By Big D
Florida Championship Wrestling, WWE's developmental territory, ran another TV Taping (I guess) from the FCW Arena in South Tampa. Indeed the ONLY MAN covering FCW, Big D, returns, despite others stealing my results, editing them, and changing the name. I was told that last Tuesday at Bourbon Street on the house shows, Sheamus O Shaunessey revealed he was going to face Jack Swagger for the FCW Title one last time on this show. Would he grab the brass ring on his third and most likely final attempt?
The Nasty Boys and Jimmy Hart signed autographs. Both were very pleasant people. Despite their reputation for being "bad workers", I can't deny that they stayed and signed every single autograph put in front of them and talked to as many fans as they could.
Earlier in the week, WWE changed a horde of the FCW Talent's "names", but on this show, they still used their old names (other than Nemeth). Don't ask me why.
Angela as usual welcomed us to the show with Dusty and Brian Kelly on commentary.
Match #1: Eric Perez, Primo Colon, and TJ Wilson defeated Sinn Bowdee, Mike Kruel, and Ryan Braddock. Apparently TJ is back to working babyface, so his one week heel run is over. Very experimental. This was also Primo's return to FCW (I didn't think he'd be back for a while). I felt bad for Sinn Bowdee being saddled with two guys who's combined charisma is the equivalent of a packet of mayonaise. But whatever, these six guys worked a good opener. Eric Perez ran wild early (Oh Yeah). The heels got heat on Primo and worked him over for a long time. Mayhem at the end. Hot tag to TJ who ran wild and finished with a move where he looked like he was going for a sharpshooter, but pulled him into a triangle. This was beautiful. Mike Kruel tapped to the move.
Match #2: Drew McKintyre defeated DH Smith. As usual, the highlight of this match was the nonstop heckling of Drew McKinture. They teased DH using a straight armbar (Cross Arm Breaker in Pro Wrestling Terminology) but Drew tapping with his feet on the ropes. DH continued to work him over until Drew got the heat and got heckled. The finish came when DH used the armbar, but Drew rolled him up and put his feet on the ropes. Drew came out to a rock version of the Imperial March from Star Wars, which makes him Lord.
Sheamus comes out. He cuts a promo on FCW Florida Champion Jack Swagger and says he wants another shot (to which he already announced at the Tuesday House Show). Swagger comes out with some sharp clothes. He says Sheamus has already used up all of his shots. Sheamus called Jake an "Oklahoma coward" and Swagger hit him with the title belt and laid him out. He then smiles and leaves as Sheamus crawls to the back upset.
Match #3: Brie Bella defeated Daisy and Roucka in a Triple Threat Match. There were one or two botched spots but overall good work here. It was a fast-paced match, but a bit of a spotfest, as a lot of threeways are anyways. Brie won with an X-Factor. And yes I checked, it WAS Brie, not Nicole, and they didn't do the switcheroo.
Match #4: FCW Tag Team Champions Joe Hennig and Heath Miller defeated Sterling Jack Gabriel and Stu Sanders to retain the titles. The babyfaces ran wild early on and did a whole horde of double team moves with a bit of comedy spots. They made it seem like Jack and Stu were totally outclassed by the faces, which is a good thing when the heels finally do get the heat. Sanders and Gabriel worked over Heath for a very long time and there were a bunch of teases for the hot tag, but Heath never made it for a long time. This is textbook tag work. Heath finally got the hot tag to Joe who came in like a house of fire. We saw the Curt Hennig snapmare and the Perfect Plex for the pin.
Angela announces Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and Evan Bourne for next week's FCW Show.
Match #5: Johnny Curtis wrestled Gabe Tuft to a double countout. So finally, after week after week after week of teasing a breakup and teasing this match, we finally have it. It was very hard to see who the heel was here, but apparently it was neither. They both started out with some very good ground work, with lots of reversals and hold trading. Eventually they "lost control" and started to brawl to the outside. They brawled back and forth at ringside until the referee counted both out. Crowd HATED this finish. I guess they're drawing this out another week.
Dolph Diggler (formerly Nick Nemeth and NICKY~!) and Gavin Spears come out. They cut a promo about getting the FCW Tag Team Titles back from Heath and Joe, whom they lost it to in a threeway last week. Diggler and Spears are envoking their rematch clause tonight.
Vic Adams and Tyrone Jones come out. Angela interviews them in the ring and asks them about the FCW Tag Team Title situation. Vic Adams is charismatic behind the mic and says that they are "vicious and dangerous lions". Kind of sounds like a "WWE Creative Scripted Line", but I liked it either way. Before anything else happened, the infamous "two generic white guys with tattoos" came out and attacked them. This led to...
