411’s FCW TV Report 02.15.09

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 welcome back. I’m gonna keep this short – damn near nonexistent, really – because this week we have a match I’ve been waiting all week to see. Let’s do the damn thing.

FCW – 02.15.09

Opening clips bring us to the FCW Arena where Josh Matthews and Scotty Goldman welcome us to this week’s show where TONIGHT: Tyson Kidd TJ Wilson squares off against Low-Ki Kaval. Can not wait.

Sweet Papi Sanchez vs. Tyson Tarver

Sanchez hands out gobs of candy to the crowd en route to the ring and saves a chocolate heart box for Angela. Aawwww. Meanwhile, Matthews is still giving Goldman hell over his date with The Girl From Mexico Trent Beretta. Hah.

This should be a fascinating power-vs.-a-dude-that-could-quite-possibly-knock-him-out match. Sanchez starts off – by offering a handshake? What? Isn’t Sanchez in a feud with these guys? I get that Sanchez is all nice & cuddly now, but that’s just a bit of a stretch.

Tarver starts with body shots that rock the big man, but then makes the mistake of coming off the ropes. Sanchez, with time to recover, flattens Tarver before keeping on the power for a minute. Sanchez then makes the mistake of charging and Tarver avoids, giving him the chance to keep working on Sanchez’s body with hard strikes. Tarver switches up to leg work, but Sanchez fights him off. Sanchez uses his bulk and power some more, but throws in some high kicks (!) to keep Tarver off-balance. Saxton then climbs the apron for the distraction, but against a guy that used to work for you and knows that tactic well, that ain’t such a good idea. Sanchez ducks the sneak attack and Tarver floors Saxton instead, setting up the chance for Sanchez to end this one…

Finish comes when Sanchez slams Tarver down and hits the big splash for the pinfall victory. Aside from some oddities (such as the handshake), I wish this would have had more build or at least been a little longer, as this is the one “Sanchez vs. Conglomerate” match I really liked. Alas, it’s come and gone now. Post-match, Sanchez hands out more candy, taking us to commercial.

Back to a video package of The Girl From Mexico with amorous quotes from Goldman thrown in for good measure. In the arena, Matthews is laughing his head off and Goldman throws it to the next match:

Alicia Foxx vs. Tiffany – Semi-Final Match in the Queen of FCW Tournament

(It should be noted that, throughout this match, Matthews is still busting Goldman’s ass over the Trent Beretta/Girl From Mexico date. It may sound like it’s getting old, but really, this is still some good stuff.)

Foxx and Tiffany start out exchanging moves to try and gain an advantage. Foxx’s power gives her the lead, segueing into her using strikes to try and put Tiffany away. Tiffany tries wrestling her way out – and does, but gets caught by another kick and put right back in the same situation. Tiffany escapes again and then uses some strikes of her own to take the lead. Tiffany tries for an aerial attack, and it misses – which would prove to be her undoing…

Finish comes when Foxx hits a (poorly aimed) Axe Kick for the pinfall victory. Decent match overall, but that axe kick hit Tiffany, like, in the ribs. Looked sloppy and didn’t make much sense because of that.

The bracket now heading into the finals:

Back to

Sheamus O’Shaunessey vs. Johnny Curtis

Pre-match, O’Shaunessey calls out Eric Escobar and explains that he’s going back to his roots by wearing the battle paint of his Celtic ancestors. In other words, he’s pissed and ready to kick some ass.

He starts out showing that to Curtis, but Curtis is game for a fight. Curtis also uses some of his acrobatics mixed in with striking to keep this an even contest at the outset. It doesn’t last, though, as O’Shaunessey powers out of a monkey flip and then forces that opening wider with a two-fold attack: O’Shaunessey works on Curtis’s neck while raining blows in-between the holds. This is vinta—hell, no, wait… trademark O’Shaunessey.

After a few minutes of being on the receiving end, Curtis escapes and uses his agility advantage to escape. He keeps O’Shaunessey at bay and almost beats him – but it’s all for naught…and NOT because O’Shaunessey gets the pin…

Finish comes when Chris Ryback hits the ring and starts annihilating Curtis, drawing the disqualification. Good effort until the DQ; both men did well for themselves. The DQ isn’t necessarily a bad thing; I just have no idea who Chris Ryback is and why he’s beating on the tag champs. Champs? Oh, yeah…

Post-match, Curtis’s partner, Tyler Recks rushes in for the save only to receive more of the same plus an F5 (!). Goldman, in awe of Ryback’s destrusicity (thanks, Warrior!), makes the remark, “Look at Ryback’s eyes.”

Whoa! When did David Bowie sign on with FCW?! And damn, did he bulk up!

O’Shaunessey is rather pleased and celebrates with Ryback, taking us to commercial.

