NWA Wildside Freedom Fight 2001 tape review

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Since it's one day until my birthday (and Hulk Hogan's, ya know), I've decided that I'll reverse the gift process, and give you what I can for my birthday. I'm sorry if it's not in your size, but the tag said "One size fits all", and I can't take it back....ah, screw the bad jokes! On with the action!

 

NWA WILDSIDE FREEDOM FIGHT 2001

 

Tape starts with the announcers, Dan "The Dragon" Wilson and Steven "De Truth" Prazak open the show from the ring.

 

Then we get an opening montage of past NCW/Wildside highlights, including what looks like a backyard wrestling cage match. Weird.

 

A.J. Styles, Air Paris, and Onyx then come out for an interview in street clothes (actually, Onyx is just wearing a button-up blue shirt that looks like the one my mom has to wear to work at the local Wal-Mart optical lab and his ring gear). They reveal that their scheduled "mystery partner" for the War Games main event, David Flair, had just signed with the WWF, so they wanted to face Suicidal Tendencies & Justice 4-on-3. Wildside promoter/NWA VP/Jeff Jarrett's personal chairshot bitch Bill Behrens comes out, and he wants to cancel the match. "Agent/Attorney" Jeff G. Bailey comes out, and goes on a rant like Paul Heyman O.D.'ing on caffeine pills about blood being spilt all over the NCW Arena during the War Games tonight. Air Paris's witty reply: "What, Jeff, you gonna take that tampon out between your legs?" Proves that all wrestlers really do have the minds of 14-year-old boys. Anyway, eventually, Bill Behrens makes the ruling that he'll let the match go on, but Justice's Wildside Heavyweight Title will be on the line.

 

We then get to our first match....

 

DELICIOUS DREAMS ("Mr. Delicious" Jacey North & Lance Dreamer) vs. TANK & WHITE TRASH

 

Tank & Trash are to Wildside like what Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten were to ECW. They're garbage workers who, at this point, were not good for anything else. Tank eventually turned out to be a decent worker when he wants to, but that's not often. North & Dreamer were a heck of a heel tag team, and North's a pretty good singles worker. Dreamer can be good on his own, but he can be not good sometimes. I don't see why Delicious Dreams were ever broken up. They just had the whole snarky heel thing going without being badasses, which is always cool. They were able to carry T & T to a decent little bout. Nothing special, but decent enough for a Wildside opener in the summer of 2001. I will give Trash his props, as he actually tried to make this more than a stupid squash brawl. Trash just stood there and occasionally threw punches. T & T win when they drill "Mr. Delicious"'s skull with a stop sign.

 

WINNERS: White Trash & Tank

RATING: *

 

"NWA WILDSIDE TAG TEAM TITLES vs. RUSTY RIDDLE's HAIR" match:

TOTAL DESTRUCTION (Sean Royal & Rusty Riddle) vs. THE KOHL TWINS (Keith & Kent) w/ "Mr. Wildside" Steve Martin

 

Yes, it's the same Sean Royal from The New Breed, and yes, it's the same Kohl twins who beat Harlem Heat on WCW TV almost a decade ago. At this point, Steve Martin was playing heel owner/manager, which, in reality, he was the owner until Bill Behrens bought his share of the company out this past fall. Good news: this is the best Kronik-Harris Bros. match I've ever seen. Bad news: it still sucked like a gay porn star. They tried to do the classic tag team formula, but both teams are the monsters of Wildside, so naturally, T.D. was booked to get in a lot of offense. The so-called babyface comeback had absolutely no impact because of it. Finish was a big schmozz, with outside interference from Martin, with the Kohls cheating to win, and retain the belts. Thank goodness the Kohls are out of Wildside. But, that means we got to sit through the New Redneck Express vs. Total Destruction now. Damn it!

