The second night of FCW’s Pow! Boom! Smack! show from July 23rd, while not as good as night one, was still a really solid show. In fact it would have been very hard to top night one, as it was one of the better indy shows of the year.
I ended up getting there a little early as I had scheduled an interview prior to the show (look for an interview with Thunder Rosa later this week) and it was hot. Inside the building before any fans were let in it was already five kinds of hot in there.
Attendance looked to be down from the night before, but this show didn’t have Pentagon Jr. and Fenix announced for it either. The thing with doing back to back shows is you pretty much have to have some different wrestlers on each night, or people feel like they can choose which night to go to, and they’ll choose the night that has the bigger stars. Or you can run a tournament. It still looked like a decent draw and like night one it seemed like a lot of people showed up late.
Eli Everfly defeated Cara de Leon and Oso Blanco in an elimination match to become #1 contender for the XRT title [12’36]
I thought this was a fantastic opener, and one of the most fun matches of the weekend. Eli Everfly is pretty fearless in the ring and really does a ton of crazy spots. Cara de Leon and Oso Blanco have worked really well together as well. In my opinion this was the second best match of night two, behind the main event. Great match.
After the match Danny Limelight got into the ring as Eli just became the number one contender for his XRT title. Limelight was holding the title up and Eli touched it and said “I want that”. It seemed like Danny Limelight had his hand out to shake Eli’s hand, however from my angle Limelight’s back was to me. Something happened, I was told Eli Everfly spit on Danny Limelight, I did not see it from my angle, and Danny Limelight threw a punch and hit Eli Everfly in the face. They started brawling and it looked pretty intense, as it got towards where I was sitting, it became obvious that real punches were being thrown and Terex and Captain Comic Con who came to the ring with Eli and the ref were trying to break it up. The promoter Gus came out and was trying to break it up as well and he also took a punch in the scuffle. Eventually they were separated and taken out separate doors. I know in wrestling people will go to great lengths to try and “work” people, but I can confirm the fight was 100% legit.
BFF (Suede Thompson & Big Duke) over Sasha Darevko & Fidel Bravo [10’23]
I thought this was a pretty good match as well. Over the year in FCW Sasha Darevko has kind of evolved into wrestling for his audience, meaning he has wrestled more of an American indy stle in FCW while in say Championship Wrestling from Hollywood he has worked a much more old school style. He and Fidel worked really good together as well. Fidel and Suede had some really nice sequences. BFF is one of the best teams running regularly in SoCal right now. FCW is putting together a pretty nice tag division with BFF, Reno Scum, and Vermin. Throw in a few other teams like B-Boy and Lil’ Cholo they can have a really nice tag tournament when they decide to do it. Anyway, this was a good match.
Joey Ryan over Cooter [8’48]
This was pretty much pure comedy match, with Cooter wanting to stick a chicken in Joey Ryan’s ass (which he did) and Joey Ryan wanting Cooter to grab his dick (which he did). I thought it was entertaining and a nice change of pace from everything else on the card.
Danny Limelight & Douglas James over Vermin (Yuma & Kevin Martenson) [15’03]
I’d really like to see singles matches between Yuma and Limelight and between James and Martenson. I thought the match was good, but some parts off. Early in the match you could tell Limelight wasn’t his normal self, but he seemed to have calmed down as it went on. Still a pretty decent match.
Brian Cage over Famous B [11’04]
Famous B kept Melissa Santos in the ring and told her he is better than Cage, and in the bedroom too. Cage then pretty much destroyed him to start the match, but Famous B was able to get in a fair amount too. I wish Famous B was used as a wrestler more in Lucha Underground, because he is really good. This was a good match but I liked each of their matches on night one better.
Lil’ Cholo over SoCal Crazy and Rey Horus [10’11]
This was really fun too. Lil’ Cholo and SoCal Crazy have always matched up really well together and Rey Horus is always pretty great. I hope Rey Horus becomes a regular in FCW. Lil’ Cholo got the SoCal legend chant at the end of the match.
