[2004-08-13-NJPW-G1 Climax] Genichiro Tenryu vs Katsuyori Shibata

[KB8]

Sensational five minutes of pandemonium. Shibata is basically the prototype for your chest-puffed, dick-swinging tough guy and Tenryu is an old man who doesn't have time for his shit. Tenryu has no interest in bragging about how hard he can hit someone, his interest lies in the hitting itself. The opening exchange was truly wonderful and ended with maybe the best double punch spot I've ever seen, followed by Shibata grabbing a guillotine and refusing to let go. It pretty soon spills to the floor and Shibata is such a smug prick beating on this pensioner, kicking him up and down the place, throwing him into ring posts, even threatening him with a bottle until the ref' talks him down. Of course this just sends Tenryu off on one and he cannot be talked down. The old man is pissed and about ready to glass someone. Shibata just keeps pushing it, though. Slaps Tenryu, punches him in the face, goads him because he thinks Tenryu won't use the bottle. Tenryu punches him back, but he still won't drop that bottle and the ref' is pleading with him because he obviously knows Tenryu better than Shibata does. I don't know if it was brinkmanship or blind stupidity. Maybe he thought riling Tenryu up was the easiest path to victory, but either way he cracked him once too often. Tenryu jabbing him in the throat with the bottle and smashing it over his head was about the greatest payoff to ninety seconds of build that there's ever been.

[WingedEagle]

I had no clue what transpired here until watching this.  I saw the runtime and figured it'd be some quick flash pin.  As noted above that was not the case.  This is undoubtedly one of the best sub 5 minute matches I've ever seen.  Just tremendous performances from both with a finish that reads like trash but perfectly fit the match.

[ohtani's jacket]

This match was kind of stupid, I thought. It was cool when they were railing on each other, but the rest of the match was meandering and the stuff with the ref was Monterrey-esque.