Coming off an exceptional 90 minutes of action lat week, the joint efforts of the United Wrestling Network, Thunder Studios, and the National Wrestling Alliance were certainly going to have their work cut out for them. The show has continued to mix signature talent from the NWA, free agents from across the country and talents who appear on United’s weekly programming from Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and Championship Wrestling from Arizona. This week’s Main Event will feature a match up that was supposed to happen at the NWA Crockett Cup 2020, Trevor Murdoch challenging NWA National Champion Aron Stevens.
Happy to see the montage of promos return on episode three. It just makes sense to help establish some of these talents who may not be exposed to a greater audience. There is a huge contingency of NWA Fans who order the podcast but are completely unaware of the talent that isn’t directly associated with the NWA. These promos are imperative to give a quick introduction to the talent.
First up are the returning Real Money Brothers. I know it has only been three episodes but this it the first time that a talent has made in ring appearance in back to back weeks. There was a lot of criticism for the match last week featuring the Friendship Farm (who last week I mistakenly referenced as the Family Farm). However, RMB are the most winning-est tag team in Prime Time Live History, which lands them a match with the United Wrestling Network World Tag Team Champions.
Next on the promo train is SoCal Distancing. Since their inception I was calling them Social Distancing. Conspicuous by his absence James Logan (something very familiar about him) wasn’t with Andy Brown and Adrian Quest. Welcoming the audience to a new normal, Andy Brown states that there is nothing of interest here in Prime Time Live, with the exception of he and Quest.
Nicole Savoy is a welcomed addition to this show. Pitting her in the ring against Allysin Kay will be a great showcase for both competitors. Being called the Queen of Suplexes she vows that the former NWA World Woman’s Champion won’t be getting up from the suplexes.
“The Filthy Father” the “Dirty Daddy” Chris Dickinson makes his 3rd appearance in the ring for Prime Time Live. This guy is getting over well. He can cut a mean promo but he looks good in the ring too. I believe he and Karl Fredricks might be the future of these broadcasts. Does it bother anyone else when they call Long Beach, Los Angeles. They are not the same.
NWA National Champion Aron Stevens has all but pronounced himself winner of the match before they’ve stepped into the ring. These two are quite possibly the most recognizable names in all of Prime Time Live, because of their time in the WWE, both of them being former WWE Tag Team Champions. They put Stevens behind the Mongrovian Flag, which the home of Masked Wrestler the Question Mark from NWA POWERRR. This is a nice throwback to the storyline from the show.
Lastly we get the challenger in the Main Event, Murdoch. They put Murdoch in front of a mobile home that looks far beyond worn. I know they’re trying to keep up with the gimmick of Murdoch being a hard-working common man, but I didn’t care for this. Murdoch was really a breath of fresh-air for the NWA and I’m really looking forward to the Main Event.
United World Tag Team Champions – SoCal Distancing vs. Real Money Brothers
I thought this was a bit weird as an opening match considering the fact that this was a Tag Team Championship Match. They’ve also added Blake Troop to the broadcast booth. Troop who is an MMA fighter also calls action for CWFH. The Real Money Brothers are led to the ring by Floyd Mayweather’s guy Repo Ric and I don’t really get this. I don’t feel like the RMB needed anything more to get over from last week, but apparently adding to their entourage was in the cards. SoCal Distancing making their PTL debut, it should be noted that this is also their first title defense. Brown and Quest have had a lot of recent success in Hollywood, but the duo have been teaming together on and off since about 2016. Brown (a former Hollywood Heritage Champion) and Young were brought together by Ray Rosas late last year as part of the group Static. The anti-social triad dominated the ranks of Hollywood. As a trio, they captured all of the gold in the United Wrestling Network. Until recently it appeared that the three were inseparable that all changed when Brown and Young attacked Rosas and joined SoCal Distancing. Individually, Brown and Young are solid in the ring. Both combine high-risk moves, not unlike last week’s Kevin Martenson and Danny Limelight. Both move around the ring effortlessly. RMB clearly have the size advantage on Socal Distancing, but the speed and strikes will be in the favor of Quest and Brown. My favorite thing about tag team wrestling is combination moves and double teams and we’re getting a lot of that in this match. Clutch and Suge move around the ring more effortlessly than men their size should. The duo take advantage of Young Fuego early on, getting Brown out of the ring and double team Quest. Divide and conquer didn’t last for long as Brown was able to distract Suge and giving Quest enough time to hit a huricanrana to take Clutch out of the ring and you can see how SoCal Distancing is able to get an advantage over the much bigger RMB. The commentators have been going on about Andy Brown’s striking, which isn’t something I’ve paid much attention to in the past, but I have always felt Brown does a good job in doing the simple things. Not unlike Tyler Bateman (who Brown teamed with for a short-time) every move looks to have an impact. Brown uses the ring apron to choke out Suge, which is something you don’t see a lot of these days. This is a match up that really has been putting power moves against finesse. As I mentioned last week, RMB are the reigning Arizona Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions, but the announce team keeps referencing their other home Future Stars of Wrestling who recently announced that they would be working with United, they were members of the Network in the past. Brown is able to connect with Concussion On Demand, setting up Young’s Phoenix Splash to end the match.
