Nick Aldis opened the show saying that Murdoch should have known what was going to happen if he poked his nose in his business. Aldis said that it was time for Murdoch and Adonis to have a fight one more time, but Kyle Davis implied that Aldis wanted to avoid him and didn’t want Murdoch in the NWA.
Aldis took exception to this, but he did offer a spot to Murdoch, asking him to come out with no funny business. Murdoch came out and said he wasn’t going to take the risk of beating Aldis up right now because he didn’t want to put a shot at a title in jeopardy. Murdoch demanded an apology and was seething at Aldis.
Aldis suggested that there be a six-man tag tonight with Adonis & Latimer with a 3rd man against Murdoch, and if he won, he gets a National title shot. If he loses, he gets suspended for 30 days with no pay. Murdoch said that it was funny that as soon as he started targeting Aldis and his title, he backpedaled on his statements that Murdoch wasn’t worthy of being a champion, but that he didn’t back down from a fight and he was going to take this chance.
Kratos and Sal Rinauro went to a no contest
This was more of an angle than a match, as it set up the mystery man in the main event, and furthered the story that Kratos and Stevens are not getting along. Good angle, bad match.
Click Here: nrl league merchandise
Poor Sal got beat up badly right from the starting bell, as Kratos used his size to stay on top of Sal. Kratos hit a huge suplex, and May Valentine and Danny Deals came out to try and defend Sal. Deals got chokeslammed, and Kratos continued to pound on Sal as Sal rolled to the ropes and refused to break as the referee ruled it a no contest. Aron Stevens tried to calm Kratos down, but he wouldn’t listen.
Kratos rolled out and walked to the announce desk and got in the face of Tim Storm. Storm stood up and slowly took his headset off. They went face to face, and Storm tried to deescalate the situation as Thom Latimer and Chris Adonis came out and announced that they saw something in Kratos and asked him to be the third man in the main event. Kratos agreed and left ringside as May attended to Sal as Stevens looked on.
Kyle Davis was with Jax Dane and Slice Boogie who are facing off in a No DQ match next week. Boogie talked about how he was just getting wins on top of wins, and Dane lost the last time they were in the ring. For some reason, Boogie was booed in this promo, and Dane was cheered, but I could have sworn it was the other way around before this episode.
NWA World Television Championship: The Pope and Tyrus went to a time limit draw
Austin Idol came out with Tyrus and joined the commentary team, and he was great. Tyrus, however, was not. The Pope tried, that’s all I can really say. This was not a good match. Velvet Sky was really bad on commentary in this match.
The match had the 6:05 time limit, and Tyrus was gassed about 60 seconds into it. Tyrus missed a corner charge, but as Pope went for the Pope Train finish, Austin Idol grabbed his foot and Tyrus hit a corner charge and an elbow for a two-count.
Tyrus locked on a bear hug in a squat position, but couldn’t actually lift Pope out of the position, so he just dropped him and stood up. Pope got up and hit some strikes and an eye poke, which Austin Idol lost his mind over on commentary.
Pope hit a missile dropkick and Idol went back to ringside. Pope hit a crossbody off the apron onto Tyrus. Idol distracted Pope and Tyrus locked on a chokehold as the time limit expired, and Pope was left laying on the outside of the ring.
Thunder Rosa came out and May Valentine informed us that the NWA wanted her and Kamille to end their feud peacefully, so they are requiring advocates to speak on their behalf. Rosa chose Melina, reluctantly, but decided that because of their history, she was the best choice.
Kamille also reluctantly chose Taryn Terrell, who was overjoyed to be picked by Kamille. Melina started and actually cut a good promo about how great Thunder Rosa is, talking about her success in the NWA and AEW. Melina made a good point – Kamille won the number one contendership but has kept going after Rosa, so she was the one that kept this going.
Terrell talked about how Rosa was jealous in the most annoying way possible. Melina suggested that Rosa and Kamille have a rematch since she wasn’t done yet, and puts the #1 contendership on the line.
Terrell said that they would do the match, but there were conditions and they would deliver the list of conditions next week. Melina threw a punch at Terrell, and Rosa tried to get at Kamille as the segment ended.
Team Aldis (Thom Latimer, Chris Adonis, & Kratos) defeated Team Murdoch (Trevor Murdoch, Aron Stevens, & Tim Storm)
This was a heavy heat match and furthered the angle between Murdoch and Aldis. Aldis kept his word and wasn’t involved, but Murdoch still lost and now has to spend 30 days unpaid at home. Not sure what the NWA is going to do with the guy they have been pushing as a top babyface not there. This was a good match.
Murdoch’s partners took their time coming out, and to everyone’s surprise, Aron Stevens joined Murdoch, on the opposite side from his own tag team partner. Sal Rinauro came out, but Tim Storm walked out after and told Rinauro to go to the back.
As the match started, Storm went right for Kratos. Latimer was yelling about how Storm shouldn’t cross them, which seems to be furthering the tension between him and Nick Aldis. Stevens and Kratos were left in the ring, but Stevens didn’t want to fight Kratos, so Tim Storm and Latimer ended up in the ring.
Kratos wanted to fight Stevens, but Stevens was reluctant to face off against his own partner. Stevens went to tag Kratos by instinct once, but soon thereafter went back to his own corner. Sadly, for Stevens, it wasn’t long before they were getting the heat on him.
The heels kept this up for several minutes, with Latimer and Adonis beating on Stevens. Kratos, however, didn’t tag in. He was very joyful seeing Stevens get beat up, but he didn’t tag in right away. Stevens dodged a corner charge from Latimer and managed to make the hot tag to Storm.
Storm ran wild but got distracted when Sal Rinauro got on the apron to cheer storm on, and Adonis took advantage of this and hit a full nelson slam for the pinfall victory. Storm was left laying in the middle of the ring. Kratos refused to help Aron Stevens up as the show went off the air.
Final Thoughts
Trevor Murdoch must go home for 30 days, unpaid now. I asked above, but the question remains: What does the NWA do now without the guy they have positioned in a top babyface role? Will we see a return of the Midnight Rider type angle here with Murdoch? The more I think about it, the more I like that idea.
I’m not sure where they are going to go with this, but having Murdoch appear under a mask and pretend to be someone else could be a really fun 4 weeks, as Murdoch could then outwit Strictly Business leading into the next PPV. If there is no mention of Murdoch on TV, then I think that is a terrible choice, given that they want to push him as a top guy in line for Aldis’ title.