A Wrestling Pay-Per-View by the National Wrestling Alliance

If you missed my review of night one, click HERE

To continue my wrestling weekend that appears to somehow rival the likes of WrestleMania weekend simply in terms of how much I have consumed, I will be taking a look at NWA 74 Night 2, which just finished up on Fite.TV. While night one had some shenanigans regarding some matches getting switched around due to things like illness, it was an overall solid show that did a great job of having a little bit of everything for a diverse audience. One thing I noticed with these shows in comparison to last year’s festivities, is that the previous year was a tad more reigned in and went along with ore storylines, whereas this show is more like a showcase event with a handful of built up matches and a LOT of exhibition-styled stuff. I’m not sure which is better, but either way the wrestling is good, and I’m always down for two quality nights of wrestling. Without further ado, let’s get in there and see what this show was all about!

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. NWA itself has a service called NWA All Access that makes all of their BIG shows available for a flat yearly fee, I’d highly recommend that if you enjoy their product.

“On August 27 and 28th NWA 74 anniversary event is live on FITE from the historic Chase in St. Louis, Missouri! The two nights event features pro wrestling stars such as Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch, Nick Aldis, NWA World Women’s Champion Kamille, Thom Latimer, Chris Adonis, NWA World Television Champion Tyrus, and many more! But before we go live on pay-per-view, we’ve got an hour an action right here on YouTube ABSOLUTELY FREE!”

The Card:

• 1P Doug Williams vs. Rhett Titus ended in a time limit draw Submission match
• 2P Angelina Love defeated Taryn Terrell by pinfall Singles match
• 3P Kerry Morton defeated Gustavo Aguilar by pinfall Singles match
• 4P Natalia Markova defeated Missa Kate, Madi Wrenkowski, KiLynn King, Jennacide, and Taya Valkyrie Queen Bee match: Markova, Kate, and Madi defeated KiLynn, Jennacide, and Taya by pinfall, Missa Kate eliminated Madi Wrenkowski, Natalia Markova eliminated Missa Kate
• 5 Colby Corino defeated Caprice Coleman 2-1 2-out-of-3 falls match
• 6 The Fixers (Jay Bradley and Wrecking Ball Legursky) won by last eliminating Team Ambition (Mike Outlaw and Camaro Jackson) note Tag team battle royal for the vacant NWA United States Tag Team Championship
• 7 “Magic” Jake Dumas (with Christi Jaynes) defeated Mercurio by pinfall Singles match[33]
• 8 Davey Richards (c) defeated “Thrillbilly” Silas Mason (with Pollo Del Mar) by submission Singles match for the MLW National Openweight Championship
• 9 Cyon (c) (with Austin Idol) defeated Anthony Mayweather by pinfall Singles match for the NWA National Heavyweight Championship
• 10 Pretty Empowered (Ella Envy and Kenzie Paige) (c) defeated The Hex (Allysin Kay and Marti Belle) by pinfall Kings Highway Street Fight for the NWA World Women’s Tag Team Championship
• 11 Homicide (c) vs. Ricky Morton Singles match for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship
• 12 Nick Aldis defeated Flip Gordon by submission Singles match
• 13 JR Kratos and Da Pope defeated Aron Stevens and Rodney Mack by pinfall Missouri Tornado tag team match
• 14 Thom Latimer vs. EC3 ended in a no contest Singles match
• 15 Kamille (c) defeated Max The Impaler (with Father James Mitchell) by pinfall Singles match for the NWA World Women’s Championship
• 16 Trevor Murdoch (c) defeated Tyrus by pinfall Singles match for the 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!

Like Fathers, Like Sons:

A lot of wrestling companies seem to try to hide familial relations when wrestlers come in that just happen to be the children of other wrestlers. Usually they get bad gimmicks and fall flat on their face more than not. Sure, you can chalk a lot of it up to inexperience, but most of the time these guys get thrown into the spotlight way too early without the safety net of being able to work with your experienced family members. I like how NWA is allowing some cool stuff like all these father and son matchups (real or Kayfabe) such as the Hawx Aerie team containing PJ Hawx and his dad Luke, Masked Cyon and his father Austin Idol, and of course Ricky Morton and his son Kerry. NWA has the feel of a way for the older generations to “pass the torch” of their old-school style of wrestling to their kids, and for that I greatly enjoy the progress.

