National Wrestling Alliance - Into The Fire | Hard Times -- Results & Afterthoughts on the Product Thus Far

For reviewing the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), I'm not going to dwell into match quality too much as that's not the primary selling point of this modern take on the NWA product. As a result of that, these reactions aren't going to be very long to discuss.

NWA Into the Fire (also stylized Into the 🔥🔥🔥) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view, scripted and produced by NWA that took place on December 14, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the first pay-per-view event produced exclusively by NWA since becoming a singular wrestling promotion. The event takes its name from the 1984 heavy metal single, "Into the Fire" by the American band, Dokken, which was used as the theme song to NWA Power, NWA's weekly wrestling show that debuted on October 8, 2019.
This was the first NWA live broadcast since Jim Cornette's departure after his controversial remarks. Stu Bennett (former WWE Superstar Wade Barrett) made his commentary debut on this show and I thought he didn't do a bad job at all. This was much better than him being the mastermind at the end of Lucha Underground Season 4.

Singles Match

Eli Drake def. Ken Anderson

Physique-wise, Mr. Kennedy is letting himself go as much as Chris Jericho over in AEW. I swear these guys are allergic to a gym... The right man won here though. Drake might not be anywhere near challenging Aldis for the the Seven Pounds of gold, but he's definitely keeping himself in the conversation of talent on the rise to someday challenge him.

Singles Match

Thunder Rosa def. Tasha Steelz

A solid display by both women. I'm surprised that AEW didn't pick up Steelz first, but it seems like NWA made a jump at getting a lot of Latina talent for this show, especially for Melina's faction. After that video package on NWA Powerrr chronicling Rosa's MMA debut, they have painted the picture of her as one hell of a babyface. At this point, I don't see how they are going to continue painting (no pun intended) her as hit woman for Melina's faction.

Singles Match

The Question Mark (with Aron Stevens) def. Trevor Murdoch

(Laughs) I was watching this with a friend at the time and almost spit water all over my new flatscreen TV after he said "Mongrovian karate is as real as that hair glued into Hulk Hogan's dorag these days..."

Tag Team Match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship

The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) (c) (with Eddie Kingston and Homicide) def. The Wild Cards (Royce Isaacs and Thomas Latimer) (with Dave Dawson and Zane Dawson)

I was shocked that Ricky and Robert retained the titles here. I was certain they were dropping the titles back to the Wild Cards at the PPV. That's honestly the biggest takeaway from this match besides the fact that the former champions have lost to the Rock 'n' Roll Express (who are both pushing 60+ at this point) twice now. Jesus.

Tag Team Match

Allysin Kay and ODB def. Melina and Marti Belle

I swear Melina ages like fine wine. Her Latina curves are even more pronounced with age.

Melina barely got involved here and when she did, she got a little heel heat onto herself and immediately backed off for Marti Belle to take over and take the lumps from Allysin Kay and ODB. ODB is a natural fit for NWA and I'm surprised that they didn't bring her in sooner. I guess Billy Corgan didn't want to start off the company with the negative stigma of ex-TNA talent filling up the bulk of the roster. I don't see an issue with that, especially when they have a wealth of the great talkers from that company from over the years. Allysin and ODB pick up a rather questionable win here, but at least Marti took the pin instead of Melina.

The best part of ODB's inclusion on this PPV came after the match where ODB flirted with Joe Galli in the studio in the way only she could. That segment was worth the viewing of this show alone.

Triple Threat match for the NWA National Championship

Aron Stevens (with The Question Mark) def. Colt Cabana (c) and Ricky Starks

Stevens sat back and hid behind the Christmas decor instead of wrestling in this match.

The sad part about this match is that majority of it was wasted on everyone being distracted by Aron Stevens' comedic actions going on at ringside while Starks and Cabana actually had a serious wrestling match going on in the ring. All of that proved fruitful for Stevens as the Question Mark assisted him in picking up the win.

Nick Aldis (c) def. James Storm 2 falls to 1 Two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship

James Storm won the first fall while Aldis won the second, only for Tim Storm to come in after a referee bump to sub in for the third and final fall. The match itself wasn't bad, especially knowing what to expect from these two men (Aldis and Storm are great at their craft and don't do anything to overstay their welcome) with the narrative being that Aldis did everything within his power to keep the Seven Pounds of Gold within his grasp, even when it came down to seemingly "disowning" Kamille to do so.


After this event, Tim Storm was made to look like a fool when Aldis revealed his master plan all along and had Kamille lay him out as he formally introduced his "Strictly Business" faction, consisting of himself, the Wild Cards, and Kamille.

