NFAMADWF: Where, when, and how?

Late last week, National Wrestling Alliance owner and lead singer of alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkin William Corgan, announced that the NWA would be returning to studio television in October.


It had a lot of people talking for many reasons. One, Corgan never mentioned the channel/station that the NWA show, as of this time untitled, would air on. Two, they've not formally announced an actual roster of talent. And three, will there be a streaming option made available?

So, where will the show air?

That's the big question after last weeks announcement, made available on their NWA YouTube channel. The video, which has been watched 85,000 times, can be found here:


Now, when I heard the announcement, I immediately felt it was going to be a local station. In doing research for this column, i feel the front runners to air the NWA program are WAGA-TV, a fox affiliate that has afternoons currently airing paid advertising. WPCH-TV, also known as PeachTree TV pops out at me as well. 

PeachTree was owned by Turner Broadcasting for 46 years - during the which they used the call letters WTCG - and pioneered the distribution of broadcast TV, becoming ... the SUPERSTATION, TBS.

TBS aired professional wrestling up until 2001. PeachTree is now an independent channel, and to me, it seems like a natural fit for the NWA to return to TV on PeachTree.

The other channel that may have a play in this game is WUPA, a CW channel. I've reached out to all of the above stations for verification, but as of right now, I have not heard back.

Talent ... Whose signed, who SHOULD be signed 

So far the roster consists of NWA World Champion Nick Aldis, National champion James Storm, Women's champion Allysin Kay and tag team champions Villain Enterprises. With the demise of the ROH/NWA partnership, those straps will most likely will be stripped or dropped by VE soon.

Now the very essence of the NWA was the foundation that it was to be the home of a territorial system with smaller promotions feeding the mother ship talent, and vice versa. So do we see the NWA signing working agreements with other smaller promotions or are they going to be a childless satellite, bringing in talent without contracts? That seems a bit dangerous. I feel like they have to sign at least ten to twelve more talents. And they have to stay away from veterans past their prime. It has to be new, fresh faces marching the NWA back into prominence. My list of 10 talents they should focus on bringing in for the initial run of the series:

Kris Statlander
David Starr
Orange Cassidy
Wheeler Yuta
Jake Atlas
Thomas Santell
Solo Darling
Allie Kat
Joey Lynch
Manders

And you do something BOLD. You put the strap on Kris Statlander and you show the world that the NWA is not only the historical tape measure of professional wrestling, but also progressive in the nature of the business. Statlander is a once in a life time talent who has the ability to carry that weight upon her shoulders.

Starr is a perfect foil for Aldis and would put a shine on the ten pounds of gold that it deserves, while Cassidy is the comic foil you need to segue the hard hitting action that the NWA will promote.

Yuta, Atlas, Lynch and Manders are the young upstart studs you build a promotion around, while Darling and Lynch make WWE's womens roster look like Divas. 

And Thomas Santell is next generation Varsity Club, a perfect fit for the NWA and a helluva worker.

And you work with upstart promotions like Beyond, like Southern Honor, Warrior Wrestling and you sift through the country for the next superstar in the making. There is a bevy of talent that is still to be found.

And will it stream... 

Clearly the future of prowrestling is streaming. All the big promotions and even the smaller promotions have made their product easily accessible to the masses with just a click of the mouse.

I hope that the NWA will emulate the model that MLW is using. Air on Saturday's on the ATL channel and then on Monday post it on Youtube for the world to see.

Or maybe you work out a deal with IWTV.live and air the shows there, run your Clash of Champion type shows there and run your ppv's on Fite.tv.

So much opportunity and a very hungry mass of fans waiting.

- Dennis  @thewrestleverse

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