Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu (AJPW 10/11/1989)

I'm not sure what got into me that made me rank 6/5/89 as high as I did back in 2019 while leaving this off, but I've always had a hard time getting into 6/5/89 as much as I'd like whilst considering this and 10/88 their best stuff. 6/5/89 seems the easiest to understand because of how much Jumbo leans into heeling it up and the emotion behind Tenryu finally winning the big one, but the more experimental nature of this and 10/88 grabs me more. They're some of the most ideologically dense matches out there with it often feeling like I missed some major moment just because I blinked for a second. There's so many neat details, revolutionary ideas, or references to the past that it's hard to keep up with it all even when rewatching. You can almost see the gears turning inside these guys' heads as they create and perfect the King's Road style right before your eyes. 10/88 feels a bit more rough around the edges with some moments of bloat and some transitions that don't quite hit the spot, but this feels like the one where they really bring it all together into something that would inspire so much other great wrestling. Watching this is a bit like watching Seven Samurai in that you can have a great time just looking for the ways that others riffed on the work. Things like Tenryu muscling into a side headlock to combat Jumbo's superior grappling technique ala Kobashi, Jumbo baseball slide kicking Tenryu out of the ring ala Misawa, Tenryu disrespecting Jumbo and kicking him on the ground ala Kawada, and Jumbo going nuts and destroying Tenryu with a chair ala 90's Jumbo. The tension building at the start and overall focus on mind games throughout also feels like the beginning of the heavyweight title match as a battle of wills as much as a physical battle, like seen in Misawa/Kawada. I think this match also does finisher theft and the concept of guys digging deep into their movesets as good as any match out there, and the occasional sloppiness really only enhances it by helping get across how much they're stretching themselves. Watch for Jumbo pulling out the Robinson pin attempt off a cravat, the Lou Thesz sneaky elbow off a rope break, and the Dory Funk standing toe hold. The finish is utter perfection as well. One thing which stands out which unfortunately wasn't carried over into the 90's is just how safe the landings are on a lot of the moves commonly associated with dangerous head drops, like backdrops and sloppy powerbombs. I get why the 90's guys worked like that to create drama and portray the wrestlers as superhuman for fighting through that, but there's also a beauty in the sense of struggle created with the the more gingerly bumps taken here.