[2000-11-19-AJPW-Real World Tag League] Barry Windham & Kendall Windham vs Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya

[Ma Stump Puller]

This was a real Monkey-Paw issue right here. We get Barry Windham back in AJPW, fantastic, but he's tagging with his brother who barely had any decent matches, let alone good ones. Thankfully Tenryu and Araya as Team WAR are here to make this at LEAST somewhat worth watching. Tenryu and Kendall get some good action out of a chop exchange as Tenryu can't match the guy in terms of hard-hitting shots, so has to cheat with punches and a stiff lariat, usual business out of him. If you like a slower 80's style match then this is probably more up your alley as a lot of this was just real protracted holds, basic slams and strikes. Nothing really that interesting and there's a couple of noticeable fuck-ups, nothing terrible; this feels like a early WAR match you'd see, full of stiff shots and plenty of non-cooperation. Tenryu was the best here by far, selling real good in places, getting over the pair and generally making things a lot more interesting with his usual rough and tumble style to drive in the intensity and make the match feel a lot more important than it actually was.

The finish was fine: Araya lands his cool moonsault, eats a nasty top rope back suplex, Tenryu is taken out with a beatdown and the two get the win over Araya with a back suplex/neckbreaker combination a-la Kobashi/Ace or Movement. Not great, but I didn't think this was bad at all. The four knew what this was going to look like from the get-go and worked stiff and rough with everyone else: combined with Tenryu's experience and quality alongside Araya as some dynamic new-blood with some quality bumping cards drawn up here, this was honestly one of the better showings of the night. Slow but measured, a fun watch if you like weird pairings that you thought never happened.