The old adage “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog” aptly describes what’s going down in the National Wrestling Alliance between Matt Cardona and Rolando Freeman. After getting humiliated by Freeman on Night one of the NWA 74 pay-per-view, Cardona has revenge on his mind and in the main event they’ll go at it in a no holds barred match.
We’ll find out if lightning strikes twice later tonight. But we head to the Skyway Studios in Nashville, TN. Joe Galli, Tim Storm, and Velvet Sky have on purple blazers and the call for the action tonight, so let’s step Into The Fire with a singles competition between…
Courtesy of the NWA
Matt Taven vs Mecha Wolf
There’s a shoving match to start, but it isn’t long before they tie up, but Wolf bites the face of Taven for not the first time in this bout. Taven lights up the chest of Wolf and gets a shot to his head for a two count. He sends Wolf the ropes, but the La Rebelion member reverses to a back elbow, then chops back. Taven comes back with a standing dropkick and then sends him into the corner. He goes up the top of the turnbuckle to attempt a high-risk maneuver, but Wolf takes out his leg to land hard on the mat and he covers for a two count. Wolf trash talks at Taven, then he nails a suplex to a reverse cutter for a two count. Taven tries to fight up to a vertical base but Wolf keeps on the attack and bites away at his head again in the corner. Wolf attempts a corner clothesline, but The Trend rolls away and hits a step-up enzugiri, then fires back with a spinning heel kick. A spinning neckbreaker by Taven and then a springboard moonsault misses, but a springboard spin kick and a moonsault to Wolf land this time and he goes to cover but gets a two count. Wolf reverses a huracanrana to a powerbomb followed by a knee to Taven’s face for a two count. Wolf goes for a slingshot DDT, but it’s scouted by Taven and he punt kicks him in the mush. He sets up for another high-risk attempt, but Wolf cuts him off at the top for another bite for the third time. They battle up top, and Taven kicks off Wolf. He goes for a double stomp that misses, and Wolf rolls him up for a pin, but Taven rolls through to get the win this night.
Your Winner via Pinfall: Matt Taven
If nothing else, Taven made the case that The OGK will face La Rebelion for the NWA Tag Team titles.
At The Podium with Kyle Davis is former NWA World Heavyweight champion, Ricky Steamboat. As Davis and The Dragon exchange pleasantries, Steamboat announces there will be a tournament starting next week for the NWA National title that will culminate at the recently announced Hard Times 3 in New Orleans. Steamboat says that this will bring out the best in the competitors, and we might see some dark horse favorites. Davis also wants to bring out the current NWA Heavyweight champion Trevor Murdoch, but Matt Cardona and Chelsea Green come out instead. Cardona states he is almost one hundred percent ready to be at Hard Times 3 to be champ, but Steamboat notes he was injured recently and forced to give up his title. Now while he never lost the belt, he tries to offer some wisdom that he should rest up and give other people a chance at the belt while he continues to heal up. Cardona is livid at this, but Green suggest he’s not worth their time, since Steamboat is just an “arm drag champion” as they laugh him off. Steamboat tried to offer the benefit of his experience, but he tells Davis that his true colors just showed to him and the fans in the Studio.
To Summarize: Cardona was a huge douchenozzle.
May Valentine is backstage with Trevor Murdoch and inquires why he didn’t come out to The Podium. Murdoch explains that when he Cardona, he didn’t wanna deal with their horses***, and chose not to get Steamboat in the middle of that nonsense. After his match with Tyrus at NWA 74, he does emphasize that he doesn’t care who you put in front of him, since they’re going down. With Tyrus, it was a hoss fight, and he’s still feeling the effects of that match.
Aron Stevens is at The Podium with Kyle Davis and has a huge announcement, so I’ll let him explain:
“What I’d like to have is for all you tractor-driving, ballcap-wearing hillbilly halfwits to shut up cuz I have something to say that’s gonna shock the very foundation of professional wrestling as we know it, Daddy!”
(an audience shouts something at Stevens.)
“Shut up! Grab a pen because you’re in for a lesson, and the lesson of the day is: Law. Like, The Law of Money makes the world go round and I am money. Therefore, that makes me the central governing force in this universe and I…Shut up! If I want your opinion, I will ask.
The second law is the law of possession. Now a sucker once said possession is nine-tenths of the law but no possession is ten-tenths of the law when it comes to contracts, when it comes to copyrights, when it comes to trademarks, and when it comes to Question Marks. May I present to you, all the way from Mongrovia; Ladies and gentlemen, and everybody in this building. Please throw your hands up, throw your hands up (and if you’re sitting you better stand up give it up for The Question Mark!”
Not sure why Stevens was channeling the spirit of Dusty Rhodes, but it works as we get Rodney Mack under a mask. Stevens states that we don’t know who The Question Mark really is (even though Mack has his trunks and tattoos prominently on display), but I will let this go for the time being. Somewhere, Jocephus is enjoying what is taking place, and that brings us to the next match…
The Question Mark vs. De’vin Graves
Sky and Storm beat me to calling him “The Question Mack,” so no trademark for me. But this is a one-sided fight as Mack beats the holy hell out of Graves using “Mongrovian karate.” As he goes for his Euthanizer submission, Stevens gets on the ring and tells him to switch it up, so then The Question Mack uses the dread Mongrovian Spike for the pin and the win.
Your Winner via Pinfall: The Question Mack
I wonder if the Geneva Convention has any sanctions or rules that govern Mongrovia?
