Genichiro Tenryu

[10.0] "I think Tenryu is underrated and underappreciated when it come to mentioning all time greats of Japanese wrestling or pro wrestling in general. He was a certified bad ass, no bullshit. He had great, physical hard hitting matches."

[10.0] "the greatest wrestler of all time. i wish other workers would follow his lead. no other worker has ever expressed so much emotion with just their face"

"Genichiro Tenryu's career is one of the most impressive in Japanese wrestling, and his workrate has always been top-tier. Tenryu's style was always hard-hitting and intense from his early days in All Japan to his later runs in New Japan and the indies. What stood out about him was how he could work with anyone--whether it was juniors doing high-flying stuff or heavyweights throwing bombs. He didn't rely on flashy moves or big drama; he just brought intensity and authenticity that made every match feel real. Some of his best work came in matches against legends like Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Keiji Mutoh, each one showing how adaptable and tough he was in the ring. Tenryu might not have been the flashiest or most over-the-top guy, but his focus, physicality, and no-nonsense approach to wrestling make him a true legend in the sport."

[10.0] "easily one of, if not the best to ever do this, tenryu has been nearly everywhere in japan, has countless great matches over his 15 year career, he may have not been as flashy in the ring as some wrestlers of his time, namely the pillars and musketeers, but tenryu always found a way to not only stay relevant, but stay a star no matter how old he was"

[10.0] "Every single Tenryu match goes the same way for. First 5-10 minutes, "man this is boring, " last half of the match, "this is the best match I have ever seen." Tenryu also has the best old man run in pro wrestling history. Ages like fine wine."

[10.0] "The greatest wrestler ever. I have a few people who I might prefer just as favorites of mine, but if you're trying to break wrestling down into some sort of "objective" greatness scale, Tenryu would almost definitely be at the top. He's a complete monster of a worker, able to structure a match like no other. Everything he does comes off as powerful. At no point in his career is he bad or incapable of having amazing matches. He also ran WAR which is maybe the best promotion ever so he gets even more credit for that. Really just perfect, there's no need for anything beyond saying that."

[10.0] "Tenryu had the fortune of realising how simple wrestling is. When all else fails, punch someone in the face, slap em loud across the chest, draw some blood from em. Anything with real good contact tends to work out alright. Worked all the big names in puro except for Maeda the coward. Quite possibly has the best body of work with enough footage to back up the claim. Not as reactive a wrestler as I'd like but deceptively more versatile that most would expect (the SWS/WAR work is vital in demonstrating this quality). Probably the greatest wrestler than I don't consider a favourite."

[10.0] "The king of japanese pro wrestling. One of my all time favorites, he can do any style in wrestling. Great longevity, still giving great matches in his 50s. The guy who has pinned Giant Baba and Inoki, that shows how great it is. Also one of the coolest wrestler ever with his appearence, entrance, and charisma."

[10.0] "Having gone back and watched his career from AJPW through SWS, WAR, NJPW, then back again to AJPW and NOAH I was dumbfounded to discover there was hardly a solitary match this man had in Japan between the years of 1990 and 2005 that wasn't top notch. What an absolute king. Consistently amazing main event quality matches for fifteen straight years. Hell, even his tag matches were incredible. The man got classic bouts out of Nobutaku Araya and Isao Takagi, for the love of God. Age caught up with him eventually but his prime years were something special."

[10.0] "Forgive me, I'm not one who has seen *that much* Japanese wrestling. I've seen his Japanese work but it was mostly against American foes. This dude gelled well with everyone and was always able to adapt to anyone's style. Had to have been an excellent communicator as the matches tend to have ebbs and flows, gives and takes. Probably the best "previous century" Japanese wrestler who wasn't a trend setting trail blazer. Ultra rad chops and some of them sounded like ballistic tests. Solid and damn dependable. it's going to be a good match and you're going to be sucked in. 9.5"

[10.0] "One of the most dedicated guy for this business. WAR founder, trainer, brilliant wrestler. Incredibly important person for whole puroresu history."

