The Trials of Hiroyoshi Tenzan

  

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.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #17

 Koki Kitahara & Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa vs Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Kengo Kimura, NJPW 11/23/1992 - EPIC

The WAR/New Japan feud is such a special occurance in wrestling history. You basically had all these guys, producing multiple excellent matches per month, all ultra heated, at an excellent pace, packed with violence and great moments. This was no exception, just +20 minutes of scrappy unpredictable chaos, guys running in and out beating on each other, throwing uncooperative strikes, getting blindsided and having he fight spill over and so on and so forth. The NJ crowd absolutely despise Kitahara in this, like they totally resent every fiber of his mulleted kick-throwing shitstirring existance, and he is pretty amazing here just bathing in the hatred, cheap shotting guys, disrespecting Aoyagi, getting his nose bloodied and almost dying in a 3-on-1 gang beatdown from the NJPW crew. Everybody in this match is amazing, though. Koshinaka not being afraid to crush peoples faces with kneedrops and punches, Kimura flying in hitting people with his awesome jumping kicks, Ishikawa trying to stomp people to death, and of course Grande Tenryu really elevating the big fight feel of the match. I also loved Aoyagi who was having scrappy violent exchanges with everyone and occasionally hitting people with his cool flying kicks, really having a GOAT "tough aging karate master going all out" performance. The ending is especially cool, as Tenryu tags in realizing he's facing Aoyagi and gets this amazing smirk, but then gets blindsided and destroyed a bunch for the crowd flipping out at Tenryu potentially being pinned by Kimura. Just amazing pro wrestling, so much fight, attrition, hatred, struggle, great timing, and to think this not in the most talked about matches from this feud is mind boggling.

Koki Kitahara & Genichiro Tenryu vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Jushin Thunder Liger, NJPW 8/3/1993 - GREAT

Another round in this great rivalry. Here we get a great 10 minute sprint. The fast paced Fujinami/Tenryu sections rule, with Tenryu immediately bloodying Fujinamis nose with a kick to the face, and Fujinami trying to destroy Tenruys leg. Once again, Kitahara was insanely hatred - just what did this particular fellow do? But he has the audacity to show up with his dopey mullet and sleazy jeans and karate kick people and that is really fitting for this kind of street fight feud. We also get to see Liger in this kind of heated bloodfeud environment which is really fun, he has some great moments including getting into a shotai battle with Tenryu, and in turn getting kicked in the face. At 9 minutes you really can't go wrong with this stuff with everyone bringing lots to the table and the general "anything can happen-"feel of these matches.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project

WMF Marvelous Days 7th 12/27/2003

 GENTARO & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Junji Tanaka & Mineo Fujita

Junior opening match! This was JIP and I really would‘ve liked the whole thing. Junji is such a fun technician to throw into a match worked at a fast pace, really mixes it up nicely with all these athletic juniors. GENTARO is just super sharp, and he will also turn around and throw nice punches. Miyamoto was in young lion trunks here and already looking really polished and athletic. He hit a springboard diving headbutt with crazy distance and later almost killed Fujita with a brutal lariat. Fujita also looked good busting out cool flying armbars and triangle chokes. Everything looked good and they never lost a step, this gets the full indy point for these kind of fun little matches.

Yoji Anjoh & Koichiro Kimura & Ricky Fuji vs. Mr. Gannosuke & Chocoball Mukai & GOEMON

What a match up. Pretty fun stuff for the WAR 6 man-like randomness of it all. Anjoh was fun mugging and throwing punches, Kimura was stiff, Fuji and GOEMON did some cool ratboy exchanges together (did either of them ever face Yoshinari Ogawa?), and Mukai was cool trying to stand up to the shooters and putting his weird finishing hold on people. Gannosuke was basically Choshu here, just hard lariats and sharpshooters and it was cool. I was hoping for a Gannosuke vs. Anjoh faceoff but the Anjoh/Mukai finish was also pretty nice. Everything you can ask for from a random undercard 6 man.

MIKAMI & ONRYO vs. Asian Cougar & Tomoya Adachi

Spot after spot, but if you want spots, these guys will deliver pretty much the best you can get. Cougar had switched his stuff up a lot since the 90s, and he still had a bunch of crazy moves out of nowhere. Sleaze lucharesu boy Tomoya Adachi is a cool addition too and he looks good, really liked his reverse wheelbarrow hold which lead to Cougar once again flying in with a leg drop. MIKAMIs athleticism is crazy during this time, his dive looked like he just jumped from the ceiling, he also busts out a huge moonsault elbow drop, and a big swanton bomb from the top of a ladder. Ladder stuff was fun as they didn‘t take too long setting everything up and they pulled everything off. Loved all the Onryo character moments during the finishing stretch. This was a lot of fun.

GARUDA vs. Tsubasa

Garuda already had suffered a bad neck injury at this point that would cut off his career, but for a guy with a neck injury, he was pretty good in this. Very solid match. Tsubasa showed a lot of spunk, bitchslapping Garuda, taking him out with a spectacular dive, hitting a flip senton and then kicking Garuda in the face etc. He even targeted Garudas bad neck. Pretty good match although it suffered a bit from too many junior matches on this card.

Dick Togo & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Kazuya Yuasa & Seiji Ikeda

Solid if a bit by the numbers heel performance by Togo & Kuroda, cutting off the two young lions. Ikeda was this pudgy guy that they were trying to turn into something, and he had pretty good fire. Kurodas stuff doesn‘t annoy me as much as usual because he is supposed to be an annoying heel here, and he even sets up stuff for Togo in nice ways here and there. Togo was the best guy in the match getting fire out of these schlubby youngsters and hitting really high end sentons. Given a bit more tenure Togo could‘ve done the impossible and amde Kuroda matches watchable on a regular basis. Young guys were kinda bland so it doesn‘t amount to anything more than a solid formula match.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mammoth Sasaki

This is what you buy the show for. Tenryu lowers himself to filthy WMF to teach their boy Mammoth a leason. I think I liked this more than Tenryu/Kojima, as from memory this had more awesome Tenryu moments, a bigger asskicking and young Mammoth trying to take down the legend. The opening moments had some fun tubby guys rolling on the mat moment before Sasaki decides to really go for it to which Tenryu responds by simply taking him down and torturing his bad leg a bit. However Sasaki won't let up and soon both guys are throwing punches. Mammoth decides to start the garbage brawling by taking the match to the outside to which Tenryu responds „Sure, you can have it“ and smashes a fucking bottle on his head. Tenryu keeps flinging stuff at Mammoth and really puts a WAR sized assbeating on him just kicking him in the face and pasting him with lariats over and over while Mammoth is selling all big and sympathetic. I wish the 2^nd half were a little less one sided altough Mammoth gets in a good one on Tenryu when he smashes him with the chairs (to a befuddled „He's doing this to ME?“ reaction) and he gets over big just for the amount of punishment he is able to survive before going down. 

