Grim Watches NWA Powerrr (So You Don't Have To)

[Bobby Barrows]

Grim Watches NWA Powerrr
(So You Don't Have To...)
​

So you might be wondering, "Barry, why are you doing this?" I like to torture myself with hilariously bad wrestling sometimes, and rather than have you suffer through the new Twitter Era of the National Wrestling Alliance, I figured, "fuck it, I'll suffer through it myself and give you the cliff notes version of what's a-happening." So yeah that's what's happening. For now I'll be strictly sticking to the Twitter era, so everything beginning with October 2024 (largely because I can't find jack shit for the early seasons of Powerrr). It's gonna be a harrowing adventure, but I swear to god watching NWA slowly die is gonna be either hilarious or just sad. Either way, I'll make sure you don't have to watch it! Per the rules of my last review thread, I'll be utilizing my three codewords to determine the quality of an episode: MUST-SEE, DISCRETION, and SKIP. Unfortunately a majority of these episodes are gonna be SKIP quality, I can already tell...​

Archive:

S20E1 (October 1, 2024) - SKIP
S20E2 (October 8, 2024) - DISCRETION

 

[Daddy Dom]

i still think there are some highs of NWA the woman division, those tag team clowns, hell even bram as champ, EC3 Over-Man gimmick is fun.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Well time will tell since I'm starting with only the Twitter episodes.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

NWA Powerrr (October 1, 2024)
S20E1: “NWA 76: Part I”

We get a boring Billy Corgan promo to kick things off where he says fuck-all, and pretty much states that as long as he’s the owner of the National Wrestling Alliance, the company won’t go anywhere. Now far be it for me to misinterpret what he means, because we’re intelligent adults and understand what he said; he’s definitely not wrong though. Corgan went from Nick Aldis being his champion and having a lot of respectability and hype where people were actually excited all the way back in 2019, to losing four different broadcasting deals in the span of five years. Now admittedly, the NWA is better off now than it was a decade ago, but that is an extremely low bar to clear. I will also admit that not all of these issues were Corgan’s fault entirely. COVID-19 destroyed the NWA’s roster to bigger companies (read: AEW poached Ricky Starks, Eddie Kingston, and Colt Cabana, and WWE signed Eli Drake (LA Knight) and Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett), and then Zicky Dice, Willie Mack, Ken Anderson and a few others then had their contracts expire during the pandemic) until all that was left of the NWA were old ass wrestlers and green goblin rookies. If COVID doesn’t happen I think the NWA is in a much better state… a Tyrus-less state, you might say. Long story short, Billy-Boy is not good at securing the bag for the NWA, so now we premiere on Twitter, which has always been Twitter, and definitely is not known by a significantly worse and more mundane name!

Next thing you know, because we’re in Philadelphia, we just have to have an old ECW name. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Shane Douglas, who was allegedly invited by Billy Corgan, which would have made a very awkward NWA-ECW Reunion. So who do we get instead? Do we get The Sandman? No. Tommy Dreamer? Fuck no (thank God). Mick Foley? What do you think Corgan is made of money? It’s of course, drum roll please… just a little longer… The Blue Meanie. Alright then, that works too I guess. Meanie just comes out to do his dance and thank Billy Corgan. Just like that, a tenth of the episode is gone and that’s 10 minutes of my life I’ll never get back (technically 30 because I watched this segment *three entire times* for this review). This might be a simple observation, but I’m of the opinion that Billy Corgan is a great money-man and a guy who is very passionate about his pet projects. I respect that about him, I really do. All things being equal though, he comes off as a terrible executive.

(What even is this?)

Our first match of the evening, or day, or whatever time this episode aired, is The Southern Six (consisting of Kerry Morton and Alex Taylor) facing off against the NWA World Tag Team Champions Mike Knox and Trevor Murdoch. Jesus Christ, my guys, Knox and Murdoch– 90 years between both guys. Meanwhile Kerry Morton here is 23 (Alex Taylor is allegedly 30 according to Cagematch) and shockingly is far and away the best worker in this match. It’s not even a contest; Morton is just like his old man “Punky” Morton (context: The Rock ‘n Roll Express were nicknamed Ricky “Punky” Morton and Robert “Hoot” Gibson; I seem to recall it was a tongue-in-cheek reference to an old radio show), he’s a great young worker.