Winners: SoCal Distancing – Fantastic first win for Brown and Quest as tag team champions. This match was solid even though at times a bit chaotic. It told the story that SoCal Distancing will not be denied and that was exemplified in this match.
Following last week’s formula we have another back stage promo, this time with Murdoch. He basically says he’s going to do what he always does. Kick ass and move on.
Remy Marcel vs. Papadon
This is a different look for Marcel. The last time I saw Marcel was at CWFH Red Carpet Rumble 2017. One half of the Whirlwind Gentlemen, with Jack Manley, Remy Marcel was a bit of a tag team specialist. That duo had competed on high levels with promotions based on the West Coast, Paragon Pro Wrestling, West Coast Wrestling Connection, and Future Stars of Wrestling, and have even appeared on CWFH at the 2017 Red Carpet Rumble. Marcel was also part of the American trainers to help established OWE back in 2018. It is interesting how much the broadcaster are mentioning FSW as they have recently started a working relationship with the United Wrestling Network. They previously enjoyed a relationship with David Marquez when United first formed. “Greek God” Papadon has only had a handful of appearances in Southern California in the past working for AWS and as part of the Wrestling Cares Association. He’s been quite a big deal for some time in the North East, Papadon was trained by Homicide and has captured quite a few titles on the East Coast. As the match is getting ready to start, Todd Kennely’s audio cuts out. This is an interesting problem, because now you can hear into the ring a lot more clearly, but you miss out on the story telling and table setting that Kennely’s so good at. This match up may not have been the best match up on paper, but both men get after it. Remy Marcel’s gimmick is a bit of a “fixer” as they keep calling him the “86er” which they point is 8 miles out of town, 6 feet deep. Papadon has been very aggressive in the ring, but has spent more time in this match arguing with the referee then putting the hurt to Marcel. The majority of Remy’s offense comes from GGP taking too long to get back to his attacks. Papadon does the little things right, instead of just blocking the suplex, he blocks the leg a more believable approach to blocking that suplex.
Winner: Greek God Papadon – The finish comes with a piledriver that absolutely looked like death for Marcel. And that might have been the best part of this match. It was a good match, but it did feel like it was missing something from it. The wrestling was sound, but was lacking in story telling.
Another promo with Chris Dickinson, officially making him the man who’s had the most microphone time in all of United Wrestling Network. For certain, the “Dirty Daddy” has intensity in his delivery. Dickinson might not have been known before Prime Time Live, but he’s certainly becoming one of the biggest stars in the promotion. I am shockingly surprised to see that the “Neon Phenomenon” layout a challenge to Dickinson. I personally would have liked to see this match later down on these pay-per-views, but I enjoy Idol, so I’ll take it.
Anthony Idol vs Chris Dickinson
This match up should be good, because with no disrespect intended for “Showtime” Jordan Cruz, Anthony Idol isn’t going to go out like that. Idol has had some solid victories at CWFH including nearly winning the Percy Pringle Cup. You have to acknowledge how great shape Dickinson is in, but Idol isn’t a slouch. He’s a big dude. Similarly to last week with Watts and Drake, this is hard hitting action. Dickinson has been working the arm most of the match. Idol suffered a pretty nasty pectoral injury back in 2017. No telling if this was part of the story that the two were telling, but it was interesting to me that they decided to focus on the arm. That injury had kept Idol out of the ring for quite some time. Not only would the arm work neutralize the reach and strength of Idol, but could also cause problems for that pectoral. Perhaps I gave them to much credit, because Idol was able to connect for a huge chokeslam after his splash in the corner. Idol went for some Dusty-esqe Elbows, but with his hesitation, Dickinson landed some lethal strikes and ends the match with the Death Valley Driver.
