Joe Alonzo discusses signing with the NWA.
Alonzo made his NWA debut on the April 30 episode of NWA Powerrr. In recent months, aside from competing on NWA programming, Alozno has also wrestled as an extra on WWE SmackDown. Additionally, he wrestled on the November 28 episode of AEW Dark: Elevation. On December 12, Alonzo announced that he signed a contract with the company.
Speaking with his trainer, Robert Anthony, on Podding with Ego, Alonzo recalled how he tweeted about his goal to sign a wrestling contract every day for several months. While he eventually stopped, he continued to manifest his goal, and it became a reality in December 5.
"January 1, 2022, I was tweeting before but I had to be more specific on it, and I tweeted on January 1, 2022, I said, ‘I, Joe Alonzo, will sign a professional wrestling contract.’ I tweeted that every single day up until October, and I was told, ‘Stop doing it.’ They said it’s a bad look. So I stopped tweeting it, and I let the manifestation doing its work, and the grace of god, and on December 5 is when it happened. On December 5, I was called into an office, and right here in my hand, the manifestations come into play, and I, Joe Alonzo, am signing a professional wrestling contract," Alonzo said.
Anthony detailed how he lobbied for NWA to bring in Alonzo, Frank the Clown, and Storm Grayson. While the company initially turned all three down, Anthony pitched Joe again when the promotion was looking to bring in a talent with some mic skills.
"I got into NWA a year ago coming up soon, maybe last month a year ago. After three months, I pitched you, Storm Grayson, and Frank the Clown because I needed Frank at that time. So I pitched all of you to them. They turned everyone down. They just didn’t need the guys at that time. They weren’t bringing new people in, and I said, ‘You gotta give me one. We need guys that can go. You gotta give me one.’ So I fought for that for a while. I threw Frank away because then Frank started not listening, and blah blah blah, stopped pitching, and it’s fine. They said, ‘We need someone that can talk.’ I said, ‘Joe can talk over Storm.’ Storm knows this, not burying you, buddy. Sorry. So then Joe became the guy. I said, ‘Bring him in. Bring him in. Bring him in," Anthony said.
Anthony then noted that he might have used the story about Alonzo shaking hands with Vince McMahon when he did some extra work for WWE to help him get into NWA. They then looked back on how Alonzo suffered a concussion when he faced Cyon in his first match for NWA.
Anthony: I get you in. You got your match with Cyon, it was 20 minutes.
Alonzo: Cyon dumped me on my head.
Anthony: Cyon did dump you on your head. You got sent to the hospital days later when you came back to Chicago. I was like, ‘You gotta give the kid a promo.’ They we’re gonna give you a promo, and that promo got cut, and it turned into an internet pre-tape. That was real weird as he was concussed. He does well in that, but they weren’t bringing you back regularly.
Alonzo: I do wanna say that I thought I was never coming back to NWA… because of the concussion, because I felt like I was being such a pain in the ass with that.
They also described how NWA wanted to drop Joe's first name, and possibly rename him Alfredo Alonzo. Anthony described how Joe cut a heated post-match promo, while he was concussed, in which he emphasized that his name is Joe Alonzo.
Anthony: When they brought Joe in, they wanted to cut the name 'Joe.'
Alonzo: They just wanted to make me 'Alonzo'
Anthony: Or Alfredo.
Alonzo: Alfredo Alonzo.
Anthony: He was so mad. He was Iike, ‘I am Joe Alonzo. I’m Joe Alonzo.’ Then when he got concussed and he had that promo, he was like, ‘My name is Joe Alonzo. It ain’t ever gonna change.’ But yeah, they wanted to take his first name away.
Check out the card for this week's episode of NWA Powerrr here.
NWA World Women's Champion Kamille recently shared her thoughts on the discussion surrounding a second NWA EmPowerrr event. Click here to see what she had to say.
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