Lately I have been going through the NJPW '80s set (for the first time) while concurrently re-reviewing my AJPW Top 30. I should finish 1988 later today.
By this stage, I have neither Tsuruta nor Tenryu ahead of Fujinami for that time period. That's almost certainly not going to change. In terms of best wrestlers working Japan that decade, I have him at third behind Fujiwara and Choshu. I could see the case for pushing him ahead of them too. In fact, this post itself will probably convince me to place him ahead of Choshu.
It is true that his best singles match does not reach the same level as the best singles matches Tsuruta, Tenryu, Hansen, Funk and Fujiwara delivered. I won't deny that. But he smokes them all for sheer volume of very good to excellent singles matches spanning the entire decade. And the dynamism is astounding: junior-style (against some real slugs), mat-wrestling, epic bombs-throwing, brawling, working beneath super heavies etc. He's also very good in the tag setting. He's perhaps the most consistent and reliable worker that primarily performed in Japan during the '80s. I'd argue that those other wrestlers (Tsuruta, Tenryu, and Hansen in particular) have a significant drop off between the handful of high-end singles they delivered and the bulk of their remaining output for the '80s. Funk was gone by '83 as well. FWIW, I would point out that Fujinami had better singles matches with Choshu than Tsuruta and Tenryu did as well.
Fujinami already has tens of worthwhile and varied matches by the time Tsuruta and Tenryu really start gaining steam for me. I pinpoint that at around 1984-85 with a few high points for each before that. 1986 and 1988-89 AJPW is churning out sensational tags that both Tsuruta and Tenryu are key components of. Meanwhile Fujinami anchors the '84 Inoki's Army / Ishingun gauntlet and sweeps through the more questionable wrestlers. I don't believe that should be ignored as I doubt that match is a MOTDC if the opening bouts didn't have Fujinami as the binding agent. He's phenomenal versus Fujiwara and Maeda in the NJPW vs. UWF gauntlet. And he's very much a reason for the success of those superb elimination tags. I particularly enjoy his hopelessly outmatched underdog role at the end of one of them, trying to fend off Saito and Inoki with wild air-swings. He's also one of the best bleeders I have ever seen.
It has been a few years since I watched the '70s output for both Fujinami and Tsuruta. I probably would not enjoy that style as much now. But I do recall enjoying both with the slight edge going to Tatsumi. The '90s is a tremendously large blind spot for me, the world over, and so cannot comment on what happened after 1989.
