The final FCW tapings at the gym in Tampa took place on 6/7. Advertising it as the last taping led to a turn away crowd of bout 400 fans. The show that airs in the market on Bright House will continue in the time slot but be the version of NXT being taped in Winter Park, FL, with another taping on 6/14 (head-to-head with Impact). Bright House still hasn’t gotten any word as to any kind of a commitment from WWE as far as the show being on the air permanently. The show was built around ending with Regal vs. Ambrose, a feud that has been pushed for months. The final match ended, surprisingly, without a winner. Regal was bleeding and the match was stopped, although Ambrose did put Regal in both the Regal stretch and lay him out with the knee trembler (Regal’s two finishers) after the match was over. Not sure what they are going to do regarding the various Florida titles. They have 39 house shows scheduled for the summer all over mostly Central Florida, so I presume the titles will be all over those shows. The first NXT tapings never acknowledge Florida Championship Wrestling and never acknowledged any of the belts either. Plus, the idea of the tapings, at least as of the first taping, was to be “evergreen” to where they could play anywhere at any time (similar to UFC Unleashed), so mentions of belts would “time” the stuff and get in the way. Of course, heel to face turn that would take place, or talent brought up with different gimmicks or as heels when they were faces on television would also not make the show “evergreen.” Although as noted with Unleashed, they constantly show old matches where different people are champions than the current champion. On the second hour of the taping (7/1 air date), Richie Steamboat beat Cesaro to keep the Jack Brisco 15 title when no falls were taken in 15:00 and they went into a sudden death period which Steamboat won with a superkick. Seth Rollins remained FCW champion winning a four-way over Leo Kruger (who was pinned after a curb stomp), Bo Dallas (the new name of Bo Rotundo) and Kassius Ohno. And the tag title had Corey Graves & Jake Carter beating Mike Dalton & C.J. Parker.
A third generation potential wrestler, the daughter of Scott Armstrong (not sure of her name) had an assessment training session at FCW. She would be the granddaughter of Bob Armstrong.
There has been at least some talk among the crew about Ryback with them saying he is a severe injury to an opponent waiting to happen because of his intensity and sloppiness in depositing people.
In a trivia note related to the Los Angeles Kings winning the Stanley Cup, Ted Irvine, who is Jericho’s father, was not only on the first Kings team (1967-68 season) but was one of the nine players on the cover of the first season’s media guide.
The TV show “Redneck Island” that debuted on 6/9 on CMT, the Austin reality show, did a 0.42 rating and 665,000 viewers. It was CMT’s highest rated show of the day. It was about double the rating the Hogan Celebrity Championship Wrestling show did on that network.
Vince McMahon loves the way the Ryback gimmick is going. There have been some who don’t like the crowd chanting “Goldberg” and the rule is to edit it off the show on Smackdown, but they can’t do that on PPV or Raw.
I don’t know what it is about John Belushi and wrestlers, but not only is there the famous Hulk Hogan story about doing choke with Belushi after WrestleMania II and Hulk doing so much even Belushi couldn’t keep up. Belushi was a brilliant comedian and actor and notorious heavy partier who died from an overdose of heroin and cocaine in 1982–four years before WrestleMania II, making that story ridiculous. But on the WWE’s Four Horseman DVD, Dusty Rhodes told a story about being in a club in New York City with Bette Middler and Belushi when the Horsemen came in and everyone blocked to them like they were the Rolling Stones. Of course, the Horseman didn’t even form until about four years after Belushi died. Belushi did attend pro wrestling shows in Madison Square Garden in 1977 when Rhodes vs. Superstar Graham had their title program.
The Spain tour opened on 6/6 in Madrid drawing 6,000 fans paying $270,000. 6/7 in Seville, Spain drew 4,700 paying $230,000. 6/8 in Valencia, Spain, drew 4,700 paying $215,000. 6/9 in Barcelona drew 6,500 and $300,000.
Smackdown on 6/9 in Salisbury, MD, drew 4,000 and $125,000. 6/10 in Binghamton did 3,000 and $100,000.
Not sure how much of a factor this was, but the European Cup (soccer) on TV went head-to-head with the final two shows.
