[2000-04-14-ECW-TNN] Super Crazy vs Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Little Guido

[soup23]

One of the better three way dances I have ever seen. This really carries a unique vibe over from the Crazy vs Taijiri series of things becoming really violent and visceral within the match. All three guys bleed especially Crazy who does a brutal blade job. Touches like the side of the table being used add a violent and dangerous vibe to the proceedings. Guido is the first one out and I did think Sal's involvement in here was unneeded. Guido gets a respectable applause as he heads to the back. Corino and Victory come out at this point and again that adds a little bit of annoyance that derails things ever so slightly in this match although it does retain a strong storyline arc. Ref gets misted and Crazy gets the visual pin over Taijiri. Rhino comes in and attacks Crazy with a nasty gore and piledriver from the apron through a table on the outside. The mutants go wild. RVD chants are fired up. Another official runs out for the pinfall which is annoying since where was he at when Crazy had the pinfall. With the Network celebrating, out comes Sandman for another 10 minute entrance. We come back from break with Sandman caning Rhino repeatedly. The numbers game catch up to him and Sandman takes a gore through the table. The RVD chants continue. RVD comes out broken leg and all and clears house gingerly leading to the stareoff between him and Rhino as the show fades to black. This is really an encapsulation of the best and worst of ECW as the junior action was great and OVER but the overbooking and reliance on Sandman who feels almost as much of a nostalgia act at this point as Hogan and Flair on WCW isn't sustainable. ***3/4

[Loss]

This was awesome. I'm tempted to call it my favorite ECW match ever, but I need more time to think on that. I was totally engrossed in the match and the series of post-match angles, so as an entire presentation, it was tremendous. What I really liked about the three-way portion of this was the rhythm that kept everyone involved and doing something most of the way. The appearance of The Network at ringside bordered on the type of heat that's bad and turns people off, walking quite the fine line, and I'm not a fan of seeing that type of finish after a great match, but I also know Paul Heyman's match on slow booking and building heat. The triple juicing gave this all an extra sense of importance, and I liked their attempt to truly try something new. I like that Sandman has yet to come out of any confrontation with Rhino standing, and also that RVD's return blew the roof off the place. This doesn't feel like a dying company. ****1/4

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm not terribly fond of three-way matches so you can imagine what I thought of a garbage three-way. A lot of blood spilled over nothing in this match.

 

The angle att the end was poorly done. Sandman's "shock" appearances are some of the worst I've seen. His music is too slow and he takes too long to make his way to the ring. Watching him labor his way to the ring like a drunken Sting and cane the shit out of everybody is hard to swallow. The Network outnumbers him and has an eternity to prepare for his arrival. They should beat the shit out of him every time. Van Dam's entrance was even worse. You're in a hardcore promotion and you come to the ring on your friends' shoulders like a buddy moment in a B-grade action flick? Whoever was doing the music forgot to turn it off when Callis began cutting his promo. Way too much of a WCW vs. NWO feel to this angle. I guess no-one told Hayman that angle was hot in '96-97, or maybe Heyman has always carried a torch for The Dangerous Alliance. The only original thing about the Network angle is that Rhino is allowed to swear. It's pro-wrestling the way you've never heard it. I kind of like Rhino in this setting. He looks like a man-beast and his finisher is appropriately named. You can tell he'll be neutered in the WWF but he works well in this setting.

[Laney]

It's amazing that it seems like this match has been done a thousand times and should be old, but they always seem to do something unique that makes it worth watching. This is probably my favorite version of this match. This is just total violence with Tajiri looking like a vicious killer. Tajiri looks like somebody that ECW could build around as their world champion here.

 

 

****

[GSR]

