411’s FCW TV Report 01.17.09

The views and opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of the rest of the human race.

Hey there and thanks for checking in. Glad someone’s coming back to Florida – Hade Vansen sure isn’t. Which really sucks, because that’s two talented guys now that have been released from FCW.

Should Vansen have been given the run against The Undertaker as part of the “cult” stable (with Black Pain and I forget who else would have been involved) that was rumored to have been before Vince McMahon scrapped the idea? Not necessarily; I don’t think he would have been a believable opponent for Undertaker no matter how many people he had on his side. But that’s still a shame to see talent like that go to waste (especially when I can name a few others that could have gone instead). You’d think they could found something for both him and Spears to do, but alas…

Ah, well. So be it. On with the show…albeit a little more void now…

FCW – 01.17.09

Clips from last week’s attack on new FCW Champion Eric Escobar by Black Pain open the show. Escobar defends the title against the big man TONIGHT!

We are welcomed to the FCW Arena by Josh Matthews and Dusty Rhodes just in time for our first match:

Lawrence Knight & Tyson Tarver (w/Byron Saxton) vs. Kaleb O’Neal & Johnny Prime

Rhodes and Matthews give us the history of Prime and the Conglomerate as Knight and O’Neal start. The two seem content with straight wrestling to start off, but I’m waiting for tempers to stop all that. Prime tags in and the wrestling continues – until Knight brings in Tarver who swings for the fences to end this one early. Swing and a miss results in Prime tying him up and bringing him to the face corner to O’Neal can tie him up as well. He and Prime seem to be content with showing the Conglomerate who has the better skill and I’m surprised this hasn’t broken down early.

Prime keeps it up on Tarver until Tarver gets him in the wrong corner – and uses the referee to gain the illegal advantage. Now the Conglomerate settles in on beating Prime (their main target) senseless. This is kinda dragging a little bit; I’d expect a feud between one fired-up face who just returned from being injured by them to be a little more heated, but this is playing like a Velocity match. Not good.

Prime escapes Tarver’s assault and, instead of going for the tag, gets in a little offense of his own. Normally, I wouldn’t condone this sort of thing, but with O’Neal keeping both Tarver and Byron Saxton at bay outside the ring, it seems to work…

Finish comes when Knight, distracted by the altercation at ringside, falls victim to a schoolboy rollup by Prime for the pinfall victory for O’Neal and Prime. Yeah, this was just there. For a regular match not involving a months-long feud, that’d be okay, but this was boring. Post-match, the Conglomerate seems a little upset but retreat to the back.

Josh Matthews and Dusty Rhodes run down tonight’s card and discuss the FCW Title Match later tonight before taking us to commercial.

Back to

Yoshitatsu vs. Kafu

Having never seen Yoshitatsu before, I’m not sure what to expect here.

A martial arts expert and a Capoeira specialist start out the match…wrestling. Okay. No malice or clash of ideals to be found here; just two men looking to prove themselves. Kafu’s power, though, gives him a slight upper hand and he decides to utilize it before going with Capoeira. Once he seems to have Yoshitatsu sufficiently weakened, he goes back to wrestling, only now to wear him down. Yoshitatsu’s resilience is serving him well as he survives Kafu’s onslaught before letting his own feet do some talking. Yoshitatsu’s kicks are effective, but not enough to put Kafu away – so Yoshitatsu goes with another strategy…

Finish comes when Yoshitatsu locks Kafu in an Octopus Stretch (!), making Kafu tap out and giving Yoshitatsu the submission victory. Replay takes us to commercial.

Back to Hanging With Scotty! – only Goldman’s at the announce booth for the next match:

The Girl From Mexico vs. Saylor James – Opening Round Match in the “Queen Of FCW” Tournament

Since Matthews and Goldman can talk about nothing but the Girl From Mexico, I wonder who’s favored to win this one.

The Girl From Mexico starts out by doing a series of gymnastics and completely avoiding James altogether. This continues for a minute or 2 until the referee tries getting the Girl From Mexico to actually wrestle. Rosa Mendes is then out to clock James right in the back of the head.

