[1988-12-16-AJPW] Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada

[Superstar Sleeze]

Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy vs Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW Real World Tag League 12/16/88

 

JBL would cream himself over how many MONSTER LARIATS are in this match.

 

The last half of this match is basically legalized murder of Tenryu by Hansen & Gordy. This match embodies "Think shoot, but work" and is Hansen's definitive statement on pro wrestling. Every single thing is a struggle. If he can throw a wild kick, he will throw a wild kick. He is not going to wait on the apron, he is going to come in and smack the shit out of you to save his partner. Gordy took his cue from Hansen was great as Hansen Jr., but the difference was Hansen was just absolutely wild and merciless. There is a point towards the beginning where Tenryu is just tagged in and Hansen yanks out a prone Gordy to save him from Tenryu gaining an advantage. You truly felt that this match mean the world to all four men. Hansen was so worried about going down an advantage that he pulled out his tag partner. That's Japanese tag wrestling in a nutshell. It is really hard to make comebacks because each tag is essentially trying to make this a handicap match. In the Southern tag formula, there is a face in peril and a hot tag, but there is always that sense of hope. Once a tag team falters in Japan, there is just a sense of impending doom.

 

Young cheetah-print Kawada was massively over and utterly fearless in this match against these bullies. I thought this would be your standard vet/young lion against dick heels, but Kawada more than held his own. Hell, he took it to these tough SOBs. Kawada was throwing massive spinkicks and monster lariats with the best of them. Tenryu trusted Kawada and against these two, he had to! Tenryu is definitely the equal of the gaijin, but suffers from the fact that he constantly has to face them two on one. He can handle them individually, but as soon as Hansen or Gordy feels the other is trouble they will rush to the other's aid.

 

The brutality of this match was something else. The lariats, chops and kicks need to be heard to be appreciated. The yell of agony from Tenryu when Hansen clobbered him in the back was something I have never heard in a Tenryu match or men's wrestling. It was a fucking war out there. There is clothesline from Gordy that hit Tenryu so hard I don't think he even had to sell, it hurt that much. Kawada's big moment is that he goes wild on Hansen and he actually stomps Hansen down and crowd goes wild. Gordy saves, but Hansen is actually hurt and has to tag out. Kawada Germans Gordy and Hansen kicks Kawada's leg out from underneath the bridge.

 

Then in the spot that maybe my favorite spot of all time, Hansen steps on Kawada's foot and rifles his knee with kicks. That is sadism. Hansen lets Kawada go only to push him out of the ring and NAIL Tenryu with a LARIAT! The match goes on, but at this point is when the impending doom sinks in. Kawada's is pretty much finished and for the rest of the match the gaijin takes turns beating shit out of him at ringside. Tenryu blasted by the Lariat so hard that he fell over the railing is in pretty piss poor shape to take on these two bullies two on one. The rest of the match you just get angrier and angrier at how unfair it is that Tenryu is basically being murdered by these two men. The spot where Kawada explodes in a frenzy from the outside to save Tenryu from Gordy powerbomb is great. You do get the sense that Hansen has blown himself up in a worked sense and Tenryu's last gasp is chop the shit out of Hansen. He gets his licks in and perhaps if the match is one on one he could pull it off, but anytime he gets anywhere Gordy interferes, Until Gordy misses wildly with a clothesline and Tenryu POWERBOMBS Hansen! Gordy recovers and powerbombs Tenryu. HANSEN LARIAT!!! Mercy killing.

 

Even though, the last half of the match was full of impending doom, they did a great job working in hope spots. I thought Hansen sold exhaustion fabulously. Gordy was a great dick heel sidekick. Hansen's individual performance in this match is a candidate for greatest performance in a single match. Kawada was great as the fearless rookie and selling the knee is Kawada's bread and butter. Tenryu was perfect in his role as veteran asskicker that's outgunned, but is going to down in a hail of bullets. The best non-90sAJPW tag match in history in my book! *****

[Microstatistics]

On 3/21/2016 at 8:05 PM, Superstar Sleeze said:

I thought Hansen sold exhaustion fabulously. Hansen's individual performance in this match is a candidate for greatest performance in a single match.

