“Season’s Beatings” was the final show of the year for FCW in a year that saw them really enter the upper echelon of promotions in Southern California before having to somewhat reboot the promotion late in the year due to several factors. Their first show of the year really set a high bar for them to live up to, and they managed to do it. While the promotion had problems behind the scenes at time, the quality of their shows was really good.
For this show they were at a different venue due to roof damage at their normal venue. It turned out to be kind of a blessing however, as the new venue is in a bit of better location with more parking and the building is actually visible from the street allowing for more ease of advertising. They seemed to draw pretty well for the show in the new location. Not as well as the biggest shows of the year, but there was no Pentagon Jr., Joey Ryan, or Jeff Cobb on the show.
Chaz Herrera over Alonzo Alvarez [8’28]
This was a pre-show match. The story of the match was Alomzo playing the bully jock and calling Chaz a nerd, while Chaz wondered why he was calling the ref a nerd. The match was OK, but it was a pre-show match. Chaz won with a diving head butt (that completely missed but Alonzo sold it anyway).
Human Tornado over C-Love by submission [7’13]
The match started with a dance off. I expected one wrestler to attack the other mid dance, but both wrestlers respected the others dance and waited till each other was done. I think Human Tornado won that. The match had a ton of comedy spots in it but it wasn’t the whole match. Tornado hit a pretty sick tornado DDT to the outside on C-Love. There were a couple other fun spots, but overall it was an OK match. Human Tornado won by submission.
Veinom & Motros Jungle over Nightmare Azteca & Toxik 2 out of 3 falls [14’31]
This match was two out of three falls in keeping with lucha tradition. The house lights were out during the ring entrances and they used a different lighting setup for entrances. Nightmare Azteca had a pretty cool lighted face mask in his entrance. I’m not sure if he normally has it and it’s just too light, but it looked cool. There was a really nice spot where Nightmare Azteca tossed Toxik into a dropkick on Motros. They managed to stay in the ring for most of the first two falls, then the third fall everyone did dives. There was some fun stuff in the match.
Kevin Kross over Oso Blanco by ref stoppage [6’06]
Oso Blanco’s music played and he didn’t come out, then Kevin Kross’ played and he came out dragging Blanco by the neck and said Blanco wants to forfeit. Blanco replied “go to hell” and the beating was on. Kross showed a ton of intensity. Blanco got some offense in, but this was pretty much a squash match. Kross KO’d Blanco and the ref stopped the match. This was a fantastic way to introduce Kross to the promotion and he came across as a real monster.
Aaron Garvey, Maldecido, & Gus Parsons over Terex, Matt Twizted, & Captain Comic Con [18’48]
Last show Matt Twizted turned on Gus and joined the Revelation which is headed by Captain Comic Con. Gus had his own entrance after Garvey and Maldecido had already come out. That doesn’t seem like good team spirit to me. The match mainly consisted of a lot of crowd brawling. It was a no-DQ match so there were chairs and trash cans being used. Garvey, Terex, and Twizted all bladed. These type of matches are always fun live when you can move around and see what is going on, but I don’t think it will be good on video at all. It is one of those “you had to be there” things. The finish saw Twizted reveal himself to be on Team FCW’s side the entire time. I’m not sure why he waited 18 minutes to switch sides as having a 4 on 2 advantage would probably have been helpful from the start. This was fun though.
Biagio Crescenzo over D’Marco Wilson [18’18]
This was the first match after intermission. It was originally supposed to be Famous B versus D’Marco. Once they realized Famous B wasn’t going to be there, they should have moved this to earlier in the card. They had some good sequences in the match, but it went on way too long. They also did a bunch of near falls, making them less effective in later matches, and kicked out of Douglas James’ finisher. This could have been a lot better had they cut it in half and not tried to do so much stuff in the match. Biagio won after a low blow and held D’Marco’s tights.
Eli Everfly over Donnie Suarez, Jake Atlas, and SoCal Crazy to win the FCW Lightweight title [12’22]
Luckily this match came after the previous match and was able to get the crowd back into the show. Before the match it was announced that this was for the new FCW Lightweight title. This match was a lot of fun. Everfly and Atlas got taken out of the ring to start and SoCal Crazy and Suarez had a really good sequence to start the match. Then Everfly and Atlas went at it and it was fantastic. Both guys are so athletic. Seriously, watching Jake Atlas is what I imagine seeing Will Ospreay as a rookie would have been like. There was a ton of high flying in this. SoCal Crazy also hit maybe the hardest chop of the year that made half the crowd cringe. Everfly hit a crazy Spanish Fly to the outside on Donnie Suarez. If there was one negative in the match though there was a lot of standing around waiting for dives. Everfly got the pin after hitting a sort of chicken-wing Canadian destroyer on Suarez. Great match.
B-Boy & Scorpio Sky over “Uptown” Andy Brown & Adrian Quest [20’49]
All four of these guys have had a great 2016 as far as match quality goes. Sky hit a back-breaker on Quest early on that was done so quickly it looked absolutely devastating. Andy Brown and B-Boy really matched up well in this too. Hopefully we can see a singles match between them at some point. B-Boy is easily the FCW MVP for 2016. Not only did he have a bunch of great matches, but he used those great matches to help elevate others. His matches with Douglas James really gave James credibility as a champion and main eventer. Scorpio Sky has been having great matches all year too, and Andy Brown and Adrian Quest are really starting to break out. This was another really good match. The finish saw Sky dropkick while B-Boy held him for a piledriver.
Douglas James over Lil’ Cholo to retain the FCW Heavyweight title [21’00]
This was Douglas James first title defense since winning the FCW title in a match of the year candidate at the last FCW show. This was actually the first time he and Lil’ Cholo faced each other in a match. I’ll start by saying anytime there is a weird time listed as the time limit in a main event, it is normally a sign something fishy is going on. At least they tried to cover it by announcing every match as having a 20 minute time limit. The match was pretty even, with both guys getting their fair share of offense in. Cholo did a lot of strong style stuff while James tried to incorporate some lucha into his offense, even hitting a tope con giro. They announced 5 minutes remaining in the match but it didn’t seem like either guy changed up their offense and showed any extra urgency. Even when they announced 1 minute then counted down from ten. They just knocked each other down with elbow strikes. It was ruled a draw, but after complaints by the crowd they added 5 more minutes. Douglas James managed to get the win about a minute into the “overtime.”
After the match Scorpio Sky came out and attacked Douglas James, then Cholo joined in. B-Boy ran out wearing a Douglas James shirt (off topic but Douglas James new shirts look pretty good) but then turned on Douglas James too. Andy Brown, Adrian Quest, and Eli Everfly came out to try and save Douglas James, but the Sky, B-Boy, and Cholo team managed to drive them off. B-Boy picked up the FCW title, spit on it, and threw it down at the beaten Douglas James to end the show.
Overall it was a pretty good show but not among FCW’s best of the year. The lightweight championship match and the tag team semi were really good and worth checking out on video. The show did a good job of setting things up for 2017 with B-Boy, Sky, and Cholo turning heel, the continued building of Douglas James, Eli Everfly having potential matches with SoCal Crazy and Jake Atlas who can say that he didn’t pin them, and introducing Kevin Kross as an absolute monster.
FCW’s next show is February 11th in Imperial Beach and Bestia 666 versus Rey Fenix has been announced for the show as well as the return of Thunder Rosa and Holidead.