Tajiri v Super Crazy (Mexican Death Match) (ECW on TNN 1/15/00)
Yeah, this was bad ass. Tajiri is on a totally different level here. Fucking ruled it. Spits on people, mocks Crazy in genuinely funny ways, throws amazing looking kicks, the whole nine. Total psycho. He does this thing where he tries to slide a chair across a table and belt Crazy in the mouth with it. Think skimming a stone across a river. Well, Crazy ducks and the chair flies into the crowd and almost decapitates some poor motherfucker. Crazy probably comes back from the early beating a bit too easily -- he seems more "fresh" than he really should. Still, that's the only thing I'd point to as a "complaint," because everything else he did was nutty and hit pretty much perfectly. Moonsault off the bleachers through the table was an awesome spot. Tarantula spot was also fucking awesome. I honestly didn't see it coming despite the fact you can usually tell when it's on its way. I mean, I don't even mind the fact it's generally a contrived spot, but it's way cool when it pops up in a totally surprising fashion with a nifty set up like this. Favourite spot of the match might've been Tajiri grabbing a pair of pliers and sticking them in Crazy's mouth like he's trying to yank his teeth out. That was fucking AWESOME. Don't remember anybody ever doing that before. It's a great twist on the "stab opponent in the forehead with foreign object" bit. Final sequence with the mist and powerbomb through the table looked great and super-impactful. They set up tables, so you know there's some table spot coming, but they managed to pull if off in a way that still came off as a quick thinking reversal of sorts. You know SOMETHING is coming, just not when, then when it does you're not left thinking you saw it a mile off. Ridiculously enjoyable match, and maybe my US MOTY.
Tajiri v Little Guido (ECW on TNN, 3/24/00)
Well fuck my face. For a six/seven minute TV match, this was fantastic. I've watched this three times in the last two days and I honestly couldn't ask for anything more. Some awesome spots in this. Tajiri is just out of this world great again and wings brutal looking kicks. He dropkicks Guido in the stones to counter a leapfrog in the first 20 seconds and YOU are instantly hooked. He props Guido in the corner in a tree of woe position and sits a chair in front of his face, and I expected him to do the baseball slide dropkick spot, but instead he just stomps the chair straight in his face. It looked nasty as all fuck. Hell, Tajiri MISSING chair shots even looks nuts. He doesn't swing the chair, he just recklessly launches the thing across the ring and you can buy it taking Guido's head off had it connected. Loved the table spot here, too. Sal interferes and Tajiri winds up on the table. Guido gets up on Sal's shoulders, but Tajiri pops up, stands on the table and mists Sal in the face, and as Guido falls off his shoulders Tajiri hits a face buster on the edge of the table. Then he gives him a suplex/brainbuster across it and it the table doesn't break. Guido landed like it dislocated every disc in his spine. Pretty sure I need to watch every single thing Tajiri ever did in ECW.
Tajiri v Super Crazy v Little Guido (ECW on TNN, 4/8/00)
Man, this ruled as well (and it happened on my birthday!). I don't want to take anything away from Crazy and Guido, because those guys killed it here, but this feels like a Tajiri show. And you want every second of it. He's a complete maniac in this, hurling insane kicks, killing dudes with all sorts of nasty shit, stabbing folks with a crowbar, etc...generally coming across as an unfuckwithable little psychopath. Brutal spot where he sets Guido up on the apron and dropkicks the edge of a table right into his face. He stands tall in the middle of the ring with all this carnage around him - that he's caused - and the crowd just totally lose it for him. Great fucking moment. I don't really like triple threats since it usually requires one guy to sit at the side for a while doing nothing, but Sal's interference in this helped offset that. Plus he's involved in one of the best spots of the match. He stands on the apron holding a chair so Guido can whip him into it, but as Tajiri hits the ropes he does the handspring elbow, dropkicking the chair into Sal's face on the handspring part, and Sal takes a big fatty bump through the table on the floor. Hell of a finish as well. Really, this was great. Wouldn't put it on the level of the Tajiri/Crazy Mexican Death Match, but I don't think it's terribly far behind it.
Tajiri. I love that crazy little motherfucker.
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