Might have to rewatch this because I don't remember any moment selling wise that stood out from Hansen in this. Offensively he was great but that was about it. But then again I don't think Hansen is a great seller in general like many others do, particularly in the 1980s. There was a spot at the end where he pops up literally 2 seconds after taking a Tenryu powerbomb to hit the lariat.

Anyways this is a really good match with a fantastic Tenryu performance. His selling and amazing timing of hope spots made for great drama in the second half. 

[Superstar Sleeze]

Interesting, if there was someone I thought was popping up a little too quickly it is Tenryu. Watch Hansen's energy level decrease over time, he is a raging bull, but after the Kawada knee injury, he starts to slow down because of the amount of offense he has executed. It is during these slow down periods Tenryu has a chance and Gordy needs to make the save. It is the rope-a-dope story. As for the exact moment you reference, Tenryu hits the powerbomb, Gordy saves hits the powerbomb, the ref has to break up the pinfall attempt by Gordy because he is not the legal man after all this time, Hansen finally gets to one knee to signal for the Lariat. Then he hits a last gasp Lariat to win. I think that was perfectly fine selling.

[Woof]

This match was an unholy tornado of stiffness. Just beautiful chaos from beginning to end. Talk about 4 guys playing their respective roles perfectly. Kawada as the insolent little shit constantly popping up to antagonize Hansen or Gordy on the apron just to take another asswhooping was glorious. So much fun.

[JKWebb]

I've seen this one before, and thought it was all-time classic ***** match. I was looking forward to revisiting it today running through AJ 80s. I agree that it is the best AJ 80s tag (that I've seen). I'm sticking with the *****. I thought Kawada was fantastic here as the scrappy punk ready to take it right to the beasts. I love the spot in the corner where he beats down Hansen with kicks forcing Hansen to tag out. You can see Hansen start to sell the exhaustion mentioned above around this time. He comes back to defend his partner, but he had to gather himself first. I love the look on Gordy's face when he thinks he's got Tenryu pinned (because he knows Kawada can't break it up with his injured knee trapped on the outside). He throws up his hands like ... what else do we have to do this guy? The answer is double-team, and they demolish Tenryu here. The performances from all three guys (and Kawada on the outside) are just stellar in these final moments. Tenryu gets busted open, and the sharks can smell the blood. Somehow Kawada musters up enough energy for one final save. It comes out of nowhere. Great moment. Tenryu delivers another great fighting from underneath performance. He just can't take out both of them by himself. Lot's of great emotion and selling from everyone involved. Fantastic, Epic Match! Also, I'll note I love how excited Gordy is to get the win. He comes in and hovers over Hansen during the three count to make sure Kawada doesn't have anything left in him. Then he does a little dance.

[G. Badger]

A great addition to this classic match is the 12/10/88 match between Kawada & Tenryu and Jumbo & Yatsu.

 

I don't think its worth its own topic but, it sets up the Kawada leg injury as well as his fearlessness in the face of vets. I watched that right before this match and man, what a ride. T. & K. were insane in the 12/10 match so, even though I've watched this match before, I was skeptical of the outcome. That small package rollup on Gordy had me fooled! I'm like, "That's it, that's it!"

 

This an all time classic and is great intro to puro IMO.

[El-P]

Oh, I remember why I voted Stan Hansen #1 in the GWE. This is a war. It totally goes against what pro-wrestling usually looks like and what we're told should be, with the dynamic changes and the epic nearfalls from finishers and shit. This is a fight with two guys trying to hold on until the point they just aren't able to and finally get killed by two brutal gaijins. This looks brutal because it probably was. This is what pro-wrestling should be, with a complete absence of self-awareness. This is pro-wrestling at its absolute best.

