Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu - Triple Crown Championship Match 1

I love Tenryu. I have nothing but respect for Jumbo and I do enjoy his matches (I have often said from 86-90, Jumbo is the best wrestler in the world). But of all the wrestlers who made their home in All Japan at various points during the 1980's, I would say that Tenryu is probably my favorite. He is remarkably able to blend and adapt to different styles of matches, whether they be brawls with the likes of Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody, or a more traditional technical strong style match with opponents like Jumbo. Whatever the type or style of match, he never seems out of place.

Sadly, this will be one of the few Tenryu matches in the Triple Crown series. In the Spring of 1990, he departed All Japan to form the Super World of Sports promotion. While this deprived us of his skills and abilities in All Japan during the 1990's, it forced Giant Baba and All Japan to radically change their internal hierarchy and push wrestlers like Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi well before he typically would. But the end result of this sequence of events was the greatest series of wrestling matches ever, as we will document here.

This match is from April 20, 1989 in Yokohama and is the first defense of the newly established All Japan Triple Crown. For years, Jumbo and Tenryu were partners and allies in fighting the Riki Choshu lead invasion of All Japan. But after Choshu's departure back to New Japan, Tenryu and Jumbo have had a rivalry and engaged in multiple high visibility tag and singles matches, including a match later in this series that is without a doubt one of the greatest matches of all time.

The friction between the two is obvious immediately as Jumbo offers his hand in sportsmanship while Tenryu wants nothing to do him. This sets the tone for the match and at times, just the looks between the two, with Tenryu often displaying somewhat of an aloof attitude, is enough to get the crowd going. I loved the first few minutes of this match, with the two working hard to kick and beat the other into a sense of submission.

The match eventually settles into a lull in the middle, with an extended chinlock sequence. But it does pick up again and includes an awesome suicide tope from Tenryu that is remarkable for a man of his size. After a bit Jumbo is able to gain the upper hand and take control. Soon he moves into position and begins what appears to be a false finish sequence. He gets Tenryu up for a power bomb of sorts, but botches it and not only doesn't get Tenryu up very high, but drops him on the back of his head for the spot, instead of onto his back and shoulders. It appears that he completely knocks him out with this move and Jumbo is forced to end the match prematurely with a pin, instead of what I assume was going to be a more dramatic set of false finishes from both men, before either would eventually get the win.

I don't know if my assessment is correct.  But do note that this does play huge into the next match of the series.

The crowd wasn't expecting the pin to come this quickly, and it is rather anti climatic. Afterwards, Jumbo, the ref and everyone else in the ring are continually checking on Tenryu as this finish was obviously unexpected. I am not sure I have ever read anything in depth on what happened here, so I can only assume that this wasn't planned and the match ended prematurely. But the ending does indeed play into and add to the drama of what will unfold at their next encounter.

Unification Match 4 - Finally

Two days later, April 18, 1989 in the famous Ryōgoku Kokugikan, otherwise known as Sumo Hall, we finally get the titles unified. Once again the match is between NWA United National & PWF Champion Stan Hansen and NWA International Champion Jumbo Tsuruta.

Much like the first match, this bout features a fair amount of both wrestling and stiff chops and kicks. But in my view, tt is not as good a contest as their previous match, two days earlier. Certainly the ending makes it a historically significant contest, but all in all, it will pale in comparison to some of the later matches to come in the Triple Crown series, which rank in my view as the greatest matches of all time.

That is not to say this match is not good. One thing you notice quickly is that the ring is mic'ed very well so that every chop is heard clearly and loudly. The two were only going 18 minutes, so for that time they gave it everything they had. They hit each other hard and give us a stiff and fun match, even if somewhat lacks drama. Eventually, the two battle outside the ring where Hansen is able to bloody Tsuruta with hard elbows to the head. Following a chair shot, they are back in the ring where Hansen signals for the Lariat and the crows pops loudly to the gesture.

An interesting aside, Hansen noted in his autobiography that whenever he hit the lariat, he always ensured that was the finish of the match. His move is obviously over and the crows knows when he hits it, that is it. He hasn't "prostituted" his move to generate false finishes. So when he signals for the lariat, something not done in the first two matches of the series, the crowd pops huge thinking they finally get their payoff!

Well, he misses the lariat, bounces off the ropes, and Jumbo quickly roles him up for the win. The crowd gets their champion, but it was so quick and unexpected, that it really fails to draw much of a reaction. The crowd is in shock and Hansen quickly recovers and the post match may be better than any of the match itself with Hansen dropping elbows on Jumbo and beating up the All Japan staff that tries to come to the aid of Tsuruta.

So the three titles are now unified into the Triple Crown, setting the stage for the greatest series of wrestling matches in history!

Unification Match 3

Six months after their last attempt at unification, we once again have NWA United National & PWF Champion Stan Hansen and NWA International Champion Jumbo Tsuruta battling to unify the titles. The setting April 16, 1989 in Korakuen Hall.

This match is much more of a brawl than their last match. The moment the bell rings, the two are at it, and Jumbo gets in a fair amount of offense against Hansen. The highlight is perhaps a knee to Hansen's face off of the third rope. The match goes about 15 minutes and is almost entirely chops, kicks and chair shots. Frankly, I don't remember what went on between the two over the previous six months, but something must have, as these two battled non stop for the whole match, with little to no wrestling.

Eventually the two take it into the crowd with their fighting, using many of the ringside Korakuen chairs. This leads to a count out and to their famous rematch that occurs two days later. As in the first match, nothing is settled and the drama and build continues.

This is a fun match. It feels about the same as their last match, certainly not epic in scope, but more enjoyable and fun. By today's standard, a 15 minute main event is too short and the double count out is weak. And even then, both Jumbo and Hansen were capable of more. But as a part of the overall story, this is fine, even though short. And Hansen is certainly at his best when trading strikes instead of headlocks, which makes it slightly better than the first match.