![]() After watching part of the Highspots.com produced documentary called Championship Wrestling From Florida: The Story of wrestling in the Sunshine State. I've decided that now would be the perfect time to announce the first inductee into the Wrestling Express Hall of Fame Class of 2021. Every year I've tried to change things up and add some new layer to new class like last year was the first year a stable was inducted into the Hall of Fame that being the Four Horsemen. This year will be the first year an announcer will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. In my opinion there is only one announcer that can be selected to join any Hall of Fame first and that is the "Dean of pro-wrestling", the "Walter Cronkite of pro-wrestling" Gordon Solie. Some might disagree, but when the greatest modern wrestling announcer Jim Ross says he modeled his style off of Gordon that should tell how special Gordon Solie was during his prime. Gordon was on a level all his own and would provide an unmatched level of credibility to the program. He always treated wrestling with respect and in return the fans did the same as they grew to respect Gordon. For more then half a century Gordon was the voice of Championship Wrestling from Florida's weekly television show and Gordon was also the lead announcer for Georgia Championship Wrestling's television show. Later in his career following the closure of CWF, Gordon would move onto Continental Wrestling and USA Championship Wrestling both promotions based out of Knoxville. His last stop on a national scale though was as a member of World Championship Wrestling. Gordon at this point would announce weekly programs here and there early on but would transition to more of a PPV exclusive commentator near the end of his career. Much like Bobby Heenan is the manager all other managers tried to measure themselves against Gordon Solie will always be the announcer all other announcers measure themselves against as he is the greatest of all time and the newest member of the Wrestling Express Hall of Fame.
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As always wrestling gives us both great memories and memories we try and forget, but with the amount of moments worth remembering that have happened we are bound to forget some. The same could be said about some talent that were very much underrated during their career or never at the top of a company during a run this unfortunately makes it easier for fans to forget certain talent. These two are very different talent and had two very different careers while they worked in this great business. Sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below
It has been a few months at this point since we spoke about the National Wrestling Alliance and that I've found anything worth updating you on. I will not go into much detail as to the why, because I'd prefer to keep that type of thing of my website. Either way though former VP of NWA Dave Lagana has resigned from his position and now plans are up in the air for the NWA. At last word the NWA was mostly ran based on the vision of Lagana. Corgan hasn't been an absent owner it's more that he hasn't been focusing on just the NWA which left Lagana to run things on the day to day. It was Corgan who wanted Zicky Dice to be Television Champion and have Ricky Starks chasing him be one of the main programs for the promotion.
However, neither Ricky Starks or Zicky Dice are under contract with the National Wrestling Alliance at this time as both men have moved on and Ricky even signed with AEW. At this point there really isn't much known about what the promotion has planned going forward, but we do know that Billy Corgan has a lot of things to figure out before we will see another episode of NWA Power. According to Sean Sapp on Fightful it was talked about that Nick Aldis could take over the position, but the current Worlds Champion doesn't not poses the same skill set that Dave Lagana has. It seems like it's just another road block in a never ending string of road blocks for a promotion that was just starting to build some forward momentum. It would surprise me at this point if the NWA will run another event before the end of 2020 due to this turn of events. For those wondering the Crockett Cup was postponed due to the current societal situation and I'm sure the matches at least the title matches will happen at a later date, but the tournament will have to wait till next year. After thirty one years the NWA made the decision to bring the former annual event back which was won by Thomas Latimer and Royce Isaacs who came into the tournament as the unproven commodity but left as champions.
It would've been interesting to see if Wild Cards would've been able to repeat or at least show just how far they've come in the last year. I for one would've been biased for the Rock N Roll Express to get close or win as this is the only thing they've never done before in their long careers. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more intrigued by Scurll vs Aldis then I am by most of what can be found on regular programming for major companies. The NWA has been hit just like most other companies, but the recovery will be all the more beautiful. What is the first match you'd like to see from the NWA once the recovery period begins? I'm sticking with the Scurll vs Aldis saga, but I am really curious how the released WWE talent might fit into the ranks in the NWA or if they will even be brought in due to the smaller roster size the NWA has been keeping. We will have to wait and see I'm sure!! With the influx of new content coming on YouTube it was time to kick start a new series on the website or at least give a new series a try. Over the decades the world of wrestling has seen a number of feuds fall by the waist side for a variety of reasons, in most cases this has lead to some feuds becoming forgotten to the annals of history. Following the departure of Anderson & Blanchard the Midnight Express needed a new team to fight against. It was left up to Jim Cornette who the Midnight would feud with next and the choice was easy he selected Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose the Original Midnight Express. Cornette has always done great work, but having someone like JJ Dillon or Paul Heyman who could match him tit for tat on the microphone helped him up his game to the next level. To see the hot start this feud had and to know where it ended up it leaves the question of what could've been. It looked legit and like two unemployed wrestlers came in the back door and jumped the Midnight Express. It's been a little bit of time since we last visited the National Wrestling Alliance and for good reason since they had taken their normal pre-ppv hiatus last month and were going to spend the time away promoting the upcoming Crockett Cup event. At this point it seems like everything will be going as normal for the Crockett Cup this weekend as I've not seen or heard anything that would suggest otherwise. However, I would think the NWA had a plan in place with the current circumstances in mind and it just wasn't covered or reported on.
