Somebody call 911! Connor is watching NWA On Fire (4-20-13)

Hello, folks, Connor McGrath here. Some of you might know me better as King Kamala, of internet wrestling message board non-fame. I’m here to bring you weekly recaps of NWA On Fire’s thirty minute TV series, which airs here on WPME, the MyNetworkTV affiliate here in Portland, Maine on Saturday Mornings.

Here’s a brief rundown on NWA On Fire. NWA On Fire is the latest promotion from the famed Savoldi Family, which has run several promotions in the past, most notably, IWCCW (International World Class Championship Wrestling) in the latter half of the ‘80s and the first part of the ‘90s. NWA On Fire started in 2007 and has been stumbling along ever since. The show airs, in several different forms, on over forty television stations across North America. There’s a weekly, hour long version that airs on UHF channels in New York and Philadelphia, an en Espanol version that airs on Spanish stations in Hartford, CT and Los Angeles (which is weird since NWA On Fire will never be able to afford to do a West Coast Swing), and NWA On Fire Classics, which airs across the country on a digital broadcast network called Tuff TV. And here in Maine, we get a half hour edited version of the show they get in the Tri-State Area, which is a combination of new matches and classic bouts from yesteryear.

In the heyday of IWCCW, The Savoldis were able to draw in some big names in the world of wrestling or discover an unpolished gem (much of the ECW Originals got their start working for the Savoldis), those days have long passed. For whatever reason (and I’ve heard a bit of hearsay), a lot of indy talent in the area prefer to work elsewhere. The NWA On Fire roster for much of its history has been a collection of also rans and eager, green newcomers. This show also has the somewhat mild misfortune of competing directly against WWE Saturday Morning Slam. This is a bigger blow than you’d think because NWA On Fire, like most smaller indy promotions, prides itself on being very kid friendly.

These weekly reviews will take an only somewhat cynical and sarcastic look at the other side of independent wrestling. The kind of shows that WWE and Impact Wrestling scouts aren’t knocking down the doors to get to. Shows where the wrestlers are performing for the love of the sport (…entertainment?) So let’s get to this week’s show.

NWA On Fire
April 20th, 2013

Our host this week, Ken Reedy introduces tonight’s show and says for the next few weeks, we’re going to have “Classics” shows and tonight’s will be dedicated to the era of “black and white wrestling”. He also hypes an interview conducted by 1Wrestling.com’s (that’s still a thing?) Bill Apter with Bruno Sammartino. Weird that my first NWA On Fire show I review for Culture Crossfire would be one I actually enjoy. Ken Reedy throws us down to an interview with “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers.

“Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers says if there’s a wrestler better than him, he hasn’t been created yet. He vows to defend his title all over the world.

Ken Reedy throws it to our first classic bout of the evening.

Antonino Rocca Vs Lu Kim
Antonino Rocca needs little introduction. One of the biggest babyfaces of the ‘50s and early ‘60s. Lu Kim is a big white dude, pretending to be Asian but looking more like Harley Race. This match is from the “New York Arena”. Rocca makes Kim look like a goof with his tumbling. Kim briefly takes over with some weak karate chops and overpowers him. Rocca breaks out of a full nelson and Rocca whacks him with some dropkicks and Kim gets tied up in the ropes. The referee can’t get him out and Rocca dropkicks him onto the apron and the referee counts him out. Huh. ’50s wrestling is wacky. A scroll tells us this material is from WorldofWrestling.com. A quick Google search reveals that site doesn’t exist. Hmph. Hard to fairly rate this match as this was obviously a 4-5 minute clip of a much, much longer match. I’ve seen other clips of Rocca on here and this one didn’t seem to be the best demonstration of his skills, which were somewhat ahead of their time. It seems like he had a bit of a difficulty working with the much bigger

We get an ad for this month’s NWA On Fire Classics PPV “The Jack and Jill Jam”(!?) featuring Jerry Lawler, Terry Funk, The Punisher (young Undertaker), Adrian Street, Jimmy Snuka, Dick Murdoch, and The Patriot. Most of this footage seems to be taken from latter day WCCW although I’ll be damned if I know why it’s called “Jack and Jill Jam”.

