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NWA: Rhodes to the top

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Blodyxe Community Regular

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NWA World's Heavyweight Championship

"The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes © vs. "The Machine" Brian Cage

 

Crockett Cup Round 1

"The National Treasure" Nick Aldis & ??? vs. Crimson & Jax Dax The War Kings

 

NWA Women's World's Championship

"The Female Fighting Phenom" Jazz © vs. "AK-47" Allysin Kay

 

NWA National Heavyweight Championship Open challenge

"The Mack" Willie Mack vs. ???

 

International Showcase

"El Ave Fenix de la Lucha Libre" Laredo Kid vs. "The Japanese Buzzsaw" Tajiri

 

Proving Grounds - Winner get an NWA Contract

"OUTLANDISH" Zicky Dice vs. The Question Mark

 

Awesome card! Hope Mack retains

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Munit Apprentice

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Cody Rhodes © vs. Brian Cage

Nick Aldis & ??? vs. The War Kings

BONUS: Who is the mystery partner? Murdock

Jazz © vs. Allysin Kay

Willie Mack © vs. ???

Laredo Kid vs. Tajiri

Zicky Dice vs. The Question Mark

 

 

Really liking the look of this. Rhodes as world champion thats a fighting champion in the NWA is just so cool to me.

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christmas_ape Community Regular

christmas_ape

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NWA NEW YEAR'S CLASH

January 9th, 2019

Hosted by Tony Schiavone, Jim Cornette & Joe Galli

 

NWA World's Heavyweight Championship

"The American Nightmare" Cody Rhodes © vs. "The Machine" Brian Cage

 

Crockett Cup Round 1

"The National Treasure" Nick Aldis & ??? vs. Crimson & Jax Dax The War Kings

 

NWA Women's World's Championship

"The Female Fighting Phenom" Jazz © vs. "AK-47" Allysin Kay

 

NWA National Heavyweight Championship Open challenge

"The Mack" Willie Mack vs. ???

 

International Showcase

"El Ave Fenix de la Lucha Libre" Laredo Kid vs. "The Japanese Buzzsaw" Tajiri

 

Proving Grounds - Winner get an NWA Contract

"OUTLANDISH" Zicky Dice vs. The Question Mark

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DHK1989 Community Regular

DHK1989

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Cody Rhodes © vs. Brian Cage

Nick Aldis & ??? vs. The War Kings

BONUS: Who is the mystery partner? Doug Williams

Jazz © vs. Allysin Kay

Willie Mack © vs. ???

BONUS: Who will answer the open challenge? Trevor Murdoch

Laredo Kid vs. Tajiri

Zicky Dice vs. The Question Mark

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BigJ Contributor

BigJ

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Wrestlingobserver.jpg

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CODY RHODES

Cody Rhodes talks 5 year of NWA, bringing the brand back to relevance, the first PPV back

1st October, 2023

 

So, Cody. You kept the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship at NWA 70. You became the EVP and began "the Climb", a Youtube series of you defending the title and being the torch bearer for the NWA. It all culminated in NWA's return to PPV with "New Year's Clash", on January 2019.

 

Damn, that was almost 5 years ago, right? Time flies.

With New Year's Clash, we came back to PPV on FITE. It was a big step, and we were nervous. It's not a make or break situation, because we weren't gonna be "made" in one night. But if it flopped... Even if the event was just "meh", we would have been ridiculous.

 

We wanted to attract old viewers with the brand: bringing back the old Georgia National title, having a classic world title defense with bad blood, and bringing back the Crockett Cup. But we also wanted to make ourselves known to new viewers. First step was my name recognition, obviously. Bringing people by cashing on my name and my star power. But once people were hooked, we wanted them to stay for the old school feel, for the heavily story-driven show, for the fresh names like Laredo Kid and Allysin Kay. For the great wrestlers like Jazz and Nick Aldis. It was our proving ground.

 

Expectations were sure high... Now, walk us through that card and what happened that night.

 

 

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NWA New Year's Clash

January 9th 2019

 

So, the show opened with Jim Cornette, Tony Schiavone and Joe Galli on commentary. I like the three men coulour table, were everyone has a role. Cornette is the weasel who supports the bad guys. Tony is the guy everybody likes who calls it fair. They both got an old school feeling. Cornette represents 80's NWA, Schiavone is associated with WCW. And then, Joe Galli was the new kid on the block, he's the sports-like analyst. As they ran down the card, I was in Gorilla Position, nervous as hell. I co-produced the event with Billy and Dave, and it was tense.

 

Thank god, Tommy & DDP were there to reassure me - and be road agents for the matches.

 

 

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We started the show with The Question Mark and Zicky Dice. The goal there was simple: work the crowd up with a simple, story driven match and bits of comedy. The stipulation was that the winner would earn a contract with the NWA.

