The NWA kicked off its third season of ‘Power’ on Tuesday night following the ‘Hard Times’ pay-per-view from last Friday night.
Joe Galli and Stu Bennett opened the show and threw over to their newest member of the broadcast team Sean Mooney.
Mooney spoke with NWA champion Nick Aldis, who called Flip Gordon a formidable opponent unless he’s facing them and then becomes ‘Flop Gordon’. He had a private sit-down with Marty Scurll earlier in the days with cameras rolling and would air the sit-down tonight.
ROYCE ISAACS VS ANDRE GUHN
Sal Rinauro joined the commentary team and was in a sling.
Isaacs was accompanied by Mae Valentine. Isaacs began yelling at Rinauro mid-match and ran back to beat the count with Guhn using a small package for a two-count. Isaacs recovered and hit Hush Money to win.
WINNER: Royce Isaacs at 3:13
Afterward, Isaacs argued with Valentine and told Rinauro to ‘mind his business’.
Kyle Davis brought out new women’s champion Thunder Rosa with Melina and Marti Belle following her out. Melina kept stepping it to speak on behalf of Rosa and took credit for her title win. Rosa finally spoke and announced she would have a rematch with Allysin Kay next week and will beat her ‘a million times’ if they fought that many times.
Ricky Starks came out with the Television title and called out Zicky Dice. They had an interaction right out of 1987 and that’s essentially Dice’s character. He put over the price of his glasses, earrings, and fanny pack. It was a fun interaction and led to a challenge issued by Starks.
RICKY STARKS VS ZICKY DICE FOR THE NWA TELEVISION TITLE
The title matches are the same as the tournament with a time limit of six minutes and five seconds. There is also a ‘Lucky Seven’ rule where if the television champion wins seven matches in a row, they receive an NWA title shot.
Starks countered the Shake, Rattle & Roll to hit The Stroke and retained the title.
WINNER: Ricky Starks in 4:14 to retain the NWA Television title
Joe Galli brought out the new tag champions Eli Drake and James Storm, who was confronted by Aron Stevens and The Question Mark. Storm just went through a bunch of jokes doing ‘Knock, Knock’ jokes, a Bruce Lee impression, taking a shot at Ronda Rousey being head kicked by Holly Holm, and indicating he had been drinking and this went off the rails. I could see people being bothered by Storm trying to mimic Bruce Lee in 2020 as that joke isn’t going to land for most.
It ended with Stevens and Question Mark wanting a title shot and Drake giving them a number and waiting their turn.
Trevor Murdoch walked out and put over Ricky Starks, who beat him in the final of the tournament but respects Starks for being a fighting champion. He doesn’t respect Stevens, who runs away as National champion and they’re going to have a match next week. The Question Mark hit him with a chop to the throat and Murdoch went down.
The final segment was the sit-down meeting with Nick Aldis arriving late to meet Marty Scurll.
Aldis has been the star of this series and this was his best segment to date. He explained how hard he works for the company’s that employ him and yet he is labeled ‘difficult’ and a ‘problem’. He has known Scurll since they were teenagers, and both know of guys that act one way to the public but are ‘shitheads’ behind the scenes and Scurll is different.
Aldis was a cheerleader for Scurll’s success and always gave him advice and encouragement and then Scurll showed up and challenged him for his NWA title last year at the Crockett Cup show. Aldis won and that should have been the end of it. The NWA title is Aldis’ and all he has, Scurll has returned after signing a ‘life-changing’ deal and wants to take the one thing Aldis has.
Scurll countered he wants to be a world champion. He always hears how he should have won at Madison Square Garden last year and should have beat Aldis last year. Aldis told Scurll to look at his bank account and Scurll shot back that when he was making thirty pounds on the indies, Aldis was TNA champion and he’s never won a world title. Scurll knows he can beat Aldis.
Aldis laid out his terms that they can have another match at this year’s Crockett Cup but if Scurll loses, he must pay back every fan for the price of their ticket.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Nick Aldis was fantastic in this last segment and is among the best talkers of any promotion. As a world champion, there are few that have the presence he holds.
The stipulation is a classic one that hasn’t been used for a long time. It’s a bit backward as the fans would naturally want Aldis to win because they would get the price of their ticket refunded.
Aldis encouraged cities to submit bids to host the Crockett Cup indicating they don’t have a location locked down. They have only announced the show will be in April.
I thought the last segment was excellent and the high point of the show. This week was very promo heavy with all the new champions speaking. The big match next week is the rematch between Thunder Rosa and Allysin Kay, who had a great match at ‘Hard Times’.
Sean Mooney was used sparingly and didn’t leave any impression on me for his first episode – positively or negatively. David Marquez and Joe Galli also handled interviews on the show, so they are very deep when it comes to that role on the show.
If you’re a fan of promos then this show had a lot of them but for a sixty-minute wrestling show to have eight minutes of in-ring wrestling, I can see people wanting a closer balance but this series is rarely focused on that aspect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FDcAXfLC-c
