WWE Florida Championship Wrestling 10/5/2008

WWE Florida Championship Wrestling 10/5/2008

This is the first episode of this series. We get a video on the history of Florida wrestling and they tell us to get ready as a new generation of Florida wrestling is unleashed.

Todd Gresham and Dusty Rhodes are on commentary.

Jake Hager vs "Handsome" Heath Miller is our main event.

Ric Flair comes out to talk. Ric thanks the fans for coming out. He says WWE has been working on developmental wrestling for years. He said they hired great people like Steve Keirn, John Laurinitis and Dusty Rhodes to run it. He puts them all over. He says the wrestlers in the back want to make it to the WWE. Ric says he wishes he started out like this and is proud to be here.

Ric says he loves wrestling and says we are better than the NBA and the NFL. He says we are the #1 product in sports entertainment and says he will come down here every week if he has to in order to get this building sold out. He says he's taking all the wrestler downtown after to see what they got.

Todd and Dusty talk. Dusty says it's amazing to have Flair kick this thing off.

"Canadian Bad Boy" Shawn Spears vs "The Stampede Kid" TJ Wilson

It's 2024 and Shawn is still in developmental, though he's helpful vet now. 

They lock up and get rough in the corner. TJ takes him down by the arm. He armlocks and armbars him. TJ hits armdrags. Shawn forearms him in the corner then takes forearms back. TJ grabs the legs and Shawn ropebreaks.

Shawn backdrops his neck on the top rope which didn't look planned and looked nasty. Shawn rakes TJ's face. TJ's mouth is busted open. Shawn reverse ddt's him on his knee. Shawn stomps on TJ and does a side headlock with the arm trapped.

TJ armdrags Shawn then dropkicks him. TJ atomic drops him and spin kicks him. TJ basement dropkicks him the nnorthern lights suplexes him. TJ misses a springboard elbow drop for 2. TJ cradles him for 2 then Shawn hitsa nice neckbreaker and wins.

Thoughts: It was a developmental match here with a botch or two and TJ getting his mouth busted open. Shawn looked a lot different here and really looked like Roderick Strong's brother. Shawn's neckbreaker was nice and TJ was the better wrestler here but it wasn't that good.

We see Afa Anoa'i and Rocky Johnson in the crowd.

Mixed Tag Match - Alicia Fox, Jay Bradley & Sinn Bowdee vs. Brianna Bella, Colt Cabana & Ricky Ortiz

Yep, that's Brie Bella.

Ricky pushes Sinn back. Sinn boots him from behind and Ricky is pushed into the buckles. Ricky spinning slams Sinn. Jay gets in and is armdragged. Jay takes a double back elbow and a double elbow drop.

Colt escapes an armlock and Jay cravate snapmares him. Colt hammerlocks Jay. Colt trips Jay then armlocks him. Jay leg lariats Colt. Colt is thrown into the buckles shoulder first. Sinn takes Colt down by the hair.

Colt hits forearms on Sinn. Jay forearms Colt in the back off of a sunset flip attempt. Jay armlocks Colt. Jay misses a corner charge. Colt back body drops Jay over the top.

The girls fight in and Fox hits a thesz press with punches. Bri facebusters Fox and wins.

Thoughts: It was a short one and it was fine for what it was but the girls got nothing in here. Colt looked good in this one and we didn't see much of Ricky at all. 

"The Natural" Nic Nemeth vs Greg Jackson

Greg is Trent Beretta. nicis in great shape here and really looks like a star. Nic takes him down. Nic grabs the leg then Greg rolls him up off the wheelbarrow. Greg armdrags and armlocks Nic.

Greg armdrags Nic. Nic hits shots on Greg. Greg flips over him using the ropes then hurricanrana's him. Greg springboards and is met with a dropkick. Nic elbow drops Greg several times then chinlocks him.

Nic stomps Greg then throws him hard into the buckle. Dusty says when he was 20, The Missouri Mauler beat him half to death. Nic chinlocks Greg. Greg fights out, escapes a backdrop and dropkicks Nic. Greg flying knees Nic then lariats him. Nic hits a jumping flatliner on Greg and wins.

Thoughts: It was a solid match here with both guys looking way above the the rest of the roster and being able to do simple things well.

John Cena comes out. He says the wrestlers' ticket to the WWE is through this ring right here. He says the opening of this building really helps out the city of Tampa though. He says they made this arena to entertain the fans every Thursday night. He says gas cost $800 a gallon and it costs $300 to get into a football game, but they know it'll be a good time every time they come out here. He says he is honored to share this moment with the fans and thnaks everyone for making this a success.

Shawn Spears then comes out and interrupts. Shawn says Cena brought up a great point about opportunity. He says there's 50 guys back there that are hungry for opportunity. Shawn asks what if an FCW star decided to make a name for himself. He said what better way for WWE to take notice than for someone to knock off WWE's top dog.

Cena said he didn't come here to fight but will knock the maple syrup out of him. John gets ready to fight. Shawn says John has the wrong idea and says he is his friend. Shawn says he's someone John can trust. Shawn says the last thing he would do is try to take a cheap shot at him. He tells him to watch his back as one friend to another. He says the wrestlers are very hungry. He tells John to remember that Shawn Spears is a bad boy. Shawn charges at him and takes a back body drop. Cena then hits the AA.

Thoughts: It was a good segment here that made sense and provided a feel good moment.

FCW Title - Jake Hager vs "Handsome" Heath Miller

Miller would go on to be Heath Slater. Jake is just wearing small black trunks here instead of his singlet.

They lock up. Jack side headlocks Miller and they call Miller "the rockstar without the instruments". Miller shoulders Jake over. Miller atomic drops Jake off the leapfrog and hits punches. Miller pushes him out of the corner with his feet. Miller is laid over the top rope and takes a kneelift to the outside.

Jake bangs Miller's head off the steps and gets a 2 count. Jake hits boots to the gut then abdominal stretches him. Jake rams him into the corner and hits a corner lariat. Jake misses a vader bomb. Miller hits shots and a 2nd rope twisting clothesline. Miller hits some punches. Jake boots him out of the corner then Miller spinebusters him for 2.

Miller stomps on Jake. Miller diving sunset flips him off the buckles. Jake knees him in the gut and Jake blocks a zig zag. Jake hits a nice gutwrench suplex and wins it.

Thoughts: It was a decent match here. Jake's gutwrench suplex to win this one looked good and both moved around pretty well. Miller looked like he had potential in this one to do more than he ended up doing.

Overall thoughts: It was a nice first show with some special guests, a couple of matches and a title match. Nothing was great or horrible and the matches were mostly kept on the shorter end to protect everyone. It was easy to watch and I liked it.