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[2002-04-13-AJPW] Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh


El-P

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This is the one. Tenryu is fucking with Mutoh from the get-go by doing a 52 years old Shining Wizard. Mutoh is butthurt about it, so he manages to hit the same spot outside, pushing the old geezer against the steel barricade, injury his left arm in the process. From there, it's focus on that arm, the kneecap dropkicks' only purpose being to keep Tenryu down, and eventually hit some SW too. There are also callbacks to the moonsault spot, which Mutoh insists on trying despite Tenryu always getting a way out. Good stuff here. And of course, a bunch of punches to the face, stiff chops, Mutoh doing this ridiculous backflip kick... This is everything you'd want from these two and then some as they really play off the first match without the kinda useless overlong legwork sequences, and with better selling too. Maybe not quite MOTYC level, but great match anyway.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2002-04-13-AJPW] Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh
  • 2 years later...

I liked this a lot. Mutoh is a divisive figure in wrestling, but there's plenty of worse shit out there than shaven-head, no-knees Keiji Mutoh. It's kind of interesting to look back on these matches without caring about  the split and what All Japan had become. What may have been lamentable decades ago comes across, at times, like a bright spot in a dead wrestling scene. I loved the arm work in this match. I'm not a big limb work guy, but I  thought the arm work here was really engaging. It gave Mutoh something to target with those relentless dropkicks of his, and of course, Tenryu sold it beautifully. I actually don't mind Mutoh's nonstop dropkicks. At least he goes all out and pummels guys. To me it's no different from nonstop elbow strikes or lariat-based offense. Speaking of which, Tenryu made a cool comeback with the lariat after Mutoh blew his chances of winning the match by thrashing his poor old knees on pointless moonsault attempts. Should have kept working on the arm, Keiji. Opinion on this match doesn't seem to be very high, but I liked it more than their Tokyo Sports MOTY headscratcher. 

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  • 1 year later...

Well I'll be. A fairly decent amount of Tenryu v Mutoh matches have happened over the years, six of them from 1999-2002 alone, but this is the first one that's really jumped off the page as being properly awesome (the Tenryu/Muta match from 1996 is tremendous, but that's a whole different sort of spectacle). I thought the build and implementation of strategy was on par with some of your 90s All Japan classics, albeit on a much smaller and less ambitious scale. On the other hand this didn't have the excess of those and if you're like me then 19 minutes of this is going to be more appealing to you than 43 minutes of that, for as brilliant as THAT could often be.

They start with some basic matwork, nothing too different from how they've started a few of their matches together, then about four minutes in Tenryu sets us on our merry way. I cannot for the life of me remember Tenryu doing a Shining Wizard before, but this was amazing and his impression of Mutoh's little pose after it was maybe even better. Mutoh is PEEVED and immediately has to leave the ring to compose himself and perhaps we wonder if he maybe should've sold his own signature move for longer than sex seconds there, though I suppose rage will light a fire under us all and with it comes an imperviousness that we can't quite comprehend probably. The last couple Tenryu/Mutoh matches I watched had Mutoh predominantly going after the leg. I get it because it plays into the Shining Wizard and it makes sense, and it was fine, but there's probably always going to be a ceiling on how much I'll enjoy Mutoh working a leg. This time he changes tack and instead of going after the leg, he focuses on the arm. But also the leg a wee bit and we'll get to that in a second. The transition into the arm work was spectacular, as he first wipes Tenryu out with a plancha, then hits a Shining Wizard that smashes the back off Tenryu's head off the guardrail, and follows those up with a cross armbreaker on the floor that actually has Tenryu tapping out. We get some foreshadowing of the leg coming into play after the Shining Wizard, as Mutoh lands on Tenryu's leg and it gets bent super awkwardly, and Tenryu clutches at it as if it's been hurt. Mutoh's offence is mostly low dropkicks to the shoulder while Tenryu struggles to his feet, so not really much different to his usual low dropkicks to the knee in overall execution. There are times as well though where he'll actually get Tenryu to the mat by using the dragon screw, so it's a bit of a two-pronged attack and ultimately plays to him setting up the Shining Wizard again if he can't make Tenryu submit. Tenryu's selling was great the whole way and I love that most of his offence in return was brutal chops and blatant face-punching.

