ola everybody, and welcome to another double dose of FCW action. If you’re curious as to why last week’s episode, while on time, was not covered as of yet… well it’s because it only featured a mere minute long segment involving some of the Divas. Since we knew there would be a match the following week, I figured it would fit better to just carry it over into one big post all together. So now that that’s out of the way, let’s get ready for what’s sure to be a controversial FCW Watch!
Kicking off with last week, our General Manager, Summer Rae sets out to find who should be the next contender for Raquel Diaz‘s Championship in a segment involving Paige, Sofia Cortez, Audrey Marie, and Caylee Turner. From there, we will skip to the following week which grants a plethora of Diva action in the form of Audrey squaring off against Paige, who also has Sofia Cortez ringside to keep control of things… or not! On top of that, there’s also a brief Summer Rae segment, as well as what I’m sure will be the talk of the comment section in a promo which centers around the debut of our reinvented Divas Champion, Raquel Diaz! Let’s kick things off!
June 3rd, 2012:
We head backstage as the duo I like to refer to as the Dorothy and Toto of FCW wander into Maxine‘s office as if they just wandered into Oz for the first time. Summer claims her office is much better than Maxine’s disgusting abode, before being interrupted by bubbly Divas, Caylee Turner and Audrey Marie. Miss Rae welcomes them both, stating she summoned them to let them both know that she acknowledges they want to become Divas Champion. She then decides at random (with a little help from Naylor when she forgets who she even chose) to select Audrey Mary! Wait, Audrey Marie! Caylee gives a kickass psycho look that I wish would amount to more than I’m sure it ever will, as Audrey celebrates the selection and the two head off hand in hand.
Up next comes the Anti Diva Army, Paige and Sofia Cortez. The crowd erupts with joy at the mere presence of our enchanting raven haired lady, who beckons to Summer that she deserves to be the number one contender. Sofia chimes in that she feels it belongs to her, which sparks Summer to simply choose Sofia at random to compete against Audrey next week. This doesn’t intrigue Paige, who lies to our GM and tells her that Sofia is always hurt and could potentially ruin the plans set! Since Summer clearly does not know the talent that well (Audrey Mary anyone?!) she believes Paige’s accusation and changes the match to feature Audrey competing against Paige. Sofia tries to argue her position, but Paige drags her away and claims she’s happy with the decision. Summer then freaks out and orders Naylor to get her a moist towelette STAT to clean the mess in Maxine’s office.
June 10th, 2012:
The peppy dance music of our country cowgirl, Audrey Marie hits, and out she walks in some new gear to a rousing introduction by Chris Russo. Audrey executes a few jumping jacks, before climbing into the ring and posing for the fans in attendance. Up next hits the chilling music of her opponent, Paige! The Anti Diva Army walks out in their patented black gear, but an interesting bit happens on the ring apron as Paige performs the duo’s signature shriek alone! Sofia seems to ignore interacting with her partner at all, perhaps still angry of Paige’s actions last week? Nonetheless, the bell sounds and these two lock up.
Audrey connects with a wrist lock into a side headlock takeover, before Paige tries to counter into a brief roll up. Audrey keeps the hold locked in, but Paige eventually breaks out into a jacknife. Audrey rolls it through towards a backslide for just a one count, then proceeding to hit a bodyslam. Marie goes for an Irish Whip, but Paige counters with a stiff clothesline for a near fall. She proceeds to rake the shoulders of Audrey, as Marie tries to fight back. This doesn’t work for long though, when Paige decides to absolutely drill the poor cowgirl in the face with a nasty boot. Hook of the leg, but just a two count for the Anti Diva.
Sofia and Paige seem to argue a bit, but Paige doesn’t let that phase her just yet. She slams Audrey into the corner and goes to town on her with some boots. A little banter with the referee, as Paige slides Audrey towards the ring post and bends her in half like a pretzel! She heads back inside and goes for the cover, but only garners a two count. From there, Paige applies a bow and arrow type arm stretch, sparking both she and Audrey to counter each others shrill screams and kill the ear drums of everyone watching.
