wrestling / TV Reports

411’s FCW TV Report 03.26.09

March 31, 2009 | Posted by Michael Melchor

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 back. Three weeks in a row. What’re the odds? For those of you that had this in your betting pool, congratulations.

Yeah, I’m in a bit of a foul mood. I just got done watching the end of Raw’s “go home” show for WrestleMania 25. Instant mood killer. I’m sorry, but they couldn’t have given the McMahons more of a reason to come back than simply get in a few licks? You mean to tell me Vince isn’t fired up enough to override the Interim Raw GM and make the WWE Title match “No Holds Barred” after everything that Orton and Triple-H have done to each other leading up to it? Come on

There are some bright spots elsewhere, though. A Twitter post from Matt Fraction that simply reads, “Gloval > Adama” (Damn straight). The fact that we are the only major wrestling site that covers FCW TV (bookmarking us would be a good idea for that and several other reasons, by the way). And, last but certainly not least, this week’s main event! Hot damn!

FCW – 03.26.09

Show opens with a recap of last week’s main event title shot for DH Smith and subsequent screwing by his former Bulldog partner, Tyson Kidd. It’s on like the proverbial steaming pot o’ neckbones now.

Josh Matthews and Dusty Rhodes talk up this week’s main event before taking us straight to the action:

DJ Gabriel & Kizarny (w/Alicia Fox) vs. Trent Beretta & Caylen Croft – Tag Team Championship Challenge Match

What the hell’s Kizarny doing here? And who the hell came up with the name “Caylen Croft”? That’s almost as bad of an idea as someone doing a documentary about half a thousand kids taking themselves way too seriously at a poetry competiti—oh, wait…

Anyway, you may notice that this match is somewhat of a misnomer, given that neither of these teams are the FCW Tag team Champions. “Tag Team Championship Challenge Match” is a fancy way of saying #1 Contender’s Match. Glad we could clear that up.

Kizarny and Croft start off jockeying for position and Kizarny, foregoing his usual unusual offense, goes after Croft’s arm. Smart way to throw off any “scouting” reports. Kizarny, though, goes for his unorthodox style soon enough by dizzying Beretta before tagging in Gabriel. Gabriel goes after the same arm (more intelligence) but Croft makes it to his corner. Beretta in and Gabriel switches up a bit, using a little martial arts (!) to take Beretta off his feet. However, he also takes his eye off Croft, allowing he and Beretta to use a blind double-team to shift momentum.

Back inside, Beretta and Croft keep Gabriel in the corner and simply pound the snot out of him for a couple minutes. Once Beretta goes for an actual wrestling hold, Gabriel escapes but Croft prevents the tag and pours on the impact offense…before going back to the chinlock. Sigh. To tell you how “devastating” the heels’ offense was, it takes Alicia Fox tripping up Beretta from the outside to give Gabriel the opportunity to finally make the tag to Kizarny. Kizarny is all over Beretta and takes him down for the pin near the ropes, even smartly hooking the leg closest to the ropes – but then switches to the other leg before making the cover…allowing Croft to put Beretta’s foot on the ropes. Brilliant! Kizarny pops Croft outside, but then, after taking his eye off the legal man, pays for it again. That teamwork is what serves Beretta and Croft in the end…

Finish comes when Croft hits Kizarny with a dropkick (behind the referee’s back), allowing Beretta to hit the powerbomb/roll-up combo for the pinfall victory. Okay, the fact that Gabriel is on the main roster and Kizarny is gone kinda gave this one away. On top of that, Croft and Beretta’s offense, save for the end, was absolute crap. Those kids need to learn some actual moves, and fast.

Matthews and Rhodes talk up Kidd vs. Smith later on and discuss the Kaval situation a little bit before taking us to commercial.

