SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
OPENING MONTAGE – HIT: This was 30-45 seconds of retelling the most recent chapter of Tim Storm vs Nick Aldis with a haunting piano playing one note at a time. The lines of Aldis telling a down and out Storm, “Look around. None of this happens without you” before the heel turn, Aldis then informing us everything was all a plan, and later Storm telling the world he’s got something left to prove, it pieces everything together well. I also like the shots of Tim Storm at Hollywood as champ and walking the halls of his school; the Tim Storm story is just incredible as a whole.
TIM STORM, NICK ALDIS, AND KAMILLE W/ MARQUEZ – HIT: Come on, Tim Storm, as a fellow southerner, we don’t spell it momma, we spell it mama! That said, Storm has a great shirt and the juxtaposition of the babyface, considerably older looking, already dressed to wrestle and our younger champion dressed to the nines is perfect. That reinfored the obvious face/heel dynamic.
Aldis really worked the crowd for heel heat, even pausing when speaking to stare down people in the audience. Kamille came off as a legitimate insurance policy, standing right in between the two men and really in the face of Tim Storm, and Tim did everything right by reinforcing that he’s got right on his side and the fight on his side. However, that said, this segment was made by Aldis calling Tim “muscle neck” and laughing in the face of Storm taking the TV Title so seriously when he only entered himself as something to do and have fun. Oh and he called Ricky Morton Randy the Ram! Great stuff as always by the champ. It’s obvious this story will carry well into the new year and I’m sure we’ll get a world title match between them by springtime.
ARON STEVENS SUBMISSION EXHIBITION MATCH – HIT: Sal Rinauro, who just looks a mess, was already in ring for the gi-dressed Stevens who is now from Malibu, CA and wrestles at a weight he wouldn’t disclose, according to Dave Marquez. That popped me, cute touch, Stevens. As a match, there’s not much to say here because it was mostly Stevens hits Sal and then backs up for heel heat, and lather, rinse, repeat. As a segment, though, Stu Bennett was great as he was pushing the Shooter Stevens moniker and Stevens’ expertise in Mongrovian karate, which just typing that makes me feel so silly. We do get to see Stevens kick his offence into a higher gear, like we did at Into the Fire, and I love when he does that because that extra layer is what he needs for the rest of the silliness to work. It ends with a figure four attempt gone wrong from Sal and Stevens debuing the Million Dollar Dream that’s now dubbed the Mongrovian Clutch. In all, good stuff from Stevens in this segment. He played up the silly, balanced it out with the serious, but kept everything in balance.
ARON STEVENS VS TREVOR MURDOCH – HIT: Post-match, Aron held the clutch in past the bell and that made Murdoch charge to the ring for the rescue. This match was set up with Stevens and Murdoch at the podium insulting each other; Stevens was putting himself over as tough and a martial arts expert who is still smart and saved the masses intellectually (really great line) while Murdoch went the route of babyface who stands up for the injustices and abuse Stevens did to lower card wrestlers and didn’t care about titles but just wanted to kick Steven’s ass. During the match, Stu Bennett continued with the heavy handed use of Shooter Stevens, but it worked, especially when Stevens laid in that offense again in this match but ultimately the size and strength of Murdoch won out when Stevens just couldn’t get the Mongrovian Clutch on him. Trevor goes over with a leg death lock (I won’t use the I-word) and that was perfect since this all began as a submission exhibition. Sure, Aron tapped out immediately and comically, but we saw all sides of Aron Stevens, we saw babyface hero Trevor Murdoch, and I think together they both came out better than they entered.
POWERRR SURGE – HIT: I don’t know if this is going to be a new show on the NWA channel or this will just be random hits in Power episodes but I liked what I saw. Pope sat ringside with Homicide and Kingston and basically continued his slight gushing over Kingston as a singles star and future world champion but Kingston kept deflecting the praise to Homicide, even calling him a mentor of sorts. I’d be more interested in the full clip or episode or whatever it is but I think this has legs.
