NWA Wildside Workrate Report 2/26/04
Tom, Wes and I are going to be hitting at least one night of Hardcore Hell on our Atl Lucha trip dos at the end of the month, and I found a website which has Wildside TV (http://www.combathonor.com/) for download, so I figured I would drop a workrate report. I am only slightly familiar with Wildside as I don't think I have seen any in about a year, so I imagine this debut Workrate report will be seeped in Scott Keith reviews Puroresu-level ignorance, I apologize in advance for that.
What Worked
-The Urban Death Squad jump Slim J, in a really seedy looking backstage beatdown. Urban Death Squad are fun on the mike, as I loved the call for Blue Cross/Blue Shield as they were leaving.
-Angel Dust v. Fast Eddie was sort of a mess, as it starts as a title match and the heel ref makes it a tag for no reason, with Fast Eddie and Sal Rinaro v. Angel Dust and Seth Delay. There were enough fun spots to make this side, including a bunch of nifty ways to drop guys on their neck, I especially dug Fast Eddie's dangerous Russian legsweep. Fast Eddie was working a gimmick where he gets confused alot, which makes sense because he is blind. Although it appears that Wildside doesn't mention that. So we have a blind guy getting confused because he can't see, and the announcers selling it like he is stupid. Angel Dust didn't look nearly as good here as he has in ROH as his strikes really sucked for some reason. Rinaro didn't do much either, although he really took a high backdrop well
-Gabriel and Alter Boy Luke have some fun tag spots although they throw some really crappy forearms. Jay Fury and Nitro Nick are both rookies and seem perfectly fine. Fury has a couple of nifty agility spots, although I didn't get much of a chance to see him actually wrestle.
What Didn't Work
-I hadn't seen Ray Gordy in a while and he looked more solid then he did in NOAH. His opponent Jeff Lewis, was not very good. He had some amusing heel shtick but his ring work was really stinky, including winning worst punch of the week. I did dig Jacey North in the Solar mask. I can send you some Solar tapes if you want to jack some moves Jacey.
-NWA Elite squashed some guys, and they only showed the last 30 seconds or so. Jason Crosses legdrop is pretty impressive, but I would have liked to see some more of this match. Bailey's prematch promo did a nice job summerising the NWA-Elite feuds, but his jokes kind of bombed. I expect better from Bailey then an Uglier then Kelly Osbourne snap.
-Texas Death Squad v. Carolina Connection stunk. Carolina Connection are a real poor mans 1999-era Christian York and Joey Matthews, and while I have liked Masada and Todd Sexton in the past, this match made no one look good. Both Masada and Sexton do have nice in ring bumps, but that was about it. The Masadamizer is the greatest finisher name ever, and should be stolen by Bradshaw.