The Library

RIP Tarzan Goto

Tarzan Goto & Atsushi Onita vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara, WAR 2/3/1994 - EPIC

This is the match that stole the #1 spot from the 6/3/ Misawa/Kawada match in the 1994 Japan Match of the Year awards. That should give you an idea of what kind of epic scope we are looking at for a match here. Of course, it‘s FMW vs. WAR and two of the biggest stars in all of Japan, Onita and Tenryu are involved, so you are going to have absolutely molten heat and crazy reactions for everything compared to the somewhat sterile formality of a Misawa/Kawada match, but this match is way more than just star power. It‘s a remarkably intricate match, really, and there‘s a sneaky Goto performance here as he plays second fiddle to Onita but largely carries his team. They work the early exchanges with insanely high stakes and drop of a hat momentum shifts, guys get thrown outside just to get back in immediately to not risk a brawl outside, later Tenryu immediately tags out after eating an armbreaker from Goto to avoid possible armwork etc. Goto works the early exchanges teasing Onita coming in to square off with Tenryu. When Onita finally tags in the place comes unglued, but he soon gets busted open and kicked to a bloody pulp by Tenryu and Hara. WAR guys kicking a bleeding guy in the face is tried and true greatness, and when someone as charismatic of a bleeding babyface as Onita is on the receiving end it‘s really upper echelon stuff. I really liked how Onitas hot tag seemed to come as a fluke as he just ducked a move, but Goto just immediately tags him in again as if to give the fans some more star action but Onita gets his ass kicked even more. At that point it‘s like Onita is the broken down megastar and Goto starts thinking on how to salvage his team. Tenryu gets a bit too angry at Goto breaking up a pin, rushing him which in turn leads to Goto clocking Tenryu with a chair and bloodying him. At that point the match just becomes this huge Tarzan Goto rally where he just keeps taking people out. He busts out his huge superfly splash to Hara which leads to Hara having to get taped up, later he hits his huge facebuster to Tenryu onto a table which is a fucking nasty move to take on those hard ass Japanese tables. Hara getting taped up after the splash is honestly such a neat detail, how many tag matches do you recall where a guy has to get taped up after eating a finisher to continue the match? It‘s rare but it totally makes sense and it should happen more often, and it made the second superfly splash to Tenryu so much more brutal. When Hara later grabs Gotos leg to prevent him from making another safe it‘s really this crucial moment and maybe most heated moment in the whole match, as Goto has safed Onitas ass for half the match. It‘s really an amazing match full of impeccable timing and psychology, I have to say Onitas basic DDT to Tenruy reentering the ring may have been one of the greatest transitions ever, and Tenryu was world class as usual going from megastar who‘s pained to deal with these garbage wrestling scumbags to being furious and beating the shit out of people to punch drunkenly trying to lariat and abiesigiri his way out of a really tense situation. I also really like Hara just for his crazy facial expressions and selling, he looks mad tough shrugging of Gotos headbutts and strikes initially so when Goto lariats him really hard and his eyes roll back it looks just killer. Really everyone here was great and it‘s no surprise this ended up being the #1 match of the year, heated to the max with a beautiful story where they did a great job going from Onita bleeding and getting beaten to Onita and Tenryu taking guys out and swarming Tenryu, ending with an all-timer of a finish. I mean people can complain about sloppiness or whatever, but for me it doesn‘t get much more real than Tenryu trying to duck an enzuigiri only for Onita to catch him and drop him on his head because Onita is that beaten up and broken. This may not just be the greatest tag of 1994, but the greatest tag match of all time.

Tarzan Goto vs. Cactus Jack IWA 10/5/1995 - EPIC

These two are among the most „crazy brawler“ looking guys in history, and they do a bunch of crazy brawling in this, but there‘s also a surprising amount of wrestling! Jack controls early with a fucking Fujiwara armbar of all things and then works a bunch of sleeper holds. Technical babyface is a bit strange for Mick Foley to work, but they do a pretty fun job at it! Of course, 1995 Mick Foley is also an absolute bump freak and down to trade punches with Goto, and Goto is a great bruiser squashing him with nasty lariats and facebusters. Both guys end up bleeding big and Goto does his classic bloodletting, cracking Foley with a beer bottle and stabbing him in the face. Goto getting heel reactions from his home crowd says alot about what an effective heel he is, and Jack bleeds and sells like crazy. What makes the match is the amount of energy both guys put in, usually in these kind of matches guys will stroll around or lay on the mat while the other guy sets things up, here both guys are constantly reaching for weapons, when Goto goes outside Jack follows him and connects with a nasty hip attack, later Jack catches Goto in a backslide during a lazy moment for a tremendous hope spot. Tremendous Foley performance and Goto is a fantastic antagonist while also putting Foley over huge, and this match was a great example of both guys having the nuts and bolts of wrestling down along with the crazy bumps and blood.

Tarzan Goto vs. Atsushi Onita, FMW 8/4/1990 - GREAT

This was the first ever exploding barbedwire match and also a match that stole the match of the year awards, proving Goto had some serious workrate cred in Japan in the 90s. Unlike later explosion matches where they would milk and tease the falls into the wire to the max this match is chaotic like a warzone as the explosions go of left and right sometimes triggered by guys just stepping too hastily next to the wire. Onita unwittingly triggers two explosions early on and he gets up bleeding from his arm and a nasty cut in his back. Goto is right on him dropping him with fat powermoves and bloodying his face with nasty headbutts and fists. They make up for the shoddy explosions by headbutting each other to a bloody pulp and it's quite gritty. Goto works on Onitas bad leg a bit with some figure 4s that Onita punches and headbutts his way out of and they continue fighting. Goto is bombing Onita and he looks done but Onita is able to ram him into the wire and Goto takes the biggest bump of the match as he gets entangled in barbedwire and explosions. Then Onita keeps dropping him with like a dozen powerbombs and DDTs until Goto stays down. Could've done with another big Goto rally having a go Onitas bad leg like they teased but it was a wild, cool, experimental fight that probably sent the fans imagination running wild in 1990.