Match #6: Tyrone Jones and Vic Adams defeated Ian Richardson and Johnny Prime. I've said it before, Richardson and Prime have no real gimmick other than being wrestling school geeks who do a bunch of moves. I've never heard neither cut a promo or do anything to stand out. This match was designed to put over Jones and Adams as a force and was basically a TV enhancement match. They beat on the white guys for a long time until Tyrone won with a T-Bone Suplex. Can't say anything bad about it at all.
Match #7: Scotty Goldman defeated Greg Jackson. It's pretty funny and sad how Colt Cabana is a jabroni on WWE but he's winning matches in FCW. This was a competitive back and forth match. The fans chanted "Colt Cabana" for the most part, ignoring his name change which is now a month old. So this was a fun back and forth encounter and was a bit too long to be seen as an "Enhancement Match", but it still was I guess. Colt wins with a bizarre triangle/boot to the face move which I have never seen before. Damn near impossible to describe.
Angela announces that tonight's Main Event will be for the FCW Tag Team Titles between Hennig and Miller (yes again) against Spears and Diggler.
Match #8: Black Pain defeated Lupe Martinez. This was DEFINITELY a TV Enhancement Match. Black Pain looks like an 18th Century Executioner and dominated Lupe. The very large black man on PCP against the fit Mexican is a weird dichotomy, but it worked here. Black Pain won with a Catatonic in a squash.
Match #9: Sheamus O Shaunessey defeated FCW Florida Champion Jack Swagger to win the title. Best and most satisfying Match of the Night. This was the third time in three weeks that Sheamus and Jack faced off, with Sheamus winning Match #1 via disqualification and Swagger winning Match #2 by cheating, so this is the blow off. This is 1970s WWF Booking, only without the "Steel Cage Match in Madison Square Garden". They started out trading holds early on and kept it relatively even. Swagger got the heat on Sheamus and worked him over for a very long time. The final seven minutes or so of this match was quality. Sheamus made a wild comeback and hit a Fallaway Slam and a Polish Hammer for 2. We then saw a top rope superplex for 2.9 (Fire Pro Style). Swagger fought back and regained his composure and hit a belly to belly for 2. The crowd started to get into Sheamus here. Swagger hits his finisher, the Blue Thunder Driver, but only gets a 2 count. The ref gets clocked. Swagger goes to grab the title belt to hit Sheamus with like he did earlier in the night, but he misses and Sheamus does the Bicycle Kick to Swagger's face. Swagger was in trouble as Sheamus hit the ChokeBomb for the pinfall. NEW CHAMPION~! Crowd went absolutely ballistic for the title change. Hager's had this belt for about a year now and he finally dropped it to Sheamus. Huge moment in FCW.
Match #10: FCW Tag Team Champions Joe Hennig and Heath Miller (w/ Jimmy Hart) defeated Gavin Spears and Dolph Diggler to retain the titles. I think that the FCW Title Match shoud've gone on last due to the title change, but instead this was the "real" main event. Angela introduced WWE Hall of Famer Jimmy Hart, who came out to a big pop. He was wearing the Nasty Boys Jacket and carried the Nasty Boys Helmet. Hart said he's managed some of the best teams in the business like the Nasty Boys and the Hart Foundation, but tonight, he'd be in the corner of Hennig and Miller. I immediately smelled a turn, but it didn't happen. Very good work in this match, even though it was a little too long and a lot of the crowd was exhausted from the title change, the rest of the crowd was on their feet for this. I was REALLY shocked at how hot this match was. Lots of teasing and running from the heels early on. Lots of double teaming by the faces. Heels got the heat on Joe Hennig. We saw the figure four leglock and the sleeper used as restholds on Hennig, but the crowd completely ate it up. Tag Team Wrestling 101 here. Heels cheated a few times, getting the crowd even more riled up. Finally Joe Hennig tagged in Heath Miller and the crowd simply exploded. This was LOUD. Heath ran wild. They did a spot where almost everybody went for top rope moves and missed. Joe was tagged back in but got caught in Spears Neckbreaker finish, but kicked out of it. Tremendous nearfall there. The finish came when the ref was distracted and Jimmy Hart hit Nemeth with the helmet, allowing Heath to hit his Flying Russian Legsweep, and that was all. Fun main event.
Overall, a very fun show. The first half of the show was above average and the last two matches were some of the best work I've seen in FCW. As I said, next week, Sydal and Valentine. Until then, so long from the Sunshine State...
{plug}
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