Just watched Genirchiro Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara from WAR in 1997, one of the rare occasions where 90's era Tenryu gets the absolute shit kicked out of him,
. Fujiwara takes a long time getting into the ring and when he does Tenryu rushes him into the corner with sumo slaps to the face. He doubles over and Tenryu punts him in the forehead, but freaking Fujiwara just stands up and smiles. Oh, this shit is ON! Fujiwara hits a flurry of punches to the body but Tenryu rolls him into the corner and hits some STIFF knife-edge chops. Fujiwara has enough and just clocks Tenryu on the jaw before scoring with a bunch of headbutts to his eye socket! Pissed that Tenryu still isn't bleeding, Fujiwara just knuckles him a bunch of times until his eyebrow is pouring blood and starting to swell badly. Tenryu stumbles to his feet and knees Fujiwara straight in the gut, hard enough that you can hear him struggling for breath, before kicking him to the mat. He goes to suplex Fujiwara in the ring, but gets caught in a Fujiwara armbar over the ropes! Both guys fall to the floor and Fujiwara's still holding onto the armbar! Tenryu's furiously tapping out, but submissions are only valid in the ring, apparently. The referee desperately tries to break the hold and, eventually, Fujiwara relents.
He waits in the ring for Tenryu and immediately grabs hold of the leg, wrenching on it badly for a good few minutes before Tenryu manages to get to the ropes. Fujiwara grabs his arm and flips him over into the Fujiwara armbar again, but Tenryu makes it to the ropes once more! Fujiwara works a bunch of vicious looking arm submissions, but can't keep Tenryu from the ropes. Tenryu is being completely dominated here and the crowd seem almost stunned that he's getting in so little. Fujiwara waits for him to get to his feet and they just start slugging the crap out of each other and, finally, Tenryu gains an advantage as he scores with a nasty gamengiri followed by a back elbow of the top rope for 2. He hoists Fujiwara up and hits the powerbomb! But Fujiwara grabs Tenryu's arm into the armbar once more! Tenryu just about reaches the ropes, so Fujiwara resorts to slapping him super hard across the chops for a near, near 2.9 count. Tenryu's eye is bleeding bad now, as Fujiwara alternates between punching the wound and punching his injured arm, but eventually Tenryu has enough and scores with a series of HUGE rights to Fujiwara's jaw!
Tenryu tries to follow up with a capo kick, but it's so bad that Fujiwara completely no-sells it and just laughs at the exhausted Tenryu! But this only pisses him off and he goes back to right fists and chops, which, with his injured left arm, is pretty much all he has left. He fucking rocks Fujiwara with a big right to the jaw and follows up a capo kick to the corner, but can't get the pin. Fujiwara goes back to the arm, but Tenryu rolls into the ropes. Fujiwara hoists him up, but he turns him into the ropes and scores with some SICK chops to the chest, followed by a HUGE chop to the throat! Fujiwara goes down and Tenryu forces his shoulders to the canvas, narrowly getting the 3-count! Fujiwara thinks he kicked out and tries to pin Tenryu. The ref explains that he lost and Fujiwara is pissed. He stomps Tenryu a bunch of times and tries to snap his arm once more for good measure, before being forced off by officials. Post-match, Tenryu looks absolutely fucked, exhausted, with his eye swelling shut, he's selling his injured arm really well as the show goes off the air. Lessons learned? For a pair of 48 year olds, Tenryu is as tough as nails, Fujiwara is a vicious old bastard and this match was freaking STIFF.
