May Valentine interviewed Kamille to start off the show and she listed off some of the greats that were women’s champions in the past, but that it was time for a greater champion to take the NWA’s legacy to a new level.
Kamille talked about how she was sitting next to May at the last show, and was upset that May Valentine talked about Thunder Rosa when Kamille was there to be interviewed. Kamille addressed Rosa’s comments that she was a coward, and talked about how she was going to defeat Serena Deeb.
–May Valentine was with Billy Corgan, and Corgan talked about how Trevor Murdoch was the kind of man that when you mess with him, he will never let it go. Corgan talked about how everyone has a chance in the NWA, and it doesn’t matter their background, he is going to give everyone a chance.
Corgan compared Trevor Murdoch to Jerry Blackwell, given that he is not a traditional looking wrestler, but that he can go. Corgan made the point that the NWA was the land of opportunity and Murdoch is championship material. He was trained by Harley Race, and Aldis was too. Corgan said that Harley was right about both of them, and the main event of When Our Shadows Fall is going to be a great match. Good interview with Corgan here in a rare physical appearance on NWA television.
–Latimer and Kamille talked about being a successful couple in pro wrestling. Latimer touched on his friendship with Aldis and how he wasn’t offended that Aldis said that as long as everyone performs, they’re safe with Strictly Business.
Latimer said Nick Aldis was talking about everyone else, and not him, even though he specifically named Latimer, which is interesting. They also touched on Latimer wanting the tag titles back.
Tim Storm & Sal Rinauro defeated Hawx Aerie (Luke and PJ Hawx)
This was a really great tag match to highlight Hawx Aerie, and Tim Storm and Sal Rinauro worked like the veterans they are. Excellent match.
PJ Hawx and Sal Rinauro started the match with some technical wrestling, and PJ Hawx used his experience as an amateur wrestler to stay on top of Rinauro. Luke Hawx and Tim Storm got in there, and it’s hard to believe he’s PJ Hawx’ father. He’s only 39, but this father and son tag team is a nice hidden gem on the indies based on what I’ve seen in this match.
Storm tagged Rinauro in, hitting a handspring stunner sending Luke Hawx backwards to his son, who tagged in and gained the advantage back against Rinauro. Luke Hawx worked over the back of Rinauro for a bit, and PJ Hawx worked over the arm with some arm bars.
Rinauro made the hot tag to Storm, who ran wild on both men, but PJ Hawx was able to break up a pinfall attempt and he suplexed Rinauro. Storm responded by hitting PJ Hawx with a Cross Rhodes, and then Storm hit his Bossman Slam on Luke Hawx, and Rinauro made the pin for the victory.
–They recapped the botched finish of the War Kings becoming #1 contender, and the masked man interfering and attacking Crimson last week, and the rest of the events leading into Where Our Shadows Fall, where champions Aron Stevens and JR Kratos will face Jax Dane & Crimson and Chris Adonis & Thom Latimer.
–Nick Aldis talked about what it meant to be the NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, and how he had to do some terrible things to Tim Storm to make it happen. He didn’t want to do those things. It was just what had to be done.
He also talked about Trevor Murdoch, saying he wasn’t afraid of him, but that he believed that Murdoch was not the right kind of person to lead the NWA. He didn’t believe that Murdoch was championship material.
Aldis also talked about Kamille facing Serena Deeb, and Adonis & Latimer being in the triple threat for the tag titles. One thing that sticks out to me here that doesn’t make sense is that Latimer and Adonis were stripped of their #1 contender position by Corgan a few weeks ago. They haven’t earned the shot on TV, so this seems a bit odd to me, unless one of them were the ones to attack Crimson, giving them a reason for being in the match.
Aldis put over Kamille, saying she has flourished under his learning tree, and also talked about the tag title match. This was really good stuff here. He put over the psychology of tag team wrestling and analyzed all 3 teams and their strengths and weaknesses, while insisting that Strictly Business was going to win.
–Billy Corgan was then interviewed. He put over Kamille and how she worked hard to get where she is today, and while Thunder Rosa might say she was handed opportunities, Corgan felt like she earned her position and worked very hard for it. Corgan also talked about Stevens & Kratos, War Kings, and Latimer & Adonis match as a whole.
He explained why the War Kings were in the match, as they had their match stolen from them, and that Latimer & Adonis were added because of Latimer’s background as tag team champion. He didn’t want to be about taking away opportunities, but wanted to let Stevens and Kratos take the opportunity from them. At least they tried to explain it. It isn’t good, but at least they tried to explain it.
Corgan talked about the main event as well, putting over Murdoch and Aldis.
Final Thoughts:
This wasn’t a bad show. Billy Corgan really tried to tie all the stories he was telling together throughout the show, and Nick Aldis was a highlight in the storytelling. Corgan was actually excellent here. It might be good to have him on commentary every week telling these stories, as it will drive it all home a bit better. I understand why he doesn’t want to be on TV all the time, but doing commentary might work well for him.
This was a pretty good show to build the PPV. It also had a good tag match, so I would say between the promos and Corgan explaining things deeply, it was about as good as it could get. One notable missing part was Trevor Murdoch, and it would have helped to have him do a promo or two.