10 Best Wrestling Tag Team Matches Ever

9. Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Ishin Gundan (AJPW New Year Wars - 1 Feb 1986)

Genichiro Tenryu
AJPW

As much as anything else, All Japan Pro Wrestling's famous King's Road style is known for the brutal toll it took on its most acclaimed practitioners' bodies. This was a stiff, brutal, gut-wrenching style rife with flesh-rending chops and unprotected head drops. Though it resulted in some of the most dramatic matches of all time, it came at a cost: Mitsuharu Misawa literally died for his art, Kenta Kobashi ground both knees to dust, and fellow Pillars Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada bear their own scars.

King's Road didn't peak until the '90s. Here, we the first sprouts of green from its bulb. Genichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Riki Choshu and Yoshiaki Yatsu was a thumping brutalisation of Choshu's already-injured ribs and an instant elevation of the Japanese tag format towards something more intense and action-packed, writing the future's blueprint.

Highlighted by Choshu's wonderful defensive performance against two all-time bad*sses, this was a wild, crazy bout with destructive strikes, chairshots, blood, and nearfalls, but never too much. That's the art, and that this important tag wrestling touchstone is often overlooked in these debates is a shame.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for six years and is currently WhatCulture's Senior Wrestling Reporter. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.