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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: AJ Styles – The Missing Matches – Part 1

October 30, 2014 | Posted by TJ Hawke
7.3
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: AJ Styles – The Missing Matches – Part 1  

Buy this DVD or MP4 right here.

 

The DVD alternates between Joe Dombrowski’s sitdown interview with AJ Styles and the “missing” AJ Styles matches.

Styles was looking very sunburned. Of the popular independent wrestlers from 2002, Styles says Doug Williams deserved a bigger break.

 

IWC
2004

AJ Styles vs. CM Punk
The crowd is pretty hot for this from the start, which puts this match above pretty much any other IWC match that I have seen. In what is probably the most annoying thing ever, the match got clipped. I hate watching clipped matches. At least if it it’s from a television show, we know the wrestlers don’t do much during the break. I’ll note anything of significance. It’s annoying that this match is not advertised as clipped at the website’s store. They both hit some movez. It all felt so insignificant because we don’t know how they got there. AJ eventually won with a sunset flip. Looked like it may have been fun.

 

AJ explained that transitioning from the indies to national television involved selling a lot more and making sure you don’t go over your time. Other than that, there wasn’t much of a transition. He said agents like Jerry Lynn, Al Snow, and D’Lo Brown were easy to work with. AJ then put over Christian Cage as the most important pickup for TNA because people like Kurt Angle would not have come. Well, Angle didn’t really have a choice if he wanted to earn a living in America. In the end, was Christian the only person that the WWE tried to keep that ended up going to TNA? Mick Foley, maybe?

 

IWC
2006

AJ Styles vs. Christian Cage
There were two rings. They did a dance off and Rock, Paper, Scissors, to decide which ring they would use. AJ won.

AJ got the initial advantage. When Christian rolled to the other ring, AJ hit him with a springboard forearm from one ring to the other. He also hit a pescado. Christian obviously cut him off eventually and then worked him over. AJ made a comeback. They started going back and forth after a bit of that. A ref bump prevented AJ from winning after hitting the Styles Clash. Christian won shortly after that with the Killswitch.

This felt like an amalgamation of an indie style match and a TV style match. They played to the crowd as if they were on the indies, but they kept the match simple and easy to follow as if they were on television. It was perfectly fine. The fact that TNA never did a feud between these two is baffling in retrospect.
Match Rating: ***

 

AJ put over Jeff Jarrett a lot. He said he is one of the smartest people in wrestling. He’s certainly great at getting money from people.

 

1PW
2006

Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles [IPW World Title Qualifier Match]
JJ was the NWA Champion, but this was a non-title affair.

The crowd absolutely hated Jarrett and loved Styles. Jarrett could get nothing going for the longest time. He finally cut him off after dropping AJ on a guardrail. JJ worked him over for a while. AJ eventually reversed a figure four, hit a Pele, and then made a comeback. Jarrett fought back. They traded some nearfalls. Jarrett tried to blindly hit AJ with a chair, but he hit Bryce. AJ pretended that he got hit with the chair and then hit the Styles Clash for a phantom pinfall. Jarrett came back with a diving stroke: 1…2…NO! A second ref got taken out. Tombstone from AJ! SPIRAL TAP: 1…2…3!!!

I’ve never been a fan of Jeff Jarrett, but he’s not incapable of having good matches. They had a great dynamic to work with here, as the crowd responded to absolutely everything that they did. I did not even mind the overbooking.
Match Rating: ***3/4

 

AJ had some very uninteresting things to say about his character and how he’s been portrayed. He did say though that he thought the portrayal of him as a father/husband was the best, because it was relatable and no one else was doing it.

 

IWC
2005

AJ Styles vs. Matt Hardy
They did an extended feeling out process with neither man getting the advantage for a while. AJ had control with a side headlock, but Matt reversed it into a back suplex for a nearfall and then got control of the match. AJ came back after a TOPE CON HELLO~! Matt slowed him down after blocking a springboard move. They went back and forth. AJ hit the Twist of Fate for a nearfall. Matt then avoided the Spiral Tap. AJ avoided the Twist of Fate, but Matt then hit the Styles Clash: 1…2…NO! Matt went for a moonsault, but AJ got his knees up. The last two or three minutes rhyme! It’s poetry! AJ had a jackknife pin, but he then transitioned into a Styles Clash: 1…2…NO! Genuinely great nearfall. Matt avoided a Frankensteiner, but then ate a Pele that sent him to the floor. AJ hit a low blow/Twist of Fate combo: 1…2…NO! AJ avoided a second Twist of Fate and then got an Oklahoma Roll: 1…2…3!

