[2003-06-13-AJPW-Super Power Series] Genichiro Tenryu vs Masayuki Kono

[Ma Stump Puller]

A ton of fun. This was during the time where Tenryu was just running through all of the AJPW rookies and beating the crap out of them generally. Kono is different, however: he's a pretty big dude so Tenryu immediately has issues as he can't just bully Kono with ease with his usual strikes and whatnot, being forced to eat multiple chops and getting out-wrestled. Of course Tenryu still lands some gross stiff stuff, but he's noticeably rattled and immediately goes to his signature stuff to try to establish some order. Even a really early second rope back elbow doesn't seal the deal, which gets a slight grin from the guy afterwards. Kono responds with a big dropkick and a boot to the face; this ends up causing a gash on Tenryu's face unintentionally, which starts unnoticeable but gets worse as time goes on, which added a fair bit of urgency to the match as Tenryu goes from being a rookie killer to being more weary. Kono also goes for a Big Swing, which was fairly shitty but given he only had three months of matches at this point I'm not going to be too harsh.

Awesome spot as Kono teases a dive, Tenryu dodges and then just hurls a random table on his back lol. Tenryu takes over with some nasty chops and elbows for near falls alongside a especially hard lariat. Despite hitting a even worse one afterwards, Kono just won't stay down and the audience get more and more frantic with every move done, even if he's incapable of doing anything but holding on. Even with Tenryu's brainbuster and him randomly bleeding he still can't get the definitive win. That said, Kono has so much baggage that he can't do anything else but wait for the next big bomb and Tenryu ends things with a second brainbuster. Not amazing but a really good showcase in how minimalistic workrate in a match can lead to really engaging narratives. How so? 

Kono doesn't get a ton of stuff in; his list of moves performed go to about a dozen in total if even that. What matters is how damn stubborn he is despite his lack of tangible talent to square up with the vet, how he eventually earns the respect of Tenryu despite his grumpy nature. For Tenryu, it's a absolutely great showcase in how he can control a match almost completely by himself just by how he emotes and conveys what's going on to the audience, which is always been something he's solid at but especially here with the lack of workrate. How he gets cocky after every big bomb like "this is the one, show is over" but keeps getting fumbled especially just gets the crowd, and he noticeably goes from amused to annoyed to then ultimately accepting how tough Kono was and respecting that fact by bombing him to death, as opposed to the other matches where he's using basic submissions to try to break the rookie in front of him. More matches should be brave enough to have squashes like these: it's fine now and then for someone to keeping powering through stuff but never get the second wind, to never actually get a big generic comeback. But yeah, another solid Tenryu showing, no shocker.