Rants

The SmarK Rant for NWA Powerrr – 05.25.21

By Scott Keith on 26th May 2021

The SmarK Rant for NWA Powerrr – 05.25.21

Taped from Atlanta, GA

Your hosts are Joe Galli & Velvet Sky, with Tim Storm still on assignment.  So Pope is taking his place.

Kratos & Aron Stevens join us at the desk to start, and Stevens is open about their issues, pointing out that Kratos is a mercenary who was paid for his work, which earns him a dirty look from Kratos.

NWA World tag team title:  Aron Stevens & Kratos v. Crimson & Jax Dane

Stevens offers some snarky commentary to Kratos, asking “Are you gonna wrestle in your costume?” while Kratos paces the ring and waits to take his gear off.  Stevens starts but Kratos immediately tags himself in and tells Stevens to fuck off.  So Kratos and Dane slug it out and Kratos gets a corner clothesline, but Dane gets a corner splash and puts him down with a clothesline.  Kratos returns fire with his own, but Dane takes him into the corner for some abuse and Crimson comes in with a double-team for two.  Stevens comes in, but Crimson elbows him down for two and slugs away on the mat.  Dane beats him down and trash-talks Kratos while doing a Garvin Stomp, and a double shoulderblock gets two.  Crimson with a chinlock while Kratos offers motivation from the apron (“You gotta fight back.  Any time now!”) and Dane hits a snap suplex into a Crimson flying elbow, but Stevens moves.  Kratos gets a hot tag and cleans house on the challengers, hitting Crimson with a delayed deadlift suplex for two.  But then a mysterious person in a hoodie and mask runs down, hits Crimson with brass knuckles, and knocks him out for the pin at 5:46 as Kratos and Stevens retain despite hating each other.  Solid tag match to open the show.  1 for 1.

Nick Aldis joins us at the desk, limbering up for an exhibition match later tonight.  Aldis is SICK of the “gossip websites” with their clickbait about him “shooting” on someone.  So he wants to clarify that he didn’t FORCE his guys to pull out of the battle royale tonight, and he merely made a suggestion because he’s the puppetmaster.  To be fair, he was pantomiming marionettes there, not puppets.  But tonight he graciously offers young Mims 5:00 with him in the ring.  And as for the battle royale, he’s doesn’t know or care who’s in the match, but Kyle Davis points out that Trevor Murdoch is actually in the match, and Aldis sulks off to the ring.

Nick Aldis v. Matthew Mims

Well Mims has a first name now, so that’s nice!  Aldis goes for a hammerlock to start and then slugs away in the corner, but Mims comes back with a slam and follows with an Ultimate Warrior splash for two.  Aldis catches him with a Michinoku driver and then adds a tombstone before putting him down with a flying elbow.  And the cloverleaf finishes at 2:15.  Just a squash.  1 for 2.

Meanwhile, we recap the situation between Kamille and Thunder Rosa, leading up to tonight’s match.

#1 contender match:  Kamille v. Thunder Rosa

Rosa quickly takes her down and goes for the leg, but Kamille flips her away and backs off.  Rosa takes her down again and ties up the legs, but Kamille reverses to a headlock.  They do some nice reversals on the mat and Rosa ties her up in a submission, but Kamille falls on top for two.  Rosa keeps tying her up on the mat with leglocks, but finally she misses a charge and Kamille runs her into the turnbuckles to take over.  Kamille wraps Rosa’s arms around the ropes in a double hammerlock that looks pretty painful, and then puts the boots to her and goes to a surfboard.  Kamille with a snap suplex, but Rosa fights back and Kamille cuts her off and beats her down again.  Powerslam gets two.  Rosa tries a tornado DDT, but Kamille just catches her and drops her with a spinebuster.  Back to the corner for more punishment as they fight to the top, but Rosa takes her down with a sunset bomb and they’re both out.  Meanwhile, Taryn gets into a brawl with Melina, but due to “wardrobe malfunction” they have to put a blurry filter on the screen while the seconds brawl to the back.  Geez, we’re paying $5 a month for this show, why not just show it?  Rosa recovers and wins a fight with Kamille on the floor, and back in she goes to work on the arm and tries for an armbar.  Kamille fights her off, but misses a blind charge and Rosa hits her with double knees.  Rosa tries for a crossface, but Kamille slams out of it, and Melina returns from the wardrobe malfunction and tries to interfere, so Kamille clotheslines her off the apron.  Rosa wraps her up in an Octopus attempt and rolls her up for two, but Kamille boots her down again and powers her into a samoan drop for two.  Rosa takes her down with the armbreaker out of nowhere, but Kamille makes the ropes and then hangs on for a bucklebomb into a rolling fireman’s carry.  Kamille follows with the spear, but Rosa is in the ropes and it only gets two.  So she tries it again and misses, and Rosa gets two and then changes to a double armbar in the middle as time expires at 20:00.  Very hard work from both of them here, but at a certain point it was obvious where the match was going and so there wasn’t much suspense.  2 for 3.

14 Man Battle Royale:

We’ve got Tyrus, Thomas Latimer, Chris Adonis (who had to vacate the National title in order to enter the match), Sal Rinauro, Trevor Murdoch, The End, Crimson, Jax Dane, Matt Cross, Slice Boogie, Mims, Fred Rosser and a couple of others I don’t recognize.  Unlike WWE matches, you only need one foot on the floor to be eliminated and don’t need to go over the top.  Sal is first out trying the Shawn Michaels deal and Tyrus throws out a couple of the deadwood goofs and then Latimer and Adonis team up to throw out a few geeks and it’s all just a bunch of punching and kicking as they rush through it.  Crimson falls out and then Dane is so concerned that he doesn’t see Murdoch booting him out.  Cross gets thrown out and we’ve already got our final four:  Murdoch, Tyrus, Adonis & Latimer.  Tyrus stands there doing nothing, so Pope runs down and gently pulls him out with Tyrus barely able to take a bump, so he’s gone.  So Latimer and Adonis double-team Murdoch with a suplex.  Murdoch backdrops Latimer over the top, however, and Adonis accidentally knocks him off, and then Murdoch throws out Adonis to win at 6:33 and earn the title shot at Aldis.  Aldis charges in and attacks Murdoch, but Trevor gives him the top rope bulldog and Galli does the “If he hits that he’ll win the title!” deal.  This was a pretty shitty battle royale and the rules were pretty dumb, but Murdoch makes a good babyface.  2 for 4.

So the PPV on June 6 seems like it’ll be…

Nick Aldis v. Trevor Murdoch for the NWA title

Serena Deeb v. Thunder Rosa v. Kamille for the NWA Women’s title (although they didn’t actually say that but it’s obvious)

Pope v. Tyrus for the TV title.  Again.  Ugh.

Stevens & Kratos defending the tag titles against…someone?  Maybe that’s where we finally get the match against Latimer and Adonis that they advertised weeks ago and then didn’t deliver?

I dunno, this isn’t exactly screaming “$27.99” to me thus far and I’m a pretty big NWA Powerrr stan.  Like, we know that Aldis isn’t dropping that damn title any time soon.  He’s already damn near at three years holding it and Murdoch isn’t exactly a top contender.  Unless they just do the title switch to do it.  This one might be a skip for me regardless.  Show was decent this week and moved a lot of pieces at the last minute, at least.