[2000-06-17-NWA Wildside-TV] NWA Elite (A.J. Styles & Eddie Golden & Onyx & Bill Behrens) vs Team NCW (Stone Mountain & J.C. Dazz & David Young & Rick Michaels)

[soup23]

A really strong Multiman match. The faces come out hot and rock the heels. The heels get heat right away with Behrens ridiculous robe. AJ feels more comfortable as a heel here in his cocky persona. Michaels ends up getting worked over and they do a real good job of working over his leg and cutting the ring in half. Golden is a strong utility player in that regard and Bailey was directing traffic from the outside. Last few minutes are chaotic after the hot tag and it looks like the faces are going to be victorious until Steve Martin turns on the faces and his best friend in Michaels. A ton of trash gets pelted in the ring in a cool looking visual. This garnered strong heat but between AJ and now Martin, Wildside is in a bit of the N W O complex where all the cool/powerful people in the universe are now on the heel side so it is tough to really get behind a babyface contingent as they feel so overmatched. ***1/2 (6.8)

[Tim Evans]

AJ Styles doing Ric Flair ass baring spots is a sight to see. This was a fine match with Bill Behrens doing the heel chicken shit heel spots and the babyfaces kinda being boring. I remember the Martin heel turn and the timing between when he het rick with the chair and trash throwing is very WCW like.

[Edwin]

The match itself was OK, but the post match chaos is what really made this for me. I thought Styles continued looking great as the heel and everyone else on the NWA Elite did well, but the NCW Crew is just sorta bland. As for the post match chaos, if you can generate that much heat in those times, then you were definitely doing something right. While I agree it had an NWO kinda feel to it, still it was great.

 

***

[GSR]

Onyx would rather dance than wrestle at the onset, not J.C. Dazz though who kicks him in the face to put a stop to that.  He immediately crawls over to his corner and while the rest of the NWA Elite drop rom the apron to the floor out of reach, A.J. Styles isn’t paying attention and gets tagged in.  Irish whip by Styles and Dazz leaps to the top rope and backflips off it; he’s a lot more agile than you would expect looking at him, evidenced by another fast pace section between these two that follows.  The two teams are stood in the ‘wrong’ corners making this look weird.  Those bloody Wildside mid-match commercials are back and we miss a chunk of the action, returning with the NWA Elite now in control and working over Rick Michael’s knee.  Bill Behrens gets involved, and seems rather excited to be so, although quickly tags out when Michaels boots him in the gut.  Even with two referees they’re struggling to see everything, A.J. causing a distraction and allowing Jeff G. Bailey and Behrens to cheap shot that knee.  Styles with a single leg crab, really wrenching back as he cinches it in.  Figure Four leglock by Behrens as the commentators say how Ric Flair must be spinning in his grave.  Michaels turns it over reversing the pressure and A.J. is forced to make the save.  The officials aren’t doing anything in regards to getting him out of there so, having seen enough, David Young is in to help out his ‘Bad Attitude’ partner.  The match falls apart at this point with everyone now in the ring and when Scotty Wrenn and Terry Knight (more members of the Elite) involve themselves, the ref calls for the bell and throws it out.  Stone Mountain gets handcuffed to the bottom rope to take him out of there when Steve Martin shows up.  He acts as though he is going to blast Behrens over the head with a steel chair only to turn heel himself and clobber Michaels instead.  This seriously pisses the fans off who pelt the ring with drinks and debris while the Elite bloody Michaels up.  Security is eventually able to restore some order as Martin says “there’s an old saying, if you can’t beat them, join them”.

 There was definitely an air of the NWO with the visual at the end and the Martin turn reminded me of when Eric Bischoff turned and joined ‘the cool bad guys’.  Still this was completely out of the blue and amazing that something could still gather this much heat in 2000.  A.J. was the workhorse for his side and this, on the back of the tag match last month really makes me want to see him face Dazz in a singles match.  Stone Mountain is seriously bland mind and I kinda now see why he never got a looksee by the WWF considering he’s the size of guy you’d expect them to be all over.  I felt the heat section on Michaels was probably a tad long and the post-match, filling the ring with trash compensates for what was actually a weak finish to the match.