Tarzan Goto vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 11/28/1984 - FUN

What an insane upload. Mostly a fun technical match, with Goto doing the same cool hold for hold work while mixing in cool headbutts he would do later as a veteran. Kawada is a black trunks rookie and pretty athletic, he busts out a few very clean flips and even leaps to the top rope to hit a huge crossbody. Goto takes it in a style with the big Superfly Splash.

Tarzan Goto Documentation

Assorted Japanese Handhelds

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masakazu Fukuda, WYF 8/4/1998

 

This thing getting uploaded by the cameraman almost 25 years later has to be a near miracle, but then we‘ve seen a lot of miracles by now when it comes to highly improbable things ending up on the internet. This was a great striker vs. grappler matchup. Seeing Mochizuki here makes one sour that he retired to Dragon Gate, as he was throwing kicks a nd hands in a totally unpredictable and non-choreographed way here that was really cool, coupled with some swank agility. Fukudas style is really unique, he is this lanky tall guy who just glues himself to opponents when he grabs them and drags them into his throws and submissions. He also absolutely rattled Mochizukis shit with a nasty dropkick and some stiff strikes, but Mochizuki kept firing back. The match had a few Hondaish moments, at one point Mochizuki went for a punch to Fukuda and Fukuda attached himself to Mochis arm and dragged him into another hold. When Mochizuki went to recuperate Fukuda just dragged him over the ropes and threw him, with Mochizuki landing hard on all his throws. This was to the point and absolutely no nonsense with both guys giving each other little space a nd all the offense looking like it required zero cooperation, I get WYF was a niche indy back then, but this kind of indy match is a real breath of fresh air these days.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Great Kabuki, WAR 11/9/1993

 

These two could have just punched and kicked each other and done some staredowns and it would‘ve been a quite good match, but we got something more neat here. Tenryus resume of great houseshow matches is for sure impressive. We get a fun opening with Kabuki trying to stand up to Tenryu with his great uppercuts, and Tenryu just chops and lariats him in the throat with Kabuki sells passionately. Tenryu seems to have this in the bag easily but then Kabuki catches him with a surprise thrust kick and Tenryu tumbles outside. Immediately a bunch of Heisei Ishingun goons start swarming Tenryu and brawling with his seconds. Tenryu eats chair shots while Kabuki cuts a promo. Back in the ring Tenryu is bleeding and Kabuki takes him apart punching and kicking the cut. Tenryu is able to snap a Fujiwara armbar but has to let go of the hold because his blood is blinding him in a really neat moment. Tenryus facial expressions and body language are outstanding even on a blurry handheld. His exhausted surprise abisegiris were really cool, also. Great little match due to structure and grit.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 11/8/1993

 

A unique match for Tenryu in 1993, because he fights his stablemate Fuyuki. So it‘s not gonna be an interpromotional brawl, but then, you have two tubby, surly bastards in a match, how can it not escalate? But they start wrestling, Fuyuki hits a nice scientific arm suplex and Tenryu busts out his cool leg trip. Fuyuki starts the real fun by kicking Tenryu in the back and hitting a fast belly to belly. Tenryu fires back with some light kicks to Fuyukis face, which feel almost like a reminder for Fuyuki not to try anything he would regret. They go back to wrestling and Tenryu lays a really stiff leg kick into Fuyuki, but Fuyuki shows toughness and catches Tenryu with an enzuigiri. Now it‘s Tenryus turn to not break clean and chip away at a prone Fuyuki. The whole match was built like that, lots of cool tubby guy wrestling building to explosions until both guys were punching and kicking each other in the face. I loved Fuyukis punches, and how Tenryu sold them with drool flying out his mouth as he got hit. Fuyuki worked one hell of a match getting fired up and just being this plucky fighter that wouldn‘t back down, and once again Tenryus charisma was outstanding. Some surprisingly great bits of wrestling too such as Fuyuki turning an attempted DDT into a northern lights suplex. Smart match with plenty of violence that told a simple story in a beautiful way, just a houseshow footnote for both guys in 1993 but would be a serious MOTYC if it happened now.

Matches from an old WAR Comm. Tape

 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo, WAR 7/28/1995

This was a 3 on 1 elimination match in a cage. Pretty insane ultra heated spectacle match where everyone does a great job. It‘s basically Jado & Gedo frantically swarming Tenryu while Fuyuki does his crazy high pitched yelling and beats him down further and it‘s awesome. Tenryu is The Rock here with the badass turned up a 100 times, getting huge reactions by looking at people and just looking like the ultimate walking tall & kicking ass babyface. I‘m a huge fan of Japanese ace figures destroying lower ranked wrestlers and Tenryu did just that to Jado & Gedo. Gedo looked great here, bleeding big, getting beaten to a pulp by Tenryu kicks and lariats, flying into the cage taking nasty bumps, jumping on Tenryu in the worst moments being a pesky annoyance, he also hit this absolutely lunatic cage dive to the floor, it really made me want to forgive him for ruining NJPW later. Fuyuki is his usual self here and acts like a prick, always coming in to stomp on Tenryus face and do his psycho screeching. Then you have Tenryu bleeding, random chaos breaking out with Tenryus crew brawling with Fuyukis underlings, plus a huge huge huge finish. Could have done with Tenryu kicking out of less moves but yeah fuck that criticism, Wrestle and Romans times 1000.

11/21/95 Korakuen Hall: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinichi Nakano

Only a couple moments of this were shown :( Tenryu hits an enzuigiri to Nakanos stomach that looks cool because Tenryu just does random things and makes them look cool. He also hits a kick that looks like it broke Nakanos jaw. Nakano is bleeding and taps out to the WAR Special soon.

1/23/96 Korakuen Hall: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinichi Nakano

Looks like it‘s the full match. Fast, brutal sprint. Tenryu beats the soul out of Nakano. Holy hell Nakano was taking kicks and punches here that would make Yuki Ishikawa wince. He bled, too, and seemed to be bleeding from the back of his head as well. Nakano barely made comebacks but he looked tough as nails even doing something as simple as shoving Tenryu. Also loved Nakano frantically avoiding the WAR Special. Gotta love Tenryu putting over Nakanos Fujiwara Armbar even though Nakano is way below him. Nakano is out of his depth but still fights for his live and punches Tenryu in the face. Awesome shit. There‘s WYF guys in jackets and Koki Kitahara looking like they want to jump into the fray. Nakano is done soon but he went down like a (very outmatched) hero. Pure ultra heated 90s magic.

