Chris Adonis was first introduced to wrestling fans as Chris Masters in WWE. Now he can be seen in the NWA, where he's gearing up to face Trevor Murdoch at this weekend's Nuff Said pay-per-view.
Ahead of his match with Murdoch, Adonis spoke Digital Spy about his long rivalry with Murdoch. "Trevor Murdoch and me have been adversaries on screen and we've been friends off screen," Adonis said.
"In terms of our chemistry, I mean Trevor Murdoch is a physical dude. When it comes to the bell to bell we beat the hell out of each other and Saturday is going to be no exception.
"It's just going to be a physical match and I would say it could be potentially be a match of the night. All I know is, I'm bringing my working boots, I'm bringing my A game. I know Trevor always does and we're going to beat the hell out of each other but we're going to be making a lot of magic for all you wrestling fans out there who are watching."
NWA's presentation style is more of a throwback to the studio wrestling shows of old and the in-ring action also has a retro feel, which Adonis loves. "When I look at wrestling nowadays, like when I watch WWE for instance, I just feel like it's so not rugged anymore.
"It's got so like America's Got Talent, so like pretty. What happened to the ruggedness of it and the edge and all that stuff? I'm not saying that NWA Power, just because we're in a studio, has all that but I'm saying it at least brings you back to some of the times, if you're a longtime wrestling fan, where you felt wrestling was really good at least in comparison to what we've seen at various points throughout the last decade, not that it's all been bad.
"But I still wrestle every week and I hear the frustration from wrestling fans who are longtime fans, who just don't like the more sanitised, overly produced product and that's another thing you won't get in NWA, you're not going to get an overly produced product the characters you are seeing are us."
NWA is owned by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and Adonis says when he hears him describe his vision of NWA, he is "the epitome" of what Corgan is talking about.
Adonis was signed by WWE in 2003 when he was just 20 years old. Working as a heel, Masters would take on all comers in 'The Master Lock Challenge,' where his opponents would have to try and break his Master Lock submission hold.
Reflecting back on the enduring popularity of the Master Lock (a full nelson) with fans, Adonis said: "It's a legitimate hold.
"It just needed to be presented on television every week and you needed to see it built and when you partner that with the fact that, it is legitimate, anybody can do it to anybody.
"I think one of the things that really made it catch on, when I've talked to guys who are now in their 20s, is the simplicity of it. It's the fact that you don't have to tie a guy down on the floor and lift up his legs and turn them over. If you're at school like, I could imagine, if I was an eight-year-old at school and I was watching wrestling at that time at some point, I would have snuck up behind one of my friends and applied a full nelson out of nowhere without them even seeing it coming just because I saw Chris Masters do it.
"I think, if anything sums up its popularity, it would be obviously the television time but then, what I just pointed out, the fact that you could do it," he added.
Adonis left WWE in 2011 and since then he's grown both as a wrestler and a person and now, in NWA, he's able to show the world what he can really do.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2023, Adonis said: "My goal is to continue putting on the best matches of my career, putting my best foot forward in everything I do and ultimately [winning] the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
"There's a lot of things in WWE that I was not able to do, some were my fault, some were not my fault. But the way I look at things now is, it's 2023, I'm a new man.
"I'm going to make sure that I go out there every night and give it my all and that I put effort into every aspect of Chris Adonis, whether it be the entrance gear, the presentation, the match, and ultimately, hopefully, receive some form of redemption for all the opportunities I've lost," he added.
"Being the NWA World Heavyweight Champion and making it to the top and that pinnacle of professional wrestling."
NWA Nuff Said airs at 1am on Sunday, February 12 on Fite TV (8pm EST in the US). The LIVE preshow is be available for free on the NWA YouTube channel starting at 7pm EST.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stephanie is a writer who specialises in pro wrestling, covering everything from AEW and WWE to NJPW.
After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she went on to study journalism at Birbeck University.
Outside of her journalism work Stephanie is also a YouTube content creator focusing on AEW and interviewing talent from AEW, WWE, and across the indie wrestling scene. She has also worked for Revolution Pro Wrestling as a backstage interviewer and commentator.
