Joe Galli opens up about the NWA's partnership with The CW.
In October 2023, Nick Hausman of Haus Of Wrestling reported that the NWA signed two television deals with The CW, and one of the shows would be a reality series. The deal was seemingly in jeopardy after James Mitchell's cocaine spot at NWA Samhain, but NWA recently confirmed that new episodes of NWA Powerrr will be coming to the CW App, beginning on February 6.
Speaking on Knockouts and 3 Counts, Joe Galli commented on the NWA's partnership with The CW.
"I feel very fortunate every day that I get to do this. I get to deliver I think the highest caliber of television that we’ve delivered ever. So it’s really great that we’re in this position with The CW now. I feel like we’re gonna be getting a lot more eyeballs, a lot more viewers, and a lot more mainstream people. That’s our goal. The independent wrestling folks out there, the hardcore wrestling fans, they’ll kind of follow you wherever, but the trick is to kind of get those very casual viewers, those people who might have been in love with pro wrestling, fell out of love with it, and to get them to come back to it. I mean, that’s I think where we’re really gonna be a shining light in the coming years," Galli said.
Galli was then asked about the current state of NWA and what fans could expect from the new season of NWA Powerrr, given the partnership with The CW. He highlighted the company's recent tapings and noted that they were held at a unique venue. Galli also stated that NWA has built a new Powerrr set, as he highlighted how working with the CW has allowed them to invest in the production side.
“We did our sort of on-the-road TV tapings at Revolution live in Fort Lauderdale, which was an incredible venue, and it’s gonna be really fun for people to watch, the way that it was set up in the fact that it’s really a rock and roll venue in a bar. So it’s very different than what you’re gonna see the next season, or the next half of the season of Powerrr, when we go to what we now call the Powerrr Station, where we’ve built a brand-new set at the Tampa PBS studio, which looks really, really cool. So us being with The CW has allowed us to be able to invest a lot on the production side of the NWA, which we’ve always done very well, especially in that studio atmosphere. But now we can kind of branch out and do some really exciting things outside the studio as well. So you’re gonna see that with the Paranoia episodes that we did in Fort Lauderdale, and then again you’re gonna see that coming up at Hard Times, which is gonna be another television taping for The CW on March 2," Galli said.
Galli also noted that the NWA has to be on par with the NFL and NBA programming that will be on The CW, and he noted that they are finding ways to do that. He described how the partnership has allowed the company to do cool stuff and upgrade what the viewer is going to see.
"Partnering with The CW allows us to do some really cool stuff and upgrade what the viewer is gonna see, so if they just happen to be clicking along on the app, and they see this thing in the sports section, well, I’ll try it, and then they’re gonna be pleasantly surprised by what they see, so that’s kind of the goal that we’re going for and the partnership that we have with CW," Galli said.
Later in the interview, Galli was asked whether Powerrr would have a slot on the CW channel. He stated that the show is currently on the app, but they are having conversations, and that is a possibility. Galli then confirmed that the NWA reality series will air on the CW's traditional network, as the CW wanted to encourage people to migrate over to the app.
“As of right now, we’re on the app. But television is constantly moving, so we’re having all of these different conversations about what’s happening in the world. So there’s a possibility that it could. I will let you know that our secondary show, which I think a lot of podcasts and people have already talked about it, which is basically a reality show. That is going to be on The CW, on their traditional network. It’ll have a time slot, and that’ll be really interesting to help tie people in, and that’s more of a decision of decision from CW to try to get people to migrate over to the app," he said.
As of this writing, there is no word on when the NWA reality series will premiere.
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion EC3 recently discussed how he believes in Billy Corgan and the NWA. Check out his comments here.
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