Back to Joe Hennig making his way to the ring. Angela talks about his accomplishments and his winning streak this year, but then kinda rubs in his face that he hasn’t won the FCW Title yet before asking his thoughts on the future. Hennig says he’s more focused, listing his own accomplishments before stating that, every time he has a shot at the singles title, it doesn’t happen. He challenges Eric Escobar outright for a shot at the title—

And Eric Escobar is out to answer Hennig. Escobar reminds us his contract says “any time, any place, anyone” and says Hennig is on for next week. Escobar also rubs in Hennig’s face that he never won the big one. Deliberately. Despite Hennig’s name and legacy, Escobar says Hennig is a perfect way for him to prove he’s the best there is as we go to commercial.

Back to FCW News & Gossip with Jenny Cash. Terrific. The big scoop: Sweet Papi Sanchez faces “Larry” Knight (heh) and Kaleb O’Neal in a handicap match later tonight. Okay, we can do away with this segment any day now. And Cash’s constant “ch-ching!”-ing doesn’t help matters much at all.

Lawrence Knight & Kaleb O’Neal (w/Byron Saxton) vs. Sweet Papi Sanchez – Handicap Match

Saxton has the best opportunity he’s ever had to get rid of Sanchez – only Sanchez doesn’t come out. Instead, we get some guy in a mask…

…that doesn’t fool the production guys. Hell, they even change the title graphic for him!

(Angela, however, despite dating the big lug, still introduces the impostor as “Sweet Papi Sanchez”. Now we know he’s not dating her for her genius-level intellect.)

“Sweet Papi” can’t make it over the top rope like he normally does and then tries to hand O’Neal a piece of candy, giving me a clue that this may be a Conglomerate show. Sure enough…

Finish comes when Knight hits the big splash in record time for the pinfall victory. Okay, granted, this wasn’t even close to a match. Just a way to “send a message”. However, this would have been a much better way to escalate the Sanchez/Conglomerate feud had this been an actual handicap match. Just my thought, though. The Conglomerate celebrates to take us to commercial.

Back to

Tyson Mr. Tarver vs. Johnny Prime

Okay, see? There’s a slight name change for a reason. During his intro, Mr. Tarver gives a “Superstars” PIP promo, stating that, in 1.9 seconds, lightning will strike and he’ll be the next FCW Champion. Also, Rhodes announces that Kaval is out for 6 months as a result of last week. Please, God, say it isn’t so.

Matthews calls this one early on: “You are witnessing a grappler in Prime vs. a striker in Tarver.” Prime takes Tarver to the mat to start but Tarver shows he’s more than his fists as well, reversing the hold and tying up Prime. It takes prime going for an impact move to get back to an even keel. Prime goes back to the mat and the arm (nice idea) before using his agility to blend his offense to try and put Tarver away. Tarver, still in the game, gets in a single punch that turns the tide of the match. Tarver uses some of his power to augment his strikes and Prime is in deep trouble. Tarver then goes for the reverse chinlock, getting overconfident, and Prime takes the opening to reverse the hold and then use his legs to take the lead. All it takes, though, is another hard shot to Prime’s jaw for Tarver to turn this around for good…

Finish comes when Tarver nails Prime with a standing powerslam for the pinfall victory. These two did well, especially Tarver. He continues to impress me more every time I see him. Post-match, Matthews tells us that “Tarver can update his Facebook status to ‘victorious'” (Hah).

Clips of last week’s attack on Ricky Ortiz by Sheamus O’Shaunessey, setting up the match coming up after the commercial.

Back to

Sheamus O’Shaunessey vs. Ricky Ortiz

Ortiz doesn’t even have his rally towel. He must mean business.

O’Shaunessey uses the first lock-up to show his superior strength. He tries to use the second to open up on Ortiz, but Ortiz sees it coming and ducks out of harm’s way to frustrate the Irishman. O’Shaunessey tries then to wear away at Ortiz’s equilibrium, but Ortiz’s agility lets him escape that and send O’Shaunessey outside. Ortiz gets overzealous, though, and goes for the pescado on O’Shaunessey outside – that O’Shaunessey ducks out of the way of, sending Ortiz crashing and burning. For good measure, O’Shaunessey sends Ortiz into the steel steps for further damage to the shoulder before sending him back inside.

