This was the show of the year for the NWA and maybe the show of the year regardless of where you are. NWA Smoky Mountain is one of the best promotions in the NWA, probably the best monthly promotion. And this show was huge.
The show opened with a woman's match, and then did have some of the local guys promoting story lines. The main point was Brent Evans defeated Chris Richards to earn a future title shot. Brent Evans is the second biggest face in the company and has been on a very slow build since top face Kincaid is still going strong. Evans lost a year or so ago to Richards in the Smoky Mtn Cup and Richards has constantly been the road block to Evans being in the top ranks. So this was no minor thing. It was a decent match, but had major implications in the long running story lines.
Jax Dane took on Rob Conway. These two do show up three or so times a year at Smoky Mtn and are also part of long term story lines. In fact this story line is probably going to be done in several places as Dane and Conway are both top contenders for the World Title. Dane had Conway set up for the spear after a Samoan drop (yes Dane broke out moves I had not seen him use before). There was outside interference, but they never got a shot in on Dane who destroyed a few guys with clotheslines. Dane then returned to spear mode, but Conway slipped out of the way and Bruce Thwarp, President of the NWA, took the spear. He made it look pretty nasty and the match was ended. I think it was a no contest because of the injury to Thwarp, but it could have been a DQ win for Dane.
AJ Styles then took on Chase Owens in a non-title match (Styles's IJPW title). Owen was just named to New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, which shows some of the talent at Smoky Mountain. This match was praised up and down twitter. Just go look at how many people said it was the best match they had ever seen. Owens looked good, took a few ugly bumps including a hip toss outside the ring, and AJ won clean with the Styles Clash. The two shook hands afterward. Owens has a big future ahead of him. I just hope he stays in the NWA because he will be a future NWA World Heavyweight Champ.
Then Jason Kincaid took on John Morrison for the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight title. This match was also very good. Kincaid just won an 8 man tournament himself showing him to be a top wrestler too. Which of the two matches you thought was match of the night depends upon what kind of style of wrestling you enjoy. Styles-Owens was back and forth, big move, big bumps to a finish kind of TV style match. Morrison-Kincaid showed the strength of both of these two wrestlers, which is innovation. They had counters for counters and it ended with Kincaid hitting his finisher from the top rope (which is not normal), and thus retaining the longest running title reign in wrestling.
How often do you see a double main event show where both main events deliver and the undercard advances story lines in good ways. And in fact had some development for Jax Dane. It is no secret I am not a huge Dane fane, but he pulled out some moves for this match. I enjoyed it. Conway is off to wrestler in NWA Supreme this weekend for a future World Title Shot over in Japan (I expect Conway to win - it is also the rubber match up there in Supreme too). Dane as the National Champ is going to have more shots at Conway.
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