NWA EmPowerrr

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.[1][2][3][4][5] 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8] Despite this, the event received support from UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, and current WWE star Sasha Banks, among others.[9][10][11]

The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The fifth season of NWA's weekly flagship program, Power, featured storylines leading up to both EmPowerrr and the NWA 73rd Anniversary Show.

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.[12][13] 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.[14] 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.[15]

The participants were:

• Lady Frost[16]
• Tootie Lynn[17]
• Jamie Senegal[18]
• Chelsea Green[19]
• Debbie Malenko[20]
• Bianca Carelli[21]
• Jennacide[22]
• Masha Slamovich[23]
• Thunder Kitty[24]
• Kiera Hogan[25]

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.[26][27][28] 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 Hex (Allysin Kay and Marti Belle)[29][30]
• Hell on Heels (Renee Michelle and Sahara Seven)[31]
• Red Velvet and KiLynn King[32]
• The Freebabes (Jazzy Yang, Hollyhood Haley J, and Miranda Gordy)[33]

At Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary, after Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna 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.[34] 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.[35] There, Purrazzo accepted James' invitation to defend her title.[36] The following week, it was announced that Melina Perez would be Purrazzo's opponent at EmPowerrr.[37][38]

On August 21, James on her Instagram ran down the entire card of the event, revealing that Kylie Rae would face Diamante from AEW and Chik Tormenta from Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) in a triple threat match.[39]