Post by punksnotdead on Mar 18, 2012 12:48:54 GMT -5
I went to the FCW show at the Miami-Dade Fair on Friday night and just wanted to post my experience, and thoughts.
Firstly, the event was free with admission to the fair so it was only $10. I got there around 8pm but I believe that the autograph signing started at 7. Jinder Mahal, Brad Maddox, Richie Steamboat, Ricky Steamboat, Seth Rollins, Mike Dalton, Xavier Woods, and Justin Gabriel were all signing at a table right out front.
They were selling tour books for $10 and then posters for Mahal, Gabriel and Steamboat. The 3 posters were only $5 for all of them so they were a no brainer to buy imo:
Everyone was super friendly. Jinder Mahal was really cool, Richie is always cool as I have met him several times, and Ricky always takes his time with every single fan. I talked wit Seth Rollins for a few minutes about football, as we are both Bears fans, and baseball as he is a Cardinal fan from Iowa which goes against the laws of nature in the eyes of this Cubs fan, but he was as friendly as ever. Xavier Woods is always awesome, and Brad Maddox is
ing hilarious, I hope that guy makes it someday. You could take pictures with Justin Gabriel as well, if you were so inclined.
As for the show:
Xavier Woods beat Rick Victor in a flag match. Both the American and Canadian flags were on a stand in the entrance way and the idea was for one guy to go down, get their respective flag, and then bring it back into the ring and put it in the ring post. Decent match that was designed to get the crowd going with USA chants. Both men seemed kind of limited because the flags were like 6ft tall. Woods did some cool spots. He ended up doing like a weird clothesline somersault thing to get to the corner for the win. Woods did what he could with it imo.
Big E. Langston beat Alexander Rusev. I ended up really enjoying this match and I thought I wouldn't care at all. They did a series of big man showdown moves where they ran into each other a bunch of times while failing to knock each other down. The crowd really got behind Big E. and the USA chants continued throughout this match. Langston eventually hit a big body slam and a big splash to grab the win. All around just entertaining and fun match.
CJ Parker and Richie Steamboat beat Dean Ambrose and Corey Graves. CJ took the majority of the beating from Graves and Ambrose but Richie tagged in and it turned into more of a fast paced, high offense, match for Richie and CJ. I honestly can't remember the finish, I know Richie went up top for the flying cross body but he got pulled down. I think Richie may have gotten a roll up on Ambrose? I don't know why I can't remember but the match was solid.
Sofia Cortez beat Paige, Caylee, and Audrey Marie in a MITB on a pole match. This was unexpectedly pretty entertaining as well. The case was hanging on a pole from the turnbuckle nearest where I was sitting so all the action ended up being right in front of me. Sofia Cortez is both really hot in person, and really pretty awesome. She has awesome kicks, is almost cruiserweight-like in speed and just comes off like a badass. Paige is pretty good too, but she took more offense than she dished out. Cortez hit a superkick and grabbed the case for the win.
Bo Rotundo beat Antonio Cesaro and Leo Kruger, at the same time. Cesaro and Kruger worked together early on to beat on Bo but it quickly turned into a basic triple threat with one guy taking a turn on the outside selling. Cesaro got in some good offense and did some nice mat work with Bo for a good portion of the match. Bo kind of hulked up for the finish where he did like a bulldog clothesline deal to take both guys down and then hit a spear and rolled up both guys at the same time for the double 1-2-3. Really good match imo.
Justin Gabriel beat Jinder Mahal with a 450. This was a really solid match. Mahal beat on Gabriel for a while and Gabriel would get in a quick high impact move every once in a while. This match felt a lot more mechanical than all the other matches, which didn't really shock me, but it was still good. I actually enjoyed Mahal a lot in this match, and sort of now feel bad he is being jobbed out so much. The finish saw Gabriel go to the top and then got blocked but then he put Mahal on the mat and went up top for the 450 and win. On a side note, Mahal came to the ring with Summer Rae, which I thought was really weird.
Seth Rollins beat Damien Sandow in a lumberjack match to retain the FCW Championship. Everyone was at ringside with the heels and faces both working the crowd. Kassius Ohno/Chris Hero was yelling at the crowd and telling them to shut up and was pretty funny. The match was really good. Sandow is a mix of Bob Backlund and Rick Martel and it works because he is so funny and talented. He did his cartwheel pose and Rollins mocked him, and they went back-and-fourth with offense.
Eventually, the ref got knocked out and Sandow hit the Idolizer with no pin count. Then Rollins hit Avada Kedavra and a new ref came out and counted the 1-2-3. THEN, a brawl broke out with all the lumberjacks in the ring. Husky Harris and Kassius Ohno were going at it and brawled in the entrance way for about 2 minutes. Rollins and Sandow were left in the ring and Rollins hit Sandow with like a stomp and the original ref counted the pin fall. The faces celebrated with Rollins as walked around ringside slapping hands and celebrating.
Afterwards, I met pretty much the entire roster. Dean Ambrose came over and signed and he was really humble and awesome. Cesaro/Claudio was really nice, and honestly looks like an accountant out of character. Husky Harris,ing awesome. Chris Hero was the last guy I met but he wanted me to know his name is Kassius now ;D. Everyone was just really cool and I don't have a bad thing to say about anyone.