Things shift his way a bit when Mutoh incorporates a THIRD strategy like some sort of Pep Guardiola, where he basically uses the Shining Wizard to set up the moonsault as another alternative to the arm work. And like the actual Pep Guardiola he maybe shouldn't have overthought everything on the big occasion because Tenryu will not be hit with that fucking moonsault. He rolls out the way of the first one and Mutoh lands hard on his already-decimated knee, so obviously that slows him down while giving Tenryu a target to aim for in times of trouble. Tenryu gritting his teeth and finally unleashing the lariats was done about as well as you could want, a bit like your classic "this'll hurt me but it'll hurt you more" Kobashi/Hashimoto/Misawa performances after someone works over the arm for a while. Mutoh counters the first brainbuster by kneeing Tenryu in the head in mid-air and I think he even sold the knee after it as well, which obviously ruled. Then Tenryu gets knees up on Mutoh's third moonsault attempt, hoists him up for another brainbuster, this time absorbs Mutoh's knee strike, and crumples him in a way where you know he's not getting up again.

This was really great. They easily could've gone another few minutes and sprinkled in some more nearfalls, but even for a relatively short finishing run I thought they built big drama and did so with only a handful of bombs, really because the timing and pacing was so strong. And the story of Mutoh's strategies almost turning himself in circles was really cool. He had Tenryu reeling and he overreached, maybe because Tenryu is who Tenryu is, but either way the moonsault was his own undoing in the end. And Tenryu will punish you as emphatically as anybody ever could. Just an excellent match. 
 

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  • 9 months later...

Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - AJPW 4/13/02 Vacant Triple Crown Title

Toshiaki Kawada continued his streak of snake-bitten Triple Crown runs having defeated Mutoh for the title in February but had to vacate immediately after due to injury. Pretty sensible title match to fill the vacancy as these are the two biggest stars in All Japan and the most recent two champions. 

Mutoh and Tenryu have pretty crazy chemistry together. This match continued their streak of very good matches however when two of your other matches I have rated at ****3/4 and at ***** this has to be considered a little disappointing even though I enjoyed it overall.

The famous 6/8/01 match starts with a bang Shining Wizard at the bell and Tenryu is climbing out of a hole. Here they do a traditional New Japan style open. Tenryu hits the first big move a Shining Wizard and does the Pro Wrestling Love pose. Mutoh sells this as more of an insult than something that hurts which I dig. Mutoh uses DROPKICKs to get Tenryu to the outside. Crazy plancha where it looked like Tenryu ate ass and then a Shining Wizard up against the railing. Mutoh used a cross armbreaker on the floor which Tenryu started tapping out to immediately which I dug as a way to sell how painful the hold is. If it was in the ring it’d be over.

Mutoh worked the arm the rest of the match which was a smart decision in my estimation since the previous match was knee focused. He used the Dragon Leg Screws as takedowns to set up wristlocks and armbars as opposed to hurt the knee which I thought was a cool touch. I really liked one of Mutoh’s cutoffs where he used a Frankensteiner to set up a cross armbreaker attempt. Another good example was Tenryu missed his second attempt of a reverse top rope elbow so Mutoh pounced with a DROPKICK and another cross-armbreaker. It was cool to see Mutoh work a different body part. 

For his part I didn’t feel Tenryu held ups his end. He’d go on to have a killer match with Kojima in July 2002 but I thought his selling was spotty and his high spots didn’t have the same zing. I liked the transition out of heat with a lariat to the back of Mutoh’s head when Mutoh tried the Back Handspring Elbow. The first top rope Reverse Elbow and Powerbomb had very little heat and that should have been a mini-climax. I really didn’t like how he blew off the cross-armbreakers after Frankensteiner and the missed Top Rope Elbow. He was fine but I thought Mutoh was wrestling a laser-focused match and if Tenryu was wrestling at his usual level that this could have been special. 

At this point, they go into a fireworks finish stretch and abandon the body of the match. Tenryu does a better job selling attrition than Mutoh. Mutoh hits a barrage of Shining Wizards after a DROPKICK to the knee. He really clocked him on the 3rd, gets two. Then it becomes a game of Tenryu lariat/brainbuster vs Mutoh Shining Wizard/Moonsault. Mutoh throws in a Kappou Kick and Bicycle Kick for good measure both which popped me. Mutoh blocks the lariat at one point. Knees Tenryu in the cranium on the brainbuster. Mutoh for the life of him cannot hit a moonsault. The first two Tenryu moves and on the third he connects but with Tenryu’s knees! Great stuff! Lariat and then a brainbuster where Tenryu fights through Mutoh’s knees to land it and win the Triple Crown!

There’s a lot to like here Mutoh’s arm work and the finish stretch is creatively done. I really thought Mutoh might win on the third moonsault but to have him eat knees was creative and compelling. Tenryu warning the brainbuster was great. Peculiar selling choices by both Tenryu and Mutoh keep this at ***1/2. 

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