Ahoy, mga ka-Powerrr! Sorry for missing two weeks' worth of Powerrr episodes, but I'm back for those who enjoy the weekly NWA offering. Don't worry—even though I hadn't been finding time to write about the show, I've religiously kept up with it.
Before we talk about this week's episode, let's just recap the previous two episodes real quick:
- Nick Aldis invaded a Ring of Honor show. He went in there and attacked Villain Enterprises member Flip Gordon to continue his vendetta against Marty Scurll, setting up Aldis vs. Gordon at Hard Times.
- Lots of TV Title Tournament qualifying matches. The most interesting one is Nick Aldis vs. Ricky Starks, because Aldis ends up not being able to put away the Stroke Daddy in 6:05. This leads us to...
- Ricky Morton trying to earn a NWA World Championship match. Because Nick Aldis is now a 100% certified snivelly Englishman, he makes him jump through hoops for this, most specifically a six-man tag between their representatives. That leads Aldis to recruit...
- Scott Steiner is now a part of the NWA. Steiner rounds out the late-2000s/early-2010s TNA aesthetic of the brand. Also, he's such a legend that he gets to have his iconic theme song (which is apparently not a property of the WWE) play in the NWA studio.
That leads us to this week's main event of Aldis vs. Morton for the NWA World Championship, in a huge one-and-a-half-hour episode that takes us into Hard Times on Friday, but... doesn't, either. I'll explain in a bit.
I'll be honest: I thought this week's main event, while decently-wrestled, was kind of pointless and pandering. Nick Aldis was never really going to lose to a 63-year-old Ricky Morton, no matter how competent he made him look against someone in peak physical condition. It was just a treat for older fans who still wanted to see the Rock 'n' Roller in action.
Aldis has a match against Flip Gordon at Hard Times, so it's really baffling how Marty Scurll never showed back up after his lone appearance a couple of weeks back. You'd expect him or Gordon to mess with Aldis in or after this match, because surely they plotted out this storyline well in advance—and if not, then that's just poor execution. The momentum NWA got from Scurll's appearance is all but gone now, and they're going to have to do something big with him on the PPV to reclaim it.
In other happenings, NWA held a 6:05 Gauntlet for the last NWA spot in the TV Championship tournament, which was their answer to this weekend's Royal Rumble match. It may very well be the best segment of wrestling on the show so far, thanks to all the story beats that were hit and the straight-up fun action everyone put out.
NWA Powerrr 1/21/20 Grade: This was one of the finer episodes of a much better season than the last. Catch it if you want to get into Powerrr but haven't yet. A-
The Powerrr Train
- I still don't know why Scott Steiner is suddenly facing Aron Stevens for the National Championship—I would've preferred Ricky Starks not making the TV title tournament and challenging Stevens instead, especially after that Mongrovian Karate segment.
- It's about time Ken Anderson turned heel, because I don't think I ever really bought him as a face more than I currently do James Storm and Eli Drake.
- That Aron Stevens paralysis sell, tho!
*****
Romeo Moran (@roiswar) is the Editor in Chief of Smark Henry, one of the four hosts of the Wrestling-Wrestling Podcast, and is associated with Philippine Wrestling Revolution. He gets by in this hard knock life through working in publishing. Smark Henry was his and Stan Sy's original vision of a watering hole for local wrestling fans. He roots for the undersized guys who hit hard, and he likes taking your wrestling questions over on his Curiouscat account.
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