Back to

Jon Cutler & Dylan Klein (w/Wesley Holiday) vs. Kris Logan & Johnny Prime

Logan and Cutler start and Logan immediately feels the effects of teamwork by the faces. Klein in and fares no better against Logan’s aerial attack. Klein gets an advantage, though, sending Logan outside. Back in, Klein and Cutler keep the lead through (rather unimpressive) brawling and double-teaming here. Goldman spends most of the match bagging on Dylan Klein and his expensive tastes in stupidity, making the remark that, “It almost upsets me that Klein’s actually a good wrestler.” You can calm down, Scotty, because he really isn’t. Cutler in and he looks a little better keeping the heat on Logan, but then he has to ruin it by bringing Klein back in. Okay, imagine Dolph Ziggler, only not nearly as good. You have an idea.

Logan finally escapes and brings Prime back in to bring Klein down with his superior size. Prime sets too early for a back bodydrop, though, and Klein kicks him but can’t press the advantage. Prime sends Klein into his partner, who winds up on the receiving end of one last bit of teamwork…

Finish comes when Prime suplexes Cutler while Logan hits the high cross-body for the pinfall victory. Prime and Logan make for a pretty good team; I wouldn’t mind seeing them against Curtis and Recks for the titles. However, Cutler is serviceable while Klein almost single-handedly ruined this match. The faces leave happy to take us to commercial.

Back to Matthews and Goldman now joined by FCW Champion Eric Escobar. Escobar is here to scope his competition – and probably enjoy this match as much as I’m about to…

TJ Wilson vs. Kaval

After seeing Wilson’s debut on ECW, I’m anticipating a battle of kicks here. However, if we see the pre-“Big Time” Wilson, he may try to out-wrestle Kaval – who’d probably be up for that as well.

Both men are tentative to start until Kaval goes for a high kick early, sending Wilson ducking to the ropes. Both men back to the center and the feeling out continues with both trading the vanguard position back and forth over several exchanges. It’s a standstill for quite some time, and Wilson mockingly claps for Kaval. The sarcasm comes back to haunt him when Wilson backs Kaval into the corner, only to have Kaval hit the armlock over the rope. Wilson escapes through sheer panic and tries again, only to have Kaval’s speed – the one factor Wilson may be lacking in this particular match – put him behind the 8-ball. Kaval picks up some momentum using that speed, sending Wilson to the apron and then hitting the enziguri out of nowhere.

Kaval heads outside to press his lead, but falls victim to Wilson’s chicanery. Wilson sends Kaval against the steel steps. Wilson heads for the announce table, freaking out all three announcers. However, Wilson knows what he’s doing here:

Beautiful. Both men are down as we go to commercial.

Back to Wilson in the ring, awaiting Kaval for the quick cover, only getting 2. Wilson keeps on a neck vise, hoping to slow down Kaval and keep that speed at bay by slowing down the pace and making him hurt too much to do anything else fancy. Wilson hit a big move to gain that advantage, and now he’s looking to hold on to it by any means necessary. Wilson underestimates that speed and gets caught in a crucifix cover for 2, but shows a little speed of his own to try and keep Kaval down. Wilson locks in a headscissors now and Kaval reverts to his strength to try and escape, but does not until Wilson lets go, realizing Kaval won’t give in. Kaval fights back and goes for high impact with a series of cross-body blocks, but goes to the proverbial once too often. Wilson now switches up to his own unorthodox striking offense – the type most recently seen on his ECW debut – and the timing of breaking out that offense now couldn’t be better. Kaval is in serious trouble as Wilson mixes up his attack.

Wilson goes back to the neck but seems to be having trouble keeping Kaval down. It gets worse when Kaval gathers a head of steam and finally takes the lead back with his patented style of strikes from all angles, possibly in an effort to show Wilson how that type of assault is done properly. Kaval hits his trademark kick to the chest and is firmly in the driver’s seat. Kaval resorts to what he knows best here in full form; Wilson eats boots from all directions and has no idea how to defend against any of it. Wilson finally gets his bearings back and ducks Kaval’s springboard kick in the corner and heads back to the vulnerable point of Kaval established during the match with a snap-mare into a neckbreaker (!). Wilson then sets in the Hart Lock, a Sharpshooter variation wherein Wilson sits down and even takes the arm for further effect; the idea is that the hold stretches damn-near everything. Looks painful as hell, really. Kaval rolls to the ropes for the break. Both men fight all the way to the top rope where Wilson shoves Kaval down across said rope and perches for the attack. Both men are now looking for the next big move to end it and Wilson goes for it all first with a springboard moonsault – and misses! Kaval works Wilson into position to hit his big move – and gets it…

Finish comes when Kaval hits the Warrior’s Way from the top rope for the pinfall victory. I’ve seen several good matches on this show, but this one tops them. Easily the best match I’ve ever seen on this show up to this point. Matthews made the remark about both men “leaving it all in the ring”, and they did just that. Great stuff. Replay montage of the big moves in the match shows before Kaval celebrates to end the show.

A mixed bag of a show. What could have been a great match in the feud between Sanchez and his former Conglomerate stable-mates was, for all intents and purposes, tossed aside. Dylan Klein did everything he could to ruin the show altogether. However, on the plus side, the ladies put on a pretty good semi-final Queen of FCW match while Chris Ryback made a decent debut. And that main event speaks for itself; that would have saved this show no matter HOW bad it was.

L8. Thanks again for reading.

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