ATLANTA — The National Wrestling Alliance is launching a new show, to be available on YouTube, called NWA USA.
The first season of the new show was taped on Friday, December 3rd, in Atlanta, at the Georgia Public Broadcasting center, just a few blocks from where Georgia Championship Wrestling was taped years ago.
The long taping completed short storylines and featured stars new and old, and was capped off with a bout between the 65-year-old Ricky Morton of the Rock’n’Roll Express — accompanied by his son, Kerry Morton — against Austin Aries. There were other father-son combinations too, like Luke and PJ Hawx.
PJ and Luke Hawx. Photos by Greg Oliver
Prior to the taping, the news of the new show was dropped for the VIP fans by ring announcer / interviewer Kyle Davis, prompting NWA owner Billy Corgan to scold him: “I don’t appreciate you breaking the news,” he joked.
Corgan, as he has in many previous interviews, celebrated the wrestling he grew up on and enjoyed, and “the history — that’s what people get lost in.” He added that he has a “deep love for the art of professional wrestling.”
When he bought the NWA, he said it was “in the trash heap” and that together with his team, “we are getting it right, piece by piece by piece.”
Ricky Morton and Billy Corgan in a VIP session prior to the first taping of NWA USA.
The NWA USA show is still on a small scale, as we have seen with NWA Powerrr, which was a YouTube show and then moved to a subscription based service. Joe Galli and Velvet Sky were the announcers, and the third man in the booth was either Tim Storm, Austin Idol — who was so loud at times he could be overheard over the wrestlers in the ring — or Raven.
Joe Galli, Raven and Velvet Sky
And what about Raven? It will be interesting seeing where the former NWA World champion fits into the future. This go-round, he was a thorn in the side of NWA USA’s managing director Tim Storm.
No spoilers, but the shows built to a future NWA pay-per-view, and many matches were related to the tournament to crown a new NWA World Junior champion at that PPV. There was a women’s storyline that continued through multiple episodes, and it included a surprising in-ring debut.
The names we have come to associate with the NWA, like World champ Trevor Murdoch, Nick Aldis, National champion Chris Adonis, Colby Corino, Sal Rinauro, and Kamille were all there, but it wasn’t all about the established names. Fresh new talent such as Jamie Stanley, Marshe “All Day” Rockett, J. Spade and “The Revolutionary” Darius Lockhart got some good screen time. Plus there were wrestlers from the distant and recent past including “Rottweiler” CW Anderson, Homicide, Madusa, Ariya Daivari, George South and Doug Williams in from England.
United Kingdom legend Doug Williams, back in action after a retirement.
Since it was a concentrated taping over the new NWA USA show, there was no promotion for Saturday’s NWA Hard Times 2 PPV, available on Fite TV — though many of the loyal fans this reporter talked to early at the VIP session had come in for the entire weekend of shows, Friday to Monday, everywhere from Pennsylvania to Nebraska.
A starting date for NWA USA, which promises to be “faster paced, more athletic” was not announced to the live crowd, who witnessed more than 20 matches.
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