Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto, NJPW 2/4/1995
I have been kinda dismissive of Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Thought he was a not super interesting guy with some goofy offense, based on a few mishappen performances in the 2000s. However, over the years my tastes may have changed, so maybe he deserves another look from me. I’ve grown to see the point of his persona – he is not meant to be a kind of refined martial artist like other NJPW peers, he has more of a raw primitive vibe i.e. he is just a tough savage beast that will try to chop your head off. It’s a trope in Japanese wrestling that harkens back to the likes of Thunder Sugiyama, and Tenzan at the very least brings an awesome mullet.
This, for starters, was a good fucking match. Well, no shit, it’s a Shinya Hashimoto big title match. It’s physically impossible for those to be not good. That said, Tenzan brings his unique personality. He’s young, mullet not quite at peak level yet, but he has already embraced his persona of a guy that just never stops moving forward and trying to hurt his opponent with blunt force. It’s a really cool dynamic as Hashimoto is such an artist with the way he uses his kicks. There is some really great use of basic strikes here. Hashimoto would just absolutely blast him with kicks right under the chin. Tenzan would look outgunned, but he could occasionally lunge forward and chop Hashimoto down with something because he’s still a dangerous animal.
Hashimoto brings some nice intricate stuff to the match, almost working like Regal has he goes to take out a leg with a slick drop toe hold, or doing this ridiculously great armbreaker from a sleeper hold. He is great at bringing a chess match feel even to a slugfest, some cool strategic feeling and mirroring like when Tenzan is able to catch him with a spin kick. He also had this great DDT/Kimura thing that spiked Tenzan right on his shoulder.
In the end, strategy can’t stop a charging bull. The audience can’t quite take Tenzan seriously as a challenger, but then he is able to drop Hashimoto with some rough as fuck bombs, including a powerbomb that looks like it could kill any regular man. Suddenly Hashimoto has a busted nose and looks in trouble and the crowd goes white hot. Hashimoto busts out this awesome sprawling armbar counter to Tenzan and nearly takes his head off with an absolute beauty of a high kick because that’s what Hashimoto does. Tenzan gets absolutely spiked on a brainbuster because that’s what it takes.
Verdict: Another absurdly great Hashimoto performance. Tenzan was pretty cool too although this would definitely be filed as Hashimotos work.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto, NJPW 8/3/1997
They are in the semi finals of the 97 G1, so there is quite a bit of wear and tear on both mens bodies already. This was like watching two battleships launching missiles on each other until one would sink, the way Hashimoto would take Tenzans spin kick really sells that. Hashimoto was a freaking tank here, and the crowd by now had taken to a liking to Tenzan. The hissing noise really emphasizes his animalistic vibe, like you are entering a pit of snakes. Hashimoto was really kicking the shit out of Tenzan here, to the point where Tenzan would get a bloody mouth, while Tenzan kept chipping away including hitting Hash with a shoot headbutt. Hashs arm/shoulderbreaker was downright demonic. Chono ended up distracting the referee, proving shit like that already happened in 90s New Japan, but Tenzan ended up getting his foot stuck in the turnbuckle somehow when he went for his diving headbutt in what may have been the defining moment of the match with how silly and yet dramatic it was. Tenzan is able to soldier through though just based on his sheer toughness bombing Hashimoto into oblivion with diving headbutts.
Verdict: Hashimoto is still by far the cooler wrestler, though Tenzan gave a good fight completely lacking any finesse and getting by on sheer toughness.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 8/3/1997
The finals of the tournament in the same night. Tenzan had just taken a monster beating, really looking like even just walking is painful, but fuck does he take to the fight to Sasaki. The way he just moved forward right away punching through the standard lock up and going right at Sasaki was awesome. This is like watching two caveman fighting, or Conan The Barbarian taking on some half bull half man creature, Tenzan was unrelenting and Sasaki would try to punch his hard head in. It’s simplistic but it’s molten hot and Tenzan almost kills Sasaki when he comes down with the diving headbutt. Not exactly Baba/Destroyer but delivers in spades if you want to watch two dumb try to smash each other into oblivion in a raw as fuck battle for less than 10 minutes.
