Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoji Anjoh (WAR – 7/21/1996)

Second. Really good stuff between two charismatic wrestlers.

Wow! This was a lot of fun packed into 12 minutes. I loved the dynamic here, Anjoh was a great punk and I couldn’t wait for Tenryu to knock him on his ass.

Yoji Anjoh delivers one of the most obnoxious, unlikable performances I have ever seen in a wrestling ring. Just oozing with false bravado and a brash lack of respect or sportsmanship. Career heat magnet heels don't come across as punchable has Anjoh does in an incredibly lean 11 minutes. Yet, unbelievably, he still does not have the best performance within this match.



There are a lot of times in puro where a match up between two wrestlers with an interesting dynamic will come in two acts, the first usually being a clash of abrasive personalities before settling into a more traditional Great Match type of atmosphere and tempo. It's not THAT big of a deal. I'm speaking of a niche of a sub genre here, but you're probably aware of what I'm referring to if you've seen a lot of wrestling from around this era. A good example is the famous Shibata/Akiyama match. That match obviously peaks when Shibata immediately establishes that he will not take any shit from Akiyama and kicks a hole in his head before Akiyama gets real rough with him on the outside before moving towards something spirited, but ultimately more in line with your more standard great match archetypes. (and to be a bit off topic, yes, it is not perfectly plotted out, but not everything needs to be perfect and traditional and that match being so rightly beloved is a perfect example of that)





The reason I make this point about structure and peaks and valleys is that not only does Tenryu have one of the most unique, petty, and abrasive personalities in the history of all living things, but the way that he so seamlessly transitions these opening clashes of personality into the back half of his work without ever losing that spark feeds into the larger point of this match: that Genichiro Tenryu is probably the best wrestler of all time.



Tenryu is a perfect mirror for the opening half. Anjoh, being a big shooter, treats the more traditional pro wrestler Tenryu with a respect for his power, but never as a real threat. Anjoh's taunting mixed in with the hard shots he's landing before slipping does anger Tenryu, but his response only becomes more calculated and revolves into a series of traps and funny bits. There's smaller stuff like Tenryu going to the grappling, but sneaking in things like armbars or generally just being a little craftier than Anjoh on the mat. My favorite of these come after Anjoh has begun to fall back to his opening strategy, hitting and running. Tenryu mixes it up while Anjoh is on the outside taunting by ignoring and stretching his leg out on the ropes facing the other way, baiting Yoji in and pushing him to a corner where he can chop the shit out of him. This peaks when after some more successful work getting Yoji to play his game (also hitting some disgusting soccer kicks in between all this), Tenryu starts throwing these disgusting right hands and when Yoji throws one of his own, Tenryu complains to the ref about it, and it distracts Yoji enough for Tenryu to cork off a Tsuparri rush on Yoji before hitting another right hand AGAIN. Maybe the hardest one. All time great fun & games type work.



The aforementioned second half starts right after Tenryu gives the game away by owning Anjoh too hard and after realizing that this is not just some ordinary tough vet, Anjoh begins to swarm Tenryu looking for the win and actually gets him on the ropes. The part where Tenryu's performance goes from great to maybe one of his best ever is where we actually start to see him in trouble. Tenryu going from this force of nature that he's typically beloved for being in the same way as guys like super dragon/brock/necro/etc to having to actually prove something, that he's still the man, against the most annoying person in the world on this day is one of the greatest demonstrations of depth I've seen in just one match. Looking particularly human trying to escape a really close call on an armbar, going from god to world beater babyface and actually doing it.




Maybe the best wrestler ever sneaking an all time great performance into an 11 minute match against another really amazing shit head, shooter in Anjoh. An 11 minutes with some of the most uncomfortably violent punches and kicks I've seen recently. It'd be the signature performance for a less great wrestler. Absolutely certain this makes top 50, just don't know where. ****3/4

This was hella fun! It reminded me of a more compact version of Kobashi/Ogawa sometimes, but more sports-focused.

Anjoh was so annoying and Tenryu putting him in his place always felt earned and satisfying, it's a lovely dynamic. Even though I apreciate the short length, because more pro wrestling needs to be short these days, I can't help but think this particular match would have been even better with five more minutes, because after a whole 10 minutes of Tenryu fighting to show the asshole kickboxer who's he dealing with, the final comeback and win for Tenryu felt a bit rushed.

Not something for my list, but still a really good match and a great contribution to Tenryu's case in GWE talks, even though Anjoh was the highlight for me because I've never seen anything from him before.