[2000-01-28-EWF] Backseat Boyz vs Bad Crew

[soup23]

Donnie B's leisure suit is great. I loved the beginning of this as the BSB get legit heat and Acid's charisma jumps out. Bad Crew is the stereotypical 90's Northeast tag team. The BSB are treated to a back door boyz chant by the classy crowd. This is really worked like a traditional tag and done in a good way. The BSB take the heat over the Bad Crew and cut the ring off. I think they do a good job of being impressive here without being overly flashy. Hot tag is made and we get a hot finish with Donnie B taking a bump and the finisher for the Bad Crew, the Badlands being used to win the match. A really great way at making the BSB look big time coming into a promotion while letting the local talent go over. BSB get their heat back after the match by attacking with chairs and with an Acid legdrop through a table perhaps setting up a hardcore match later on. I may be overstating this a bit but this was the best traditional southern style tag we have seen in 2000 so far. ***1/4

[Loss]

I love everything about the Backseat Boyz gimmick -- an R-rated version of 3 Count and Donnie B's amazing clothing choices and good mic work to heat up the crowd, what's not to love? This was a very good match, mostly thanks to the very talented Trent Acid, who seems to be really good at everything involved in pro wrestling. I agree with soup that this is the best traditional tag we've had so far, which I didn't expect at all. Bad Crew are the local babyfaces and get a clean win, but get attacked after the match and put through a table before getting carted out on a stretcher. Finally, someone SELLS a table spot! This is a feud we'll be following throughout the year, and I am looking forward to the series for sure. This match was strong, but they left themselves plenty of room to grow. ***1/2

[Tim Evans]

The Backseat boyz gimmick was so damn great. Especially Trent. Just looked like a total prick. Is this the same Bad crew from 1996 ECW? The match wasn't much but I agree that it's a good traditional tag. The announcers couldn't decide if they wanted to be heels or babyfaces. That got annoying.

[cramerjason87]

Entertaining traditional tag match. The action was as simple as it could get but everything flowed well. I totally agree how great the Backseat Boyz gimmick was.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Backseat Boyz heeled it up in their entrance. I loved when Trent left the guy hanging on the high five. The match took a long time to start and it seemed like they were filling time. The match was a solid standard tag match. The other guy in Backseat Boyz seemed like the weak link in terms of performance as his timing was a little off. Average match.

[GSR]

Backseat Boyz are managed by ‘Big 80s’ Donnie B, who is doing a full on 80s gimmick complete with Don Johnson from Miami Vice white suit! Donnie looks so much like his brother here. Wonderful entrance from the Backseats, highlight being two little kids booing Trent, Johnny coming around from the otherside and telling them to sit back down and then them doing so looking like they’ve been scolded by their father! Lengthy mic work from Donnie and I can’t quite make out everything he says, but he does claim to work for the WWF! After the Bad Crew come out, Donnie challenges them to make this a ‘hardcore match’. Bad Crew says that the only reason they want a ‘hardcore match’ is because they can’t hang with the Bad Crew in the ring, and tell them to quit wasting their time and get in there. The crowd with a ‘faggot, faggot’ chant directed at the Backseat Boyz and with the Crew encouraging them. Trent with a sideheadlock, and he misdirects the official in order to get some illegal shots to the throat of one of the Crew. Droptoe hold, legdrop to the back of the neck combination by the Bad Crew for an early two. Kashmere tries to get a ‘Backseat’ chant going but the crowd aren’t having it! The Crew continue to take it to Trent, outwrestling him and staying away from their more hardcore roots. Acid with the Irish whip and Donnie grabs the Crew’s leg. Trent then knees him in the back and he goes tumbling out the ring to the outside where Kashmere and ‘Big 80s’ put the boots to him. Dive off the top turnbuckle to the floor from Trent. Double back elbow and a double elbow drop for a two. Whip to the corner and Trent leaps of Johnn’s back with a big flying forearm. ‘Big 80s’ continues to interfere and get involved behind the referee’s back. Crew with a sunset flip, but Trent kicks out and cuts off any comeback with a clothesline. He misses a twisting dive off the middle and the Crew is able to tag his partner. The other Crew is all over the Backseat Boyz and even clobbers Donnie when he gets up on the apron. Attention diverted by ‘Big 80s’ though, he gets nailed with a Trent superkick. Irish whip, he ducks a clothesline and ‘Badlands’ (combination sit out powerbomb/neckbreaker) on Acid for the win. Post-match the Bad Crew are about to attack Donnie when the Backseat Boyz clock them with chairs to the back. They beat on them with the chairs and Trent puts one of them through a table with a legdrop off the top.

 

Enjoyed this, all due to the efforts of the Backseat Boyz and primarily Trent Acid, who from the moment he made his entrance just oozed charisma. Bad Crew were pretty bland and Kashmere didn’t show much, so Acid along with ‘Big 80s’ (who was a throwback to the managers of that era) carried things. Surprising result with the Bad Crew going over, although the post-match with them getting put through a table, the chair shots and all the talk of ‘hardcore’ does seem to be what this is building for.

[Stiva]

It's a huge shame what happened to Trent Acid since he was always a guy I enjoyed when he showed up in ROH and to my knowledge, he never had a great indie singles run. Or maybe he did and PWO2K will enlighten me. And he's really the highlight here; The Bad Crew are as generic and basic as it gets but they clearly know their way around a solid southern tag. Really, The Backseat Boyz are a fully formed gimmick already. They have the attire, the entrance, the bumping, the manager, the douchey dancing double team moves and, in Acid, they have charisma in spades, a great flyer and an extremely expressive heel worker. If ECW had lasted into 01/02, I can see this act, with Donnie B, getting a good push there.