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Post by Cap on Jan 31, 2021 10:11:33 GMT -5
I watched this yesterday and really liked it. It is structured and organized really well and tells a pretty awesome story. I love me some Giant Baba and even though this match highlights some of his physical limitations a bit it is still such dramatic rollercoaster. I too need to watch more Tenryu/Hansen matches. Their particular brands of evil asshole compliment one another really well to the point of making me feel sorry for A GIANT. I thought this was a genuinely genius tag match, honestly. Great story and near perfect execution.
This isn't going to make my list, but it is really great wrestling all the same.
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Post by elliott on Jan 31, 2021 16:02:44 GMT -5
Watched this yet again and I feel great about this as a top 10 match for my next list. I often find myself thinking "could this be replicated?" Like Flair vs Steamboat is great, but I see it in the same family as stuff like Rogers vs O'Connor, Jumbo vs Tenryu, Misawa vs Kawada or Santo vs Casas. I don't know how you replicate this tag match. This is lightning in a bottle andis the best possible match these guys could have worked on this day and they're the only guys who could have pulled it off (Kimura is the most replaceable but I dig him here as an old tough dude who gets killed).
I think the physical limitations of Baba (and Kimura, he's not Jaguar Yokota or AJ Styles out there) add to the richness of the match. This entire match is meant to highlight their limitations. This doesn't work on this level if its Hansen & Tenryu against two guys in their athletic prime. That match is an extended squash. So is this but it really doesn't feel like it. The fans don't want to see Kimura and Baba (especially) annihilated by Hansen & Tenryu. But because of those physical limitations that everyone can see, Baba & Kimura can't credibly beat this Hansen & Tenryu team or even compete with them. So they have to figure out how to have a competitive seeming match that Hansen & Tenryu win definitively but doesn't spend 20 minutes making everyone feel like shit because these two legends are getting steamrolled. Baba & Kimura have a couple of things still in their favor. Kimura is tough as hell and can take a beating. Baba is huge and he has decades of experience so even though he's slow he can still take advantage of an opening. Most of his offense is of the desperation variety: Hansen is charging at him and Baba gets a big boot up at the last second. He's constantly looking in the corner to tag out but Kimura's not there. Baba's not like single handedly destroying Hansen & Tenryu as they flail bump for weak looking chops. Baba is barely hanging on by a thread here doing whatever he can to stay alive.
Seriously genius. Baba is incredible.
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Post by tetsujin on Feb 1, 2021 5:18:27 GMT -5
I finally watched it.
Tenry doing a tope suicida to Baba while he was making his entrance was fucking amazing, I screamed for that. The it started, and thankfully Kimura didn't do shit after the bladejob, because my god was he awful the first couple of minutes. He moved even worse than Baba, and that's saying something. Hansen and Tenryu totally carried that first segment of the match, and then Baba came back. He moved really bad, like, really bad. His offense sucked, and Tenryu and Hansen obviously had to sell it like death despite its weakness. Bub damn, he's Giant Baba, he's a living legend and the crowd is enjoying the shit out of his momentum, and I kinda was trapped by that aura too, if you know what I'm saying. I totally understand why this match works, because story-wise, it's structured wonderfully, but I can't see it as a fully great match if the action itself is so bad. Tenryu and Hansen were awesome working together, I enjoyed their team way more here than in the Jumbo/Yatsu match, they were vicious and creative. And gotta admit, the Kimura attempt to stop Hansen only for him eating a Western Lariat an never come back was hilarious and a non-ironical good hope spot. Speaking of hope spots, I'm glad this match didn't forced itself to have many of those, because clearly Baba and Kimura weren't able to look credible against their rivals, and any attempt to build nearfalls for them would've sucked.
I liked the match, really. It was very fun, Tenryu and Hansen were badass as fuck, Kimura didin't do nothing (I'm not complaining, that was the smartest booking choice), Baba's conexion with the crowd was enough to carry him, but he still sold his desperation and injury pretty well, and the match finished as it should have. But nope, this isn't a great match by any means.