Winners: Chris Dickinson – What more could be said about the “Dirty Daddy” as we all await for the next start to be created from this series, Dickinson has certainly staked his claim. If he continues to have matches like this, he’s going to to push the promotion to start putting him in more prominent matches. As for Idol, it was a solid performance. Maybe Idol underestimated Dickinson, but he had a pretty good effort in this match up and was able to land a lot of offense. This wasn’t as one-sided as Dickinson’s 1st victory.
Allysin Kay vs. Nicole Savoy
Allysin Kay is a former Impact Knockouts Champion. She’s a former GWF Woman’s Champion. And at Crockett Cup 2019 she defeated former NWA World Woman’s Champion Santana Garret to win the vacant title. Nicole Savoy has the auspicious job of replacing Serena Deeb who was originally scheduled to face the former NWA World Woman’s Champion . Deeb announced shortly after she had signed with All Elite Wrestling, that she had been exposed to Covid-19 and was forced to quarantine for two weeks, making her ineligible to compete for the United Wrestling Network. However, it should be noted that Savoy is more than a worthy replacement. Although Savoy has made appearances in Ring of Honor, AEW, and Shimmer, she gained much notoriety by taking part in the WWE’s Mae Young Classic. In that tournament, she advanced in the first round only losing in the second round to Cadance LaRae. Savoy is also no stranger to Championship gold as she is still the reigning Pro Wrestling-Revolution Woman’s Champion. (It should also be noted that PWR is loosely affiliated with CWFH). She was trained at All Pro Wrestling in Northern California by the likes of Mike Modest and Oliver John (a former NWA Heritage Champion). It should be noted that each week of Prime Time Live has aired two matches sanctioned by the NWA. Just a few minutes into this match and I’m enjoying the grappling. I’ve always thought highly of both of these ladies and this match has been exciting thus far. Savoy is getting a lot of offense, but Kay has been mostly in control this match, by picking apart the right leg. The exchanges between the two go from grappling, striking, to literally launching (suplexing) the other around the ring. This kind of gave me the UWF-I wrestling from in the mid-90s.
Winner: Allysin Kay – walks away with the victory after a rolling pin combination that tweaked on Savoy’s knee. This was definitely the best match on the show thus far and looks to have implications for the Women’s Championship down the road. Kay specifically calls out Rosa. It should be noted as well that no “NWA Wrestler” has lost a match yet. Obviously the Main Event will change that.
May Valentine joins the broadcast team. Valentine had been doing some training with the Santinos for a bit. For NWA POWERRR she was the girlfriend of Royce Isaacs. Apparently her role on Prime Time Live will be a back stage interviewer. She interviews the reigning champion Aron Stevens. Stevens doesn’t say much and some of what he says ineligible.
Cece Chanel vs. Ruby Raze
In doing my research on Cece, I couldn’t find much about her wrestling career until she was in the United States I don’t know if she had any matches when she was still residing in her native Australia. However, she was known as Princess Aussie while she wrestled for Women of Wrestling, Cece Chanel has been continuing her training with The Santino Bros Wrestling Academy, she made debut for CWFH in an Elimination Four Way Match with Heather Monroe, Lacey Ryan, and Sandra Moone. Cece has yet to win a single match in Hollywood. She has been actively wrestling for two years. Known as “Thee Equal Opportunity Ass-Kicker” Ruby Raze is also a product of the Santino Bros. With a handful of matches in Impact Wrestling as well as appearing in WOW, Raze has spent time wrestling matches in Southern California as well as New Orleans as a part of WildCat Sports. Raze was a regular for CWFH, but hasn’t been seen in action since she defeated Kevin Condron in the company’s first-ever Inter-gender match exactly 3 years ago. She was also the first female to compete in the Red Carpet Rumble. Raze never lost a singles match at CWFH. Raze much like the rest of the wrestling world had been idle until recently. She’s been taking her training to the next level, by working with Indie Legend B-Boy. She has also joined the online coaching staff at Santino’s to help train new students. Raze has also added surfing to her repertoire. I expect Raze to make an impact tonight. Although I’m a known Raze supporter and actively root for her, I’ve been surprised by how much offense Cece gets in the opening moments of this bouts. Alyssa pointed out Cece’s kickboxing background, her strikes on Raze have looked solid. Oddly enough Cece is going for a Pedigree type maneuver. Todd Kennely indicates she might be going for a Tiger Driver, but that doesn’t seem reasonable for the size disadvantage. Raze’s backhand to Cece would have made Rick James proud. At this point Raze has total control of the match. Cece gets a brief advantage with well placed elbow and then goes for that pedigree again that Raze turns into a modified STF. Cece gets another flurry of offense and just lands strikes all over Raze. For a third time Cece is going for that butterfly lock that Raze inverts into a tombstone piledriver and ends the match.
