[2001-01-26-ICW-The Revolution Continues] Low Ki vs Tajiri

[Superstar Sleeze]

Low Ki vs Tajiri - ICW 1/26/01

 

"What was that? Green Tea? Wasabi?" "I think it is green mist." The crack announce team calling this one. Oh Lord!

 

Wicked short, not much time to develop. Disappointing. Low Ki seemed more into this, which is to be expected he is the young gun trying to make a name for himself. Diving Misawa elbow from him which I had not seen before, plus a really nice butterfly suplex right into the butterfly stretch. Weird moment where Tajiri blasts him in the head with a kick right off the bat and slowly downgrades to lesser strikes should have built to the bigger strike. Tajiri was content to slap Low Ki in the back of the head, but there was no fired up comeback from Low Ki. Tajiri wins with a brainbuster. No reason to watch this.

[Migs]

Agreed that this just never totally got going. Felt like it was a good beginning to a 15 minute match, but as a whole it was weak. I feel like if this match was 6 months later, it would have been a lot better - Tajiri is way more likely to bring his A game with Ki more established, and Ki had probably leveled up a bit too.

[GSR]

Low Ki offers Tajiri his hand before the bout gets underway, which is accepted, clearly showing the respect that he has for his opponent tonight. After the initial lock up Tajiri spits the mist, something that he’s done in all three matches of his that I’ve watched this year so far. Ki gets the better of a shoulder tackle, Tajiri then blocks the hip toss and kicks him in the top of the head. High kick fails to connect, with Ki rolling under it, and a dropkick sends Tajiri sprawling through the top two ropes to the outside. Combination suicide dive/forearm smash. Handspring kick to the face by Ki. He whips Tajiri to the opposite corner only to run into a thrust kick. Backdrop over the top rope and, although he lands on the apron, a further shot sends him flying into the guard rail. Spinning heel kick, but a lacks cover sees Tajiri only get a one count from it. Ki reverses the Irish whip, keeping hold of the arm in the process, and lands a butterfly suplex which he floats over on and turns into a butterfly stretch. That looked nice. Tajiri blocks a head kick, drop toe hold and he locks on a camel clutch, playing the bongo’s on Ki’s head at the same time. Tarantula and after breaking the hold he grabs his own back, mocking his opponent who’s in a bit of pain at this moment. Ki ducks a clothesline and catches Tajiri with a Pele kick. ‘Ki Krusher’ but they’re too close to the ropes and Tajiri grabs them to break the pin. One of the commentators then takes a random swipe at Billy Kidman accusing him of stealing that move after he used it on Nitro. A second ‘Ki Krusher’ in the centre of the ring is blocked and Tajiri hits a brainbuster for the win. The finish is almost missed by our announcers who’re disagreeing on whether the big wigs in WCW have been watching the local indy scene and stealing ideas from them (citing the Natural Born Thrillers and Boogie Knights). Tajiri encourages the crowd to give Ki a round of applause as he helps him to his feet, but as he acknowledges them, he’s jumped from behind by Xavier.

 

Over before it really had a chance to get going and in that sense reminding me of Ki’s match with Little Guido from JCW. Did ICW try to cram so many matches onto this show that they had to cut them short? Not a lot to add and I’ll just repeat what I said for Ki/Guido, disappointing.

[soup23]

A really disappointing match. Low Ki tried and his  strikes were stiff but to Tajiri didn’t give him much room to work with in this match. I found this performance very disappointing from Tajiri.  Add to that the shitty finish and the briefness of the match and this may be the most disappointing Match of  2001. **3/4