NWA Power results: Team War finals

The British Invasion (Doug Williams & Nick Aldis) defeated Jaden Roller & Fable Jake

This felt like a classic JCP squash in the 80s with the stars trying to get a decent match out of the jobbers. It felt quite nostalgic even though JCP was before my time.

Fable Jake looks like a jobber out of 1992, which fits this show quite well. Doug Williams tied Roller up early on and hit a butterfly suplex. Jake decided the best way to break up a complicated submission was to punch Williams in the face. Simple, but effective. Aldis threw Jake around before tagging out to Williams, and they continued their double team assault.

Jake and Roller got some heat on Williams. Jake’s offence did not look good. Roller hit a snapmare and then an elbow drop. Williams threw Jake’s foot into the stomach of his own partner before hitting an exploder suplex and tagging out to Aldis. Aldis ran wild for a bit before Jake raked his eyes and tagged out to Roller.

Aldis dropped down as Roller hit the ropes, tripped over him, and crashed into Jake. That was funny. Williams hit the Chaos Theory on Roller and Aldis followed up with a flying elbow for the win.

Tootie Lynn (w/ Kylie Rae) defeated Marti Belle (w/ Allysin Kay)

This was shockingly fine, given that Marti Belle has been very hit or miss. Belle was fine in this match, and while Lynn spent most of it selling, she also looked good.

Marti Belle ate a kick from Lynn early on. Belle rolled up Lynn and hit a running knee before hitting a hip attack in the corner. Belle kept the advantage for a few minutes here, acting as the heel in this match. Lynn fired up but got dropped with a forearm. Belle put Lynn in a fireman’s carry and yelled that she has been working out to Medusa at the commentary table.

Lynn floated out and hit a clothesline, making her pay for showing off. Belle hit The Stroke on Lynn and went for a Pedigree, but Lynn rolled her up and scored a pinfall. Both Kylie Rae and Tootie Lynn have pinned members of the Hex in non-title matches, so it looks like we have our next title defence for the Hex set.

Austin Idol and Cyon were with May Valentine and Cyon said he had no explanation for who his father was. Valentine asked Idol why he was helping Cyon, and Idol said that he liked to help people, and he had no idea who Cyon’s father was, but it could have been any historical NWA champion. Cyon interrupted and said that he didn’t need help, and that his father was a world champion. I’m actually very into this storyline.

Jennacide & Natalia Markova ended in a count out

Despite the non-finish, I really liked this match. Neither woman was able to overcome the other, and both showed some great wrestling here. Markova isn’t bad at all, and Jennacide is very good, so this was fun to watch. This will likely set up some sort of rematch, and I’m looking forward to it.

Jennacide and Markova exchanged some moves with Jennacide using power to keep the advantage. Markova baited Jennacide in and scored a roll up, but Jennacide kicked out. Both women exchanged hard forearms until Jennacide hit a huge double hand chop on Jennacide. Jennacide hit a spinebuster for a two count.

Markova went for a dive, but Jennacide hit an uppercut to cut her off. Jennacide went for a brainbuster on the apron, but Markova fought out and hit a tornado DDT off the apron onto the floor. That was brutal. Jennacide blocked a hurricanrana and powerbombed Markova on the apron, and both women crashed to the floor as the referee counted both of them out.

Melina defeated Christi Jaynes

This wasn’t good at all. They worked very hard, but could just never get on the same page. While Jayne’s offence looked good when Melina was there to take it, everything seemed to be off. Melina had trouble running the ropes and completely botched the finish, and I have no idea what it was supposed to be.

Commentary noted that Melina wanted to be the permanent number one contender as she mentioned in a promo a few weeks back, indicating that she did not want to wrestle Jaynes here. It was bizarre hearing the commentary agree with this because it’s a very heel belief. That said, they locked up and refused to let it go, working around the ring for a bit with it. Melina hit a dropkick and Jaynes fell to the apron.

Time then froze as Melina stared at her. Stars were born and died in the time that nothing happened. Melina then went for a baseball slide and Jaynes moved. Jaynes got the heat for a little bit before rolling through a roll up into an STF. They seemed to be a bit lost before that, but that looked nice. The finish of the match was completely botched with Melina just giving up on an STF or Muta Lock attempt after locking the legs, pausing, then just letting it go and pinning Jaynes. This happened after Jaynes missed a dropkick, which she didn’t actually miss, and Melina just no sold. Yikes.

Matt Cardona defeated Victor Benjamin

Perfectly acceptable enhancement match, with Cardona giving lots to Benjamin but never losing control of the match. Velvet Sky called Cardona boring and buried him as such, which is not something you should do with one of your main event talents.

Cardona underestimated Benjamin and ate a kick to the face that staggered him and made him go to the floor. Cardona baited him in and pulled Benjamin’s legs out from under him to send him crashing to the apron. Cardona hit a neckbreaker and got the heat for a little bit. Cardona kept under estimating Benjamin, which kept giving him openings before Cardona finally hit a Radio Silence for the win.

Strictly Business (Thom Latimer & Chris Adonis) & El Rudo defeated The End (Odinson & Parrow) & Rodney Mack in the Team War finals

So this was a team match that consisted of 3 man teams, with each member of the team facing off in singles matches where eliminations could happen by pinfall, submission, or being thrown over the top rope. As one member is eliminated, the next member of the team enters. It seems like they didn’t have the rules of this match figured out in the first match of this type last week, but figured it out. This was a real chance to try and elevate The End, but the NWA didn’t take it. I’m quite disappointed in the booking of this match.

Rodney Mack and El Rudo started things off. Mack hit Rudo’s head into the various turnbuckles around the ring. Rudo rolled up Mack and eliminated him. Parrow came in and hit a powerbomb on Rudo for the pinfall. Parrow and Latimer then exchanged power moves, with Parrow getting the best of it several times, but Latimer was finally able to top him with a piledriver. I liked this segment of the match.

Odinson was the last member of his team like last week, and took it right to Latimer. Odinson hit some good European uppercuts, putting Latimer in trouble. Adonis jumped on the apron and put the Master Lock on Odinson while the ref’s back was turned. The referee turned around and gave him a 5 count, and Latimer let go at 3. The referee DQ’d him anyway, which he should have done, as Adonis was not active in the match. This also begs the question to why there were no DQs last week, but there were this week. The finish had Odinson get hit with a piledriver from Latimer for the pinfall. Latimer, Adonis, and Rudo celebrated as the show closed.

Final Thoughts:

Well, there have certainly been better episodes of NWA Power than this one. The Team War concept suffered the same fate of the Champion’s Series last year – not enough clarity for what the rules are and how the whole thing was going to be conducted. In many ways, the NWA needs to do a better job of telling us what is going on with graphics and explanations from the announcers. Joe Galli tries, but there is only so much you can do without the production being on the same page.

I really enjoy NWA Power most weeks. It’s usually a very easy to watch show with easy to follow stories, but they keep running into things like this that are easy fixes. That, along with not re-recording botched finishes on a taped show is just bizarre. There is a lot of good in this product (the Jennacide and Markova match tonight was excellent), but they seem to shoot themselves in the foot consistently from a production standpoint.