“Hey, cameraman, get a look at these shoes right here, THESE SHOES RIGHT HERE? SHOES OF A CHAMPION! THIS JACKET RIGHT HERE? SHOES OF A CHAMPION *moment of realisation of wait he just said* … wait did I just say shoes of a champion? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA YEAHHHHHHHH”
It’s actually crazy looking back at NWA In late 2019. They had So much momentum going and buzz from the 10 pounds of Gold/All In. They had Arguably the 2nd best roster behind WWE (aew was barren at the time). Powerrr was unlike anything else on at the time , The RU-vid streams would have over 100k + live viewers and they had all the goodwill in the world. Honestly it became the surprise highlight of the Wednesday night war era. 4 years later the company is a joke a meme almost. It’s gone from being the 3rd biggest to falling behind Impact , Roh , GCW , Strong and MLW. Even 2015-2017 impact wasn’t this dire. I personally believe Billy Corgan hasn’t got a bloody clue what he’s doing it also makes you wonder about all the stuff he said about impact and how much of it was actually his fault . I think the Rise and Fall of modern NWA would be great topic for a video. I also think a Billy Corgan video is way overdue too !!!
By the time they lost Eli Drake, The Question Mark and Nick Aldis the Corgan era's best days were done. They also lost a few staff members that proved to be toxic.
I definitely felt Flair vibes by the way he sometimes just goes crazy whenever he cutted promos. He’d randomly start moving crazy and staring like he went through two vietnams
Eli Drake was one of the bright spots of NWA It's unfortunate in WA as a company doesn't have the type of recognition or business to where they can shine some of their superstars.
I loved this run. It's where I discovered Eli Drake/LA Knight. I loved Powerrr. I watched studio wrestling as a kid. It's not as good anymore, but those 2 seasons before the pandemic were magic.
LA Knight Haters acting like half the WWE Main event isn’t in their mid to late 40’s. The Age is only convenient when the Haters think they got something over Wrestling’s last Megastar 😂
Watching this the morning after the promo he did honoring Bray Wyatt and it is interesting to see how far he's come. I think his best showing has been in the WWE believe it or not; they seem to actually see the most in him.
Not sure who wins rumble 2024, but i think Mania 40 would be fantastic if Cody beats Roman for the title, and LA Knight defeats whomever for the World title. Give us 2 fresh champions and a "reboot" for WWE. Something that hasnt been done for ages.
@@packedentertainment2866 Agreed, Impact took him in when he had nothing and played to his strengths and helped build his name, brand and career. Plus he was able to go all out. I miss him being able to call people Dummies Yeahhh, but you know that would violate the WWE Bully campaign.
NWA had a way of the newest talent taking awhile to get their stride. Virtually ANYONE new to the company took several L's before beginning the climb. The whole lockdown kept much of the NWA talents out of work........ Eli, Zicky, Thunder Rosa, James Storm, Ricky Starks and Royce Issacs moved on to other companies.... Eli did feel like the "sidekick" rather than the main character. I'll grant you that one. The roster was pretty small at the time.
WWE not pushing is definitely not an age thing since Damian Priest is the same age as him and he won MITB and even someone like Finn Balor who is older got a world title program. I think someone in power just doesnt like Knight and wants hype around the guy to die out.
That early run of power was really something special, looking at the roster they had, the retro 70s/80s Mid-Atlantic TV taping vibes, love him or hate him Cornette on commentary brought something to the table, it wasn't necessarily the best or most mainstream wrestling product but it was really entertaining for a few months there. Ricky Starks and Eli Drake/LA Knight imo both showed some of the first signs they'd be big in AEW/WWE respectively during that NWA run.
Cornette was terrible. Stu Bennet and Joe Gally had an excellent face/heel thing going on that really brought he product to life. Now commentary is back to being boring again.
LOL the ad was for directv and saying dolphins can see in two direction but the guy couldn’t. They should put fish face from the Dark Little Mermaid (splice sequel). Because her eyes are a foot apart so she actually can see in 2 different directions. Hailey Bailey can be referred to as “fish face”, “gap eyes” or “questionably on the spectrum” haha
Oh I can see the Flair comparison immediately. Loudest man in the arena with nothing much to say. Eventually people will stand in line for hours just to see him get his ass kicked, just like flair and Rock
The kiss ass gimmick can totally work for a guy who EVENTUALLY becomes world champ, but that's a really slow burner that needs way more TV time to pull off. Try to imagine someone doing that to get a title shot against Ric Flair when the Four Horsemen were actually a thing. That would be a 1+ year build.
I agree, it would be that secretly the whole time he's a heal who played the ass kissing face. A long game of chess basically that this man planned this out months to year in advance and now he has the title. No telling what he planned when he was only hoping to win it
I like this promo setting...it reminds of the old Memphis Wrestling set in the days of Lance Russell, Eddie Gilbert and Jerry Lawler et al. Jim Cornette was there in Memphis back in the day too so I wonder if the set was his idea.
One of the similarities between him and Ric Flair is that when Ric does a promo, when he disagrees with something he says “Na Na!” which LA uses also. Doesn’t bother me regardless. I don’t see him trying to be Austin, Rock or Flair.
I miss when Power was good. It was great for wrestling. Great old school look and presentation that even the Rock praised, great up and coming star, great theme song. And then the pandemic hit, and it fell off a cliff when Billy Corgan started booking like drunk Vince Russo.
@@hiddensword9387He's not intimidating. He's big because he's fat, not because he works a lot at the gym. He sure spends most time sat while he is writing his shitty jokes for his show at FOW News.
It you look at that gif of la knight saying “yeah” multiple times, his eyes are bugging out, the same way after flair says “woo” many times in a row. They both have that same crazy look on their face.