So anyways, how does this match start? Surprise attack by the Southern Six and immediate brawl to the outside. Kerry Morton grabs a chair and hits both Murdoch and Knox with it. One of the commentators gets confused for a second because he isn’t sure if the bell rung; dude straight up asks if they could get a replay to see if the *bell rung*. Some stellar commentary here… Early on it’s the Southern Six taking it to Knox & Murdoch, until an oopsie spot happens and Kerry and Alex run into each other. Next thing you know, there’s an extremely awkward spot where Alex runs into and pushes Kerry Morton out of the way of an oncoming Knox and Murdoch… despite the fact that every worker was out of sync and both Knox and Murdoch were off by a whole second.

(Again, what even is this?)

So yeah, after that we get to a pretty normal tag match and Murdoch and Knox are in control now. Murdoch and Knox decide to slow it down, way down. Kerry continually tries to do some high flying stuff, but is stymied at every chance. The Southern Six get back in control thanks to a little ref distraction and a shirt wrapped around Murdoch’s neck. It’s the age old tale of the babyface tag partner trying to help his partner but the ref continually stopping them. Suddenly we get an ad break in the middle of this match, because of course the NWA has to beg fans to come to their shows! I will point out that the October 5 & 6 Tampa shows that they’re promoting are the next television tapings, so yeah… back to the match! The Southern Six continue to put the boots to Trevor Murdoch until Murdoch hits a short comeback and Mike Knox gets the “hot” taag, and comes in like a house of fire. The Southern Six shockingly manage to hit their finisher by surprise on Knox, but Murdoch breaks up the pin, and we get a brawl to the outside again. Kerry Morton gets hit with the High-Low (which is Knox & Murdoch’s finisher) and that’s all she wrote. Now just a penny for your thoughts, but why wouldn’t you give it to Kerry & Alex, who are both relatively young and could be built as the backbone of your tag division? No, let’s keep it on two guys who are a stone’s throw away from retiring. Whatever, Billy, whatever.

So after that match we get a Thom Latimer promo, where he doesn’t do much but quote the Bible, talk about how people doubted him, he also says that he doesn’t come to this match a boy, but a man. Bro, this is such a weird Christian promo, I don’t know who it’s supposed to appeal, but whatever. More ads about upcoming shows across the Southeast and Midwest. So after these ads, we get an EC3 promo. He claims that he’s gonna be the NWA World Heavyweight Champion for years to come. He also hilariously says that, “This company doesn’t need a great wrestler…” Which, yes. It doesn’t need *a* great wrestler, it needs a lot of them! What he claims the NWA needs though is a “hero”, which he claims to be. He then compares himself to Flair, Rhodes, Race, and the Funks. Alright, let me just stop right there and say EC3 is nowhere close to any of those names. First off, EC3 is only in the NWA because TNA, AEW, and WWE doesn’t want him. Secondly, EC3 is a decent wrestler at best, and while miles better than the dark ages of Tyrus “McBeats My Kids if They’re Gay”, he’s on the level of Rob Conway. Yeah, I said it. Thirdly, I still haven’t forgotten that fact you tried to start a right-wing wrestling company called Control Your Narrative, *Michael*.

Oh and then he compares himself to Caesar (among other historical names) and that makes my blood boil, but let’s move on because I’ve already buried EC3 enough and don’t want to belabor the point. So now we get our Main Event of this episode, it’s the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, with Thom Latimer challenging EC3. Yeah, that’s right, we only get two matches on this episode, because fuck you, this is a PPV taping because Billy Corgan can’t hold onto a broadcasting deal to save his life. Anyways let’s just get through this. Both men stare each other down, and talk shit to one another before we finally get a lock-up. EC3 goes to the outside to waste time after losing a couple holds or some shit. It’s been five minutes and nothing has fucking happened yet. A little pushing and shoving and finally stuff happens with Latimer having the early advantage. EC3 rolls to the outside, again. Thom goes out to get him and EC3 just goes back inside. Too bad EC3 can’t seemingly capitalize on anything as Lattimer is wrestling circles around him. Both guys fight on the outside and Latimer is faceplanted onto the ground. Oh joy, another commercial break for this exciting action!

Anyways we’re back from commercial break, Latimer gets back in but gets hit with EC3’s finisher. EC3 doesn’t bother going for the pin, so it’s whatever. This is a slow, plodding, boring match with just punches, kicks, and lariats. EC3 hits a Stinger splash in the corner and then a face buster to the knee, and finally a clothesline to the outside. Cue EC3 posing and wasting time for the crowd. Latimer crawls back into the ring and eats a Twist of Fate for his troubles, and Thom is thrown outside again. Holy shit this is boring as fuck. Eventually EC3 goes out to attack Latimer again, but gets countered and thrown into the post. This starts the slow comeback for Thom Latimer, sadly though EC3 hits a middle-rope DDT, and he’s getting ready to hit a Thesz Press. Latimer counters, but EC3 bounces back.

