NWA is coming back to streaming!
Deadline first reported the news that Billy Corgan has come to terms with Roku, a streaming service that will play NWA Powerrr every Tuesday at 8pm (Eastern Time) starting on July 29. The Roku Channel will air NWA in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
“When I purchased the National Wrestling Alliance in 2017, it was understood we were inheriting the history and legacy of the most storied brand in all combat sports, so to announce today we have now partnered with the number one TV streaming platform in North America is indeed a moment to be proud of,” said Corgan. “I look forward to sharing new episodes of ‘NWA Powerrr’ with the incredible audience that Roku brings.”
“We’re thrilled to call The Roku Channel the streaming home of the National Wrestling Alliance, and as Billy and his team continue to excite audiences, we look forward to tapping into the scale of our platform to bring this historic and storied promotion to millions of viewers,” added Joe Franzetta, Head of Sports, Roku Media.
This is major news for Corgan and NWA as the promotion’s future was in question for quite some time now. Powerrr is coming off an arguably terrible deal with the CW Network when the shows only appeared on the CW app. Originally, Corgan made it sound as if the promotion would play on the CW Network itself, but then 2023’s Samhain happened.
Father James Mitchell was snorting “cocaine” during the pay-per-view (via storyline) and both The CW and NWA faced a ton of backlash due to that spot. The CW made Powerrr exclusive to the app, and with WWE making the transition over to the network in October 2024, NWA episodes were quietly removed from the app during that time.
Since then, the NWA has been playing new episodes on Twitter. The promotion has lost the buzz that it drummed up in 2017. Ricky Starks (Ricky Saints in WWE), Thunder Rosa, Eddie Kingston, Nick Aldis, LA Knight, were just some of the names that carried the company during its resurgence, but the NWA has long underwent a massive change when it was forced to shut its doors in 2020.
This is a huge opportunity for the promotion. It isn’t just the fact that NWA lost all of their major stars to bigger companies, NWA really lost what made them special in the first place. Getting more eyes on the product is a great thing, but the product also has to be good. Hopefully, the NWA can recapture the magic that they had in the late 2010’s.