 

WINNERS: The Kohl Twins

RATING: 1/4 *

 

TNT (Tony Stradlin & Todd Sexton) vs. BLACKOUT (Homicide & Rainman)

 

Blackout's Homicide isn't the cool Homicide from the Northeast. He's more New Jack-esque, though more talented than "The Original Gangsta". Stradlin & Sexton were trained by Shawn Michaels. This was pretty good. A little spotty, but it looked so good compared to the Tag Title match. Stradlin shows shades of Michaels every once in a while. Both teams have decent double-teams. Blackout play somewhat-monster heels, using their power to get the advantage from TNT. Blackout's punches suck for a couple of "legit gangstas", though I do like the spot where they make an opponent bite the bottom rope as they kick him in the back of the head, re-creating a "curbing". This match actually follows the classic tag formula to the tee. Finish comes when TNT hit the Powder Keg (the old Steiners' finisher, but the opponent is held on the TNT member's back instead of his shoulders). Solid stuff here.

 

WINNERS: TNT

RATING: **1/4

 

INFERNAL DAMNATION MATCH (aka Flaming Tables Match):

THE UNION OF LOST SOULS (Rick Michaels & Scottie Wrenn) vs. NEW BAD ATTITUDE (David Young & Terry Knight) w/ "Mr. Wildside" Steve Martin

 

This whole thing started with The Sinister Minister making his first of two or three appearances in Wildside, bringing Scottie Wrenn, Rick Michaels, Twisted (now Gabriel), and Mark E. Mark (now Azrael) under his wing, and creating a Satanic stable to oppose Steve Martin's tirany (sp). Minister didn't show up to this show, or any other shows after this, so Wilson & Prazak say that the Kohl Twins jumped him in the parking lot earlier. Referee Andrew Thomas is wearing flame-retardent clothing and goggles so he doesn't get burnt. The match itself was a waste of time for all four guys. Young & Michaels are above-and-beyond the level of talent needed to pull off a garbage brawl, Knight's a decent worker, but can be extremely boring, and Wrenn's like Hugh Morris: you want to say he's a good worker because he tries really, really hard, but you just can't (though he's had his good moments). The match itself was good for a garbage brawl, but could have been better had the gimmick not been attached to it. The only part I thought was below decent was the "car crash" sequence. They did this just to prove that the fat guys (Young & Wrenn) could do Asai moonsaults and tope con hilos, yet it was silly in the context of the match. Michaels did a pussed-out dive from the top of the entrance way, landing on his feet, and then just falling forward on top of David Young. After about ten minutes of brawling everywhere, Terry Knight gets superbombed through a flaming table, and, since he's just wearing his "Jeff Jarrett wannabe" tights, his lower back and ass are on fire. He runs to the locker room, where I heard "Mr. Delicious" Jacey North poured ice-cold bottled water on his back for 10 minutes while they waited to get him a ride to the hospital. After the match, The Kohl Twins jump Wrenn, and The Lost Boys come out to help their cultmates. Then, Scottie Wrenn punches Steve Martin, who sells it like crap, and immediately gets on the mike and "fires" Scottie Wrenn.

 

WINNERS: Michaels & Wrenn

RATING: *3/4

 

NWA WILDSIDE Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE LADDER MATCH:

CAPRICE "ICE" COLEMAN vs. JIMMY RAVE

 

This could have been so much better six months later. But, it had to happen in June of 2001, so it wasn't the smoking hot match that it could have been. The match was hindered by three things: Rave's overall greenness, Coleman's inability to carry anyone to a good match, and the stupid storyline that Coleman's afraid of heights when his whole offense is RVD-esque. Most of the match is spent brawling on the outside, which isn't all that good since both guys' punches look like they miss by a foot. Rave does a pretty good blade job here, getting an almost-crimson mask going. For some reason, when they got a close-up of Rave's face right after he bladed, I just then noticed he looks like the lovechild of Josh from "Tough Enough 1" and the guy who played "Shawn" on "Boy Meets World". Weird. Anyway, the end reeks of Bonzoness, as Blackout, Sweet Dreams (Coleman's fat brother who sounds like he's getting kicked in the balls every time he talks), and Lazz all interfere, with Rave winning the match in between the whole mess. Big mess of a match which is all forgiven come October. You'll see, when I pump out the next review (unless the backlash is so bad that you all shun me from here forever).