In a quote taken from pro-wrestling.net you can see the current plan for the NWA: "The National Wrestling Alliance released a video (available below) hosted by Stu Bennett that includes a breakdown of the content that the promotion will be releasing this week. The build to the 2019 Crockett Cup will be spotlighted today at 5:05CT/6:05ET, and the entire Crockett Cup 2019 event will stream on Sunday at 6CT/7ET on the NWA YouTube and NWA Facebook pages. On Tuesday, April 21, the NWA will stream Kamille’s NWA in-ring debut and her first words at 5:05CT/6:05ET." Full article can be found here!! Overall I think that the NWA could find a way to make things work and give fans an easy escape and a sense of normalcy during this very trying period of time. I'm happy that the NWA is using their deep archives to their advantage earlier this week the NWA released an episode of Houston Wrestling. For those who might not know it is very rare to find footage from Houston partially due to Houston being one of the few territories not under the WWE umbrella. This week we found out that the next episode of NWA Circle Squared was uploaded and it includes episodes 2 and 3 of the new series. Now not unlike when episode 1 was uploaded NWA placed NWA Power on a week hiatus. As Sean Mooney mentions during the episode NWA Power will not air this week and will return in two weeks with Super Power. For the most part this episode of NWA Power sets up the big episode of the show coming up in two weeks. Based on the programming schedule that Mooney announced during the episode it seems like we could be seeing a bit more gaps in programming for NWA Power in the weeks to come prior to Crockett Cup at the end of April. It is also worth noting that this episode of Power has two title matches including James Storm and Eli Drake defending the Tag Titles and Ricky Starks defending the Television Championship. One underrated match from the show was The Dawson's vs CW Anderson & Caleb Konley in a last chance match which basically means that the losing team will get released. I will also hopefully be able to provide an update on Circle Squared and what the future could hold for the Hawx Family from episode one. At first when it was announced I didn't have a clue what to expect from Circle Squared. Billy Corgan made it clear this show would be designed to give wrestlers an opportunity to be seen on a level they had never been seen before. I still don't know some details about the show like will it be weekly or monthly is it a contest where more people will be added to it or is this the field we have to chose from; I think some of these questions will be answered over time and we will have to wait to find the answers. In my opinion, NWA The Circle Squared is what Tough Enough should've been from the start as this show is focused on the wrestling. Tough Enough never lived up to it's potential to be something special and different for WWE, but with it's debut episode out of the way The Circle Squared has set the bar and now it's time to see what happens next. I remember seeing Luke Hawx in Xtreme Pro-Wrestling back in the day and to see him with his son now shows a little glimpse of how much things have changed in the last fifteen years. I will not spoil anything cause there really isn't anything to spoil other than letting you know that all updates and information pertaining to this program can be found here. One final note is both teams showed a lot of potential and could lend a much needed hand to a laboring division in the NWA. I would select PJ & Luke Hawx, because the NWA is about giving the unproven commodities an opportunity they wouldn't receive elsewhere which is the reason they deserve it in the NWA. It's up to the fans who earns the shot visit the link provided above and cast your vote for either PJ & Luke Hawx or Dean & Neal then find out next week who wins. Overall I'm excited for episode two and to see what happens for both teams from episode one. This week will be a bit different, because there will not be a new episode of NWA Power this week instead the NWA will be launching a new program. The new program is called Circle Squared which I will be watching at some point this week. In a bit of praise to the NWA for finally shining a bit of light on the reasons why Marti Belle joined Melina and turned against her friend Allysin Kay. At this point I'm still trying to figure out the intense developing rivalry between Eddie Kingston and The Pope with that being said I will hold back on a judgment for right now. After seeing Matt Cross gain a victory last week against Konely now this week we get our chance to see Ricky Starks defend the TV Title against Matt Cross. Thom Latimier will also gain a major opportunity to prove himself on this episode against former NWA World Champion Tim Storm. As for the main event my eyes were Sal Rinauro and May Valentine as much as I was paying attention to the main event. I'm enjoying this developing rivalry between Rinauro and Issacs and am interested to see where we go from here. I'm also excited to see what Circle Squared will have for us and how it will fit into NWA's weekly programming schedule alongside NWA Power. With the success of NWA Power it is finally time for the National Wrestling Alliance to expand their programming schedule. In October last year wrestling bore witness to a sight we never thought possible as I never expected the NWA to have a weekly program. It is thanks to Billy Corgan that wrestling has returned to it's roots in studio wrestling and the way wrestling was once presented back in the day. Around a month or so ago Billy Corgan appeared on NWA Power to announce the first expansion to NWA with the invention of Circle Squared. This episodic show will feature unproven stars being given an opportunity to prove themselves to a new audience. In my opinion, it sounds a bit like Tough Enough, but with more of a focus on wrestling and the youngsters proving their skills and showing they deserve a contract with NWA. The first episode of Circle Squared will arrive next Tuesday and will hosted by Sean Mooney.
The newest expansion to the programming line is a face to face talk show called Powerr Surge and it seems a little bit like AEW Control Center. In a way it's a way for the NWA to make sure that fans can stay updated on the current feuds and goings on in the NWA on a week to week basis just in case a fan misses the actual weekly show. Since the beginning of NWA Power in October they've made a big deal of the seasons which normally ends before a PPV event. Now they will start making an even bigger deal of these shows calling them Super Power. |
AuthorWith the rise of a social media presence for the NWA. It was fitting to move things for the site. Archives
December 2020
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