[2000-01-14-ECW-TNN] Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Jerry Lynn

[soup23]

Fun looking atmosphere with this in Center Stage. The action starts and doesn’t really let up. Tajiri does a good job remaining in control and using his charisma to put over his control on top. All of his signature spots like standing on the crotch of Lynn in the tree of woe get a good reaction and Tajiri mimicking the pain is hilarious. Everything Tajiri does looks great and he picks up some nice nearfalls. Finish worked for me too as Tajiri goes for the low blow, Lynn returns the favor and then hits the cradle piledriver for the win. This was the Tajiri show but they packed a lot into 7 minutes and this told a really good story. ***1/4

[Loss]

Good match. I never get the sense when Jerry Lynn wrestles that he is in a real struggle or competition, but he is a very smooth worker and hits his spots well, and his matches are usually laid out very well. I like how the second time Taijiri tried his backspring elbow, Lynn was waiting on him. And I always mark out for Center Stage. ***

[KB8]

This was basically Tajiri being a nasty little bastard for eight minutes and having fun doing it, so of course I liked it a lot. I tend to agree with Loss on Lynn, but there wasn't anything too cutesy in this and he was mostly working from below anyway. Tajiri mocking him, laughing maniacally at fans, throwing chairs off the guardrail, plastering him with kicks...all of it was great. He was on a tear in 2000 and I'll take as much of it as I can get. Thought the finish was good, too.

[Childs]

This wasn't real deep, but I'll never complain about eight minutes of rugged, fast-paced action in my TV wrestling. Tajiri was pretty great almost every time out in this period, and Lynn held his own. I"ll take this over most of the bloat we saw from ECW in the '90s.

[Minds_Eys]

Going forward through the project if Tajiri is in a match -- I'm watching. ECW on TNN holds a special nostalgic place in my heart (even if short lived). It was my first exposure to ECW, even ordered the pay per views during this period based on the TV show and none of of the other big two companies.

[goc]

Watching this match it makes me feel like Taijiri was like 5x better than Jerry Lynn. Lynn had nice execution of moves but imo that's pretty much all he ever had going for him. Taijiri however was great at being a little shit throughout this match & with a non-ECW crowd he would have gotten a lot of heat for all the awesome dickhead heel stuff he was doing. This was quite good as far as eight minute TV matches go.

 

As far as the ECW TV show production goes, it seems like they mixed the audio to where the crowd was louder than the commentary. The crowd noise was loud and I could barely hear the commentary and it wasn't worth turning my speakers up even louder just to hear Styles & Cyrus. I think the fact that the replays were sponsored by 1wrestling.com kind of tells you that sponsors weren't really beating down the door to advertise during the ECW on TNN show.

[Kronos]

Taijiri is one entertaining little motherlover. Just like JerryLynn, that guy can do all the Moovez you need - and look great doing them. But unlike Jerry, he has personality to spare. He works the crowd and the camera as well as anyone I have seen.

 

Sprinty good times. Great short TV match. I'll take this over 15 minutes of Mike Awesome murdering Spike Dudley anyday.

 

[GSR]

As Lynn is posing on the turnbuckles for the crowd, Tajiri attacks him from behind. A couple of chops in the corner, whip to the opposite one and as Tajiri comes following in, Lynn kicks his legs up and a headscissors sends Tajiri to the floor. Lynn with a pescado and he throws Tajiri back inside but the Japanese Buzzsaw won’t let him back in the ring. Lynn beckons him to the outside and they go at it at ringside. The two of them exchange forearms and Tajiri starts biting his opponent. Powerbomb attempt from Lynn which Tajiri counters into a sunset flip for a one count. Tajiri reverses a whip to the corner and when Lynn comes charging in, hooks him with the tarantula. Handspring elbow and he ties Lynn in the ‘tree of woe’ before delivering a baseball slide dropkick to the face. Tajiri stands on Lynn’s groin and mocks his discomfort! A second handspring elbow, however this time Lynn sees it coming and catches him. Overhead belly to belly suplex but Tajiri lands on his feet. Lynn ducks the roundhouse kick, huracanrana and Tajiri bridges out beautifully. He goes for a huracanrana of his own but Lynn plants him with a powerbomb for a two count. German suplex from Tajiri for another two. Whip to the corner, Lynn gets his knees up to the onrushing Tajiri, tornado DDT and the Buzzsaw kicks out at the last second. Tajiri with a series of kicks and he signals for the Brainbuster. Lynn escapes, grabs a waistlock and avoids the Tajiri back kick low blow. Low blow of his own and cradle piledriver for the win.

 

The action was real good here, although the match felt abridged, almost constrained by being for TV and limited time. Cracking closing stretch and especially liked Lynn avoiding the low blow only to respond with one of his own.

[Matt Franklin]

Fun popcorn match, not much real substance to it but always fun to see Tajiri do his thing. He hits his beautiful German suplex that I always mark out for, and is great taunting Lynn, particularly with his low blow mocking. I used to like Lynn back when I was a teenager, but can't really get into him now. Tajiri has so much charisma it is ridiculous, and should have got a main event run during this time, couldnmt be worse than Justin Credible! Fun match, but nothing I'd go back to watch again or remember.

**1/2

[aethelred]

Nice, but very short TV match between these two. This show was taped before the PPV and also featured Guido vs Super Crazy, so it almost feels like a build-up show that was broadcast after the fact. Weird.

[Stiva]

You forget how off the page charismatic Tajiri was/is and that all comes through in this, a very fun tv match. I did like how they were smart enough to avoid the usual 2 minutes of Jerry Lynn trade-off shit and just went full into Tajiri heeling it up and Lynn fighting and picking his spots since it meant they could fill all 8 minutes with interesting things. There were two nice little layouts with Lynn blocking the second handspring elbow and the neat finish of him sensing the low blow and hitting one of his own, getting some revenge on the little asshole who had been antagonising him throughout the match. Pretty much everything with Tajiri on is essential from this point forward in 2000.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Taijiri was just awesome to watch at this point. Easily my favorite ECW guy because he just always delivered. I also always have nostalgic feelings for Jerry Lynn, so there's no way I wouldn't love this match. No bullshit, just 8 minutes of action.