HARD TIMES ADVERT – HIT: I wanted to hate this because it seemed more like a passion project for Billy Corgan to put himself over with a shitty acoustic song of his but the advertisement worked too well to hate. We got a graphic for the PPV showing the TV title in the background, Nick Aldis front and center and flanked by Tim Storm and Kamille slightly behind. Highlights of the World Title match from Into the Fire and the first Power after played in black and white and that really made this a hit. In wrestling, the best stories are those as old as time and I think the Aldis-Storm saga is one of those and the use of black and white highlight that to me. Also, looking at the TV Title belt on the graphic, it had side plates for ABC and CBS, just an interesting note for a YouTube show in 2019.
ELI DRAKE AND COLT CABANA W/ GALLI – HIT: So, at least this time Eli wasn’t drunk or pretending to be drunk, but he was connecting with the crowd and kept the audience engaged. That is always a benefit to the studio format; the intimacy between the performers and crowd add a dimension that other promotions can’t reproduce. Drake was here mostly to keep his name in the world title picture and to also say “YEAH!” repeatedly with the audience. Since he believes Aldis is dodging him, he decided to re-enter the tag title picture but needs a partner and this is where Cabana comes out.
Quickly, Colt dismisses the idea of teaming with Drake because he’s Team Anderson and thinks Ken is a good guy and really they both sneak attacked each other so he’s not worried about who’s the victim or not. Colt is really good here as he delivers his lines seriously and with confidence and leans heel, but leaves room for interpretation. Just when Power was clearly defining heels and faces, we get a new shade of grey in Colt Cabana, but it’s really working for me. Cabana even hits Drake with the fact that while Eli is out here TRYING to get into the title picture, Colt has already been world champ twice. That stung. Oh, and Colt punctuated it with a “YEAH.” Ouch, heelish Colt!
Yeah, Ken Anderson eventually came out to confront but it was mostly just a hold-me-back thing between he and Drake, so nothing to see here. The interesting development of all of this though is no one wants to see Drake-Anderson again and Drake made that clear reminding us he’s already beaten him twice. Also, I don’t see Colt Cabana as NWA World Champion in 2020 as the NWA brand isn’t the same as it was a year or two ago. So I think that having Colt lean heel gives babyface Drake a boost and a win over Colt, a former world and national titleholder, creates a stronger argument to shoot Drake up the ladder. Good mic work from both and character development for Cabana.
GIRL POWERRR PROMO – HIT: See above to Powerrr Surge. I don’t know if this is a future show to the channel or a segment for episodes in the future but I liked this even more than Powerrr Surge. This was the tale of two segments in one as we first begin with the heel trio of Melina, Marti Belle, and Thunder Rosa chatting about the fomer friendship between Marti and Allysin Kay and the latter segment being the babyface quartet of Kay, Ashley Vox, ODB, and Tasha Steelz discussing how tough Kay is as a friend. This could have gone off the rails if another company did it (see WWE) as it would have been gossipy and hens clucking but I always love the ringside chat format for NWA and think this as a show or segment in the future has a chance, especially as the women’s roster grows. There was one drawback though and that’s the music. It was sappy self-help garbage, and when Allysin discussed her being tough on friends and demanding, the music made me expect her to turn to a mirror off-camera and say “Gosh darn it, people like me!” (That’s an SNL reference for you younger readers. Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley. Look it up.)
MARTI BELLE W/ MELINA VS TASHA STEELZ – HIT: My god, I’m giving everything a hit! I don’t drink, so trust me, I’m not drunk. The match was garbage. Well, maybe not garbage, but it wasn’t good. There were timing issues near the end for Steelz as she woefully missed connecting on a swinging neckbreaker and a cutter for the finish. And then they showed the failed cutter in slow-mo at the end, and yikes! Don’t hang a lantern on these things! The story of this match was Melina being a taskmaster and displeased with Marti Belle. We saw a few weeks ago that Melina banished Marti from ringside and then yelled at her for not coming to their aide, and now this week, all match long we see Marti looking at Melina for approval. It’s clear that Marti is the least interesting as a character of the trio, so giving her the insecurity trait and need to please Melina makes her role in this group interesting. Her part in the match worked as well as she really turned up the physicality and seemed to listen to coaching from Melina but ultimately she lost and Melina was furious. She screamed, “YOU HAD ONE JOB! ONE JOB! EXECUTE. EXECUTE. EXECUTE!” The entire time since Melina has come to NWA, I was lukewarm on her as a whole but the last two episodes have me buying in on her and where this group is going down the road.
