NWA Powerrr Review - October 18, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch def. Matt Taven (Non-Title)

It's been a hell of a week for Taven. He and Matt Taven made their AEW debuts as The Kingdom (along with Maria Kanellis) last Friday on Rampage, he took on the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion here, and he and Bennett will defend (and presumably lose) their Impact World Tag Team Championship this Thursday on IMPACT! Wrestling. As someone who has followed his career almost since the beginning, it's cool to see. He and Murdoch had a very well-worked match with Taven looking credible in defeat.

Tyrus Interrupted The Spectaculars

Rolando was going off about how, coming off his two straight victories over Matt Cardona, Murdoch has been ducking him. The last thing I want to see is Rolando Freeman contending for the top title. Tyrus cut off his promo but teased tension with BLK Jeez when Jeez tried to get a handle on him. Please, please don't tell me the idea is build to a babyface turn for Tyrus, because that's even worse than him wrestling for the title again.

Question Mark def. Kratos

Weren't they calling him Question Mark II a few weeks ago? And now he's back to being called just Question Mark as if he's the original Question Mark which we know it's obviously not? Yeah, I'm confused. Kratos going after his former tag partner Aron Stevens is a simple storyline but not one I care about if Rodney Mack is going to pretend to be Question Mark. This was fine albeit forgettable.

Chelsea Green def. Angelina Love to Win the Champions Series Title Opportunity

Velvet Sky announced at the start of the show that she was giving up the title shot she earned from her team winning in last year's Champions Series (due to being retired) and that Love was willing to fight for it so she didn't have it handed to her. Well, that ultimately backfired as she lost here to Green. I truly can't bring myself to care about Green being in possession of yet another title shot after already losing to Kamille twice in the last year, but I suppose it's better than Love being in contention for the championship. This was a passable match.

Kerry Morton def. Joe Alonzo

Morton is already confirmed to challenge Homicide one more time for the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship at Hard Times 3, so it was logical for him to pick up another victory before then. I don't know it if it was necessary for this to be as competitive as it was with Alonzo scoring as much offense as he did, but it was largely solid stuff. Morton needs to be the one to take the title from Homicide with the story they're telling.

EC3 def. Mercurio

Even though it didn't have any stakes, I would have much preferred Murdoch vs. Taven being positioned as the main event. No offense to these two, but there was nothing special about it and Mercurio doesn't belong in main event matches, especially when this was basically an extended showcase for EC3. On the bright side, I thought his post-match promo was strong and did an effective job of building toward his Hard Times 3 match against Thom Latimer.

Overall Show

Powerrr has obviously never been known for featuring outstanding wrestling weekly, but the in-ring action was a noticeable step below on this episode compared to what it's been lately. I enjoyed the opener and appreciated that Taven got that opportunity, but nothing else on the show came close to that, including the promos. Thankfully, there was an ample amount of build and hype for Hard Times 3. The card hardly compels me on paper, but maybe it'll exceed expectations.

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