Verdict: Tenzan has looked primitive next to Hashimoto, but compared to Sasaki he comes across almost like an artist.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, NJPW 7/14/1998
In general, I have loved the 1998 Fujinami big singles match run, but I skipped over this match due to my resentments of Tenzan. Turns out it was a pretty fun match. Fujinami opens with a fast start, then pretty much toys with Tenzan who is not very technically adept. Tenzan is able to get by on toughness and start chipping away at Fujinami with his repetitive offense but also hits a pretty nice calf branding, but Fujinami would keep outclassing him. There were a few pretty nice moments, including Tenzan catching Fujinami in a surprise dragon screw of his own and hitting a diving headbutt to the leg. He even teased hitting a Dragon Suplex on Fujinami which was pretty outrageous. Fujinami kept slipping into chokes and by the end he had outclassed Tenzan again, even slapping him silly like he was disappointed in his poor performance. It was definitely a bit long and it could’ve been much better if either guy had decided to actually sell their leg but in the end the point was to show that sometimes a challenger can completely shit the bed in a big match.
Verdict: pretty effective Tenzan performance if you believe that his gimmick is that he’s a hapless simpleton with a lucky punchers chance.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Kensuke Sasaki, NJPW 2/15/2004
The first round of a 1 night tournament. We JIP like 2 minutes into a 1 night tournament and Tenzan is bleeding like crazy and Sasaki is just mauling him with nasty shots. What the fuck is going on here. Tenzan comes back and he is just beating the shit out of Sasaki and this is the just the grizzliest thing you’ve ever seen. Tenzan almost kills Sasaki with a scoop piledriver turned into an emerald fusion. I’ve no idea why Sasaki hated Tenzan this match but he keeps biting him and pulling him up and hitting him with insane lariats while Tenzan is losing so much fucking blood. So. Fucking. Bloody. Tenzan fights back hitting shoot headbutts and everything. Sasaki ends up getting distracted by Makabe like the idiot he is and Tenzan is able spike him with another tombstone for the 3 at about 10 minutes. What the hell was this. Visceral as fuck, would it have killed them to show the whole 10 minutes?
Verdict: if this was a match between Kamala and Tully Blanchard or something and even just slightly less violent it would probably be considered a legendary mega-classic. This was fucking sick.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata, NJPW 2/15/2004
The same night. Tenzan comes in with a big bandage on his head from the previous match. They lock up, and almost immediately the bandage comes off. They mat wrestle a bit, and the blood already starts flowing out of Tenzans face. It gets all over Nagata. Tenzan frustrates Nagata, until Nagata has enough and starts kicking him in his bloody face. Nagata may be no Hashimoto but he knew how to precisely kick somebody in his wound. Great drama here. Tenzan is able to survive with sheer toughness and angry shoot headbutting Nagata some. He’s able to mount a string of offense, until he’s finally able to land a moonsault which legit Kos Nagata and allows Tenzan to go to the final.
Verdict: Pretty great stuff here, no question about it.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Genichiro Tenryu, NJPW 2/15/2004
The finals. What do you think happens in this match? Tenryu goes for the kill right away kicking Tenzan in the head with a rolling kick then circles him like a shark smelling blood, kicking and punching him in his bleeding face. Lord, has anyone ever lost as much blood in a single night as Tenzan did here? He looks like he’s lost enough blood to kill a person and Tenryu smacks him so hard the blood flies off. Tenzan survives some inhuman punishment and Tenryu making him eat shit on the floor with a northern lights bomb from the motherfucking apron. But Tenzan is inhumanly tough and the people keep hissing for the mongolian chop. Tenryu gets shoot headbutted and by sheer resilience Tenzan is able to outlast him and win the IWGP title. I can’t even hate the man for his limitations, he was an animal that night and won it all like a king.
Verdict: What can I say? Tenryu was amazing as usual. Tenzan was basically a bloodbag here but this kind of inhuman toughness deserves respect. This was as great a title win as you can imagine.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, NJPW 3/28/2004
Hey – this is a pretty great match! Of course it’s from the era of NJPW that nerds will tell you sucked but this actually ruled. It was pretty much in full bloom when it cames to mid 2000s blurred-lines pro wrestling meets MMA influence, with Nakamura being the submission artist and Tenzan a really good primitive blunt hitting monster. Nakamura tries to strike early with Tenzan – his knees look really good – but he gets met with Tenzan ramming his head into his face repeatedly. That headbutt to the jaw Tenzan landed may have been the greatest thing he ever did. He would also stomp on Nakamuras head pretty hard. Nakamura would try to choke him out and armbar him, and he had some really good submission entries. It turns into a Tenzan onslaught with Nakamura just trying to tap him out, but it’s really compelling, high end stuff. For this kind of pro wrestling meets PRIDE this was excellent.
Verdict: Probably Tenzans single greatest performance that I've seen. Almost too refined for him, felt like match needed some blood and a cracked skull or something.
