This week's NWA Power is the go-home for this weekend's Crockett Cup double-dip pay-per-view.
Mike Knox & Trevor Murdoch vs. The Country Gentlemen (AJ Cazana & Anthony Andrews) went to a no contest
Knox hit some punches in the corner on Cazana before hitting a clothesline. Cazana managed to land a suplex on Murdoch before Andrews tagged in and hit a double team elbow on Murdoch. Andrews didn’t notice a blind tag from Knox who hit the ropes and a crossbody that Andrews wasn’t expecting.
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There was some clubbering offense (™ Dusty Rhodes) before both Andrews and Knox hit a clothesline on each other. As this happened, a ton of Crockett Cup teams rushed the ring and started brawling, making this a no contest.
Murdoch ended up hitting a tope suicida on everyone, followed by Knox climbing the ropes for a senton bomb off the top rope onto everyone. Yes, those two big men did that. This was actually a good angle despite the non-finish to the tag match.
The Now (Hale Collins & Vic Delicious) defeated Ryan Matthews & Mario Pardua to qualify for the Crockett Cup tournament
Delicious and Matthews started with Delicious hitting a lariat before tagging out to Collins. Collins stomped on Matthews in the corner. The Now hit a double vertical suplex for a near fall. Delicious hit a DDT on Matthews after a chop to the throat. Matthews rallied to hit a jaw breaker and tagged out to Pardua, who hit a Russian legs weep on Delicious for a near fall.
Delicious slipped out of a powerslam attempt and shoved Pardua into his own partner before tagging out to Matthews, who hit a flying elbow while Pardua was laid across the knees of Delicious for the win — a move apparently called The Now which is appropriate.
– James Mitchell was with Judias and Max the Impaler and he talked about them being in the Crockett Cup, promising they would win the tournament and saying everyone else doesn’t stand a chance against his team.
Samantha Starr defeated Kylie Paige
Paige is green, but learning very fast, much like her sister a few years ago. If she keeps working the way she does, she’ll be one of the better young wrestlers on the indies before long.
Paige managed to trip Starr with a dropdown, but she quickly countered into a hammerlock and a short arm clothesline. Paige dodged a corner charge and hit a series of forearms, a snapmare, and a running basement dropkick on Starr that made Kylie look exactly like her sister, Kenzie.
Paige went to a sleeper hold, trying to wear down Starr, but got dumped to the mat. Paige went for a hip toss, but Starr ducked it and hit a Samoan drop for a near fall. Paige hit a Russian leg sweep, but Starr kicked out. After attempting a suplex or DDT, Starr countered and hit the Starrstruck DDT for the win.
– May Valentine was with Natalia Markova, talking about her upcoming title match with NWA Women's Champion Kamille. Markova said that Kamille had weaknesses to be exploited, and would do so at the Crockett Cup.
Magic Jake Dumas & Mercurio defeated America’s Ego (Jamie Stanley & Joe Alonzo) (w/ CJ) to qualify for the Crockett Cup
This is a heel vs. heel match which Billy Corgan loves booking for some reason, so the crowd did not care about anything. Mercurio and Stanley started and Mercurio suplexed him before showing off to Dumas, who has still not done a magic trick. CJ and Mercurio ended up posing outside of the ring while Dumas was getting beat on, which was actually kind of funny.
Stanley hit a Russian leg sweep on Dumas for a near fall. Mercurio continued to flirt with CJ while Dumas was hit with a spinebuster. Stanley accidentally hit Alonzo with a pump kick when Dumas ducked an attack. Dumas clotheslined Alonzo to the floor and then CJ decided to grab Alonzo’s foot and shut off any further offense. Dumas hit a tombstone on Stanley and Mercurio blind tagged in to get the pin.
– Thrillbilly Silas came to the ring with Pollo Del Mar to talk with Kyle Davis. EC3 also made his way down to no reaction. Del Mar said that EC3 would be heartbroken at the Crockett Cup as he was going to lose the National title and said to say hi to his aunt Dixie. This got no reaction.
EC3 suggested that Silas should give up the title shot to join him as a tag team to win the Crockett Cup, because he could guide Silas to the top of the NWA. EC3 said they could win the Cup, Silas could help him get to the World title and then could be mentored directly by the NWA World Champion.
Silas shook the hand of EC3, implying that they were going to work together, but pulled EC3 in and hit the Thrillride, posing with the National title afterward.
Final Thoughts:
This was a fairly tame episode with a closing angle that had little heat going into the Crockett Cup. It doesn’t surprise me that they decided to use EC3 in a closing angle, because it is the kind of thing Corgan likes. However, EC3’s current character is not working at all. He can talk and can get heat, but this gimmick is death.
My interest in this weekend's PPV is at an all time low, and the only match I was mildly interested in, Kamille against Markova, received nearly next to no time in build.