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Post by elliott on Feb 2, 2021 20:00:22 GMT -5
I wanted to do a long time stamp review so folks can better see what I'm thinking when I watch this and why I think it belongs in the upper echelon.
01:26 - 01:32 Tenryu hits Baba the surprise tope of death as Baba & KImura make their way to the ring. Tenryu lands on his feet but stumbles backwards all the way to the guardrail. This stumble by Tenryu makes it clear that even if Baba is slow and decrepit, he's still such a massive human being that diving onto him with an offensive move and hitting it cleanly can still cause you to stumble 15 feet until you fall into the guardrail. Sticking Giant Baba with a tope isn't like hitting Kuniaki Kobayashi with a tope. You're basically running into a wall.
01:32 -01:47 Its made clear Baba is DOWN. He's been lying motionless on the ground. Crowd is buzzing and the announcer is freaking out on commentary.
01:48 - 01:51 - Ref is trying to get Kimura into the ring so they can start this match because its the main event and they gotta get going.
01:51 - 01:53 Kimura gets in the ring, Tenryu jumps him and the ref rings the bell
01:53 - 02:16 Kimura and Tenryu exchange blows with Kimura having the early advantage. He knows hes alone and has got to make something happen ASAP. He knows hes old and he's slow, but he also knows hes a tough motherfucker and that's really all hes got. He's not gonna be out there dodging and feinting dudes. So he goes right at Tenryu. He grabs him by the head and just starts laying in as many headbutts as he can and nails a bulldog to try and end this shit before he gets himself killed. Crowd is HOT for this opening stuff.
02:16 - 02:25 One of Kimura's headbutts sends Tenryu into his corner and Hansen tags in. Kimura tries the same strategy with Hansen. He tries to grab him by the head and headbutts him as soon as possible and as much as possible.
02:25 - We get a shot of Baba and he's STILL DOWN. Reminding us of the situation Kimura's in.
02:25 - 02:37 Back in the ring and Kimura reverses and Irish Whip and gets a lariat in on Hansen. Of course lariats are credible big moves in Japan. Its also a simple move anyone can pull off. You don't need to be in your athletic prime to hit someone running at you with a lariat. Hitting Hansen with a lariat has extra meaning of course and the commentator sells it big and the fans pop like crazy.
02:37 - 3:02 Kimura follows up on the lariat by punching Hansen in the face while hes on the ground. But Hansen makes his way to his feet and takes over with a weak boot to the stomach and an eye rake. This far until the match, the weakest looking offense that someone was forced to sell was Kimura selling a weak Hansen boot to the stomach because Hansen has to be put over as tough. Not pointing this out as a criticism, just noting it given the various comments about weak looking offense in this match.
03:03- 03:37 Tenryu tags in and fucking crushes Kimura with a lariat for a 2 count and follows with some hard chops. Kimura is still trying to fight through the pain and hit his headbutts, but they're coming slower after that lariat. Tenryu is AMAZING at selling Kimura's headbutts here. The crowd starts chanting for Kimura trying to give him some energy, but Tenryu puts him down with an enzugiri and tags back out.
03:38 - 05:00 Hansen comes in takes over definitively. They go to the outside and Hansen sets up a table and smashes Kimura's head into it. Tenryu comes over and joins in the fun. Hansen rolls back in and out of the ring to break the count and continue beating on Kimura.
05:00 - 05:02 We get a shot of Giant Baba and he's awake and moving and....rubbing his tummy while his second sprays it with whatever was in those spray cans....and like how can you not be in love with this match already?
05:02 - 05:28 Back in the ring and Hansen is stomping and kneeing Kimura's bloody face into oblivion.
05:28 - 05:53 Kimura refuses to roll over and he hits some desperation bloody head butts on Hansen in the corner. Tenryu's like "no no no." And just fucking walks right in the ring like he's Dennis Condrey and just starts smashing Kimura in the face.
