NWA Hard Times 2 Review - December 4, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Pre-Show: Mims def. Jax Dane

This was a last-minute addition to the pre-show. It was a solid hoss fight with Mims scoring more offense than I thought he would. I was fully expecting Dane to win considering he has a world title shot in his back pocket, but Mims managed to steal the win. Mims is a talented dude, but he's largely been positioned up to a stepping stone up to this point, so I don't know if I hate the decision to have him win as long as it leads to something more meaningful for him, or at the very least a rematch. Crimson was in Mims' corner, so clearly his bad blood with Dane isn't over despite the cage match they recently had.

Pre-Show: NWA World Women's Tag Team Champions The Hex def. Tootie Lynn & Kylie Rae, Natalia Markova & Missa Kate, and Jennacide & Paola Blaze

Taryn Terrell announced beforehand that Jennacide would be cashing in the title opportunity she earned from winning the Champions Series, even though they already contended for the titles a month or two ago and didn't cash it in then. I try not to apply a lot of logic to the NWA because they've done a lot of things that haven't made sense since the relaunch. Nonetheless, adding Jennacide and Blaze to this match made this more of a mess than it would have been originally. Not everything was awful, but it fell apart as it went on and some spots had me shaking my head. I'm all for the women's tag titles being defended, but making this a four-team affair was the wrong call.

Pre-Show: Homicide def. Alex Taylor, Ariya Daivari, CW Anderson, Jeremiah Plunkett, Jamie Stanley, Kerry Morton, Luke Hawx, PJ Hawx, Sal Rinauro, Victor Benjamin and Ricky Morton in an NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship Qualifying Gauntlet Match

I was looking forward to Darius Lockheart taking part in this, but unfortunately he wasn't medically cleared to compete. However, he did mention in his pre-match promo that he'll be taking part in the tournament on the NWA's new show. I thought this would follow Battle Royal rules, but apparently not. Instead, everyone had to be eliminated by pinfall or submission, which led to a lot of rapid-fire eliminations. I would have cut down on the amount of people involved, but several people got to shine and it had a good flow for the most part and the final stretch with Homicide and Kerry Morton was fun. By virtue of his victory, Homicide automatically qualifies for the final four of the tourney, so the next time we see him, he'll be competing for the championship. I know the Junior Heavyweight title has a long lineage in the NWA, but another title feels like the last thing the promotion needs right now.

Pre-Show: Nick Aldis Addressed Thom Latimer

Of everything on this card, Aldis vs. Latimer was the best built bout of them all and it's not even close. Aldis is the exactly the kind of person who can sell people on a pay-per-view if they're on the fence, so I liked that we got to hear from him briefly with Kyle Davis so he could offer some quick hype for his match with Latimer later on. They had a few minutes left in the pre-show before the show started and this was an effective use of that time.

Austin Aries def. Rhett Titus in an NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship Qualifying Match

There was a built-in history here as the commentators noted that Aries had a hand in training Titus 15 years ago. I honestly don't think I've seen a full-length Austin Aries match since he lost the Impact World Championship to Johnny Impact/John Morrison at IMPACT Bound for Glory 2018, but he looked good here. He and Titus worked well together and had an enjoyable opener. This set the tone nicely for the remainder of the tournament and the show itself.

ROH World Tag Team Champions The OGK def. Aron Stevens and Kratos

The OGK were already announced as defending their ROH World Tag Team Championship against The Briscoes at Final Battle next weekend, so while I never bought into the possibility of Stevens and Kratos winning, it was cool that the belts were defended on this show at all. I could certainly see Matt Taven and Mike Bennett wrestling full-time for the NWA once Ring of Honor closes its doors. They told a story with Stevens inching more and more toward using underhanded tactics before ultimately snapping afterward. It was a decent match, but all of the drama with Stevens and Kratos has been confusing and hard to follow. They were never a cohesive unit as champions, got on the same page toward the end of their reign, teased splitting up, and are now heels. Strange.

Colby Corino def. Doug Williams

Despite teaming with JTG recently on Powerrr, Corino came out with The Fixers, which feels like a more natural fit. As for Williams, I haven't seen him in years, but this marked his return to the United States and I really hope he's here to stay for a while. The guy can still very much go even at this stage of his career and that was evident in this outing. This was well wrestled for as long as it lasted, though Corino's finisher didn't look all that devastating.

Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James def. Kiera Hogan

It's funny that Hogan would finally get a shot at the Impact Knockouts Champion when she isn't in IMPACT anymore. This was a rematch from a recent edition of Powerrr and it's been established that Hogan grew up idolizing James. This lasted a little longer and I liked that Hogan was made to look like she was on James' level. Much like the ROH World Tag Team Championship match, the outcome was never in doubt because Hogan was never going to face Deonna Purrazzo at IMPACT's Hard to Kill pay-per-view next month, so it was a quality contest and I'm sure it meant a lot to Hogan. NWA is the perfect place for her to hone her skills if AEW doesn't have any plans to utilize her in the immediate future.

