411’s FCW TV Report 11.29.08

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.

Heya and thanks again for stopping by. No time for any fluff – nor any of it interesting since work may as well be home anymore as much as I’m there. Let’s just get to the meat and taters of this thing and be done with it, shall we?

FCW – 11.29.08

Video of last week’s #1 Contender’s Battle Royale open the show and Sheamus O’Shaunessey’s attack on winner Joe Hennig start the show. We are in the FCW Arena, welcomed by hosts Josh Matthews and “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. TONIGHT: Joe Hennig challenges Sheamus O’Shaunessey for the FCW Title! Oh, and John Cena is here. Again. Probably to rub in my face that he won the World Title on his first match back. And people wonder why I watch this but not the main WWE shows.

Carson Oakley & Scotty Goldman vs. FCW Tag-Team Champions TJ Wilson & DH Smith – non-title match

No Natalya Neidhart? THAT sucks.

Scotty Goldman likes to have fun, and many may blame that for some of his antics. However, his goofing on TJ Wilson early on while getting the better of him belies the mind games he likes to play with that as well. Wilson tags in Smith and Goldman cuts back on the playing around a bit to evenly match power with Smith and play an even better game – making the blind tag to Oakley and letting him surprise Smith. Smith brings Wilson back in only for Wilson to fall victim to the chicanery of both opponents. The Bulldogs finally tire of the games (and being shown up) and, during a 4-man melee, use their advantage as a more experienced team to finally get the better of Goldman and select him as the man to work over in their corner.

Goldman’s experience lead over Wilson helps him almost escape the quickness of Wilson a couple times, but Wilson is just that much faster. This continues for quite some time until Wilson makes the mistake of trying to out-wrestle a man who’s been around longer – and worked in more areas of the world – than he has. Goldman finally finds the opening he needs to tag in Oakley, and Oakley impacts Wilson senseless. Smith tries sneaking in a move to take Oakley down, but then stays right in place on the apron for Oakley to slingshot Wilson right into him. A dumb move the spells the beginning of the end…

Finish comes when Oakley side-suplex (with authortah!) on Wilson for the pinfall victory. Not a bad match at all; looking forward to them being given more time in a Title match to really show what they can do. Replay of the victory takes us to commercial.

Back to

Angela vs. Alicia Fox

Both ladies waste no time feeling each other out, instead opting to out-maneuver each other and attempt the early victory. Angela uses her aerial ability and then her flexibility to confound Fox until Fox gets her hands on Alicia long enough to let her power take control.

Fox slows down the pace and tries for the submission, but Angela is a little tougher than that. Angela turns every chance she can into a pinning predicament (smart move), but Fox is ready for all of it. Fox keeps her strength at the forefront, looking to wear Angela down until she can no longer evade her. However, after Angela starts to recover, Fox lets her temper overcome her and makes a mistake going for a Yakuza kick. Angela pours on the speed and unorthodox attack and finally lets it lead her to the proverbial pay windah (hey, if Rhodes won’t say it, I will)…

Finish comes when Angela hits a hurracanrana on Alicia Fox for the pinfall victory. Give the ladies a little time like you did here and you get – surprise! – a pretty good match. Replay, again, takes to commercial.

Back to

Tyson Tarver (w/Byron Saxton) vs. Johnny Prime

I’m really starting to like Tarver. Saxton is a good mouthpiece for him as well, helping his case. Saxton takes the time to tell Cena that the Conglomerate runs the show here.

This is not only a rematch from three weeks ago, but also a continuation of the Prime/Kafu vs. The Conglomerate feud. Josh Matthews sums this up as “a striker vs. a grappler”, but that’s not 100% accurate, as Tarver can wrestle as well. More the MMA-style with him.

Tarver starts off thinking he’ll KO Prime early, but Prime suckers him into a power battle that Tarver wants no part of. Prime then, inexplicably, falls right into Tarver’s striking game. I’d think he’d know better. Tarver knocks Prime down and then keeps him there by, once again, beating him senseless. Prime finally shakes off the cobwebs and uses his slight speed advantage to take the lead, then pulls a page out of Tarver’s book from their previous encounter…

Finish comes when Prime rolls Tarver into a small-package for the pinfall victory. An improvement over their last match; this one was almost the same as that, save for the result and, more importantly, this one made a little more sense as far as the psychology goes.

