Genichiro Tenryu
Japanese professional wrestler and rikishi
天龍源一郎 · 덴류 겐이치로
- Born
- 2 February 1950, Katsuyama
- Citizenship
- Japan
- Sport
- sumo
- Occupation
- rikishi, professional wrestler
- Height
- 189 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Genichiro Shimada (嶋田 源一郎, Shimada Gen'ichirō; born February 2, 1950), better known as Genichiro Tenryu (天龍 源一郎, Tenryū Gen'ichirō) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was his shikona. He had two stints with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he spent the majority of his career while also promoting Super World of Sports (SWS), Wrestle Association R (WAR) and Tenryu Project. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. At the time of his retirement, professional wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer wrote that "one could make a strong case [that Tenryu was] between the fourth and sixth biggest native star" in the history of Japanese professional wrestling.
Awards and honours
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame
Teachers
- Giant Baba
- Dory Funk Jr.
- Terry Funk
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q610157 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.