I feel like I’m scooping my eyeballs out of my sockets here watching this boring dreck. Seriously, it’s just “hit move, stall, hit move, stall, hit move, stall”. Finally we get two German Suplexes from Latimer, but as he goes for a third one, EC3 grabs the ref and hits a low blow on Thom. More stalling. Latimer lariats EC3, then goes outside. More stalling. Suddenly I hear one of the commentators go: “This isn’t some indy show, where it’s held at some VFW bingo hall.” Holy shit dude, yes you are, and you are absolutely holding it at an ex-bingo hall. You’re at the 2300 Arena, which historically held late-night bingo competitions, you fucking moron. Secondly, the National Wrestling Alliance is 100% an indy company; you don’t have a major television deal, you continually lose talent to bigger companies, and you can barely pull 1,500 audience members, and you’re broadcasting your PPV in portions on fucking Twitter. Fuck you, and thinking you’re bigger than you are. Where were we? Thom Latimer hits a stunner between the ropes, and misses a top-rope splash before getting speared by EC3.

(Pretty much describes the whole match)

EC3 hits his finisher one more time, and *still* doesn’t pin Latimer. More fucking stalling and going out to get a chair. He threatens to hit him with it but instead, he fucking sets it up and just sits on it. Seriously, fuck this shit, this match is boring as shit, if I was a fan I’d be walking out at this very moment. Absolutely insulting to the fans that the match was laid out in this way. So EC3 chats shit, says something to the effect of, “Heavy is the head that wears the crown”. Fuck you EC3. Immediately after this, EC3 hands the chair to the ref, and suddenly Thom Latimer hits a low blow on EC3, and hits two powerbombs and wins. Well there you go, Thom Latimer is the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion, defeating Mr. Control Your Narrative himself. What a fucking horrendous, boring, sloppy match. Not to mention Lattimer’s win is two years two late. He beat Nick Aldis years ago and yet Billy Corgan didn’t feel Latimer was good enough then? He thought Trevor Murdoch and Tyrus were the big picks. Whatever. This episode sucked, but at least we have a new champion compared to EC3 and Tyrus. SKIP
​

Knox & Murdoch (c) d. Southern Six [NWA World Tag Team Champ.]	*3/4​
Thom Latimer d. EC3 (c) [NWA World Heavyweight Championship]	1/2 *​

 

[Chris]

Very sad to see the people I still had hope for when I stopped watching seem to have regressed

 

[Sky]

Guess I'm going to be watching EC3 vs. Latimer on Shitter by 2025 :< My 2024 bad match thread list is looking huge btw

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Guess I'm going to be watching EC3 vs. Latimer on Shitter by 2025 :< My 2024 bad match thread list is looking huge btw

Straight up you need to watch all of NWA76, there's multiple bad matches and botched endings.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

NWA Powerrr (October 8, 2024)
S20E2: “NWA 76: Part II”

Well, after last episode’s train wreck, we’re back with Billy Corgan’s Flying Circus! It’s the second portion of the NWA 76 Anniversary Show, and good news, we get more than two matches in this episode! We get *three whole matches*. God, what did we do to be so blessed? So the episode starts off with a Kenzie Page promo with her going up against Max the Impaler. Max the Impaler is booked like a monster and is a protege of Father James Mitchell, who still has a job after all these years. It’s impressive really. Anyways let’s get to the action already.

Our first match of the evening is… a Liberty Bell Brawl between Blunt Force Trauma (who are managed by Aron Stevens) facing off against The Immortals: Odinson and Kratos. Now you might be asking yourself? What is a Liberty Bell Brawl? Good question– there are no stupid questions when it comes to the NWA. The Liberty Bell Brawl is simply put: a ladder match where the contestants must ring the bell attached at the top 3 times to win. Pretty simple rules, right? I can’t wait to see how they fuck this up. Odinson and Kratos come out first and holy shit, Roidy magoo. Odinson is probably the best built of everyone here, but that isn’t saying much. Billy Corgan admits on commentary that he was inspired to do this match by Vince Russo, which is never a good sign.

Then BFT comes out and apparently their names are Carnage and Damage. I shit you not. BFT look like two masked schlubs that might legit be in their 40s. I’m not kidding, three of the four people in this match look like your average construction worker who are out in the parking lot chatting shit and drinking beer. Then Kratos does a dive onto the outside to start the match. A lot of tonnage is flying out there. Then Odinson decides to get in on the action and also does a dive… and nearly necks himself on the concrete below. Jesus fucking Christ, we’re 30 seconds in and we almost saw someone break their neck.

