NWA (Current Version) Discussion

[twiztor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zcrHXzdb84

NWA POWERRR!
Episode 138: Return to Robarts, Part 2
12/19/23 @ Sarasota, FL

TV Title: 
Dak Draper  vs.  Mims (c)
i find Draper very bland, but they told a nice story of him trying to win the match/title without resorting to violence. simple holds and lots of pinfall attempts. Then Mims turns on the striking, which doesn't make much sense character-wise, but does up the pace of the match considerably. i guess this match was adequate, but was certainly nothing special. and i am befuddled on why Mims was in the heel role here.

Interview with Aron Stevens and NWA Tag Champs Blunt Force Trauma. They will be challenged for the belts in two weeks by the Fixers. their last match was 2 months ago, in a losing effort to Knox & Murdoch. In fact, their last win was in July vs the Spectaculars.

Street Fight:
Bryan Idol & Natalia Markova  vs.  Thom Latimer & Kamille
Idol & Markova are called "Looks That Kill" now i guess, and they are on their home turf here.
this was, for all intents and purposes, just a "No Count Outs Tornado Tag" match. no street clothes, no weapons, no illegal tactics. quite possibly the tamest "street fight" i have ever watched.

EC3 'social media' promo. he denies Matt Cardona's request for a Death Match at the next PPV. he counters with his own challenge, for the ULTIMATE! MATCH! OF DEATH! ok?

in-ring promo with the Southern 6. Taylor goes with the cheap heat (insulting the fat fans) and makes a cocaine reference (that worked out so well last time!). Morton doubles down on the cheap heat (something about the girlfriend of an audience member). Mason with more of the cheap heat (although he does say "sweat hogs", so i'll give him credit for the Rick Rude reference).
Counter promo from James Mitchell. He also insults the crowd, but goes harder on them. He ALSO makes an allusion to coke, but it's done tongue-in-cheek. The promo is better, but it's just as pointless. Anyway, this leads us to.....

Southern 6  vs.  Miserably Faithful (Judais, Gaagz the Gymp, & Sal-vation)
match feels very very heatless. i guess that will happen when both teams are heels and shit on the audience immediately beforehand.
Gaagz gets beat up. Sal has flashes of offense and does OK. match hits its zenith when Judais gets the tag and goes face-to-face with Silas Mason. unfortunately, that is not the end of the match, as it meanders along some more so that we can get more Gaagz 'hijinks' and up at the foregone conclusion. 

this was pretty much a waste of an episode.

[twiztor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MzWlvixpUc

NWA POWERRR!
Episode 139: Christmas Hangover
12/26/23 @ Nashville, TN

"Christmas Wish" 12 Man Battle Royal (winner of this match gets a tag team title shot)
we take too long to eliminate all of the people i've never heard of and finally end up with the final 6 (Outrunners, SlimeBallz, Blake Troop & Chris Silvio). This was a battle royal. not really a ton to say. Blake Troop spent a lot of time hanging back while other guys beat each other up. the winners call out the Immortals, so i guess they're choosing a title shot for the US Tag belts? 

Missa Kate  vs.  Sal the Pal
the announcers talk this up as if Sal was badmouthing Missa Kate, but i have zero memory of them interacting whatsoever. They're doing a badly executed 'multiple personalities' deal with Sal, where he switches between Sal the Pal and an evil Sal (since he's back in the Miserably Faithful with Sinister Minister). But it just doesn't work for me. Too much time in this match is spent on Sal's persona changing. They never quite click, but that could because there's so much downtime.
side note, i saw Sal Rinauro debut on an episode of 2004 TNA Xplosion that i watched a few weeks ago. so that was kinda funny.

Daisy Kill & Talos  vs.  Carson Drake & Lord Crewe
Drake & Crewe are from Exodus Pro Midwest, the first of the new NWA affiliates. They don't look like a tag team- Drake is clean shaven, long blonde hair, and bright blue gear. Crewe wears all black, is covered in tattoos, and has a big bushy beard. Of course, after i type that out, Joe Galli lets us know that they're not a real tag team, that they put themselves together to represent Exodus Pro. This match was fine but again runs into the overarching issue that there's so many new wrestlers that i just have a hard time getting invested. 

they show Kamille vs. Kenzie Paige from NWA75. 

next week looks pretty uninteresting: BFT/Fixers, a Tribute to Austin Idol, Joe Alonzo vs. the debuting Alex Misery, and Jake Dumas in action.
 