I’d also be remiss to say, as partially Afro-Dominican myself, seeing a match between an Afro-Dominican and Afro-Puerto Rican was pretty cool, especially with the context of the somewhat friendly-but-not-really rivalry between Dominicans and Boricuas.
TV TITLE MATCH DRAWING – NEUTRAL: Next week will have Zicky Dice, who was redundantly called a brand new newcomer, vs Caleb Konley. Caleb is a pretty good wrestler and could use the boost but I think Zicky has the look and is more interesting for this show and will move on.
MAIN EVENT – TIM STORM VS. NICK ALDIS, TV TITLE TOURNAMENT MATCH – HIT: MAMA Storm’s baby boy comes out to a standing ovation but Aldis came out still in dress clothes and goes to Marquez with his lackeys in tow and announces his stable’s name as… Strictly Business. Good god, that is a terrible name, BUT BUT BUT, for a show like NWA Power it seems perfectly on-brand. Aldis is so great in this new heel role. He toes the line between cartoon supervillain sometimes but just before he gets too close and runs over it, he pulls all the way back and levels the whole thing out. His insistence on not fighting the match was perfect because he already said he was just doing this for fun and he was ticked that Storm seemed to think this match and tournament was a career maker. Tim Storm is out here fighting because he’s got something left to prove like his MAMA, but Nick Aldis doesn’t care at all and blatantly shakes him off. Great stuff, and Tim Storm is the great white meat babyface in the relative twilight of his career to play off; these two just have brilliant chemistry, I can’t say it enough.
NEW MAIN EVENT – TIM STORM VS. ROYCE “70S PORN” ISAACS, TV TITLE TOURNAMENT MATCH – MISS: Damn it, yall, after so many hits and so much good, yall couldn’t close the deal. I like Aldis backing out and I like Aldis putting in someone from his camp in his place, but choosing 70s Porn over Latimer was a bad choice. Latimer looks the part of pro wrestler as he’s like a poor man’s poor man Drew Galloway, and a win by Storm over a more convincing opponent would have worked better than the lowest person on the Strictly Business totem pole. Also, because Isaacs is the lowest man on the totem pole and the least interesting, he got in too much offense where Tim Storm really should have flattened him in two minutes. A big near-squash victory for Tim Storm over a lackey of Aldis would have gone over better and sent the show off with a bigger high. Instead, it was a back and forth short match, the spots were clunky, and the finish wasn’t spectacular because that Perfect Storm wasn’t crisp at all. It was a missed opportunity to really light a fire under huge babyface Tim.
OVERALL – HIT: Main event aside, this was a great show and we’ve now had two great shows in a row after that weird, Crash TV style season two premier. The character development for Marti Belle, Nick Aldis, Tim Storm, and Colt Cabana was great, and add Melina to that list too. Aron Stevens wasn’t too goofy and played his character well twice, and I’m a very harsh critic of his. No Question Mark stinks but I didn’t even notice his absence until right now and he’s the most over person after Tim Storm! Solid show that has me anticipating the next chapter in Storm-Aldis, the heel women’s trio, and where’s Eli Drake headed. However, I’ll say this, NWA. Allysin Kay is a really good wrestler and she’s the goddamn women’s champion. Give her a match every two or three shows, a singles match, please!
I wish they would take the tv slot that Championship wrestling from Hollywood has on zliving tv. That show is terrible compared to this. Would much rather watch this on television.