10 WWE Hall Of Fame 2017 Inductions That Must Happen
7. The Foreigner - Genichiro Tenryu
Genichiro Tenryu laid his 39-year wrestling career to rest with a loss to current NJPW ace Kazuchika Okada last year. Though far from the most spectacular in-ring worker, few competitors were more believable than Mr. Puroresu. Tenryu worked with legendary stiffness, and aged incredibly gracefully in terms of ring years: see his 2001 Wrestling Observer Match of the Year with Keiji Mutoh as an example (Tenryu was 51 years old at the time).
The grumpiest man in professional wrestling, Tenryu projected an aura of intimidation that few could match. He was legitimately one of the scariest men in the sport, even up to his retirement, and he demonstrated the ability to carry promotions entirely on his back throughout a career spanning five decades.
From legendary matches with Riki Choshu and Shinya Hashimoto to his era-defining, "passing of the torch" rivalry with Jumbo Tsuruta, Tenryu did it all. The only thing working against him is his thin American resume: Tenryu wrestled in a tag match at WrestleMania VII, appeared in the 1993 Royal Rumble, and made the final five in the same match the following year, but that was the extent of it.
Still, for his accomplishments in his native Japan, Tenryu should soon be sliding into the WWE Hall of Fame. He wrestled Ric Flair for AJPW in 1984 and again for Super World Sports in 1992, making the Nature Boy a natural choice to induct him.