Winner: Ruby Raze – This match was far more competitive than I would have expected. Cece got a lot of great offense in. She came off looking like a spitfire. However, she was also in the ring with a woman who’s just got her on size, strength, and experience. Raze walks away with the win and you have to wonder if that puts her into the conversation of potential challenges to Thunder Rosa.
Jack Cartright vs. Robert Baines
This was an unadvertised match. Perhaps this match replaced Ray Rosas vs. Pablo Esco that was announced prior. Baines is a former United Wrestling Network Tag Team Champion with Jervis Cottonbelly (the Freindship Express) and is a former Heritage Heavyweight Champion having defeated Ricky Mandel. Haven’t seen a lot of Baines lately as it’s been about a year since he’s been featured on CWFH but still regularly appears in Arizona. I know almost nothing about Jack Cartright. I’ve never seen him before. He’s obviously a former gymnast. If you have ever heard the term “flippy dippy” that would have to be the epitome of Cartright, he doesn’t connect with a move without a flip before or after. Similarly to the last match, this is a contrast of styles before the matches ends, Cartright connects with some flashy strikes and even efforts for a shooting star press with nobody in the pool giving Baines an opportunity to connect his Cobra Clutch/Baines Kill Shoot.
Winner: – Robert Baines gets the victory. I didn’t feel connected at all with this match. I might have preferred Dickinson destroying Cartright and Baines having a competitive match with Anthony Idol.
NWA National Heavyweight Championship Match
In the Main Event, Aron Stevens (formerly known as Damian Sandow) will defend his championship against Trevor Murdoch. Stevens won the NWA National Championship at NWA’s Into the Fire by defeating Colt Cabana (the former champion) and Ricky Starks in a Three-Way Match. Stevens approach was to dip, duck, dodge, and flat out hide in that match up. It was considered an upset victory. Stevens has had two title defenses since. At Hard Times on January 24th when he lost the match by disqualification to Scott Steiner and at Time Limit Draw with Trevor Murdoch on Episode #17 of NWA POWERRR. Stevens. The NWA recently released a promo from the lost episode of NWA POWERRR where Sean Mooney interviewed both about their match-up that was to take place at the 2020 Crockett Cup. While these two really don’t need an introduction to wrestling fans this feud was entirely created on the NWA signature platform POWERRR and is the first storyline from that show to transition on to this show. You can tell from Stevens swagger, that he’s his own biggest fan. Stevens and Murdoch becoming a bit of a hoss fight with Stevens becoming a lot more aggressive than their first encounter in Atlanta. This match up was ultra-competitive in the first few minutes evolves into another beating. Murdoch takes control of the match and just tosses Stevens around, even tosses him off the stage. Stevens grabs a light fixture to blind Trevor long enough to kick out the knee and while the referee is literally playing with the light fixture, Stevens takes the a cheap shot at Murdoch by kicking him in the groin. Stevens with the advantage is now using his black belt efforting to choke out Murdoch. Stevens has been working over the left knee of Trevor Murdoch. Aron Stevens has been very creative in the ring with his offense. Murdoch’s brief advantage goes out the window when he misses his signature diving bulldog form the top rope.
Winner: Trevor Muudoch – By blocking the Sunset Flip by Stevens for the 1-2-3. Trevor Murdoch has had a long storied tenure with the National Wrestling Alliance going back to his days with WLW and Harley Race, his time in NWA: TNA, when he debuted at the NWA Wrestling Showcase that taped at the Columbia Square Studios in Los Angeles with David Marquez, the launch of NWA POWERRR and it is only fitting that nearly three years to the launch of Billy Corgan’s vision for the NWA was launched that Trevor Mudroch would win his first NWA Championship at Prime Time Live.
Final Thoughts – I am very happy to see Trevor Murdoch win the NWA National Heavyweight Championship. His story with the NWA POWERRR was about redemption. The rest of the card was a solid. After last weeks stellar episode, there was a bit of a let down with this show. I didn’t feel like anything was bad. Just not as good as the previous weeks. I enjoyed seeing Idol and Raze make their debuts. I really enjoyed the Kay vs. Savoy match.
Next week’s pay-per-view will include Max Caster taking on Chris Dickinson, Bryan Idol will challenge Levi Shapiro with Howdy Price, we will also get NWA TV Champion Zicky Dice and a Mystery Partner taking on the Pope and Watts.
You can still order the replay for $7.99 or do yourself a favor and get the first 4 episode for $23.99 on Fite TV
