Results ~ May 7th, 2022

[Dustin Salyers]

NWA Reign ~ “Championship Wrestling from Carolina” (IWTV)
May 7th, 2022 [Saturday]
Grady Cole Center in Charlotte, NC
2,869 Spectators

1. Hikaru Shida & Io Shirai vs. Britt Baker & Mia Yim
>Winner: Shirai (9:28) following a moonsault on Baker
~ Shida and Shirai looked dominant throughout, while Baker and Yim weren’t nearly as cohesive.

2. Jack Brisco Memorial Block Match: Roderick Strong vs. Bobby Roode
>Winner: Roode (12:41) with the Pay Off
~ Strong now finds himself needing a Sabre Jr. loss later tonight to avoid elimination.

3. Dragon Lee vs. Cedric Alexander
>Winner: Lee (15:05) following a bicycle knee strike
~ Lee picks up his second win in a fantastic match.

4. Jack Brisco Memorial Block Match: Adam Cole vs. Bandido
>Winner: Bandido (14:39) following a Spanish Fly
~ Bandido moves into a share of second place in the block while Cole is now also hoping for a Sabre Jr. loss.

5. Jack Brisco Memorial Block Match: Prince Devitt vs. AJ Styles
>Winner: Draw (30:00) Time limit expired
~ Arguably match of the night as these two put on a great display of several styles of wrestling. The handshake after the match was well received by the crowd.

6. Young Bucks vs. reDragon
>Winner: O’Reilly (21:42) with the ARMageddon on Matt
~ The Top Guys, Harwood & Wheeler, joined Tony Schiavone, Michael Hayes & Jim Cornette on commentary for this match and spoke highly of the two teams involved in the match and the tag team division overall. With the match still ongoing, the Briscoe Brothers came to the commentary position on the balcony and demanded another match for the NWA North Carolina Tag Team Championships. Wheeler told them he could understand their reason with the way the match ended last week but they would need to take their grievance up with the office. Jay mentioned “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no office… but I know where to find you two chickenshits”. Schiavone, who had continued to call the match in the ring, mentions Jay “should watch his language” but Hayes and Cornette immediately began calling for help as all four men were now throwing punches. The match eventually ended with O’Reilly submitting Matt Jackson and then the cameras were focused on the brawl in one of the staircases leading up to the balcony. Eventually the brawl headed to ringside and everyone was separated once again, though Harwood, Wheeler & Jay were all bleeding by now. Wheeler promised a match for next week and wished the Briscoe Brothers “good luck keeping things in the ring next week… ‘cause you boys know you ain’t beatin’ us in that ring”.

7. Jack Brisco Memorial Block Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
>Winner: Okada (20:18) following the Rainmaker
~ Sabre Jr. gave everything he had in this one, even countering the Rainmaker twice but eventually he ran out of luck. Sabre Jr.’s loss keeps everyone safe going into the last show for the block in two weeks but Okada’s win gives him twice as many points as second place.

8. NWA North Carolina Ladies Championship Match: Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka
>Winner: Flair (26:02) with a figure-four leglock
~ 1st successful defense
~ This could have been the match of the night if the Devitt / Styles draw didn’t do it for you. No one had an advantage for the first half of the match, though there were a few near falls. Things changed quickly though when Asuka missed a kick with Flair in the corner and seemed to catch her lower leg awkwardly on the turnbuckle. Flair was relentless from here on with her work on the lower leg and the knee and the crowd was solidly behind the technical side of her. Asuka fought well but was at a huge disadvantage with her strikes diminished and immediately slapped the canvas when Flair applied the figure-four leglock. Asuka was helped from the ring but was unable to put any weight on her injured leg. She was eventually placed on a stretcher and taken from ringside to be evaluated.

[kje]

I have found myself reading fantasy wrestling results on a Saturday night; since it's been so long, I have gone through past results and will try to catch up to the most recent shows.

One minor note, I would appreciate putting who is on which team in parentheses. Some of the tag teams are obvious: I know the Mechanics are FTR, but the lesser known, independent tag teams I don't know. I liked the decision to rename the Mechanics into Top Guys following their victory and appreciate the choice not to use FTR.

I appreciate the thought put into booking a round-robin tournament. I find watching them (ie: following a G1) to be a chore, but reading them in this format is fun. Your post-event graphics are excellent, however, some of your points don't correlate to the standings. Looking at the second night of the Crockett Cup, it appears Rush's and Ibushi's records are reversed as well as PAC & Anderson's. The points seem to be correct as far as I can tell. On this show, I have Rush at 4-1-1 for 9 points but your record has him at 3-2-1 for 9 points.

In a tournament with this much talent, someone has to lose more often than not despite being a fantastic wrestler. I'm surprised by some of the choices - I thought Adam Page, for example, would fare better. I wouldn't have picked some others to have success - I feel like Anderson might win the whole tournament, though he wouldn't be my pick. I'd like to see PAC fare better but I can't complain about him being .500 so far.

I found myself just following the tournament for now, but I do plan on going back and reading the Ladies division and Tag Team division in more depth. Briefly, Charlotte was the obvious choice to be the first champion, but it will be interesting to see who is able to dethrone her.

I'm looking forward to the tournament ending and seeing where things end up! Great to see you back writing.

[Dustin Salyers]

Thanks so much for the comments. I honestly never thought of using the names with the visiting teams. Are you having trouble with the five teams that I am consistently using?

I also hate the name FTR and always knew I was going to change it from Mechanics... Top Guys was my long term goal for the name.

I am not surprised that my standings graphic is incorrect. The way I have to edit each line in photoshop is tedious and I have found myself confused before, but I will double check everything now.

[Dustin Salyers]

I think I fixed the graphic... thanks so much for the help.