Valentine is backstage with EC3 on his confrontation on Nights One and Two of NWA 74, and what happened after their match. The Essential Character says it best, so let’s hear it from him:
“In the interest of changing the world of professional wrestling, this is not the status quo. This is not an invasion. We are not here to take over. We are not here for the low-brained, low-intellect think tank that this industry has become; we’re here to awaken. To awaken an industry but to awaken an industry. You have to awaken those that can carry the load. Thom Latimer; first-round draft pick. Six-four, two forty-five, professional wrestler. The only thing that held Thom Latimer back was himself at NWA 74.”
From there, Valentine mentions that EC3 will be competing on NWA POWERRR, and he lays it out that his goal is not just “pad his stats” but to also claim the Ten Pounds of Gold, just so he can marvel at the accomplishment and throw it into a trashcan. Valentine asks if a rematch with Latimer is in the future, and EC3 flatly says, “No.”
Speaking of which, in action right now is…
Thom Latimer vs.Chris Sainz
Galli notes that Sainz is billed as “The jackpot” but Latimer just doesn’t give a toss as he is going to work out his frustration in the ring. Therefore, because this has “squash” written all over it. So here’s a Haiku in Review™:
*ahem*
Demons come to play
Against Sainz so brutally.
Powerbomb. Jackpot.
Your Winner via Pinfall: Thom Latimer
Valentine is with Nick Aldis and Flip Gordon. Aldis says he and Gordon put on a great match, and Gordon agrees, but the aftermath was a bit of a dampener as Odinson ruined it. Apparently, he’s suspended, and Aldis is not surprised as others use him as a stepping stone. He promises that when he gets his hands on Odinson, he’ll get in him Kingslayer.
Next up backstage is Bully Ray, and Valentine asks what’s next after NWA 74. Ray mentions that he speaks about the NWA on his Busted Open Radio show, but he states he’s in the NWAS for singles competition and part of it is because he sees himself as a father figure to Kilynn King and Kamille, who both trained with him at one point and tore down the house at the Alwayz Ready PPV. As for his thoughts on tonight’s Rolando/Cardona match, Ray uses his experience between him and Knox and how he tried to “go into business for himself” against the Hardcore Legend, which led to the Tables match where he overcame Knox. Simply put, if you mess with the bull you get the horns.
So let’s head to The Main Event for the…
Courtesy of the NWA
No-Holds-Barred Match: Matt Cardona (with Mike Knox) vs. Ronaldo Freeman (with Rush Freeman)
Davis introduces Rolando as “The Biggest Brother” and I can’t help but wonder if our own John Powell shouldn’t cover this as part of his Big Brother assignments that he does.
In any case, the bell rings and Rolando quickly rolls out of the ring but then rams Cardona’s head onto the turnbuckle then goes up top to a sunset flip to a rollup for a two count. As he eyes Rolando, Cardona dropkicks Rush on the outside of the ring to send a message. As he climbs back in, Rush stops Cardona and Rolando goes for a tope that doesn’t quite go through all the way in that scary spot, as he crashes Cardona midway and then plummets to the concrete floor. Knox comes to Cardona’s aid with a steel chair and the ref breaks up to try to get some semblance of order.
Rolando goes after Cardona, who slips out of the ring again. Rolando gives chase but gets tripped up. Now Cardona is in control and toys with him, as Knox keeps little brother Rush back with the steel chair. Cardona takes his time with a reverse DDT for a two count, then tears off his shirt and strangles Rolando with the pieces. He and Knox take turns smashing his head in, and Cardona uses the chair to Rolando’s midsection and then across his back. He chokes The Biggest Brother, and Cardona rips off his bowtie to feed it to him. He gets ready to finish off Rolando, but he manages to sunset flip Cardona again for another two count. He is frustrated by this little upstart and chases after him in the corner, but Rolando evades, and Cardona goes headfirst to the steel chair he set up earlier. There’s a flying head butt, and a splash by Rolando to gain momentum, and he attempts to whip Cardona to the corner, but he reverses and he gets hit by the same chair in the corner to his kidneys. Cardona tries to take him, on, but there’s still some fight left in The Biggest Brother, as he lands a missile dropkick followed by a short flatliner and then second to cover for one, two…and Knox gets his foot on the bottom rope in the nick of time.
Rush has had enough and he attacks, and then VSK and Brady Pierce all come out to brawl. Rolando comes to the aid with a crossbody to all four men on the floor. He goes back in to face Cardona, but he gets a low blow to his…err, little brothers. Cardona nails with forearm shots and then channels The Power of Douchenozzlery™ with a series of Reboots. As he sets up for a fourth, Trevor Murdoch comes out and delivers with a flying bulldog to Cardona. He drags Rolando’s lifeless carcass over to get his arm draped for the pin as the ref counts for one, two, and three!
Your Winner via Pinfall: Rolando Freeman
Cardona is beside himself as he has lost to Rolando twice in as many nights, and The Biggest Brother heads out of the ring as the show goes to credits.
Final Thoughts:
I wasn’t sold on the Rolando Freeman character at first, but I can see how his appeal can be effectively utilized in the NWA. Now with double losses, Cardona can use any excuse and still be relevant before his next wrestling match. The other takeaways like EC3 in the NWA and the new angle he and Latimer have going look promising as well. We’ll see how it shapes up after a while.
For now, see you in seven!