05:53 - 05:55 Right as Kimura is blasted by a double forearm smash from Tenryu & Hansen, we get another shot of Giant Baba grimacing in pain, gritting his teeth all "OW My Tummy!" as his second rubs his belly ferociously. Like who cares if Rusher Kimura is moving slowly? How many matches have Giant Baba grimacing in pain as someone rubs his belly?
05:58 - 06:16 Kimura kicks out of a pin attempt and continues to get worked over, including some fucking vicious kicks right in the face from Tenryu...but...BABA RISES! He's being helped to his feet. Still wearing his robe btw. There's hope maybe!
06:16 - 07:18 Tenryu and Hansen continues to just beat the shit out of the bloody Kimura. Their offense is simple but sharp. Lots of chops, a great looking shoulderblock from Hansen, knees that sort of thing.
07:19 - 07:58 Baba has made it to the apron! He's still selling big time. But he's there and he's reaching out and starts doing body twists to try and loosen his gut up. Hansen & Tenryu continue to bring the hurt to Kimura. Its all low tech stuff. Elbow drops, chops, kicks, that sort of thing. This is smart. Kimura can't really bump around all over the place because he's so stiff. But if you're just getting your bloody head bashed in by Tenryu & Hansen, we don't really need german suplexes and powerbombs.
07:59 - 08:30 Baba breaks up a pin attempt just by putting his boot on Hansen's head and shoving it aside. Crowd loves this. Baba is still reeling though (hes still clutching his tummy) and Hansen & Tenryu continue the assault.
08:26 - 08:31 I wanted to highlight an awesome little hope spot. Kimura is obviously super limited when he hasn't been beaten to a bloody pulp. So to create a brief hope spot he grabbed Tenryu by the head like he did earlier in the match to try and headbutt him, but Tenryu blocked it by pulling Kimura's hands off his head and then just crushing Kimura with a chop. Its not Ricky Morton getting a surprise 2 count on a sunset flip before Bobby Eaton takes back over, but its a really great little hope spot that the crowd bought on and I wanted to highlight it as another example of smart work from these guys.
08:32- 10:21 Beatdown on bloody Kimura continues. But Baba looks better. Hes moving around a lot more and not keeled over in pain. Hansen & Tenryu are so smart with their offense. Its either focused on his bloody face or something like Tenryu's reverse elbow drop or an enzugiri. Its vicious and looks good but it also doesn't force Kimura to have to bump around. Because he can't do it. Its hard to have an extended heat section with a guy who can't bump, but Hansen & Tenryu figure it out and keep this moving and interesting. It also gets increasingly vicious and brutal as the beatdown on Kimura continues. But Baba is back up. The crowd is really excited by also really anxious. Can Kimura tag out to Baba? Can Baba withstand the onslaught or are they gonna beat his brains in too??? Th
10:22 - 10:30 Tenryu takes a break from beating on Kimura to run over and give Baba a huge chop. Baba sells it big but is back up and waving his little T-Rex arms like "come over here and try that again!" at Tenryu and I'm just dying of joy.
10:31 - 10:49 Back to the beatdown on Kimura....but Tenryu makes a mistake. He was getting cocky by chopping Baba and then he whips Kimura into the opposite corner and charges at him...but he gave Kimura space just one brief second of breathing room and Kimura does the one thing he can do. He throws his bloody rock like head forward and Tenryu crashes into it. Kimura blasts him with another bloody head butt and....ROLLS OVER TO THE CORNER TO BABA!"
10:50 - 10:57 Baba is in. He shrugs off Tenryu's first chop. No one should have a problem with this. There have been roughly 5 billion blown off chops in Japanese wrestling history. Giant Baba is literally a Giant of a man running on pure adrenaline. So he shrugs that bitch ass chop off. And immediately blasts Tenryu with 3 quick Baba chops. Does Tenryu sell the chops? Of course. Its a signature spot of the most famous wrestler in the promotion. Crowd pops HUGE for it.