When he was in a feud with Bray Wyatt in WWE, he cut a promo calling out Bray to come get “stomped out! YEAH!” and he DEFINITELY channeled Flair for that one.
Sting was 40 at the end of wcw, la knight can be the guy for a good 5 year run. IF they use him wisely. Don't put the man in ladder matches, treat him as a main eventer who doesn't compete every week, but keep him in the spotlight with his incredible mic skills
I find it hypocritical that Billy Corgan criticizes IMPACT for not pushing Eli Drake/LA Knight but he did the samething. LA only won the Tag Titles and Impact made him win the World Championship, Tag Titles and King of the Mountain championship
Hey i havent commented all the time as of late since ive been very tired recently over work and working through some pain at the moment. I really do like some of your takes on the wrestling world and thank you for doing a video on Vito a little while back. I dont have the cash to pay on patron but i have a suggestion for another ring of the hawk and thats Armando Alejandro Estrada who between Raw, Smackdown and ECW had 17 or so matches and i think it could be interesting to see. Anyways just a suggestion :)
Mr. Kennedy and LA Knight is a match made in heaven/hell. On a side note when LA Knight faced AJ Styles in a match at Wrestlemania 40 when I heard him scream after AJ Styles wrapped his leg around the post I said to my mom that he kinda sounded like Ric Flair
In Impact Eli Drake won the Impact and Tag Titles with Scott Steiner, yet you claim he was misused. Do his NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood run as Shawn Ricker where he had Percy (Paul Bearer) Pringle as his manager.
I believe that the WWE don't like when wrestlers,or heels (aside from Steve Austin). Get over in an ultra superstar wat and they didn't plan for his character o do so. I mean he got into next and right away the crowd somewhat gravitated to him because the man is gold on the mic. And he always has been. And at this point he is getting the biggest pop out of any superstar on the roster on both RAW and SMACKDOWN. Even more and bigger pops than the champions, and the most established and popular wrestlers that have been superstars for years in the WWE. As a matter of fact, I honestly can't remember when I have heard a pop as loud for any superstar in any company at anytime as loud as the pop from the crowd that LA Knight gets. And yes he keeps losing with a seldom win here and there. They definitely aren't giving the fans the push that he well deserves and the crowd obviously definitely wants. I remember first seeing him as Eli Drake in Impact and he was a even back then about 2016 or 2017. And I remembered being mesmerized at how electric and charismatic and great this man was on the mic. He has and still has an incredible physique. And ntm the guy can go in the ring. He's a great wrestler. As far as age. He's a safe worker, he's careful not to pull muscles working out in the gym. And ntm lookup his resume on Google. The man regardless of age has hardly had any operations, accidents,or and kind of major injuries let alone few minors. He's in better shape and lees banged up than most of the whole WWE roster. But in Impact he held many belts, teamed up with Chris Addonis(AKA in WWE Chris Masters"The Master Lock" , a full nelson that was impossible to get out). Also going on his own run and was recognized by Impact to be gold on the mic actually gave him his own talk show where he would have baby face come in the ring and degrade him with his "Dummy!" buzzer and imo I thought it was genius! He was Eli Drake. And he was the total package of a wrestler and I was amazed that he was in an Indy show like Impact. He held many titles,I think he may have been a grandslam champ once he finally won the heavyweight title. He was white hot in Impact. He ket his contract runs out. Probably hoping that he would be picked up by the WWE. But after waiting and needing to make ends meet, he was acquired and decided to join Billy Corgan's NWA studio style À it was in the midst of the 2020 pandemic. And NWA was put on hold and ended up making this weekly show. It was fun and also stupid at times. Then NWA went into limbo for with their weekly show becoming it own type of land with mayors and very silly ideas. But still Eli Drake had his own segment on the show and it shines the most. Of course Zicky Dice was doing some good skits and promos. But I recently saw him wrestling in ROH. He still has his bizarre character but he's now a jobber with no personality and has let his body go big time. He's now a very overweight shell of himself. But they eventually went back to wrestling and at this point the WWE had Eli Drake on their radar. As his mic skills, physique and wrestling were all on point. But he should have been in the WWE years ago. So they finally got this gem of a wrestler. Renamed him LA Knight so it had the same syllables as Eli Drake so he could do his signature point intoc the syllables of his name. He wasn't in NXT very long but when he was he won the million dollar belt but he took his very fair share of loses. Now on the main roster. His mic skills and signature "YEAH!" Have got crowds at every show he appears at, win or lose, getting the biggest pop out of every superstar on the roster. But he is still losing. Sure he wins here and there. But he seems to be losing more the winning. The WWE knows what they have as every time he comes out with a mic in hand.They really tried to ultimately bury him by rename him Max Duprea and teaming him up with the Max Nale Models. That was a Vince thing. And as stars Vince was out for a bit, HHH then came by and was back in control and immediately let LA Knight change his back and separated him from the Max Models. Since then b. Win or lose he's arguably the most popular wrestler on the roster. The biggest pops, he's good on the mic whether doing a promo out to the ring. And he's astill hell of a wrestler,a great physique but word has it that what's holding him back is his age. And it's the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard of. This man is the total package in a pro wrestler. He's got it all. And the WWE Universe is going to without a doubt turning on the company I they don't start doing something with him very soon mark my words. He should have have been in this company many years ago. And that is no fault of Knight's. He busted his ass,crawled,and scratched to get to where he is. And dammit he deserves a hell of a dam push. Not just a push, but do you hear that crowd!? I mean holy shit!? Strap a rocket to this man and light the fuse!!!🚀🚀🚀
L.A. Knight? I thought he was french and WWE thought their American viewers were too stupid to know what a chevalier was. (I am sooper dooper serious!!!)