Kamille gave Storm one hell of a spear, I'll say that much. Since it's all in the open now, Kamille and Latimer aren't hiding their real life relationship either for the sake of kayfabe.

Kamille with her then boyfriend, WWE Superstar Braun Strowman.

(Laughs) I guess Kamille wasn't satisfied with "Those Hands" from Strowman... She's currently dating Thom Latimer in the Wild Cards and you can tell that they aren't keeping their affections a secret on television. In a weird twist of irony, Charlotte Flair's ex-husband ends up with the woman who looks better than her physically in more ways than one.

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At Into the Fire, NWA Worlds Champion Nick Aldis was confronted by Marty Scurll after his title defense. In response, Aldis and the Strictly Business stable attacked Scurll and his Villain Enterprises teammates at Ring of Honor's (ROH) Saturday Night at Center Stage and Honor Reigns Supreme events. On January 14, the NWA announced that Aldis would face Villain Enterprises' Flip Gordon in an interpromotional match at Hard Times.

NWA Hard Times (stylized as Hard × Times) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). It took place on January 24, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia at the GPB Studios. The show featured a tournament to crown a new NWA World Television Champion, which was won by Ricky Starks. The event also featured wrestlers from Ring of Honor, including Dan Maff, and Villain Enterprises members Marty Scurll and Flip Gordon.

NWA World Television Championship Tournament First Round Match

Trevor Murdoch def. The Question Mark

I figured this was payback for Murdock losing to the Question Mark during their previous match on Into The Fire the month prior. At this point, you have to be crazy not to realize that the Question Mark is Josephus 

NWA World Television Championship Tournament First Round Match

Dan Maff def. Zicky Dice

No surprise here at all. I can see why ROH jumped at the opportunity to sign this guy. This match was over and done faster than a hiccup. Zicky didn't have a chance.

NWA World Television Championship Tournament First Round Match

Ricky Starks def. Matt Cross

I'm not going to lie. I thought Starks was losing this here, especially with Matt Cross debuting for the company in this bout. I haven't see Cross unmasked in so long that I almost forgot what he looked like when I was so used to his Son of Havoc days in Lucha Underground.

Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship

Eli Drake and James Storm def. The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) (c) and The Wild Cards (Royce Isaacs and Thom Latimer) (with Kamille and May Valentine)

I'll say this much about May Valentine. She has a very unique look to her presence on this show. The Wild Cards, along with the rest of Aldis' Strictly Business stable, already have Kamille for the intimidation factor at ringside. I just don't see what May contributes to their group, outside of being a foil to Royce Isaacs at times. At least, she's easy on the eyes though.

Speaking of Kamille, she wasn't opposed to playing nice with the old folks, namely Robert Gibson. That provided the distraction that allowed Eli Drake and James Storm to pick up the win though. IMO that was the right call as you don't want to keep the tag belts on Ricky and Robert for too long. The nostalgia was a feel good moment from the last few weeks, but it was time to move on, even better that Storm was able to capture a consolation prize since he couldn't beat Aldis for the Seven Pounds of Gold at Into The Fire.

Singles Match for the NWA World Women's Championship

Thunder Rosa def. Allysin Kay (c)

Out of anything else on this card, go out of your way to watch this match. This is the first in-ring encounter between these two women (at least in this company to my knowledge...) and it didn't disappoint. They would hold a televised rematch on a follow-up episode of NWA Powerrr, but it wasn't anywhere as good as this first outing.

NWA World Television Championship Tournament Semifinal Match

Trevor Murdoch def. Dan Maff

Dan Maff is one of ROH's most recent signees or rather returns and I can easily see why. The big dude can really go. Murdoch manages to pull off an upset win here where I was convinced that Maff was going to take it.

NWA World Television Championship Tournament Semifinal Match

Ricky Starks def. Tim Storm 

I honestly thought Tim Storm was going to put Starks to posture here. Once again, I was proven wrong. Momma Storm had to hang her head down in shame.

Scott Steiner def. Aron Stevens (c) (with The Question Mark) by disqualification Singles match for the NWA National Championship

I was hoping that we were going to get the title to change hands here, but no dice. I really want to know how NWA are able to use Steiner's old WWE music here though. It has to be something with how Dave Lagana and whoever else Billy Corgin bought the rights of music from were able to use it without any backlash.

If they want to make Stevens' karate gimmick have a few more laughs then they should make him start doing those grunts and shouts like Jason David Frank did on Power Rangers back in the day.

