[2000-02-04-ECW-Jacksonville, FL] Super Crazy vs Yoshihiro Tajiri (Japanese Death)

[soup23]

Another absolute war. Since we don’t see the beginning of the TV match, this was nice to see Crazy rush the ring and everything just goes right from there. Tajiri sends him sailing through the crowd with no regard. Tajiri always has something interesting to do that feels different and here it was slamming the chair at the fan in the crowd and spitting at them. When the fan responds, Tajiri calmly eats the spit. Both guys bleed and do some nutty spots including the signature moonsault into the crowd from Crazy and the beautiful kicks from Tajiri. Like the tv match, they were able to build to a stunt show spectacle ending that didn’t seem too contrived as the visual of Crazy being buried under the chairs and Tajiri double stomping that was excellent. I thought this was on par with the tv match and with the beginning here, this may possibly be my favorite ECW match of all time. ****1/2

[Loss]

Someone has to tell me the difference between a Japanese Death Match and a Mexican Death Match. I didn't like this as much as I hoped I would. The previous death match was more violent and Crazy seemed more able to draw sympathy based on his selling and blade job, where this seemed all about the crazy plunder spots. It had its good moments, but I thought a lot of the spots required too much setup time and there wasn't much depth outside of those spots. I can handle a match built around those, especially in this promotion, as long as there's something beyond that, but there wasn't much here. I'd still call this a good match because it clicked with its audience and there was some impressive stuff, but I just see it as a good match -- not much more. ***1/4

[Grimmas]

I'm going to split the difference and go with ****.

 

I thought it was a nice match that built up the violence well with some real sick spots. However the aura of danger was not there like the first match. If Crazy bleed a little more or if Tairi was a little more psychotic this would had been at the level of the previous match.

 

Still a great match, but suffers by comparison.

[soup23]

I'm going to split the difference and go with ****.

 

 

 

How Canadian of you.

[cramerjason87]

Not as good as the match in January but still good. The missing element to me was the arena crowd made the action feel more intense. These two had fantastic chemistry and Tajiri had a big league feel. Finish was awesome.

[AstroBoy]

Couldn't top the Mexican Death Match but still a really good match.

 

Where the Mexican Death Match was an absolute war for survival with killer spots and great heat, this was more of a race to see who could hit the biggest and most deadly high spot to put the other away. Agreed totally that the setting up of spots changed the flow of the match, the same natural rhythm that helped the Mexican Death Match so much. But within this context it wasn't egregious or anything. It makes sense these two would be trying to go for some insane kill shot as often as possible. And there are certainly some wild spots here, most notably Tajiri's double stomp through the table onto all the chairs which looked painful as hell. I don't think I could ever tire of watching these two do their thing.

[Laney]

This is not on the same level as their match the month prior. This is still a good match, but it has nowhere near the same intensity. Everything was good in the ring, but there wasn't much heat to this. It's not that the crowd was dead or anything; it just seems like both guys weren't really working the crowd into the match like they did the month before.

 

***1/4

[GSR]

Crazy sprints down the aisle and nails Tajiri with a springboard dropkick before the match has even gotten underway. Tajiri ducks a clothesline and a dropkick to the knees takes Crazy off his feet. He rolls to the outside but Tajiri follows him. Crazy reverses an Irish whip and Tajiri goes crashing into the guard rails, however when he rushes at him, he gets backdropped up and over into the front row. A cool spot where Tajiri has set up a chair in the ring, he kicks Crazy in the back of his head so his face falls onto the chair, and a swift front kick to the back of the chair sees the steel colliding with Crazy’s face. Tajiri ties him up in the ‘tree of woe’, positions three chairs infront of his head and then dropkicks the lot busting him open. Tarantula and he wipes the bloodied forehead of his opponent onto the referee, before biting the cut and spitting the blood into the crowd. Crazy with a clothesline, a Lionsault for two and a powerbomb as he starts to fight back. He sets up a table on the outside and puts Tajiri through it with a legdrop off the top to the floor. Chairshot to the head busts Tajiri open too, before Crazy throws a bunch more chairs into the ring. Handspring elbow from Tajiri and a brainbuster. He looks to suicideplex Crazy through a table, however he manages to fight him off and shoves him backwards with Tajiri doing well to leap over and avoid it. Missile dropkick by Crazy, he then lies Tajiri on the table and moonsaults through them both for two. With that no longer fit for purpose, Crazy heads out and brings in another one. Tajiri counters a powerbomb into a DDT onto the pile of chairs. Bodyslam and he covers Crazy under the chairs before placing the table over him. Double foot stomp off the top through the table to his chair covered opponent and Tajiri gets the win.

 

These two had the best ECW match of January and although it’s early, every chance they’ve just had the best one of February too. From the moment Crazy sprinted to the ring and nailed Tajiri with the springboard dropkick you could sense the urgency and that these two just ‘don’t plain like each other’. I did worry that this might be a carbon copy of the Mexican Death match but I needn’t have worried at all. A few similar spots, but Tajiri has plenty of nice touches so you don’t feel like you’ve seen this all before (kicking the back of the chair into Crazy’s face, involving the ref by wiping the blood on him, biting the cut and spitting the blood into the crowd etc), plus there was a heavier emphasis on the use of tables and chairs here. I get why people might think they were taking too long setting things up, but I never saw it that way. I’d rate this a touch below the January match, but that takes nothing away from this which is still a great match.

[Kronos]

Despite the fast (and awesome) beginning, this match does feel a little slower than January's. But the intensity is off the charts.

 

ECDub fans are such smarks. They count Crazy's punches in Spanish.

 

That finish with all the chairs and the table stomp was badass.

[Childs]

These guys were always good against each other, but this one leaned too heavily on the garbage spots for my taste. The hot opening was terrific, and it was cool that both guys bled. But god, the finishing spot took forever to set up and didn't even look that devastating. When there's more furniture moving than wrestling over the climactic five minutes of a match, there's almost no chance I'll like it, even though it was catnip for the ECW crowd.

[grendel]

I agree that last months match was better. But I still liked it. Some great spots, and the finish was good too. If only they would have interacted with the crowd some more, this one could have been great.

[drew wardlaw]

After watching the two matches, Im more inclined to view them as one piece rather than individual matches. I liked that Super Crazy was red hot from the start, this felt like his revenge for the beating he got last time, even though he won the match. Interesting dynamic between the two matches where the winner is the man who takes more of a beating.

[Stiva]

Yeah, I think this falls short of last month's but agree that this was helped by Crazy really bringing it. I like the idea that Tajiri dragged him down to his level since every time he was on offense, there was fantastic urgency and I thought the leg drop through the table outside being slightly overshot was perfect, like he's not really trying to aim, he's just so pissed off that he's driving him through the table with any part of his body he can muster. Tajiri continues to be WOTY, well, my own personal WOTY anyway since he continues to find new ways to be an unholy bastard. Rubbing Crazy's bloodied face on the ref's shirt and then spitting the same blood into the crowd and I even liked the finish, even if the chairs on top of Crazy were a slight bit of overkill. Still, these two have great chemistry and are able to pull off a great heated brawl. In a company where table spots are passe, these matches really do have an extra dimension.

[Wahoos Leg]

Tajiri and Super Crazy are both extremely talented and produced their best work when against one another. They had better matches than this one, but this overall sample from their body of work is elevated by the finishing spot.

Here's a link to my full review of the match, from the 365 Wrestling project I am doing.