From Rob Brodhecker:
NWA Power Tapings
Robarts Arena, Sarasota, FL
Nov. 18th, 2023
Howdy! It’s been a few months since I pushed out a show report and now I have several of them that I’m going to be typing out over the next couple of days.
<<<<Warning!! Possible Spoilers ahead!!!>>>>
I can only guess that Mr. Corgan is on a nostalgia trip, but he’s brought the NWA POWERRRRRR TV Tapings back to one of the venerable Championship Wrestling from Florida arena sites (and one of the few left standing), Robarts Arena in Sarasota, Fl.
A couple of quick housekeeping notes. I usually get all the names I can for everyone involved in the show, but due to the nature of this show, I wasn’t able to get everyone’s names or even spellings of names, so I do apologize to everyone. If someone can send me corrections, I will go back and edit this.
I will start by saying that I enjoyed the wrestling action, even with the TV taping format. I didn’t enjoy some of the things leading up to the action though and I’ll put those down in the Final Thoughts section at the end. Also, I’m translating from handwritten notes.
Dark matches:
1. 3-way Scramble: Cheese vs. Bison(?) vs. Machin(?).
Cheese is local and has a huge following with the local crowd; someone even brought a life-size cutout of him and propped it up against a light support pole. Machin pins Bison with a spear at 3:10.
2. Bellyhopter(?) and Kowbra(?) Bounty Hunter vs. Universal Inc.
Universal Inc. wins in 5:48. IMO, not a good match.
3. Drago & Hardcore Horvath vs. Cross and ?
Horvath gets school boy’d at 4:59.
4. Donte Casanova vs Devin Diaz.
Darn good match; Casanova wins at 4:18.
TV Tapings
1: Fabulous Butterflies (Faboo Andre & Tony Donati) vs. Daisy Kill and Talos.
Familiar with the Butterflies from the GA scene. Talos is a big’un. Time was 6:06, Kill and Talos win
2: NWA Jr. Title match: Joe Ocasio vs Colby Corino (c).
Ocasio working heel, Corino wins at 6:17 in a good match.
3: Taylor Rising vs. Erica Recks and Airica Demia
Taylor pins Erica at 3:44 with a pedigree.
4: NWA US Tag Team Title Match: The Brothers of Funstruction (Yabbo and Ruffs) with Violent J vs. The Immortals (Odinson and Kratos) (c).
Now we got some real meat and potatoes! Clown shenanigans throughout the match, Immortals just want to destroy. Match was going along well when The Kids (Lev and Jackson) run out and attack the Bros, causing a DQ at 8:30. Soon everyone was fighting everyone else in the ring, out on the floor and eventually to the back.
Lev and Jackson really had to be faithful to attack 4 guys that much bigger than them.
5: TV Title match: Drak Draper vs Big Strong Mims(c). 6:05 time limit.
Magnum Muscle teammates collide! Good back and forth, but Mims is out on the floor and milks the clock and the time limit expires. Draper wants 5 more, but Mims walks off to boos from the crowd.
6: Intergender Tag Team Street Fight: Bryan Idol and Natalia Markova vs. Thom Latimer and Kamille.
The action was everyone, as one could expect with a street fight. They stuck basically with Idol on Latimer and Camille on Markova. High spots include Idol getting tossed from the broadcast stage and a Tower of Doom spot with Markova throwing everyone down. The ending sees Kamille taking out her partner by accident and Markova pins her at 5:58.
Promo by The Southern Six (Kerry Morton, Silas Mason, and Alex Taylor).
Mason is the NWA National Champ. They run down the crowd and everyone else but get interrupted by The Miserably Faithful crew lead by Father James Mitchell. Mitchell cuts a heel promo himself but it seems a bit off as it ends with him trying to sell something, but it leads to a 6-man match.
7: The Southern Six vs. Miserably Faithful (Judias, Sal Rinauro, and Gaagz the Gymp with James Mitchell).
Standard 6-man action with the biggest highlight being Judias chokeslaming Silas. Southern Six win at 9:36 after the masked guy takes a double team.
