Full Match Friday: Taz vs Yoshihiro Tajiri

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vivz6e_EVnM]

At ECW’s Heatwave ’99, Tommy Dreamer came to the ring to announce his retirement from wrestling.  Now, this may seem odd to you, considering that last Sunday, well over a decade later, Tommy wrestled and won a PPV match.  I remind you, no one stays retired in wrestling.  Anyway, his speech was spoiled when “The King of Old School” Steve Corino and cronies Rhino, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and Jack Victory interrupted Dreamer and incited a brawl.  The result of the incident was Tommy Dreamer holding Tajiri captive in the ropes until Taz, then ECW Champion, could get to the ring for his match with the Japanese superstar to begin.  What followed was Taz doing what he does best: being the biggest badass in wrestling.  Throwing an invalid out of his wheelchair, and then throwing the wheelchair at his face?  Check.  Bowing to the crowd in a racially insensitive manner after dropping a Japanese dude on his head, and then snapping a Japanese flag over his knee?  Check.  Brutally strangling a man with barbed wire?  Check.

Joey Styles’ mention of fearing that the extreme violence would get ECW thrown off of pay-per-view and yelling at the cameraman to “stay wide” while Taz had Tajiri in the barbed wire Tazmission was the kind of thing that set ECW apart, made it “real.”  And probably the craziest part about all this is that this World Title match wasn’t even the show’s main event – it was followed by RVD & Jerry Lynn vs The Impact Players.  Talk about getting your money’s worth!