NWA Powerrr

[El-P]

Mutas can't work a lick anymore. He can barely walk. He can do a tag match and do a slow Muta elbow and spit mist, but that's it, basically. I know he worked a match with Marufuji at NOAH's last big show, and it was sad. So, against Aldis ? Ouch. If the NWA show really can't let go of the past, they might as well get the two Von Erich kids. That would get them away from MLW at least...

[Superstar Sleeze]

Jerome is totally right. I saw Muta/Tajiri/Pentagon Jr vs Low-Ki/LAX over Mania weekend live. I damn near shit myself during Muta’s Entrance and just being like “That’s the Great Muta! That’s Great Fucking Muta in front of me”. It was Mark Out City brutha. The Dude can barely move. He’s great for a nostalgia pop but it would be impossible to work a Main Event. This is the make it or break it PPV so you want two dudes that are physically capable of performing and making people say that they will come back for more. 

[Coffey]

So tonight is apparently not only the season finale, but also the last episode of Power before the Into the Fire PPV. So we probably find out the rest of the card for that show tonight.

Here's my question: I've seen multiple people refer to Into the Fire as "sold out" - how many tickets sold? How big of an audience are we talking about? Are they just talking about the like 200 tickets for that studio? Where is the PPV even being held at?

[El-P]

Considering how this entire series turned out in term of actual matches and booking, the Corny debacle really ends up being a smokescreen to hide the fact this promotion is simply not very good. The top of the PPV card kinda looks like a TNA tribute card : Aldis vs Storm (old TNA champs). Drake vs Anderson (TNA dream match of guys who act like Rock/Austin). And a WWE reject comedy guy who is getting way more time than he should (TNA staple) and gets a title match against Cabana (and people complained about comedy wrestling in AEW ?).

And then, 60+ years old Rock'n Roll Express as tag champs. Don't get me wrong, I popped hard for Ricky Morton doing a cool spot at Spring Break (thanks Janela) and on AEW TV & PPV. But there's a difference between do a cool little match on a crazy indie show and be your actual tag team champions in 2019, in the times of the Young Bucks, Lucha Bros, Revival, Undisputed Era and whatnot. I kinda hate to be that guy, the in the end, there's nothing there but nostalgia pop and retromania. For the record, the title match was also a complete nothing match, so you didn't even get the real fun of an actual surprisingly good match in 2019 like they had against the Briscoes or LAX (hell, or even that fun match I saw from a Bar Wrestling show). It's not old-school, it's just old.

And as far as Kamille go, the booking has also been a smokescreen of pseudo mystery, as in a matter of 8 weeks, they haven't made a actual understandable storyline out of it. IMPACT has been my favorite promotion for the last 18 months (not counting AEW since it's so new), mostly because they make the most out of everything they got and they know how to build feuds that make sense and tell stories, even if it's ridiculous ones (like Ace Austin vs Eddie Edwards, which was total camp). In 8 weeks, it doesn't seem so hard to actually build to a PPV with simple storyline advancement every episode. They pretty much have done zilch in that respect, while at the same time delivering nothing in term of actual good matches (I can think of one or two decent ones) because of their "old-school studio wrestling format" which puts all the emphasis on promos and quickies. So in the end, you get the worst of both worlds : no really fun matches that you get on MLW at times (despite their dubious at best booking) for instance, and no good booking either, with stuff like James Storm losing his US championship yet getting the title shot, and matches and stips thrown in seemingly from nowhere on the last two episodes, one of which being a recap show.

So yeah. When I think we won't ever have a Lucha Underground season 5 but this promotion will go on (under what format, I have no idea, I can't see them doing any good PPV numbers nor keeping any hype after the last few weeks), well, let's say the pro-wrestling landscape is not better for it. I may still keep on checking out what they do after the PPV (and hey, I was about to drop MLW from my watch-list and then they delivered one of the most fun show of the year to me), but at this point, I simply wish some of their talented people will end up somewhere else where they can shine eventually.

[C.S.]

I'm afraid I've got some bad news...

Jim Cornette's replacement at Into the Fire is Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett).

[ButchReedMark]

The tribute to Jim at the end is a bit tone deaf.

[Johnny Sorrow]

3 hours ago, C.S. said:

I'm afraid I've got some bad news...

Jim Cornette's replacement at Into the Fire is Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett).

I'm interested, he's a great talker.

[El-P]

8 hours ago, C.S. said:

I'm afraid I've got some bad news...

