[1989-10-08-AJPW] Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada

[KB8]

Tenryu v Kawada is such an all-timer of a pairing. It's not one that usually springs to mind when that topic comes up, even when talking about the best match-ups of each individual (Hashimoto is my go-to for Tenryu and it's pretty impossible to separate Kawada from Misawa), but they've been great facing off in a bunch of different environments. When Tenryu returned to All Japan in 2000 they smashed each other to bits on more than one occasion and the October Triple Crown match is one of the best matches of the decade. This was way different - Kawada far from being established at this point - an awesome fiery underdog v superstar tag partner version of their match-up, like something you'd see in the early days of WAR with Kawada as an affluent man's Koki Kitahara. Tenryu's selling and general demeanour was incredible here, from the subtle to the overt. He wasn't out to brutalise his young protégé and even stopped a few centimetres short of slabbering him off a clean break. That was in the first ten seconds. Then Kawada backed him into the corner and showed no such restraint, throwing multiple high kicks that had Tenryu folded in the ropes. The next opportunity Tenryu had to retaliate you knew he did so and I bet Kawada couldn't chew food properly for a week. I love that Kawada just kept coming, though. He wouldn't be deterred and continued rallying with as much violence as he could muster, intent as he must've been in making a point. The way Tenryu sold the beating was basically perfect, in a way that's hard to articulate beyond the standard "he took Kawada's shots like a trooper and bumped big for all of them." I mean he did take them like a trooper and he did bump big for all of them. The early flurry where Kawada hit a string of baseball slide dropkicks that sent Tenryu into the front row was incredible. But it was how he reacted with almost surprise at points, how he maybe never realised just from teaming with Kawada how hard his understudy could actually hit. That Tenryu resorted to the blatant throat-chopping might've happened anyway, because Tenryu is who Tenryu is, but you kind of get the sense Kawada's fire maybe brought it out in him. These were some absolute bastards of throat chops and you could audibly hear Kawada rasping lungfuls of air. There was an amazing bit where Kawada could only hold the bridge on a German suplex for so long because Tenryu had punted him in the spine earlier, and as he writhed around holding his back Tenryu got up and punted him in the spine again. Just a great little match.