[2000-03-04-NWA-Wildside-TV] A.J. Styles vs Onyx

[soup23]

Really excited to see this as it is AJ in a long match against a capable opponent in Onyx. AJ looks really good starting out a house of fire and then taking a nasty bump to the outside to take over the heat. Really big back body drop of Onyx into the fans. I like how Wildside has a heel fan section that helps Onyx back in. Getz is good on commentary bringing a heel perspective to everything. Bailey takes off his loafer and quickly hits AJ with his $279 Bruno Mali shoe. The dropkick by AJ to start his comeback looked absolutely incredible with huge air and impact. Styles also hits a lot of air on the lionsault and Getz on commentary actually points out that he overshot his target allowing Onyx to take over again. Every time it looks like AJ is gaining control for good, Onyx takes over. Onyx misses the swantom bomb. AJ’s finisher looks to be the 450 at this point and it looks like AJ has the match won until Ed Golden takes the referee out to cause the DQ. Ed Golden has some great punches and we get a big brawl with everyone out there as Jorge Estrada helps save Styles. Good stuff. ***

[Loss]

Wow, that Jeff G. Bailey pre-match promo sure embodies the Go Hard or Go Home mentality. I don't even know what to do with that. Really good. AJ Styles looks green, but only by the standards of how he looks today. His potential is obvious, and he's already good in the ring. Not much in the way of high risk stuff here, as they work a mostly solid, even-paced old school match with AJ working from underneath and doing lots of selling. Eddie Golden runs in, which is part of the build to their ladder match in April. I enjoyed this quite a bit. ***

[Moonsault Marvin]

The athleticism of Styles is fully present, even if he doesn't have his later accuracy yet. Styles takes a nice bump where he misses the Stinger splash and goes over the ropes rolling down the ring steps. Onyx held his own and seemed competent. Solid match.

[GSR]

Jeff G. Bailey is in the ring with Onyx and Terry Knight, and says that tonight A.J. Styles has to face a real man. Everyone knows that Onyx is the true ‘Rookie of the Year’, and tonight he’s going to prove it by bringing him the TV title. He knows A.J. is more concerned with when his next issue of ‘Man Date’, ‘Hot Show’ and ‘Inches’ is coming out, but Onyx grew up in the mean streets of New York, so beating him is jst another day in the hood. He’s blacker then South Atlanta, ten times more dangerous, is going to put A.J. Styles down 1-2-3 and the TV title is coming back to him. Styles confronts Onyx before the match and wonders what he’s doing with these guys as they’re nothing but trouble.

 

Onyx doesn’t answer, but slugs him with a right to get this underway. Styles with a high hip toss, an arm drag and Onyx retreats to the floor. Arm ringer reversal, Onyx with the nip up, A.J. ducks the clothesline and an atomic drop. Whip to the corner, Styles goes for the Stinger splash but Onyx moves and he takes a nasty bump over the turnbuckles, down onto the wooden ring steps and out to the arena floor. Onyx whips Styles into the barricade, however when he comes charging in at him, Styles back drops him over the rail and into the front row of the audience. Onyx with a big open handed slap, he drapes A.J. over the middle rope, distracts the referee and Bailey wallops him with his slip on. Styles reverses an Irish whip and an absolutely glorious sky high drop kick. Bodyslam and a lionsault which he pretty much over shoots. Good call from the commentators who mention this, and say that maybe Styles is getting carried away as his momentum took him all the way over and he only just grazed Onyx. An eye rake slows A.J. down briefly. He reverses a whip to the corner, jumps up to Onyx’s chest, flips backwards, but when he comes charging back in at him, Onyx sidesteps and he goes careering into the turnbuckles. He tosses Styles to the floor and Bailey is over putting the boots to him. Nice scoop powerslam for two. Onyx then heads to the top turnbuckle but misses the swanton bomb. A.J. with Reno’s ‘roll the dice’ and a 450 splash. Styles makes the cover but Bailey calls for Eddie Golden who sprints around and drags the referee from the ring. Golden clocks Styles for the DQ and it’s 2 on 1 with Bailey orchestrating things in there. Jorge Estrada makes the save and they eventually get the better of Jeff G. Bailey’s men after a spirited little brawl.

 

This was a bit raggedy at times, but I enjoyed it. Styles might be the most athletic man ever to grace pro wrestling. The dropkick he hits on Onyx needs to be seen, he gets so much air on everything and is just so graceful. He takes a nasty bump over the turnbuckle and down the wooden steps and I liked his backdropping of Onyx into the front row. I’d not seen Onyx before but he was solid. Cheap finish, although with Estrada making the save I presume that this is leading somewhere. I continue to like everything about Jeff G. Bailey, although Styles should be kept well away from a microphone. He can’t talk for toffee at this point in his career and could certainly do with a spokesman to cut his interviews.

[Laney]

Styles looks like the fourth member of 3 Count with those pants. Styles shows a lot of athleticism here, but doesn't quite have what it takes to put everything together at this point. This is still a good match, especially considering the inexperience from both guys. I don't think I've ever really seen Onyx before, but I remember him having killer stats on some of the EWR mods back in the day.

[Tim Evans]

God Bailey's promo killed me at the beginning. Only he can do something like that. AJ is still green but man some of the stuff he was doing was impressive for a guy with his experience. Especially his flying moves. Onyx was a guy I thought that always had potential but never made it. Probably would have been a huge star in WCW if he came around 5 years earlier. The announcer who I think is Steve Martin was channeling his best Corey Maclin. Good match with a eh finish.

[Edwin]

This was pretty neat. Styles aside, I thought Onyx looked good here and he really benefits from having Jeff G. managing him. That tumble Styles took to the outside looked pretty brutal. Jeff G. hitting Styles with his shoe was the highlight for me.

 

Also Styles got his attire directly from the shelf where the Young Bucks t-shirts are on now in Hot Topic.

[Stiva]

I had heard of Jeff G Bailey's scorched earth promos and my god, they haven't disappointed. And neither did this. Both guys are very raw but the potential is definitely there, certainly with Styles who is just dripping with it. Both guys are kind of bland, even if they do have their share of solid attributes; Styles' bumping and grace was already crazily impressive already and the two of them knew when to hit those big moments and when to slow it down. A shame that Onyx didn't really amount to a lot more but maybe PWO2K will help his standing.

 

Two things jumped out; I chuckled at Onyx getting backdropped into the crowd by a "Happy Anniversary" sign for some reason and Styles' backflip off Onyx in the corner was GIF-worthy.