Young, dubbed "The Messiah of the Spinebuster", spent his early career in National Championship Wrestling as a singles wrestler before joining the team Body Count with "Heavy Metal" Ric Savage. Young and Savage feuded with Rusty Riddle and Kid Kash for the National Championship Wrestling world tag-team titles. Young stayed with NCW as it grew into NWA Wildside where Young became known as a tag team specialist, teaming with Shane Austin as "The Sex Pistols". On August 19, 1999 The Sex Pistols defeated Bart Sawyer and Terry Lawler in Loganville, Georgia for the NWA Wildside (Georgia) Tag Team Championship. On November 4, Austin was replaced by Rick Michaels, with Young and Michaels naming themselves Bad Attitude. On November 20, 1999 in Cornelia, Georgia, Young and Michaels lost the Tag Team Championships to The Road Hoggs (Joe Harley and Pan Head Nelson). Bad Attitude continued to pursue the Wildside Tag Team Championships, and on January 11, 2000 they defeated The Underdogs (Mark E. Mark and Big Eddie Cool) for the NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship, which they held until February 19, when they were defeated by The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Bad Attitude reclaimed the Tag Team Titles on June 17 in a two out of three falls match, making Young a three time NWA Wildside Tag Team Champion.