Florida Championship Wrestling (WWE developmental)
Report by Dave Turgeon and ProWrestling.net
This was our fifth FCW show and they just keep getting better. Tonight they came to our hometown of Gainesville, Fl. Attendance was probably 200-250 people.
Prior to the show you could meet Vickie Guerrero, Dustin Rhodes, and Dusty Rhodes.
Vickie was so sweet, nothing like her character. My pregnant wife even let Vickie rub her belly (which no one is allowed to do!). Dustin was very friendly. He said he had about four months left to recover from his shoulder injury and that this has been a very tough injury to overcome.
Very random and funny exchange:
My wife: “Dustin, I like your Goldust makeup, but I think your black ears are creepy.”
Dusty Rhodes: “See Dustin, I told you so! She thinks they are creepy too.”
Dustin: ” I don’t care what you guys think, you don’t get a vote.”
(It turns out that Dustin paints his own face, it takes about 20 minutes, and CODY usually does the painting of the ears)
Ricky Steamboat was also in the crowd and the poor guy didn’t get three seconds to enjoy the show as people were constantly pestering him for photos and autographs.
Also spotted but did not wrestle: Norman Smiley, Tom Prichard, Steve Keirn, Husky Harris, Eli Cottonwood, Derrick Bateman, and Jacob Novak.
I didn’t take notes so I will probably forget some details.
1. Richie Steamboat defeated Peter Orlov. Good match. Orlov, who wrestled is Alex Koslov, is small but well built and can really fly. At one point, he did a flying swanton over the top rope and hit nothing but floor on the way down. We thought he was legit hurt, but the match kept going. Richie Steamboat is probably ready to come on up to WWE at any time. He is very solid in the ring.
2. Titus O’Neill and Damien Sandow defeated Donnie Marlow and a partner to retain the FCW Tag Titles. Pretty slow match. The champs played the chickenshit heel roles.
3. Aksana and AJ defeated Naomi and Shaul Guerrero. Shaul is the daughter of Vickie Guerrero, but I didn’t catch the name she used. After the match, Vickie came out and had a showdown with the FCW general manager. Vickie and her daughter got the better of this exchange.
4. Big E Langston defeated Brett DiBiase by countout. Brett was the “My daddy is rich” heel. Big E is one of the largest men I have ever seen. He is a beast, but unfortunately he moves around the ring slowly because he is so musclebound. Brett played keep away for a bit before taking some bumps and then just walking out.
5. Lucky Cannon defeated Bo Rotundo in the main event. Brett Dibiase was in Lucky Cannon’s corner. They drew massive heat because they kept hugging each other. Chants of “you are ga-ay clap clap clapclapclap” went on through the whole match. Match was not good. Lucky won with Bretts interference.
6. Percy Watson defeated Ricardo Rodriguez. Ricardo was surprisingly athletic and did a nice job bumping around. His physique is very average, but it works with his character…he could play a good Santino Marella type comedy wrestler. Percy was Percy, he has not changed since NXT. He won with a jumping twisting splash.
7. Trent Berretta vs. Seth Rollins (no result provided). This was a 20-minute-plus PPV quality match. Fantastic mat wrestling, some big spills, some high flying, lots of counters and near-falls. The crowd was really into this one. There were chants of “This is Wrestling” and “This is Awesome.” Seth Rollins is going to be a star and Trent Berretta should be a star already based on the caliber of this match. Standing ovation from all. After the match, Trent Berretta asked us if anyone could tell him why he wasn’t in the Royal Rumble. Funny.
Great night. I can’t wait for them to come back on April 16th.