Quick sidebar on Baba's chops. I don't want this to be the only take away from this whole review. But to address it, Baba's chops are awesome. He's a giant man with insanely huge hands. Even if he's hitting you at half speed with those hands, its gonna affect you. Also its a protected signature spot and had been for decades. If you want to talk about business exposing moves that are to be laughed at, I counter with every single Irish Whip that has ever happened in a match. Baba's chops are no more business exposing than everysingle Misawa elbow or Daniel Bryan kick.
10:57 - 11:47 Baba on fire continues. He follows the 3 chops up with a great big boot. He keeps selling his stomach btw. Hansen runs in after the big boot (crowd is going nuts also btw) and Baba barely manages to get a chop up and its a side chop, not the signature Baba overhand. So Hansen shrugs that first blow off and then sells big for the signature overhand chop. Hansen also takes an Irish Whip and eats a big boot. Hansen bumps for it just like anybody would bump for a big boot from a 6'10 guy with enormous feet. Baba follows up his boot to Hansen by RUNNING (as best Baba can) over to Tenryu to hit more chops. Baba is working as urgently as he can. He's hurt. He knows hes alone. He knows hes against 2 killers. He's gotta move as quick as he can. Baba hits a couple of shitty looking kicks setting up his side russian leg sweep. This is another signature spot hed been doing since the 70s. Its easy to execute and there's zero problem with anyone selling a Giant Baba side russian leg sweep. Crowd pops big for it. Baba CONTINUES to sell the ribs. Hansen breaks up his pin attempt.
Baba sllloooowly lumbers to his feet and literally chases after Hansen. Baba hits a chop that Hansen, literally one of the greatest wrestlers ever, chooses to oversell. Baba turns him around and they get into a chop battle with Baba doing couple of cool targeted chops right at Hansen's face, but Tenryu comes over and suddenly its 2 on 1!
11:47 - 12:11 Crowd starts to get a little nervous because now Tenryu has the advantage, but he makes another mistake. He Irish Whips Baba into the ropes and puts his head down early. Baba stops and blasts him with a kick. Does it move slowly? Yes. But against a foot that size landing at any speed you're gonna notice it. I'm trying not to use the word "Freakish" but Baba had a medical condition. But his hands and feet are literally freakish in size. So when he throws a kick or a big chop even if its moving slowly, his hands and feet are SO big that it doesn't mattter how slow it moves. If he could move faster his chops would cave skulls in. Anyway, Baba follows up his kick with his knee smash, another signature spot that he has used to great affect going back to the 60s. There is zero issue with someone selling a Giant Baba knee smash. We get a shot of Kimura finally laying there on the floor selling as Baba hits another knee smash, this time he didn't hit it as cleanly. And afterwards Baba immediately stumbles over to the corner to try and tag out. Uh oh....Baba's gassed. Not in a Dave Meltzer Scott Keith Workrate He's Blown Up sense. Baba's gassed like this is an old dude who can only bring it for a couple of minutes and thats why he only works tags & 6 man tags now. Everyone knows this. Uh oh. Tenryu is charging. Did we miss our shot?
12:12 - 13:38 Nope! Still alive! Tenryu's charge is met with a desperation side chop Baba got up at the last minute. Tenryu's stumble on the tope earlier showed us that Baba was so massive that just running into him can fuck you up a little. So when Tenryu runs full speed into a Baba chop with those hands, Tenryu sells it and gives Baba an opening. He whips Tenryu into the ropes and plants him with a neck breaker drop. Another signature spot he's been using to beat the biggest names in wrestling for decades. Hansen runs into the break up the 2 count and Baba sells the elbow smash pin breakup big. Hansen then grabs a chair and smashes Baba's injured ribs/tummy with it. Tenryu tries to follow up and whips Baba into the ropes and is gonna go for an Abdominal stretch, but Baba has the size, experience and most importantly the momentum (thanks to Tenryu's Irish whip) to reverse it into his own Ab stretch. Crowd goes nuts, but this gives Hansen the opening to come in and nail Baba with a big knee to the back/ribs to break up the Ab stretch and Baba sells it big. Tenryu starts focusing his shots at Baba's ribs/tummy and Baba keeps trying to fire back with his chops but he's not able to follow up with them as quickly as he was earlier (similar to Rusher's headbutts went from rapid(ish) fire to slower as he was beat down earlier) and unfortunately one chop sends Tenryu all the way back into his corner bringing in Hansen.