Kings Road Hataage 1/15/2006

 Yuki Ishikawa vs. Shota Takanishi

Kings Road was this weird kind of low budget project that tried to simulate a classic All Japan feeling on a small stage. But they bring in Yuki Ishikawa to have a match against their bland rookie, so it's all good with me! About as good of a 6 minute rookie squash as you can ask for. Takanishi only has elbows and a boston crab and Ishikawa still makes him look like a threat while lookin like a badass himself. Check out how Ishikawa would put over a basic side headlock or Takanishis elbows. Really good brief mat-work section too. And then Ishikawa just choked the poor kid out. I'm guessing Takanishi was an AJPW Dojo reject because he kept working Zero1 never achieving much and quietly retiring 5 years later.

Yuto Aijima vs. Daisuke Ikeda

Aijima is a roided West Japan scum who surfaced in post-split AJPW. I'm guessing he owns the ring or something and that's why he's booked to look strong, that or it's just the fact they didn't have a roster for this fed. Ikeda mostly reverses Aijimas holds by doing biting, eye pokes etc. and does flash pins while Aijima huffs and puffs. Really not how you want this to be worked at all.

Gran Naniwa vs. Fake Tarzan Goto

Weird angle where real Tarzan Goto ands up coming in to kick ass. I don't get that if you have Actual Tarzan Goto and are running with a roster this thin why not just give him a match. Real Tarzan Goto vs. Gran Naniwa would rule.

Koichiro Kimura & Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takao Ohmori

Slightly better match than you expect, as it had something resembling a story as the AJPW vets didn't take their indy scoundrel opponents very seriously at first only for Kimura and Hashimoto to isolate them. Kimura really can't abuse these vets like he can abuse random DDT and FUTEN undercarders to there was a ceiling to how good the match could be but it was solid. Koshinaka and Ohmori ate some stiff kicks and there were some big spots including a 3 man German suplex and Koshinaka busting out hip attacks left and right. Not much depth (Ohmori kind of no sells Kimuras arm work) but I would classify it as a working boots match for them.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Kazushi Miyamoto

Kazushi Miyamoto was the guy they put their hopes in to carry this weird fed. At this point he was like every first guy you make in the CAW mode when you play around with a new wrestlin game, he had borrowed all the cool moves from popular guys and he was a solidly trained wrestler, so he was capable of having good matches. He reminded me a bit of Jumbo in the 70s as he was largely inoffensive and solid but really doesn't add many flourishes. And Tenryu works this in the Jumbo role, and they lay the match out kind of like Flair vs. Koko B. Ware in Memphis as they start basic and then build to increasingly intense strike exchanges where the star fools people into thinking the nobody could win. So it's 70s Jumbo vs. Tenryu playing 90s Jumbo worked like Flair vs. Koko Ware... IT'S KING ROAD BABY~! Tenryu is really good here and Miyamoto is game getting punched in the face and catching tables with his head. Really liked all of Tenryus selling that he got caught by surprise from Miyamotos attack. Like he's shrugging off Miyamotos chops then suddenly goes OW MY THROAT and the crowd wakes up and there's actual excitement in this. Really liked the bit where Miyamoto hit this reckless headbutt to Tenryus jaw and then followed up with an even more reckless moonsault that was like an avalanche Pele Kick that also caught Tenryu weirdly. And you can make fun of Miyamoto for being a CAW but he was smart enough to open up Tenryu with punches and then do the Kawada kicks to Tenryus bloody face and putting on the Stretch Plum. Really really fun 2000s Tenryu main event overall.

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Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #14

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR 2/24/1994)  - EPIC

4 tubby guys beat the fuck out of eachother and it rules, what else is new? The opening minutes were really fun logical pro wrestling. Fuyuki was fired up, ready to take down Tenryu and kick Kitaharas ass. He also looked shockingly good doing sympathetic selling as he got awkwardly kicked in the chin and face repeatedly etc. Kitahara loves demolishing other dudes with kicks but ends up having his leg taken out in a simple spot that looked great. His leg selling was very good as his kicks became mostly useless. Tenryus hot tag was really fun and different as Fuyuki just bitchslapped him out of the ring and proceeded to kick Kitaharas ass some more. Tenryu then hands out some Necro level chairshots only to get brained himself. Super Strong Machine is not a very charismatic dude compared to the others but he is really fun here blindsiding guys, just constantly ramming people in the back of their necks with lariats and chairs when they would least expect it. Tenryu kind of played the role of the megastar who looked like he was on the verge of defeat, always looking like he was gonna go „Damn now I'm REAL fed up!“ and then he would get bonked in the head again. Really cool finish. I'd say this isn't quite up there with the high end WAR material but for the genre this is must watch anyways.

Kitahara & Ishinriki & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Koji Kitao & Masaaki Mochizuki & Akio Kobayashi, WAR 7/17/1994 - GREAT

Pretty cool short match. The first part of this was to put over Kitao as an unstoppable monster, and they actually make him look like such. He devastates Ishikawa and Ishinriki, but Kitahara is able to make some dents in him, which is a pretty cool role for Kitahara to be in. Then Kitao tags in Kobayashi (not sure why, he was destroying everyone) and immediately we get some scrappy violent exchanges starring a pissed off Kitahara slapping the shit out of a snot nosed karateka. Ishinriki also looks good doing wild sumo flailing and throws against the karatekas. Mochizuki frantic exchanges were great. I‘d Ishikawa trying to grab Mochizuki and trying to yank him over the rope also felt crazy. And Kitahara was the man in this.

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Nobutaka Araya, WAR 7/13/2000 - GREAT

One of these violent and out of control spectacles you only really get when two scuzzy thick guys (preferably with mullets) face each other in a WAR match. It looks like Araya is drunk or something here, most of what he does is hit Kitahara with hard crowbar shoulderblocks, awkwardly flopping about the place as Kitahara beats on him, and acting weird and psycho. It takes a look to look up there with Kitahara in the psycho department but Araya does it here. At one point he puts his hands on Kitaharas second Nihao, and it felt like a very real moment where shit was about to go down. And Kitahara looks just disgusted with him and kills him with nasty blunt force kicks. Awkward, violent, seedy match, pure Wrestle And Romance

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

WAR 6/20/1999

 Masao Orihara vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Both these guys were pretty great in the late 90s, so I was pretty salty about this being clipped down just a couple minutes. Ishii was a wreckingball during this period, but Orihara easily outstiffes him trying to crack his jaw with lariats. We also get Ishii working Orihara over with chairs and whiping him out with a crazy rolling senton to the outside. Fun stuff but I wanted at least 3/4ths of the thing.