Jim Cornette's replacement at Into the Fire is Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett).

I forgot that one. He may very well be excellent in his role, but the way he was introduced reeked of old TNA, immediately refering to his WWE character. "We know who that is…" I mean, of all the people you could get, you had to pick some clear cut 00' WWE reject and not someone fresh from the indies or a surprising old-timer. Yeah, total TNA feel. That being said, maybe he'll be great in his role, so hopefully it works. I do hope their next set of tapings will follow a different pattern, because that "first season" really wasn't good.

[Ricky Jackson]

The James Storm promo on this week's show does explain why he is getting the NWA title shot at the PPV. He won a 3-way match for the shot in a match that presumably would've aired last week if they didnt have to release a hasty fill in ep in the wake of the Cornette controversy without any matches featuring his commentary. Still not a match I'm dying to see, but we can't blame nonsensical booking on it 

[El-P]

They ran the Rock'n'Roll Express match, when it leads to nothing concrete on the PPV. Why could they not ran the three-way since it does determine the PPV main event ? Also, Storm lost the US title, so why winning some three-way would make him the n°1 contender when the US champ, by NWA rules, is the n°1 contender ? None of this makes any sense.

[Ricky Jackson]

The later promo by Aldis, which I thought was really good btw, further explains things and adds an intriguing stip. All things considered, I thought this was an effective way to build interest. They could've aired the 3-way this week but it would've gotten buried by the RnRs feel good moment. Anyway, all I know is I had lost a ton of interest in the last couple weeks but this ep has rekindled it. I really, really like the promos being cut here, some of the best in wrestling. If the PPV shits the bed, fine, but I'm going to give it a chance and am looking forward to it 

[Ricky Jackson]

And the RnRs are defending the straps against the Wild Cards at the PPV

The Cornette send off maybe should've been saved for another time, if at all

[The Thread Killer]

I have to admit, after last week I was so pissed off at the booking I was pretty much ready to give up on this promotion, but this week's show actually mollified me to a significant degree.  All of the highlight clips for the three minutes leading up to the show, in addition to the promos during the episode actually did an excellent job of justifying the reasons for James Storm getting the shot at Nick Aldis at the PPV. It's true that from the moment he showed up on Power, James Storm had been claiming he wanted a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, I just didn't understand why he got it, especially after he lost the National Title. Now we know, he won a Triple Threat match against Eli Drake and Ken Anderson to win the shot.  As an added bonus, that result actually helps explain the rivalry between Eli Drake and Ken Anderson, as well.  We even got to see highlights of the match.  Plus, Aldis actually wants him to have the shot in order to shut Storm up and they even threw in some allusions to their history in TNA, and hinted at James Storm's reputation for being a whiner backstage...something Storm played up in his own promo.  Finally...it makes sense.

The big question is...why the HELL didn't the NWA show the damn #1 Contender's match on Power?  I have seen people speculate that it was because of the fallout from Jim Cornette's joke, but I don't buy that for a minute.  If the NWA was so desperate to erase Cornette from history, then why did they leave his commentary on the Cabana/Starks/Stevens segment and match this week?  And why did they leave his commentary on the Main Event, why would they have shown him in the ring celebrating with the RnR's? They had more than enough time to re-dub and voice over both those matches. The NWA certainly never would have publicly thanked Jim Cornette at the end of the show if they were so intent on erasing him.  It doesn't make any sense.  There has to be another reason the match never aired in full. Lord knows they had plenty of time for it last week, they could have (and should have) shit-canned that awful empty arena match and segment afterwards.  I can only assume that something went wrong during the#1 Contender's match that they didn't want to make air, like a botch or something.

I think the promos by James Storm and especially Nick Aldis were outstanding.  One of my main complaints last week (aside from Storm getting the shot at the title) was that the Kamille and Tim Storm angles had pretty much been dropped.  Now we know that isn't true.  Aldis is claiming he gave Kamille the night off, but she did whisper something to James Storm so it's safe to assume she's going to show up.  And the idea of using Tim Storm as a special referee is actually pretty good...because it's pretty much 50/50 if he's going to call the match fairly or not.  So all credit to the NWA, they have managed to turn this match into something I actually want to see now.

