[2001-02-17-CZW-Break on Thru] Nick Berk vs Trent Acid / Trent Acid vs Reckless Youth

[GSR]

Nick Berk vs Trent Acid (CZW Break on Thru 2/17/01)

We get a bit of fun at Hat Guy’s expense as the ring announcer pinches his straw boater and replaces it with a dodgy looking wig.  It doesn’t sound like he’s the most popular of fans as a “Fuck you Hat Guy” chant erupts shortly after.  A rematch from last week as the former partners from the Softcore Connection go at it one more time.  Trent Acid waits in the aisle for the arrival of Nick Berk, who surprises him, coming from the opposite end of the building and taking him out with a chair assisted suicide dive.  He’s all aggressive, waffling Acid with chair shots while Z-Barr pleads for mercy on Trent’s behalf.  The two combatants finally make it into the ring where Berk gets a two after ‘the stroke’.  Moonsault off the middle, but Berk’s trajectory is all wrong and he lands on Acid’s face.  Berk peppers him with some punches and a groggy Trent swings wildly in return, although his shots are all easily avoided.  Face first slam and Z-Barr grabs the ref at two to halt the count.  Sit-out ‘dominator’, frog splash and Barr is now up on the apron.  The official goes over to have a word and as he does so, out of his line of vision, Barr powders Berk.  ‘Acid Bomb’ and after taking a beating all match, Trent’s first and only offensive move is enough to put his opponent away.

Acid starts flapping his gums about being the best junior heavyweight around when he’s interrupted by Reckless Youth, making his return to the Combat Zone.  Reckless disputes those claims and challenges him to a match right now.  Trent looks like he’s not interested, heading back towards the dressing room until a “pussy, pussy” chant and some more words from Reckless make him have second thoughts.

Trent Acid vs Reckless Youth (CZW Break on Thru 2/17/01)

Strong opening between the two with both countering and reversing whatever the other tries.  Reckless has got a real cool fireman’s carry take down into a cradle that I like an awful lot.  Of course all this wrestling can only end one way, the ‘stand off’ and Eric Gargiulo already believes that we’ve got a ‘classic’ on our hands.  Let’s see?  I don’t think ‘classics’ have over two minutes of stalling like we get here mind!  Reckless has had enough of Trent’s walking around ringside and tells either he or Z-Barr to get their ass in here.  Trent smoothly blocks the hip toss with an abdominal stretch before Youth powers out and slaps on a version of the octopus.  Z-Barr grabs at Reckless from the outside to distract him, Acid with the charge, but he gets back dropped over the top rope.  Even though he lands on the apron, a swift kick to the legs takes them away and Trent crashes face first into the apron.  A springboard dropkick sends him deep into the crowd, however as Reckless goes for a tope Barr (who’s now on the opposite side of the ring) grabs his ankle again, this time pulling him out with him.  As Barr and Reckless hammer away at one another, Trent with a moonsault press from the top turnbuckle to the floor although, as per with these things, the wrestlers just stopped fighting and stood there waiting to catch him.  They briefly return to the ring where Reckless misses a Lionsault and a Trent basement dropkick sends him to the outside once more.  Trent throws him into the ring post before rolling him back inside.  He positions a chair in the centre, but Reckless with the float over and a dropkick to the knee.  Just like earlier that takes Trent’s legs out from under him and he goes face first into that chair.  Reckless then dropkicks the back of it sending it smashing into Trent’s head.  Sit out pedigree.  Belly to back suplex followed by a lariat for a two.  Acid ducks the roaring elbow, big boot to the face and hits a ‘Blue Thunder Driver’ for a near fall.  Trent drops Youth with a superkick as John House optimistically thinks that if Z-Barr were in the match it would be over by now!  He sets up a couple of chairs and bridges a third one across them.  There’s no waiting around as he leaps to the top turnbuckles, but Reckless still manages to swipe a leg away causing him to crotch himself.  Top rope ‘Ace Crusher’ and Barr is up on the apron leading to the official abandoning his count to go and have a word with him.  As Reckless goes over to see what’s going on, Barr again with the powder, however unlike Nick Berk, Reckless ducks and it hits Trent instead.  Youth slugs Barr and a brutal looking ‘Northern Lights 2K’ through the chairs for the win.

Only a short one and even though it was there purely to facilitate the return of Reckless Youth, the Berk/Acid sprint wasn’t that bad.  At times I thought Reckless/Trent was on its way to being one of the best CZW matches we’ve watched, then Trent would go and stall for two minutes, or it would get too co-operative, or selling would be forgotten about.  Good twist and call-back to the first match at the end with the powder, but I just want to see these two have a wrestling match with Z-Barr nowhere to be seen, without Trent involving chairs and without any stalling, as on the basis of what we saw here they’ve clearly got a very good match in them (there was some real unique and nice stuff in this).  The finish with that ‘Northern Lights 2K’ looked nasty as with the way Reckless spiked Trent on the chair.

[soup23]

For their version of Eddie vs Dean, this wasn't bad. The wrestling was good, the violence was expected with the way the indie landscape was turning and I actually welcomed the exemplary stalling and interference showing this had a heel/face dynamic and wasn't just an indie dream match. The powder spot playing off the finish of Berk vs Acid was a nice touch. Overall, this helped build the rep for Acid and he was someone that really impressed me in 2000. ***1/2 (6.8)