NWA Powerrr Live Review - January 31, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Odinson def. Bully Ray in a Tables Match

It was weird seeing Bully Ray work as a babyface considering he's been the ultimate heel in IMPACT as of late. We also haven't seen Bully in the NWA in a few months if I'm not mistaken, but he was a good get for the NWA's first live Powerrr. He and Odinson had a perfectly solid match, but despite Bully desperately wanting to put Odinson through a table, it was not a Tables match and thus he was disqualified for doing so. Needless to say, this sets up a rematch between the two.

The Country Gentlemen def. The Fixers to Win the NWA United States Tag Team Championship

I recently interviewed Country Gentlemen to promote this show, so check out the video of it when you get a chance! They're two great dudes, and although I've always been a Fixers guy, I'm glad Country Gentlemen got their moment, especially with AJ Cazana's family being in attendance. This was a fun hoss fight and the two teams worked really well together. The crowd popped huge for the title change.

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Tyrus and Matt Cardona Signed the Contract for Their NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship Match at Nuff Said

With both Cardona and Tyrus being heels, I'm not sure who fans are supposed to be rooting for between the two of them. Obviously, anyone with a shred of common sense would want Cardona to get the belt back because of how terrible Tyrus is, but it's not like Cardona came across like a babyface during this contract signing. This was decent and set up an eventual six-man tag team match between Tyrus and his cronies and The Cardonas.

NWA World Women's Tag Team Champion Kenzie Paige def. Charlette Renegade

It looks like we're heading toward Pretty Empowered vs. The Renegade Twins for the NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship, so this was a fine preview of that. The Renegade Twins have made many appearances on AEW programming (including Dynamite and Rampage), and although I haven't cared much for them, it's cool that the NWA is bringing them in for the women's tag division, which could certainly use more teams.

Psycho Love Attacked Thom Latimer and NWA World Women's Champion Kamille

Latimer and Kamille were doing an interview at the podium when they were ambushed from behind by Angelina Love and Fodder (yes, the dude with the awful ring name). I legitimately thought it was Davey Richards for a second considering Richards has made a few NWA appearances in the last few months and I thought Richards and Love were still married, but apparently they divorced years ago and I just had no idea. Love and Fodder are going by Psycho Love. I can see them facing Latimer and Kamille in tag action at Nuff Said, but that would mean no defense of the NWA World Women's Championship.

Team Rock N' Roll (Alex Taylor, Dak Draper, Madi, La Rosa Negra, Mims, Chris Adonis and Taya Valkyrie) def. Team Tyrus (Thrillbilly Silas, Carnage, Robyn Renegade, Samantha Starr, Alysin Kay, Trevor Murdoch and EC3) in Team War to Win the Champions Series

These Team War matches are often a mess and I expected the worst here when I​ saw how many people from each team were at ringside, but admittedly, this was better than I thought it would be. The eliminations were rapid-fire, which they had to be to ensure it drag on too long, but the crowd was into the action and there was even some storyline progression with a few people having history with each other. It didn't matter to me which team won, but now everyone on Team Rock N' Roll has a title shot whenever they want. Silas was had the best showing of anyone in this match in my opinion.

The Wedding of Aron Stevens and May Valentine Ended in Chaos

I haven't been a fan of the romance angle with Stevens and Valentine over the last several months, especially if this was going to be the endgame. Stevens purposefully sabotaged the wedding, so they didn't end up getting married after all. As pointless as this was, wrestling weddings tend to do well, so I don't blame the NWA for having this be their featured attraction over the heel vs. heel contract signing. Plus, the crowd had fun with it and Sam Teano (a.k.a. Santino Marella) did well as the officiator of the wedding, so it could have been worse.

Overall Show

The NWA took most of January off and came back with their first live edition of Powerrr. All things considered, this was a successful show. I criticize the product quite a bit (and most of it is justified), but the promotion and the performers put forth a strong showing with this episode and the 90 minutes were enjoyable. We'll see if they can follow up accordingly with their Nuff Said pay-per-view on February 11th, but at the very least, I hope they do more live Powerrr shows in the future because this worked out very well.

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