[superkix]

Hansen and Gordy are mean, mean bastards already but when you throw them up against two other mean bastards in Tenryu and Kawada, you get mean bastard warfare. Tenryu getting smacked around and shitkicked against the ropes by Hansen, or hard chopped by Gordy, with Kawada being the spitfire in-and-out of the ring -- this starts hot and ends hot. It's too much to try and break down but a few of my favorite moments from the match include Gordy's huge lariat in the corner sold beautifully by Tenryu, Hansen stumbling around, he and Gordy breaking pinfalls the fuck up, Kawada getting destroyed on the outside. After Gordy hits the powerbomb on Tenryu, Kawada's able to hobble back into the ring to break it up in a killer save. The fans really want Tenryu on his feet, fighting these gaijin fuckers off, but he keeps getting double teamed while poor Kawada is once again in a world of hurt outside the ring. Tenryu's able to fire back with some nasty chops and slaps to Hansen, knocking him down, but Gordy clobbers him with a lariat. After Gordy breaks up the diving back elbow, he pummels Tenryu with gnarly punches but misses the corner lariat, allowing Tenryu a short but brief comeback. He hits the powerbomb but it's not enough. After Gordy powerbombs Tenryu, Hansen drives the knees to the head and finishes him off with a SICK lariat for the win. Awesomely chaotic and brutal tag team warfare.

[SmartMark15]

Awesome match, here's a video I did with a more detailed analysis.

https://youtu.be/bOjt_W4rfm0

[Alex]

Oh my God.  This match is brilliant, a total chaotic war, probably my favorite kind of wrestling.  This is the best match from AJPW in the 80s in my opinion and definitely up there with the best of the decade.

[cactus]

Great match. Kawada is still a rookie in dodgy tights, but you can see here that his selling ability is still top notch. He's outclassed by Hansen and Gordy, but his heart and quickness gives him some leverage against the bully gaijins. Kawada tries his hardest to save his partner from a beating reminded me of a rookie Kobashi trying to hang with Jumbo in the early 90's. 

★★★★¼

 

[Superstar Sleeze]

Just rewatched this and this ruled so fucking hard! For anyone else this is a performance of a lifetime but Kawada it is just another day at the office. Kawada takes what would be a classic makes it a GOAT candidate by going crazy! Rookie Kawada trying to prove himself to his mentor Tenryu against the big bad gaijin is just the best shit! I vividly remember him going hog wild with kicks in the corner to Hansen which is some of the best Hansen selling. The referee has to pull him off and Gordy demolishes him. He really got fucked over. It was a double fuck over because Hansen was pissed because that snot nosed punk embarrassed him and as he chased him down he NAILED TENRYU WITH A WICKED LARIAT! What a perfect confluence of violent narrative building! He was actually not just surviving these American bullies he was thriving, nailing spinning heel kicks, dropkicks and wild, out of control Lariats. Both Gordy and Hansen took massive bumps for him. Kawada peeling around the corner and attacking Hansen from behind on the apron was ELECTRIC! Hansen mule kick and then DESTROYING the knee was EPIC! If that was electric, it was FUCKING NUCLEAR when Kawada made it back in for the ring and just rained down wild blows. Awesome! The Hansen & Gordy vs Tenryu handicap match was terrific too. So much energy mixed with the looming doom of Tenryu's fate, but with glimmers of hope. Hansen's selling was so good down the stretch. Hansen was the one feeding the hope spots being felled by chops and Enziguiris and Top Rope Reverse Elbow. Gordy was saving him. The energy was off the charts! Everybody was perfect! One of the best matches of all time! *****

[Timbo Slice]

One of the great booking decisions Baba ever did. To have essentially your co-Ace on the native side out of half the match, and give Kawada such an amazing amount of shine was a big move. This would be copied in the inverse on 6/9/95, but this was sensational because Kawada actually looked like had a shot at times given Gordy’s placement. Just incredible stuff.