How Billy Corgan's NWA Reignited My Love of Pro Wrestling

Who knew that watching one episode of NWA Powerrr in 2019 would lead to all of this for me?

I am writing this ahead of this Saturday’s NWA 76 show in Philadelphia, which I will be attending as credentialed media. I am looking forward to the event and wanted to discuss how the National Wrestling Alliance, under Billy Corgan’s ownership, reignited my passion for pro wrestling and led me to start DMV Wrestling News. I went from watching NWA Powerrr to attending independent wrestling shows, to launching DMV Wrestling News and my podcast.

NWA 76 at 2300 Arena in Philly on August 31

Growing up in Upstate South Carolina, I was about 40 miles from Greenville Memorial Auditorium, a regular stop on the Jim Crockett Promotions circuit. I watched Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on Channel 4 every Saturday and later World Wide Wrestling on Channel 13. As a kid, I was a huge fan of Magnum T.A. and the Rock N Roll Express. While I also watched WWF and AWA, my primary focus was on NWA programming under Crockett Promotions. My interest continued into the WCW era until around 1998 when I watched the end of WCW from the WWF perspective on Raw due to a roommate situation.

I was aware of other NWA iterations, including ECW and later TNA, but I never really got into them. My exposure to ECW only came through WWF coverage.

For the past 25 years, I’ve regularly read Mike Mooneyham’s column in the Charleston Post & Courier and followed Kevin Eck’s writing for The Baltimore Sun before he moved to WWE Creative.

After getting married in 2006, Raw became appointment viewing in our household. We watched Royal Rumble and WrestleMania pay-per-views and later subscribed to WWE Network. However, WWE eventually felt old, boring, and stale to me. Although I didn’t watch as much, I still tried to catch WrestleMania and other major events.

I knew about Ring of Honor when it started and was initially interested, but its time slot was inconvenient, so I watched only sporadically. I was generally aware of MCW but knew little about other independent promotions. I remember my wife was really upset that we didn’t go to meet Roddy Piper at MCW in 2015, right before he passed away.

My first exposure to MCW in person came in 2018 when I went to see the Four Horsemen in Joppa, MD. The lines for autographs and photographs were long, and the wrestling show was starting as I was still waiting for a picture taken by Craig Hunter Ross—who has since become a friend. I didn’t make it into the show due to the snow and wanted to get home.

In late summer or early fall of 2019, I discovered that the NWA was on YouTube every Tuesday night with new episodes of Powerrr dropping at 6:05 p.m. Working the night shift at the time, I watched it on my lunch break every Tuesday. The show featured many great wrestlers, but the one who caught my eye the most was Nick Aldis, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the time. He had a classic, throwback look with his custom-tailored suits, engaging promos, and interactions with the audience.

A month before COVID shut the world down in February 2020, Ring of Honor hosted a show called Free Enterprise at UMBC in the Baltimore area. I attended primarily because Nick Aldis was in the main event, which had been promoted on NWA Powerrr. The Briscoes and Joe Hendry also wrestled on that show.

Looking back at the results from that event, many of the people I now know personally or have met before at independent shows or fan conventions include Flip Gordon, Cheeseburger, Dak Draper, Rhett Titus, Blue Meanie, Brian “Mecca” Johnson, Quinn McKay, and Jay Lethal.

I finally attended an MCW show in December 2021 and met Dak Draper, Quinn McKay, and Lio Rush. My daughter became hooked, and we began attending shows regularly, which led to me starting DMV Wrestling News in September 2022 and expanding the shows I attended. I’ve attended wrestling shows from 11 different companies across 5 states, sometimes in two states on the same day. I’m not mentioning this to brag, but to illustrate the path that rediscovering the NWA in 2019 set me on.

Regarding the NWA, I’ve been impressed with their women’s division, particularly Kamille (now in AEW), who transitioned from a valet for Nick Aldis and Strictly Business to become the NWA Women’s Champion. I’ve always enjoyed Pope (Elijah Burke) and the legendary Austin Idol’s work—I’m working to get him on my podcast in the future. I watched when Matt Cardona briefly held the title before an injury. I’ve been impressed with Trevor Murdoch and Aron Stevens, both former WWE wrestlers. I also had the chance to meet Velvet Sky and May Valentine from NWA’s television team at MCW shows. There have been countless other wrestlers I’ve enjoyed watching there.

I believe Billy Corgan’s ownership has been successful overall, and I’m back to watching NWA Powerrr every Tuesday, now on the CW app. The NWA seems to be regaining its stride after the major setback of COVID, which led some of their great talent to move elsewhere, such as Ricky Starks and Eli Drake (now known as L.A. Knight). I’m impressed by their recent signings, including Spencer Slade, who has been on my podcast before.

I’m looking forward to going to the 2300 Arena (where I’ve never been) this Saturday night and meeting some of the legends who will be there, including Austin Idol, Ricky Morton, Joe Cazana, and others. As a Gen X fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, I hope to meet Billy Corgan as well.

Who knew that watching one episode of NWA Powerrr in 2019 would lead all of this to happen?

My podcast episode previewing NWA 76 with Adrianna Mosley and Shawn Carlson dropped earlier this week.

Podcast: Previewing Saturday's NWA 76 in Philly