In the ring, O’Shaunessey alternates between beating Ortiz down to keep him prone for doing more damage to the shoulder. Ortiz’s heart – and not much more – keeps him from tapping on more than one occasion. Ortiz finally finds an opening, turning around an O’Shaunessey chinlock (our official Move of The Night – something I haven’t had to break out in a lloooooooonngg time) and using every bit of energy he has left to weaken O’Shaunessey with the strongest blows he can muster. Ortiz then uses the ropes to keep that heat on and almost puts O’Shaunessey away. O’Shaunessey shows his own strength with a backbreaker but still, to his own amazement, can’t keep Ortiz down. Both men now are looking to use their power to end the match, but the cagier O’Shaunessey wins the battle…

Finish comes when O’Shaunessey dodges a splash and hits the Fiery Red Hand 2.0 for the pinfall victory. Pretty good stuff out of both men and a story well-told. O’Shaunessey, I think, is damn-near ready for the main roster. His work is that solid at this point. And points for Ricky Ortiz, who just wrestled the best match I’ve ever seen out of him. Replays of the bigger moments of the match take us to commercial.

Back to video hyping the return of Sebastian Slater to FCW next week.

DH Smith vs. Tyson Kidd

Kidd wastes no time getting started, using dropkicks to take Smith off-balance in both a figurative and literal sense. Kidd lets his aggression speak for him, sending Smith outside and establishing his dominance early. Kidd then gets his receipt for last week’s slap before using his speed to further confound Smith. Kidd’s speed and intensity is frustrating Smith early on, making for an excellent game plan from Kidd.

The two finally actually lock up – a mistake for Kidd to get into as Smith takes control of both the pace and the match, using his superior mat skills to ground and pound. Smith keeps the heat on a while; Kidd gets in a boot in the corner, but that’s not enough to stop Smith on his path of mat supremacy. Smith concentrates his attack on the neck, using his wrestling acumen – and his 65 lbs. weight advantage – to his the weakest point of a potential kick-out. Smith also works in some strikes just to take out some of the anger of his former partner and friend stabbing him in the back (in his view, anyway).

Kidd finally escapes the methodical wrath of Smith with blinding speed and a set of kicks from out of nowhere. Kidd keeps up the impact to try and chop Smith down and almost succeeds a few times. Smith wises up to Kidd’s game (and remembers his former partner’s propensity for coming off the top) to stop him and hit a stalling superplex (!!) to bring this contest to a dead heat.

No, seriously. A stalling superplex.

And Kidd still kicked out!

Smith looks to end this one with the running powerslam, but Kidd escapes. He and Smith know each other way too well and it shows in their series of reversals. Smith, though, pulls a different trick out of his bag, using his ring generalship and presence to wrench Kidd’s ankle and knee on the second rope. Kidd is now not only in immense pain, but he’s without one of his greatest weapons at the same time. Smith builds a blood-in-water scent, dissecting the knee. Kidd tries one more gambit, but it’s not enough…

Finish comes when Smith reverses a Sharpshooter Hart Lock attempt by Kidd and cinches in one of his own, forcing Kidd to tap out for the submission victory. Excellent stuff between the two; Matthews calls it “five stars”, but I wouldn’t go that high. Still and all, Smith sold better for a friend rather than a high-flyer he didn’t know, and Kidd the same in kind, especially at the end when his knee was targeted. Smith celebrates and leaves to end the show.

This one certainly started out in bad shape. Beretta and Croft need to learn a lot more offense, and Angela needs to learn to go along with an angle when she’s announcing. Once Tarver and Prime kicked things up, though, the rest of the show went pretty well.

L8. Thanks again for reading.

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Michael Melchor

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