[Lesson 1 in why big men need to stop doing flips]

So after that, Kratos and Odinson just beat on the two masked boyos for a while. It’s an outside brawl for most of the match. I am not gonna lie, I cannot tell who the fuck is Carnage and who is Trauma. Whoever can help me out here, that’d be great, because the commentary is not helping right now. A lot of chest slaps going on, throwing necks into the barricade. Our first ladder comes out courtesy of Kratos, but Aron Stevens distracts Kratos, and one of the BFT boys takes the chance to attack him. Odinson is taken out for a bit, so now it’s BFT’s chance to beat up Kratos for a while. A ladder bridge is made between the ring and barricade, and Kratos is thrown into it. On commentary, someone gets confused when Billy Corgan asks, “Name a more tough and physical tag team…” in reference to BFT. Which causes one of the other commentators to quip, “... BFT!” Out-fucking-standing. Odinson gets back into the ring and just gets beat up by BFT, and then he’s double hip tossed into the ladder in the corner.

Odinson starts hitting a comeback, and Kratos is also back in it. Kratos and Damage (who I now know is the one with the chest tattoos). They’re just trading punches and it’s boring as shit. I have no clue how this crowd is into it. Holy shit, I just realized. That’s Rodney Mack! Rodney Mack from 2003 SmackDown is still wrestling in 2024 in the National Wrestling Alliance. No wonder he looks like an old ass out of shape foreman. HE’S FIFTY-FOUR. So Kratos German Suplexes Mack, and then Mack counters an avalanche in the corner and gives one to him. Damage flies into the ring and hits a dropkick on Kratos, so now BFT are left in the ring and set up a ladder. Immortals are back in the ring tho, so yeah, they’re fighting.

Kratos goes to try and ring the bell, and Damage opts to give him a powerbomb instead. That looked like it destroyed Damage physically to carry Kratos who might be 350 lbs. Then Odinson gives a Side Russian Leg Sweep off the ladder to Damage for his trouble. Masked Rodney Mack has a chair, but Kratos dropkicks him in the face with it into the corner. Kratos goes to hit Mack, but Aron Stevens goes to hit Kratos, but Kratos is somehow smarter than the elitely educated Stevens, and Aron hits Masked Mack. Aron Steven gets killed by Odinson, and BFT is killed. Kratos climbs up to ring the bell, and… holy shit they broke the bell. The handle they were using to ring it broke off just as Kratos grabbed it and it snapped like a twig after he rang it once. He managed to whip it back and ring the bell again, but the whole thing was FUBAR’d by the third swing. So alas, in a match where the only way to win was to ring the bell three times, the Immortals won it by ringing it twice– Fuck you Vince Russo for inspiring this match.

[Promoters hate this one crazy trick to ruin a finish!]

So our next match is a four way elimination match to determine the new NWA National Title, which, if I do my research properly, tells me… Thom Latimer vacated the title in September to challenge for the NWA World title, because I forget that’s a thing that can happen with the National Title. Pretty fuckin’ lame if you ask me. As an aside, I stumbled across one of the funniest Wikipedia oopsies while I was investigating this title history, and it was for JR Kratos, who was in the last match.

I’m trembling from such wonderful Wikipedia editing skills. Anyways, in this match is Mims, Bryan Idol, Paul Burchill, and Carson Drake.First through we need to have a commercial, which guess what! It spoils the Women’s Title match, because Thom Lattimer is the NWA World Heavyweight champion standing beside Billy Corgan, and Kenzie Page is also the Women’s Champion beside Corgan. NICE JOB, BILLY. Anyways after this commercial we get a promo from James Mitchell. Sorry James, I guess you didn’t get the memo. Also hilariously, in the background, I notice there was the NWA logos paired with a logo for The CW. Oh such delicious irony.

Can we finally get to this fucking match? Everybody gets an entrance at least. It’s nice to see Paul Burchill still has a job in the world. Out comes Carson Drake, who is acclaimed as being “the most successful man in the NWA”, which is fucking hilarious. This guy comes out with a whole fucking sweater tied around his shoulders and strutting out like, and pardon my expression here, the gayest man on planet earth. He is just resplendent in pink and bright purple here on his gear. The post he does on the apron too… I don’t know whether to be offended or baffled! Mims is managed by Blk Jeez, which I gotta say, what a name. Carson Drake tries to get everyone to shake his hand, but only Idol does, before everyone beats the crap out of him.

