[2000-12-06-AJPW-Real World Tag League] Toshiaki Kawada & Masanobu Fuchi vs Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya

[ohtani's jacket]

This was the type of no-frills action we've come to expect from the new All Japan. Kawada and Fuchi spent most of the bout working over Araya with punches and kicks to the face while Tenryu grew increasingly frustrated on the apron. Tenryu had a couple of good flurries and some exciting exchanges with Kawada but he couldn't turn the tide and the All Japan pair continued to pick Araya apart. Even a couple of slaps from Tenryu couldn't give Araya the strength he needed to overcome the orchestrated beatdown. This was a tournament match so it had its limitations but the action was face crushingly solid and I guaran-damn-tee that it was better than any NOAH tag from the year. 

[soup23]

An awesome no fat beefy tag match. The table was set with Fuchi and Araya and then it climaxes with Tenryu and Kawada throwing down. Araya really took a beating throughout the match but showed some good fire and when he does fight back in the closing moments, it is a great sequence that has the crowd extremely fired up. Him going for a moonsault and other moves gave just enough of an opening that he could pull off the huge upset. Kawada also didn’t throw  out his entire arsenal so I don’t think we had too many kickouts or false finishes throughout the match. I have been pretty let down watching the current G1 in real time due to the lack of stakes but this felt like a great tournament match that also progressed  a story beyond the tournament. **** (8.2)

[fxnj]

This was a total gem that absolutely lived up to the names involved. Story was pretty much built around Araya being really good at eating a beating but really bad at dishing it out. If this were a videogame, Araya's HP would be really high but his offensive stat would be really low. The commentators also mention some side story with Tenryu's pin over Baba happening in Sapporo (where this match took also place) and Kawada wanting to repeat history by getting a pin over Tenryu here, but that mostly takes a backseat to just opening a can of whoop ass on Araya. Fuchi is awesome wavering between sadistically picking apart Araya with punches and playing the over-matched old man when he's against Tenryu. Kawada delivers on the stiff kicks you'd want against Araya and the Tenryu exchanges are as intense as you'd want. Tenryu is just all-around pretty awesome whether he's in the ring or on the apron. I'm increasingly finding myself puzzled at the narrative around Tenryu's enzuigiri as some deep flaw in his work you just have to reluctantly look past, as I loved him sneaking in enzuigiri's from the apron and his opponents were great selling the move as deadly. Also, him shaking the ropes one time when Araya was getting pinned made the kick out feel like the most important thing in the world. I also enjoyed the mini-narrative that developed towards the end with Araya having to spam the moonsault because he knew he was outgunned in a striking match, and him eventually getting caught for it. This is exactly the sort of hard-hitting action driven by strong character work that made the 90's so great and way better than the phoned-in NOAH tags from this period.