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Post by elliott on Oct 4, 2019 15:23:50 GMT -5
Really great match. This isn’t the best Tenryu match, nor the best Tenryu performance, but it might be one of the best examples of why Tenryu was a great wrestler. Here he is in a main event against a 3rd tier opponent and he figures out how to work a great match that is both satisfying to his fans but also puts Takano over as someone who belongs in the ring in a singles main event against a star the level of Tenryu (thus making Tenryu look better when he inevitably beats the lower ranked Takano). Takano looks really good here pushing the pace and trying to use his speed/agility advantages over Tenryu. It works until it really doesn’t and then Tenryu will catch him and clobber him. Its really well done. Like a boxing match where one guy hits more punches but the other guy’s few punches are absolute bombs. This is another great #100 sort of pick and another match to add to the long list of great Tenryu matches.
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Post by club on Feb 21, 2023 15:10:53 GMT -5
A very giving performance from Tenryu, going out of his way to put over Takano's strikes. It did create an element of doubt to the result in a match that going in felt like a foregone conclusion. I do like a match where one guy has a clear game plan, and for his part I thought Takano conveyed his stick n move strategy well. It wouldn't figure in my top 100, there too many better 20 Tenryu matches better than this one, but still a great match.
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Post by KB8 on Feb 22, 2023 12:56:30 GMT -5
This was like the best version of your awesome New Japan Tokyo Dome main event, only worked in SWS and not in the Tokyo Dome. It was 13 minutes, built around some killer strikes and a small handful of bombs, all of those bombs got huge reactions because they were teased and then hit at the right moments, and we even got an ugly and uncooperative counter to a German suplex where Tenryu just wrapped his foot around Takano's leg and basically landed on his head. It was like the best Hashimoto moments where he shifts his weight at the last second to avoid a throw, not at all pretty but certainly effective. Takano frustrates Tenryu to begin with by throwing some quick palm strikes whenever Tenryu tries to engage. Takano sticks and moves and Tenryu does a pretty admirable job of not blowing his lid. In fact he barely even shows any annoyance. Really an astounding amount of forbearance from a man not known for his restraint. But then his first offensive move is a blatant chop to the throat so perhaps it was merely a CHARADE. Any of Takano's momentum comes to a screeching halt when he misses a pescado and Tenryu tries to volley his lungs to the back row. I loved Tenryu cutting Takano off with gut punches before going to the double stomps, just full force jumping on Takano's stomach while he rolls around with a ruptured spleen. Unfortunately Takano stops selling it completely about a minute later. I don't get hung up on body part work that doesn't have a true payoff at this point, don't mind when it gets dropped as the match story progresses, but this was really just ropey selling. Sell it like death one minute, zero acknowledgment the next, no middle ground selling taking us from one end of the spectrum to the other - if nothing else it was jarring and that short Tenryu beatdown deserved better by christ! Down the stretch Tenryu picks up an ankle injury and I love how he sold it like it prevented him from capitalising on the powerbomb. Those delays kept Takano in the fight, even if it was by a thread, but then there's only so often you can take an enziguri to the forehead or a powerbomb on your neck before it doesn't matter.
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