Watching this match really made me sad. It reminded me just how awesome Terry Gordy was, especially when he was in All Japan. He was great in Texas and Mid South, but it was in All Japan rings were he truly demonstrated his complete skill. He was truly ahead of his time as a mobile and athletic big man who could deliver quite the beating. Terry is definately one who left us way too early.
Our setting for this match his Budokan Hall, Sept 2, 1989 and is Tenryu's second title defense. We get the amazing Lord James Blears reading the Title Match proclamation, including the match being sanctioned by both the National Wrestling Alliance and the Pacific Wrestling Federation. And once the reading is done, the streamers hit and Tenryu attacks Gordy's second (I couldn't tell who it was although I think I should have known) and gives him a power bomb. Gordy then attacks Tenryu and gives him a power bomb of his own. An amazing start to the match.
The match is itself is really good, very strong and stiff, although a bit short. It probably goes 12 minutes, so it certainly isn't an epic. And although the crowd is into the match, they never become unhinged. But with that said, it is a fun 12 minutes. Gordy is on offense for most of the match and we can see how versatile he is. He moves great and throws some crazy stiff clotheslines during the match. As much as I like Tenryu, I really think it is Gordy who shines here and his offense just looks so great.
They build most of the match around the two trying to maneuver the other into position for a power bomb. Eventually, Tenryu hits it, but Gordy kicks out! Tenryu then gets him up again, but Gordy reverses it and kind of rolls through the attempt. But Tenryu holds on and gets him up again and hits it, bringing the match to an end.
Really great stuff and it is too bad Tenryu soon left AJPW because this could have been a great rivalry with sequences of matches that continued to build upon one another.