[twiztor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECYGRkjqBhU

NWA POWERRR!
Episode 140: Return to Robarts, Part III
1/2/24 @ Sarasota, FL

Joe Alonzo  vs  Alex Misery
Alex Misery hails "from the void". He is the son of Apolo, of TNA and Puerto Rico fame. 
i see potential in Misery. He has good movements, but his reactions and expressions need some work. Pretty solid match. Good way to kick off the show (and the year)

according to the banner at the bottom of the screen:
"THE CW IS THE NEW HOME OF THE NWA! DOWNLOAD THE APP OR VISIT THECW.COM!"
it was not mentioned by the commentary team, and no further details were given.
editor's note: it was later mentioned that the 1/13 event is "a CW TV Taping", but again, no follow-up.
editor's note 2: there was a commercial toward the end that made it more explicit that NWA will be available on the CW App and streaming on their site. They mentioned getting caught up on past episodes, with new content on the way. I'm interested if that means they will be taken off YouTube? I assume so, as the episodes that got put up on the CW app are now marked as private on YT. But still no timetable made explicit. 

#1 TV Title Contender:
Anthony Catena  vs  Jake Dumas  vs  Storm Thomas
so, two guys who have never wrestled in the NWA are potentially two of the top three contenders? It doesn't feel like that makes your title very prestigious.
Dumas does not have CJ with him, so my interest has immediately waned because he kinda sucks. Catena, seconded by Chris Silvio, holds up his end pretty well, bringing some good energy and engagement with the crowd. Ditto for Thomas, who really focuses on his power game. 

A Tribute to Austin Idol (for 50 years in the business)
They introduce Bobby Fulton. I don't know if he has had a stroke or something, but his words were slurring something atrocious. I wouldn't have put him on TV.
Now Billy Corgan and Nicole Graham (Mike Graham's daughter) come out. They are holding hands and it looks awkward. Billy is wearing a zip up hoodie that has "WPC" embroidered in small letters on the chest. He hands a plaque to Nicole so she can present it to Idol. She doesn't get to say anything. Idol badmouths the plaque, saying that 50 years in the business, and all he gets is a cheap ass plaque? Then he runs down the city and calls it "SUCKAsota". He loses the audience and this segment wasn't great to begin with, but now it is really dumb. 

NWA World Tag Team Titles:
Blunt Force Trauma (c)  vs.  Fixers (Bradley & Legursky)
glad to see the actual Fixers back together, i thought they had low key split up.
Man, this started off WAY too slow for what a match like this should be. And it never picks up. This match was just basically a waste of time. and the finish was a dropkick. That's it. Just a standing dropkick. 

NEXT WEEK looks loaded in comparison to the last few weeks:
World Champ EC3 vs. Jax Dane, Women's Champ Kenzie Paige vs. Samantha Miss Starr, Knox & Murdoch vs. Country Gentlemen, Women's Tag Champs Pretty Empowered vs. Ruthie Jay & Missa Kate

[Jenalysis]

I've seen Airica on the indies- she has potential, but still very green and young.  Her strength is striking, the other stuff is a work in progress.   NWA might be a good spot for her given that.

 

For someone with a superhero gimmick, she doesn't do any top rope moves that I've seen, but given her size that's probably a good thing.

 

Also she and her dad (who goes with her) are very nice.

 

Edited January 3, 2024 by Jenalysis

[Peck]

20 hours ago, twiztor said:

They introduce Bobby Fulton. I don't know if he has had a stroke or something, but his words were slurring something atrocious. I wouldn't have put him on TV.

Numerous near-fatal battles with throat cancer. On a feeding tube for 2.5 years. Mouth can't make saliva any more so that's what is probably affecting the speech.

[twiztor]

Just now, Peck said:

Numerous near-fatal battles with throat cancer. On a feeding tube for 2.5 years. Mouth can't make saliva any more so that's what is probably affecting the speech.

oh, that sucks. i feel for him and his health struggles. glad he got a payday. still don't think i would have aired a segment like that if i was a decision maker. 

[Peck]

On 3/26/2023 at 12:14 AM, Peck said:

Can't believe I'm saying this but Bobby Fulton/Fixers is in my Top-5 of current pro wrestling angles that I'm emotionally invested in.

@twiztor I posted this back in March but Fulton and the Fixers had a really good angle going on back in that timeframe that might be worth checking out if they still have those shows up.