Nihao vs. Koki Kitahara

This was a CAPTURE showcase match and holy fuck after this I‘d kill to get the entire CAPTURE back catalogue. Brutal brutal match, just the most primitive grimy shootstyle you can imagine, two guys with gloves trying to pummel each other into oblivion. Nihao takes Kitahara down and bloodies him with punches and headbutts, but the boss comes back just trying to crush his face with punches and teeth loosening kicks. There was one spinkick that would‘ve made Daisuke Ikeda wince, and also at one point Kitahara reverses a takedown into an armlock that looked to almost tear Nihaos shoulder. They showed 4 out of 6 minutes, and really would it have killed them to include those 2 minutes? Still 80 % of a sick spectacle is better than most, and those 4 minutes were some of the most insane of the year.

Ryuma Go vs. Thunder Warrior Alpha

I respect Tenryus tendency to bring in Go to squish random aliens. This was clipped to almost nothing but we got to see Go acting crazy and destroying the alien.

Genichiro Tenryu & Magnum TOKYO vs. Nobutaka Araya & Sumo Fuji

The boss is involved, so we got the full match here. Didn‘t know what to expect from this, but it ends up a really entertaining match thanks to Tenryuisms. Basically Sumo Fuji acts like a big shot and annoys Tenryu some and ends up paying for it. Also really liked Araya as a scuzzy guy potatoeing Magnum TOKYO. Toryumon guys also looked solid in their sections against each other, and TOKYO hit a pretty great top rope asai moonsault amongst other things. Loved Tenryu here, I think he didn‘t even take a back bump but pretty much carried the match by being a prick, as he usually does.

Osamu Tachihikari & Arashi vs. Daikokubo Benkei & Ichiro Yaguchi

We get about 30 seconds of this and I am not bummed at all about that. I liked Tachihikari busting out random moves like an STO and a Magistral.

Yuji Yasuraoka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa

This was 4 solid pro wrestlers doings lots of solid pro wrestling, building to a pretty exciting second half. WAR reckless kicker Mochizuki ruled, I am just going to pretend he retired after WAR folded. He had some pretty great exchanges with Hoshikawa here, and I loved him flying into the scenery out of nowhere to take out people with spin kicks. Delfin & Hoshikawa worked well together and it was cool to see them acting as a crew. For some reason, juniors getting dumped on their heads or diving around the place was a lot more satisfying to watch in the 90s.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

I guess Mochizuki wasn‘t happy with Yasuraokas performance in that tag, so he gets on the mic to challenge Yasuraoka to a singles. Yasuraoka then proceeds to hit his awesome dive, getting insane height, and we get a fun short explosion of them throwing bombs at each other. Wouldn‘t have minded if this went longer, but they just did a 17 minute long match before so it made sense for this to be short and intense.

 

Shigeo Okumura, Sambo Asako & Atsushi Onita vs. Nobutaka Araya, Genichiro Tenryu & Shoji Nakamaki

Exactly what it looks like on paper. 6 tubby asskickers brawling all over the place, bleeding and pasting each other with chairs and lariats. That plus the megastar charisma of Tenryu and Onita. Tenryu is such an awesome menace here, punching people in the face and chucking chairs at them. Him vs. Terry Funk would’ve been one hell of a program. Then again, Tenryu was pretty much untouchable at this point in his career. Onita & Asako looked pretty much like regular guys at this point, which made Asako getting abused by Tenryu feel all the more violent. Okumura was in charge with bringing a slight bit of workrate to the match and he did fine, hitting a pretty stiff dropkick. Very predictable match but all too fun.

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2002 MOTY Project Update #15

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Kaz Hayashi & Satoshi Kojima, AJPW 10/6/2002

Hirai is an ex-WAR junior with a kind of amusing scuzzy charisma. He is fun as a misplaced guy in a big main event and has some cool exchanges with Hayashi. That said, this is 1000 % the Tenryu. He looks like you'd expect a Top 5 all time wrestler to look like. Just being a wrecking ball, throwing punches, chairs, spilling water, generally treating Hayashi and Kojima like garbage, and it all ruled. This wasn't just a "Tenryu walks over and potatoes somebody" stifffest, there was plenty of fast paced, thinking heavyweight wrestling going on. Kojima and Hayashi were pretty much warm bodies here, although I guess they tried a little harder than usual here throwing punches of their, but their main job was to be there and get swatted and kicked around by Tenryu, and it was a great little match.

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Arashi & Nobutaka Araya & Nobukazu Hirai vs. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase & Jinsei Shinzaki & Satoshi Kojima, AJPW 9/16/2002

Also a pretty great 8 man tag. Tenryu bringing the Wrestle And Romance to AJPW ruled. The Mutoh side of the match was pretty loaded, so Team WAR did a neat job cutting off the ring and playing the numbers game to prevent Team Nu AJPW from doing their thing. Whenever Tenryu was involved the match was literally a string of great moments. Him blocking Shinzakis rope walk chop and hitting him in the throat was just badass. Then you had Tenryu carrying an Arashi in ring section by throwing objects at Mutoh. Also loved him trying to use the chair only to get bloodied himself, then losing it an beating the snot out of Kojima with blood streaming from his eye.. Match build to a series of pretty great cutoffs in the final act, including Tenryu even busting out the mist, Hirai finding a neat way to neutralize Mutoh and Team WAR overcoming the odds. Also was impressed that they were able to make that slug Arashi look like a big deal.

2002 MOTY PROJECT MASTER LIST

WAR 4/27/1994

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yamato

Yamato is Tachihikari doing a face painted gimmick. Man, Hirai looks good here. Just rushing Tachihikari with big forearms and dropkicks, and even clocking him in the back of the head hard. Tachi fires back with sumo rushes and potatoeing Hirai and all is right in the world. Hirai does this cool thing where he powers out of a powerbomb attempt and weakens his own back. Later he hits a missile dropkick and can't get up because his back is messed up. And Tachihikari is kind of more effective as a goofy facepainted guy putting Iron Claws on people than as himself. I need more of this Hirai.

Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa & Ultimo Dragon & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Jado & Gedo & Ricky Fuji & Super Strong Machine (Elimination Match) - GREAT

Fun match that suffered a bit from one team being severely overpowered. There was just nobody to stand up to the violent asskicking that the Kitahara/Ishikawa/Kurisu trio can unleash. Strong Machine tried, hitting some stiff lariats and potatoes, and it was decent enough. Jado/Gedo were kinda clunky at first, but eventually settled into their rhythm when they started cutting off the ring and hitting double teams. Still, their stomp-punches don't quite do it for me in a WAR environment. Ricky Fuji was also clunky, but at least they eliminated him quickly. Ultimo Dragon was there to get his shit in. The finish was really cool with Kitahara standing up to a 3 vs. 1 match up and a hot finish between him and Machine.

 
Ashura Hara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki

This was slow, but I still thought it bordered on nomination worthy. Two thick guys beating on eachother with lots of character selling from Hara. Fuyuki certainly was really good in 1994.

Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Chris Jericho & Ishinriki

Lucha guys did their thing here. Dos Caras looks very good, he really should've worked a WCW PPV or something. You can imagine how much offense Mascaras gave to his opponents. I could imagine better uses for Ishinriki, but Jericho looks where he belongs getting stretched by Dos Caras. Short and pretty much a complete showcase for the luchadores.

 Arashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu (Rounds)

This Arashi is Daikokubo Benkei under a mask. He was part of a stable of sumo wrestlers and squashing his way through WAR for a bit in 1994, which somehow earns him a match against Tenryu. This was two angry ex-sumos mauling each other, which is why you watch WAR handhelds. Arashi was willing to take punishment here and Tenruy was just tearing into his blubber. Arashi wailing away with his sumo palm strikes at Tenryu in the corner was great. His basic throws also looked good thanks to Arashi being a massive fat guy. The crowd actually buys Arashi as a threat, which helps a lot. Tenryu sold those beatings in a big way, and he comes back in a big way himself cracking Arashi hard in the back of the head and then just destroying him. That stretch submission was a nasty nasty move to put on such a fat guy. Nice reminder how great Tenryu was that he could get a match this fun out of a guy like Benkei, who basically had no good matches ever after this.

 Koji Kitao vs. Meng

Compelling matchup, when you consider that Kitao might blow a tantrum and Meng might rip his eye out. This was short. Both guys hitting the mat was fun, and then they move on to maul each other, so it was great. Kitao was squashing everybody in seconds, so the crowd went wild for Meng making him his bitch. Highlights include an awesome corner dropkick, and big piledriver and suplex on the big gi wearing slug. Wish Meng had went down with a little more fight but at least the finish looked nasty.

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KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, Heat-Up 6/18/2014

 

I had no idea what to expect from this. Fujinami is old but can always go, but his opponent is a blip even on the indy radar. It easily could‘ve been a throwaway feelgood exhibition, but what we get is a really good little match! Fujinami grapples Tamura and looks really spry and motivated. There is some really cool MUGA vs. U-Style grappling with Fujinami busting out slick reversals of Tamuras armbars and Tamura trying to sink into his shootstyle holds. You actually don‘t see Fujinami stretch out and grapple often in his prime but he is a really cool maestro as an old man. When they stand up Fujinami gives Tamura a lot, even catching a dive from him and eating some hard kicks! The ending is inevitable, but this left me wholly pleased. Definitely one of the better Fujinami matches of the 21th century. 

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Shinjuku Shark, Fuyuki Army 4/8/2004

As a fan of both BattlARTs and sleazy indy martial artists, this match was sort of a dream match to me. And this was a really fun 7 minute match. I was delighted how well these two matched up. Ishikawa made it clear he wasn’t taking Shark seriously, but Shark caught him with some hard punches and unusual moves, including an abdominal stretch. Shark also did some really cool dodging and head bobbing which surprised even Ishikawa. Cool finish with Shark trying to block the Octopus Hold only to get pulled into a nifty rolling armbar.

Genichiro Tenryu & Masao Orihara vs. Riki Senshu & Masahiko Kochi, ?? 5/5/2010

Riki Senshu is a tiny guy doing a Riki Choshu impression, but playing it straight. Amusing little match which may have been better than some actual Tenryu/Choshu tags from the time due to Senshu and Kochi being more willing to take punishment. Orihara had his working boots on, Tenryu did the bare minimum which is still fun. Worth checking out.

WAR 6/30/1994 Part 2

 Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras

This was just a 10 minute match with Jericho, Como, Jado and Gedo trying to cram in as many moves as possible. Dos Caras and Fuyuki were barely in the match and there was no real heat unlike other Fuyuki Gun matches. Jericho and Como hit this doomsday device move on Jado followed by a big gutwrench bomb and Jado completely no sold it. Jericho locked sloppy. I imagine this is the match 90s tape traders liked the most on this card. I will say that at least they got it over quickly.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara - EPIC

This was a blast. Basically the juniors doing everything they can to annoy the heavyweights, who retaliate in pretty violent fashion. Lots of great triple teams and assist spots, all really well timed. Sasuke sumo pummeling Tenryu was really funny and he looked like the real deal bouncing around evading Tenryus offense. Hamaguchi and Kitahara were great here delivering some violent asskickings. Loved Hamaguchis elbows, headbutts and the weird stretch he broke out. So many neat moments. This was short but honestly a really unique match and totally delivered.

Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito

Yeah, give us a LLPW showcase match, why not! This was pretty fun and more structured than the constant back and forth you often get with joshi showcase matches. There wasn’t much depth, but I still prefer a structured match. Everyone stuck do what they do best: Kazama and Saito throwing violent kicks, Kandori busting out flash submissions, and Sawai being a big powerhouse. It’s good stuff throughout and builds to a really fun, unpredictable finishing stretch with Saito and Kandori showing off their great chemistry together. I was wary about how this being the 8^th match on a really long card but they kept me and the crowd engaged.