Nick Aldis (c) def. Flip Gordon NWA vs. ROH interpromotional match for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship

Maybe it was just me, but I couldn't care less about this match. There wasn't much drama going into this match outside of the loose connection to Marty Scurll as it felt like a knee-jerk reaction at the last minute when it was obvious that they were just biding their time until the next PPV. I'm not going to say that this match was awful, but it was easily forgettable.

Ricky Starks def. Trevor Murdoch Tournament final match to determine the new NWA World Television Champion

By this point, I was honestly burnt out on this tournament. My friendly word of advice is to NOT do all of the tournament in one night and split it up across the the weeks leading up to the PPV only up to the semi-finals. Murdoch was working with an ailing arm (kayfabe injury) while Starks was running on fumes at this point. I didn't understand Starks' gimmick until now where it just clicked that he's supposed to be like a flamboyant take on The Rock in terms of his mannerisms and promos. I didn't have a problem with Starks picking up the win as it elevates his rising star status in the promotion and inches him closer towards the Seven Pounds of Gold. They would reveal after this PPV that Starks could challenge for the World title if he successfully retains the title after seven defenses in what they referred to the Lucky 7 rule. An interesting twist on things for sure. It keeps things interesting for the next string of television tapings until the Crockett Cup in April.

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Thoughts on the Product So Far

This modern take on the NWA is a refreshing breath of fresh air in comparison to everything else out there in the modern landscape of wrestling on television currently. Previously, I flocked to Lucha Underground for that "alternative" that I craved, only to see majority of those talents making up the rosters of both WWE, AEW, New Japan, MLW, Impact Wrestling, and even Ring of Honor currently. There's not a major promotion out there who isn't capitalizing on the exposure that those talents brought to the table. As a result, that particular style of wrestling became overexposed. Everyone is slapping their thighs for super kicks and doing dives without rhyme or reason to garner cheap pops. Even though the current NWA roster is littered with ex-WWE and Impact talent, it's not the matches that keep me invested - it's the promos and this intimate, personal studio setting. That passion and fire from promos is lacking a LOT in modern day wrestling where fans (I'm guilty of this too) have weighed work rate and in-ring ability over anything else in terms of success to be a "good" wrestler. Back in the day, talents could talk people into buildings better than the guys today who have to nearly kill themselves for a pop. Over the years, I'll come to miss the great talkers in professional wrestling, but the NWA has given me that back in some capacity.

Ring of Honor & New Japan Pro Wrestling Present: G1 Supercard (April 6, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

G1 Supercard was a professional wrestling supershow co-produced by the American Ring of Honor (ROH) and Japanese New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotions. It was the 13th annual Supercard of Honor event and took place on April 6, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The event was streamed live on Honor Club, New Japan Pro-Wrestling World, FITE TV, and broadcast live on traditional pay-per-view outlets.

The card featured 12 matches. Both the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and ROH World Championship was defended on the card, as IWGP Champion Jay White defended against New Japan Cup winner Kazuchika Okada, while Survival of the Fittest winner Marty Scurll and Matt Taven wrestled for the ROH World Title against champion Jay Lethal in a ladder match. The event's undercard saw two Winner Take All matches between NJPW and ROH champions, and UK partner promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW) had its top title - the British Heavyweight Championship - defended as well.

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G1 Supercard Preshow (FULL Show)

Kagetsu, Jenny Rose and Hazuki def. Hana Kimura, Stella Grey and Sumie Sakai Six-woman tag team match (Dark Match)

Didn't see this match, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's offered on ROH's YouTube channel for the weekly dosage of Women of Honor action.

Kenny King won by last eliminating Jushin "Thunder" Liger and The Great Muta 30-man Honor Rumble for a future ROH World Championship match

Let's be honest here. This match was mostly a massive waste of time outside of a few noteworthy entries from New Japan. Ring of Honor's entrants in this were laughable at best, namely Rhett Titus with a his HORRIBLE spray tan.

I think I marked out with everyone else with the arrivals of both Jushin "Thunder" Liger and The Great fuckin' Muta in this match towards the end. Muta came out looking like he was the final boss spawned from affair from the creators of Onimusha and Final Fantasy had an offspring. I thought it was pretty damn awesome to see them team up to clear out the opposition until they were the final two. I thought we were going to see something truly special until Kenny King rolled back into the ring and unceremoniously dumped out both Japanese legends to steal the win.

You could see the fans in the front rows flipping him off while the MSG crowd unanamiously booed this finish. This is the only reason why I can see why fans were shitting on ROH after the show was over from this finish. King isn't the guy to be challenging for the top title of the company, especially when you got Muta and Liger in the conversation.

