NWA-NRW Ignition Episode 4 Review

Hi, allow me to introduce myself. I post on the NWA Alliance Fan Forum as MKWTV but most of you probably know me by the name of Polejump which is literally just two words put together that mean nothing. A little unknown fact about me is that I actually have formal education in writing and although I feel I’m a much better speaker I think I do have something to offer in a review capacity for a site I like a lot so I’m going to be throwing these out regularly and I hope you all enjoy them and maybe check out NWA-NRW.

I wrote a review last week about the new NWA promotion called NWA-NRW just to simply give feedback to a poster named Shawn who suggested I looked at it because they used The Boogeyman. To be honest with you all I was expecting a garbage wrestling show simply based on a mistake they had made with a promo video which Jay touched on a little while back in one of his articles. I sat down and said to myself I’d give the show 30 minutes to “wow” me and it did. I was really impressed. It was a relatively short show but it offered almost everything I would want from a wrestling show and the main event between Hoodlum and Stephen Ashburn for the NWA-NRW Heavyweight Title is one of the best matches I’ve seen from a modern NWA promotion. I also like that it wasn’t a three hour show featuring spotfest after spotfest which is what I see a lot in the indies these days.

Anyway, onto this weeks review. This is NWA-NRW Ignition Episode 4 and it’s a thirty minute show offering two matches. Lets get to it:

The show is starting out with old school race footage from wayyyy back in the day because the show is titled “Ignition”. Get it? Ignition? Cars? Okay…After the footage we cut to a pretty cool NRW Ignition graphic and this was something I really liked about the last show I watched. The production (Apart from the audio) was really top notch and the crew behind the scenes were really good. After the intro we cut to the arena for our first match of the evening.

Phynx Vs The Revolution Ranger

The venue for their TV tapings looks to be a small studio but it’s packed with about 30-40 people and is an intimate setting. Kind of reminds me of those old NWA shows you’d see back in the day with 30-40 people in the crowd in a small studio. It’s a nice set up. The Revolution Ranger and Phynx had a match on NWA-NRW Shocktober 2015 where Phynx turned on his tag team partner allowing The Revolution Ranger and his partner Doctor Beefcake to win the match. I didn’t like Beefcake but I did like Revolution Ranger and Phynx so this should be a fun match.

Bit of comedy to start as the referee tells Phynx to put his doll into the corner because it’ll be there “when he’s done” which gets the audience laughing. Revolution Ranger informs Phynx that his doll is creepy which also gets laughter from the audience. They quickly get to the wrestling and Revolution Ranger is using his size to dominate Phynx early on. The announce team from last show aren’t together on this show and instead you have just one guy going solo. This shouldn’t happen because he doesn’t have anything to really add during a quiet spot in the match so you have some dead air which is awkward.

After a baseball slide into the guardrail Phynx is brought back into the ring and starts getting his offense going. He’s working down the leg of Ranger here but the cool part about Phynx is that he’s really quick and has a lot of agility but he uses that for in ring spots instead of high spot after high spot which I respect because he definitely could do high spots if he wanted but doesn’t because he’s a heel. Can hear Revolution Ranger talking to Phynx and calling spots which is an issue they had last show as well and they should look to fix it. Clearly audible.

Phynx tries to use the doll on Ranger but Ranger rolls him up for a two count. Ranger hits his finisher and gets the three count over Phynx. This match was okay for a TV match they went out there with 4-5 minutes and they gave a decent match. I know that both of these guys are capable of way better after their Shocktober showing but decent.

– Commercial break for NRW’s Wrestling School and a pretty cool commercial for Charged which is their other internet/television show. It’s now time for the main event (Goes fast, no?)

Lynx Vs “The Monster” Abatu

Neither of these guys wrestled on the Shocktober show so I know zero about them. Lynx looks cool and kind of has a luchadore look going on. The announcer seems interested in seeing what Lynx has to offer and makes mention that Lynx has only wrestled for NRW one time before. Abatu is making his entrance and he doesn’t really look like a monster he’s just a guy with a bit of meat on his bones (He’s chubby if anything). No monster height, no monster weight and he’s doing the uncontrollable foreign monster gimmick. I don’t think he’s the right guy for that gimmick but lets see how this pans out.

The crowd is into Lynx more than anyone in a TNA crowd is into TNA wrestlers. Okay, that was mean. Lynx is over though and is taking the fight to Abatu and even gets a few two counts on him. Lucha style moves by Lynx here as Abatu goes to the floor and gathers himself. The problem I have with this is if Abatu is truly a monster which is indeed his gimmick why is he afraid of someone? The going to the floor and waiting thing is meant to be what an arrogant heel would do and not a monster heel. I also don’t like that Abatu is a monster who has bought tights and wrestling boots. If you’re a monster with no manager you should be wild and wrestle without boots and wear karate pants or something like what Abdullah The Butcher used to wear.

Abatu is bad at his gimmick I’m going to say that right now. The referee warns him for choking Lynx and Abatu not only listens to the referee but also shrugs as if to say “Who? Me?”. That’s an arrogant heel thing to do and you’re a monster. You shouldn’t care what a referee has to say to you or about you because your gimmick is you don’t understand. Lynx wins with what looked like a botched shining wizard to me. I like Lynx but Abatu is very unimpressive and really needs to change his gimmick because he doesn’t play it properly.

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So, the show is over and honestly this was kind of hit and miss. I understand with a 30 minute wrestling show (16 minutes when you cut out commercials) that not every match is going to be great but honestly for a TV match The Ranger taking on Phynx was actually pretty good especially for five minutes. They didn’t try and pack spots into the match and just went out there and put on a basic match.

As for the main event. Abatu is appalling in his current state. For someone such as myself who tries to lose themselves in a wrestling match I very much buy into the characters so when you have a monster heel shrugging at the referee and acting cowardly it hurts that aspect for me. Abatu was poor but Lynx was actually good and was pretty over. I’d like to see what he could do without an opponent that is as green as Abatu.

As for Abatu, I don’t want to dog on the guy too badly for a 5 minute match and he wasn’t THAT terrible in ring. Just needs to work on his gimmick and perfect that.

Anyway, that’s it from me. Decent little 16 minute wrestling show. If NRW uploads “Charged” for this week I’ll review that but if not I’ll see you all next week for another review of Ignition. If you want to check out this weeks episode of Ignition you should YouTube search “NRW Ignition Episode 4” and if you want to learn more about NRW you should visit www.nrwprowrestling.com for further details.