Editor’s Note: You can watch tonight’s episode here.

The show opened showing the debut of Scott Steiner on NWA Power from last week, and Nick Aldis’ shocking run-in at Sunday’s Ring of Honor show.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express made their way out to ringside. Ricky Morton wanted the young wrestlers to listen. He said the first thing they have always done was put the fans first, and that they paved the way for all the young guys to make millions of dollars. He said he was like the fans, though, because he had to get up before the sun was up and work hard to pay the bills to take care of his family.

Morton said they have fought the best in the world and they accept NWA World Champion Nick Aldis’ stipulations from last week: if Team Morton wins tonight’s six-man main event, Morton gets a NWA title shot. Robert Gibson said that he wasn’t going to tell yet about who was on the team, letting them wonder.

— The brackets for the NWA Television tournament were announced with two mystery spots open. Ziggy Dice was at ringside and asked, “What has Ricky Starks done to deserve being in this tournament?” Starks replied with several graphic things said about Dice’s mother and that he went toe to toe with Aldis.

NWA World Television Championship Tournament: Zane Dawson defeated Dave Dawson

Dave and Zane tried to overpower each other several times, exchanging shoulder tackles and big splashes. Zane hit a flying shoulder tackle for two. Zane hit the ropes, but Dave hit an impressive flying kick. Dave ran at Zane, but Zane moved and Dave hit the middle turnbuckle face first.

Zane ripped at Dave’s shirt and started chopping him, but Dave went after Zane’s injured hand. The referee pushed Dave away, and as his back was turned, Zane hit a huge right hand with the cast to pin Dave and advance. However, he was yelling in pain and looked like he injured his hand further.

— We got a video package focusing on the recent Colt Cabana/Ken Anderson tag team issues. Cabana said he believed in Anderson, that he believed in their tag team, and he needed to get into Anderson’s headspace so that they could get in the game. Anderson said he wasn’t bitter and believed he was in the right headspace. It seems like we have a feud developing between those two which could be fun.

Melina defeated Ashley Vox

Vox immediately hit a shotgun dropkick, but Melina countered a corner charge and hit a dropkick to Vox’s knee. Melina threw Vox into the corner, but she slipped through the middle rope and hit a head scissors. Melina bumped weird for it and botched flipping over. Vox went for a cannonball in the corner, but Melina dodged and proceeded to stomp on Vox and choke her on the ropes.

Melina ate a headbutt from Vox, but countered with a kick, and then landed another one. Vox rolled her up, but Melina kicked out and hit a few more strikes. Both women exchanged forearms, and Vox slipped behind and went for the Reel Catch, but Melina countered into a standing leg drop while doing the split for the pinfall. Melina was no good at all in this match. Vox is a great worker which helped it a lot, but she was badly exposed in this one.

Melina said her sights are on the title and called out NWA women’s champion Allysin Kay to let her know her plans for next week. Kay came out and said she was ready to fight and was ready now, but Melina said she wanted her to prepare and be ready to compete next week for the title.

— We got video footage of Nick Aldis coming to Ring of Honor, saying that they shouldn’t have come to his territory. On Saturday, he attacked Flip Gordon and targeted Villain Enterprises, calling Marty Scurll out. Aldis claimed that he was the real world’s champion. We then got footage from Sunday’s ROH show when Aldis was doing a promo and Gordon was part of a group who ran him out of the arena. Aldis called out Gordon for a match at NWA Hard Times which is now the main event of the PPV.

— The Pope came out with Eddie Kingston and Homicide, and said he was their advisor, but not manager. He wanted to help them get opportunities, pointing out that Aron Stevens was the NWA National Champion, but refused to defend his title. He had a challenge for Stevens and Question Mark, saying if they wanted to become great, they needed to take them on.

NWA National Champion Aron Stevens & The Question Mark defeated Eddie Kingston & Homicide

Kingston blocked a kick from Stevens and gave him the look of death. Stevens screamed and rolled to the outside. He came back in and Homicide tagged in and landed a chop and then a big running forearm in the corner. Homicide tried to do it again, but Stevens moved, and he crashed shoulder first into the corner, immediately causing him to sell the injury from previous weeks.

Stevens drove Homicide shoulder first into the turnbuckle and started attacking the arm viciously. Stevens continued to work over the arm with submissions and cheap shots with the ropes. Homicide hit a back body drop on Stevens, and Kingston ran in and started biting and attacking Stevens.

Question Mark came in and hit the Mongrovian Spike on Kingston, which drove him to the mat, holding his throat. As Homicide was going for the Cop Killa on Stevens, Homicide’s shoulder went out and Question Mark hit Homicide with the Spike, enabling Stevens to get the pin.

I liked the psychology of this match with the working over Homicide’s arm and him unable to hit his finisher because of it. I also like selling a throat thrust. Getting jabbed in the throat would not be something pleasant, and it makes sense to sell it.

— Aldis came out and welcomed Scott Steiner, saying that he was one of the men that mentored him when no one else would. Steiner said that the first time he saw him, he knew Aldis was going to be a world champion. Steiner said he wakes up in the morning and wants to punch people in the face. He brought out the original NWA World Tag Team Championship and talked about how he and Rick beat everyone up in front of them. He said Ricky and Robert were two people he wanted to beat up, always hated them, and that he was going to kick their asses for thinking they are the greatest of all time.

Team Morton (Robert Gibson, Eli Drake & Tim Storm) defeated Strictly Business (Tom Latimer, Royce Isaacs & Scott Steiner) to earn Ricky Morton an NWA World title shot

Latimer started the match by beating on Drake and whipping him into the corner. Drake managed to tag out to Gibson, and both men hit a double back elbow on Latimer. Gibson threw a few right hands and tagged out to Storm, who worked over Latimer’s arm. Latimer punched Storm in the throat and tagged out, but Storm caught Isaacs in a fallaway slam and a running boot.

Drake hit an elbow drop on Issacs for a two count. Isaacs pulled Drake from the middle rope, and he crashed into the top turnbuckle. Steiner tagged in and hit some chops in the corner on Drake before hitting a belly-to-belly on Drake before tagging out to Latimer. Latimer hit a back elbow for two and tagged out to Isaacs.

Isaacs hit a big back suplex on Drake and tagged out to Steiner. Steiner hit a huge overhead belly-to-belly suplex on Drake and tagged out to Isaacs who continued the assault on Drake. Drake finally managed to tag out to Gibson who hit a sunset flip on Isaacs for a two count and then locked on a sleeper hold. Chaos ensued when Latimer broke it up as everyone ended up on the outside. Drake hit a jawbreaker on Isaacs and Gibson rolled him up for the three count to earn his partner an NWA world title match next week.

This was a very simple tag match, but absolutely worked for the audience, who were into every spot and the heat of the match. Every guy was utilized to shine, and the legends weren’t embarrassed by showing how much they aged. This was very well done.

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I really liked this episode of NWA Power. We got the big match announcement of Gordon vs. Aldis, presumably for the NWA title should Adlis defeat Morton next week. The whole show also set up more of the TV title tournament which leads nicely into next week. This was great stuff.