NWA 73

Overall rating: ★★★○☆☆☆

They promoted this on iMPACT! so this was their opportunity to bring in new viewers, right? They convinced us to watch this show (along with EmPowerrr) so it should have been designed as a good introduction. But it wasn't. They (mostly) didn't bother explaining who anyone was or what was going on in the story, so it was basically just a bunch of generic matches between people I've never heard of for reasons I wasn't aware of. The crowd really seemed to enjoy hearing Ric Flair mumble-shout about his career, but I could have done without it. They really, really wanted me to care about shit that happened decades ago and I just don't. They set some stuff up for later shows that I won't watch. If this was their best attempt to draw me in, they failed.

1. Brawl in the Lou (Tim Storm vs. Thom Latimer vs. Crimson)
   ★★★○☆☆☆
   They just keep saying "brawl in the lou" like as though that means something. What the fuck is a lou? It was never explained. The match was just a standard no-DQ match.
2. Singles (Mickie James vs. Kylie Rae)
   ★★★○☆☆☆
   I guess this was for the Mickie James fans; I don't have anything against her, but I wasn't watching any of the stuff that people love her for so this was just a match for me.
3. 6-Man Tag (Tyrus, Jordan Clearwater & the Masked Man vs. Pope & The End)
   ★★☆○☆☆☆
   I got bored with this one and ended up fast-forwarding it.
4. National Championship (Chris Adonis vs. James Storm)
   ★★★○☆☆☆
   There were some shenanigans, but mostly it was just a standard match and there was nothing really to grab my interest or show me why I should care.
5. #1 Contender Battle Royale (13 competitors)
   ★★☆○☆☆☆
   Weird that they didn't need to go over the top rope to be eliminated in this one. I guess it prevents that tactic of getting out of the ring to stay safe, but that's part of the fun. And there were too many people in the ring all at once because they didn't stagger the entrances at all. Once it got down to the final three it was ok, but obviously that was right at the end.
6. Women's Championship (Kamille vs. Chelsea Green)
   ★★★●☆☆☆
   For a brief moment, I almost cared about this match.
7. Men's Tag Championship (Aron Stevens & Kratos vs. La Rebellión)
   ★★☆○☆☆☆
   One of these dudes had an extremely cool wolf mask but he took it off before the match started. I fast-forwarded it.
   
8. Title vs. Career Worlds Championship (Trevor Murdoch vs. Nick Aldis)
   ★★★●★☆☆
   So they do know how to provide context; they just didn't bother for the previous matches. And these two guys are actually good at telling a story in the ring. I could tell who the characters were and what hey were about. The stakes were clearly established. I knew who was the good guy and who was the bad guy, and who we were supposed to want to win and why. It was a proper wrestling match!