[2000-08-04-ECW-TNN] Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Steve Corino vs Jerry Lynn / Scotty Anton vs Tommy Dreamer

[soup23]

This was a really fun start for a 3 way with everyone being involved. The Lynn dive to the outside looked good. Tajiri busts out the mist around 3 minutes in and that isn’t a good omen for him. Sure enough, Lynn locks on the Cradle Piledriver a second later to eliminate him. They really love getting Tajiri, the most over guy, out of the way in these 3 ways first. The segment between Lynn and Corino isn’t bad but too much interference from Victory hindered things. Scotty Anton comes in to interfere and Corino is able to pick up the win. **3/4

 

As the beatdown continues, we roll right into Anton vs Dreamer. This was a pretty generic ECW style brawl that winds itself around the building. Dreamer hits a gusher and has blood and ends up getting bulldogged and suplexed through the ladder. The crowd is really behind Tommy here which does help the action overall. Anton is using a Sharpshooter as a finish but Jazz comes in and hits Anton with a chair. Anton is able to spinebuster Jazz and counter a Dreamer DDT onto a chair. Lynn comes back out and hits a Cradle Piledriver on Anton that somehow the referee misses. Dreamer then hits the second rope elbow with a chair to pick up the win. Decent stuff. **

[GSR]

Jerry Lynn vs Steve Corino vs Yoshihiro Tajiri (ECW on TNN 8/4/00)

Lynn and Tajiri start off working together, dumping Corino to the outside.  Lou E. Dangerously is loitering around ringside for some reason.  We’re not even two minutes in and Tajiri has already busted out the handspring elbow and Tarantula.  Corino breaks up the Tarantula and as Tajiri falls to the apron he’s attacked by Jack Victory.  Leg lariat for a two.  Mule kick by Corino to escape the waistlock and a baseball slide dropkick for Tajiri who’s still going at it with Jacko.  As Corino heads to help his man, Lynn with a plancha from the top turnbuckle to the floor out onto the pair.  Tajiri suplexes Lynn back into the ring, lands a huracanrana, but then walks right into a Corino superkick.  He backdrops his way out of the cradle piledriver before blowing the mist at Corino.  Boot to the mid-section by Lynn, cradle piledriver and Tajiri is eliminated.  It turns out Dangerously is now part of The Network and hands Corino a towel to wipe the mist out of his eyes.  Corino blocks the tornado DDT but then misses the clothesline and Lynn with a belly to back suplex for a two.  Sunset flip into a powerbomb.  Reverse DDT for another two.  Nice bodyscissors roll up by Lynn before they run through the Guerrero/Malenko sequence.  Corino catches him with that deep powerslam, heads upstairs, but Lynn crotches him and hits a draping DDT from the top.  He KO’s Victory who is up on the apron , makes the cover and as it looks like he’s got this in the bag Lou E. pulls the official from the ring to break the count.  As Jacko complains to Mike Kehner about being attacked, Lynn grabs Dangerously, however he throws his phone to Corino who then blasts Lynn between the eyes with it when he turns around.  In spite of that he is still able to get a shoulder up on the cover.  Lynn with a go behind on the bodyslam, he goes for the cradle piledriver when Scotty Anton runs out.  The Network distracts the referee as Anton clotheslines Lynn across the top rope.  Corino with the ‘Old School Expulsion’ and the The Network steal a victory from ECW.  They continue to attack him after the match and despite the fans chanting for RVD its Tommy Dreamer who makes the save, with Jazz also showing up, as this eventually segues into the next match.

Tommy Dreamer vs Scotty Anton (ECW on TNN 8/4/00)

Dreamer drags Anton off to the rear of the building and then back, which appears to be nothing more than a way of just clearing the ring of folk after the previous match.  He goes to bulldog the ‘U.S. Male’ from the apron onto a ladder that he’d bridged between the ring and guard rail, however Scotty shoves him off and Dreamer crashes face first into it.  Anton starts ‘the Clap’ which is surprisingly somewhat over already.  Dreamer has been busted open above the eye and Anton immediately targets that cut.  He sets up a second ladder across the middle turnbuckle but Dreamer reverses the Irish whip and Scotty takes the bump, back first, into it.  Superplex whilst stood on the ladder.  Jazz, who either never left or has returned to ringside, slides a couple of chairs into Dreamer and he lays the ladder across them.  Anton blocks the attempted suplex and then suplexes Dreamer into the contraption that he’d just created.  There are some hideously named moves in ECW, but Anton’s Scorpion Deathlock, called ‘the Clap Trap’ might very well be the worst of the lot.  Somehow Mike Kehner misses seeing Jazz break up the submission by blasting ‘the U.S. Male’ over the head with a chair.  Anton counters the DDT with a back heel trip when out comes Jerry Lynn looking for payback for earlier.  Cradle piledriver is missed by ‘Blind’ Mike before Dreamer comes off the middle with an elbow to a chair over Anton’s face for the win.

How Kehner missed the Jazz interference I’ll never know as he came across pretty incompetent in doing so.  Anton looks a solid hand and is fairly charismatic, he’s just got that WCW lower card stench about him which is hard to shake off, to the point he’s already pegged, despite the turn on Van Dam, as a comedic mid-carder.