Here are a few of the autographs I grabbed:
Firstly, the event was free with admission to the fair so it was only $10. I got there around 8pm but I believe that the autograph signing started at 7. Jinder Mahal, Brad Maddox, Richie Steamboat, Ricky Steamboat, Seth Rollins, Mike Dalton, Xavier Woods, and Justin Gabriel were all signing at a table right out front.
They were selling tour books for $10 and then posters for Mahal, Gabriel and Steamboat. The 3 posters were only $5 for all of them so they were a no brainer to buy imo:
Everyone was super friendly. Jinder Mahal was really cool, Richie is always cool as I have met him several times, and Ricky always takes his time with every single fan. I talked wit Seth Rollins for a few minutes about football, as we are both Bears fans, and baseball as he is a Cardinal fan from Iowa which goes against the laws of nature in the eyes of this Cubs fan, but he was as friendly as ever. Xavier Woods is always awesome, and Brad Maddox is
ing hilarious, I hope that guy makes it someday. You could take pictures with Justin Gabriel as well, if you were so inclined.As for the show:
Xavier Woods beat Rick Victor in a flag match. Both the American and Canadian flags were on a stand in the entrance way and the idea was for one guy to go down, get their respective flag, and then bring it back into the ring and put it in the ring post. Decent match that was designed to get the crowd going with USA chants. Both men seemed kind of limited because the flags were like 6ft tall. Woods did some cool spots. He ended up doing like a weird clothesline somersault thing to get to the corner for the win. Woods did what he could with it imo.
Big E. Langston beat Alexander Rusev. I ended up really enjoying this match and I thought I wouldn't care at all. They did a series of big man showdown moves where they ran into each other a bunch of times while failing to knock each other down. The crowd really got behind Big E. and the USA chants continued throughout this match. Langston eventually hit a big body slam and a big splash to grab the win. All around just entertaining and fun match.
CJ Parker and Richie Steamboat beat Dean Ambrose and Corey Graves. CJ took the majority of the beating from Graves and Ambrose but Richie tagged in and it turned into more of a fast paced, high offense, match for Richie and CJ. I honestly can't remember the finish, I know Richie went up top for the flying cross body but he got pulled down. I think Richie may have gotten a roll up on Ambrose? I don't know why I can't remember but the match was solid.
Sofia Cortez beat Paige, Caylee, and Audrey Marie in a MITB on a pole match. This was unexpectedly pretty entertaining as well. The case was hanging on a pole from the turnbuckle nearest where I was sitting so all the action ended up being right in front of me. Sofia Cortez is both really hot in person, and really pretty awesome. She has awesome kicks, is almost cruiserweight-like in speed and just comes off like a badass. Paige is pretty good too, but she took more offense than she dished out. Cortez hit a superkick and grabbed the case for the win.
Bo Rotundo beat Antonio Cesaro and Leo Kruger, at the same time. Cesaro and Kruger worked together early on to beat on Bo but it quickly turned into a basic triple threat with one guy taking a turn on the outside selling. Cesaro got in some good offense and did some nice mat work with Bo for a good portion of the match. Bo kind of hulked up for the finish where he did like a bulldog clothesline deal to take both guys down and then hit a spear and rolled up both guys at the same time for the double 1-2-3. Really good match imo.
Justin Gabriel beat Jinder Mahal with a 450. This was a really solid match. Mahal beat on Gabriel for a while and Gabriel would get in a quick high impact move every once in a while. This match felt a lot more mechanical than all the other matches, which didn't really shock me, but it was still good. I actually enjoyed Mahal a lot in this match, and sort of now feel bad he is being jobbed out so much. The finish saw Gabriel go to the top and then got blocked but then he put Mahal on the mat and went up top for the 450 and win. On a side note, Mahal came to the ring with Summer Rae, which I thought was really weird.
Seth Rollins beat Damien Sandow in a lumberjack match to retain the FCW Championship. Everyone was at ringside with the heels and faces both working the crowd. Kassius Ohno/Chris Hero was yelling at the crowd and telling them to shut up and was pretty funny. The match was really good. Sandow is a mix of Bob Backlund and Rick Martel and it works because he is so funny and talented. He did his cartwheel pose and Rollins mocked him, and they went back-and-fourth with offense.
Eventually, the ref got knocked out and Sandow hit the Idolizer with no pin count. Then Rollins hit Avada Kedavra and a new ref came out and counted the 1-2-3. THEN, a brawl broke out with all the lumberjacks in the ring. Husky Harris and Kassius Ohno were going at it and brawled in the entrance way for about 2 minutes. Rollins and Sandow were left in the ring and Rollins hit Sandow with like a stomp and the original ref counted the pin fall. The faces celebrated with Rollins as walked around ringside slapping hands and celebrating.
Afterwards, I met pretty much the entire roster. Dean Ambrose came over and signed and he was really humble and awesome. Cesaro/Claudio was really nice, and honestly looks like an accountant out of character. Husky Harris,
ing awesome. Chris Hero was the last guy I met but he wanted me to know his name is Kassius now ;D. Everyone was just really cool and I don't have a bad thing to say about anyone.Here are a few of the autographs I grabbed:
