On the June 8, 2021, episode of NWA Power, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) president Billy Corgan announced a four-day block of NWA programming from Saturday, August 28 to Tuesday, August 31, consisting of two pay-per-view (PPV) events broadcast exclusively on FITE TV, the second event being the NWA 73rd Anniversary Show, and two days of Power tapings. These events would emanate from the Khorassan Ballroom of the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis, Missouri, making them the first to be held outside of the state of Georgia since the 2019 Crockett Cup. EmPowerrr was the Saturday PPV event, and was announced as the NWA's first-ever event to consist solely of women's matches. Veteran Mickie James was revealed as executive producer for the event. James stated that regardless of contractual issues, she wanted the best wrestlers in the world to participate.[3][4][5][unreliable source?][6][7] In an interview posted on July 17, James announced that Gail Kim, Madusa, Jazz, and Lufisto would also be serving as producers for the event.[8]
While still at WWE, James had pushed for the company to produce another all-female event, after their Evolution PPV in October 2018, as well as an all-female brand, but was "cut off at every opportunity" as she was told that "women's wrestling doesn't make money." After being released from her WWE contract in April 2021, James signed with the NWA where Corgan approved of an all-female event to allow James to show that women's wrestling is profitable. James said that she would not be wrestling on the event as she was producing it, however, she said she was open to participating in a match during the following night's Anniversary Show.[9] In response to James' hope to feature the best women's wrestlers in the world without contractual issues, WWE executive and NXT head Triple H said that made little business sense. He also claimed that WWE had the best female wrestlers in the world.[10][unreliable source?] Despite this, the event received support from UFC Hall of FamerRonda Rousey, WWE Hall of FamerTrish Stratus, and former WWE star Sasha Banks, among others.[11][12][13]
On July 13, 2021, at an NWA press conference held at The Chase, Mickie James announced that Kamille would defend the NWA World Women's Championship at EmPowerrr, though she did not reveal Kamille's opponent. On the July 28 episode of AEW Dynamite, it was announced that All Elite Wrestling (AEW) wrestlers Leyla Hirsch and The Bunny would wrestle in a #1 contenders match at AEW Homecoming to determine who would face Kamille for the NWA World Women's Championship at EmPowerrr.[14][15] At Homecoming, Hirsch defeated Bunny to face Kamille in the NWA World Women's Championship match at EmPowerrr.
On July 13, it was announced that EmPowerrr would host the NWA Women's Invitational Cup; a ten-woman gauntlet match featuring the "best up-and-coming female talent in the world", set for the main event of EmPowerrr, where the winner of the tournament would earn an NWA World Women's Championship match at the NWA 73rd Anniversary Show.[16] The rules were that two competitors would begin the match, and a new competitor would enter every 2 minutes. Eliminations would be by pinfall, submission, or over the top rope.[17]
On July 16, James announced that the NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship would be revived, and that the new champions would be crowned at EmPowerrr.[28][29][30] On August 11, the NWA Twitter responded to a fan claiming there would be four teams taking part in semi-final round matches and then the finals, all of which would take place on the EmPowerrr show.
The teams taking part in the NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament were:
The Freebabes (Jazzy Yang, Hollyhood Haley J, and Miranda Gordy)[35]
At Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary, after Impact Knockouts ChampionDeonna Purrazzo defended her title against mystery opponent Thunder Rosa, Mickie James – a three-time Knockouts Champion in her own right – returned to Impact to invite Purrazzo to EmPowerrr. After the latter disrespected the former, James superkicked Purrazzo.[36] On the subsequent episode of Impact, James and Purrazzo confronted each other and nearly came to blows, before first-ever Knockouts Champion, Impact Hall of Famer, and producer Gail Kim came out to cool things down.[37] There, Purrazzo accepted James' invitation to defend her title.[38] The following week, it was announced that Melina Perez would be Purrazzo's opponent at EmPowerrr.[39][40]
During the NWA EmPowerrr pre-show, Paola Blaze (accompanied by Taryn Terrell) defeated Kenzie Paige in a match that didn't aired due to technical issues.[42]
The actual pay-per-view opened with the executive producer of the show Mickie James addressing the crowd. James talked how she was told this night wouldn't be possible, however, this show proves them wrong.[42]
Next, Chik Tormenta (representing AAA) faced Diamante (representing AEW) and Kylie Rae (representing NWA) in a triple threat match. In the closing moments, as Rae locked Tormenta in a crossface, Diamante broke the hold and followed it with a sunset flip powerbomb on Tormenta into a nearfall to win the match.[42]
After that, in the NWA World Women's Tag Team Championship tournament semi-final match, Hell on Heels (Renee Michelle and Sahara Seven) faced The Hex (Allysin Kay and Marti Belle). In the end, The Hex performed the Hexectution on Michelle to win the match and advancing to the final round.[42]
In the fifth match, which was the second semi-final match, The Freebabes (Jazzy Yang and Miranda Gordy) (accompanied by Hollyhood Haley J) faced Red Velvet and KiLynn King. In the end, King performed the Kingdom on Yang to win the match and advancing to the final round.[42]
Next, Impact WrestlingHall of Famer Gail Kim made a surprise appearance to address the crowd, while thanking NWA letting her be a part of this event as she is one of the producers. She was quickly interrupted by Jennacide, Paola Blaze and Taryn Terrell to confront her. Terrell acted flattered as if Kim only showed out to see her, claimed that there is only room for one person between them, and demanded Kim to leave. After Kim refused to do so, Terrell ordered Blaze and Jennacide to attack Kim, which brought out Awesome Kong to the aid of Kim. Kong attacked Blaze and Jennacide to clear the ring from the villainous trio. Afterwards, Kong announced her retirement from professional wrestling and talked highly about Kim while Kim did the same. They both embraced at the end of the segment.[42]
After that, the Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo defended her title against Melina. Throughout the match, Purrazzo targeted Melina's right knee, as she previously suffered there a real-life injury. In the end, Purrazzo submitted Melina with a single leg Boston crab to retain the title.[42]
The seventh match was a tournament final to crown new World Women's Tag Team Champions between The Hex and King and Velvet, which WWE Hall of Famer Madusa joined the commentary. In the end, The Hex performed an assisted AK-47 to become the new champions. Madusa presented them the revived titles, and afterwards, they embraced with King and Velvet.[42]
Before the penultimate match, which was for the NWA World Women's Championship, NWA honoured Mildred Burke as Brent Tarring talked briefly about her history and legacy in wrestling, before presenting her original title which last appeared in an NWA ring on August 20, 1954, which was acquired by the president of NWA, Billy Corgan.[42][43]
Next, the penultimate match begun, which saw the NWA World Women's Champion Kamille defending her title against Leyla Hirsch. In the closing moments, Hirsch missed a diving moonsault, Kamille went for a spear, but Hirsch dodged it and performed a double knee backbreaker into a cross armbar, which Kamille managed to break from the hold. In the end, Hirsch jumped towards Kamille, but Kamille caught her and tossed her away, followed it with a spear to retain the title.[42]
Main Event
In the main event, ten woman competed in the NWA Women's Invitational Cup Gauntlet match, where the winner would receive a match for the NWA World Women's Championship against Kamille at NWA 73rd Anniversary Show. The first two entrants were Chelsea Green and Kiera Hogan. The third entrant was Bianca Carelli, who was followed by Thunder Kitty. Jennacide was the fifth wrestler to enter the match. Jennacide eliminated Carelli after pinning her in a variation of a swinging DDT. Lady Frost was the sixth entrant, while Jennacide pinned Kitty. Debbie Malenko was the seventh entrant, followed by Jamie Senegal. After Frost performed a corkscrew moonsault on Senegal, Malenko locked Frost into an STF to submit her out of the match. While Malenko put Green into a variation of a Mexican surfboard, Hogan took this opportunity to crawl underneath Green and pinned Malenko.[42]
Masha Slamovich was the ninth entrant. Slamovich, alongside Green and Senegal all pinned Jennacide after various of moves from all three. Tootie Lynn was the final entrant. Slamovich pinned Senegal after a piledriver. Afterwards, Slamovich superplexed Hogan while Green and Lynn powerbombed Slamovich. Regardless, Slamovich pinned Hogan. Slamovich tried to powerbomb Lynn, but Lynn reversed it into an hurricanrana to successfully pin her, leaving her and Green as the final two. Green performed the Unprettier to win the match.[42]
Melina Nava Perez is an American professional wrestler and model. She is best known for her time with WWE under the ring name Melina. Outside of WWE, Perez most recently wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Mickie Laree James is an American professional wrestler and country singer currently signed to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) as Creative Director, Head of Female Talent and Executive Producer. She is best known for her tenures in WWE, Impact Wrestling and National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
The NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship is a women's professional wrestling tag team championship defended in member promotions of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Marshé Rockett is an American professional wrestler currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he performs under the ring name Carnage as a member of Blunt Force Trauma, and is currently one-half of the NWA World Tag Team Champions. He is known for his time with Impact Wrestling.
Allysin Kay is an American professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where she was a former NWA World Women's Tag Team champion. She is also a one-time NWA World Women's Champion. She has also worked for Impact Wrestling under the ring name Sienna, being a two-time TNA/Impact Knockouts Champion and one-time GFW Women's Champion. She also wrestles on the independent circuit in the United States and Canada.
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The NWA 73rd Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) that was held on August 29, 2021, as the second of two PPV events to take place from the Khorassan Ballroom of the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis, Missouri. The event was broadcast on FITE TV. It is the eleventh event in the NWA Anniversary Show chronology, and the first since the 70th Anniversary in 2018.
The 2021 Bound for Glory was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on October 23, 2021, at Sam's Town Live in Sunrise Manor, Nevada. This was Impact Wrestling's first event to take place outside of Nashville, Tennessee, since March 2020. It was the 17th event under the Bound for Glory chronology and featured wrestlers from Impact's partner promotions All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Mexico's Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), and Japan's New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
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The Hex are a professional wrestling tag team most known for working in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), consisting of Allysin Kay and Marti Belle. They are former one-time NWA World Women's Tag Team Champions.
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Strictly Business were a villainous professional wrestling stable currently in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), consisting of Chris Adonis, Thom Latimer and Kamille.
The NWA 74th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) held on August 27 and 28, 2022, at the Chase's Khorassan Ballroom in St. Louis, Missouri.
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Deborah Killian, known under the ring name Debbie Malenko, is an American professional wrestler. She is best known for her work in joshi puroresu organizations such as All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling.
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