Yoshihiro Tajiri

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[dawho5]

He has a match in 2006 vs. Osamu Nishimura that would be worth seeing just for variety. Worked as a MUGA match with Tajiri spots thrown in at what seemed like the right moment. It may have been in the What Are You Watching or Comments that Don't Warrant a Thread posts.

[goodhelmet]

Might make it on the strength of his 1999 run. I have to think about it. Being the king of ECW in 1999 is not as great as it sounds when matched up against best guy of the decade types he'll be battling.

[Dylan Waco]

He gets in for me for two reasons - 1. He was at least arguably the best worker in the world for two consecutive years (99 and 00). I might feel differently if I watch lucha and BatBat from that period, but no one else from anywhere in the world I would have ahead of him. On top of it during this period he was unbelievably consistent, never having bad matches even on ECW house shows where plenty of other guys took the night off and/or he was booked against guys who weren't easy to work with. 2. Despite not getting a ton of chances, I think his non-ECW career is both consistent and interesting in ways you might not think. Even in recent years he's had some incredible matches both against vets and against half trained rookies. I do wish he had a bigger number of clear classics, but he has plenty of random matches that I love

[goodhelmet]

A list of non-ECW matches might help here Dylan.

[Dylan Waco]

Agree on the Nishimura match from 2006 which I love. Also love his match from IWA-PR v. El Lobo from 2001. Finlay match from a couple of years ago is great. Last year he had some incredible matches with Nishimura and Shinya Ishikawa. That's just off the top of my head with little thought

[KrisZ]

The Finlay stuff from SMASH was fun

[Chess Knight]

Not sure I can post links, here, but the three minute Tajiri/Mark Henry match from 2002 is probably one of my favourite matches of all time. Tajiri bobbing his head up and down while trying to grab Henry's leg for the tarantula is Planet Earth's best moment.

[dawho5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MovHA-5tdfI

 

Link for the Nishimura vs. Tajiri MUGA match from 07. Different than any Tajiri I had seen to that point.

[Grimmas]

Not sure I can post links, here, but the three minute Tajiri/Mark Henry match from 2002 is probably one of my favourite matches of all time. Tajiri bobbing his head up and down while trying to grab Henry's leg for the tarantula is Planet Earth's best moment.

 

You can now, anything that others upload on youtube is free game.

[BillThompson]

Dylan makes an interesting case, and in a lot of ways Tajiri is the poster child for Matt's way of analyzing wrestling. I don't think he was ever in that many great matches, at least not during his ECW/WWE tenure, but he was always great. The facial mannerisms, the rugged crispness of his moves, the way he used psychology to connect with the fans, all of those are elements of pro wrestling that Tajiri excelled in regardless of the overall quality of the match.

[Grimmas]

Tajiri makes my list with ease. One of my all time favourites as he just oozes a strange charisma.

 

Being the best wrestler in the USA in 99/00 helps his case a lot, plus the other awesome matches he was able to have through his career.

 

I love the selling, the kicks, the whacked out submissions, the facial expressions, the mist and the fact all of his matches just feel good to watch.

[Timbo Slice]

Holy shit, I didn't post on TAJIRI until now? What the hell?

 

Yeah, Tajiri is gonna get on at the bottom of my list. He's got the enjoyable quality to him, he propped up ECW in 1999/2000 as a WOTY candidate (And, as I pointed out in the best wrestlers of the 90's post, he's probably got the best case of anyone in such a down year) and from there on was a great worker in a lot of different spots. I actually think his WWE run is criminally underrated, especially the stuff with Eddy, which must have been like spinning gold for the writers trying to get those two personalties on TV together. He really reminds me of the Japanese Finlay from a match perspective, as he's very flexible and fungible in the sense that you could put him in any promotion in the world and he'd make it something good.

[Parties]

He is my current #100. I'm tempted to keep him there as a sentimental favorite. It feels like your #100 should almost be the sidekick of your list, and Tajiri is a tremendous sidekick.

 

His Best of the Super Juniors appearance is really fun and give some insight into how good he was that young, in a totally different role of underdog working underneath. He has my all-time favorite Ohtani match on that tour.

