A Pay-Per-View by NWA

I’ll admit that after burning myself out on watching like ten different federations over WrestleMania Weekend (just not WWE lol), I’ve somewhat fallen behind on NWA a bit. Thankfully, I have NWA All Access and can jump in and watch these big shows whenever I want, just a bit later than when it aired. The dark specter hanging over this show was that the NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion himself, Matt Cardona was unable to wrestle, and would be relinquishing the belt. As you can see by the poster, this is no easy task since the show itself was branded after Cardona’s reign (of terror) in the company. According to Sport’s Illustrated “The injury occurred at a GCW show on May 28 in Las Vegas. Cardona, who had already wrestled Rich Swann earlier that day at a Pro Wrestling Revolver show, suffered the injury when Blake Christian came off the top rope and collided with him outside the ring.” I’m sure he will be back by NWA 74 in late August, hopefully to grab the belt back.

As with many of these shows, the pre-show is absolutely FREE on YouTube. Check it out below!

For anyone wanting to watch this, I would recommend Fite.TV. you can get some FITE credits (10 dollars I believe) with the following code: “6m6lyyn”. I’m sure there are other ways to watch it, but FITE has a solid interface and has been worth it so far.

The Card:

• 1P Rodney Mack defeated “Magic” Jake Dumas (with Christi Jaynes) by pinfall Singles match 5:16
• 2P The Mortons (Ricky and Kerry) defeated The Country Gentlemen (AJ Cazana and Anthony Andrews) (with Joe Cazana) and The Ill Begotten (Alex Taylor and Jeremiah Plunkett) (with Danny Deals) by pinfall Three-way tag team match 6:58
• 3 Trevor Murdoch defeated Aron Stevens by pinfall Singles match 4:38
• 4 Pretty Empowered (Ella Envy and Kenzie Paige) defeated The Hex (Allysin Kay and Marti Belle) (c) by pinfall Tag team match for the NWA World Women’s Tag Team Championship 8:35
• 5 Homicide (c) defeated PJ Hawx by pinfall Singles match for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship 10:50
• 6 Homicide (c) defeated Colby Corino by pinfall Singles match for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship – This was Corino’s Champions Series cash-in match 9:06
• 7 Natalia Markova (with Taryn Terrell) defeated Taya Valkyrie by pinfall Singles match 8:43
• 8 Jax Dane (c) defeated Chris Adonis by pinfall Singles match for the NWA National Championship 10:19
• 9 Thom Latimer defeated Cyon (with Austin Idol) by pinfall Singles match 12:30
• 10 Tyrus (c) (with BLK Jeez) defeated Matthew Mims by pinfall Singles match for the NWA World Television Championship 8:37
• 11 The Commonwealth Connection (Doug Williams and Harry Smith) defeated La Rebelión (Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf 450) (c) by pinfall Tag team match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship 13:54
• 12 Kamille (c) defeated KiLynn King by pinfall Singles match for the NWA World Women’s Championship 17:25
• 13 Trevor Murdoch defeated Nick Aldis, Thom Latimer, and Sam Shaw by pinfall Fatal four-way match for the vacant NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship

My Thoughts:

As I’ve stated before, my methodology for this is to avoid giving arbitrary star ratings or anything resembling the typical ratings people give in wrestling reviews. I usually go through the show and pull a half-dozen or so things that I thought were significant or that I liked. You might think some of my choices are dumb and that’s okay – we all like different things!

A win is a win, I suppose

The Hex held onto the NWA Women’s Tag Team Titles for an incredible 270 days, so I wasn’t surprised to see one of the more prominent teams in the company scoop up a win. Granted, for Ella Envy to secure the win for Pretty Empowered, a bit of cheating was involved, but that’s wrestling, and I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve seen of this feud.

Sad Moment:

Who knows if we actually saw the retirement of one of the most entertaining wrestlers of the decade or so, but if we did it was kind of a sad way to go. Stevens called this match with Trevor Murdoch his “swan song,” and it appears that it may have been real. Time will tell, but fans were treating it like it was the last time they’d see Aron Stevens. Chants of, “Thank you, Aron,” rang through the audience, and his eyes were tearing up. Many believe it to be part of a storyline where he will come back to exact revenge on Murdoch, but usually you can see that sort of thing, and this felt genuine. Aside from his lackluster Impact Run, Stevens was amazing as Damian Sandow and his run with Question Mark – he will be missed.

Hard fought matches:

I think as fans, we’ve all grown accustomed to whomever wields the “guaranteed title match at any time” ala Money in the Bank, we assume it always results in a new champ. That was not the case here, as Colby Corino attempted to unseat Homicide for the Light Heavyweight Championship, only to fall victim to “The Cop Killa”. Better luck next time, and hell of a showing for Homicide.

Big Strong Mims:

Mims has that raw babyface energy that will make him a superstar here soon, I can’t wait to see him eventually take out Tyrus!

More new champs!

I’ve always enjoyed Doug Williams, so seeing him get another opportunity to prove why he’s so good at what he does is great. Davey Boy Smith Jr. has improved a LOT since I last saw him, so what better guys to give the straps to. La Rebelion has been amazing, but it’s time for new blood.

YOU DESERVE IT *CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP*

KiLynn King is one of those wrestlers that I was amazed never got fully picked up in AEW for whatever reason. Just like with Alan Angels and some of the other prominent AEW Dark wrestlers, she went off to make herself a bigger star elsewhere, and you can get much bigger in the National Wrestling Alliance than wrestling for the Women’s World Championship. While she lost this time, I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll see of her.

I’d the God Damn Champion! This is My Show!!

Matt Cardona could have just quietly handed off the belt and no-showed the event, but hat’s off to him for cutting a hell of a promo and setting up his future return. It makes me wonder what was originally planned here, but whatever it was may be a blessing in disguise and Cardona will have plenty of ammunition upon his return. “I wasn’t even pinned for MY BELT!” will be incoming I’m sure.

Repping the Homelands:

Being a Missouri-based wrestling fan means I automatically will root for anyone from around here no matter if heel or babyface, and especially somebody that was trained by, and inspired by Harley Race. Hell of a match, and great to see the newest two-time NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion!

Conclusion:

The National Wrestling Alliance always puts on a great show, and this pay-per-view was no exception. All of the matches felt important with a ton of surprises this time around. I was wondering how they were going to handle the whole injury situation, and I think everything went well, and will set up feuds for many months in the future. I need to get back in the habit of watching NWA on a weekly basis, and some of the stuff happening here has re-ignited my love for the show. I wish I could attend NWA 73 in St. Louis, but doubt I will be able to, if not watching the show will be just as good I’m sure!