Count3rCu1ture: September 2012

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Saving The NWA From Itself

This was supposed to have gone up after this week’s “Monday Night Raw”, but got delayed because something much more important happened during that show. Get well, Lawler.

I’m also aware this is two straight rasslin’ posts, which--I’m sorry, but not a lot else is going on in other realms right now. But between monitoring the Davey Richards saga and this, it’s an interesting time for non-corporate-owned rasslin’.

Now then, news from my old stomping grounds:

It was announced by Dave Marquez at the latest NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood TV Taping [on 09/09/12] that they have left the National Wrestling Alliance. The promotion was considered to be the biggest NWA member in terms of TV awareness, airing across Los Angeles.

The move appears to be due to the recent change in ownership in the NWA where Bruce Tharpe gained control of the name. Marquez had been a supporter of the NWA for many years. The promotion will now be known as Championship Wrestling from Hollywood.

Umm...ouch.

Now, anyone familiar with all this is gonna have the immediate and typical “LOL NWA iz alredy DED” reaction - which, no, it’s not. See, in order to be “dead”, you have to be no longer in existence. As you can see above, the National Wrestling Alliance is indeed still around and thereby still in existence. Hell, I interviewed the at-that-time-soon-to-be NWA World Champion! Glad we could clear that up.

The problem is that it could be dead very soon. And some feel that maybe it should be. The NWA has always been a governing body with several promoters colluding under one banner to provide security and, in later years, competition to the bigger companies like WWE. The fact that I’m having to convince people that the NWA is still around kinda speaks for itself.

Part of the problem is with this very story. When I started this piece (before Jerry Lawler had his heart attack), the news was that Championship Wrestling from Hollywood left the NWA. According to The Wrestling Blog (highly recommended, by the way), not so fast:

Some big news broke over the weekend at the NWA Hollywood tapings, in that the promotion was splitting with the National Wrestling Alliance. It will now be known as Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. There really wasn't a whole lot of detail about the reasoning behind it, except for blurbs about David Marquez not being too happy about the power structure changing hands to a group headed by R. Bruce Tharpe, noted in on the F4W site most notably. However, I did some digging and found something pretty interesting.

As it turns out, the decision wasn't Marquez's to make. According to Dr. Jerry Wiseman of the Charlotte Examiner reports that Tharpe and the NWA has sent Marquez a cease and desist on using the NWA name. Tharpe loaned Marquez $2,000 back when the promotion was on the verge of becoming the showcase for the alliance. When he called for the tab plus the interest and "other provisions", Marquez failed to pony up. Furthermore, Adam Pearce was advised against taking bookings in Hollywood.

So, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood got a loan to set them up as the flagship for the NWA and then got kicked out when they didn’t pay back up. They didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on them. Just like anything else in wrestling, that collusion is a loose alliance due to egos and outdated business practices getting in the way of what should be an actual Alliance.

To those clinging to the days of yore that the NWA name invokes, please realize that the NWA can still survive - and even thrive - in 2012. But, to do so would mean letting go of those old days of doing business. It would mean letting some younger and fresher ideas on pro wrestling into the fold. It would mean actually using the internet for marketing and brand-building purposes like two-time NWA Champion Colt Cabana has done to great success. It would mean embracing a new day and age of the business.

I’m not sure the NWA would embrace any of that, though. The name carries value, but it also carries some notion of tradition that those that govern the Alliance are either too scared or too stubborn to let go of. The fear is that, once that tradition is abandoned, then the NWA truly will die. My thinking is that it’s the opposite - The NWA could meet its demise if they don’t let go of that outdated thinking and step into 2012 with the rest of us. I hope that R Bruce Tharpe and the NWA realizes this before I’m put in a position that I can no longer prove the NWA is still alive.

P.S. My bet for which promotion I think will be chosen as the next NWA “showcase” promotion in place of Championship Wrestling from Hollywood (no need to shorten; I can copy and paste that all day)? NWA Ring Warriors. They’re owned by Paul Jones (not the former manager of “Ravishing” Rick Rude, RIP, and Manny Fernandez, far as I can tell), Larry Brannon (aka Vito DeNucci of the “New Heavenly Bodies” and Between The Ropes) and...Howard Brody, former President of the NWA from 1996 to 2001. Aside from the obvious connections, Ring Warriors has been getting quite a bit of play in wrestling media circles lately. It’s a “hot” product, as those in the business would put it, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see that happen.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Interlude: Davey Richards's Redemption? Or Setup?

Taken from PWPonderings.com’s results from last night’s Caged Hostility show from Ring of Honor (with pertinent info highlighted):

Davey Richards is out to address the crowd. He puts over the tag match. He says, ” I love wrestling, more importantly, I love it in a ROH ring.” He also name drops Samoa Joe & Bryan Danielson. Says he’s very ashamed of the person he’s been out of the ring the last year. That he put his trust in the wrong people but that the WOLF is back! Says he’s gonna come out later and watch a match later in the evening, probably the O’Reilly/Cole match and says he’ll be at Death Before Dishonor in Chicago

Okay, if this your first time here or if you happened to miss why this is important, feel free to go get caught up. ‘S cool. I’ll wait a second.

...

So, now you get what Richards was talking about. Yes, I was already well and fully aware that Davey Richards will be returning to “address the crowd” on iPPV next weekend at “Death Before Dishonor X”. I was holding off on making any comment until I heard that, but it seems now we already have an idea of where “Wrestling’s Most Wanted” might go.

Bear in mind that, in the Ring of Honor storylines, Kyle O’Reilly turned heel on Richards at the June iPPV, “Best in the World 2012: Hostage Crisis”. O’Reilly told Richards he was on his own, effectively dissolving “Team Ambition” in Ring of Honor.

Real life was another story, however, as O’Reilly turned face against Richards and Kozina, returning his share of the promoter’s money he made off with.

Oh, and later last night (with pertinent info highlighted once again)?

PROVING GROUND – Best In The World Return Match Kyle O’Reilly defeats ROH World TV Champion Adam Cole in 15:48 via rollup out of a German Suplex attempt after Cole bumped him into Richards who got on the apron to “inadvertently” distract Cole. Davey Richards is out to watch this match. O’Reilly thus should be getting a future shot at the TV title.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Unintentionally, this is the most captivating thing Ring of Honor has going on to me right now. Do they recognize “Wrestling’s Most Wanted” and pull the trigger on that, or do they keep it clean with Richards trying to rehab his image? I'll damn sure be paying attention to the DBDX iPPV (lulz intrawebz abbreviations) to see if they play it safe or not.

By the way, I posed the question to an expert a while back. His answer?

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Examiner Feed - 08.24.12 to 09.06.12