This match is gonna be pretty simple tbh, it’s just folks taking turns beating up everyone. The first two to be separate is Bryan Idol and Paul Burchill, and they actually have a nice little technical section, but then it’s Mims and Idol. Mims just beats the shit out of Idol while Drake and Burchill fight on the outside. It’s gonna be hectic to keep track of everything but I’ll try my best. Idol starts a comeback on Mims, until Drake comes in to fight and he gets beat up for his effort. Idol hits a pretty cool move on Mims but he gets eliminated by Burchill after a double underhook DDT. That was nice while it lasted.

Following an ill-timed commercial break, Burchill gets ready for a dive on the outside, but gets tripped by Carson Drake, who pounces on Burchill while Mims waits on the outside, just strategizing with Blk Jeez. Once Drake is knocked outside, Mims takes the opportunity to attack. Burchill is honestly still pretty good for his age, I’ve always had a soft spot for him and think he was fucked over by a senile Vince McMahon (like so many other wrestlers). Carson Drake goes to attack Mims, but Blk Jeez calls him over and the two talk. Blk Jeez basically buys out Carson Drake, and our final two are Mims and Carson Drake. Drake goes over to talk to Blk Jeez, and Jeez slips him a couple dollars, and “suddenly” Drake suffers a leg injury and can’t continue. I’m dumbfounded by this sudden development as Mims takes the easy win to become National Champion. Corgan fuckin’ booked a fingerpoke of doom spot– What a waste of Idol and Burchill’s talents…

[Is he faking an injury or seducing him?]

I really need to get through the main event already, please end this episode. We get a Kenzie Page promo, saying she doesn’t fear death, and also apparently talks about how she watched her dad die or something. She apparently also sleeps with the love of her life, the NWA Women’s Championship… I think they have a word for that: objectophilia. I’m taking the piss out of NWA at this point because really the whole promotion is comical, even if there’s a few guys I like on here. Alright, Main Event time. Max the Impaler vs. Kenzie Page. So it was explained that Max the Impaler was the Women’s Television champion, but vacated the title to face Kenzie Page for the Women’s World title… Max is also the men’s television champion as well. Max also would vacate the Men’s Television title to face Kenzie as well, according to my research… The whole thing is confusing, but it makes sense in Billy Corgan’s mind.

The match starts with Max overpowering Kenzie and just choking her in the corner. The story of the match is basically Max being the big monster against the underdog champion. Kenzie goes for a dive on the outside, but Max just lifts her up effortlessly until they’re pushed into the ring-post by Kenzie. Max hits a forward suplex slam on Kenzie, who starts begging. This is already starting slow and I want it to end. Max the Impaler has a good look at least. It really is just Max beating up on Kenzie until the comeback.

We get another commercial break, and then afterwards, Max spears the shit out of Kenzie, who sells like death. Kenzie starts hulking up because of fan “cheers”, but Max clubs the shit out of Kenzie. Kenzie tries to go for the Kenzie Cutter, but she gets thrown to the ground, and then Max hits a senton on Page. Kenzie’s new strategy is to go for the legs and hit a shining wizard, but then she gets distracted by James Mitchell, and Max runs into Mitchell by accident. Kenzie Cutter, which Max no-sells until a second Kenzie Cutter. Max gets back up a second time, and we get a third one. Kenzie wins, because of course. Max looked dominant but what a wet fart of an ending.

[An actually good spear!]

That was episode 2 of Powerrr on Twitter. Not nearly as bad as the first episode, and tbh there’s hilariously bad moments in this edition compared to the first episode, so it’s kind of a grab-bag here. It depends on if you can find humor in the catastrophe that is the National Wrestling Alliance in 2024. For me, it wasn’t that great, but hey, that’s the point of the Discretion rating, right? Anyways, yeah, a better showing compared to episode 1 which is shocking considering last week had the NWA World Heavyweight Championship match… DISCRETION​

 

[Rosie]

When I see Max, I know they deserve better than the NWA's shit booking.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

When I see Max, I know they deserve better than the NWA's shit booking.

It's crazy, apparently they've been booked extremely strong by holding both Television titles, and yet they still lose to Kenzie Page because shenanigans? It screams that they don't actually have a plan for Max

 

[Rosie]

It's crazy, apparently they've been booked extremely strong by holding both Television titles, and yet they still lose to Kenzie Page because shenanigans? It screams that they don't actually have a plan for Max

Which also, I imagine how awkward Max must have felt while Tyrus "I beat people who use pronouns and sexually harass co-workers *Settled out of court" was champ.

 

[Sky]

I cannot tell what NWA sees in Kenzie Paige over Max

 

[Sky]

She's an okay wrestler but in no way a division carrier

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Part of me thinks that the NWA is afraid of making them champion because of the backlash from their conservative audience, since that's really all they have right now.