 

WINNER: Jimmy Rave

RATING: 1/2*

 

WAR GAMES For the WILDSIDE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES (John Phoenix, Adam Jacobs, & "That Bastard who turned his back on Wildside" Jason Cross) and JUSTICE (w/ Jeff G. Bailey) vs. A.J. STYLES, ONYX, & AIR PARIS

 

I expected this to be really good, and I came out sort of disappointed. It was good, just not up to the level that Suicidal Tendencies, A.J., Paris, & Onyx were delivering at the time of the match. The booking of the match definately hurt it. A.J. & Adam Jacobs start the match off, and they have a hell of a five-minute interval. Then, Justice comes in, which, in my opinion, hurt the booking of the match, as if I was were running a team in this, my thinking would be to send in my big guns last as opposed to just throwing him in there to hurt the already-hurt. Whatever. Anyway, after two minutes of A.J. getting destroyed, Onyx (who, at this time was built muscularly like Scott Steiner, but was 5 inches shorter and could do a moonsault) comes in, and he gets to bodyslam Justice to even the odds. Even being built like he is, it looked too unrealistic for a guy Onyx's height to slam someone as big as Justice. Everything went back and forth until Jason Cross comes out. Two minutes later, Air Paris comes in with a chair and swings it like a wimp. Two minutes later, John Phoenix comes out (actually, make that almost three, as he wanted to be cool and wait until the violin part of his song ended to come out). The heels dominate for a while. Then, Dan Wilson "gets handed a note", and has to go to intro another guy into the match. It's Stone Mountain (a 6'7 Samoan/black dude who looks like someone stretched out Rikishi vertically and put him on steroids) comes out as the fourth guy on the faces' team. He then turns on the faces, and him and Justice destroy their opponents. Justice makes Air Paris tap out to end the match. The booking was off, but the guys worked their asses off. In the end, it came out as an evened medium.

 

WINNERS: Justice & Suicidal Tendencies

RATING: ***1/2

 

The tape ends with Bailey's crew chasing off the mid-card babyfaces.

 

My tape must have been taped over a master copy of an episode of Wildside TV from a couple of months previous to this show, as, after a few minutes of black screen, the beginning of an Air Paris/Onyx/A.J. Styles-John Phoenix/Adam Jacobs/Eddie Golden match comes up. The match itself was ***1/4, with it being that low because they clipped about ten seconds out for the local stations' commercials to get edited in, and the match itself only went about 12 minutes. Great southern-style tag match, following the formula to a tee, and Jeff G. Bailey was used excellently. After that, Dan Wilson shills a house show featuring Jerry Lawler vs. Justice, and Jeff G. Bailey promises violence upon Paris, Onyx, & Styles.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Not exactly the best show Wildside's done. The show happened during a point of confusion and change in the company, when they were changing their style to be a more aggressive, East Coast-style promotion, and they were trying to write out a lot of the guys from the previous era of big, fat rednecks who couldn't work. What ended up happening was this mish-mash. Within a couple of months, a lot of the big guys were gone, as was Steve Martin, and the Jr. heavyweights, namely Adam Jacobs, A.J. Styles, & Jason Cross, and a couple of the guys who the company had been built on (Rick Michaels & David Young). The workrate went sky-high, and the storylines went the same direction, though their live audience, who had been brought up on the Southern style, were somewhat confused with the style change, though Wildside luckily left around a few guys to get the good ol' Southern heel heat (Jeff G. Bailey, Blackout, etc.).

 

Next time (if you guys still want me around), I'll review Wildside's "Fright Night 2001, featuring one of the best, if not the best, Wildside match ever.

 

(and feedback is preferred, wink-wink. If ya think I suck, tell me that I suck, and why I suck. If you love my reviews and want me to keep pumping them out, tell me that too. If you're the Bobby Eaton "strong but silent" type, then I'll just leave you alone.)

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

keep reviewing wildside! i live not too far from where they hold matches and i got to go to Freedom Fight 2002 and it was awesome as hell. but damn that last match had about the sickest blade i have ever seen.

keep up the awesome work

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Thanks, man. I heard Rick Michaels wore a "crimson suit of armor" as opposed to the "crimson mask". I'm going to be ordering Hardcore Hell 2002 & Freedom Fight 2002, and I'll review them when I get them.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Oh, one question, Steamboat dude. I was wondering, since you live in the area, what's the local Wildside faithful's reaction to the Jason Cross fiasco?