13:39 - 16:04 Hansen immediately goes after the ribs with a shoulder block and some knees to the ribs. BUt he lets up and tries some chest chops. Don't try and chop Baba. Baba fires back with a chop of his own, but his followup is weak and Hansen blows it off and starts kneeing Baba in the ribs again. Baba's really starting to take some punishment but hes so huge he can absorb a lot of blows and still fire back on occasion with some real force but its starting to get one big Baba strike for every 10 that Hansen or Tenryu nail him with. Tenryu & Hansen start trying easy double teams on Baba and body slams to sort of test how fucked up he is. Theres more focus on Baba's ribs now.
16:04 - 16:05 Worth noting that one of the worst looking moves in this entire match is the lariat (!!!) that noted bruiser Genichiro Tenryu hits and Baba is forced to sell.
16:06 - 17:34 Weak Tenryu lariat is followed up with Hansen & Tenryu taking turns chopping the shit out of Baba and Tenryu comes off the ropes against presumably for another lariat...but Baba gets his massive foot up and Tenryu absolutely fucking eats it and takes an amazing amazing amazing bump off of it. They get a great nearfall off of it and you can see Baba looks at the corner to see if Rusher is alive and when he realizes hes still alone, Baba follows up with his swinging neck breaker for another big 2 count. Then Baba hits a dropping arm breaker (another spot Baba had been doing forever)! Hansen runs in to break up it up. As Baba looks to the corner again Tenryu manages to tag out. He charges in but Baba his him with another last second desperation chop (like earlier in the match). He follows it up with a big over hand chop and another side chop brings Hansen down. Baba then picks him up and tries for a SMALL PACKAGE! WTF! Hahahah. It gets him a desperate 2 count, but its a mistake because Hansen is able to get up first.
17:34 - 19:04 Hansen & Tenryu back in control. They take Baba down with a double shoulderblock and then a double suplex. Baba taking bumps! They take turns viciously kicking a downed Giant Baba. Tenryu makes his way to the corner to go for his big elbow drop but he takes too long and Baba is able to catch him and plant him with a suplex. Tenryu takes a huge Rock taking a Stunner bump for it and we get a great 2 count. This is an awesome example of taking a super pyshically limited worker and figure out how to create a killer move for him. Baba couldn't give Tenryu a great looking back drop suplex from the ground. But give him that head start and he can. Great stuff. But it also works as a way to transition back to Tenryu on offense. With the back drop suplex, Baba is falling down too. Hes old and it takes him forever to get up. With his weakened ribs, Tenryu is able to take back over after the nearfall and get Hansen back in.
19:04 - 19:52 Hansen back in and hes going after the ribs again with chops and knees. Tags out to Tenryu and Hansen whips Tenryu into Baba and Tenryu just nails him with a great looking lariat this time. Then they plant Baba with a spike piledriver! Now, I can see some people complaining about how it looks bad, but I think theres been like 2 spike piledrivers ever that have looked great and the rest range from terrible to ok looking. In the history of spike piledrivers, this one is actually ok.