Main Card Match Results:

Jeff Cobb (ROH TV) def. Will Ospreay (NEVER Openweight)
Winner takes all match for both the NEVER Openweight and ROH World Television Championships

I thought this was a nice way to start off the show, much like Ospreay's opener on Wrestle Kingdom earlier this year. The end result here didn't surprise me too much as I like to think that Ospreay is going to be AEW bound since they already announced the signing of his girlfriend, Bea Priestley, not too long ago.

Singles Match
Rush def. Dalton Castle

That was all she wrote for Rush to pick up the win here.

Rush hit Castle with damn dropkick and pinned him shortly thereafter to pick up the win with a squash over Castle. I thought we were in for the long haul after Castle's extravagant entrance tonight. I guess Castle told Velveteen Dream to hold my beer in that regard.

Castle took his frustrations out on The Boys, so I guess this is leading to a heel turn for him? I dunno how I feel about that.

Women of Honor World Championship
Kelly Klein def. Mayu Iwatani (c) 

This match itself wasn't bad at all, but I'm sure what everyone is going to be talking about, or still talking about rather, is the debut of the Beautiful People in Ring of Honor. They joined forces with a now heel Mandy Leon to form the faction simply known as Allure. I can't remember anything of note that Mandy Leon has done in the Women of Honor division since her high profile feuds with Hania the Huntress and her lengthy (yet notable) program with Taeler Hendrix. Seriously, go back and watch some of that stuff. I wasn't too crazy about the matches themselves, but the actual builds to them were pretty damn good, especially the video packages.

The Allure make their ROH debut collectively.

I have to say I was shocked to see Angelina Love and Velvet Sky collectively in ROH, especially after Madison Rayne cited in a few interviews that the reason she left was that ROH shot down her TBP reunion idea.

Last but not least, congratulations to the first ever two-time Ring of Honor Women of Honor Champion, Kelly Klein.

Six-Man New York City Street Fight
Flip Gordon and Lifeblood (Mark Haskins and Juice Robinson) def. Bully Ray, Shane Taylor and Silas Young

I thought Bully Ray did us all a favor taking out MegaRan during his musical performance. I'm sure I wasn't alone in being shocked when Flip Gordon came out to answer the challenge from Bully Ray. I was under the impression that his last knee injury had him sidelined for the remainder of the year. I guess that was a load of bull, huh? No offense to everyone involved, but this match wasn't the best thing to put into an already underwhelming position on this card to begin with. This lackluster street fight stipulation just seemed to hinder it even more, even though everyone involved tried to make the most of it. I felt like this was ultimately a waste of time that could have been spent on other matches on this card.

Apparently, Enzo and Big Cass stormed the ring off-camera following the finish of this match but all of the ROH talent fought them off. Originally, the reports going around live at the time were saying it was a shoot, but since then, the truth came out with it being a complete work, just that the on-air crew didn't support creative team's decision on bringing them in. I can't blame them there as it seems like they just want to garner attention off their notoriety. ROH is known for their superb in-ring product and less about WWE-esque gimmicks. Enzo and Cass have like nothing to offer them otherwise in terms of in-ring ability. Both those guys are as exciting to watch as watching paint dry.

Three-Way Match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Dragon Lee def. Taiji Ishimori (c) and Bandido  

I have seen Ishimori's work in both NJPW and his duration in Impact Wrestling as their X-Division Champion while I have been familiar with Dragon Lee's work for Ring of Honor in the past, competing for the Television Championship while feuding with Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay when they first joined the promotion. This was my first exposure to Bandido tonight and I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with what I have seen from this guy.

In the end, I was happy that Dragon Lee picked up the win because I couldn't help but think back to how he was robbed in that triple threat between Ospreay and Scurll a few years ago.

Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (IWGP) defeated Villain Enterprises (PCO and Brody King) (ROH), Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) and The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) Winner takes all four-way tag team match for both the IWGP Tag Team and ROH World Tag Team Championships

PCO's Frankenstein entrance was pretty damn cool while the Briscoes walking down to the ring cursing up a storm is all the reason I needed to be reminded why those two aren't in WWE after all these years. Seeing Sanada's evolution from his World Elite days back in TNA to present day is definitely something else as I'm sure Muta is beaming with pride with his growth, even in defeat here. I hate to make fun of the guy, but I swear Brody King looks like a fat cosplay of Aleister Black.

PCO's career-resurgence lately has to be the stuff of legends, but damn that dude takes some crazy bumps.

First that apron dive that looked like he hit the side of one of the Briscoes' faces along with the edge of the ring apron and then that Shield Powerbomb by the Guerillas of Destiny out of the ring. Holy shit that was nuts.

