Genichiro Tenryu/Masao Orihara vs. The Great Kabuki/Koki Kitahara (WAR 7/14/92)
I hope these motherfuckers had beers together after this. Kitahara and Kabuki were totally relentless kicking heads in and levelling throats with lariats, and making exactly none of it look flashy. Orihara when selling for all that shucked out about as good a Never Say Die showing as I can remember, even with some of the flubbed moves and that random pointless backflip. His exchanges looked really unruly when he was just swinging wildly at any body part in the way before being minced. He somehow sold to make a swinging neckbreaker look violent, and that thing usually looks like garbage. The Ganso Bomb looked utterly fucked; like CCTV footage of an assault and battery from that angle. Also on the lariats he took late in the match, there were women in the front row clasping their hands in front of their mouths and made a great visual. I thought it was pretty brilliant how they didn't immediately let Tenryu come in hot after the first Orihara FIP bit either; Kabuki blindsiding him really allowed the second hot tag to feel like The Big One instead. Tenryu obviously doesn't take kindly to that though and starts breaking up half of every pinfall, which helped the match fly further into a chaotic spectacle. The ref didn't need to squeeze in a cardio workout that week, let's say that much. And Tenryu breaking up the pinfalls with the most unpretty kicks to the head looked possibly even more disgustingly violent than anything, especially thanks to how Kitahara didn't bump or turn for them, but instead just jolted his head and stayed in place. Deranged classic.
Masao Orihara vs. Shinjiro Otani (WAR 1/16/94)
What if you spend 20 minutes in the eleventh gear? There are definitely some moments of this that could have used more selling (Orihara post-leglock) but I think what separates this from a mindless spotfest (or whatever) is that it very much felt to me like these two were throwing moves around in spite of - maybe even as a response to - the punishment taken, and not just to surprise everybody and make it a reversal-fest. There was more of a defiance to pain as oppose to an absence of it. Not to mention there was a large amount of selling anyway, tons of drunken stumbling, exhausted head-bobbling and heavy breathing; every move looked like it took hell to execute. Otani had one great miss where he went for a slap and hit wind because he groggily fell backward on his ass as it was happening. Even in the piledriver trading bit they both looked like crumpled messes (and one of the piledrivers that Orihara took holy FUCK). But anyway, the match was stiff as fuck and it takes a lot to make even your usual headlock/off the ropes/leapfrog bits look not only rugged, but really nasty and hateful. It was basically a 20 minute battle over who could better physically say "fuck you" as they continually laid each other out and kept giving cheapshots even as they lay there on the mat after a hit. Otani going for the leg initially came off as smart strategy because he clearly needed a break from being on his feet, but sadly for him he was in position for Orihara to stomp on his head while in the hold. If back and forth junior wrestling had to be popularised, I wish it was more influenced by something like this than Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid. No beers after it that's for sure.