 

Zicky was a Seth Rollins trainee with tons of characters. The crowd in Tennessee immediately hated him and his fanny pack. Question Mark - who you know now was Jocephus repackaged - was a throwback to mysterious masked grapplers like the Assassins and the Masked Superstar. He behaved like a cold brute, slowly and menacing.

 

The match was short: Zicky did his thing, Question Mark dominated, then was surprised by a big right hand. The ref got in the middle - we wanted to make clear from the first match that we were old school: no closed fist punch. From there, Zicky cheated a little, but was taken down by a karate chop. Question Mark won after 7:02. Short and to the point.

 

After the match, Billy Came out and offered him the contract he just won. Question, Mark was cold, menacing, and Billy didn't spend that much time in the ring. On commentary, the guys tried to put over this guy as a menacing figure.

 

 

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We did hit the lottery with that match right?

After the storytelling match, we hit the fans with some fast actions to lift them up. Laredo Kid was one of the fastest rising luchador on the US, and we scooped him just at the right time. The guy is crazy, he flies in the ring like it's nothing. The match was a clash of generation as he faced veteran Tajiri. Do we need to introduce Tajiri? The guy still got it.

 

They fought a great competitive match with some high spots. Laredo Kid even took a bump over the top and directly through a ringside table. Of course this bump is nothing crazy like ECW or Memphis fans are used to, but this stunt bump made the crowd pop huge.

 

After some back and forth, they engaged into a fast exchange of kicks, parry and dodge. Tajiri attempted a leg sweep, but Laredo countered into a standing moonsault for a two count. The count was so close Laredo Kid got to the ref to be sure it wasn't a three count. Tajiri jumped on the occasion, he bumped his opponent into the ref, turned Laredo Kid back and hit his green mist. He just had to followed with a roll up, and the ref turned around for the three count. Tajiri won in 13:41 according to my notes.

 

Now, let's be honest. Fans on the internet weren't happy. In the NWA sub-reddit, we got accused of putting "old people" over "youngesters". Ok guys, calm down for a minute. Yeah, Laredo Kid had the most upside. But we were growing a business here. Tajiri had loooots of connexion we could use in Japan. We stroke a deal with him few days after the show - and it included some of his students! Giving him his win was a gesture towards him. After this show he acted as our primarly agent with Japanese wrestlers. And Laredo Kid stayed strong in defeat, setting up a rematch down the line.

 

 

Then came the National Title Open challenge. Who would it be? Who will face Willie Mack?

 

We dropped hints in the Ten Pounds of Gold episode leading up to this. Fans were speculating on Chris Adonis, Trevor Murdoch, and even James Storm! To be faire it almost was Storm, but he signed back to Impact Wrestling. So we turned to another guy who could embody the blue collar vibe we wanted for the National Title division. In the end, we went with...

 

 

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JD Drake!

 

 

The blue collar bad ass was at the time the WWN Champion, and was sitting at the top of EVOLVE wrestling. He came to the ring with his belt and confronted Willie Mack. He said he respect him, but this title means a lot to him - it reminds him of the men he grew up to be like. Lars Anderson, Harley Race, Dory and Terry Funk. It would be an honor to wear it. The two men shook hands, and we had our match.

 

 

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And just like that, with an open challenge, we had our hoss fight of the night as Willie Mack defended his National Championship against JD Drake.

 

They went at each others with chops, they went at each other with forearms... It was classic old school fighting spirit, think Killer Khan versus my father in Florida in the 70s, or Butcher Vachon versus Larry Hennig. But they added a modern twist to it. Mack is a big guy, and so is JD. They're not that tall, but they are heavyweights. And boy are they agile. During the match, Mack hit a tope con hilo that made the fans go crazy, and JD Drake attempted a moonsault that was countered later in the match.

 

After a good fifteen minutes of fight, we made the classic strong style conclusion to the match. Both fighters were exhausted, both were dragging themlselves to the center of the ring and hitting each others. Mack attempted a Stunner but was sent to the ropes, and JD Drake caught him with a brutal spinebuster to win the NWA National Championship.

 

Now, Mack only had the reinstated title for a short time. But he was signed to Impact and only with us on loan. So we had to think of another champion. We wanted this title to be about bad asses, about hard nose fighters. And that's what we got with JD Drake.

 

After the match, Mack put him over on the mic, said he was a tough SOB, and thanked the NWA fans.

 

 

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Next up was Jazz defending the Women's Championship against Allysin Kay. At this point, Jazz was champion for close to two years I think, but didn't defend the belt that much.

