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FWE REFUELED DOUBLE SHOT IN BROOKLYN, NY LIVE REPORT

FWE (which at one point stood for Family Wrestling Entertainment, but that name appears to have been quietly retired) returned to action for the first time in several months with a pair of events titled "Refueled" which were partially named after a sponsor, an Energy Drink with a similar name on Friday 10/3 and 10/4.  Both shows were held in Brooklyn, NY at St. Patrick's Gym, which used to host WWWF spot shows and has been used from time to time for indy events, but in recent years, was exclusive to FWE.

Coming off a hiatus, the promotion chose to put Night One on Youtube as a free live, streaming show with the idea that they could present a "Raw-like" show and promote an iPPV the next night.  In theory, a great idea, but it absolutely held down the attendance of the first night, since, well, people could be watching the show at home instead of buying a ticket.  Night Two drew a sellout of 500-600 fans while Night One drew a little more than half of that.  But, internally, the promotion felt it was good publicity as they were happy with the Youtube views, especially during the live stream.

The crowd make-up was pretty interesting.  You had your usual local families with children but there were also pockets of die-hard, online fans, some of whom would chant pretty brutal stuff with expletives, which given it's a church, is always a bit unnerving.  But, you also had Joel Gertner doing his entire character there, so it goes both ways. 

Interesting to note that when video shot during the show popped up online after the weekend of a fan ripping on other fans for enjoying themselves, the promotion quickly announced the person responsible was not only banned from all future events but made it clear they knew who he was as warning to keep him from returning.

NIGHT ONE:

*Eric Young defeated Colt Cabana and Robbie E in an entertaining opening contest. Cabana has dropped a lot of weight, somewhere in the area of 30-40 lbs.   He attributed it to a new diet he's been on.  E. attempted on vain to get his opponents to turn on each other before the bell by clammy they had each been knocking the other before the show. They teased they were going to fight but instead turned their attention to E. Robbie up tossed from the ring and Cabana and Young had some fun comedy exchanges. They eventually had a sequence where Cabana and Young kept preventing the other from getting in the ring and taking out E. In the end Cabana was knocked out of the ring after E. drilled him with a clothesline as he came out of the corner following a reverse butt splash in the corner. Young got the win with a pretty sick piledriver on Robbie. Good stuff.  This was originally planned as a dark match but TNA backed off on their usual "No DVD, No iPPV" rules with talent due to the lack of shows coming up.

*Alex Reynolds pinned Orange Cassidy. Reynolds now has shorter hair and has been working on his physique. It actually allows his facial expressions to be seen easier, so it's a positive.  Cassidy does a deal where he acts out of it as if he doesn't care. Reynolds controlled the match early and was frustrated by Cassidy's lack of interest. Reynolds worked him over but missed a moonsault off the top. Cassidy suddenly came alive and hit an awesome springboard twisting dive to the floor. He went for a drink of OJ but Reynolds caught him with a Codebreaker for the pin. Reynolds took the mic and said he was the first guy out of the curtain at the company's first show here. He said the company owes everything to him and complained he's not booked tomorrow. He challenged anyone to face him tomorrow. Joel Gertner came out and did his entire intro. Gertner said he's seen Reynolds on the Indy scene and said he senses Reynold's frustration because FWE has been running here for awhile but they haven't called him before. He said Reynolds has been calling people out but he hasn't been beating everyone. He said Reynolds challenge has been accepted and tomorrow, he will be facing Little Guido. The crowd loved that announcement.

*Damien Darling cut a promo ripping on the promotion for their politics complaining about being suspended for "knocking out Johnny Knockout in the locker room." He complained his ally Rockstar being billed as "Damien Darling 2" and pointed out someone working security who was VPW champion. He mentioned the names of promotions to get it over as a shoot. He noticed Matt Taven sitting in the crowd and knocked him as a Damien Darling knockoff. Darling said he deserves better than to wrestle "Tito Santana number two." Good competitive match. Santi nailed a nice double stomp. Darling plays a great 1980s style loudmouth heel. Santi locked on a single leg crab. Rockstar got on the apron but was knocked off. The security guy took out the ref so he missed Darling tapping. Darling rolled up Santi for a three count, hooking the tights. Darling's forces beat down Santi. Taven hit the ring from the crowd to make the save. As an angle this was fine but might have been a little too long.   The idea here was that heel ring announcer AJ Pann was putting together a stable of talents.  The odd thing was that he remained a ring announcer through the weekend, which was somewhat weird.

