NWA Wildside Fright Night 2001 tape review

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

At this point in Wildside history, the ownership had been shifted from Steve Martin to Bill Behrens, who had been previously just promoting so that Martin could get his group a worthless NWA membership. The summer of 2001 had been an interesting time, as all of "Steve Martin's boys", aka the big dudes who couldn't wrestle worth a lick, had been written out of Wildside, and Behrens had guys like Jason Cross, Adam Jacobs, and Jimmy Rave take their spots, which gave for some very interesting shows. Here is the pinnacle of Behrens's work to get the new guys over, Fright Night 2001.

 

NWA WILDSIDE FRIGHT NIGHT 2001

 

Show starts with Bill Behrens introducing Dan "The Dragon" Wilson to the audience, and then Wilson introduces Steven Prazak (who comes out to "Indagaddadavida"). Wilson goes on hype duty, talking up Wildside's short-lived TV deal in New York City, and saying that the event would be taped for Wildside Home Video. Then, out comes the new storyline "owner" of Wildside, Jeff G. Bailey, and his "money mark" (yes, he had been called this on Wildside TV) Big Business Brown. Bailey makes Wilson open the ropes for him and BBB, but it takes both Wilson and Prazak to open the ropes wide enough to get Big Business in. Bailey then tells Wilson that he's "no David Penzer", but he's cheap, so he likes him. Bailey then runs down both announcers for calling him names, and orders them out of the ring. Bailey then makes some gay jokes about Lazz and Onyx, and then hypes up the Four-Way Ladder match and Adam Jacobs vs. Onyx later on. Bailey hands the mic over to BBB for about 30 seconds, who somehow manages to crack me up. I don't know what it is about him, he doesn't say anything particularly funny, but somehow he's pretty damn funny. Almost like a really, really gay camp counceller (sp). Bailey closes up by calling the "South Atlanta Boys" (Wildside's version of the front row guys from the ECW Arena) "worse than those crackheads down in Florida".

 

G-RATED (Kid Kool & Kid Xctasy) vs. NEW BAD ATTITUDE (David Young & Terry Knight)

 

G-Rated are a couple of teenagers who had been trained by Rick Michaels who Bill Behrens decided to put on TV to fill in spots left by guys who had left the company. Xctasy cuts a funny promo before the match, reciting his own version of the "Halloween poem" ("Trick or treat, smell my feet, give us some good team to beat. If you don't, we don't care, we'll beat Bad Attitude anywhere!"), and claiming he'll give David Young the spinebuster before the match is over. They also cut jokes on B.A.'s age, which is odd, since Young & Knight would be called "young studs" by Jim Ross if they were in WWE right now. B.A. comes out, and they go APA on G-Rated's asses. G-Rated bump their asses off, which makes sense, since B.A. dwawf G-Rated (that's a testament to how small G-Rated are, for those of you who saw David Young on the TNA PPV's.) Dan Wilson gets in a funny line when Xctasy gets dropped on the top rope groin-first: "That'll hurt Xctasy, if he's developed in that area yet." Finish comes when Knight locks in the Rings of Saturn on Xctasy with his legs, and Young nails one hell of a spinebuster on Kid Kool for the win. After the match, B.A. hit the Attitude Adjustment (Spinebuster/neckbreaker double-team move) on Xctasy. If you liked the APA-Kaientai feud, you'll love this.

 

WINNERS: New Bad Attitude

RATING: 1/4*

 

LAZZ vs. JEREMY LOPEZ

 

Lopez is a tremendous worker who you may know from WCW Saturday Night and Osaka Pro fame, who can pull a good match out of a lot of guys, while Lazz is a guy with a transvestite Britney Spears gimmick who looks like the lovechild of Spears and Steve Borden. Match starts with a bunch of stalling, including Lopez almost getting into a fight with a senior citizen who looked like he was hopped up on caffeine or something. The old guy rearing his fist back to hit Lopez and yelling stuff was fricking hilarious. When the match finally starts, Lopez does some early legwork, which Lazz then goes to ignore by doing a double springboard senton, which missed. Lopez goes to work on Lazz's shoulder for a second, then goes right back to work on the legs. He flows from a Boston Crab into a Texas Cloverleaf into a Bow-And-Arrow into an STF, which prompts the commentary team to come up with this: Wilson, "The STF, invented by Lou Thesz, and popularized by Masahiro Chono." Prazak: "and totally ruined by Erik Watts." Lazz ignores the legwork yet again by doing a springboard move. Lopez gets the advantage back a minute later, and hits an inverted Implant DDT for the win. While the match did good for the Jer-Lo push, it exposed Lazz as a guy who can't sell worth a damn. Jeremy's done better.