[10.0] "The Living Legend has done so much in his career. From being the top star of AJPW alongside Jumbo Tsuruta in the 80s, to the Ace of SWS, to founding WAR, he has produced magic wherever he went. Tenryu has the longevity, the adaptability, he was a great all-around talent in between the ropes and had the charisma to be the top star as this intimidating SOB. Hes not nicknamed Mr. Pro Wrestling in Japan for no reason."

[10.0] "Genichiro Tenryu started as a rikishi (sumo wrestler) in 1964 reaching the makushi division and winning the Aki Basho at Tokyo (september 1970) before leaving sumo wrestling at the age of 26 in September 1976 and despite his career still showed promise. Shortly after Tenryu entered AJPW dojo under Baba instruction was sent to Texas to be trained by Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk. Back to AJPW Tenryu become the 2nd ace of the promotion just behind Tsuruta his tag team partner and biggest rival and also feud with the like of Choshu for the most part of the 80s. In the 90s Tenryu toured a lot for SWS, WWF (Royal Rumble 1993), NJPW and founded his own promotion WAR (Wrestling And Romance). In the early 2000s Tenryu was back in AJPW after the exodus of Misawa and co and he's the real ace of the promotion at this time despite the fact that he's 50+ years old. He's also a great trainer with his best 2 students Kawada and Ishii. Tenryu had decided to retire from professional wrestling on November 15 after a final match against Okada after 39 years inside the ring. He's a 10 with his grumpy face looking like a tilted father/great father who want to kick you cause you are a disrespectful son for real even young Tenruy looking older. He's a great techniker and also a powerful wrestler with a strong spirit, a great selling (like his student Kawada) one of my favourite powerbomb and lariat ever. He's my favourite grandpa."

[10.0] "Such an amazing amount of charisma, he is such a killer, he is the saviour of All Japan in the 2000s."

[10.0] "What people bill Minoru Suzuki as, is what Genichiro Tenryu is. His 80s & 90s work will have a special place in my heart because that was my introduction to Tenryu but the 2 decades after it are just as pivotal to his legacy. He's a guy who purely gets what pro wrestling needs to be & is able to do it perfectly, hence the nickname."

[10.0] "one of the greatest wrestlers of not only his generation, but the one after it, too, the longevity and adaptability of Tenryu made him a timeless star in puroresu. while i am a big fan of his work during the 1980s and 1990s, it was his transformation during the latter half of the latter decade into an angry old man that cemented him as one of my all time favourites. always grumpy, always stiff, and always charismatic and entertaining. it says a lot about him that he arguably had the best run of his career as he was entering his early 50s after two decades of already being regarded as one of the elite talents in Japan. a beloved figure and undeniable legend, nobody is more deserving of the "Mr. Pro Wrestling" nickname."

[9.0] "Genichiro Tenryu is one of the biggest and most recognizable legends of puroresu history. A contemporary of all-time greats like Jumbo Tsuruta (who he has also feuded with), Tenryu came up in AJPW, and was one of the best in Japan during the 80s, with countless great and classic matches. Tenryu was also a proficient tag wrestler and helped train the likes of Toshiaki Kawada and Tomohiro Ishii, as well as creating his own promotion: WAR. I personally loved WAR, it was a very solid alternative to 90s NJPW and AJPW and helped enrich the Japanese indies, with high-caliber talent often performing on its shows. Tenryu would go on to become everyone's favorite grappler grandpa in the 2000s, when he continued to perform rather regularly despite his age. I recommend also watching his retirement match against Kazuchika Okada in 2015. Finally, he was nicknamed "Mr. Pro Wrestling", and for good reason; 9/10."

[10.0] "I will always love grumpy old veteran beats up young up starts and that is how I was first introduced to Tenyru. He can be up and down dependent on motivation but when he is good he is outrageously good."