NWA Television Champion Tyrus def. Cyon in a No Disqualification Match (Da Pope Served as Special Guest Referee)

Pope ejected BLK Jeez and Jordan Clearwater from ringside before the bell rang, but they interfered later on because, well, there weren't any disqualifications. That wasn't very well thought-out. The match was what you'd expect given Tyrus' involvement. The effort was there, especially on Cyon's end, but Tyrus is just terrible and this dragged. We know very little about Cyon, but I would've preferred him as champ over Tyrus. 

Mick Foley Addressed the Audience

I'm all for the NWA bringing in legends for their big pay-per-views. First it was Ric Flair at NWA 73 and now Foley, who mentioned he hasn't appeared for the promotion in at least 30 years. I'm sure he agreed to do this because it's December and that gave him an excuse to show up dressed as Santa, not that I'm complaining. He kept his promo short and sweet, which gets an automatic thumbs-up from me because it didn't last forever like Flair's.

NWA National Champion Chris Adonis def. Judais

This bout received approximately zero buildup coming into this event. Judais earned this title shot all the way back at NWA 73, but he's spent the last few months feuding with James Storm for some reason and not Adonis. As a result, the crowd had zero incentive to cheer for either guy because they're both heels. The early goings were pretty boring, but even once they picked up the pace down the stretch, it was hard to get into it. If nothing else, Adonis retaining was the correct outcome.

NWA World Tag Team Champions La Rebelion def. The End

There wasn't much buildup for this match either outside of The End winning the number one contender's tournament. We haven't heard from them a ton on Powerrr this year, so I can't say I was invested in their pursuit of the titles. That said, they really impressed me with what they could do in this match and it turned out to be a hell of a sprint. This exceeded my expectations, but I guess I should have expected it to be as entertaining as it was given what La Rebelion are capable of. JTG and the former Fandango walking out afterward was a pleasant surprise and it looks like they'll be next in line to challenge for the tag titles.

Nick Aldis def. Thom Latimer in a Grudge Match

If either man got disqualified, they would have been suspended for two months. For what was billed as a grudge match, this didn't feel like it reached that next gear you'd expect it to. What we got was good, but it ended abruptly and on a roll-up, no less. The story was that Latimer promised he could beat Aldis in a straight-up wrestling match and then Aldis won with a basic wrestling maneuver, but with all the animosity between them leading up to the pay-per-view, maybe this should have had a No Disqualification stipulation and not Tyrus vs. Cyon. Fingers crossed the feud isn't over because they barely scratched the surface here.

Jazz Addressed the Audience

As a former NWA World Women's Champion for over 900 days (damn!), it's awesome that the NWA took the time to honor Jazz on this show and give her a chance to address the audience. She was accompanied by her husband Rodney Mack and thanked the various promotions she's worked for over the years. She's very well-spoken and didn't take too long for her speech at all. She should be the female inductee for next year's WWE Hall of Fame class in my opinion.

NWA World Women's Champion Kamille def. Melina

Melina can't do what she was once able to in the ring, yet she still plays an excellent babyface in peril. We saw it when she challenged Purrazzo for the Knockouts title at EmPowerrr and that was once again the case here. Kamille has improved quite a bit throughout her reign as champion and I thought they put together a really nice match. Kamille's dominant run continues and I'm not sure who will ultimately be the one to dethrone her.

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch def. Mike Knox

I realize Knox attacked Murdoch inside the steel cage at By Any Means Unnecessary, but that was literally the only angle with we got with these two leading up this match. Knox hasn't appeared in the NWA at all otherwise to my knowledge, so to call this random would be an understatement. He's always been passable as a performer, so I knew this wouldn't get beyond a certain level. There was nothing wrong with it technically, but it definitely wasn't main event worthy. The post-match angle was more notable with Matt Cardona showing up and apparently aligning with Knox to attack Murdoch and Pope. Cardona as the next challenger for Murdoch has my interest, but considering NWA, IMPACT and GCW all acknowledge each other to a certain extent, it's odd that Cardona would be portraying different personas in each of them.

Overall Show

There was a very limited audience in attendance (likely due to COVID restrictions), but it was better than nothing and they were lively. The main card started off well enough with some solid matches and, as noted, getting titles from IMPACT and ROH defended on this show was a great bonus. Sadly, it was mostly downhill after James vs. Hogan and it never really recovered. Cardona's debut at the end didn't make up for the lackluster main event, but at least it left viewers with something to look forward to at the next Powerrr tapings. I appreciated all of the fresh faces we got on this show, but the nearly nonexistent build for most of the matches hurt my overall enjoyment of the event and resulted in a pay-per-view that can be easily skipped over, especially since not much of note happened. It also sends the message that Powerrr can be skipped as well because the program does an atrocious job of promoting the pay-per-views.

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