NWA Powerrr Review - December 6, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bully Ray (Team Great) vs. Odinson (Team Fixers) in a Champions Series First Round Match Ended in a Time-Limit Draw

There was no formal introduction for the return of the Champions Series. Rather, they jumped right into it with this match and explained the rules afterward. Kicking it off with a lame time-limit draw wasn't exactly ideal, though. Bully and Odinson had a fine hoss fight with Bully giving Odinson one of his better matches in recent memory. Bully didn't appear at Hard Times 3 and I thought he was done in the NWA considering he's currently the number one contender to the Impact World Championship, but apparently not. At any rate, both Team Great (captained by Cyon) and Team Fixers were awarded two points as a result of the time-limit draw.

Thom Latimer (Team Brickhouse) def. EC3 (Team Tyrus) in a Champions Series First Round Match

I'm not really sure how to go about talking about this considering Latimer originally won a point by disqualification, and if that wasn't bad enough, they proceeded to restart the match and Latimer won by pinfall, so Team Brickhouse won another few points. I can't say I've ever seen that before, and doing it in only the second match in the Champions Series was typical NWA: making things more convoluted than they need to be. Latimer and EC3 have been feuding for months, so at least this had some significance and it was an improvement over their original encounter.

Rolando Freeman def. Anthony Andrews, Jeremiah Plunkett and Sal The Pal in a Champions Series Alternates Four-Way Elimination Match

None of these men were assigned to teams coming into this contest, but by virtue of his victory, Freeman can now choose which team he wants to be an alternate for. These were basically the leftover competitors, so I wasn't pulling for anyone in particular. That includes Freeman, whose shtick does nothing for me. That said, he's popular right now, so it made sense for him to win and the match itself was nicely paced. Can Freeman really be called an underdog anymore if he wins all of his matches?

PJ Hawx and Judais (Team Great) def. Damage and Rush Freeman (Team Fixers) in a Champions Series First Round Match

Seeing PJ team with someone other than his dad (and his partner being Judais for that matter) was weird, and Damage and Freeman made for an interesting pairing as well. There wasn't any chemistry among the four of them, but if nothing else, I appreciate the NWA's attempt to switch it up and doing random pairings for the Champions Series. This was a competent contest, but it featured nothing out of the ordinary.

Thrillbilly Silas (Team Tyrus) def. Kratos (Team Brickhouse) in a Champions Series First Round Match

Silas has been all over NWA programming this year, but Kratos is actually more impressive to me. Then again, if they really want to build up Silas, it's logical to beat someone with credibility like Kratos. This was along the same lines as the opener and both guys had solid showings. It didn't matter to me who won, but Silas' victory does put Team Tyrus ahead of Team Brickhouse at this point.

Overall Show

The Champions Series was a terribly confusing concept last year and it's even worse this year if this edition of Powerrr was any indication of how it's going to work. It wasn't a resounding success the first time, so I'm honestly surprised they decided to bring it back. I realize its sole purpose is to kill television time, and while it does give these matches more meaning, the points system is difficult to follow and the teams and their captains weren't made clear. They were referenced throughout the episode, but that's about it. I can already tell Powerrr is going to be a chore to watch for the foreseeable future unless this mess is over with.

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