NWA Powerrr Review - January 1, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis Interrupted Tim Storm

I don't think there can be much debate that Storm is among the best babyfaces in wrestling today. He's been especially great since being betrayed by Aldis as all of his promos have been passionate and intense. This was an absolutely excellent exchange between Aldis and Storm that helped hype their main event match for later in the night. Aldis also officially announced that the name of his new faction is Strictly Business.

NWA National Champion Aron Stevens def. Sal Rinauro (Non-Title); Trevor Murdoch def. Stevens (Non-Title)

Stevens' new gimmick is that he's a master of karate thanks to The Question Mark. He had a fun showing against Rinauro before being confronted by Murdoch. Their match wasn't anything special, but it was decent while it lasted and, again, Stevens' karate shtick was the highlight. I assume Murdoch's win earns him a shot at the National Championship at the Hard Times pay-per-view.

Colt Cabana Interrupted Eli Drake

Drake has been on fire lately and made it known here (as he has several other times in the past) that he wants a piece of Aldis. He even said he'd face Ricky Morton if Aldis doesn't. That brought out Cabana, who took exception to Drake's recent wins over his buddy Ken Anderson. Their promo battle was fun as both guys are terrific on the mic. I'm sure a tag team match is inevitable with Drake finding a partner to take on Cabana and Anderson. Additionally, I assume all the talk about Drake never having held the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship will eventually lead to him winning it.

Tasha Steelz def. Marti Belle

A pair of interviews (one with Melina, Thunder Rosa and Belle and another with Allysin Kay, Steelz, ODB and Ashley Vox) aired with both groups of ladies discussing each other. It set the stage nicely for this one-on-one affair, specifically with the tension teased between Belle and her allies. The match was perfectly fine and Steelz's victory establishes her as a credible force in the NWA's women's division.

Tim Storm def. Royce Isaacs in an NWA Television Championship Tournament Qualifying Match

Storm was originally supposed to face Aldis in the first round of the NWA Television Championship Tournament, but Aldis announced in a promo before the bout that he was pulling out and that he'd be replaced by Isaacs (who was not made aware of the change until that very moment). The outcome became obvious at that point, but I like that they're holding off on Aldis and Storm going at it. The match we got instead was solid and saw Storm shine as a babyface while on offense.

Overall Show

While none of the matches lit the world on fire, I thought this was a super effective hour of wrestling that featured several storylines progressing, some awesome promos and the NWA Television title tourney continuing. It wasn't their strongest effort in recent memory, but everything served a purpose. On a side note, if they weren't going to put this episode up on Tuesday night due to it being New Year's Eve, they should have aired it a day early (like last week) instead of waiting until Wednesday. Of course, that is merely a case of me wanting to watch the show sooner because I enjoy it that much.