 

WINNER: Jeremy Lopez

RATING: *3/4

 

What followed was a hunking piece of dog crap. Ed "Rasta Boy" Ferrara drags Persephone (some blonde chick) out, and brags about "owning her contract". He then tells her that she'll be working a match against Destiny, who was then Slim J's valet. Ferrara orders Persephone to let Destiny beat her. "A pre-determined finish? In a wrestling match? I've never heard of such a thing", so sayeth Dan Wilson. Persephone pins Destiny in seconds with a botched fisherman's suplex. Then, Goth, a big hick who wears black, comes in, hits Ferrara in the head with a chair (which brings the only redeeming quality of this horrible segment, seeing Ed Ferrara bleed). Goth then walks off into the sunset with both women. Now why this was on the tape, I have no damn clue. Ferrara can play a decent heel, but Goth and the women just plain sucked. Why, why, why???

 

TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS:

TNT (Tony Stradlin & Todd Sexton) vs. THE LOST BOYS (Azrael & Gabriel)

 

Rules stated that first two falls were normal, third "if necessary" was Falls Count Anywhere. This was pretty good, though a little spotty, and way too damn short, at a little over 11 minutes. At this point, neither team was known for their sense of ring psychology. But they could bust out some cool moves. TNT won the first fall with a double-team move out of the electric chair position where Stradlin proceeds to legitimately injure his shoulder, keeping him out of action for six months after this match. Literally seconds later, Lost Boys take the second fall by reversing the Powder Keg with a sunset flip by Gabriel on Sexton, and a spear on Stradlin by Azrael. Then, it's Falls Count Anywhere, also known as "Everyone Takes the Most Insane Bumps Possible". Gabriel dives off on the entrance onto the other three guys. Then, Azrael and Tony Stradlin climb some fencing in the crowd (which is a little higher than the entrance), and Stradlin pushes Azrael off onto a stack of chairs, which looked sick. Then, Sexton has Gabriel in a power bomb position, and slams him into the fencing, making Stradlin bump behind the fence. This mess of bumps goes on for a minute longer, until Stradlin is able to climb onto the guard rail, and TNT hits the Powder Keg on the wood floor for the win. After the match, referee Andrew Thomas and a security guy rush Stradlin backstage because he's hurt. I guess no one told the Lost Boys, because they get into the ring with a chair as if TNT & them were supposed to brawl after the match, but no one comes back out, so it makes them look sort of dumb. This was entertaining, but in the Chris Rock type of way, not the Steven Wright type of way.

 

WINNERS: TNT

RATING: ***

 

WILDSIDE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

"The Ticking Time Bomb" SCOTTIE WRENN vs. "The Original Chosen One" RICK MICHAELS

 

First off, I really regret not listing Rick Michaels on that "Ten Best Indy Workers" thread, as he really is a tremendous worker who can work any style and pull the best out of that style. This match is proof of it. Scottie Wrenn is a brawler who really isn't good at much, though very carriable. Rick took some familiar garbage spots, and just ran with the ball the rest of the way. While not a classic by any means, it's one of the better indy brawls I've seen in quite some time. Rick bumps like a pinball to almost all of Scottie's offense. Scottie plays the "psycho fat dude who's been pushed to the edge by a chickensh*t heel" very well. Then comes the bullcrap finish. Think Halloween Havoc 1990 main event, only substitute Rick Michaels in for Sid Vicious, Wrenn in for Sting, Terry Knight in for either Arn Anderson or Ric Flair (I forget which one distracted the referee), and David Young for Barry Windham, and change the finish to Sid winning the belt, and that's what happened here. Besides the finish sucking overall, they spent way too much time backstage, which pissed the crowd and me off, as no one could hear or see what was going on until Michaels came back out with David Young in a headlock. Besides the suckass finish, it was a good match, but that finish just killed things.