 

We wanted to put her over as a strong fighter, so she immediately sent Allysin Kay down. This match was the old trope of stronger babyface getting overwhelmed by her opponent's cunning and cheating. Allysin Kay pulled her hair when she could, punched her with a closed fist once, and never released submission holds before the ref's 4. It went so far that the ref issued a warning to Kay at the center of the ring: if she tried anything else she would be disqualified.

 

Jazz rallied, and she came back in the match with strong power moves. She almost had the match won with a powerslam, but Kay kicked out. Kay made it back to her feet, Jazz preyed on her - and this is wrestling, everyone and their mother tought Kay would counter and win. But Jazz hit a spear for the three count, and kept the championship!

 

The obvious choice was to have Kay win to usher in a new era for the women's division. I wanted to do that. But Billy convinced me reminding me what they did with Tim Storm. We continued to establish the old champion, we started to make some challengers emerge, and we set the stage.

 

 

And then, the surprise. Jax Dane and Crimson were waiting on Nick Aldis to show up for the first round match of the Crockett Cup. Aldis told his "best friend" was coming to team with me. People speculated it would be Marty Scurll or Thomas Latimer aka Bram - two people who came up in wrestling in the UK with Aldis. It could also be his former co-tag champ Doug Williams. We went with the out of the box choice, with perhaps the less hype possible man...

 

 

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ROB TERRY!

 

 

That's right, Rob Terry, Nick Aldis' pal and his former enforcer in TNA's British Invasion. Now let's be honest, the reveal didn't happen to a huge reaction from the fans. Terry had fallen of the radar, he wasn't hype. But the man put a lot of efforts when we approached him two months ago, and he was ripped. I mean, RIPPED! He cut an impressive figure and Nick Aldis made sure to put him over as the strongest man in wrestling.

 

 

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So, the Crockett Cup was back with this first round match. War Kings, Dane & Crimson, an established team that Road Warrior Animal endorsed at NWA 70, and former NWA World's Heavyweight Champ Nick Aldis and his muscle Rob Terry.

 

The match started with Nick Aldis trying to overpower Jax Dane. Aldis is a big athletic dude, but Dane... Well he's built like a brick dog with no neck - no offense to Tomohiro Ishii. They exchanged back and forth, and Aldis retreated. Then, Rob Terry entered. We wanted to make sure he was kept strong, so he rolled throught Jax Dane. He overpowered him and no sold some of his offense. Now, not feeling the hit of a former World's champion like Dane was sure something, right?

 

The match was pretty classic, with lots of tags and double team manoeuver. We wanted to make a point that this is the classic old school NWA tag team formula, with the bad guys isolating one of their opponents (here, Jax Dane). Then Crimson had a hot tag, finally took Rob Terry down, and attempted a chokeslam... But couldn't lift Rob Terry up. The Welshman headbutted him like a hooligan, hit a chokeslam of his own, and pinned Crimson while Nick Aldis held Jax Dane off with a dropkick. Rob Terry & Nick Aldis won their first match back as a team in over 5 years, advancing in round 2 of the Crockett Cup.

 

 

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And then, the big one.

 

People bought the show for multiple reasons, but we wanted them to leave New Year's Clash talking about that main event. We wanted to steal the show.

 

I came to the ring with Tommy Dreamer, Brandi and DDP. Of course, Dreamer was eager to have Brian Cage defeated after he attacked him, igniting this feud.

 

We went all out, hitting moves on moves on moves. It was a classic David vs. Goliath, with me playing the role of the fan favourite in danger. Some people might actually think I was gonna lose to fall back to my EVP position. After all, the NWA always revolved around heel champions, and Cage was quite the specimen.

 

When the fight went to the outside, Cage launched me face first into the ring post, busting up my forehead. People have made the joke that this isn't an NWA World's title match if someone isn't covered in a crimson mask... And doing a figure four leglock. Unfortunately, I didn't conquer Cage with the leg lock. Instead, I hit him with a Crossrhodes for a near fall, he came back up, and i hit him with a Dreamer DDT to win the match, keep the title, and hit him with some poetic justice.

 

In the end, of course, I celebrated with my team to send the crowd home happy. I took the microphone and thanked them. I really liked when New Japan wrestlers did it at the end of shows.

 

At the moment, I was sure this show was a success. Not a big one, not a five star show, but we did that we wanted. We created a feel, we established some guys. This was a good beginning... But just the beginning.

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BigJ Contributor

BigJ

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PREDICTION RESULTS

 

Old School Fan:5/6 - congrats to him on being the only one to have guessed Rob Terry!

Hollywood: 4/6

Theheel: 4/6

scmurph01: 4/6

kanegan: 3/6

evileddie10: 3/6

christmas_ape: 3/6

Munit: 3/6

Blodyxe: 2/6

DHK1989: 2/6

 

Thanks all for participating, I hope you like the show and the way of narrating it!

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