We get an ad for Ken Reedy’s radio show. Which airs on several internet radio stations and on AM Radio in Newark, NJ. .

Ken Reedy throws it to a new segment, “Apter’s Alley” starring pro wrestling magazine legend Bill Apter. Apter rambles about WrestleMania Weekend and WrestleCon specifically. Apter hypes an upcoming interview with Kelly Kelly. I can’t wait. *rolls eyes*. Apter shushes his wife for interrupting his segment. Classic NWA On Fire editing. Apter talks briefly about Jake Roberts’ rehabilitation then just as quickly drops the topic to hype Hardcore Holly’s autobiography. Apter talks about the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Apter puts over all of the inductees except Donald Trump (“I haven’t heard so many boos in my life”.) Apter waxes poetic about Bruno and his heyday. He does a genuinely pretty good impression of Sammartino. Apter talks about WrestleMania XXIX in kayfabe terms. Vintage Apter. Apter tells everybody to go to 1Wrestling.com to get WrestleMania results. Uh, OK, Bill!

I think the segment is over but Apter talks about cleaning out his office and trying to find something for his dog “Dusty Rhodes” to wear and he digs out Mil Mascaras and Psychosis replica masks for dogs. For the wrestling fan, who wants to be a dick to their pets. This Apter rambling segment is so long, there’s a commercial break in the middle! It feels like Apter is trying to shoehorn an hour’s worth of topics into a ten minute segment. I think this segment would be 1000x better if they told him to stick to one or two topics. Bill Apter can be genuinely entertaining and insightful if reined in a bit but if you just let him ramble on like he does here, he sounds like sort of a goof.

When we come back, Bill Apter briefly muses about how Howard Cossell used to call Bruno “Bruno San Martino” which is just an excuse for Apter to do a cheesy Cossell impression. Apter continues to get lost in nostalgia as he talks about Bruno and his strong sense of morals and talks about Bruno getting inducted into a Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania a few years back. Apter throws to a clip of him interviewing Bruno and the head of the Hall of Fame.

This video looks to be from ’06/’07, Sammartino rambles about how he respects the indy promoter because it’s family friendly. The indy promoter than yammers about how much of an honor it is for Bruno to be the first inductee of their Hall of Fame, etc. Then we get a brief random slide show dedicated to the night, featuring a cameo from former WCW Announcer Chris Cruise.

And that’s the end of the show. We get an ad for upcoming NWA On Fire live shows. Which includes one show by NWA On Fire sister promotion, NWA Liberty States (which is headlined by Vader) in May and one NWA On Fire show at the Parsippany, NJ PAL Building in June. No wonder why we’re getting classics shows for the next three weeks! NWA On Fire’s habit of doing 1-2 shows every other month doesn’t lend itself to having a dearth of original material…even for the half hour version of the show.

Wrap Up: I consider myself a big fan of the “Classics” episodes of NWA On Fire because if there’s one thing that this promotion does right, it’s showcasing the history of wrestling (using clips that I’m not entirely sure they actually own!) that has gotten somewhat overlooked by WWE. However, this was probably the weakest Classics episode I’ve seen. Showcasing only one forgettable five minute clip show of a match and dedicating nearly half the time to a listless Bill Apter talking heads segment about WrestleMania Weekend (what better way to showcase your promotion than having Bill Apter spend 10 minutes talking about people from other promotions?) . Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed this a bit more than the average episode of NWA On Fire but there was nothing on here, that I’d recommend any old school fan go out of their way to see. Also I don’t see 99.9% of eight year old wrestling fans wanting to watch this show over Saturday Morning Slam. This was mildly fascinating to fans who love the history of wrestling but for people who like to watch ENTERTAINING, old school wrestling, not so much. Let’s hope the next two editions of NWA On Fire Classics are better than this one.

 

Photo Credit to NWA On Fire