Florida Championship Wrestling TV Taping
Tampa, Fla.
Thanks to Dot Net reader Robbie Jordan

Justin Roberts handled ring announcing duties. There is a pretty good sized crowd, but not a complete sellout. The building is much nicer than I anticipated with WWE posters and banners every where and WWE style lighting. There is definitely a buzz here in Tampa about FCW. Lot's of whooo's from the crowd knowing, of course, that the great Ric Flair is in attendance.

Dark Match

1. Big Rob and DH Smith and Lupe Martinez defeat Mike Kruel and Vic Adams and Charles Evans an a six-man tag match. Pretty standard six-man match with DH Smith getting the pinfall after a nice looking belly-to-belly suplex.

FCW Taping

Justin Roberts introduces the FCW announce team of Todd Grisham and Dusty Rhodes who got a massive pop.

-Roberts then introduces "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, who came out to his music and easily the loudest reaction of the night. He put over WWE and their commitment to developing stars for the future (I guess Ric doesn't follow the product all that much). He praised Steve Keirn for organizing FCW and called Dusty Rhodes the most creative man in the biz. He talked about his career in Florida and thanked everyone for attending before letting out a whooo!

1. "Canadian Bad Boy" Shawn Spears defeated "The Stampede Kid" T.J. Wilson. Both kids are really athletic and had a high energy opening match. Spears was over as the arrogant heel and won with a reverse swinging neckbreaker. There was a scary spot during the match where Spears back suplexed Wilson and the back of Wilson's head hit the top rope and he got sling shotted back on to his face.

2. Colt Cabana and Ricky Ortiz and one of the Bella Twins defeated Jay Bradley, Sin Bowdy, and Alicia Fox. It was a mixed six-person tag match that saw the Bella Twin hit an x-Factor type move on Fox for the win. Out of the developmental wrestler's, Colt Cabana was the most over act of the night. He got a big pop and the crowd was really into him.

3. "The Natural" Nick Nemeth defeated Greg Jackson. There was a small Spirit Squad chant and a loud "Nicky" chant mocking Nemeth. Nicky dominated the match and won with a sick looking Downward Spiral type move from the top rope. Glorified squash.

-John Cena comes out next to another massive pop. He sure didn't look like he got 'hit' by a car just three days earlier. He talked about starting out in the WWE's developmental system and working his way to becoming WWE Champion and headlining Wrestlemania. He put over FCW and said any guy in the back could be the next John Cena, sure. Shawn Spears came out and cut a promo on Cena about wanting to make a name for himself by taking out the top dog. Spears then takes a cheap shot and gets an FU for his trouble. Fun segment and it's good to see Spears get the rub from Cena.

4. FCW Florida Champion Jake Hager defeated Heath Miller. Not a bad match but nothing memorable. Hager retains after hitting a modified gut wrench suplex.

-Intermission

5. Sheamus defeated Ricky Ortiz. I'm not sure why Ortiz gets to wrestle twice. He is pretty bland in the ring and no one seems to care about him. Sheamus wins with a high angle spine buster.

After the match Angela (FCW's ring girl) interviews Sheamus. He has an Irish gimmick and he talks about how Finlay is a disgrace to Irish wrestler's as is his freak son. He challenge's him to a match. I guess FCW is like a fourth WWE brand with all the cross overs.

6. Afa Jr. defeated Evan Bourne. Probably the best match of the night with Afa winning after a cool looking reverse F-5. Bourne was way over with the live crowd and he hit some very athletic looking moves. Afa is very similar to Umaga minus the tattoos.

-Out comes Chris Jericho who puts down his hometown fans (yes he lives here along with about half of the WWE roster which I must say is really cool) and says they don't deserve to be graced with his presence. He tells everyone to order the Great American Bash to watch him give HBK the beating of a lifetime. Jericho introduces Nick Nemeth and says he see's alot of potential in him just like Lance Cade. Out comes Joe Hennig (Curt's son) and Jericho says the same thing. However, Hennig is a face and doesn't go along with Jericho's praise. Nemeth and Jericho proceeded to beat him down. More rub for the FCW guys and lot's of "What?" chants directed at Jericho.

7. Gabe Tuft, Kevin Kiley, and Johnny Curtis defeated John Gabriel, Tyrone Jones, and "The Campus Legend" Brad Allen. Just a filler match to showcase these guys. I don't know much about these six wrestlers. One of the faces won with a spinning heel kick. This was the third six-man tag match which shows you there are too many guys in developmental.

-Kelly Kelly comes out and says that we have seen many talented male performers tonight, but what about the ladies? Out came eight or nine women and they all started dancing in the ring. Somehow one bumped into another and a huge cat fight started. Kelly Kelly and The Bella Twins ended up cleaning house.

8. "The Puerto Rican Nightmares" Eddie Colon and Eric Perez defeated "The Empire" Drew McIntyre and Stu Sanders to win the FCW Tag Titles. The crowd was pretty hot for the main event and "The Empire" got lots of heel heat. Eddie Colon is way better than his brother Carlito, and so is Perez for that matter. Colon ends up winning the match for his team after a backcracker. The new champs celebrate with their belts and Justin Roberts thanked us for coming.

-Next week's show will have Batista, Maria, and The Hardys in attendance.

Final thoughts: Very entertaining show that was easily worth $10 dollars. I attend Impact on a regular basis which is free except the hour drive to Orlando, and this show was way better than most Impacts. Flair, Rhodes, Cena, Colt Cabana, and Evan Bourne got the loudest pops of the night. Jericho, Nick Nemeth, Afa Jr., and The Empire got the loudest boos. There were several WWE wrestlers/agents in the crowd including Shad, Kofi Kingston, Dean Malenko, Johnny Ace, Steve Keirn and Natalya.

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