Post-match, Lawrence Knight comes out to help his Conglomerate buddy avenge the loss, but out to stop the 2-on-1 is…who’da thunk it?…John Cena. The three stare down Cena, but then Eric Escobar and Johnny Curtis are out to do Cena’s dirty work for him even up the odds and clear the ring of the Conglomerate…except for Byron Saxton, who’s left in the ring with Cena. Saxton begs off and Cena suckers him into a handshake only to give Saxton the FU. The faces celebrate as we see the replay of Cena’s FU on Saxton. Cena shaking hands with the ringside fans takes us to commercial.

Back to

Dolph Ziggler (w/Gavin Spears) vs. Yamamoto

Glad to see these two are still a unit after the impressive showing they made going after the Tag Titles. This, though, almost looks like an ugly clash of styles on paper….

Yamamoto looks to match speed with Ziggler early on, and Ziggler is game for it. However, Ziggler isn’t ready for the martial arts-attack that comes with it. Ziggler takes a few shots before getting his chance to employ the grappling style to keep Yamamoto down. Yamamoto, in turn, patiently finds the opening to go back to the kicks that worked well in the beginning. Both men are down after a double-clothesline and we get the standing 10-count (at about 2 minutes in…seriously). Yamamoto is up first and goes right back to the kicking, almost putting Ziggler away with that. Yamamoto uses his speed to score a set of near-falls, but Ziggler lets his patience serve him one more time…

Finish comes when Yamamoto misses a charge and Ziggler hits the Blond Ambition for the pinfall victory. Better than I expected between the two, but way short. And if you’re gonna do a standing 10-count, two minutes in just isn’t realistic.

Commercial, then back to the clip package of the Battle Royale & aftermath from last week. Matthews & Rhodes hype the main event with Matthews getting in a cool line: “Let’s pass out the ammunition and head into battle.”

Joe Hennig vs. Sheamus O’Shaunessey (c) – FCW Heavyweight Title Match

O’Shaunessey looks more geared up for a fight than Hennig does. Kinda scary. Both men jockey for position to start before O’Shaunessey resorts to his forte of roughhousing. Hennig uses his head, though, dumping O’Shaunessey outside and jumping him once he comes back in. Hennig then gets ion some shots of his own on O’Shaunessey. Hennig is better served using the former strategy of out-smarting the champion rather than going toe-to-toe; otherwise, O’Shaunessey will win a straight fight, which is what he wants.

Both men spend the opening minutes trading moves and shots with neither getting the clear lead. Like two rams butting heads. O’Shaunessey has the size and possible toughness gain over Hennig, though, and simply lets Hennig punch himself out before taking over with the ground-and-pound offense that has brought him this far. O’Shaunessey has shown some smarts of his own, riling Hennig early on and letting him play right into O’Shaunessey’s game. The match degenerates into a fight, and then simply a beat down for a while as O’Shaunessey wears Hennig down for a good while with a particular emphasis on the neck.

Hennig, however, has on his side the resilience handed down to him from two prior generations. As we come back from another commercial, we see O’Shaunessey still wearing Hennig down – but with Hennig starting to show more and more signs of life. Hennig finally turns his surroundings to his advantage and mounts his comeback. Hennig strings together a chain of high-impact moves (including his dad’s old neck-snap) before going for the PerfectPlex. O’Shaunessey counters and goes for his own finisher, but Hennig escapes that and the two continue fighting. Not wrestling, mind you, but fighting – even once the match is called…

Finish comes when the referee tries to separate both men in the corner, and both men shove the ref down, prompting the ref to call for a No Contest. Not a big fan of inconclusive Title matches, but this makes sense. Given the way tempers flared here and that this was Hennig’s first shot at the Title, this feud will continue – and, given the show both put on here, that’s not a bad thing at all.

Post-match, the two keep going at it. Several refs and most of the FCW roster can’t even keep them apart. It’s turmoil in Tampa! Even “FCW President” Steve Keirn (man, is he showing his age) is out to try and stop the madness – and O’Shaunessey barrels right past him to get to Hennig! Nice! The brawl and subsequent pull-apart ends the show.

I like what I saw this week. Not a bad match on the card at all. I can even overlook the appearance of the soon-to-be-overexposed-all-over-again John Cena compared to the rest of the show. Let’s keep this trend up, shall we?

L8. Thanks again for reading.

For more interesting (?) reading/listening, click here. A reason for me to love Hip-Hop again?