8: Alex Misery vs. Joe Alonzo.
High flyin’ action here. Misery with some fantastic facial expressions. Misery misses a moonsault and that spells the end for him; Alonzo wins at 5:08. Very good match.
9: Triple Threat: Catena vs Storm vs. Magic Jake.
Storm is a local guy. Magic wins after tombstoning Storm at 4:51. Entertaining.
In Ring Promo celebrating Austin Idol’s 50 years in Wrestling. Bobby Fulton of the Fantastics is on hand, along with NWA President Billy Corgan and granddaughter and daughter of Eddie and Mike Graham: Nicole Graham. Idol cuts one of the best heel promos I’ve seen this year and he and Bobby almost fight. Ah, nostalgia!
10: NWA World Tag Team Match: The Fixers (Jay Bradley & Wrecking Ball Legursky vs. Blunt Force Trauma (c) (Rodney Mack & Marshe Rockett with Aron Stevens)
4 big meaty men slapping meat. BFT are masked up ala Doom and are more nastier. The crowd had very little reaction to this match due to time and length of show, I know I was drooping a bit. BFT wins with a drop kick(!) at 6:09.
11: NWA Women’s Tag Team title match: Ruthie Jay and Missa Kate vs. Pretty Empowered (Kylie Paige and Ella Envy)(c).
Kylie comes out with 2 security guys and no partner, looks like she’s defending the titles by herself. She’s handling things fine for a couple of minutes and the faces take over. One of the security guys slides a belt into the ring to cause a distraction, and this allows Kylie’s sister, NWA Women’s Champ Kenzie Paige to enter the ring and attack, netting Kylie the win at 5:55.
Samantha Starr comes out and confronts Kenzie and we have the next match.
12: NWA Women’s Title match: Samantha Starr vs. Kenzie Paige (c).
Stiff looking shots by both ladies. Paige does the injury stall, luring Starr in and delivering an RKO for the win at 5:44.
Starr attacks while Paige celebrates and leaves Paige laying in the middle of the ring.
13: The Country Gentlemen (AJ Cazana & former Georgia wrestler Anthony Andrews) vs. Trevor Murdoch & Knox.
Another match with some big meaty men it if. Both teams seem to be working heel here. The smaller of the Gentlemen is taking the heat for his team. Murdoch and Knox with a high-low double team at 6:40.
A midget/dwarf/little person runs in and attacks Murdoch, Knox takes him out. There’s gotta one hell of a backstory there.
Main Event for the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship: Jaxson Dane vs. EC3 (c).
Dane is a former NWA champ. Wouldn’t want to face either man in a dark alley. Wrestling to start off with but the action moves to the floor with EC3 worse for wear. In the ring, it’s all Dane. EC3 ducks a rushing Dane who hits the ring post. Tope by EC3, didn’t expect that! Lariat by Dane for a near fall. EC3 clips the knee and starts pounding Dane’s head into the canvas, basically knocking him out for the pin at 7:41. Still NWA Champ: EC3.
After show Promo: EC3 puts over Dane and the crowd. NWA is hot despite what people are saying and sends the crowd home.
Final Thoughts.
Okay bad things first and it mostly has to do with the experience. Could be a Robarts problem, but it could have been done better. Doors opened late (mostly due to a couple of pre-dark matches and I believe a VIP meet and greet with Corgan). Absolutely no organization as to how people got it, no separate line for people who bought tickets vs. people who walked up. Issues with scanning tickets, I don’t think my ticket got scanned, either my printed one, or from the screen from Event Bright. Chairs and sections weren’t marked; people had to open up Event Bright and look at the seating chart there to see where their seats were. Long lines at concession area, those people did their best but were just overwhelmed.
The talent out selling merch were approachable, so people were happy.
I don’t mind looking at the camera guys backsides but at least wear skinny jeans so I have something to look at.
I had no idea that so many people I know were going to be at the event. Total shocker. Love you guys.
