[2000-09-01-ECW-TNN] Yoshihiro Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck vs Tommy Dreamer & Jerry Lynn vs Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger

[soup23]

We are at the finals and see some clips of earlier matches including Lynn getting a pin on RVD in their previous tag. That is a pretty big coup for Lynn pinning RVD and Credible in the same night. Dreamer is wearing a neck brace from the piledriver spot earlier. The opening has everyone pairing off. Match then breaks down with all six brawling around the Hammerstein. Dreamer and Tajiri is easily the most compelling of these followed by Diamond and Lynn. Tajiri really goes after Dreamer using a chair to stand on Dreamer’s neck and biting his forehead. I like Tajiri showing this vicious edge against Dreamer even as a face. The camera cuts between Dreamer/Tajiri on the floor and Lynn/Diamond in the ring. Suplex on the floor and Lynn executes a pretty poor bow and arrow. Whipwreck is back in camera with Swinger and they keep attacking Dreamer. Once all six are in the ring, the faces all attack Diamond/Swinger. This doesn’t really correspond to the theme of the match so far especially with Tajiri biting Dreamer’s head two minutes prior. Dreamer punches Whipwreck and Lynn/Tajiri are going after it. Dreamer gets the tarantula on Mikey which was a fun spot. Swinger/Diamond pounce and attack all four with CW adding in a chairshot. They hit the Problem Solver on Dreamer and pin him. Whipwreck/Tajiri have recovered and hit some double team moves. I understand the booking decision to have Diamond/Swinger in this position but they weren’t ready and the stuff like the locker room emptying feels a bit hollow here. Tajiri mists Diamond when Swinger had him on his shoudlers. Super Whippersnapper is hit by Mikey and we have new champs to a huge pop. Match was uneven but fun to watch overall. **1/4

[AstroBoy]

Going to echo thoughts that the locker room emptying felt really tacked on and silly here. The crowd brawling is fine and I get it as a trope for a final where guys have worked multiple times to get there. That said, Lynn applying a bow and arrow in the midst of all of that was just so stupid. Tone deaf decision. Mikey and Tajiri are so much fun as a team. Simon and Swinger are not charismatic enough or credible enough to carry this as a team being taken out by allied faces. The dual tarantula spot was hokey and this probably would have worked better if they had just eliminated Simon and Swinger first and ran with a more nearfall-heavy final portion. Mikey hits a great whippersnapper off the top for the win to a big pop.

 

**

[GSR]

And we’re down to the final three in the tournament to crown new ECW tag team champions.  Despite being piledriven through the table in the semis, Tommy Dreamer is out for the final, although wearing a neck brace.  We get a recap of the Lynn/Dreamer vs RVD/Kash match from earlier in the tournament that will air on Hardcore TV in two days, Joey Styles hammering it home how Lynn pinned both Rob Van Dam and the ECW World champion on the same night.  Three way dance rules are in operation, meaning that it’s three men in the ring at the same time.  Tajiri and Lynn work the opening stretch while Simon looks on leaving them to it.  Good stuff here, they eventually tag their partners and it gets a tad awkward.  Dreamer tries to rip off the neck brace and while he does so Mikey and Swinger look to capitalise.  All six very quickly end up in the ring before the action spills out to the floor.  There’s a nice snap suplex by Tajiri to Dreamer on the steps, but the camera is cutting back and forth trying to keep up with everything.  In a rather odd moment amongst this brawling, Lynn and Simon return to the ring where Lynn puts him in a sloppy looking bow and arrow hold.  Jerry knows more than we do, Simon apparently having a history of lower back problems!  Tajiri joins Lynn in putting a beating on Simon who then, along with his partner, gets tied in the ‘Tree of Woe’.  Chairs are placed in front of them and four person baseball slide dropkicks.  As Tajiri puts a ‘Tarantula’ on Lynn, Tommy with one of his own on Mikey.  Stereo tornado DDT’s for Simon and Swinger.  Dreamer counters the ‘Whippersnapper’ with a DDT, but as he makes the cover gets pulled from the ring by C.W. Anderson who blasts him over the head with a chair.  He throws him back inside, ‘Problem Solver’ and he and Lynn are out of there.  ‘Swing Thing’ on Tajiri and a double flatliner for Mikey as the locker room empties to add some gravitas for the closing moments.  There’s none of the big guns, maybe naturally, and it’s mainly your opening card types like Chris Chetti, York & Matthews, Jazz etc.  Swinger sits Tajiri on his shoulders as Simon heads up top for something.  What, we’ll never know, as Tajiri mists him before he gets the chance and then dumps Swinger on his neck with a German suplex.  ‘Super Whippersnapper’ on Simon and the ‘Unholy Alliance’ are the new ECW World tag team champions.

I found this a disappointing final and all a bit underwhelming.  I really enjoyed Tajiri and Lynn at the start but with the tag team titles as the prize it didn’t half get hokey at times.  You’ve got some decent stuff on the floor involving Dreamer and Tajiri (starting to notice a theme yet?), such as Tajiri suplexing him on the stairs and also standing on a chair which he’d placed over Dreamer’s head, next thing they’re all working together against Simon & Swinger with the contrived ‘Tree of Woe’ stuff and don’t get me started on the double ‘Tarantula’ spot.  The finish looked great and at least we’re guaranteed a strong run of matches with the 'Unholy Alliance' as the champions.