[twiztor]

On 1/4/2024 at 1:09 PM, Peck said:

@twiztor I posted this back in March but Fulton and the Fixers had a really good angle going on back in that timeframe that might be worth checking out if they still have those shows up.

i appreciate the call out! i re-started watching NWA right around the Crockett Cup, so i will check out some of the shows from before that. 

right now, the only things taken off YouTube are the ~7 weeks of Power that were added to the CW app, which i think is early fall (but can't be bothered to check right now)
EDIT: the CW App only has the 8 episodes of Power that start after NWA75 and last through Samhain (9/5/23-10/24/23). They are calling it "the complete Season 15" which is asinine. https://www.nationalwrestlingalliance.com/cw-app

Edited January 10, 2024 by twiztor

[twiztor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDk5rIM-GSI

NWA POWERRR!
Episode 141: Return to Robarts: Finale
1/9/24 @ Sarasota, FL

Women's Tag Team Titles: Pretty Empowered Kylie Paige (c)  vs.  Ruthie Jay & Missa Kate
Ella Envy is not medically cleared to wrestle (she has the flu), so Kylie has to defend the titles solo. i question the legality of this, but perhaps there is a precedent. i think my problem with this (along with SO many other things) is semantics. If they just said that she was sick and wasn't going to make it, i would cut it some slack. But by using the phrase "not medically cleared to compete", it makes it sound like a company decision, and therefore i disagree.
Semantics aside, this was a well worked match. While Ruthie and Missa were mostly in charge of the situation, Kylie held her own and everybody looked good. Missa Kate hits a GNARLY roundhouse kick ("Kick-Fil-A") that looks like it will be the finish, but we get an interference spot that caught me off guard and provided some confusion, so i think it worked out pretty well. That leads almost immediately into....

Women's World Title: Kenzie Paige (c)  vs.  Samantha Miss Starr
this was a bit of a disappointment. Both women were fine, and the story told was OK, but it never seemed to get out of first gear. They did have a slap-off, which looked and sounded pretty intense. That was the highlight for me.

Country Gentlemen  vs.  Knox & Murdoch
good solid hard-hitting match. You know what you're getting from both of these teams, and they delivered as advertised.

NWA World Heavyweight Title:  Jax Dane  vs  EC3 (c)
Tim Storm lets us know that EC3 has been training with "the Shaolin Monks" to bring his headlock skills to the next level. that was puzzling.
This match is very slow paced. There are a lot of headlocks and bodylocks. EC3 eventually turns up the speed with a suicide dive and then a 2nd rope crossbody, but Dane immediately slows everything back down. then we immediately go into the finish. man, this match was bad. whatever the opposite of compelling is. i guess that matches the lackluster build to this match.

 

no word on next week. NWA Paranoia is this Saturday with Power tapings taking place on Sunday, but they've been pretty inconsistent on whether the Tuesday after tapings results in a new episode or not. Add in the CW stuff that still hasn't really been addressed, and it just leaves a question mark. 

[DreamBroken]

Enjoyed the women's stuff in the first half, Pretty Empowered is always a highlight.   Those were some weak ass One Percenters EC3 used to finish off Jax lol, hope the Jax team with Tim Storm lasts and fares better.

On 1/10/2024 at 1:23 PM, twiztor said:

no word on next week. NWA Paranoia is this Saturday with Power tapings taking place on Sunday, but they've been pretty inconsistent on whether the Tuesday after tapings results in a new episode or not. Add in the CW stuff that still hasn't really been addressed, and it just leaves a question mark. 

Still confusing but with this being the "season finale", I think it was the last episode on youtube.  From what I can gather from social media, episodes start on the CW app starting February 6 and they say Paranoia will be used as future episodes of Powerrr in addition to the next night's tapings, while also implying the NWA/CCW event taking place after Paranoia will also be on the CW App. So they'd have several months worth of episodes seemingly while Hard Times in the middle of it has been announced for March 2, though the same branding ("signature live event") seems that Hard Times might not be a PPV anymore either and will be split up in the same way as Paranoia. 

[Peck]

Blk Jeez was set to return to the NWA Saturday at the Paranoia event after battling Blood Cancer over the past year but was shot in the hip Thursday night in Philadelphia during an attempted carjacking. Non-life-threatening injuries thankfully but, damn.

[twiztor]

New episode of POWERRR!! debuted today.  it is now exclusively on the CW App, apparently this week it premiered approx. 9am EST.

don't have the CW app, not gonna download it. guess it's goodbye NWA for me. See you in a year or two when you either succeed and make it to traditional TV, or fail and come back to YouTube.

