MID-Tier Match Reviews: Hulk Hogan vs. Genichiro Tenryu – SWS SuperWrestle In Tokyo Dome

Hulk Hogan’s death on July 24th has been one of the biggest wrestling news stories of the year so far. It was one of the rare instances when something about pro-wrestling made national headlines and received coverage by outlets that normally didn’t care for it. His passing brought a wave of tributes and renewed discussion about the man’s legacy, with some people focusing on him at his peak and others focusing on the many controversies that followed him for the better part of his life. For those who’ve opted to focus on Hogan the wrestler, most of the attention has been given to his WWF/E contributions, but what about the things he did elsewhere? Well luckily I’ve found a rare match of Hogan wrestling outside of North America and it’s a nice little example of Hogan being smart enough to understand that different things get over with different audiences.

The Story

There isn’t much of a story between these two individuals in universe, with this match serving as a token dream match and a means of elevating SWS’s credibility by hosting the biggest wrestling star in the world. Instead, the real story centers on how this match came about which comes courtesy of how Tenryu’s promotion Super World of Sports came about. Much has already been written about Tenryu’s defection from AJPW in 1990: that he wanted more money, that he had creative disputes with Baba, that he wanted to change things but was powerless to do so, that he got lured away, and so on. For the sake of this review I’ll be using Tenryu’s 2015 book FINAL Revolution, written by him, his wife, and their daughter.

Many different parts of this narrative are true to some degree. From his own perspective, Tenryu does recall wanting a pay raise in 1990 because his Revolution stable was “revitalizing” AJPW’s product and adding more intrigue to a stale product that, in his mind, “lagged behind New Japan”. He didn’t just want a pay raise for himself; he also wanted one for wrestlers across the board, only to be denied. Faced with a double whammy of his hard work not being recognized financially and not seeing benefits in the form of his peers getting better treatment, Tenryu found an easy out when he was lured by Megane Super with the promise of both a bigger payday and the power to realize his vision. Tenryu also quashes rumors that he had a fight with Baba, which was reported by the wrestling press, noting that Baba was rather calm when he responded with something to the effect of “I understand. Do your best”, in typical Japanese neutrality.

Tenryu also saw SWS as an opportunity to “seek new battles”, hence this match with Hogan. On one hand Hogan was huge get, well worth the $1,000,000 annual price tag for all WWF-contracted wrestlers. On the other hand, Tenryu recalls not being interested in “the flashy presentations and performances of American pro wrestling, especially WWF’s style”, which is why he shuttered at the idea of working with “Macho Man” Randy Savage at the NJPW/AJPW/WWF Wrestling Summit in 1990. But it looks like money talks and a year-and-a-half later Tenryu was willing to put those personal matters aside and wrestle (read: be fed to): peak 1990s Hulk Hogan.

The Match

This took place on December 12, 1991. It was rated *1/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Hogan offers a handshake and Tenryu accepts. They lock-up and Hogan rolls into a cross armbreaker attempt but Tenryu counters into a leglock. Hogan gets a ropebreak and then a feeling out process begins. They go for a test of strength but Hogan counters with a drop toehold into a chinlock. Big corner chop from Tenryu. Some stalling and taunting by Hogan followed by a waistlock takedown. Tenryu out-wrestles him and lands another big chop, leading or more stalling. Hogan with more chain grappling. Tenryu escapes a front chancery. Standing strike exchange. Hogan rakes the eyes. Tenryu ducks an Ax Bomber. Tenryu blocks a big boot and applies a leglock. Hogan gets a ropebreak, bails, returns, and lands a back elbow. His next big boot connects for two so he applies a sleeper. Corner lariat by Hogan followed by a Boston crab. Hogan lands punches to the head and then a Jumbo Tsuruta-style jumping knee. Hogan takes recoil damage so Tenryu capitalizes with an enzuigiri.

Hogan bails to ringside but Tenryu chases him down and chairs him in the back of his weakened leg. Back in the ring Tenryu lands a lariat and another enzuigiri for two. Leglock by Tenryu. Hogan elbows out so Tenryu soccer kicks his face and lands a folding powerbomb for two. Hogan crosschops Tenryu’s throat and lands the slam/leg drop of doom combo for two. Ax Bomber crooked arm lariat. Tenryu kicks out. Hogan goes for another boot. Tenryu catches it but Hogan counters with an enzuigiri. Tenryu works the bad leg but Hogan doesn’t give up. Tenryu follows with some taunting/angry strikes but Hogan retaliates with another Ax Bomber. He drops some elbows and lands another leg drop but Tenryu kicks out. They repeat the leg capture/enzuigiri spot and then Hogan lands not one, not two, but three Ax Bombers to get the three-count and win the match.

Winner after 13:57: Hulk Hogan

You can watch the full match here.

Review

This was passable but underwhelming. I’ve seen other matches involving Hogan wrestling outside of the WWF/WCW framework and those were much better than this one. Despite the hot crowd, the actual action wasn’t worth the main-event slot. Though it was expected that Hogan would demand the headlining spot in any outside project, you’d think that he would put in at least somewhat more effort. But he didn’t. Unlike his match with Stan Hansen in 1990, this match had much more stalling and repetition. Sure, there was the novelty of Hogan chain grappling and doing technical stuff but in this match that didn’t go anywhere. It was as if Hogan had a mental checklist of what to show off to this audience and once that was done he shifted back to his typical WWF-style narrative match, albeit with a slightly more realistic paintjob. It was largely the same Hogan format but done in a way that emphasized technique over character, which played to the audience’s taste. But it was all flash and no substance. It was just showing off that Hogan could do different things yet unlike in his other matches abroad here it didn’t really add to the match in a meaningful way.

While the match wasn’t boring, overbooked, or overly cartoonish as was typical of Hogan matches, it was also underwhelming in other ways. There was way too much stalling from Hogan. They teased and build these encounters and clashes but the payoffs were middling. They kept things a bit too basic with nothing really coming across as all that impactful. Tenryu’s working the leg didn’t lead to anything. Hogan’s selling was at best inconsistent, at worst nonexistent. There was plenty of motion but not enough movement, leading to much of this match’s “action” to come across as empty and meaningless. So while the sight of Hogan wrestling seriously made for an interesting surprise, it didn’t lead to anything truly special otherwise. And when it came to the meat of the match it was a typical WWE finisher fest without much in the way of novelty beyond someone kicking out of Hogan’s Leg Drop of Doom. Though if you’ve seen Hogan outside WWF/WCW before then this isn’t all that surprising.

Final Rating: **

This is a perfectly average match that’s doesn’t feature anything new after the first five minutes. It’s pure novelty for those who only know Hulk Hogan for his work during the peak of his popularity and presumed he couldn’t do anything else even if he tried. Well it turns out that he did and this match reinforces the notion that Hogan was smart enough to fine tune his wrestling to fit different audiences. But there are other matches featuring Hogan wrestling abroad that are much better than this one, like his match with Muta in 1993 and his match with Stan Hansen in 1990. Both of those are better overall matches than this one so if you had to pick I’d recommend either of those instead.

Thanks for reading.