Much like the last match, the crowd elevated this quite a bit. The Wrestlemania nearfalls were a bit much, but the crowd dug it. So, who I am to complain too much? I’m sure this match felt like a big deal at the time, and the wrestlers treated it like such.
Match Rating: ***1/2

 

AJ talks about why he and Abyss had such great chemistry. He puts him over as a great wrestler; they had great matches because they wanted to make each other look as good as possible (their cage match in 2005 might be my favorite AJ match ever). The conversation transitions to the triple threat matches with Joe and Daniels. AJ says it was actually easy to put together because of their chemistry.

 

1PW
2006

Samoa Joe(c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels [TNA X-Division Championship]
Joe Dombrowski explained that Christian had to be pulled from the card and that resulted in this match being booked as a replacement.

It was all back and forth action for a long time. It was a lot of fun and very reminiscent of their other triple threat matches. At one point (presumably) late in the match, AJ and Daniels gave Joe a Pele/DVD combo. AJ then ate the Last Rites: 1…2…NO! Joe dropkicked them both and then gave Daniels the Muscle Buster: 1…2…3!

I’ll give these guys a ton of credit for working at a very high pace despite this being their second match of the night. The action never let up, and they had the crowd the whole time. Super fun match.
Match Rating: ***3/4

 

AJ says the biggest thing that held TNA back over the years was advertising. He said the company also does not learn from their mistakes. He specifically mentioned how stupid it always looked when they ran a big building and it was half-empty. That happened repeatedly over the years.

The conversation turns to booking consistency. AJ said things were dropped that should have gone longer, and things went too long that should have been dropped much sooner. He focused on Fortune not reaching its potential. AJ said they were all excited and working on new ideas for their group all the time.

 

1PW
2006

1PW Tag Team Title Tournament Finals
AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. Jonny Storm & Jody Fleisch
This match would crown the first ever 1PW tag champs.

They took their time getting into this one. Storm was briefly worked over. Daniels then got worked over. Storm and Fleisch were in firm control. Jody hit a springboard shooting star to the floor. Shortly after that, Daniels and AJ cut off Jody in the ring and then worked him over. Jody eventually hit AJ with a leaping Frankensteiner, and Storm then made a comeback. The teams started going back and forth. They were some dives to the floor. More back and forth action in the ring. They traded some big movez. Jody hit Daniels with the 720, but AJ then hit him with the Styles Clash. Styles and Storm then went at it. Storm avoided the Clash and hit The Wonderwhirl: 1…2…3

They worked really hard and ended up having a flawed, yet fun match. They did a lot of cool stuff, and the crowd was very into it towards the end. The match was a bit awkward at times though and could have used more focus here and there.
Match Rating: ***1/4

 

Watch AJ Styles in some free matches!

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels

AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan

AJ Styles vs. CM Punk

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (their best match together)

AJ Styles vs. Abyss (my favorite AJ match)

AJ Styles vs. Evan Bourne

AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy

AJ Styles vs. Amazing Red

AJ Styles vs. Low Ki vs. Jerry Lynn (ladder)

AJ Styles, Randy Savage, & Jeff Hardy vs. Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, & Kevin Nash (yes, this happened)

AJ Styles vs. Sting

AJ Styles vs. X-Pac

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

AJ Styles & Evan Bourne vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong

AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams

AJ Styles vs. Noam Dar

AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander

AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels vs. AMW

AJ Styles & Tomko vs. Team Pacman

AJ Styles vs. Rhyno

AJ Styles vs. X-Pac vs. Raven vs. Abyss vs. Monty Brown

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle vs. Sting vs. Chris Harris

AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle vs. Sting vs. Matt Morgan vs. Hernandez

 

Thanks everybody for reading! You can send feedback to my Twitter or to my email address: [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my own wrestling website, FreeProWrestling.com. Check out a full/organized list of all the wrestling show reviews I’ve done at 411mania.

7.3
The final score: review Good
The 411
Part 2 of this review soon. In the meantime, you can buy this DVD or MP4 right here.
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article topics :

AJ Styles, TJ Hawke