This week’s edition of NWA Power featured the NWA women’s championship headlining the show as Thunder Rosa was set to take on Melina.
The show began with Dave Marquez interviewing Tim Storm. Storm was down about the loss to Thom Latimer, but he isn’t going to quit. He admitted the impersonator of Mama Storm pushed his buttons and was ‘ridiculous’ and he’s going down a different path than Strictly Business. This guy is fantastic.
Thom Latimer came out and called Storm ‘old news’ and accused Storm of driving a wedge between him and Nick Aldis. He said he was the best man at Aldis’ wedding and then added if the two ever fought ‘may the best man win’, which I guess would mean Latimer by the literal definition – that was a clever line.
Latimer left and ‘Danny Deals’ came out. This is the comedian that dressed up as Mama Storm but was not in costume. He is a very good talker and plays a great heel manager prototype. He alluded to a ‘mystery man’ that he wanted Storm to team with, he wasn’t interested and wants to get Danny. They agreed to have Storm face the mystery man and if Storm loses, he must get the man an NWA contract. If Storm wins, he gets five minutes with Deals. The mystery man was Jax Dane, the former NWA champion that Storm beat the title for.
This was a strong opening segment with great promo work and a match set up to conclude it.
There was a bizarre ad from Nikita Koloff who is working with Lex Luger inviting you to MAN CAMP. It sounds like a multi-day religious retreat – for the love of God if anyone attends please contact us.
Matt Cross spoke with Marquez about traveling around the world making a name for himself and now he’s ready to do it in the U.S. (which means Son of Havoc isn’t part of his chronology). He worked up the crowd and they were into Cross.
RICKY STARKS VS MATT CROSS VS ZICKY DICE IN A NON-TITLE MATCH
Because Starks’ television title wasn’t being defended there was no time limit.
Cross hit the Cross Cutter to Starks and hit a shooting star press. Dice recovered and tossed Cross to the floor and stole the pin on Starks.
WINNER: Zicky Dice at 3:18
There needs to be a moratorium on this finish for three-way matches.
It was very short, and the story was Cross had the match won and Dice snuck away with the win, so Starks should naturally have to defend the title against Dice. The bigger match is a rematch between Starks and Cross after the went to a time limit several weeks ago.
May’s Valentine Diary is back bragging about her amazing life. She had no clue who the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express was and is hanging out with Sal Rinauro despite the jealousy of her boyfriend Royce Isaacs. Her delivery has to be inspired by the Kardashians in that she sounds so fake but that’s the intent and she plays this character well after two segments.
Aron Stevens was interviewed and said Trevor Murdoch and Scott Steiner couldn’t take his National title away from him. Joe Galli called him a coward.
THE QUESTION MARK VS TREVOR MURDOCH
Murdoch hit the bulldog from the top turnbuckle and won the match in less than one minute.
WINNER: Trevor Murdoch in 0:38
Sean Mooney interviewed Nick Aldis, who was excellent, as usual. He had tons of lines ready to fire off with. He said he was wearing Hugo Boss ‘because I’m the man in charge’, bragged about the win over ‘Flop Gordon’ at Hard Times and he’s carrying the NWA. Instead of trickle-down economics, it’s ‘Nick-el down economics. Seriously, this was great.
He offered Marty Scurll the chance to back out of their deal if he admitted Aldis was the better man. Scurll came out and wanted to fight right there. This promoted Latimer and Isaacs to come and they got jumped by Brody King, who entered through the crowd. Great segment.
Eddie Kingston was the next promo and mocked Marquez for his journalistic questions. It got serious as Kingston stared into the camera and dared The Pope to come out stating there are no distractions and it’s down to the two of them. He suspected the Pope called the cops because he was a snitch.
The Pope walked out and called him trash. The Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas backed up Kingston before turning on him and attacked Kingston inside the ring. So, it appears the Beer City Bruisers are Pope’s new team replacing The Dawsons.
Sean Mooney announced the first team in the Crockett Cup tournament is the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express.
THUNDER ROSA VS MELINA FOR THE NWA WOMEN’S TITLE
Melina stalled and rolled to the floor. She walked up the bleachers and got herself counted out. The crowd hated this.
WINNER: Thunder Rosa by count-out in 1:45
It was a negative reaction, which you rarely get in this environment. Yes, it’s a larger story they are telling but didn’t come off great.
Allysin Kay appeared and sent Melina back into the ring. Then, Kamille appeared and hit Kay with a spear.
The show ended with Thunder Rosa and Kamille staring at each other and this served as a bridge for Kamille into the women’s division as a wrestler.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The promos were great on this episode even by the NWA’s usual standards. Nick Aldis, Tim Storm, and Eddie Kingston all cut great promos and are among the best talkers going right now. Thom Latimer cut a great one as well and this continues to be the show that consistently had the best promos of any weekly show on a consistent basis, including AEW where that is a strength of theirs. I would highly recommend those segments from Tuesday’s show.
The wrestling didn’t take a backseat, it was in the trunk of the car this week. The main event was built throughout the show and felt anti-climactic along with the feeling that the title didn’t mean anything to Melina. This program has always made the titles feel like the ultimate prize so that was a disconnect to the overall tone of the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItUf6NtdQMs