As far at the Rock and Roll Express winning the NWA World Tag Team Titles...I'm sorry, but I think it was a really fucking stupid idea. I have a ton of respect for those guys, but it doesn't change the fact that they are both in their early 60's, and that's assuming that you believe they're telling the truth about how old they are.  (Rumor has it that Ricky Morton is actually significantly older than he claims to be.  But let's give them the benefit of the doubt.)  All putting the titles on those guys does is send the message that you're either stuck in the past, and/or have a very weak Tag Team Division.  Those guys were walking around during that match at stooped over, and that "double dropkick" was hard to watch.  The match wasn't all that good, and how could it have been really?  There really isn't any upside to this decision.  If The Wild Cards win the titles back (which I assume they will) then what have they accomplished?  They beat up a couple of old guys, wow.  If they don't win the titles back at the PPV, then what does that say about how good they are?

It's not like I am salivating at the prospect of this PPV, I'm not.  It's still a pretty weak card on paper, but I am inclined to give the NWA the benefit of the doubt now because I support what they are trying to do, for the most part.  Now that we are through their first set of taped episodes, I give the concept an A+, but the execution a C-.  They badly need to add more talent, including fresh new faces. They need to weed out the stupid bullshit like this whole Question Mark angle, I don't care HOW over it is with the studio audience.  I know they strongly hinted at it this week, but they just need to unmask this guy already. And they need to meticulously plan out their booking for the next set of tapings, so there is a more cohesive story leading into the next PPV after Into The Fire (assuming there is one.)  I don't want to see the glut of competitive matches every week like we see on AEW and NXT, but I would like to see an improvement on the in-ring action. But I still firmly believe that this promotion and television show is important.  It fills a void and carves out a niche for fans of old school Pro Wrestling for feel alienated by modern wrestling.  I am going to continue to support them, but I hope they learn from the mistakes they have made so far.

[The Thread Killer]

On 12/3/2019 at 5:33 PM, Coffey said:

Here's my question: I've seen multiple people refer to Into the Fire as "sold out" - how many tickets sold? How big of an audience are we talking about? Are they just talking about the like 200 tickets for that studio? Where is the PPV even being held at?

From what I understand, the PPV is going to be coming from the same place they film Power, the GPB studio in Atlanta.  The only supposed difference is that the tickets were much more expensive and the set is supposedly going to be different.  I hope that is the case.  I have no major issue with the way the stands are set up, but it wouldn't kill them to have a camera man situated somewhere they could get an elevated shot, and I really don't think they should have the PPV on the Power set.

[The Thread Killer]

20 hours ago, ButchReedMark said:

The tribute to Jim at the end is a bit tone deaf.

 

5 hours ago, Ricky Jackson said:

The Cornette send off maybe should've been saved for another time, if at all

I think there are a couple of points to consider regarding their public farewell to Jim Cornette.  They could have just said nothing and let that be the end of it, and to a degree I am surprised they didn't.  However, let's be honest.  They didn't fire him, he quit.  It's entirely possible that he was going to get fired, but he walked away because he knew that people who hate him were just going to keep picking through everything he said until he got fired.  Since then, he actually has explained his joke.  He admitted it was in poor taste, and even offered an apology, although it was conditional.  It's not like he doubled down on the joke.  Hell, he let his own co-host pretty much tell him off for the joke, on his own podcast.  I think Cornette is about as contrite over this situation as he is technically capable of being, so there's really no point in litigating it any further...and I think the NWA knows that.

Having said that...I think there is something else at play which explains why they thanked Jim Cornette this week.  AEW and the NWA are in a very similar situation right now, albeit on a vastly different scale.  Both promotions appeal to a very particular segment of Pro Wrestling fans.  Both debuted to a fair amount of positive feedback and good buzz.  And both have steadily declined since their respective debuts.  AEW ratings are down, and NWA views are down.  The difference is, aside from people being turned off by the booking and lack of action in the NWA a lot of people were turned off by the NWA solely based on the Jim Cornette controversy. AEW will survive and thrive because they are levelling out and they will be sustained by their own hardcore fanbase.  I do not think that is the case when it comes to the NWA.  They need all the fans they can get. A segment of fandom (and I have no idea how big this segment is, but it can't be denied that they exist) were only "hate watching" Power to try and get Jim Cornette "cancelled."  They have succeeded, so I assume they have moved on.