[Phantom Lord]

I downloaded the CW app because there was nothing on regular tv today. Way too much college basketball for my liking. Anyway I watched the debut episode of Powerrr and I thought it was good. I like Blunt Force Trauma. I guess they are supposed to be the modern DOOM (down to the masks and everything). Hell they even had a theme song that sounds kinda like the Doom theme (just no killer sax). Aaron Stevens is hilarious in his role and Tim Storm no selling the loaded glove only to put the claw on Steven's hand had me laughing with Aaron's over selling.

Kenzie Page impressed me in her match. I had never seen her wrestle before so I liked what I saw.

Only reason I really tuned in was to see this Death match between EC3 and Matt Cardona. All the weapons being Gold was a bit much. I knew it was going to be bloody based on twitter video that Cardona reposted on Twitter, but it annoyed the hell out of me seeing them go to black and white because of it. Aside from that it was all right. I'm not sure what to make of EC3 as NWA Champion at the moment. He's got the look of a champion so there's that (minus the horrible dumb tattoos of random shapes he's got). 

I'll try to catch the next episode next weekend since it's easier to watch it when nothings on.

[Doragon]

NWA Chicago announced 

https://411mania.com/wrestling/nwa-launch-nwa-chicago-affiliate/
 

[DreamBroken]

I'm finally going to catch up on the last month of NWA Powerrr, I fell behind after the move, started to catch up weeks back and am finally going to finish through.

Episode 1: Thought the tag title match was short and disappointing though I like both teams. Could always use more Tim Storm but he hasn't popped back up and isn't a commentary regular anymore.  Kenzie Paige vs Tiffany Nieves on the other hand was awesome. Kenzie is killing it every time still and Tiffany has been impressing. the Ultimate Match of Death was pretty fun, agreed that the switch to black and white cause of blood was awkward.

Episode 2: Not as much stood out here but the Knox/Murdoch vs Southern Six tag was fun, and the Silas/Burchill main event was pretty solid

Episode 3: Women's trios tag was a lot of fun with the winner of the fall becoming #1 contender. The women's division is still pretty good here. I was rooting for Taylor Rising but Markova is always a standout too. Colby/Mecha Wolf was good and it's always good to see Homicide, who was great in his role here.  Latimer/Idol was a nice brawl around the arena, finish looked properly brutal.

Episode 4: Joe Alonzo vs Blake Troop was a pretty good opener with the focus on Troop's MMA style vs Alonzo's heel tactics & high flying. Good main event with an exciting finishing stretch. Crazy to see Pretty Empowered lose the titles here but the King Bees make a great team. Cool moment, though the show ended abruptly from their celebration. 

Episode 5 had some nice showcases for the Junior, Tag, and TV titles. Liked the Pretty Empowered promo setting up the tag rematch. I dig the Tampa setup here.

Episode 6 opens with an NWA US Tag title match ending in backstage chaos. Taylor Rising vs Missa Kate was good stuff.  Quick main event women's trios match was solid. Episode 7 drops tomorrow

On 2/6/2024 at 7:03 PM, twiztor said:

New episode of POWERRR!! debuted today.  it is now exclusively on the CW App, apparently this week it premiered approx. 9am EST.

don't have the CW app, not gonna download it. guess it's goodbye NWA for me. See you in a year or two when you either succeed and make it to traditional TV, or fail and come back to YouTube.

Good news is you actually don't have to download the app! You can watch on the CW's website so it's basically the same as it was, just a different website and with forced ad breaks.

Watch here: https://www.cwtv.com/shows/nwa-powerrr/the-golden-door/?play=9039c77d-e085-449a-a5e0-5b015c8e9097 and you can just click on to each episode. Looks like they have from September to now up. 

 

[DreamBroken]

Tiffany Nieves vs. Ruthie Jay was a good little five minutes on this week's episode, enjoyed the small build up to it and Nieves continues to shine.  the National title vacated again.

NWA announced this year's Crockett Cup will take place on May 18 in Forney, Texas. Seems their new format has been just airing things spread out over episodes rather than PPVs like before.

[bobholly138]

Yea seems PPV sales were so low now every big card just gets broken up into the weekly tv show.

 

[DreamBroken]

Finally catching up again with the last few months of NWA Powerrr, finishing season 17 and then going through season 18 with the Hard Times episodes. Some enjoyable stuff throughout, especially from the women's division.  I like seeing Reka Tehaka pop up here, I enjoyed her a lot in WOW.  A lot of rather quick but good matches including the King Bees/Pretty Empowered 2/3 falls match and  Kenzie Paige vs Natalia Markova. 

the Knox/Murdoch vs Alex Taylor/Kerry Morton cage match was fun and EC3's defense against Thrillbilly Silas was pretty good, both featured blood and thus switched to black & white for the rest of their match. Thom Latimer won the National title in a solid little 4 way and AJ Francis debuted out of nowhere. 

