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ECW ON TNN

taped 3/24/00

Yoshihiro Tajiri . . . proves to be a smart enough worker to find interesting ways to work props into the match, even though they’re unneeded.

Roadkill . . . seems to have a remarkable fanbase in the Kansas City area.

Super Crazy . . . seemingly snatches victory from the jaws of defeat to retain his TV Title.

YOSHIHIRO TAJIRI vs. LITTLE GUIDO

Even though both Guido and Tajiri are good enough workers that they don’t need the assistance from tables and chairs, they’re creative enough to find amusing ways to work it into the match, since they know that’s what the crowd expects. Tajiri’s chair assisted buzzsaw kick while he had Guido hung up is a good example of that, and it looked nasty enough to be a credible finish. Tajiri using the mist to blind Sal and stop Guido from putting him through the table was a good enough way to get out of that predicament, and Guido countering Tajiri’s handspring elbow into a neckbreaker was a great way for him to take over the match. These two had worked together plenty of times by this point, and it shows with how smooth most of their work is. Tajiri countering Guido’s Tornado DDT into the brainbuster is a great finish, and puts over Tajiri’s wrestling skill, which is often overlooked because of his strikes.

TOMMY DREAMER/DANNY DORING/ROADKILL vs. ANGEL/DeVITO/VIC GRIMES

This is pretty much the polar opposite of the previous match. Whereas Guido and Tajiri worked the props into the match, despite them not being needed, and found smart ways to use them, these guys just brawl over the place and keep bringing in the plunder with no real rhyme or reason. You know all that you need to know about how much thought any of them put into the match when Dreamer sets up a ladder against the ropes and him and Doring have to wait for Angel and DeVito to get themselves into position for them to seesaw it into their faces. Just about the only thing to take away from this is how over Roadkill, of all people, seemed to be with the fans. In that regard, it was nice to see him score the winning pinfall for his team. It’s hard to fault them too much by giving the crowd what they want to see, as far as the brawling and weapons go, it’s just too bad they couldn’t find smarter ways to use it.

As odd as it seems, the only weak point of this match comes when they try to work something of a normal match, with Rhino’s control segment, because he’s just not interesting about it. Crazy’s selling is good, as usual, and Joey Styles does everything possible to make it seem hopeless for Crazy. But, at least in this stage of his career, carrying a match with actual work wasn’t one of Rhino’s strong suit, which probably shouldn’t be a surprise considering he got over by squashing jobbers in a minute or less. Beyond that, this is actually a really fun affair. Crazy’s early aggression is fun to watch, and there’s a quick tease of the same goofiness that plagued the trios match when Rhino sets up the table in the corner and Crazy stumbles in front it, to tease Rhino spearing him, but Crazy dodges it. When the table does come into a play, it’s done in a smarter way, with Crazy trying to counter Rhino’s powerbomb only to put himself into position for Rhino to do Shuji Kondo’s Lanzarse and put him through the table.

Their finish comes off about as good as possible, with Rhino setting up another table, ostensibly for a superplex or maybe his piledriver off the second rope. Crazy does a foul and does a sunset flip powerbomb to put Rhino through the table to retain the title. It’s a smart way to use another table, and with how close Rhino seemed to be to beating him, it seems like Rhino cost himself the match by futzing around with the table, when he could have just done his piledriver or the Gore and won the title. It’s too bad that Crazy was about to take a hiatus from ECW, it’d have been interesting to see him get a longer title run and work a full program with Rhino, not to mention one-off title matches with other solid workers at the time like Guido, CW Anderson, Jerry Lynn, and RVD when he came back from his injury.

Conclusion: There isn’t anything here especially mind blowing, but, this is a fun enough TV show, and it’s easy to see why guys like Tajiri and Super Crazy were so heavily featured during this time.