worked stand-up only it would have made for a pretty short bout, however. The final submission was poorly worked and tough to buy as a legit finisher, but again I wouldn't peg this as anything less than good. The WAR bout was better because it was clearly a pro-wrestling bout without any expectations of what should happen in a UWF bout, and it was also the more dramatic of the two. Tenryu wasn't bad in this, but he was a little weaker than he was on his home turf. If you're into star ratings, I'd go *** on this and *** 1/2 on the rematch.

[jdw]

Cool!

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu, Nobutaku Araya & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Nobuhiko Takada, Masahito Kakihara & Naoki Sano (7/20/96)

 

This was a decent six man. It won't make you forget those All Japan six-mans and it was part of a one night six-man tournament so it didn't build to any amazing crescendo, but it featured a lot of workers that folks around here like and it was an important match in terms of teasing Tenryu vs. Takada without really delivering on it if you know what I mean. Tenryu delivered a bit of a cheap shot on Takada by punching him when he was blindsided. Takada knocked Tenryu down with a flurry of kicks similar to their singles matches. And they both broke up each other's pin or submission attempts. Meanwhile, the others worked pretty hard to make sure they weren't just accessories to the angle. There wasn't really anything outstanding from the other players, but everything they did was good. Ultimately, it was a tournament match and bouts like that have a glass ceiling, but it was consistently good the whole way through without ever really blowing you away.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Atsushi Onita (Exploding whatever, 5/5/94)

 

It seems one of the great shames of Tenryu's career that he spent two years of his 90s prime working feuds like this. I guess if you want to put a positive spin on it, you can truly say he visited everywhere and fought everyone, but I can think of a ton of Tenryu I'd rather see than an exploding death match. I don't get the appeal of Onita. There are times when he comes across as convincing such as in his mic performances or when he's dishing out a beating, but for the most part his stuff is like watching an Asian B film. I thought I was back on an 80s film project watching old Hong Kong action flicks the way he his hair was blowing about in the night breeze. I didn't think much of his selling in this. Offensively he was physically broken down, but selling is supposed to be his calling card. I really hated each and every one of his close-ups after a count of two. I know he was trying to sell how close it was to three, but that sort of wide eyed gaze makes it seem like you're not that out of it to begin with. I've really come to appreciate the subtlety to a lot of Tenryu's selling, particularly his grimacing, so I felt like Onita was overacting a bit much like a B film actor.

 

The backdrop for this was really pretty with the sun setting behind the baseball stadium (which is probably the prettiest Kawasaki gets, as it's kind of an ugly city.) I'm not all that familiar with FMW so I found the ring announcer odd. He sounded like a character from GeGeGe no Kitaro. The ref wearing googles was goofy. I don't know why Tenryu was wearing a belt. It didn't seem to play into the belt and his back wasn't highlighted in the pre-match video (unlike that goofy net he wore over his injured forehead or the oh so 90s angle of ripping up a VHS tape at the press conference.) I guess he had some sort of legitimate back strain going into the bout. Another thing I strongly disliked was Onita's theme music. That's a terrible cover of Wild Thing.

 

The match itself was divided into two halves: the first half where they were avoiding being whipped or thrown into the barbed wire, and the second half where they'd taken a few explosions and were much the worse for wear. The first half made sense from a psychological standpoint, but got old pretty fast. The second half was full of those close-ups I hated and too many power bomb attempts from Tenryu. I can't find the tag match that set this up online, but from the pre-match highlights the power bomb was a theme in the match with Goto and Hara, but four power bombs is overkill. Tenryu's extreme reluctance to take a bump into the wire, while understandable, also hurt the bout as it felt like they were running away from the gimmick at times. Even the bump he did take was pretty soft compared to the ones Onita took. A regular match without the cage would have been better. Tenryu bleeding didn't have much effect and watching him spread the blood with his sweaty wristband was a business exposing close-up from the video director. For some reason, the bout was really long and Tenryu won. I don't get why Tenryu won unless Onita often suffered losses like these where he looked honorable in defeat. I watched this twice and was indifferent to it both times.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (11/27/97)

 

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.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tarzan Goto (7/6/97)

 

I thought this got off to a decent start even if their takedowns were super slow and it was more about gamesmanship than the awesome physical confrontation it could have been, but then the bullshit started. If you ever wanted to see Tenryu's foot then this is the match for you, I guess. Taking off his boot and working over his foot wasn't a bad visual motif considering how often Tenryu kicks guys, but it didn't fit the mood of the opening few minutes, and there was nothing to really trigger it or set it up as for the most part Goto had gotten the better of the early exchanges. The switch from Goto using his surprising speed and agility to play a little mind games with Tenryu to ripping off his boot was disjointed. Tenryu doing his "soccer ball kicks" with only one boot on was pretty cool, however. And then all of the rubbish began with Goto wandering off into the crowd to beat up WAR wrestlers, the bottle, Goto taking out the ref, Tenryu hobbling about on one foot and throwing the bell to the ground to demand a restart, and a wrestler stepping in to ref the match until the original ref returned all bandaged up. Clearly they were going for a spectacle, but Goto was a good enough worker that they could have had a regular Tenryu style main event and it would have been fine. Once the ref returned, they settled into a more traditional build, but they repeated a lot of the same moves and by then I didn't care and wanted the match to end. Tenryu did hit a particularly nasty jumping back elbow that made a loud clunking sound when it connected, but even then there was a moment of awkwardness where he looked at the ref like "are you gonna check on him?" before taking the bout home. Not one of the better Tenryu matches.