19:53 - 20:49 Hansen back in and they do the spot where Baba's on the ground and Hansen & Tenryu take turns dropping elbows on him. This is a simple spot, but its one of my favorite tag team wrestling spots no matter who is doing it. They nail Baba with a double powerbomb. Now people might say this looks shitty and slow compared to most powerbombs. I'd agree but I'd also argue that a lot of Tenryu powerbombs looked shitty so this isn't really unique to this match. Baba kicks out anyway. Amazing spot where Hansen hits the ropes and out of nowhere RUSHER KIMURA IS ALIVE! and he grabs Hansen's foot tripping him up! Kimura climbs up to the apron and Hansen just absolutely crushes him with a lariat! Just destroys him. Its beautiful. Hello Rusher, welcome back, GOODBYE SON!
20:50 - 22:15 Rusher is dead. Tenryu tags in. He hits Baba with an enzugiri. They set Baba up against the ropes and Hansen whips Tenryu towards Baba. Tenryu runs towards Baba and doesn't learn his lesson because he hits the ropes next to Baba, bounces back towards the other side to gain momentum and on the way back absolutely eats another Baba big foot. Hansen charges and Baba ducks out of the way and Hansen goes flying over the ropes! Oh SHiT! Its one on one! Tenryu immediately tries for a powerbomb and Baba flips him over with a backdrop and a 2 count! Oh crap! That was close! But then Tenryu rolls over keeping the waistlock on, picks Baba up to his feet and fucking plants him with a powerbomb and....a 3 COUNT!?!?!? Baba losing by pinfall is a huge deal. Even in a tag match Baba didn't take falls to just anyone. Even at this point in his career. And same thing for Tenryu. Getting a pinfall on Baba was a big deal. He's one of the only people to ever do it.
Overall looking at this, I've said before this is a genius level match from really everyone involved. Even Rusher does a good job playing his role here. But this is all about Baba, Tenryu and Hansen as all time greats.
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Post by Cap on Feb 3, 2021 5:40:43 GMT -5
Love this review. Based just on this effort I may watch it again. If not soon, at least before the ballot this year.
My earlier point about Baba's limitations was not so much a knock. I just think the line is quite fine with Baba. I can see how that is maybe even leaned into here to make it a strength. Regardless, it is a pretty masterful performance from Baba and I will tolerate no blasphemy on his name
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Post by elliott on Feb 3, 2021 16:44:07 GMT -5
Generally speaking if someone lacks the physical gifts or experience or just talent, the easiest thing to do to succeed is try to cover up those weaknesses. This isn't just specific to wrestling. There are countless examples I could come up with. To keep it wrestling specific, I'm thinking of Ric FLair using his formula to get competitive 20 minute matches against Nikita Koloff in the mid 80s. Koloff had a look and charisma but thats it. Flair did the rest.
What stands out about this match is they don't run away from Kimura and Baba's limitations. They don't try to hide it at all (because you can't quite frankly). They go the opposite route and try to highlight it. Putting Rusher Kimura and Giant Baba in a position to go one on 2 for 10 minutes against Stan Hansne & Genichiro Tenryu in 1989 is a fucking bold choice. And their limitations are intentionally played up. Giant Baba spends the first 8 minutes of this match rubbing his belly. Within 3 minutes of tagging in, he's looking at the corner to try and tag out. He knows everything he's doing is on borrowed time. That's why hes trying to run after Hansen and Tenryu to keep the pressure on them.
You could say, why give them 20 minutes when Baba & Kimura are so limited. Well this was the night Tenryu was gonna get to pin Giant Baba clean. Obviously you can't do a squash and you can't do that in a 2 minute nothing match. Even though Baba is old as hell and looks like a disaster athletically, he just didn't eat pinfalls (did Jumbo Tsuruta ever pin Giant Baba, I legit don't remember). This was a highlight of Tenryu's career. So they had to try and have a real match.
