A View From A DKM: The NWA Parade of Champions
Ridglea Theater
Ever since Jerry Jones dropped a ton of money to build a Death Star (otherwise known as AT&T Stadium) in Arlington, Texas a lot of events have come to town. We have had the final Four, the National College Football Championship, and of course the Superbowl. So wrestling fans in the Dallas/Fort Worth area knew it would only be a matter of time until WrestleMania would come to town. Ever since it was announced last year that WrestleMania was coming this April other wrestling organizations have been planning their own events for here in the DFW area.
Well local IHWE promoter David Fuller wasn’t going to be left out. Following the advice of Jim Cornette, Fuller started to plan nine months ago for his WrestleMania event. One of the steps he took was to get an NWA license and starts to work with them to line up title defenses. Over the course of time matches were built to and setup. And by the end, for the first time ever, all five NWA company sanctioned titles would be defended on the same card. Add to that, the Jim Cornette would do a two hour, one man show of him taking questions from the audience and telling stories of his years in the business.
So I bought two Gold VIP Package which included a ringside seat, the Jim Cornette show and the meet and greet, for my son and myself. Now NWA IHWE had chosen to hold the show on a Thursday night to kick off the WrestleMania weekend so I decided there is a reason I had five weeks of vacation saved. So I took off Thursday and got my son out of school a little early and off we went to watch the show.
Jim Cornette was a great experience. He tells the best stories and you never have to worry what his opinion is. Bill Apter came out was ended up running the crowd microphone. I think it’s awesome that Cornette put on such an interactive show and the fans truly love him. During the meet and greet his line was the longest and always , all night.
IHWE was smart in the fact they put on a few matches during the meet and greet to help keep the crowd from getting to restless. Add to that it help setup Jim Cornette being a part of the show later in the night. The show was good with several surprises, like Bobby Fulton, Ricky Morton, and Shelton Benjamin showing up. If you are interest in the results you can find them here.
For me it was about the experience, about being a fan. Meeting Bill Apter was a grand experience seeing and all the title defended for the first time on one card as a part of history. I also got to see in person for the first time the National and Women’s title belt. For a belt mark like me that is a big deal. There were no title changes but there was an even bigger moment for me.
The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Steve Anthony defended the title against late substitute, Unholy Gregory James and since Anthony had just won the title I “knew” he wasn’t likely to lose it. The match started out a little slow as they felt each other out, but after about five minutes they went at it. It was back and forth and at two different points something amazing happened, I believed again. James hit a couple of finishers and I jumped out of my seat to count along convinced that James was about to win the title. All my “knowledge” went away. I was a believer again and it was great.
I enjoyed the entire shows. Sure there are things that I could nit pick about, but why? My son and I enjoyed a fun an entertaining day together. I met legends, talked to friends, bought stuff, saw history. That’s what I’ll be telling my grand kids about, hopefully when I am taking them to a show.