[jdw]

You watched this before but it might warrant a comment here since everyone seems to love it:

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/15536-genichiro-tenryu-ashura-hara-vs-atsushi-onita-tarzan-goto-war-revolution-rumble-030294

[ohtani's jacket]

Unfortunately, that match was taken down off YouTube and Ditch doesn't host it, so I'm waiting patiently for a re-up. In the meantime, some SWS...

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Samson Fuyuki vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Shinichi Nakano (7/26/91)

 

This was a good little match; no doubt about that. It actually reminded me of an All Japan tag in terms of the pacing and even the structure and lay out were reminiscent of an All Japan match. It clearly wasn't as good as All Japan, but at the same time it as noticeably different from WAR. Shinichi Nakano gave a spirited performance, and I actually thought he played the most important role here at least during the body of the match. Tenryu threw him around like a rag doll and he bumped well for his superior, but he was also sprightly on offence and meshed well with Fuyuki. Tenryu and Yatsyu were a lot more lively here than in their methodically paced singles bout and had one eye on the prize and one eye on each other. The finish was madness with Yatsu going batshit insane with a chair, the ref not disqualifying him, Fuyuki blading admirably, and Yatsu not really having much grounds to be held back as Tenryu hit the power bomb on Nakano. Good stuff.

[El-P]

All those SWS tag matches are usually quite fun. And I loved Tenryu vs Ashura from later in the year.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu (10/29/91)

 

I was a bit worried about this when Yatsu came out to a weak Japanese hip hop track and paced about the ring so pensively. Looked like it would be one-way traffic for a while there as Tenryu made his way to the ring w/ his theme music blaring and that awesome Revolution jacket. But Yatsu showed early on that he meant business and my fears were soon dispelled. Having said that, they really only half-delivered on what should have been a pretty heavy physical contest. It was a methodically paced bout that never really settled into a groove. As others have mentioned, the transitions were poor and the flow was slightly off. Yatsu didn't look that great working from the top in large part because he lacked the charisma of his opponent, but to be fair it wasn't one of Tenryu's finer performances. I've noticed that Tenryu doesn't really go in for epic matches. That's rare considering the era he was working in where everyone was trying to be bigger and better. I'm not sure if it's because he was aware of his opponent's limitations, as well as his own, or if it was a deliberate choice because of the style of match he liked to work where you beat the crap out of each other until there's only one left standing. In any event, he often went short. This had a cool finish with Tenryu using sumo style harite slaps to set Yatsu up for the power bomb, but there wasn't a hell of a lot else that had you sit up and take notice. Would have liked to have seen them pummel each other more.

[El-P]

I was a bit worried about this when Yatsu came out to a weak Japanese hip hop track and paced about the ring so pensively.

 

I love Yatsu's theme. It's so early 90's housy synth-pop.

[Jetlag]

OJ what would be an example of a match where they pummel eachother just enough? IIRC that Tenryu/Yatsu match was stiff as a tree and had just enough pummeling. I recall Yatsu hitting lots of great offense and trying to damage Tenryus equilibrium and Tenryu angrily attacking his kidneys.

[El-P]

OJ what would be an example of a match where they pummel eachother just enough?

 

Tenryu vs Hara.

[ohtani's jacket]

OJ what would be an example of a match where they pummel eachother just enough? IIRC that Tenryu/Yatsu match was stiff as a tree and had just enough pummeling. I recall Yatsu hitting lots of great offense and trying to damage Tenryus equilibrium and Tenryu angrily attacking his kidneys.

 

A match where Yatsu doesn't slap on a side headlock and where Tenryu has some sustained offence.

[ohtani's jacket]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. George Takano (10/11/90)

 

George Takano the shoot stylist? When did that happen? He actually made a pretty decent first of it during his opening gambit. Just as I was beginning to contemplate "what if" scenarios about Takano working shoot style it turned into a regular pro-wrestling match, but even that portion was pretty damn good. They packed an amazing amount of action into 13 minutes and the crowd was super hot. I'm not sure whether Tenryu had a dedicated fan base or if these guys were just hardcores looking to get in on the ground floor of a new promotion, but they made a lot of noise and the shot of that one guy losing his shit ought to be some sort of internet pro-wrestling meme. With so much action it could have easily been a spotfest, but it was fairly seamless thanks to some killer cut-off spots and Tenryu doing a marvelous job of working his ankle injury into the mix. I'm normally frustrated by the repetitious powerbomb spots in Tenryu matchs, but here I thought all three powerbomb spots were outstanding. I don't know how much credit Takano deserves in taking the move, but it's the best it's looked in any match so far. Really good match. Excellent even by 13 minute match standards.

[jdw]

Unfortunately, that match was taken down off YouTube and Ditch doesn't host it, so I'm waiting patiently for a re-up.

 

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/0nhuQ8UJ-k8

 

Looks like the full version. I've seen 15 minute edited versions on youtube.

 

It's probably elsewhere on the web as well in better quality. Google search 大仁田 天龍 原 and poke around.

 

Surprised that Ditch doesn't have it in one of his sites.

[ohtani's jacket]

Sweet, I'll check that out later.