NWA Powerrr Review - August 30, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Taven def. NWA World Tag Team Champion Mecha Wolf

I was surprised to see La Rebelion regain the NWA World Tag Team Championship at NWA 74 after how lengthy their first reign was, but it makes sense if they're going to continue feuding with The OGK. I don't think I've ever seen Mecha Wolf compete on his own, but he did well and had a good match with Taven. Bestia 666 vs. Mike Bennett might be next, but either way, I assume The OGK will soon be in line for a tag title opportunity.

Matt Cardona Interrupted Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

Steamboat was involved with the NWA not too long ago if I remember correctly and he still looks fantastic. I'm all for him making more regular appearances as an on-air authority figure or something along those lines if he was up for it. This was an enjoyable exchange between him and Cardona ahead of Cardona's No Disqualification main event against Rolando Freeman. I'm curious if this is all Steamboat did at the NWA tapings or if there's more to come.

Question Mark def. De'Vin Graves

No, the actual Question Mark is unfortunately dead, but Aron Stevens introduced Rodney Mack as Question Mark (mask and all) and pretended as if it was the same person. I know they're a heel duo, but they've openly acknowledged many times on NWA programming that the actual Question Mark (Jocephus) passed away in early 2021. Thus, this felt cheap, even though I'm sure it was meant to honor his memory. There wasn't much to the match since it was so short (thankfully for the better).

Thom Latimer def. Chris Sainz

Latimer has unfinished business with EC3 after their NWA 74 match ended in a no contest due to interference from EC3's Control Your Narrative crew. It's not a rematch I'm clamoring to see since their original encounter was so dull, and anything involving Control Your Narrative immediately causes me to lose interest. This was a quick win designed to get Latimer on track, so it didn't overstay its welcome.

Rolando Freeman def. Matt Cardona in a No Disqualification

Freeman upsetting Cardona was easily the biggest shock of either night of NWA 74. He's been a comedy figure so far in the NWA, so these matches with Cardona definitely elevated his stock. Personally, I find it difficult to take the dude seriously (it's almost as social as seeing Marko Stunt wrestle), but I understood what they were going for with Cardona playing the foil for Freeman. The crowd rallied behind Freeman, who scored much more offense than I thought he would, and popped when he won thanks to help from Trevor Murdoch. I suppose this means we're headed toward a rematch between Cardona and Murdoch for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship.

Overall Show

We heard from plenty of people backstage and most of them were quality promos. It looks like EC3 and Bully Ray will be sticking around after all, for whatever that's worth. The rest of the show was solid and a bit better than your average edition of Powerrr. NWA tends to follow up their pay-per-views well before producing a string of inconsequential shows. I'd love for the NWA to break that bad habit, but seeing is believing. The main event on this episode wasn't for me, but at least we know we're headed toward Murdoch vs. Cardona II.

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