[9.0] "It's difficult to grade a guy like Genichiro Tenryu: as much as a legend as he is, the actual quality of Mr. Puroresu is wildly varied, from the sluggish early years as a bland babyface in late-Baba era AJPW to his utterly amazing work in the 80's as a brutal main event act with attitude and utter stroicism in his bouts, to his flagging years in WAR and having dream matches in SWS, all the way to NOAH and NJPW stints as well as being a grumpy straight man in the HUSTLE, the list of runs goes on and on. If we are talking about longevity, Tenryu is probably one of the greatest of all time. He remained a relevant figure in wrestling for numerous decades while maintaining a good consistency of wrestling quality throughout. The issue is that Tenryu had a really bad case of phoning it in and making it really obvious when he wasn't bothered: much like a certain Randy Orton, his attitude means he can be great one night and be utterly meh the next. Don't get me wrong, when he's motivated, he's one of the best in the world, a fearless striker with some of the most horrific stiff strikes a person could ever imagine, but a lot of the time he wasn't, and it shows in his performances. The years he spent in WAR in his wrestling prime fighting guys who weren't particularly near his level drags him down a fair bit for myself. That being said: he's still undoubtfully a legend of wrestling and the wars he's had with virtually every major star in Puroresu are spectacular. The man could sell like a boss for anyone and legitimised many a wrestler with his ability to really take as brutal a shot as he dished out. Completely unselfish in the latter part of his career and was willing to lose to virtually anyone for good reason."

[10.0] "I, to be honest, am surprised why Tenryu is not in the first place in the top of wrestlers on this site. Genichiro combined a man who gave wrestling a giant push and a frenzied popularity, and at the same time was a wonderful and completely diverse performer in all periods of his career. Mr. Pro-Wrestling was always interesting. In the 80's, he charmed with his fighting spirit, which led to the gradual creation of King's Road. Amazing matches, iconic confrontations, climbing to the top and finally forming the best wrestler on the planet. Disagreements with Shohei Baba may have robbed us of many "dream matches" against the Four Pillars of Heaven when Tenryu was in prime form, but it fully paid off with Genichiro's adventures in the 90s. A small run in the WWF, SWS, NJPW and of course the memorable WAR - he gave it his all in these places and gave puroresu the rebellious spirit that the industry so needed. AJPW at that time was a great promotion and I share the opinion of "the best time in the business", but Tenryu gave people an alternative that I personally prefer. Genichiro in the 00s... This is the divine Genichiro, this is the second coming, without any exaggeration. The body loses its shape, age makes itself felt, but Tenryu is not going to just give up and write himself off: he pays great attention to the development of his personality in ALL matches, and the audience is literally absorbed in the story of an evil uncle who turns his opponents into dust. Sometimes he could do it seriously, sometimes deliberately caricatured - any of these hypostases looked great and you believe in each one. The trip to HUSTLE... There are no words to describe it. When such business legends do not hesitate to adapt to the comedy entourage - it deserves respect. Watching the 57-year-old Tenryu was much more interesting than watching a lot of modern wrestlers, and this is not a reproach in their direction, just Genichiro loved his job to the last and was devoted to wrestling. I haven't reached the final stage yet, apart from some matches in the farewell tour and, of course, the match against Okada, but I am sure that this will not disappoint me. Tenryu is a legendary wrestler who combines all the necessary qualities and is able to adapt to modern realities, remaining true to himself. I think he is very undervalued outside of Japan, and I would like fans to be interested in this man and all the diversity of his career, not only in AJPW, but in other places, in each of which he has left his mark. Easily the top 5 of my all-time favorite wrestlers."

[7.0] "A mostly great worker (when motivated), a distinguished track record, and quite the draw in his time. Tenryu added some fun, grumpy flavor to a main event scene, but he was also a rather minimalistic and inconsistent worker who never quite had the charisma or passion that his more excellent contemporaries did (be it Tsuruta in his youth, Hashimoto in the 90s, or several in the 2000s). Even still, an important figure in wrestling history, one that his markedly superior pupil, Ishii, owes much to."

