[2000-08-27-ECW-Hardcore TV] Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Psicosis

[Superstar Sleeze]

Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Psicosis - ECW Hardcore TV 8/26/00

 

Psicosis was one of my childhood favorites because his badass mask and his insane bumping. So I always love hearing about a pimped Psicosis match and this one did not fail to deliver. Incredible opening stretch. Just beautiful chain wrestling and excellent lucha libre tumbling passes. The ECW crowd was red hot for this. They loved every second. Chanting E-C-DUB and Psicosis got a lucha libre chant. It was a bit too pretty and they did the standoff a lot, but hey this was actually cool submissions and armdrags so I was marking out at home sixteen years later. Great transition with some really intricate nearfalls leading to Tajiri getting a modified backslide and then headbutting Psicosis in the nuts and kicking his head off. Tajiri was awesome in this. The kicks were out of this world and just so charismatic. Psicosis takes his patented nutty turnbuckle bump out of the ring, totally out of control and nearly wipes out the chick. This is definitely a big highspotfest as the transitions are lacking, but the highspots are great as Psicosis takes control and does that insane over the top rope into the crowd dive! HOLY SHIT! Gets me everytime! Psicosis takes his ass first bump into the top turnbuckle, but this time he ends up in the Tree of Woe to set up that dropkick to head. Tajiri comes back with some kicks, but cant get the brainbuster and Psicosis goes for some cradles. Psicosis he hits his big nearfall which is his awesome guillotine legdrop. Love the transition to the finish. Psicosis goes for a flying bodyscissors probably third attempt...Tajiri kicks him in the balls. Then just MURDERS him with kicks to the fucking face. Like Holy Shit Kicks! ECW crowd is marking out huge for these kicks. Incredible high energy spotfest, Psicosis looked in prime form with his bumping and Tajiri is an offensive machine. ***3/4

[joeg]

Was there. They actually editted this match down a lot when it went on TV. Psychosis was kinda fucked up. He was blowing a bunch of spots and getting the "You fucked up" chants. None of that made the TV broadcast. What did make the broadcast was the auidence going nuts for him getting fucking wrecked by Tajiri.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I did not notice any weird edits, off hand. Interesting. There was one obvious blown spot with Psicosis coming off the top and just sort of falling backwards. He did not really do anything. I think Tajiri was supposed to catch him and powerbomb him. Definitely a miscommunication.

[joeg]

It was a 20 minute match. When it aired on TV, it was cut down to 7, I think there was a commercial release where 14 minutes are there. But some of the early matwork was really sloppy. Then that dive to the outside was a big miss, that doesn't come across on TV, Psicosis dove and fell hard headfirst to the pavement and went back in and blew his next 3 spots. It looked early on like he might have been a little under the influence from the crowd (that doesn't come across on TV) then from the crowd it looked like he had knocked himself silly on that dive (which does sort of come across). But ultimately the fuck ups kind of made the match in that they got heat on Psicosis and he looked like he had a concussion from kicks as opposed to fucking up and landing awkwardly on his head twice.

[soup23]

For those indie respect type matches, this was near the top of the list. The opening mat work and stand offs are well executed and still look state of the art 17 years later. In addition, the crowd is electric and this more and more of a fleeting feeling this late into 2000. The match becomes more of a back and forth traditional affair but the outside portions was better than the night before being condensed inside the arena and Psicosis nearly dying on a tope to the outside. Psicosis does still look a little woozy from the outside dive but regains his composure enough to crotch himself on the top rope and take the kicks and baseball slide from Tajiri in that position. After a series of cradles and a double clothesline, both men are down. Tajiri looks for the brainbuster but is able to hit a crackling kick when that is countered. Psicosis hits a face first suplex and the big legdrop but that only gets two which shocks the crowd. Tajiri blocks the flying body scissors and then hits three huge kicks getting huge OHHHHS from the crowd to gain the win. Great match. **** (7.9)

[AstroBoy]

This starts off with the crowd just red hot. And the opening mat standoffs only stoke the fires, amping up the hype level and animosity between the two. Where the match succeeds I think is that it moves from there and escalates to the action outside the ring after Psicosis takes his insane post bump. The dive to the seats is crazy as well. Back in they go at it and Tajiri's stunner to snap kick combo was great looking. From there we get bigger bombs and Tajiri kicks out of the leg drop before destroying Psicosis with kicks. The spinning kick to the face in particular was gruesome looking. What a great game of back and forth with enough to keep it from being mindless or wandering.

 

***3/4

[ohtani's jacket]

I have no idea how edited this was or how concussed Psicosis was but I thought it was a pretty decent TV bout despite the commentary shilling of it being a classic and unforgettable TV. Drown out that noise and the action is fairly good like a souped-up version of their house show match. Tajiri is slap happy but it gets a reaction from the crowd despite how much contact is with the thigh. Decent stuff but perhaps not the rehash of the Super Crazy feud that punters may have wanted.