In the end, GoD picked up the win and I have absolutely no problem with that. Those dudes never cease to amaze me with their choice of entrance gear either.

RevPro British Heavyweight Championship Match
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) (with Taka Michinoku) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi by submission

I missed this entire match since I was on the phone with my older brother who was asking me about the Hall of Fame that I wasn't watching and telling me about what happened to Bret Hart.

I finally had a chance to check out this match on New Japan World a few days later. This was exactly what I've come to expect from ZSJ's matches and by the end of it all, that damn guy had Tanahashi tied up into a knot like a fucking pretzel, despite his efforts to turn the tide on this methodical breakdown of the Ace.

IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match
Kota Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito (c)

Much like his performance in the opener of Wrestle Kingdom this year, Ibushi impressed me here too. Fortunately, he didn't have to "die for our sins" to put on a similar performance here. Naito wasn't no slouch either as this was a great affair from bell to bell. The right man won too as Kota Ibushi is the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion. New Japan are definitely elevating the prestige of that title at a rapid pace, given all of the marquee talent that have held that belt to this date. I'll be surprised if Ibushi isn't wrestling for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by the time Wrestle Kingdom rolls around next year.

I couldn't believe that Naito took that EXACT same crazy bump Velveteen Dream did the night prior from NXT TakeOver. Sold the shit out of it too.

I absolutely love that Ibushi has been channeling his inner Shinsuke Nakamura lately for his Kamigoye as a homage to the Bomaye.

Three-way Ladder Match for the ROH World Championship

Matt Taven defeated Jay Lethal (c) and Marty Scurll

This wasn't a ladder match on par with the infamous Ladder Wars of old, namely the tag team ones involving the Young Bucks, the Hardyz, the Briscoes, and Bad Influence/So Cal Uncensored or the one between Kevin Steen (now Owens) and El Generico (now Sami Zayn) from years ago, but worth a watch anyway.

All three men gave this performance their all and it was rightfully called the "real" main event by ROH fans on social media. In the end, Jay Lethal took a sickening bump onto the ladder to allow Matt Taven to pick up the win. I have to

IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match

Kazuchika Okada defeated Jay White (c) (with Gedo) 

I love Okada as much as the next guy, but man, I went into dreading this rematch against Jay White. I didn't care for this match-up at Wrestle Kingdom and I didn't care for it here much either. Okada carried the fuck out of White throughout this contest to keep viewers and the live audience engaged with action in and out of the ring from bell to bell. I enjoyed the story they told with neither man being able to hit their respective finishers and once they did it garnered a massive shock and awe from the audience that each man found a way to kick out of their opponent's respective finisher. Finishing sequence saw Okada hit multiple Rainmaker clotheslines and a Tombstone Piledriver to pick up the win and become the NEW IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

Everything is right in the world again. I get that New Japan wants to build up Jay White as the next big thing in terms of gaijin stars in the wake of Kenny Omega and all of the Elite guys jumping over to AEW, but he's definitely not the guy who needs to be feuding with Okada at this level. I think it's time to admit that this experiment was a failure and move on.

Afterthoughts:

The number one thing that I noticed once this event was over were the sheer amount of people shitting all over Ring of Honor over on social media, claiming that ROH didn't carry their weight on this show that New Japan carried on their own. I don't know about all of that. There's a considerable difference in terms of match quality from the ROH guys and the NJPW guys, but I didn't go into this match thinking everything on this card was going to be worthy of being in the Tokyo Dome and instantly be a six star match (per Dave Meltzer). Only match I didn't really care for was the New York Street Fight and that was mainly due to all involved. I just don't like majority of those guys personally and I didn't think they clicked well in that type of match. I don't know what everyone else was watching but people were reacting on social media like this was a massive flop. Get the fuck over yourselves. I'm not too thrilled about Matt Taven besting Jay Lethal for the title and Marty Scurll seems like he's not getting a chance at it anytime soon either, but I didn't think that was means for frowning upon this card. Top to bottom, this was a solid show, even if I wasn't too thrilled with some of the talent involved.

Now I do agree with some of the critics that it's very unlikely that Ring of Honor would be able to do this type of business to sell out the Garden when they aren't riding off WWE's coattails from WrestleMania weekend along with their partnership with New Japan. Otherwise, I seriously doubt they would have brought in this many people to a venue with the talent they currently have on hand. The few that they do have are struggling to keep things going and I fear what Ring of Honor's future is going to look like when All Elite Wrestling starts going on all cylinders, especially with both Impact Wrestling and Major League Wrestling starting to step their game up in terms of signing the few "major" talent left on the table off the free agent market.