[2000-06-03-Music City-Tojo Memorial 2000] Air Paris vs Chris Harris

[soup23]

Inevitably, there will be moments when you watch a match in this project and see that it was definitely a 2000-style match and not meaning that as a compliment. That was one of these times. Both of these guys seem to have something there but they keep mixing up the match with highspots brought down by Paris grabbing a lazy headlock. Rinse and repeat over 20 minutes and I was checking out big time throughout this one. The ending is also awful with another run in and outside interference. 6/3/00 is an interesting day for indies with a lot of groups running but we are still seeing that the US indy scene still had some growing left to do. *3/4

[Tim Evans]

When the most interesting thing about this match was heel Colorado Kid at ringside, you know the match is bad. Very 70's type match in 2000 which is just out of touch by Bert.

[Robert S]

This kind of match is very hard to watch: two guys you have no emotional investment with having a 20+ minute match where they fail to create any drama, except some bullshit at the end involving Mike Rapada.

[GSR]

Paris is another who’s gone for the 3 Count look. He jumps Harris, the North American champion, as he enters the ring, but ‘the Wildcat’ quickly turns things around and launches him over the top rope to the outside. They fight around ringside and to the back of the arena, although it’s more like one of those Tommy Dreamer ECW walks around the building. Harris tosses him back inside and comes off the top with a double axe handle for two. Paris then counters a clothesline with a float over into a DDT for a two of his own. Swinging neckbreaker before Air slaps on a rear chinlock. Inverted ‘Roll the Dice’ and ‘the Wildcat’ is able to kick out in time. Top rope frankensteiner and there’s a definite 3 Count influence on Paris as he’d rather dance and gyrate his hips than make the cover. The ref warns him about grabbing his opponent’s hair so he gets in his face and the official gives him a shove with Air bumping for it. That’s a spot I’ve seen way too much this year and we’re only six months in. He looks for another top rope rana, but this time Harris counters with an almighty reverse atomic drop. Irish whip, however Paris holds on to the ropes and ‘the Wildcat’s’ dropkick fails to connect. He pushes Harris to the outside and nails him with a plancha, only just clearing the top rope in the process. Big splash off the top, guillotine leg drop off the top but neither are able to put Harris away. Air grabs a chair, but before he is able to use it, the Colorado Kid, who is watching at ringside, snatches it away from him. ‘The Wildcat’ with a spear and both men are down. Sleeper hold by Paris and I’m getting a sense of déjà vu about things. Somersault legdrop off the top but Harris moves and Air lands right on his tailbone. Legdrop off the middle by Harris and this time it’s Paris’ turn to move out the way. Moonsault and we finally have an aerial manoeuvre that hits its target. I really don’t have the heart to make any more notes as I just want this over, but Harris gets the win after the Colorado Kid accidentally hits Air with one of Tojo Yamamoto’s wooden shoes and ‘the Wildcat’ drops the Randy Savage elbow on him.

 

A perfect example of a match going far longer than it had any right too with two guys who have no idea on how to fill that time and make things compelling. This was the main event of the show and I’m guessing they felt they needed to go long for that reason, as a result though we get thirty minutes of action (it’s slightly clipped towards the end) when half of that would’ve been more than enough. This bored me early, and by twenty minutes I was wishing for it to finish end and had stopped caring. They actually did a bunch of real good near falls after that (Paris rolling through on a Harris reverse crossbody and hooking the tights in the process, Harris turning a Paris top rope crossbody into a powerslam and a final one from a Paris superkick) but they garnered no reaction whatsoever because the audience, like me, were bored and had zoned out. The match was really repetitive in parts (we got at least three rear chinlock/sleeper spots) and it bordered on overkill the amount of times Paris would cut off Harris after he’d seemingly got back into the match and ended the heat segment (like seven or eight times). The finish was an overbooked cluster with both Colorado Kid and Ernest T. loitering and causing a distraction around ringside, Paris deliberately superkicking the referee (why wasn’t he disqualified?) and the involvement of Kid and Tojo’s wooden shoe. On a positive note, I imagine that the ghost of Tojo Yamamoto let out a ‘Bonzai’ when he saw ‘his’ shoe being used as a weapon in the match.