One of the new things I have been following is on NWA Powerrr and their tournament to crown a New NWA World Television champion. I like that they have some bigger names and it isn’t just a collection of Indy guys no one has ever heard from. Guys like The Question Mark, Colt Cabana, even the NWA World Champion Nick Aldis are involved in crowning the new champion. It is said that they will hold the matches to determine the new champion at their next pay per view event and the matches we see now are previews and determine who will actually challenge for the belt at the pay per view. I’m all for that idea as the title belt during the Jim Crockett days didn’t get that kind of spotlight. The current NWA is putting some effort into all this and hopefully, they will crown a Television champion during the event (instead of doing something screwy) and use one of my favorite belts to do it. I always loved the design of the belt they are using. It isn’t too big or too gaudy for a belt that was third on the pecking order (this would be second level on NWA Powerrr?)
But one thing that has my interest is the 6:05 time limit to the matches themselves. I kinda get why they are doing it. The Television Title matches of the old days had a championship time limit of 15 minutes and scoring a win outside of that meant the winner wouldn’t get the belt and possibly set up a rematch down the road. But this version of the title has a 6:05 time limit to the matches and that is it. Did they NWA shoot themselves in the foot with the idea? Granted it would keep a crappy match short and not stink up the joint for long periods of time, but in the opposite direction of that, it would mean that a good match that people want to see is short and not able to carry on a match like that for very long.
I thought a lot of people were like me and want matches to be longer on Television and not like these little 5 minute deals that play well on TV screens like what we are used to from the WWE. The NWA has said the heck with that and here is a title and matches that are six minutes long. Doesn’t give either guy a chance to really get anything going does it? You aren’t going to put together a mat classic in 6 minutes. But maybe that is the point of these matches. You know these matches aren’t going to be long showings of what each guy brings to the table and with that time limit they will bring all they have and do it quickly.
But thinking about it, maybe I am looking at this the wrong way and these matches for this title aren’t meant to be the long matches you often get from the NWA Champion matches. If I want long marathon matches, look to the World Title matches that most time, are the headliner of these shows. For something quick and hopefully action-packed, look to these Television title matches.
At least the NWA isn’t doing what also used to happen with the Crockett version of the Television Title back in the day and just have jobbers as opponents for the champion in “defense” of the title. Then again the NWA is still holding matches to determine who the first champion will be of this modern era so we may see that happen in the near future.