That leaves Jim Cornette's fanbase, the infamous "Cult of Cornette."  On a weekly basis, Cornette supposedly gets roughly 350,000 downloads on his podcast.  Let's assume that 250,000 of those are actual hardcore Cornette fans.  Cornette repeatedly promoted the NWA on his podcast, but more importantly he extolled the virtues of what the NWA was trying to do...bring back old school studio Pro Wrestling.  The NWA really needed that promotion and endorsement.  I don't know how many of those 250,000 hardcore Cornette fans were tuning in because of Cornette, but I'd bet it was a significant number. Now they've lost them...and under controversial circumstances.  Cornette has repeatedly implored his fans to continue to support the NWA, but it is very clear that many of his most rabid fans are irate that he is gone and circumstances under which he left.  Not only have a lot of those fans stopped watching, but they are actually campaigning against the NWA now.

One of the talking points I've seen repeatedly that I actually believe, is that a large number of people who were freaking out about Jim Cornette weren't even NWA Power fans to begin with, nor would they watch the show once he was gone.  They just wanted to fuck with Cornette because they hate him.  So now the NWA is left with no Cornette and a bunch of pissed off old school Pro Wrestling fans.  I have no doubt that the segment on this week's show was an attempt to win back some of those fans, or publicly illustrate that there are "no hard feelings."

I'm not sure it worked, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

[The Thread Killer]

On 12/3/2019 at 6:45 PM, El-P said:

The top of the PPV card kinda looks like a TNA tribute card : Aldis vs Storm (old TNA champs). Drake vs Anderson (TNA dream match of guys who act like Rock/Austin). And a WWE reject comedy guy who is getting way more time than he should (TNA staple) and gets a title match against Cabana

I've seen you levy this criticism against the NWA before, that the roster is made up of TNA and WWE "rejects." Even if it's true...what does that prove?

Yes, pretty much everybody on the NWA roster previously worked in TNA or WWE...but so what?  TNA had a ton of excellent workers over the years, it's not their fault that TNA had some of the shittiest booking ever seen and utterly incompetent management.  Are these guys supposed to wrestle under masks for the rest of their lives, or retire or something, just because they used to work for TNA or didn't make it to the top of WWE? Somebody could easily say that some of the biggest names in AEW are former WWE guys...Cody, Moxley, Jericho, Dustin, Spears.  Cody was basically a midcarder at best in WWE. So what?  He moved on and made something more of himself...guys in the NWA should be afforded the same chance.

The NWA is obviously operating on a shoestring budget, so they're not going to be able to afford top level guys. Their best bet is to find guys like Trevor Murdoch and Aron Stevens who only work part time and still have something to contribute to the business.  I agree wholeheartedly that the NWA needs to compliment guys like that with fresh, new talent. Absolutely. But I don't see the point of harping on about guys who used to work in TNA.  I remember you complaining about people criticizing AEW and rooting for them to fail, while AEW was trying to provide an alternative product and give guys a place to work.  You were right, but you sound like you're basically doing the exact same thing when it comes to the NWA.

[sek69]

I dunno, I was on the fence about giving up on the NWA but the Cornette tribute sealed the deal for me. Not so much for the tribute itself, but for how the company very clearly feels nothing wrong happened and only cut bait with him because he was getting too much negative pub for them. Then you had Marquez white knighting for him on Twitter (when your defense is "it's not racism, just a joke about starvation" you really should rethink saying anything) which just made it clear they are just like Corny's other cultists who will excuse anything that shits out of his mouth because they watched him om TBS as a kid.

There's too much better wrestling out there to waste time on them to be honest. 

[The Thread Killer]

I absolutely see what you're saying.  A big part of me is surprised they didn't just let the whole thing go.  Hell, Cornette has already moved on from the whole situation so there was no need for them to say anything - they could have just let the last episode with Cornette air, and moved on.  That's why I really think they were trying to get some of his fans to come back, and I don't think it's going to work and it almost definitely wasn't worth the risk.  Just bad decision making all the way around.

[sek69]

I guess one good thing to come out of the whole mess was that it exposed how clown shoes the whole thing was run, so there's that. 

[El-P]

6 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

I've seen you levy this criticism against the NWA before, that the roster is made up of TNA and WWE "rejects." Even if it's true...what does that prove?

