Of course, I discovered Mutoh as The Great Muta as a kid through the Funk vs Flair rivalry in 1989 but I have only seldom seen Genichiro Tenryu stuff (mostly from his appearances in WWF shows from 91 to 93) so I'm curious to hear about how much of an impact this rivalry has had on puro in general. What are THE Mutoh vs Tenryu matches and angles that are highly regarded and are a must-see for people like me always looking to widen their horizons about puroresu?

Most would point to the 2001 Triple Crown match as their best and I would agree. Grumpy, hard-hitting Tenryu is my favorite Tenryu but he's also terrific in these more technical championship matches. It's a bit slow in the beginning but builds extremely well. I love escalation in longer matches like these because it makes everything feel earned and that the slow start was worth the wait. I would probably still go Park-Santo as the 2001 MOTY but this is an extremely close second.