Florida Championship Wrestling TV Taping Results (SPOILERS)

Credit: Richard Trionfo and Pwinsider.com

On Thursday night, I attended my first FCW television taping at the FCW Arena in Tampa, Florida. I will go into more detail about the experience, but it was a very enjoyable show that saw some good work from the people on the FCW roster and a very hot crowd.

Before the show started, there was a message played over the sound system going over the ‘rules’ for attending a show at the FCW Arena.

They brought out the announcers for the television show, Matt Martlaro and Abraham Washington. However, before the first match started, they brought out a special guest announcer. Joining Matt and Abe for the evening would be the color commentator for NXT, William Regal.

Show Number One

Match Number One: Kenneth Cameron defeated Bobby Dutch with a Samoan Drop.

They filmed the open for the first week of television with Martlaro, Washington, and Regal at ringside before they returned to the announce table.

Match Number Two: Husky Harris defeated Monty Lynch with a Back Senton Splash.

During this match, Harris was receiving a face reaction from the crowd which seemed a bit strange because Nexus are heels on television.

During the match, Michael Tarver came to ringside to scout the match and then he went to the back before the match ended. Tarver came back out after the match ended.

Match Number Three: FCW Diva Champion AJ Lee with Queen of FCW Aksana defeated Season Three NXT Winner Kaitlyn in a Non-Title Match with a knee to the head.

They showed a video of the Brad Maddox Reality Show with footage that Brad recorded during FCW Arena Shows and FCW House Shows. It was hard to hear the audio of this segment, but it also included ‘footage from a movie’ starring Brad and Peter Orlov.

Brad Maddox interviewed Tito Colon. Colon talked about the problems he has had with Conor O’Brian and discussed O’Brian attacking him a few weeks ago. Tito challenges O’Brian to a Falls Count Anywhere Match for next week’s show.

Match Number Four: FCW 15 Champion Seth Rollins and Richie Steamboat defeated FCW Tag Team Champions Damien Sandow and Titus O’Neill in a Non Title Match when Steamboat hit a crucifix after a Seth Rollins super kick.

Match Number Five: Bo Rotundo defeated Brett DiBiase with FCW Champion Lucky Cannon, Queen of FCW Aksana, and FCW General Manager Maxine by disqualification when Cannon interfered after Rotundo hit a spear on DiBiase.

After the match, Cannon and DiBiase attacked Rotundo.

There was an intermission of approximately ten minutes before the start of the taping for Show Number Two.

Show Number Two

Match Number One: Tito Colon defeated Conor O’Brian in a Falls Count Anywhere Match with a lungblower on the interview stage.

This match stayed in the ring and immediate ringside area for the first half of the match. Colon tried to use the ring steps but O’Brian hit the steps with the chair and got a near fall. The action went into the hallway and then outside the building. O’Brian and Colon battled into the parking lot and they battled onto a truck. They returned back into the building where Colon got the win.

They did a segment in Maxine’s office with Richie Steamboat while Lucky Cannon and Brett DiBiase were also in the office. Maxine told Steamboat that he was the face of FCW and that he would get an FCW 15 Title Match against Seth Rollins next week. Maxine told Richie that if he does what she wants, she will do things for him.

After Richie left, Seth Rollins was summoned to Maxine’s office. Maxine told Seth that he was the face of FCW and that he would be defending his FCW 15 Title next week against Richie Steamboat. If he does what she wants, she will do things for him.

Aksana enters the office after Seth leaves.

Match Number Two: Hunico defeated James Bronson with the Falling Star.

During the match, Michael Tarver came out to watch the action in the ring.

The wrestlers who would form the ‘Human Cage’ for our next match came to the ring. The ‘Human Cage’ was comprised of FCW Tag Team Champions Damien Sandow and Titus O’Neill, Brett DiBiase, Leo Kruger, Jacob Novak, Bobby Dutch, Percy Watson, FCW 15 Champion Seth Rollins, Richie Steamboat, Donny Marlow, Leakee, and Derrick Bateman. Also at ringside was FCW General Manager Maxine.

Match Number Three: Bo Rotundo defeated FCW Champion Lucky Cannon in a Non Title Human Cage Match with a spear.

This match saw a lot of things that you see in most lumberjack matches with the heels attacking the face when he gets thrown to the floor. There was a spot when Rotundo was on the apron in front of the face lumberjacks and Cannon tried to knock him off the apron but the lumberjacks caught Rotundo and put him back on the apron. Percy Watson tried to get involved on the apron but Cannon knocked him off. Watson tripped Cannon when he tried to suplex Rotundo back into the ring but Cannon kicked out. This was followed by the spear that ended the match.

This was the end of Show Number Two.

Abraham Washington went to the back before the start of Show Number Three so your announcers for the final show are Matt Martlaro and William Regal.

Show Number Three

Match Number One: Big E Langston defeated Jacob Novak with the Big Ending.

Match Number Two: Naomi and Kaitlyn defeated FCW Divas Champion AJ Lee and Queen of FCW Aksana when Naomi pinned AJ with a rollup.

