NWA is going weirdly off track
Billy Corgan has been running a tight ship as head director of the NWA. I wrote an article praising the company's comeback which seemed brilliantly simple and nostalgic. At one point, I considered getting an NWA+ subscription from Triller TV so I could catch all their PPVs. But lately, the NWA has made some incredibly bizarre choices that have thrust the company into some unfavorable spots. Where do we get started?
The champions have been iffy. Ever since Trevor Murdoch dropped the belt to Tyrus in 2022 fans started to gripe that Tyrus couldn't live up to the hype. He would eventually drop the title to EC3 and retire from the sport, enjoying his spot as a Fox News contributor (wait what?). EC3 ushered in a new era of NWA that sought to make its brand stand out.
And then Father James Mitchell snorted crack on their promo video for the CW. I'll repeat that one more time. The Sinister Minister decided that their Samhain PPV needed a spot where the manager snorted crack. This sounded the alarm for their new television prospect, CW, which they negatively reacted to. CW demoted them to only stream on their app and not their televised programming.
The PPV, Samhain, made things weirder as James Mitchell opened the show with female valets wearing skimpy spandex and masks of his bearded face. This was not Halloween Havoc. The storyline suggests that Father James owns the souls of Sal the Pal and Gaagz the Gymp. The Miserably Faithful is just one of the many goth and completely Hot Topic-inspired wrestlers that are chasing the subtly that The Undertaker introduced.
Billy Corgan has always had a stable hold on NWA, wanting it to be a shining southern belle that could bring back the spirit of the territories. Unfortunately, that was not bringing in enough cash so they needed to go full Smashing Pumpkins on the brand. The NWA is the home of Ric Flair, Harley Race, and Kamille and now it feels like EC3 and Colby Corino are the only ones working to keep the integrity of the product. The NWA carved out a niche in a super bloated market where everyone is trying to be the next AEW or WWE, but the new direction is just weird.
Right now, in 2024, the NWA is a strange mix of southern-style hillbilly personas and goth personas and the level of their in-ring talent isn't making up for the weirdness. Max the Impaler is in the headlines and EC3 hasn't made any leaps and bounds with the world title. I have always wanted NWA to flourish because it is such a neat product with a great history, but I cannot follow it into Hot Topics from Georgia and the wrestling and production levels aren't carrying their weight.