FCW has really had a break out year in 2016, generating a lot of buzz and putting together some really good shows. However due to money issues after their July shows, they held their first show in almost four months on November 5th. The show felt more like a reboot for the promotion than what had gone on before, with lots of new faces that hadn’t been on one of FCW’s main shows before, and little continuation of previous stories.
For the promotion, there was really no avoiding a change. Danny Limelight, who was the XRT champion, left wrestling and took the title with him. Eli Everfly who had become the number one contender for the XRT title before the hiatus (and who was involved in a real life incident with Limelight that was never able to be capitalized on) was unavailable for the show. Other wrestlers have said they wont take bookings due to the money issues. What was left was a mostly young roster of wrestlers anchored by one of the best wrestlers in Southern California for the last two decades.
C-Lo over Azrael [8’26]
This was a pre-show match. It was OK for what it was, but went on a little longer than it should have.
Donnie Suarez over Guy Cool [5’18]
Guy Cool came out with the mic singing. There was some pretty decent stuff in this match. Donnie Suarez has been pretty impressive this year and hopefully he can start to get some higher profile stuff. Guy Cool is a rookie but he’s been pretty solid so far. This was a short but decent match. It would have been good if they got the pre-show matches time and vice versa.
Human Tornado over Oso Blanco [8’54]
This was OK. Human Tornado was a replacement for Jacob Diez who was unable to wrestle due to concussions. Both guys are normally pretty solid but didn’t seem to really click in this.
Veinom over Toxik [6’14]
This was billed as FCW lucha match. Both guys are main stays on the local lucha scene and are pretty good. Veinom had only worked a FCW school show, and I’m not sure if Toxik had worked FCW before. If he has it was awhile ago. So I was pretty surprised by the reaction they got. The crowd was pretty hot for this. This was a fun, short, lucha style match. Both guys were pretty impressive and hopefully they’ll be on future FCW shows as well.
Terex over SoCal Crazy [16’13]
Terex came to the ring with Captain Comic Con. This was your basic small man trying to use his quickness and high flying to counter the nig man match. SoCal Crazy had some pretty nice offense in the match and Terex moves very well for his size. Lots of crowd brawling in this. There was a funny spot where water was spit and Terex claimed “that is disrespectful” to play off the Danny Limelight and Eli Everfly fight from the July show (check out the review of FCW’s Smack! Boom! Pow! Night 2 for more details). Terex picked up the win after a standing moonsault.
Matt Twizted over Aaron Garvey, Corey Jackson, and Maldacito [12’00]
This was the first time Corey Jackson had been in FCW since a really good match with Danny Limelight earlier in the year. He still showed really good fire in the match. Lots of crowd brawling in this. There was stuff going on in two places at once most of the time, but other than brawling there wasn’t a whole lot to the match. During the match Captain Comic Con and Terex came out. They’ve had a feud going with Matt Twizted for awhile. They got in the ring and took everyone out for Twizted allowing him to get the win. It then turns out Twizted has joined up with the Revelation.
After the match FCW promoter Gus Parsons came out and called Matt Twizted a traitor. They scheduled a 6-man death match for the next show between Terex, Matt Twizted, and Captain Comic Con versus Aaron Garvey, Maldacito, and the promoter Gus.
“Uptown” Andy Brown over Biagio Crescenzo and Adrian Quest [11’59]
This was a really good match, and easily the match of the night up to that point. All three guys looked really good. Andy Brown is a likely SoCal wrestler of the year candidate, he makes everything he does look so good. Adrian Quest is on the verge of really breaking out too. I have been really impressed with everything I’ve seen Biagio in this year as well. Why isn’t he getting more bookings? All three guys worked very well together and got to show off their offense. Really good stuff here. Andy Brown hit a package piledriver on Quest to get the pin.
Seville Alvarez over Sage Sin Supreme [6’51]
Seville Alvarez also wrestled as Gino Rivera in Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. Apparently Sage Sin broke his jaw in a match at some point and that was the main reason behind this match. Sage Sin came out with Supreme. Every time I see Supreme I think back when I first got into indy wrestling and it seemed like the big tag-team feud was Supreme Kaos (which was Supreme and the then Kid Kaos) versus The Naybah Hoodz (Crayz and Tech IX). Those were pretty fun matches. I liked Sage Sin’s new (or new to me?) jack-o-lantern tights. Sage Sin had a pretty nice suplex sequence in this, and she looked good when controlling the offense, but other than that I didn’t think the match was that great. The ending seemed to come out of nowhere too. Post match Seville got in some fans face, prompting another fan to join in and pull a screwdriver on him. Seville got out of Dodge.
Douglas James over B-Boy to win the FCW Heavyweight title 2 out of 3 falls [42’15]
This was a fantastic match. I thought their first match was great, but this was better. Douglas James hasn’t won much in FCW, and was pinned clean by B-Boy already. So the whole reasoning for this match was basically they had a good match previously. Actually, the way B-Boy put Douglas James over in that first match, even though James didn’t get the win, may him seem like a credible threat to finally dethrone B-Boy. Douglas James took the first fall in about 15 minutes, and B-Boy got the 2nd fall at about 21 minutes. B-Boy was really working over James left leg in this match and James must be studying Kenny Omega because his selling throughout the match was mostly pretty good. The leg limited James offense to where he was having trouble with superkicks and drop kicks. They were really playing off their last match too, where one would go for a move they used in the first meeting, but now it was countered. There was a pretty crazy spot where James tries to hit a tope suicida on B-Boy but he catches him in the air and reverses it to a brain buster on the apron. A little after the 30 minute mark there was a double count out, and the crowd was chanting “bull shit.” FCW promoter Gus ruled that there would be no count outs and restarted the match. B-Boy hit a Shinning Wizard on James and when James kicked out B-Boy sold the shock and exhaustion great. B-Boy managed to hit a chicken-wing piledriver too and the crowd went crazy when James kicked out. B-Boy has been one of the best wrestlers in Southern California for such a long time, but the crowd was really behind James the underdog, going crazy for his near falls. James hit three frog splashes on B-Boy to get the pin and the FCW title that B-Boy has held for over two years. This was Douglas James first championship. Post match B-Boy handed over the title and James cut a promo. This was a really great match and should be a SoCal match of the year nominee. Hopefully it gets released on video or YouTube quickly.
Overall this was a pretty good show from FCW. Despite the roster overhaul there was still a lot of good. One thing about FCW in 2016, they have not disappointed on any main event, with each one being good to great, with this show’s probably having their best match.
They’ll be back on December 10th with their final show of 2016. Aside from the six-man death match, nothing else has been announced.