 

WINNER: Rick Michaels

RATING: **1/2

 

NWA WILDSIDE TV TITLE:

ONYX vs. ADAM JACOBS (w/ Jeff G. Bailey & Big Business Brown)

 

This was the blowoff to two storylines involving Mr. Jacobs: it was the end of a stupid "secret admirer" angle, as the admirer was inside a gift box at ringsid, and it was the blowoff to the Onyx/Jacobs feud, which had been going since Freedom Fight. This was also about as good an Onyx match as I've seen. Adam kept Onyx's offense, which he usually blows his load on in about a minute flat, to a minimum. Adam dominated, but he gave Onyx enough hope spots to keep the audience into it. The match was solid, but not a lot of substance. A little more than ten minutes in, Jacobs hits his finisher, the Georgia Bulldog Jam (guillotine legdrop), and then heads to the gift box, where he "lays the lumber", and then pops out seconds later with his pants around his ankles (he had tights on underneath). He rolls into the ring, and Onyx hits a swinging implant DDT for the win. Lazz then climbs out of the box, and homosexual mayhem ensues. Once again, finish aside, this was a very solid match.

 

WINNER: Onyx

RATING: **

 

LADDER MATCH for the WILDSIDE Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:

A.J. STYLES vs. J.C. DAZZ vs. JASON CROSS vs. JIMMY RAVE

 

I came into this expecting something really good, as these guys range from solid (Rave) to good (Styles) to spectacular (Cross, Dazz). What I saw was absolutely amazing. It had the spectacularism of the TLC matches mixed with really good storytelling, in that no matter what alliances these guys have with each other, they wanted the Jr. Heavyweight Title even more. Everyone bumped like pinballs, even some guy in the front row who J.C. Dazz threw A.J. Styles into by accident. I mean, I'm trying to describe this match, but it's pretty hard to describe how good this match is. It's better than the TLC matches, IMO, as those just featuring guys falling from high distances to kill themselves, which, while I have respect for guys that tough to do that, it takes more work to come up with a story that makes sense within the context of a bump-fest. I applaud A.J., J.C., Jimmy, and yes, even that rat bastard Jason Cross. Thank you guys for bringing this match into the world. To everyone that will read this: BUY THE F'N TAPE RIGHT NOW! Go to http://www.nwa-wildside.com and dish out the $20 that I dished out to watch this match. You will thank me for it later. Oh, the finish came when everyone but Jimmy Rave fell off the ladders, and he climbed them to get the belt.

 

WINNER: Jimmy Rave

RATING: ****3/4

 

FOUR CORNERS OF PAIN for the WILDSIDE TAG TEAM TITLES:

TANK & TRASH vs. BLACKOUT (Homicide & Rainman)

 

Gimmick here was that all four corners had a pole with a "weapon of destruction" hanging from it. First pole had a "Halloween Funbag" filled with thumbtacks, second corner had Trash's stop sign (which they couldn't actually hang from the pole), third corner had Tank's "little blue bag", which contained a sickle, and the fourth corner had a barbed wire baseball bat. If you like guys walking around and poking people with sharp stuff, well, you'll love this. This is a bad garbage blood-fest, though I've seen worse. Trash bleeds like a faucet, and his white shirt really helped the effect. Referee Andrew Thomas "vomited" because of Trash's blood loss (the vomit looked like a large loogie, and Rainman stepped in it seconds later). Really, I think you can picture the rest: stab, walk, stab, kick. Match ends after a Yakuza kick/Emerald Fusion sequence by Tank. Dan Wilson sells the Tank & Trash win like that hairy WCW mascot thing beating Hogan for the World Title in 1996.

 

WINNERS: Trash & Tank

RATING: 1/4*

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Well, if you've never seen Wildside, and you want an introduction to Wildside, I'd recommend this tape. Besides the first and last matches, everything ranges from solid-to-Match of the Year quality. I would even recommend watching the opening squash just because G-Rated are the most entertaining comedy gimmick I've seen in quite a while. Commentary really stepped up a notch in this one from Freedom Fight, though they had a better product to call this time around. Dan Wilson especially seemed to kick his game up a notch. There was some worthless crap that should have been edited off of the tape (cough-Ed Ferrara-cough), but hey, I'm neither Andrew Thomas or Steve Martin (who, even though he had sold his ownership of the company, was still working as Wildside's video producer), so I can't do anything about it. Still, if I absolutely had to, I'd sit through an hour of the Ferrara segment to see the Ladder match, and mostly everything else isn't that bad, so GET THE TAPE.

 

(And feedback is really appreciated.)

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Anyone want to respond? Anyone care? Anyone like pudding?