[2000-01-27-ECW-St. Petersburg, FL] Masato Tanaka vs Mike Awesome

[soup23]

This is a good house show in displaying what were the main matches ECW was running at the time. Hot start that kind of derails when Awesome does his tope over the top and comes crashing down right on top of his head. A really good pace to this even though psychology can be essentially thrown out the window. Today, people discuss that as the big lads division but where a match like this does have an edge is that the strikes and spots do look brutal from these big guys throwing them. Tanaka hits a tornado DDT from the apron through a table and then a running chair shot from the entrance. Inside Tanaka hits another tornado DDT on a chair for a nearfall. Awesome is able to regain the momentum after an Alabama slam which is continuously an underappreciated move. A thunderous Awesome Bomb from the top gives Awesome the win. Damn that was impressive. ***1/2

[Loss]

Watching a guy who years later killed himself while suffering from depression likely related to multiple concussions get a "You fucked up!" chant when he gets a little overzealous on a hands-free plancha is the very worst of pro wrestling. People are booing that they are actually teasing the table spot (smartly, at least in theory) before delivering it. These fans are subhuman. On a wrestling match level, this is good stuff, and we are watching skeevy pro wrestling, so I guess I should put all of that aside, because it's not going to get better anytime soon. But it's tougher than usual in this case. Some impressive highspots here, but by far the most impressive move was the finish, as Awesome gets Tanaka with an Awesome Bomb from up top. Solid match with no wasted time or contrived setup, and in that sense a major success, just not anything I want to watch again. ***

[GSR]

Awesome with a side headlock, Tanaka shoots him off and a shoulder tackle that the champ gets the better of. Tanaka with a leap frog, but Awesome catches him mid-air and tosses him with an overhead belly to belly. He reverses an Irish whip and a scoop powerslam that only just gets a one. Nice back elbow off the top turnbuckle from Awesome after Tanaka had whipped him into the corner, and he follows by clotheslining him over the top rope to the floor. Suicide dive, and I can’t see if he caught his leg on the top rope, but Awesome is short and crashes head first into the wooden floor in a horrific looking spot. Of course the crowd chant ‘you fucked up’ at this, what you expected them not to? Tanaka whips him into the guard rail but Awesome gets the big boot up when he comes charging in. Awesome returns the favour and Tanaka goes careering over it and into the front row. Another dive from Awesome, this time over the guard rail and onto him, and thankfully he doesn’t nearly cripple himself. Slingshot shoulderblock for one as Tanaka gets his foot over the bottom rope. Three brain jarring chair shots that Tanaka no sells and they just seem to fire him up. Release German suplex and a sit out chokeslam from Awesome for two. He sets up a table on the outside, Tanaka blocks the powerbomb and a tornado DDT from the apron through it to the floor. Running chair shot from Tanaka drops Awesome and a missile dropkick to the back. Bodyslam, he lays a chair on Awesome’s face and comes off the top with another chair to it for a near fall. Tornado DDT onto a chair but it’s still not enough to put the champ away. He manages to block a reverse DDT and Alabama slams Tanaka to the canvas. Powerbomb and this time its Tanaka’s turn to kick out at two. Big splash off the top as the two counts continue. He heads up again, however Tanaka is able to cut him off in his tracks with a right. He goes for a superplex but Awesome fights him off and an almighty Awesome Bomb off the top for the win.

 

A difficult one as the effort was without question there, but it was bang, bang, bang, one high impact move after another. No slowing it down, no emotional rollercoaster. I found myself becoming desensitized to the use of chairs and the kick outs felt like overkill (they really shouldn’t have been kicking out of Tornado DDT’s onto chairs for starters). I also think Awesome needs to quit that suicide dive as the way he crashed head first into the floor looked downright scary (and this after doing almost the exact same at the end of the match against Spike Dudley on 1/21 where he dove on Sabu and Rob Van Dam). I cringed seeing Tanaka do the no sell chair spot as well, so he wasn’t only doing that on show for TV or PPVs. Yikes! That Awesome Bomb finisher looked tremendous mind. I’ve got the 1/28 match to watch next so it’ll be interesting to see if it’s different to this, or like most when it’s the same people involved, a carbon copy.