Tenryu Genichiro, 76, the only Japanese wrestler to score three counts over both Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, now uses a wheelchair and struggles to walk unaided after major neck surgery in 2022. A documentary segment aired by ABEMA Entertainment's "NO MAKE" series followed him as he tackled punishing walking rehabilitation in a seniors' residence, saying he wants "to take care of myself."
Years of hard matches left the bones of his neck in a serious state, and doctors found a risk of sudden death. In 2022 he had major surgery in which four bolts were driven into his skull to fix the neck in place. The operation saved his life, but he now has difficulty walking and needs help eating, bathing and using the toilet.
His daughter Mona had been caring for him alone, and the arrangement reached its limit. Since December 2025 he has lived in a residence for older people with care staff on site.
Awake at 1 a.m., chewing gum to keep talking
Tenryu told the program he wakes at 3 or 4 in the morning. "Dinner finishes at 6 p.m. and then there's nothing left to do," he said. "I wake up around 1 in the morning and then go back to bed."
Alone in his room, he keeps chewing gum. "I don't like it, but I have to chew it," he said. "I'm by myself in the room, and if I spend all my time silent, talking becomes a bother. It builds up the jaw muscles."
When the crew visited, he greeted them with a grin: "I'm still hanging on." Asked about the woman beside him, he joked that she was his mistress before correcting himself — "she's my one and only daughter" — and added that he had been "kicked out." Mona shot back, "You're always saying that!".
Talking to his late wife's photograph
His wife Makiyo, to whom he was married for 40 years, died in 2022. In the room with the care bed, he spoke of the loneliness. "Sometimes it's lonely with no one to talk to," he said. "Talking to my wife's photograph is my occasional comfort. I say, 'Makiyo, this is what happened today,' or 'I've had enough.' If anyone were there to see me talking to myself, I'd hesitate."
Tenryu's career made him one of Japanese pro wrestling's best-known figures. Pinning Baba and Inoki — the two men who defined the sport's postwar landscape — is a distinction no other Japanese wrestler holds.