[Dylan Waco]

This will blow peoples minds, and I feel the eyes rolling now, but in terms of consistency I think Tajiri is actually one of the strongest candidates. I'm not saying he didn't have bad matches, but during his peak years he didn't, and I can't recall any Tajiri match where I thought his performance was less than decent. Perhaps even more controversially the only other wrestler I could say that about off the top of my head is Kyle Matthews.

[Parties]

"Who on your list have you seen have really bad performances, or appearances in really bad matches" is an interesting question. I've seen bad matches and outright bad performances from guys like Cena, Butch Reed, Piper, Dustin, Kawada, Windham.

 

Then there are guys who definitely make it, but who I've seen suck simply because they got too old and broken: Choshu, Fujiwara, Flair. Foley is a very shaky borderline guy, simply because I've seen him have too many bad late-career matches.

 

Inoki is someone who I absolutely shamelessly love and might list for fanboy reasons, but man, he has tons of terrible matches. He probably has more bad matches than good, honestly.

[GOTNW]

 

Then there are guys who definitely make it, but who I've seen suck simply because they got too old and broken: Choshu, Fujiwara

Ahem.....

[Parties]

I figured someone would call me out on that. It might be harsh to say that he sucks now. I'm really only talking about the last year or so of Fujiwara, where he's been completely immobile and really can't do anything but half-speed headbutts. But he was having good singles matches as recently as a few years ago. There's no shame in being bad in-ring at 66. I don't want to see Flair work matches any more either. Fujiwara is almost certainly going to be Top 5 on my list: maybe for that reason I find it all the more dreary to watch him right now.

[GOTNW]

I'm not sure TAJIRI would make my list without the SMASH/WNC run. That's what really makes me comfortable putting him at this level and I encourage everyone to check out his stuff from that time perios, great matches vs. Finlay, Nishimura and TAKA Michinoku but it also has stuff like him carrying Satoshi Kajiwara to the best match of his career.

[KB8]

I would've voted for Tajiri even without the SMASH run, albeit lower than I will now after seeing it.

 

His '99-'00 is a great two year run and he became my favourite wrestler in ECW history off the strength of it alone. I can't think of anybody else who managed to come across as such a genuine wrecking ball psychopath despite being a relatively small dude the way Tajiri did. The bit in the Mexican Death Match with Super Crazy where he starts skimming chairs across tables and just about decapitates someone in the crowd pretty much sums up his "dangerous little nutcase who you do not want to fuck with" character from that period, and man do I love that Tajiri.

 

He's also involved in maybe my favourite tag match in WWF/E history, so there's no way I can't vote for him.

[Bierschwale]

I'm not sure that I've seen anyone say a word about his match in House of Hardcore against Hero last year. I mean, sure it's House of Hardcore, but more importantly, it's Chris Hero vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri.

 

Tajiri also deserves credit for bringing the most over single spot in WWE over the last five years to the company (Bryan's buzzsaw kick). An ancillary point if there ever was one, but he still deserves it.

[Bierschwale]

Also, and it's not like he'd get credit for it anyway, but imagine Tajiri in '08-'09 WWECW? He'd have been phenomenal.

 

Some combination of the '08-'09 ECW and SMASH/WNC rosters might be close to the perfect wrestling company.

[joeg]

he's had a lot of really great matches this decade in front of some really small crowds.

[InYourCase]

He's been far and away the best worker on ECW on TNN as I've been going through them on the Network. #2 might be Super Crazy, but the gap is huge. Between that and his pre-US run that I've been watching, Tajiri is really adding to his case. I don't think he'll fit in my Top 50, but he'll be close.

[elliott]

I ranked Tajiri 92nd in 2016 and I'd be really surprised if he made it again. Looking at the 2016 results, Tajiri was 81st and I have to believe that's not gonna happen again, right? He's really consistent and dynamic but I don't think he hits the peaks I need to make a top 100. I'd welcome recommendations on post-WWE stuff though, because I'm definitely a fan of the guy.