Finish comes when, after James is knocked out, the Girl From Mexico covers for the easy pinfall victory. Umm, sure. Our bracket now stands as:

Josh Matthews tells us that Kofi Kingston will be with us next week before we go to commercial.

Back to

Mike Kruel vs. Goldust

Matthews calls this “a great opportunity for Mike Kruel”. Hah.

Goldust starts with the mind games early. Go with what works, I always say. Kruel tries matching power, but the bigger Goldust shows him the error of his ways before Kruel bails outside to re-think his game.

Back inside, Kruel opts to talk trash and hit a sucker punch before opening the brawling game. Kruel just beats on Goldust randomly before going after his back. Given Goldust’s relative age here, that’s not such a bad idea. Goldust shows signs of life for a minute, but Kruel goes to the back again for a 2-count. Kruel has a sound plan now and executes it rather well. Kruel makes the mistake, though, of setting in too long for a back-bodydrop, letting Goldust hit a signature stop-and-uppercut before taking the match back from Kruel. It’s all impact from here before Goldust ends it…

Finish comes when Goldust hits the Final Cut for the pinfall victory. Wonder what was so offensive about that that helped Kruel get let go; pretty decent match, overall. Best one of the show so far as we go to commercial.

Back to

Dakota Darsow vs. Drew McIntyre

Yes, Dakota is Barry’s son. Looks a hell of a lot like him, too. This should be interesting.

Drew starts with the power game, which is his strong suit, really. Repeated bodyslams. And to think they kept this guy instead of Vansen and Spears. Darsow gets in some offense and takes control using his speed, but gets caught with a nasty (for the wrong reason) lariat coming off the top too early. Darsow regains his bearings somewhat before McIntyre kicks the 2nd rope in his face and ends it…

Finish comes when McIntyre hits the Scot Drop for the pinfall victory. Too short to mean much, but decent while it lasted. Replay takes us to commercial.

Back to Charlie Daniels (!) cutting a short promo spot for the show. Nice! Guess the Devil never made it this far south.

Black Pain vs. Eric Escobar (c) – FCW Heavyweight Title Match

Dusty points out that this match has a “big fight feel”. Is that a backhanded pun or something?

Classic “David-and-Goliath” setup here. Escobar punches and dodges away to keep Pain away from him before attacking the legs to ground the big man. Escobar then makes the same mistake that all guys do in this situation – he comes off the ropes. If you want to evade a dude twice your size, don’t run straight at him no matter how much momentum you have. Black Pain uses his size to completely take over, as you’d expect. Using straight impact, Black Pain goes after Escobar’s back long enough to weaken Escobar for a surfboard stretch. Not a bad touch – avoid the usual “monster” clichés and give me someone who’s smart enough to wrestle, too.

Escobar almost makes a comeback, but that doesn’t last. Pain keeps up the size and heat for a bit, further damaging Escobar. Escobar even opts to use his whole body as a battering ram (ala Vladimir Kozlov), but it does no good as Pain goes back to stretching Escobar. Bear hug follows but Escobar, in true hero mode, refuses to die. Escobar escapes the bear hug and goes for – a shoulder-tackle. Then he tries to pick Pain up. With a bad back. Dumbass.

Pain finally goes for the big splash, but Escobar, after being laid out that same way last week, avoids it. Escobar lets Pain do that with several high-impact a couple times to punch himself out in short order. Finally, a smart strategy by Escobar – one that bears fruit.

Finish comes when Escobar, after Pain misses a Vader Bomb, schoolboys Black Pain for the pinfall victory to retain his title. Okay match; could have been better had it not been for some dumb psychology by Escobar. But then, I guess I should expect that by now. Escobar celebrates to end the show.

Not one of the show’s finer moments. The last few weeks have been pretty good, but then they took a left turn here and headed down Boring Rd. Hopefully we can recover from that in 7 days.

L8. Thanks again for reading.

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