Looking through my tape collection, there are several “Best of” comps. I figured we’d go through a couple starting off with The Best of Trent Acid on the first edition of The Indy Tapes. It’s an RF Video release from between 2004-2005, runs for about 3 hours, and features mostly 2001 bouts but ends with a 2002 match. There’s also a 2000 match thrown in but let’s look at the very best matches from this one.
Trent Acid vs. Reckless Youth vs. Ric Blade (CZW Un F’N Believable 4/14/01)
I really enjoy those early 2000s junior indy triple threat matches and CZW had some great ones. This match worked because it was Trent against guys he’d faced before but didn’t really have just amazing chemistry.
You can see that each of the guys brought something to the match. Reckless Youth had the mat wrestling but also gave you a little flying. Ric Blade was truly an Extreme Air Master but mixed up with some chain wrestling. Trent Acid was an all-rounder. He could fly, brawl, and do that early 00s indy chain wrestling.
Trent Acid vs. Juventud Guerrera (CZW Best of the Best – Quarter-Finals 5/19/01)
This is one of two matches from the first Best of the Best. Trent ran that tournament in 2001 and really showed up and showed out. The match against Juvi was actually better than his semi-finals match against Jay Briscoe who was more of a straight-up flyer back then.
Since it’s months after his WCW release, Juvi wasn’t anywhere near rusty here. As a matter of fact, he was very busy with CMLL, AAA, NOAH, and XPW. It was a world traveler against someone who was just becoming a world traveler and Acid came out on top.
Trent Acid vs. Ruckus (CZW Enough Is Enough 9/29/01)
There are three matches on this tape featuring Ruckus and two of them also feature The Winger, currently of FREEDOMS and formerly of Big Japan. This was during the time of that first pretty bad CZW vs. Big Japan war. Out of it, we got a number of decent matches but the booking was…questionable.
That aside, Ruckus was one of Acid’s early 00s rivals. Actually, he was any junior heavyweight in CZW’s rival. The guy was obviously a heavyweight but moved like a junior. He actually did some flasher stuff than guys half his weight at this time. If you want to talk chemistry in CZW, Trent vs. Ruckus and Ruckus vs. Sonjay Dutt were the best examples.
This bout showed what both of them could do and along with the triple threat against Reckless Youth and Ric Blade, this was one of my favorite matches on the tape.
The Rest of the Tape
I just gave you the three standouts but there’s more good stuff on here if you dig early 2000s indy spottiness. One of the things this showed me about Trent was that he had the potential to go beyond the indies. He had the talent and athleticism that could’ve been refined in developmental or with time on national TV. Acid was also charismatic and one of the better guys on the mic on the east coast indies.
The time this tape covers shows Trent five to seven years in the game at 21. Like JC Bailey, his demons cut his life and his career short but he’s one of those What If’s in the industry.
vs. Briscoe Brothers & Eddie Valentine…1/20/01
vs. Nick Berk…2/10/01
vs. Ric Blade (Ladder Match)…3/10/01
vs. MEN’S Teoh…9/15/00
Teaming w/ Nick Mondo vs. Reckless Youth & Justice Pain…3/17/01
vs. Reckless Youth vs. Ric Blade…4/14/01
vs. Minoru Fujita…5/12/01
vs. Juventud Guerrera…5/19/01
vs. Jay Briscoe…5/19/01
vs Ruckus vs. Winger…12/2/01
vs. Justice Pain…4/20/01
vs. Ruckus…9/29/01
vs. Ruckus vs. Winger…1/12/02
