Country Gentlemen look to put family first and win gold on first live NWA Powerrr
The Country Gentlemen’s AJ Cazana and Anthony Andrews preview their upcoming opportunity at the NWA United States Tag Team Championship on the first-ever live Powerrr in Knoxville
The National Wrestling Alliance will kick off their 2023 by taking a significant step forward with the first-ever live Powerrr show, airing this Tuesday night at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, TN.
The card will feature battles between the very best of the NWA’s talented roster, including The Country Gentlemen challenging The Fixers for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship.
The show will serve as a homecoming of sorts for Country Gentlemen’s AJ Cazana, who has ties to the wrestling-rich city. With the event emanating only 30 minutes from his home and him having family in attendance, he’s hoping to walk away with a new piece of hardware.
“It’s a town that’s dying for good professional wrestling,” Cazana told Daily DDT about competing in Knoxville. “Not only good professional wrestling, but consistently good professional wrestling. Hopefully with the NWA deciding to do some live Powerrrs, we’ll probably plan on having more depending on how this one goes, it’s a huge deal to be the staple and the number one spot to decide to run a live event.”
His partner and cousin Anthony Andrews added: “We get to go and do this in a town that means so much to the entire family. We get to go in there in front of AJ’s close family and win the U.S. tag team titles for the NWA.”
⚡️ The United States Tag Team Champions The Fixers will defend against The Country Gentlemen! #NWAPowerrr @WreckingBall75 @AjCazana @AdorableAA pic.twitter.com/HxFRb1MCWE
— NWA (@nwa) January 19, 2023
It hasn’t been long since Country Gentlemen arrived on the NWA tag team scene, with this marking their biggest opportunity at gold to date. They’ve already made great strides as a duo and see this as their first real test when it comes to proving their worth.
“Any world title is the goal, but the U.S. tag titles are a good start for a couple of guys young in this business,” Cazana said. “They’re not stepping stones, I feel like that demeans them, but hopefully it gives us an opportunity to cement ourselves and our legacy in NWA and start making runs at world titles across any promotion, including the NWA World Tag Team Championship currently held by La Rebelion.”
Country Gentlemen came close to becoming the inaugural NWA United States Tag Team champions back at Night 2 of NWA 74 last August. This will be their chance to right that wrong and avenge their loss to The Fixers that evening.
“Coming up in Knoxville, they know it’s going to be a fight between The Country Gentlemen and The Fixers and we’re proud to win those championships,” Andrews said. “Family is a big thing to me. When I first saw us connect with that chemistry, it was Night 1 of NWA 74. We went up against Marshe Rockett and Jordan Clearwater and they tried to get a cheap shot. AJ was right there and he had my back. He was the one who won that match. I know he’s there any time I need him and I can always count on him. Family’s always first.”
Although they acknowledge it will always be an uphill battle in the NWA, they recognize becoming champs will give the bigger platform they’ve been craving.
“The Fixers are entertaining guys, without a doubt,” Cazana said. “The platform grows, the opportunities grow to get our point across, and we’ll seek out more challenges. It’s also an opportunity to grow the brand and grow our brand. It’s definitely exciting to think about.”
If they can capture the titles in Knoxville, they’ll be taking them to Mexico for one of NWA’s next television taping. They teased clashing with current NWA World Tag Team Champions La Rebelion while there as well as Blunt Force Trauma, Idol Sports Management, The Ill Begotten and The Mortons.
As far as dream matches are concerned, The Kingdom and FTR lead that list for Country Gentlemen if the stars were to ever align.
“If it works out, I’m a big fan of The Kingdom,” Cazana said. “I think that’d be a fun, entertaining exhibition of fight tactics. There’s a lot of up-and-coming tag teams and I’m willing to take on any and all challengers. Heck, if we could work out a deal with FTR, that’s my dream tag team match.”
Andrews then paid respect to Mark and the late, great Jay Briscoe, who spent time in the NWA just last year and won the 2022 Crockett Cup. Unfortunately, the two teams were never able to square off.
“The Briscoes are guys that love to fight and that would’ve been incredible,” he said. “That’s something that was always in the back of my mind. That would’ve been a perfect match to me, especially in something like the Crockett Cup.”
The NWA has added a ton of highly skilled competitors to its ranks over the last year, faces both fresh and familiar to fans. All of them are working toward building the brand so weekly live shows such as this upcoming one in Knoxville become a regular occurrence.
The promotion’s long lineage has drawn many to want to work there and Country Gentlemen are no exception. They will have the honor of etching their names into the NWA’s history books by winning the twin titles on Powerrr.
“Everyone’s so good at what they do,” Andrews said. “To be a part of NWA’s current crop of champions, that’s what I’m excited about and why I’m excited to be in the company because we’re all big people who can fight and that’s what I enjoy.”
Cazana shares that same mindset. They want to grow the business in a different way, carrying their knowledge on, and fuel the fire of what it means to run a successful wrestling territory.
“We’ve been very lucky to know what some of the goals are for the future,” he said. “I know the goals they had were to run more frequently, and if we could do a Powerrr live every Tuesday and an NWA USA live every Saturday, that would help a lot of the talent within the NWA. It would give them an opportunity to travel and continue to grow the brand. I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful chain of events in the NWA’s history that will bring it back to the forefront of professional wrestling.”