[2000-01-09-ECW-Guilty as Charged] Super Crazy & Yoshihiro Taijiri vs Little Guido & Jerry Lynn

[soup23]

Tajiri is one to track in 2000. I know some guys like Dylan see him as the WOTY for this year so I will be tracking to see where I agree or disagree with that assessment. Heyman still is wearing this leather jacket and tells Corino off to end the pre match ramble and get the tag match started proper. We get a sort of parejas incredibles vibe from the pairings here. Crazy and Lynn have the respect opening wrestling battle. Never my favorite thing in wrestling but it looked crisp and well done here. The Guido vs. Tajiri exchange is great with the crowd going nuts. Lynn and Guido take over and show some slight cohesion with each other. Dive train sequence and some crowd brawling is next. Staples of 2000 but another hot crowd for all of this. 2000 ECW looks to still have more buzz than WCW so far in these limited samples. Crazy does a big moonsault from the rail as Tajiri is stepping on the tree of woe’d Jerry Lynn. This is awesome stuff. The cohesion of Crazy and Tajiri is really nice to see and the crowd is eating it up. Guido and Lynn take over with a double powerbomb out of the turnbuckles and now Guido and Lynn work together to give stereo tornado DDTs. Finishing stretch has some nice nearfalls with Tajiri misting Lynn allowing Styles to debunk Cyrus theory about them being in cohoots. Guido then picks up Lynn and gives him his finish as the partnerships break down with Tajiri kicking Crazy as well. Tajiri picks up the win with the brainbuster on Lynn. Corino and crew come out to beat up on Lynn and Corino calls out Dusty. Dusty comes in from behind Corino to a huge pop and it is Bionic Elbows for all. Rhyno is able to take down Dusty and Corino parades around with Dusty’s hat. I enjoyed all of this as late era ECW mayhem. Not everything made sense but there was a ton of energy here and the match was very pleasing to watch. ***1/2

[Loss]

This was solid. Too long with way too much at the end, but solid. When I saw Lynn and Super Crazy doing pretty sequences at the beginning, I thought wow, this one's going to be tough to sit through. But then the always trustworthy Little Guido tagged in and started slapping Taijiri in the face and I knew all would be well. That and the post-match angle with Dusty and Corino were the best parts of this one.

[goc]

I thought the finish was REALLY lame with Guido just randomly turning on Lynn & then Super Crazy kinda sorta not really trying to stop Taijiri from pinning Lynn. I liked parts of this, mostly the stuff involving Guido and Taijiri but I never really cared for the ECW tag formula that left large parts of the match as two singles matches going on simultaneously. The Dusty stuff at the end was fun and I thought it did a good job in helping to get over Rhino but not a big fan of the tag match itself.

[GSR]

This is scheduled as a ‘dream partners’ match with Tajiri and Crazy on opposite sides, and each to pick a ‘dream partner’ of their choice. Steve Corino has a master plan and chooses Crazy to be Tajiri’s partner. This brings out Little Guido, annoyed that Corino didn’t pick him, and a rather long winded segment leads to a tag match being made and Paul Heyman appearing from the back to announce that Jerry Lynn will be Guido’s partner.

 

Lynn and Crazy start and they do that annoying indy stand-off spot…twice! In amongst this Joey Styles makes some remark about Victor Quinones breaking in quite a few young wrestlers! Crazy tags in Tajiri and he wants Guido. They go all UWFI exchanging slaps and kicks before Tajiri nails him with the handspring elbow. Tajiri with a Tilt-a-Whirl that Guido reverses into a Fujiwara armbar. Lynn and Tajiri exchange forearms and they uncharacteristically botch the ‘tarantula’. Tajiri with a head butt and the ‘tarantula’ to quieten the ‘you fucked up’ chants. Lynn with a plancha from the top to the floor on Crazy and then Tajiri with an Asai moonsault to Lynn. Crazy and Guido head off into the crowd. Crazy with a moonsault off the rails, while Tajiri has Lynn tied up in the tree of woe in the ring. Sunset flip powerbomb by Lynn, a pair of Frankensteiners and Lynn with a German suplex for two. Tajiri with a German and all four men are in the ring. Stereo punches in the corner by Tajiri and Crazy, followed by stereo powerbombs and stereo tornado DDT’s from Guido and Lynn. Double powerbomb on Lynn and Crazy with a piledriver on him. Guido makes the save but then gives the Maritato (Tomokaze) to his own partner. Tajiri makes the cover, Crazy pulls him off and gets a kick to the head for his troubles. Brainbuster by Tajiri on Lynn and that’s the three.

 

Steve Corino, Jack Victory and Tommy Rich are out to celebrate with Tajiri and they attack Lynn while Corino cuts a promo on Dusty Rhodes. The Dream shows up and delivers bionic elbows to everyone. Rhino makes the save for the heels, nails Dusty and puts the boots to him until the dressing room clears to put a stop to it.

 

Good match. Didn’t care for the length pre-match Corino promo segment, but the action and everything after it was good, especially with Tajiri and Guido. One thing I’m noticing with a lot of the January stuff I’ve watched so far is the unsatisfactory finishes, and that’s again the case here. There had been no tension showed by either team throughout the match, then in a matter of seconds, members of both teams are turning on their partners. Why is Guido saving Lynn from a pin if he’s going to give him the Maritato immediately after? Hating the ‘you fucked up’ chants. Also Rhino being referred to as the ‘rookie monster’ when he’s already been in the game for five years? Nice cameo from the Dream at the end.

[Kronos]

I quite enjoyed the action in this one, as well as the way they handled the Dusty run-in after match. These four guys can go, and if you're in the mood for flippy-dippy, then you'll get it.

 

What I did not enjoy was the pre-match with Corino, which felt like it went on and on and on. There was a lot of repeating statements, especially once Heyman comes out. Surely they could have been more efficient.

[aethelred]

The end of the match was nonsense, but there was plenty to like here. Tajiri is just next level in terms of "it factor". The match was always better when he was the focal point, not to take too much away from the other guys.

[klhare]

This is exactly what I want from a match like this in ECW. Fast paced, lots of cool spots, etc. Is it perfect? Not at all. It probably overstayed its welcome slightly and had a mess of a finish, but still, fun action.

[MikeCampbell]

Heyman yelling to Corino "Excuse me, dickhead!" always cracked me up.

[Zero]

The finish of this was pretty stupid. Little Guido breaking up a pin, just to turn on Lynn..?!?! The action was pretty good in the match though.