*Johnny Gargano defeated Chuck Taylor.  Colt Cabana came out to do commentary to his theme music. Gargano took issue with that and cut a great promo that led to him making a second entrance. When he came into the ring, he threw his shirt in Cabana's face. They battled to the outside where Gargano was smashed into the announcers' table and took Colt's headset to do commentary a la The Rock. Gargano took control and they had some really great, smooth wrestling. Gargano was great as a heel. Some really great wrestling here until Gargano scored the pin. Gargano is smooth in the ring, almost like a younger Chris Jericho.  Taylor looked really good as well.  Gargano attacked Taylor after and kept working him over until Cabana cleared the ring. Weird they did two similar angles in a row.

*Chris Sabin won. Four Way over Sam Shields, Wes Draven and Bandido Jr. This appears to have been booked so the FWE regulars got the rub from working with Sabin. Bandido and Draven started and did some back and forth wrestling before facing off. Shields tagged in and played the powerful bully role. He controlled Sabin for some time before Sabin used his speed and agility to break free and dropkick Shields to the floor. Draven attempted a pescado but was caught and slammed on the apron. He worked over Draven who finally made a tag out to Bandido, Sabin tagged in and had some good sequences with Bandido. Bandido hit a twisting dive onto Shields on the floor. Draven hit a moonsault to the floor. Sabin finally hit his sitdown Michinoku Driver for the pin. Good stuff and it built nice and slow as opposed to going all out with nutty flips.

*Tony Nese and Jigsaw defeated Adrenaline, Inc. to win the FWE Tag Team championship. cut a promo saying they didn't want to wait for their match against Adrenaline Express and said he was tired of hearing them claim to be the best because they never beat he and Jigsaw. The champs came out and agreed to put the belts on the line. After being worked over, the champs tried to walk out but The Young Bucks blocked the aisle and forced them back to the ring. Some good wrestling here with Nese and Jigsaw playing the baby face challengers with lots of hot offense. Some really good near falls. Really hot match and the best I've seen out of Adrenaline to date. After the match, The Bucks congratulated the new champs, then laid them out with superkicks.   This was originally slated for later in the show, but moved up so the crowd wasn't burnt out with all the main events.

*Veda Scott pinned Hania.  Both were making their debut here and did a very good job of getting over in front of a crowd that was cold to them upon entrances.  Scott has improved a TON since she first started working, although the real key to her charm is her personality and facial expressions.  Hania has worked CHIKARA in the past under a mask and is an incredibly good worker when it comes to timing and doing aerial spots.  I think the crowd was more pleasantly surprised with this than anything else on the show, just because the majority seemed to have no real expectations going in. Some really good back and forth mat wrestling and pinfall combinations specifically made this really entertaining.

After the bout, Joey Ryan and Candice LaRae confronted Scott and attacked her, as she was scheduled to face them the next day.  This led to Carlito hitting the ring for the save.  Carlito carried Scott to the back.  The promotion announced the next day Scott would miss the show due to dental surgery she needed from the attack, but that was all storyline as she was booked in Cleveland for AIW.

*Drew Galloway defeated Carlito in a really good match.  A few weeks ago while interviewing Galloway, I noted he's had a real chip on his shoulder since being released by WWE as he's been killing himself to have good to great matches and he admitted it was true.  Well, it was true here, as from the second he came out to the second he left the ring, Galloway just had "it" to the point that anyone watching had to be wondering why the hell WWE let this guy go.  One place where he REALLY stood out was his height as he towered over most of the locker room as well.  Carlito, who can go either way when it comes to his work in the ring on the indies, was really on here and both worked hard.  This was another nice surprise.

*Candice LaRae & Joey Ryan, dubbed the World's Cutest Tag Team defeated Tommy Dreamer and Ivelisse Velez.   Lots of spots designed to show how disgusting Ryan's character is.  LaRae does a hell of a job playing a role I can best describe as Dawn Marie in ECW, if Dawn was also a wrestler.  There were a lot of crude, but funny spots, including Dreamer putting a claw on LaRae's nether-region as she yelled, "I don't like this!  I don't like this!" and Ryan hitting a "boob-plex" on Velez by hitting a suplex after grabbing her by the boobs. 