People might complain that Tenryu & Hansen are having to bump like crazy to put over this terrible offense and I'm just not really sure what they're talking about. Kimura hits one lariat and his only other offense is just throwing old man headbutts. Baba's offense is all either protected signature spots or counters he makes using his experience and his opponents' momentum against them. Tenryu running full speed and getting nailed by a desperation Baba boot and bumping his ass off isn't Tenryu overselling. Its Tenryu selling the exact right amount. Some of the most egregious moments of people being forced to sell terrible looking offense is Kimura selling a weak Hansen kick and Baba selling a shitty lariat from Tenryu. And its not like Baba & Kimura go on extended runs of offense here. Baba gets a stretch when he firs tags in, but after 2 minutes he's looking to tag out. From there everything is a desperate move Baba's using to just try and stay in there. All of his offense is hope spots. Tenryu & Hansen are 2 of the top 3 guys in the company so they shouldn't be getting their asses kicked by these tww old men.
So you have to craft a match where Tenryu & Hansen take most of the match, it goes a decent length, but also there's enough offense from Kimura & Baba that the fans don't feel shitty for 20 minutes watching these two legends get their brains beat in. But...this was 20 minutes of two legends getting their brains beat in and Giant Baba taking a clean pinfall. Achieving all of that is so much more impressive to me than Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat going out and having their 30th great match together.
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Post by bossrock on Feb 3, 2021 19:53:40 GMT -5
Watched this for just the second time and while it won't make my ballot, it's still a great tag match. It definitely has a unique structure with Hansen and Tenryu largely dominating Kimura and Baba one at a time with the latter team making the occasional comeback. It essentially becomes a two-part handicap match. As already mentioned in this thread, Baba and Kimura are pretty run down but Hansen and Tenryu more than make up for it with their vicious onslaught. However, Baba's comeback in the finishing stretch is really good and I love how Kimura tries to save the day only to immediately eat a lariat for his troubles.
This never QUITE reached that next level for me, but it's still a great match and Tenryu pinning Baba was a pretty huge deal. Love the Tenryu and Hansen team.
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Post by mvz on Oct 22, 2021 5:17:20 GMT -5
This is action packed, but thoughtful and nuanced. It felt like they got the most they can get out of this match. The limitations of the wrestlers actually enhanced the match and the story toyed with what you might expect from start to finish.
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Post by Cap on Oct 22, 2021 8:59:23 GMT -5
Glad this got bumped because I really want to get to it again soon. Hopefully this weekend.
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Post by elliott on Oct 23, 2021 0:58:28 GMT -5
Best AJPW tag match ever
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Post by Cap on Oct 23, 2021 10:28:40 GMT -5
Best AJPW tag match ever This guy....
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Post by elliott on Oct 23, 2021 19:42:03 GMT -5
True facts.
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Post by Cap on Oct 24, 2021 17:02:00 GMT -5
Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura (Real World Tag Leauge - AJPW - 11/29/1989) Current Rank: NA Trending: Even
Elliott’s enthusiasm for this match is infectious, but not quite infectious enough to move the needle from my original evaluation. Look, I love this. I really do, so when I say anything about this match that isn’t glowing praise, it is only because I am doing so in the context of this project and articulating why this is probably in my top 200 and not my top 100. The story told and the layout were incredible. The physicality is excellent. Everything about the heat and the crowd is all stuff I love. The only thing keeping this out of my top 100 is a few little execution things and some pacing down the stretch. On both watches this feels a bit like if we were going to go this long then Baba and Kimura should have pulled it out. The crescendo for a Tenryu/Hansen win felt like it came a few minutes earlier to me. In terms of execution, it isn’t really a knock. I’m not being “movez-y” here. There are just a few spots where I thought to myself, “fujiwara wouldn’t have sold that”. That was enough.
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Post by elliott on Oct 24, 2021 18:06:19 GMT -5
What does Fujiwara have to do with this match? Totally different guy working a totally different style.
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Post by Cap on Oct 24, 2021 18:12:51 GMT -5
I was just using him as an example because Fujiwara is sort of famous for not selling something that didn't connect quite well enough. I get that it is a different style. it was tongue and cheek.
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