AJ Styles vs Jimmy Rave (IWA MS, 9-17-2004)

IWA Mid-South Ted Petty Invitational, Highland, IN

Continuing on with round one of the 2004 TPI! Styles and Rave knew each other quite well, both coming out of NWA Wildside originally. Styles has gone on to greater heights by far at this point and would keep climbing until he was basically the top guy in This Business (or had an argument for it), while Rave was left far behind but was always a good wrestler.

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: AJ Styles was my No. 1 absolute favorite guy to watch live in this period. Not my favorite wrestler, but he was THRILLING to watch live. He was so well-rounded already, and his stiffness & nastiness were really underrated. Dude was MEAN.

CM Punk is on commentary, which is always a treat. He could do straight, analyst-style commentary, and great Ventura/Heenan-style commentary, too. Plus he might just start legitimately insulting people.

AJ was someone I was familiar with through NWA-Total Nonstop Action, of course, but seeing him live in the indie setting brought him to a new level for me. You didn’t always see that nasty side to his work on TV, like him digging in some short headbutts here to escape a hold. Moments later, in a standing position, Rave has a wristlock applied, and pops AJ in the face with his own fist. Styles responds with pure, unbridled Georgia rage, yanking Rave’s arm around to the point it makes Rave look totally helpless, then just throws him out of the ring. I mean, look at this. Or this. He’s mean, he has serious anger issues.

Styles continues to just beat the shit out of Rave, until Jimmy taps into his own deep south anger and dropkicks Styles in the balls on a baseball slide, then rips into him with some hard strikes. Rave gets a juji gatame and then a royal octopus, and puts together enough offense to make this competitive. Rave did upset Colt Cabana in the first round in 2003. Styles sells the arm really well, failing to get Rave up on a military press off the ropes, so he has to adapt and go into less power offense, which he tended to prefer on the indies.

We get to a fun finish where Rave goes for the Rave Clash, which pisses AJ off enough that he doesn’t even try to hit the Styles Clash as his answer, he just tries to rip Rave’s head off until Rave gives up (quickly).

The match has minor little slips here and there and not everything is incredibly pretty, and the audience excitement dips a bit because (1) this show is getting really long at this point, and (2) despite Rave’s 2003 upset of Cabana, nobody thinks he’s actually winning this match, as AJ has been booked four the entire four-night run of IWA shows that started two days before this. But it’s a great look at Styles in this time on the indies, and Rave mostly holds up his end, too. I still truly adore the way Styles works on these shows, so I may be overrating it to a minor degree, I don’t know.

Rating: 3.5/5