Chris Jericho & Brett Como & Dos Caras vs. Great Sasuke & Shiryu & Masao Orihara

Yeahh, give us a 3^rd place match in this long ass 1 night tournament too, why not! It speaks volumes about these guys that they had all wrestled about 40 minutes already, but they still keep going hard in this and pop the crowd by doing all their shit. Dug Dos Caras busting out the whacky lucha holds, and Shiryu was pretty much the MVP here having fun sequences with Jericho and Como. The match had no depth, but that would’ve been too much at this point, and there is an artform to just rolling out spots for 15 minutes, and they did it well.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Jado & Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki - EPIC

Alas, the final! And this was a total blast, too. Basically Fuyuki Gun try to do their usual spiel and run into a brickwall. Tenryu and crew wouldn’t have their triple teaming shit, and Fuyuki and his goons got the tables turned on them. Mostly Hamaguchi and Kitahara potatoeing and stretching Jado and Gedo. Anytime Tenryu would come in he would kick someone in the face or chop them in the throat really hard. Fuyuki looked damn great and may have been the best guy in the match. He would constantly run in to make these really violent saves by kicking people in the face, then drop elbows, slap Tenryu, are lariat someone in the jaw. It was as if you had two Tenryus in the match! It builds to a really hot second half with Hamaguchi running wild, and Kendo Nagasaki running in to cause more chaos with a fire extinguisher. It could have ended on that interference spot Attitude Era style and it would’ve been pretty great, but then we also get Kitahara having his leg taken out and stubbornly trying to survive against the nefarious Fuyuki. Great shit, a worthy cap of to this great tournament that produced more great matches than an entire month of 2021 pro wrestling. Wrestle and Romance.

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KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION

 

WAR 6/30/1994 Part 1

 Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

Yasuraoka may have been the pinnacle of 90s wrestling fashion. He wasn’t at his most extravagant here, but looked like a total gangster coming In with his mullet, baggy pants, martial arts belt and shoes.This was a basic opening match upgraded to WAR-appropriate level of violence with both guys really cracking each other when throwing hands and trying to rip each other in half with half crabs. Starts a bit slow but gets going good with Yasuraoka busting out his cool high spots and Hirai trying to crack his jaw with some mean elbows. Also, because it was the 90s, when they do moves they do cool moves like flying back elbows or sidewalk slams, and execute them with real thud. Hirai may have been at this best as a WAR opening match guy potatoeing his fellows and hitting big elbow drops, and he even wins this match with a really cool huracanrana into a neck crank. Very satisfying.

Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Ichiro Yaguchi & Hideo Takayama

It’s nice to get a full version of that NSPW main event. And this was a pretty great match. Everyone looked good potatoeing the shit out of each other. Fuyuki was so great here punching and stomping these kickpadded wannabe shooters into oblivion, at one point even doing a Terry Funk combo, and as usual there were numerous cool cut offs and double teams from Fuyuki-Gun. Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick here, and he is a lot better as a dimestore Volk Han with cool kicks than as a shitty facepainted brawler. At one point he just ragdolled Gedo with a cool wrist throw and that was probably the coolest thing he ever did. Itakura was cool here working fast paced junior sequences with Jado and Gedo, and Hido was there to kick, bleed and get the life beaten out of him. Miss when wrestling was simple and violent.

Dos Caras & Bret Como & Chris Jericho vs. Ashura Hara & Arashi (Benkei) & Super Strong Machine

Now this is a WAR 6-man, baby. And… this went the absurd length of 30(!!!) minutes! It ended up not being a bad match, too! Dos Caras was great here, being pretty much a highspot machine and doing lots of amusing shtick to fill the time, such as challenging Arashi to a posing contest, and trying to unmask everybody else. He was the only on his team to hit a dive! Como and Jericho are more interesting thumbling with some fat sumos than doing their regular junior stuff, and Hara potatoeing them was amusing. And the Arashi sections manage to not stink, even though that guy couldn’t do anything besides some sumo pummeling at this point. After the time runs out Team Caras is awarded the victory. Talk about going to lengths to have Hara and his mates not drop a pinfall.

Great Sasuke, Masao Orihara & Shiryu v Koji Ishinriki, Masanobu Kurisu & Takashi Ishikawa

Man, every match on this card is a main event. This was pretty great too. It was basically a straight WAR match that saw Kurisu and Ishikawa potatoeing guys while the junior side saved their highspots for later, no trained monkey show here. Loved the Kurisu/Shiryu opening segment which saw Kurisu meeting Shiryus lucharesu tendencies by hitting a rope walk armdrag, and also Kurisu stomping and chairing Shiryu really hard. Ishikawa may have been even more vicious as he was kicking Oriharas head like a football. Orihara looked pretty great here (rocking an ultra spaced out 90s look too), and the crowd was insanely hyped for Sasuke, even though he did very little in the match. Ishinriki was wearing a Jason Vorhees mask in this for some reason and basically only in the match to eat the pin while Kurisu did the bulk of the work headbutting guys into oblivion. Finish was great with Sasuke, Orihara and Shiryu hitting a damn triple missile dropkick on Ishinriki before Ishinriki powerbombs Sasuke only for the actual legal man, Orihara to roll him up.

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Ryo Miyake & Kishin Kawabata - GREAT

Well, it’s a bunch of beefy dudes potatoeing each other. Almost like this is WAR or something. This was one of the most one sided matches so far as Kitahara and Hamaguchi just mercilessly potatoed Miyake and Kawabata. I think both Miyake and Kawabata got in like a combined 5 offensive moves in this match. Kawabatas piece of offense was a really nice dropkick that caught Tenryu in the mouth, and Miyakes was a pretty pathetic looking dropkick cause Miyake sucks. Other than that, they were there to get kicked in the face and elbowed in the throat by Kitahara and Hamaguchi. Kitahara looked like a killing machine, just killing these poor guys, and Hamaguchi dropped some hard elbows and samoan drops. The match built to a Tenryu/Nagasaki face off, and while it was pretty brief it was cool with Nagasaki smashing Tenryu in the face with chairs. Every match on this card is overdelivering like mad and this was also really cool considering this could’ve been a nothing squash.

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KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION MASTER LIST

Assorted AJPW and SWS

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Shunji Takano & Earthquake, AJPW 1989

Absolute slobberknocker of a match, just 4 guys going all out for 10+ minutes. It pisses me off so bad that heavyweight wrestling now is just guys shoulderblocking and back and forth hitting each other a lit, because there was none of that here, and it was supremely more entertaining to watch these guys suplex and kick the hell out of each other. Shunji Takano was basically a more unpredictable, psycho version of Jumbo here, trying to cave Tenryus face in with a dropkick, suplexing Kawada across the ring, randomly busting out stiff kicks. Earthquake always looks great, and he has some brief but killer interactions with Tenryu as well as acting like a brickwall towards Kawada to add some structure points. Kawada is fun laying into the heavyweights with his kicks and taking beatings, and Tenryu is of course great in these kinda matches. Super enjoyable 15 minutes, and I appreciate that no finishers were kicked out of.