I only find it ironic that after years and years and years the old TNA (not the IMPACT of Callis/D'Amore) was the laughing stock of the pro-wrestling landscape, got no credit whatsoever, most of every workers who where TNA-originals (or affiliated) were considered like jokes (see how a super solid worker like Robert Roode got shit on by most when he got to NXT), but put them in a LEGO Georgia Territory Studio and have them feud on top of the card and all of a sudden it's cool and old-school. ALdis vs Storm is old-school all-right. Old-school TNA from the early to mid 2010's. The rest is dressing up. I for one have no issue with this, hell I've probably spent more time than anyone talking about old TNA on this board, but the idea that NWA Powerr is a fresh product because it "looks" like an old territory show when they deliver stuff like Eli Drake vs Ken Anderson is kinda, yeah, funny to me. Also, the insane amount of TV time devoted to a guy like Aron Stevens reeks of old TNA. Take a guy who was a joke act in WWE and push him at the US title level. Same for the new announcer, who's immediately referred to by his old WWE gimmick. 

6 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

But I don't see the point of harping on about guys who used to work in TNA. 

Because it's funny and ironic that *now*, these are are cool, apparently, when for the last ten years any of them would have been loledtna out of any conversation. I mean, Nick "Brutus Magnus" Aldis and James "Beer Mooney" Storm. Old TNA failures, that's how these guy would be refered of they showed up on NXT I would believe (unfairly, but that's how it goes).

6 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

I remember you complaining about people criticizing AEW and rooting for them to fail, while AEW was trying to provide an alternative product and give guys a place to work.  You were right, but you sound like you're basically doing the exact same thing when it comes to the NWA.

Please, let's not make that an AEW vs NWA thingy because it's not at all. I shit on what I find shitty about NWA Powerr because I actually followed the promotion for the last two months, much like I have blasted whatever I have found shitty on MLW for the last year and a half (and I have found tons of shitty stuff on MLW, and also things that I like). And like I said about MLW, hey maybe NWA will turn things around, but to me they have to change quite a bit of stuff on those seconds tapings. NWA isn't ROH yet to me, I'm still at least interested in checking them out (for how long, no idea).

And also, if we're perfectly honest, if AEW fails and collapse, it will be a very bad thing for the pro-wrestling landscape and its workers. If NWA Powerr disappears, it will barely be a blip on the radar, as it's not exactly on the same range. (it's not even on the same range with LU at the end, with guys like Fenix & Penta, Cage, Kross, Hijo del Fantasma etc… signed to those ridiculous contracts)

[Mad Dog]

[C.S.]

I'm behind on the N-Dubya-A. Should I even bother watching last week's clip show/empty arena debacle or can I safely skip it and watch this week's show without missing anything crucial?

16 hours ago, sek69 said:

Then you had Marquez white knighting for him on Twitter (when your defense is "it's not racism, just a joke about starvation" you really should rethink saying anything) which just made it clear they are just like Corny's other cultists who will excuse anything that shits out of his mouth because they watched him om TBS as a kid. 

Dave Marquez is wonderful at his job, but yeah, those tweets were extremely shortsighted and paint him as a brainwashed Marco Rubio type IMO. Very disappointing.

10 hours ago, El-P said:

I only find it ironic that after years and years and years the old TNA (not the IMPACT of Callis/D'Amore) was the laughing stock of the pro-wrestling landscape, got no credit whatsoever, most of every workers who where TNA-originals (or affiliated) were considered like jokes (see how a super solid worker like Robert Roode got shit on by most when he got to NXT), but put them in a LEGO Georgia Territory Studio and have them feud on top of the card and all of a sudden it's cool and old-school. ALdis vs Storm is old-school all-right. Old-school TNA from the early to mid 2010's. The rest is dressing up. I for one have no issue with this, hell I've probably spent more time than anyone talking about old TNA on this board, but the idea that NWA Powerr is a fresh product because it "looks" like an old territory show when they deliver stuff like Eli Drake vs Ken Anderson is kinda, yeah, funny to me. Also, the insane amount of TV time devoted to a guy like Aron Stevens reeks of old TNA. Take a guy who was a joke act in WWE and push him at the US title level. Same for the new announcer, who's immediately referred to by his old WWE gimmick. 

Because it's funny and ironic that *now*, these are are cool, apparently, when for the last ten years any of them would have been loledtna out of any conversation. I mean, Nick "Brutus Magnus" Aldis and James "Beer Mooney" Storm. Old TNA failures, that's how these guy would be refered of they showed up on NXT I would believe (unfairly, but that's how it goes). 

But that's the thing: Almost none of the people you mentioned are suddenly considered "cool" in and of themselves. Well, maybe Aldis, who I think has done a great job of rising to the occasion of being the prototypical old school NWA Champion. James Storm, Ken Anderson, BOOM BOOM, etc. couldn't be cool even if they were trapped in 30 below freezing snowstorm. What is considered "cool" is the old school aesthetic of the promotion. 

[El-P]

36 minutes ago, C.S. said:

But that's the thing: Almost none of the people you mentioned are suddenly considered "cool" in and of themselves. Well, maybe Aldis, who I think has done a great job of rising to the occasion of being the prototypical old school NWA Champion. James Storm, Ken Anderson, BOOM BOOM, etc. couldn't be cool even if they were trapped in 30 below freezing snowstorm. What is considered "cool" is the old school aesthetic of the promotion. 

So, basically, people were hyped about a LEGO studio setting and a Dokken song. 

[C.S.]

56 minutes ago, El-P said:

So, basically, people were hyped about a LEGO studio setting and a Dokken song. 

Don't be so dismissive. You're a quality poster, and this is beneath you.

You know full well what I mean. It's the NWA's entire approach to wrestling that's "cool." No one else is doing anything like it, which makes it "fresh" and "new" - even though it's a throwback. "What's old is new again" and all of that.

That doesn't mean there aren't problems: Their roster of WWE has-beens and TNA never-weres isn't very exciting, the matches generally haven't been awesome, and some of the "local" talent (and I include Bram in that even though he's an ex-TNA guy) feel very bush league.

That's not even getting into the Corny stuff or the Austin Idol rape pill commercial and gas chamber reference that everyone ignored because it happened on the same episode as the horrible Ethiopia joke. 

So, yeah, the NWA is very rough around the edges - obviously - but the things they are doing right feel very special (the aesthetic, set, graphics, music, Aldis as champion, Tim Storm, Momma Storm, Thunder Rosa, etc.).

[El-P]

26 minutes ago, C.S. said:

You know full well what I mean. It's the NWA's entire approach to wrestling that's "cool." No one else is doing anything like it, which makes it "fresh" and "new" - even though it's a throwback. "What's old is new again" and all of that.

I have a hard time with this mentality. I explained why in endless details in this very thread. To me it doesn't work because just like you said, it's about aesthetics only. It's cosmetic. And that's why it's empty to me.

The fact this show got way more traction that MLW, which is also on Youtube and available to everyone, speaks volume about how a simple cosmetic choice can create a positive bias for a product which, overall, really isn't very good. Yeah, the promos are good because they have a bunch of really strong talkers, but the wrestling has been mostly pure nothingness because of the cosmetic choice of doing super short matches. The reason the old territory shows were doing super short matches in a studio setting is because they were selling house shows. That was the necessity of the business model and had nothing to do with the belief that "Oh, short match and squashes are what makes a good pro-wrestling show". NWA Powerr isn't selling house shows, so they are replicating something totally out of context and so the cosmetics end up weighing more than the actual content of the show.

What's left if most of the wrestlers, matches and angles aren't very good/cool ? Cosmetic. Aesthetics. The difference with Lucha Underground is that Lucha Underground was basically studio wrestling too, but with a modern, hell, you can argue even avant-garde approach with the entire vignette stuff being unseen by the announcers, as the whole thing was basically its own universe. The cosmetic was super important, but the matches were also presenting something looking forward, whatever people thought about it. And yet, it was studio-wrestling, quite literally.. So yeah, I agree there's a place for a cool, different kind of presentation, hell it's even needed. But this hasn't been it, because NWA Powerr has been a clear case of the cosmetics smothering the entire product, instead of just giving you that old-school style with a twist. I would watch a vaporwave studio wrestling show every week. Hell, I'd watch IPWF (the fake IMPACT early 80's promotion) every week. Yeah,it's pastiche, but at least it is funny and it is a more heartfelt and smart tribute to territory wrestling that Powerr has been to me.

26 minutes ago, C.S. said:

That's not even getting into the Corny stuff or the Austin Idol rape pill commercial and gas chamber reference that everyone ignored because it happened on the same episode as the horrible Ethiopia joke. 

So, yeah, the NWA is very rough around the edges - obviously - but the things they are doing right feel very special (the aesthetic, set, graphics, music, Aldis as champion, Tim Storm, Momma Storm, Thunder Rosa, etc.).

Wait, what was that ?

FTR, Momma Storm is Judy Bagwell level lame. No idea why anyone thinks it's cool. A 50 year old guy talking about his "momma" sounds dumb as fuck. There's a George Carlin quote about that somewhere...