These Guys Look Familiar!

I literally just attended a Kansas City-area wrestling show from a company called Central States Wrestling, and Both Mike Outlaw and Camaro Jackson are mainstays there. Seeing both of them get some nation-wide recognition is awesome, because they always tear the house down every time I see them! Outlaw does this thing where he tosses his bandana to the crowd when he gets in the ring, and my son was the one to catch it at a show in June, so I’m sure he’d be pumped to see them as part of this battle royale. Speaking of that, I love me a good battle royale, and this one was solid.

One of the Best Heels in the Business:

After his gigantic loss to Rolando Freeman at last night’s show in what was supposed to be a jokey dominating match, Matt Cardona isn’t taking it well. Dubbing it “The St. Louis Screwjob”, Matt cuts a heartfelt promo lambasting his opponent and promising retribution while conceding that he wasn’t 100%, was only there to help the show with its star power, and apologizing for letting everyone down. In Cardona’s mind, he is the hero of the story and I love every minute of it!

This Gimmick is Great!

Mercurio is a man that has worked as a model for romance novels, in a way not too dissimilar to the likes of the world famous cover model Fabio. I looked into this, and was cracking up when I discovered that this is, in fact, a completely real book you can buy on Amazon. While a heartthrob gimmick is a “dime a dozen” in wrestling, and egotistical model that actually has the creds to back it up is great and nothing I’ve seen before.

NWA Can Pull Off Classic-Styled Masked Wrestlers:

While masked wrestlers are all-over wrestling nowadays thanks to the welcome influx of Lucha Libre into US wrestling, you don’t really see the sort of old-school version of this that you once saw with guys like Mr. Wrestling. Usually this is played for laughs in a situation where somebody gets kayfabe fired and sneaks back in under a mask, but NWA has taken Masked Cyon and built him up as a domineering force on the roster and the newest NWA National Heavyweight Champion. I was sure they would unmask him at some point and reveal the somewhat known indy wrestler underneath the mask, but so far that has not happened and I hope it never does.

Hey! It’s Curt!

Another pop for me was seeing another local guy I follow, Curt Gannon, get some national exposure. He’s been working hard in CYN under the tutelage of EC3 for a while now, and it’s awesome to see “The Suplex Cyclone” get some love. Having a CYN invasion of NWA is also pretty cool, and will give some of the promotion’s newest recruits get some airtime!

2 for 2!

I mentioned that I was looking forward to this matchup between Kamille and Max the Impaler, assuming it would be great, and boy was it. Having matches against large dominant opponents like Max always makes Kamille look that much stronger, and this match made her look like an absolute beast. “Hoss matches” are always something I enjoy, and I have no idea what the female term for that is, but this was definitely one of them. I hope this isn’t their last encounter, and we get a rematch at some point, as this should prove that Max would be a great addition to the NWA roster. This is how you do a long title reign in 2022 rather than having the person hold the belt with only like 4 title defenses per year. Kamille is a fighting champ, and has earned every bit of her popularity.

Conclusion:

This was a great show, and definitely the stronger show vs. last night. That isn’t to say last night was rough, but this show had the gravitas and importance that the 73rd anniversary show had. I love when I see local guys and gals that I have personally seen wrestle for smaller crowds pop up in national promotions, and you can tell NWA draws from the Missouri wrestling scene more than most simply due to how often they run shows here. Anytime this happens it will always be a highlight for me because I see people being successful that bust their ass travelling all over this area finally getting a chance to be seen. For too long WWE dominated how wrestling worked, and I am glad things are changing. I really hope at some point I have an opportunity to attend one of these as it seems St. Louis becoming their second home outside of Georgia. Looking at both shows, the only downside is that there are some repeating talent on both doing matches that seem almost more in-line with something that would have been on NWA Powerrr or NWA USA, but with something like eight hours of time to fill, it’s not surprising in any way. Matches of the weekend were easily the Kamille matches, a wrestler I am becoming more and more a fan of with every show. Hell Tyrus even had a solid match, and I’m generally not a huge fan. I can’t wait for next year!