[8.0] "If you want an older striker who is comparable to our modern-day legends like Shibata and Ishii then look no further than Tenryu. He was doing the 'grumpy old veteran who will beat the hell out of cheeky youngsters' schtick since at least the early 90s and it was always fantastic. He didn't hold back on his strikes like certain other 'famous' strikers *cough* Shinya Hashimoto *cough*; he just fully unloaded with as much power behind them as he could manage. Given that he apparently didn't have any real striking training prior to his wrestling career, and given his particular body proportions, he was never the type of guy to hit his strikes in an impressive technical manner. He was similar to Hashimoto in this regard, but what stopped this being a major issue was that he always had the strong impact in his strikes to ensure they were still great, and his general attitude always felt appropriately warrior-like to match, so I never struggled believing that he was really beating someone within an inch of their life with his massive chops and lariats. His power moves were also always very brutal, though his finishing powerbomb would occasionally look a bit too sloppy to come across as credible. I thought his selling was fantastic, since his stunned and near unconscious acting was very memorable and perfectly put over his opponents' attacks. My favourite part of Tenryu's career was seeing him when he was far past his prime, around 2000-2008 when he would have been 50+, since that was when he got to mix it up in the ring with the new generation of stars and prove he still had the intensity to keep up with them. His best matches were in NOAH and AJPW in this period as well, since I mostly found his earlier work in NJPW, SWS, and pre-2000s AJPW to be good but disappointing because he never really had an opponent who could actually match his level of talent. He's definitely a wrestling legend, though for me he still isn't one of the all-time top workers."

[8.0] "He was great when on the offensive and amazing at facial expressions and story telling. However his selling was spotty (and mind he was otherwise an excellent seller) and he fought all his career with the tear and wear on his body resulting from his sumo days. Apparently quite a character in real life and he has long been surrounded by all sorts of wild rumors, from substance abuse to a close association with the mob. Needless to say an amazingly charismatic worker."

[10.0] "Talented man! Very exciting to watch. He one of mine Japanese favorites along with Antonio Inoki. He only wrestled in North America like less than 10 times. He was memorable in WWE for Wrestlemania 8, Royal Rumble 1993 and 1994. Wrestled for nearly 40 years."

[9.0] "In his day, Genichiro Tenryu was by far the best at being the grumpy old veteran. It's a shame that he didn't stay with All Japan, because Tenryu as the established star fending off the likes of Misawa and Kobashi would have made for great matches."

[10.0] "As odd as this may sound, Genichiro Tenryu may be the most unappreciated wrestler ever. Yes, everyone who knows of him always praises him as one of the best ever. But when it comes down to it, he almost never gets plaudits and is often forgotten in favour for other wrestlers. Tenryu consistently used his in-ring smarts to stay on the top of his game, no matter if it was 80's All Japan, New Japan, NOAH, even WWE for a few brief appearances. He always made an impact in someway and never gets praised for it, it seems. IMO, Tenryu is an all time great. Ability to work with anyone he faced and got something good out of the match. His selling. His strikes. His uncanny ability to be stoic but at the same time, highly charismatic in his facial features and his body language. His match resume speaks for itself. Hashimoto, Takada, Jumbo, Hansen, Mutoh, Kojima, Shibata. No matter who with, Tenryu was the man. Then, now, always."

"He used to be stiff and I like it. He always seemed to look down on his opponents, which i like too. I also like his face and his haircut."

[8.0] "Stayed in the game for too long, which kind of tarnished his legacy a bit but he did at the very least had a serviceable retirement match and put over the right guy in his final outing. Deserved props for revolutionizing how one could work in the ring alongside Tsuruta."

[10.0] "Maybe not the most spectacular wrestler, but hell he knew how to give a great stiff match! Even his 80's fights stood the test of time and are still very enjoyable to watch. Any tag or single fight with another big name in it is worth watching when Tenryu is involved. He won everything and is the only Japanese wrestler to defeat both Inoki and Baba by pinfall. He was still wrestling 4 stars + matches at an age where many men let alone wrestlers are already in retirement. He and Tsuruta created the blue print for all those crazy AJPW heavyweight Fights in the 90s . A Legend among Legends of pro-wrestling"

[10.0] "His ability to put on consistently good, hard hitting, matches - even late into life, is impressive. Additionally, demonstrated ability to carry promotions, including his own - which provided a scene on the indy's for younger talent to get experience, etc..."

[10.0] "Brilliant wrestler, with all-time great facial expressions and charisma. Maintained a incredible high level for a very long time."

[10.0] "A legend before 2000, Tenryu continued his work in New Japan and All Japan capturing several championships and accolades along the way."

[10.0] "Tenryu great wrestler during his prime, best grumpy man out there the true thunder ryu."