Match Number Three: Byron Saxton, Leo Kruger, and Calvin Raines defeated Donny Marlow, Leakee, and Percy Watson when Kruger pinned Marlow.

Before our main event, the Cannon Collective came to ringside to watch the match. Lucky Cannon was joined by Brett DiBiase, FCW Divas Champion AJ Lee, FCW General Manager Maxine, and the Queen of FCW Aksana.

Match Number Four: FCW 15 Champion Seth Rollins and Richie Steamboat wrestled to a draw in an FCW 15 Title Match when each wrestler had one fall so Rollins retained because in the event of a tie, the champion retains.

Steamboat got the first fall of the match after hitting a German Superplex with a little more than half the match remaining. Steamboat tried to take a two fall advantage by sending Rollins to the floor as soon as the referee re-started the match but Rollins returned to the ring at nine and a half. Rollins tied the match after having Steamboat stop a sunset flip power bomb attempt that Rollins turned into a buckle bomb and then he got his only fall of the match with a super kick. At this point, there was a little less than two minutes to go. Steamboat sent Rollins to the floor with about twenty seconds left in the match but he tried to bring Rollins back into the ring and he had Rollins covered when time ran out.

After the match, Cannon and DiBiase came into the ring to confront Rollins and Steamboat but Steamboat and Rollins hit super kicks on Cannon and DiBiase. AJ and Aksana entered the ring and then they left when they realized what they had gotten themselves into.

Other Thoughts and Comments on the Show

Throughout the night, Brad Maddox was in the crowd filming his ‘reality show’. When he was filming around where I was sitting, he was pretty funny telling a younger fan to pay attention to the match instead of trying to talk to him. He also commented that a kid’s toy John Cena spinner belt was really Cena’s belt.

It was a good surprise to have William Regal come out to join Matt and Abe on commentary. As is the case with most of the television reports I do, I always try to have a nickname for the announcers. For the FCW Report that aired this week, I made reference to William Regal in my nickname for Matt Martlaro. It was a good coincidence that Regal was there this week.

There were some minor issues with being able to hear the ring announcer at times during the show and the ‘rules of the FCW Arena’ recording was also hard to hear. There were also a few parts of the Maddox interview of Tito Colon that were hard to hear.

There is no giant screen in the building so the only place to see the Brad Maddox video and segment in Maxine’s office were on the screen behind the announcers and the screens by where the wrestlers make their entrances.

The building was not full, but it with the way the building is designed, there were times when it was louder than the Impact Zone with four to six times as many people. The acoustics in the building were very good for keeping the crowd noise.

At the start of the show, they announced their show this weekend and I saw some flyers for the show later in the night.

The crowd was very lively through most of the night. For the last two or three matches, I think the crowd was a bit exhausted for being there for almost three hours.

The doors opened around 6:00 PM for the 7:00 PM bell time and they took a ten minute intermission after the first show was finished. Each show seemed like it was done live to tape.

I was a bit surprised to see Husky Harris in action. I was thinking that they were going to do something with Husky and Bo since they are brothers and maybe have Husky join forces with Lucky Cannon against Bo.

I was also surprised to see Derrick Bateman as part of the ‘Human Cage’ but I guess whatever surgery he had that Mike reported on the site is done and Bateman is getting ready to move up to Raw or Smackdown.

The ‘Human Cage’ Match was fun to watch because of the crowd reaction to things and the way that the wrestlers around the ring reacted to things. Lucky Cannon wore the ring robe that he has been wearing for NXT this season and some of the feathers were on the mat after he made his entrance. Rollins, Steamboat, and Watson were having a little fun with those feathers. Also during the match there were a few times that Brett DiBiase would try to get on the ring steps to quiet the crowd. Bateman kicked the ring steps a few times while Brett was on them and I thought he was going to fall off.

I liked that the Falls Count Anywhere Match had Colon and O’Brian fight outside the building as well as in the hallway.

When Cannon, DiBiase, Maxine, AJ, and Aksana came to ringside for the Steamboat/Rollins match, I was afraid that they were going to get involved in the match, but I was glad that they waited until the match was over before they did anything.

On this week’s television, there was some tension between Steamboat and Rollins after their FCW 15 Match so I was worried that they were going to have issues during their tag match in the first show or during the match on the third show. Fortunately, they did not show any problems and worked as a team and then showed respect to the other during their singles match.

Since Rollins and Steamboat have wrestled in FCW 15 matches a few times and the match that aired this week saw no pinfalls or submission during the entire 15 minute match, I liked that there were at least two pinfalls during the match because it is good to see some variety between these guys.

The best match of each show were:
Show One: Damien Sandow and Titus O’Neill versus Richie Steamboat and Seth Rollins
Show Two: Tito Colon versus Conor O’Brian and Lucky Cannon versus Bo Rotundo
Show Three: Seth Rollins versus Richie Steamboat

I would say that the second show was the strongest of the three because of the Falls Count Anywhere Match and the Human Cage Match.

FCW’s next television taping is scheduled for Thursday, April 7, 2011.