Joey Styles talks about how Cyrus has gotten Tajiri and Guido on the same page for this. As the two of them are talking things over in the ring, Crazy with a springboard double clothesline. A kick from Tajiri stops him in his tracks though, before tying him in the ‘tree of woe’. As he sets himself for the running baseball slide, Big Sal grabs his legs from the outside and posts him. So much for Guido and Tajiri being in unison! Guido takes a page from Tajiri’s book with the baseball slide, but Crazy lifts himself up out the way and Guido goes sliding out to the floor. Tajiri dropkicks Crazy off the turnbuckle and Guido with a ‘Sicilian slice’ on Tajiri for two. Missile dropkick by Crazy sends Guido to the outside and he’s hurled out there himself soon after by Tajiri. Lovely Asai moonsault, but Tajiri then gets nailed from behind by Sal. Crazy backdrops Guido into the front row and after avoiding Sal’s running splash, leaps off his back with a plancha. Guido with a hangman’s neckbreaker for another two. The match again spills to the floor where Guido plants Crazy face first into the concrete busting him wide open. Tajiri catches Guido with a kick to the head and picks him up for a suplex only to drop him chest first across the guard rail. Guido is next to be opened up and Tajiri sets up a table which he dropkicks, sending it crashing into Guido’s head. Sal comes to his man’s aid and Guido whips Tajiri into a chair that the big man’s holding and now he’s bleeding too (only after crawling under the ring to blade himself mind!). He’s up on the apron ready for his next attack, however Tajiri with the handspring kicking him flush in the face and knocking him off the apron and crashing through a table. Tajiri blocks the Maritato with a low blow, and a Gori special into an airplane spin. Repeated kneedrops to the head and he buries Guido under a couple of chairs and a table. He lies Crazy on the table, double foot stomp off the top, but Crazy moves in time saving himself. The two of them cover Guido together eliminating him, although he leaves to a nice ovation from the crowd as Sal carries him back to the dressing room. Gorgeous German suplex on Crazy for two, and here comes Steve Corino and Jack Victory. Crazy counters the huracanrana with a powerbomb, and a springboard moonsault for a near fall of his own. They both roll to the floor and Crazy collects another table. As he starts to set it up, Tajiri nails him in the back with a crowbar before digging it into his forehead. Tajiri with the green mist, however Crazy ducks and it hits referee Mike Kehner instead. Low blow by Crazy, powerbomb through the table, quebrada, but the official is down. Crazy gets the visual pin counting the three himself, and now Rhino is out. He connects with the gore at the second attempt and then piledrives Crazy off the apron through a table. Rhino tosses him back inside, Tajiri crawls over to make the cover and Jim Molyneux rushes to the ring to count the pin. Tajiri is the new TV champion and they are joined by Don Callis as The Network celebrate together. Callis talks about ‘being drunk on power’, and that’s the signal for the Sandman whose entrance takes so long that they have to take a break in the middle of proceedings! We return as Sandman is caning Rhino, but only after the fourth shot is he able to drop him. He continuesd to cane the snot out of him until Callis is in his face, but hiding behind his Network pass. As he goes to cane him, Corino blocks the shot and Tajiri blows the red mist in his face. Superkick by Corino, Rhino picks up ref H.C. Loc and gores him and Sandman through two tables that had been propped up in the corner. Joey Styles wonders if there is anyone that can stop The Network? Yes, Scotty Riggs! Whoops, Rob Van Dam being carried to the ring by Scotty Riggs now Anton. Rhino warns him that he’s going to ‘kick his fucking ass!’, while Styles mentions that RVD still has a broken leg. Van Dam clears the ring of Corino, Victory and Tajiri and he and Rhino square off as the show goes off the air.

 

I thought this was outstanding at times, especially the three way section at the beginning which was balls to the wall non-stop action fought at 100mph. The touches such as the use of the crowbar, the dropkicking of the table into Guido’s face added an additional level of violence, and four months into the year it’s amazing how they can still keep this all feeling fresh. Despite this I did have some issues with what we saw. There was way too much interference from Sal; he usually takes his bump into the guardrail and that’s it, but here it was full on involvement all the way (great bump through the table though). From a logical point of view, where was Jim Molyneux when Crazy had that cover? Why couldn’t he sprint out to count the pin? That goes for H.C. Loc as well who showed up from nowhere in the post-match. Same problem that I always have with a Sandman save, in that it takes too fucking long. Just like Tommy Dreamer’s walk around the building, something I hope I’ve seen the last of. A bit too much suspension of disbelief with the broken legged RVD getting the better of Tajiri, Corino and Victory, but I suppose the only way they could really work that face off with Rhino.

[TravJ1979]

This was a great brawl-juice fest. Tajiri continues to kill it. One of the last great ECW matches and probably THE last great three way dance in the company.

[BigVanCrush]

I vividly remember watching this when it aired. My mom's reaction to the blood in this match was, "I can't believe you want to watch something like this." Out of all the matches from TNN that I got to see (everything from the 2/18 episode through the end of the TNN run), this is the match I remember the best despite having not seen it since it aired. Watching it again tonight I can safely say this is the best three way dance ECW ever produced and I'd put it ahead of the X-Division ones from years later. All three guys bleeding made it seem more like an all out war for the title rather than just three really good wrestlers doing stuff and everything they did in the match itself carried that off very well. I actually liked the idea of Rhino, Corino and Victory helping Tajiri win because it played into the whole 'Cyrus wants the TV belt on Rhino and he'll stop at nothing to do it' story they were running with. Tajiri was friggin' awesome here, Super Crazy was good and Guido was his always-reliable self. Even in 2000, ECW had a roster willing to work hard and deliver good matches. ****1/2