[2000-03-25-ECW-Wichita, KS] Tommy Dreamer vs Yoshihiro Taijiri (Japanese Death)

[Loss]

No problem with Corino being involved here, but he's involved to the point that this is ostensibly a handicap match. This has its moments, but I'd be disappointed if I saw it live for that reason. We get the requisite post-match Sandman save after Rhino and Victory come out, and as always, it takes forever, but he eventually gets there.

[soup23]

As much as I love the series, I do look forward to Tajiri matches against opponents other than Crazy and Guido. However, this was a crowd brawl affair with shitty RF camera work that made it real tough to follow at points. The stuff we do see looked pretty mundane and we even get the cliche Sandman save to finish us out. **1/4

[Migs]

I liked Corino's promo to start, especially the funny bait and switch on the type of match, and then Dreamer's change later.

 

This is fun to start, but then we go wandering through the dark for a bit. Back in the ring, Tajiri is once again a wonderful dick, and he and Dreamer's similar spots make them a natural pairing, surprisingly. I liked the finish too, and didn't think Corino's interference was overwhelming given ECW's generally lax rules.

[GSR]

Steve Corino is out and says how he wanted to give the people of Wichita an old fashioned bullrope match, but he doesn’t see any takers in the back and knows there isn’t a man or woman brave enough to face him in a match of this kind. Tommy Dreamer’s music plays and Corino tells him it’s nothing to do with him and if he gets in the ring he’ll kick his ass! It doesn’t have the slightest effect on Dreamer who ignores his words, gets in the ring and slugs him. Just as he’s about to clock him with the cowbell, out sprints Tajiri who nails Dreamer in the back with a kick and then another around the head. At this point Corino changes the match stipulations from a bullrope match to a Japanese death match. Tajiri chokes Dreamer with the bullrope and an early ‘Tarantula’. Dreamer counters the handspring elbow with a Russian legsweep and then tosses Tajiri to the floor. He throws him over the guardrail but we then lose the wrestlers completely due to Feinstein’s awful camera work. By the time he’s worked out how to switch on night vision the wrestlers are heading back to the ring. Dreamer places the ring bell on Tajiri’s groin and rings it with the hammer. Tajiri avoids a chair shot and then kicks it into Dreamer’s face. He slams his head into it and then kicks the back of the chair (like he’s been doing in recent death matches). Dreamer calls him on, but Tajiri unloads with an array of kicks in the corner that leave him crumpled on the canvas. Thrust kick for two. He sets him up in the ‘tree of woe’ and places a chair infront of his face, however when he goes for the baseball slide dropkick, Dreamer picks up the chair, lifts himself out the way and Tajiri ends up posting himself. Dreamer then turns the tables, puts Tajiri in the ‘tree of woe’ and stands on his balls. A fan passes him a crutch and he uses that to drive into his crotch area too. Chair infront of the head and Dreamer with the running dropkick. He drags Corino into the ring and nails him in the groin with the cowbell (Tommy sure does like his ball shots!). A table is passed in there and Dreamer sets up in the corner. I’m not sure what he’s got planned, but Tajiri puts a stop to it anyway blowing the green mist in his face with both Dreamer and Corino sat on the middle turnbuckle. Tajiri with a double foot stomp off the top to Dreamer who’s lay on the table for two. Corino goes to hit Tommy with the cowbell, but he moves and hits his own man instead. Double DDT and Dreamer covers Tajiri for the win. Post-match Rhino and Jack Victory attack Dreamer until Sandman’s music plays. He is quicker than last night but still takes his sweet time, stopping to smoke his cigarette as he makes his way through the crowd! Singapore cane shots all around and they make sure to emphasise Rhino’s toughness as it takes three of them to get him out of there compared to just the one for everyone else. Sandman invites a handful of fans into the ring to drink with him and Tommy, and one guy especially seems to be having the time of his life climbing the turnbuckles and jumping up and down. When one of the girls tells Sandman that she doesn’t drink, he claims to have a cure for that, then pulls her head back and pours some beer down her throat! Classy!

 

This started off promising with the Corino promo and then him weaselling his way out of the match, however it lost everything the moment they headed out of the ring and into the crowd. I don’t know if you can blame it on RF’s camera work, but it certainly doesn’t help when you lose the wrestlers and can’t see what’s going on. I wasn’t bothered by the Corino interference as it only occurred at the end of the match, plus I’m a lot more liberal to things like the use of weapons, brawling in the crowd, outside interference etc in ECW than I would be in other promotions. Some cool stuff as always with a Tajiri match, but not much flow to this at all. One point, why in a ‘Death match’ when there is no disqualification, does Tajiri release the Tarantula so soon (even at all), when he could just keep the hold applied?