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The National Wrestling Alliance will hold its 75th-anniversary show over the course of two nights on Saturday and Sunday in what will be the start of a busy few days in the industry leading into next month.
NWA will not be the only show pro wrestling fans will be tuned into over the course of the weekend. All Elite Wrestling will host All In in London on Sunday, WWE will have Payback on September 2, and AEW will be back on September 3 with All Out.
NWA, with its lengthy history in the pro wrestling industry, is a part of the vast landscape. Fans can tune in almost any day of the week to find some kind of genre of wrestling that they’re into and be satisfied.
Aron Stevens, one of the stars on the NWA roster who was known as Damien Sandow, in WWE, described the promotion as the "tomato soup and grilled cheese" in a recent interview with Fox News Digital ahead of NWA 75.
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Aaron Stevens manages Blunt Force Trauma (NWA/Hiban Huerta)
"There’s only one style of wrestling in my opinion, and that is getting people to pay money to watch you, and in order to do that, they have to be invested in you," he said. "A lot of the in-ring stuff, the art of it, is kind of disappearing, because we’re sacrificing a lot of long-term psychology, like in long-term storytelling for 10-, 15-, 20-second videos on Instagram and highlight reels so you can tweet and get 1,000 likes – ‘Oh, look at the flip you did and this and that.’ Well, OK, look at the flip you did, but then two seconds after, the crowd was sitting on their hands. OK, you know what? Cool, whatever. If that’s your thing, fine. There are very talented people on there. Chris Jericho is one of the greatest of all time. Props to Roman Reigns, The Usos, there’s gems everywhere. There are truly gems everywhere.
"But I think from NWA, we are trying to make it the company policy in storytelling in characters you can invest in. Like the pre-COVID NWA world, the show was magic. It truly, truly was magic. There were matches, and then you got to know the characters. You got the interview guest, and it was a very familiar setting like old school Georgia Championship. And it was just, again, tomato soup and grilled cheese."
Stevens said the talent the NWA roster has can compare to any other promotion.
"If you watch NWA, and you look at some of the talent, like the in-ring action, it compares to anyone in terms of the stuff people do," Steven said. "We have hardcore matches, we have matches that make people smile, we have the drama and kind of that fighting for a championship. I mean, if you look at our Crockett Cup Pay-Per-View, the fans in North Carolina saw two days of tag matches. That’s a long time to have that final match. Everyone was standing, and the building was shaking.
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Aron Stevens has turned to managing two pro wrestling veterans. (NWA/Hiban Huerta)
"That is what NWA is. That is who the NWA is. And I think as a company now, as we go forward, we're finding a way to best highlight who we are as a company and things like Crockett Cup, we have a lot of momentum coming out of that. And I can tell you that at NWA 75 it’s going to be no different."
Stevens recently moved into a managerial role and is in the corner of the tag team Blunt Force Trauma. The group is made up of Carnage and Damage – known as Rodney Mack in WWE. They will take on La Rebelion – the group made up of Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf who are managed by Vampiro.
He told Fox News Digital he felt like he was "doing the best work of my career."
"The reason I transitioned into a manager, it just kind of naturally came. It wasn’t like physically, I wasn’t able to wrestle anymore," he said. "Just the creative direction I guess, and I’m given some degree of creative freedom, and actually I’m given more creative freedom in NWA than anywhere else.
"It just literally kind of took it in that direction, and the stars aligned, and that’s kind of the role I’m playing now. It’s a lot of fun. It’s allowing me to explore a different dimension of the wrestling business, and that’s really cool."
Stevens also mentioned the up-and-comers in the NWA like Jordan Clearwater and "Thrillbilly" Silas Mason as a couple more of the must-see talents on the roster. Both have matches on the NWA 75 card.
"And that’s all the reason to tune into NWA 75," Stevens told Fox News Digital. "If you can be there, I’m telling you, be there. It’s something – the tradition, the legacy. There’s always surprises going on. Our product is really kind of getting to a point now where our identity is materializing rapidly in terms of our place in the wrestling world, especially like the post-COVID wrestling world.
"And it’s just a really cool thing to be a part of."
Blunt Force Trauma takes on La Rebelion for the tag-team titles. (NWA/Hiban Huerta)
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NWA 75 will take place on Saturday and Sunday nights in St. Louis at Chase's Khorassan Ballroom. It can also be seen on FITE TV.