Fumihiro Niikura vs. Masakatsu Funaki, SWS 4/23/1991

I had no idea this match happened, let alone that it was filmed! And I care!! Y’know, I’m a Fumihiro Niikura fan. He was a good grappler, he had cool punches, and he had a similar scuzzy charisma to Yuki Ishikawa. Funaki completely destroys him here, though. I mean, it’s kinda what you expect, but damn. Funaki does all kinda neat stuff to turn and twist Niikura, and he hits him with some hard strikes. Niikura tries to fight back but has no answer. A german suplex, and a nifty crook headscissor/armbar combo, and Niikura is out. Fumihiro Niikura, at least you tried.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 10/8/1989

This was apparently the first Kawada/Tenryu singles. Pretty great rookie vs. established star match, basically the whole match was Kawada just kicking the living shit out of Tenryu and Tenryu coming back with increasingly violent retaliations. Tenryu was really great at putting over Kawadas kicks early on, flying over the guardrail and generally looking like he got his bell rung. Really liked how he broke out of a leglock and just stomped on Kawadas face before trying to break his jaw with a lariat. Kawada retaliated with some jaw loosening kicks of his own until a classic “Tenryu has had enough” moment where he kicked him in the face and folded him with a lazy but hurty looking powerbomb.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #7

 Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Kengo Kimura (WAR 10/21/1992) - EPIC

WAR vs. New Japan is one of those few transcendental occurances in wrestling history. This whole match is just from another planet, insane heat, crowd booing and cheering everyone at the same time, dueling chants breaking out, and everyone engages in super uncooperative, violent exchanges. The star of the match is Tenryu as he comes in constantly like a force of nature, there’s an amazing moment where he takes a piledriver on the floor, then cleans house and the camera pans away revealing he has blood streaming down his face, but our boys Orihara and Kitahara are fantastic supporting players. Orihara is young an super fired up, taking big beatings and always firing back, at one point he gets into a fight with Akitoshi Saito who’s outside the ring in his gi and it seems the place comes unglued. Kitahara is right at home in this kind of scrappy match, throwing kicks like baseball bats and looking in shootstyle holds all while drawing baffling heel reactions, I wish he had been in the match a little more. And the Koshinaka/Aoyagi/Kimura was just kicking ass like you wouldn’t believe. Kengo Kimura may have had the night of his life, he is old but he was kicking and punching guys in the face all while acting like a jerk and taunting Tenryu. This was a nice reminder of how much pro wrestling rules.

 

Koki Kitahara & Pierroth & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. & Vampiro & Atlantis (CMLL 9/23/1994) - GREAT

Koki Kitaharas stay in CMLL lasted about 4 matches. Japanese wrestlers working Mexico for a brief stint usually doesn’t produce great matches, and I was expecting Kitahara to tone his act down, maybe work a bit more like a junior… but boy, I was wrong. This is classic Kitahara acting like a psycho material. He was hellbent on kicking the dogshit out of Vampiro here. Seeing Kithara punting someone in the face on the floor of Arena Mexico is something else. Pierroth and Wagner also seemed to have had it with Vampiro. I imagine he was being a coked up joker on his stay or something, because they were really pasting him with punches and clotheslines, while being absolutely unwilling to make him look good or bump for him in any way. Really one of the meanest rudo performances I've ever seen. It makes for a pretty compelling match as Atlantis and Rayo De Jalisco basically only make sporadic appearance while Vampiro gets his ass kicked and tries to fire back only to get beaten up some more. In the second fall, Vampiro was hitting his own goofy martial arts kicks and I was starting to groan, but then Kitahra elbowed him in the jaw hard and kicked him in the face some more. After the match Kitahara and Pierroth immediately jump on Vamp with Kitahara raining punches on his face and Pierroth looking like he was either trying to protect Vampiro or choke him out. Either way, it’s rare you see an ass kicking like this in Arena Mexico since they banned blood. I’m wondering why it’s not talked about more, but then again, digging up this stuff is what this blog is for.

 

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WAR 1/5/1994

Masao Orihara vs. Norman Smiley

Oddly enough, Norman Smiley fit perfectly into WAR. I've yet to check out his mexican work but this may be the best stuff he's ever done. He was allowed to work as this tough as nails shooter who would dominate on the ground and potatoe dudes with nasty shots. Basically an UWF version of Regal. His holds looked clinical and when it was time to kick Orihara like a dog he wasn't playing around. I imagine if Smiley had faced Hashimoto in a big match or something we'd all be Smiley superfans. Orihara works as a Smiley opponent because he is CRAZY and will bust out unexpected highspots. Worth checking out.

 

Great Kabuki vs. Nobukazu Hirai

They start exchanging some solid armlocks before we get to the juicy part: Kabuki punching Hirai in the face. Hirai is spry, firing back bringing out some junior spots, but this was over almost as quickly as it began.

Ultimo Dragon vs. Ishinriki

 

This was very much an Ultimo Dragon match, although because this is WAR they potatoe each other on a level above your typical junior affair. Dragon uncorks some nasty spin kicks, and Ishinriki fires back with sumo clotheslines, palm rushes almost killing Dragon with a suplex. I pefer Ishinriki in heavyweight slugfests but he is a fun junior.

 

Mil Mascaras vs. Pierroth Jr.

 I enjoy watching Mil Mascaras grapple, but you can imagine how much offense Pierroth Jr got in here. It felt like a miracle that he was able to make Mil take a bump.

 

Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Ashura Hara & Hiromichi Fuyuki

Another round of beefy dudes clobbering eachother. This wasn't peak WAR interpromotional material, but I still probably liked the best out of all the matches on the show. Particularily because the whole match felt thoroughly violent, and Fuyuki and Koshinaka were really at each other's throat. They randomly broke out into this super violent exchange that lead to a poor sap getting punched repeatedly and all was right in the world. I continue to enjoy Goto in these Heisei Ishingun tags as old guy with 2 moves who comes in to lariat and backdrop fools and nothing else, altough there was some sloppiness on his part. Hara's career was winding down but he could still take some big bumps. These matches pretty much write themselves but they still work in some things you won't expect.

  

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Keiji Muto & El Samurai - FUN

 

WAR interpromotional tag that lags a little behind the standard for those due to Mutoh and Samurai not being quite up to the violent standards that these matches have. You watch these matches for some kind of violent showdown to happen and these two aren't the types to bring it. Kitahara was also unusually subdued. However I'd still recommend this for Tenryus amazing performance. He would really eat the fuck out of Mutohs flimsy offense and looked great flying around to put over the match. Add in the usual dose of signature Tenryu face kicking, throat chopping, powerbombing and lariating madness and have yourself something fun. 

 

THE LIBRARY

 

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT