NWA Powerrr

[SirEdger]

22 minutes ago, El-P said:

@SirEdger, is it me, am I drunk (highly unlikely), or Eli Drake kinda looks like a young Jean Brassard ? It just struck me right now.

Is this show a way to edit the fuck out of Corny ? Have they exhausted their tapings ? 

When you look at them closely, they do look a bit alike, yes!

[Coffey]

Man, this episode blows. Feels like the Cornette shit really fucked things up. 

[El-P]

6 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

When you look at them closely, they do look a bit alike, yes!

Ok, so I'm not crazy ! Thanks !

Melina can sure talk. Not sure what her "accomplishments" are though. Last time I saw her, she was helping her ex-boyfriend in LU. Kinda cool to see her back, she was a good manager back in the days. No idea how well (or not) she works inside the ring.

 

[Coffey]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Alucard]

"Nobody paid attention to their entrances or used their flexibility until Melina" lol.

Weird episode. But  yeah Thunder Rosa is awesome.

16 hours ago, C.S. said:

I can see why Al Snow buried the fuck out of him in his book.

Never knew that, what did he say?

[El-P]

Just now, Alucard said:

"Nobody paid attention to their entrances or used their flexibility until Melina" lol.

Weird episode. But  yeah Thunder Rosa is awesome.

I loled too. Yeah, no one did the split to enter the ring before, and for that she has to be commended. She was awesome at it.

And yeah, this bit on Thunder Rosa is what AEW needs to do with their women.

2 minutes ago, Coffey said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I like James Storm, so I'm ok with it. Still, he lost the NWA US championship yet still gets the title shit ? What ?

Also, the Cornette's sycophants burying the show under dislikes and asking for his return is pretty pathetic. Cornette ASKED YOU to support the promotion, it's not like the PPV is gonna be any different as far as booking and presentation goes.

[Cobra Commander]

in retrospect, downsides exist to trying to tape 10 weeks of TV at the same time.. even your WCW Worldwides just taped the commentary in studio instead of trying to do it all right there.

[Coffey]

I don't actually care too much that it's Nick Aldis/James Storm to be honest. I think it's fine. Making it two-out-of-three falls is probably unnecessary though. Really just wanted to get that Darth Vader in there. 

[C.S.]

13 minutes ago, Alucard said:

Never knew that, what did he say?

The problem with posting late at night is that I conflated a lot of what Snow said about Aries with what he said about Storm.

With that said, here's the breakdown as I remember it:

Austin Aries: Massive ego, chronic complainer, thought he deserved more because he was World Champ. Snow saw his reign playing to half-empty buildings and basically dismissed him as a big fish in a small pond who couldn't draw money.

James Storm: Snow went on about Storm "boo-boo-facing" during a loss (may have been the World Title loss, but I can't remember), basically painting him as unprofessional.

6 minutes ago, Coffey said:

I don't actually care too much that it's Nick Aldis/James Storm to be honest. I think it's fine. Making it two-out-of-three falls is probably unnecessary though.

The PPV just went from something I was definitely going to order to something I now have to think about.

James Storm is not a compelling main event act in 2019. I really hope Aldis goes over in two straight falls. 

[Coffey]

12 minutes ago, C.S. said:

The PPV just went from something I was definitely going to order to something I now have to think about.

I was actually thinking about this myself. I don't think they can come up with a card with their current roster that I could justify paying $25 for anyway. Especially when you factor in that we don't actually know what the PPV itself is going to look like. Power doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence that you're going to get good wrestling. 

Also, I already know that the show is going to involve people like Cabana & Anderson & I didn't want to pay for them ten years ago, let alone today.

The biggest draw in NWA for me right now is Kamille.

[C.S.]

14 minutes ago, Coffey said:

I was actually thinking about this myself. I don't think they can come up with a card with their current roster that I could justify paying $25 for anyway. Especially when you factor in that we don't actually know what the PPV itself is going to look like. Power doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence that you're going to get good wrestling. 

Also, I already know that the show is going to involve people like Cabana & Anderson & I didn't want to pay for them ten years ago, let alone today.

The biggest draw in NWA for me right now is Kamille.

It's $19.99 if you preorder it, in case that helps.

The long-ass tapings really hurt them in the build to this PPV, because they had no way to accurately gauge what worked and what didn't. 

James Storm, The Wild Cards, Allysin Kay, Boom Boom, and Mr. Nyqil...Nyquil aren't stars.

Nick Aldis, Tim Storm, Momma Storm, Kamille, Eddie Kingston, Thunder Rosa, Marti Belle, Melina, and even Eli "Austin/Rock Cosplayer" Drake and Ricky "His 'Charisma' is Cosplay" Starks are stars. 

In a perfect world, Aron Stevens and Trevor Murdoch would be the ex-WWE guys that were boosted up.

 

[The Thread Killer]

I don't think this week's episode being garbage was just because of the Cornette fallout. This episode was always going to be just filler. In the interview Billy Corgan did with Mike Johnson a few weeks back, even he sounded unsure how many episodes of Power they were going to get out of their first set of tapings.  He said it "might be as many as nine."  This week was episode eight, so I'm guessing he was right. They obviously didn't think ahead (which seems to be a recurring theme with them) and I don't think they had enough TV taped to make it all the way to the PPV. I think next week we get the final episode of what was taped, and then I assume the following week we get a PPV preview show.  Then they do the next set of tapings right after the PPV for two days.

There isn't really any nice way to say it...this week's episode was basically garbage and a complete waste of time.  I'm pretty disgusted with Corgan and Lagana right now, because tonight pretty much proved that all that "storytelling" they have done up to this point was utterly pointless.  They clearly had no long term creative plan going into this PPV.  All that supposed story they built up with Tim Storm and Nick Aldis and Kamille and Latimer and Drake went NOWHERE and they end up giving the Main Event to a guy who lost his last major match on TV, and his title in the process.  It makes absolutely no sense.  It's like having a murder mystery movie with a bunch of suspects, and then in the final scene you find out the killer was somebody who wasn't even in the story up to that point. They basically spent the last two months jerking us around with angles about Kamille and Storm and Drake and then even Bram...that ended up going absolutely nowhere.  Hell, when was the last time Tim Storm was even on the show?  Like I said, what a pointless waste of time.

The Eli Drake promo was great, and I think Eli Drake is great in general.  I get people saying that he sounds like Austin or The Rock or whatever, but he's good at it so more power to him (excuse the pun.)  Plus, the guy can go in the ring.  Why they're wasting him in this stupid feud with Anderson is beyond me.  And I'm not even one of the people who hates Mr. Anderson, but lets be real.  The guy was just "okay" at best when he was in his prime, that was quite a long time ago and he's basically been semi-retired for a couple of years now.  In the NWA so far he's had to wrestle in a t-shirt advertising his wrestling school in order to try and hide his gut.  I will personally be shocked if Eli Drake can drag a watchable match out of Mr. Anderson.  They should be focusing on big promos and short matches for Anderson, not putting him in a major angle like this.  This is just a waste of Eli Drake.

The mini-documentary on Thunder Rosa was okay, I guess.  But I don't really care about the NWA's women division because it sucks, and this didn't make me care about it any more.  This was basically just filler. It was decent filler, but it was filler.

So let me get this straight...they've been building up Colt Cabana vs. Ricky Starks for the past three weeks now, and instead of having them fight at the PPV...they're giving the match away on TV next week and then announcing a different opponent for Cabana's title next week as well? Brilliant booking.  Brilliant, I say.

I was fine with The Question Mark being a comedy character that got over with the Atlanta studio audience as a joke.  I was even fine with them making Aron Stevens his mouthpiece and partner, as a joke.  But this week they took the joke way too far. They obviously taped this ridiculous "empty arena" match after they discovered that they didn't have enough wrestling content to get them to the PPV.  A couple of weeks ago the Dawsons were tough enough to beat Kingston and Homicide, but now one of them loses to The Question Mark in under two minutes?  Brilliant. One thing this match did prove is that Joe Galli is no Joey Styles.  He badly needs a color commentator and they'd better hope they find and hire a decent one by the PPV...which I am assuming they won't.  This match was a joke but it wasn't ha-ha funny and the post match segment was beyond ridiculous.  That segment and The Question Mark angle in general has graduated quickly from mildly amusing to embarrassing.  The fact that they're wasting Trevor Murdoch in a match against this guy at the PPV is a travesty.  Murdoch should be one of their top guys and the fact that they have him wrestling a fat comedy relief guy on the PPV is ridiculous and outright stupid.  If they can't see what they have with Murdoch now, they're a bunch of morons.

I really didn't care about the Melina promo.  I never really paid all that much attention to her in the WWE and I don't care now.  One thing I do find interesting is that they have what could have been a serviceable Women's Title Match in Thunder Rosa vs. Allysin Kay for the PPV.  But of course...they aren't giving us that.  We're getting a fucking tag team match featuring Marti Fucking Belle.  Another example of brilliant booking.

And we haven't even got to the episode where the senior citizens win the World Tag Team Championships yet!

I loved the concept of NWA Power, and I loved the first 5-6 episodes...but it is quickly becoming clear that whoever is making the major creative decisions for the NWA is a complete fucking moron and has no business booking an independent show at fucking flea market, never mind a PPV.  We are in the process of watching this promotion totally shit the bed. What a waste of potential.  Cornette is lucky he got out when he did.

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah, I was loving this show too, but between the Cornette bs and the PPV card reveal it's totally flown off the tracks the last couple weeks 

[The Thread Killer]

It's like they taped nine weeks of TV and then figured out on the last day that they needed to book a PPV, and in doing so decided to totally ignore all the angles they had shot over the past nine episodes.  And just for fun, they decided to totally ignore concepts like logic or storytelling as well. 

They could have had a drunk, brain-damaged monkey randomly pull the names on the NWA roster out of a bag and slap them on the table, and it would have booked a better PPV than this.

[SmartMark15]

The Cornette trouble put me off on watching last week's episode and seeing the clip show format for this week threw me off for this week. It's a bit of a shame but I do definitely hope they get things back on track. 

[El-P]

The thing is, Cornette being here or not doesn't change the booking and the end result one bit. This is where they were going since the start. I guess the whole storyline is unfolding at the PPV, but yeah, like I felt this whole deal was kinda going nowhere for weeks now.

However, the fact this show is getting almost as much dislikes as likes on Youtube is totally the result of the Cornette debacle. With idiotic comments polluting the entire feed.

So, if there's only one thing to learn from this whole deal, it's that Cornette is indeed totally toxic and shouldn't be touched with a ten foot pole. If the NWA had not hired him in the first place, this week's show (if it had happened under this format, which very well may have been) would have merely been dismissed as a missable recap show. Instead, you're getting a complete backlash because Corny has built a cult of hateful, behind-the-times followers with an agenda (and who also don't mind racist and homophobic stuff and whine about "SJW").

The irony is that in he end, the most faithful NWA Powerr watchers may end up being the crossover section with the hardcore AEW fans, since Meltz reported 1/3 of Powerr's audience came from Dark. And these people are not crying over Corny being gone...

(somewhere, Court Bauer is breathing with relief, having dodged a bullet)

[Mad Dog]

Why the fuck is the main event of the PPV Aldis vs. Storm and not Aldis vs. Drake? Storm just lost a mini feud with Colt. It's like this PPV is from Bizzaro World. 

[chapstarfall]

As someone who has been watching NWA Power since it started, I was totally irritated by the episode.

There's two more matches (or more) still to go from the taping. Could have done the empty studio match plus what was left to form one episode. A recap show would make more sense to show the week before the PPV.

This just felt like caving in to peer pressure and censorship.

 

[chapstarfall]

Also, the Thunder Rosa video package was bad. Not because the video itself was bad, but because we have seen her portrayed as a badass, yet in the video package she is in tears about her MMA fight. It just isn't consistent with the character. 

[The Thread Killer]

10 hours ago, chapstarfall said:

There's two more matches (or more) still to go from the taping. Could have done the empty studio match plus what was left to form one episode. A recap show would make more sense to show the week before the PPV.

That's the problem, right there.  Like you, I have also read online that at this point, they only have 2-3 matches left from their first set of tapings which haven't aired yet.  And they have two weeks of TV left before the PPV.  People can blame the Cornette situation for the negative reaction to this week's episode, but Cornette quitting didn't magically make all the matches they had in the can mysteriously vanish.  Yeah, they had to probably record over his commentary for that empty arena match, and I assume they are going to voice-over the Cabana/Starks match and the RnR World Tag Team Titles match.  He reportedly joined the Rock n Rolls in the ring after the match, which I assume they're going to have to try and cut out or minimize.  But even if Cornette was still around, by all reports they just don't have enough content to get them to the PPV.

Like you said, @chapstarfall I can see them doing a recap show the week before the PPV, but they sure as shit didn't have to do one this week.  It's bad enough that the card for the PPV is garbage, it looks like the TV up until the PPV is also going to be garbage and they're going to lose all of their momentum leading into the biggest show they've had so far, due to bad planning and terrible booking. The only way I can see out of this for them is if the reports online are wrong and they have more stuff in the can than we've heard.  Or if they go the route they did with the Eli Drake promo this week and use stuff from Championship Wrestling from Hollywood.  Otherwise I guess we have nothing to look forward to but weak promos, bad vignettes and no matches for two weeks.  I will check out the show next week, but unless something drastic changes, there is no way in hell I am paying for that PPV, and until they announced the card I had really been looking forward to it.

[El-P]

Meanwhile, IMPACT's show this week was a love letter to old territory wrestling (and a bit more) in all its campy glory. Just brillant stuff.

[Mad Dog]

Yeah, their PPV went from must buy to probably skipping with the announcement of matches.

[Alucard]

I took this week more as just taking the holiday week off like other shows do (like Impact kind of did from their regular program)

But yeah the PPV card isn't looking great and it needs Tim Storm.

[C.S.]

Why couldn't this have been the main event of Into the Fire?

Sure, Muta is old, past his prime, and probably broken down - but this match feels like more of a big deal than anything James Storm has ever done in his entire career. 

[SirEdger]

Aldis vs Muta is infinitely better for a PPV sell than Aldis vs Storm. Not even close. And I've always been a James Storm fan.