I'm up to but haven't started today's episode yet which features the beginning of the 2024 Crockett Cup. 

 

Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland reality show has also dropped on the CW app as well. 8 episodes that are about 24 minutes long. I just finished the first episode and seems like a pretty fun behind the scenes look at things from last year.

[DreamBroken]

Catching up on another 3 weeks of Crockett Cup action. Most of the first round went as expected so far, except maybe Country Gentlemen vs Savages of Samoa. Ella Envy vs Kylie Paige vs Taylor Rising was a solid main event of the latest episode and interesting with dissension within Pretty Empowered. 

They did an angle where Tim Storm got knocked loopy and snapped, becoming possessed-like with the Iron Claw thus now transforming him to becoming known as "Baron Von Storm" going forward.

[bobholly138]

1 hour ago, DreamBroken said:

Catching up on another 3 weeks of Crockett Cup action. Most of the first round went as expected so far, except maybe Country Gentlemen vs Savages of Samoa. Ella Envy vs Kylie Paige vs Taylor Rising was a solid main event of the latest episode and interesting with dissension within Pretty Empowered. 

They did an angle where Tim Storm got knocked loopy and snapped, becoming possessed-like with the Iron Claw thus now transforming him to becoming known as "Baron Von Storm" going forward.

Need to catch up,BIW champion and the guy he beat for the belt missed a BIW event cause of the NWA tapings.
 

Bam Bam Malone and Angel Camacho

[Curt McGirt]

4 hours ago, DreamBroken said:

They did an angle where Tim Storm got knocked loopy and snapped, becoming possessed-like with the Iron Claw thus now transforming him to becoming known as "Baron Von Storm" going forward.

...

We need footage.

[DreamBroken]

3 hours ago, bobholly138 said:

Need to catch up,BIW champion and the guy he beat for the belt missed a BIW event cause of the NWA tapings.
 

Bam Bam Malone and Angel Camacho

 I believe both worked dark matches.  I had thought all of the Crockett Cup was at the TX tapings but apparently the first round took place still at the Florida tapings. 

32 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

...

We need footage.

It's here on the CW: https://www.cwtv.com/shows/nwa-powerrr/cup-runneth-over/?play=518426a5-1665-456d-81a3-d5c8919f13d8 starting about the 37:45 mark to the end of Season 18, Episode 7.

The following episodes, S18 Episode 8 features Jax Dane giving a bizarre promo about how the doctors diagnosed Storm with a condition where he doesn't really know who he is anymore and they can't call him Tim Storm because they don't know how he will react to it, so he insists on Baron Von Storm. Then in Episode 9, we get a little "Baron Von Storm is coming" vignette with clips from the initial angle. 

[bobholly138]

They both worked the TX tapings. Both are in the DFW area.

[twiztor]

NWA76 is this coming weekend, from the former ECW Arena. 

i don't see any PPV information, so i am assuming this will be aired as NWA Power over the next few weeks on the CW App. Hilariously, the NWA website doesn't seem to mention what the main event is (EC3 vs. Thom Latimer in a Champion vs. Champion match). Also, the tag team champions (Blunt Force Trauma) are competing against the #1 contenders (the Immortals) but it's a non-title gimmick match. Most interestingly, women's champ Kenzie Paige is defending against dual Men's/Women's TV Champ Max the Impaler. 

 

[DreamBroken]

Catching up again on the last several months of NWA ahead of NWA 76.   Not being a PPV has led to a lot of the card feeling just kinda thrown together compared to previous years events.

the Crockett Cup weeks were nothing too spectacular and then they went back to earlier tapings for the most recent episodes which had some solid stuff throughout.

the Baron Von Storm gimmick remains amusing.  Ella Envy's stalling to last the TV time limit against Max the Impaler was highly entertaining. Kenzie Paige is always a highlight, enjoyed her match with Missa Kate. 

This week's episode had some good stuff from the women's division. Taylor Rising is always one of my favs when she's on. Missa Kate had another fun match vs. Ella Envy. main event of Kenzie & Kylie Paige vs Tiffany Nieves & Reka Tehaka was pretty good, interesting dynamic being heels vs heels. I liked the build-up with the back and forth promos and video package setting it up.

EC3, Kenzie, Max the Impaler, & Blunt Force Trauma all recently just passed 1 year as NWA champs.