At the NWA Hard Times event, we saw three brand new champions crowned on an eventful night for the NWA.
Eli Drake & James Storm Win NWA World Tag Team Championships
First, the tag match between the defending champs Rock And Roll Express who defended their tag titles against The Wild Cards Thomas Latimer and Royce Isaacs and the team of Eli Drake and The Cowboy James Storm. This turned out to be an exciting match with great use of tag wrestling between all three teams and was an excellent outing by the Rock and Roll Express, unfortunately, it ended up with the Rock and Roll Express losing to the newly formed team of Eli Drake and James Storm.
Thunder Rosa Becomes NWA World Womens Champion
In the women’s match, which arguably was the most aggressive match of the night, Allysin Kay defended the NWA Women’s Championship against Thunder Rosa. This match came about after Melina denied Kay of a match unless she could beat Marti Belle at this past weeks NWA Powerrr and then successfully defend her title against Thunder Rosa at Hard Times. While Kay was able to beat Belle at Powerrr, she came up short against a very dangerous Thunder Rosa at the pay per view.
The match itself was a war, with the two beginning the match with a barrage of punches on each other, Kay getting the advantage through the use of her power, but Thunder Rosa with her MMA endurance, technique and pro wrestling knowledge, was able to outlast Allysin Kay to the very end, even after suffering Allysin Kays finisher the AK-47.
At the end of the match, it was the Thunder Driver that put an end to the 272-day reign of Allysin Kay as the NWA World Women’s champion and making history becoming not only the 29th NWA World Women’s champion but also becoming the first-ever Mexican born women’s champion in the history of the National Wrestling Alliance.
Ricky Starks Wins NWA World Television Championship Tournament
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In the main event, Ricky Starks faced Trevor Murdoch in the finals of the NWA World Television Title tournament to crown a new champ. The last champion to hold the title over 20 years ago was Jim Duggan. Starks had gone through the night defeating Lucha Underground alumni Matt Cross in the first match and then getting the upset victory over Tim Storm. Storm was the freshest opponent in the tournament due to getting a bye in his scheduled first match against Ken Anderson who could not participate due to not being medically cleared to compete.
Murdoch’s journey to the finals had him get his first win over the undefeated Question Mark in what was arguably the upset of the night due to the Question Marks streak of not losing a match since debuting for the NWA. After the first match, Murdoch faced Dan Maff in the second round of the tournament, and never failing to punish, Maff did just that to Murdoch with several chops and a monstrous spear taking a lot out of Murdoch. However, it wasn’t enough as Murdoch was able to get through Maff in a surprising victory.
The match between Starks and Murdoch was very back and forth with Murdoch despite being wounded from his previous matches, showing an unprecedented amount of toughness in his match and nearly beating Starks on several occasions. But in the end, Starks was able to take advantage of Murdoch and finish him off for the victory and becoming the new NWA World Television Champion. According to the record books, Ricky Starks is the 56th NWA World Television Champion, following such champions as Sting, The Great Muta, Arn Anderson, Rick Steiner, Mike Rotunda, Nikita Koloff, Tully Blanchard, and the Dusty Rhodes, to name a few.
What’s next for the NWA Television following Hard Times? Tune in to NWA Powerrr every Tuesday night at 6:05 pm EST on NWA’s YouTube Channel to find out.