*In the main event, The Addiction, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian defeated The Young Bucks.  All sorts of really good back and forth athletic spots and double team maneuevers.

NIGHT TWO:

*Wes Draven defeated Joey Ryan.  This was set up to be a big upset with the local being built up getting the shocking win over Ryan, who has more of a name from his TNA and world-wide travels.  The match was solid.

*Matt Taven & Jorge Santi & Mike Law defeated AJ Pann's team of Damien Darling, The Rockstar & Mr. Tibbs  This was based on the angle run the night before.  Lots of back and forth action.

*Bandido Jr. defeated JT Dunn with David Starr.  Really, really great.  Absolutely the sleeper bout of the weekend as I don't think anyone had big expectations going into this considering Dunn was debuting.  Just some awesome near falls and spots.  Really one to watch when you check out the show.

*Johnny Gargano defeated Colt Cabana.  If you are  a fan of European-style matwork, this was a match you'll really want to be checking out.  Cabana toned down the comedy here so they could go back and forth with some really good Johnny Saint-esque spots and solid near falls.  Gargano played heel here but still won cleanly, which I thought was a nice touch.

*Alex Reynolds defeated Little Guido.  A decent match with some good action.  Joel Gertner was with Guido stemming off Night One, but ended up turning on him and becoming Reynolds' manager.  He gave a pretty detailed reason, but it was lost on me for the most part. 

*Sonjay Dutt defeated Chris Sabin in another really good back and forth bout where you saw them pull out all of their trademark athletic spots.  Enjoyable stuff here.

*Joey Ryan & Candice LeRae defeated Christina Von Eerie & Carlito.  The idea here was that Carlito was substituting for Veda Scott.  OK match.

*Tommy Dreamer defeated Drew Galloway in an Extreme Rules Match.  This was just an awesome brawl with Galloway kicking the hell out of Dreamer for a lot of it.  They eventually brawled into the crowd, where they battled into the bleachers and Dreamer nailed him with a trash can.  Dreamer scored the win but cut a promo rightfully praising Drew for all his hard work and energy, saying he's now on the independents and he'll shove WWE's decision up their rear end.  Great stuff.

*The Excerguys defeated Diamond Inc.(Jason Gotti & Joey Ace).  AJ Pann brought the Execrguys in.  Gotti cut a good promo before the bout.  The crowd wasn't into this at all, since it was already getting late.  I was told this was designed to cool the crowd down after the Dreamer brawl, but I think it had more of an effect of the crowd saying, "OK, let's go already" instead.  Ace turned on Gotti and joined Pann's Army.  Crowd didn't want to see this angle either.  This was a case of the promotion trying to do too much on one show.  So weird to have Pann become this manager and then having him continue to ring announce the remainder of the show.

*Ivelisse defeated FWE Women's Champion Maria Kanellis to win the title in a short bout.    They immediately did a deal where Candice LeRae challenged, so Ivelisse put the belt on the line.  They had a nice back and forth bout until Joey Ryan ht the ring and superkicked her to set up LaRae winning the belt..   Crowd really liked this.

*In an absolutely insane, must see bout, The Young Bucks won the FWE Tag Team titles, winning a TLC bout over The Addiction, Tony Nese & Jigsaw and Adrenalie, Inc.  I can't even begin to do this one justice as they did all sorts of cool bumps and dives and used multiple ladders.  This was as good as anything you'd see on a nationally broadcast PPV.  An incredible way to close the weekend.

FWE Notes: The promotion will debut on 2/7 in Queens, NY at the World Resort Casino, which is going to be a new regular stop for them...They also announced a Los Angeles debut in March.  On paper, that seems like a big stretch, but considering how many of their regulars are from the West Coast, perhaps not....There are no current return dates for Brooklyn on the docket, but it's always possible...Brian XL was visiting at the shows....Jigsaw suffered a legitimate ankle injury when, while taking a bump, his leg caught up in the ropes leaving him hanging.  It was such a crazy bump, I thought it was a planned spot, but it was just the momentum of his fall catching the ropes the wrong way.  He pulled out of another booking that weekend but it's doing better.

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