TAJIRI - You Might Have Missed

Yoshihiro Tajiri has been one of my favorite wrestlers since he came into ECW. He probably is one of the wrestlers that got me hooked. His simple blue trunks and hybrid style really caught my attention. Years ago I looked into some of his early matches in IWA Japan as well as later stuff in his SMASH promotion. I'll include a couple "archive" reviews here if you missed them. This will be an ongoing project but will most likely be sporadically updated. I don't want to watch a giant chunk of his matches and get burnt out.

Silver King & El Texano vs Takashi Okano & Yoshihiro Tajiri (IWA Japan 03/07/95): Whoa! Let me catch my breath here. Double plus quick lucharesu opening. Tajiri's throwing kicks even in his green pad & trunk days, nice! Texano eats a couple then, says " Hey Silver! You get in there man!" Eventually chairs are brought into the mix & it gets really good. The native team look dusted but, Tajiri is showing all kinds of intestinal fortitude & our man Okano is busting up pins like a bowling ball. Make no mistake though: This is a chunk of Los Cowboys awesomeness.

Tajiri vs Dr Wagner Jr. (BJW 09/30/96) - We're seriously lucky to have this much footage from Big Japan. They could have edited this down to a couple minutes. I've seen them do it! Fortunately, we get a lot of great wrestling here. It's about 8 minutes of awesomeness. Tajiri and Wagner Jr gel and we get technical, exciting lucharesu - Greco-Roman knuckle lock work, arm drags, dives, and the big moves. It's a great match as is but if there's a full version, I'd say it's likely a near classic match. RECOMMENDED

Tajiri vs El Samurai (NJPW 05/17/97) - Seven of 13 minutes shown which is typical of New Japan at the time. Frankly all Japanese wrestling at the time seems to have been doing this. That aside, nice technical wrestling and a bunch of counter moves. I dug this one. I wish we had the full version. That is going to be the theme. Very good stuff from what we have.

Tajiri, Otani, Takaiwa & Hanzo Nakajima vs Liger, Wagner Jr., Chris Jericho & Gran Naniwa (NJPW 06/05/97) - Look at that lineup! 8 of 13 minutes shown. Holy cow, this was an action packed match! It had everything you want in a match like this - dives, double teams, big moves...Everyone looked fantastic! 

Tajiri vs Rey Misterio Jr. (WWE Smackdown! 09/25/03) - You might have seen this one but I didn't. I just couldn't pass up Rey vs Tajiri. And I'm so glad that I watched this. It's such a great match. Rey Misterio Jr is one of the best TV wrestlers so I thought this would be a lot of him doing his thing but, it's more of a story driven bout. Tajiri works over the masked hero's gut & ribs with a variety of kicks, submissions and throws. Rey Junior has got to hang in there and find opportunities to attack when he can. This is Rey at his best I think. The Japanese Buzzsaw is as wily as anyone and cuts Misterio off in really fresh, interesting ways. But don't be mistaken this isn't a dull or dry match, there's a bunch of excitement too. RECOMMENDED

Tajiri vs Fit Finlay (02/19/12 SMASH 25):  SMASH was Tajiri's spiritual successor to Hustle and this was SMASH's final big show. There's a really great lead-in video from Tajiri talking about the importance of this match, as well as, talking about the ferocity of Dave Finlay. It really establishes the drama of this title match in that it is not only about Tajiri having the title at the close of the promotion but, also in proving something to himself. The Buzzsaw looked really good early on getting ahead of Finlay. Of course, Fit came back strong by upping the violence. He attacked our hero Tajiri in the ring and on the floor. Yoshihiro wouldn't quit and tried to mount a counter attack but, the Belfast Bruiser was one step ahead. He blocked, reversed or straight countered Tajiri's signature offense. The Japanese man was in the fight of his life (which played off the lead-in video SO well). This desperation made him doubly dangerous and he finally put Fit on defense. Who would survive? This was such a punishing, dramatic match. It was everything I hoped it would be. A near classic (if not a classic) encounter. It is a must see if you're a fan of either man OR just a wrestling fan in general.

Thanks for reading!