Twisted Sisters (Thunder Rosa & Holidead) over Laura James & Heather Monroe [10’15]
A women’s tag match in SoCal is something like a UFO, you hear of people who have seen one, but you aren’t sure if you believe it. Laura James and Heather Monroe have a ton of energy and look like they are having a lot of fun. Thunder Rosa and Holidead are super over. They had some of the loudest pops of the night. The night before had the “I just want to celebrate our birthdays” Thunder Rosa but night two was the “scary” Thunder Rosa. Holidead is always the “scary” Holidead. Fun stuff here. I really like Laura James and Heather Monroe’s use of the Bad Girls song from SNL.
B-Boy over Jeff Cobb to retain the FCW Heavyweight title [15’51]
This was a fantastic match. I think only the main event on night one was better during the whole weekend. The only downsides was the crowd was pretty much drained by this point because of the heat, so it didn’t get the crowd heat it should have, and the schoolboy rollup for the finish seemed to come out of nowhere. There was a ton of psychology in the match, with B-Boy working Cobb’s leg to try and neutralize some of his power. Throughout the match he kept going back to it, and I’d have to rewatch it on tape but I think that’s the leg he held when he got the pin as well. As expected Cobb was tossing B-Boy all over the place. What a great match. B-Boy was the clear MVP for the weekend.
Like I stated earlier this was a really good show, and a fantastic two nights of wrestling. As I mentioned in my night one review, FCW right now feels a lot like PWG circa 2004-2006 but with Lucha Underground wrestlers instead of TNA wrestlers. I’d even say that the promoter Gus Parsons is a lot like Super Dragon in that he really wants to put on the best possible show that he can above all else. Talking to wrestlers I hear a lot of the same things people say about PWG, about how they feel pressure to go all out here and several people told me how they feel that something special is going on.
As far as it goes for wrestling in San Diego, FCW is definitely like nothing that’s been there before. While Los Angeles and Orange County have seen its share of the so-called all-star promotions, no one has really pulled it off in San Diego before. Right now is a real high period in Southern California’s pro wrestling scene with promotions like FCW and PCW really stepping up, PWG putting on unquestionably the best wrestling in the world, and promotions like EWF and UEW with really good young rosters that are starting to get a ton of notice. There is so much good wrestling right now, and FCW being in the southern most part of San Diego has nice buffer running at least 45 minutes from the nearest non-lucha promotion.
One huge difference from FCW and early PWG though is the exposure outside of SoCal. I know they are working on it, but FCW needs to step up its DVD game. I know DVDs exist of some of their earlier shows, but finding where to buy them outside of going to a show is a challenge. I really feel FCW would benefit by linking up with a company like Highspots or Smart Mark to help their distribution. The wrestling here is too good for people not to see it.
I think FCW can turn the fight between Eli Everfly and Danny Limelight into a positive too. If they can get them to work together, people are going to want to see this match. People have been wanting to see that match before the fight. The added attraction of their being real heat has proven in the past to be a draw. I’m sure he hates for this to be brought up maybe 15 years later, but Sasha Darevko and Super Dragon is a perfect example. The original PCW (not the current awesome PCW) had a hard time drawing fans. Sasha Darevko who wrestled as Mike Vega at the time, and Super Dragon had real heat due to Vega constantly trashing him online (all the posts are still on our message board). PCW booked a match between them and they probably tripled their draw. People wanted to see what they thought was going to turn into something other than a wrestling match. Post the video online, get them to work together, and let the match build itself.
After the show I was told the August FCW should wasn’t going to go on and that it would be explained later. I was told there were no changes to the October FCW show.
I would recommend picking this up on DVD when it comes out, especially for the opener and the main event.
I also want to end my review with get well wishes to Mona, a long time San Diego super fan who I remember heckling Cruiser Eddie Williams at the very first CCW show I went to back in 1999. Get well soon, it’s not the same without you there.
