NWA Pop-Up Event (January 2019)

So Billy Corgan's revived National Wrestling Alliance - which is slowly but surely getting back on track with its weekly PPV gimmick that got TNA off the ground - ran its second event in January last year; a "pop-up" event. This featured a Nick Aldis vs. James Storm match for the NWA World Title, but it also featured former WCW World Champion David Arquette in a hair vs hair match against some guy named Joe... kinda, sorta...

Anyway, it was on the NWA Youtube channel for a short while before it was taken down, so I figured why not? This was a show that was thrown together quickly, had some marquee matches, and that's about it. Not a major event or anything like that; more like a house show of sorts. Anyway, on with the show.

Max Stardom defeated Jeremiah Plunkett in the opening match. Not familiar with either guy, I'm afraid, and the crowd being rather quiet didn't help matters, either. Both guys tried, but this didn't excite me.

“The War Kings” Crimson and Jax Dane defeated Jay Bradley and Caleb Konley to qualify for the Crockett Cup tournament. Perfectly acceptable tag team match, which is better than the opener, at least. Some upwards mobility.

Crazzy Steve defeated TNT Pro Heavyweight Champion Samuel Shaw (a.k.a. Dexter Lumis in NXT) in what was billed as a Loser Leaves TNT match (TNT being the local Tried-N-True Wrestling promotion hosting this event) to win the title.

Allie defeated NWA Women's Champion Jazz via disqualification. Jazz retains the title. I was not into this match for some reason. I don't know why, but this didn't click. Hell, I don't even remember what prompted the DQ. Oh well. Jazz would eventually give up the title due to medical reasons and Allie would turn into a bunny.

David Arquette and Tim Storm defeated Jocephus and his Spiritual Advisor in a hair vs. hair match. Hey, this was harmless for the most part. Storm and Jocephus had some history and this is sort of a continuation of that. Arquette did his part admirably, I think. Not the greatest match, but for what it was, it was fine. And then we saw clips of Jocephus getting his long hair cut off... presumably so he could become the Question Mark; a role he'd fill until his unfortunate passing earlier this year.

NWA National Champion Willie Mack defeated Matt Cross to retain the title. Good match.

NWA World's Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis defeated James Storm to retain the title in what I'd imagine did not involve pushing Mickie James onto train tracks or something... it's an old TNA thing that exist.

So this isn't a big time PPV; it's essentially a televised house show with some matches from the local talent and a handful of NWA matches. But it's not so much an NWA show than it is a TNT show with some NWA matches on it. It's a fairly nothing indy show, with a less-than-stellar crowd and somewhat lackluster commentary that fail to enhance the matches in any way. I can't blame the talent for this; they try their best and sometimes, it just doesn't work. No biggie.

For the curiosity of seeing David Arquette in action, it's worth checking out for the hell of it, but if you never caught this one, you didn't miss much. During this time, the NWA just existed and was just laying the foundation for other things. This was something to get the name out there and it succeeded in that regard, but the NWA would do better later on.