The crowd gets behind Audrey, as the cowgirl tries to fight out. She gets to both feet and flips Paige over, then proceeding to headbutt her in the stomach until Paige throws her to the outside. Paige seems to expect Sofia to attack Audrey, but Cortez does no such thing. Instead, she allows Audrey to get to both feet and slide back into the ring. Uh oh… Trouble in Paradise for our Anti Divas. Paige pulls Audrey in the ring and snaps her off with a suplex for another near fall as Audrey kicks out. Paige continues to work over Audrey, but finally gets a boot to the face. Audrey leaps off the second rope with a crossbody, following it up with a clothesline and a dropkick! She goes for a neckbreaker, but doesn’t seem to connect with it the full way.
Nonetheless, she doesn’t let off of Paige in the least bit… now going to work on the Anti Diva with some relentless beating! Paige counters an Irish Whip into the corner and proceeds to kick Audrey in the stomach before pulling her back to the center of the ring and sending her flying into the same corner. Audrey leaps off the ropes, looking for a headscissors takedown… but Paige stops this from happening as she tosses Marie over the ropes. The former Divas Champion then faces the damage of a headbutt to the stomach, before Paige goes for another and Audrey flips into the ring going for a sunset flip! Paige holds onto the ropes, but Sofia hits her hand off and allows Audrey to roll Paige up for the three count! Audrey celebrates her win, as Paige can’t believe what transpired before her very British eyes!
Here we go! We head to the arena, where a new bleach blonde makeup filled Raquel Diaz is shown holding the microphone. She claims that she understands we all must be wondering what’s going on with her look, stating that she’s been so bored with the Divas Division as of late that she’s had so much time on her hands to reinvent herself! Raquel believes that being the greatest Diva in FCW just isn’t enough for her anymore, so while giving herself this makeover, she found something deep inside that she wants to share with us. She dubs it an “innovator! An Icon! And the Future!” Raquel claims that we know she is not a very patient woman, so without any further ado, she would like to introduce the Ultra Glam… Ultra Sheek… Ultra Diva… Raquel Diaz! With that, our Divas Champion walks the entrance ramp as if its a runway and blows us a kiss while some new theme music hits. Diaz then steps through the curtains to the back as this segment comes to a close.
Also, check out Summer Rae in a backstage segment with Dusty Rhodes and her fingernail painting lacky, Naylor:
Thoughts: I’m going to stick more towards the big two topics when it comes to the thoughts portion, so let’s start off with the match. I felt it was pretty solid overall, and Paige really can bring out the best in everyone she works with. Audrey was good for the most part, and while she did slip one or two times, mistakes happen and I still think she has improved so much in the past year. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but in her first few matches she kind of had that “deer in the headlights” type feeling. Of course, they stuck her in matches really early so there’s no faulting her for that because she was way too new. I know a lot of people give her flack for looking like Mickie James (a comparison that I hate), but I don’t think she gets enough credit for how far she’s came throughout the year. I feel like there’s something special in her that will work in her favor should she make it to TV, and while not everyone grasps wrestling as quickly as someone like a Naomi, for only being a year into it, I think Audrey has grown so much and I can’t wait to see what she’s like even farther down the road.
Also in the match was the big story regarding the impending split of our Anti Diva Army. I felt like this was coming when they competed against each other on the NXT taping at Full Sail, and I guess I’m at least happy they were given a storyline reason to break up and we didn’t just eventually go into NXT with one face and one heel. I really like them together though so it’s kind of bittersweet because I’ll be bummed that they split but I’m really looking forward to seeing the match they had against each other whenever it becomes available. Those two are the most experienced on the roster so it should be nothing short of tremendous!
Okay now onto the big Raquel segment. To be honest, I’m kind of having one of those moments where I don’t even know what I felt about it. On one hand, it was insanely unique to the wrestling industry, and in today’s day and age, that’s pretty hard to come by. I think she pulled the character off great, especially at the end when she ran down all the compliments of herself and walked the ramp like a runway. It’s awesome to see Raquel go in a completely different route than anyone would have ever expected of her because it makes her stand out more and gives us that feeling of “what will she do next” since there’s nothing predictable about her. And hey, they changed her name from Guerrero to Diaz, but before this makeover, you could still associate her with the Guerrero legacy so if WWE wants to portray her as anything else, I think they accomplished that with this. Honestly though, can you compare what we saw here to anything the division has going for it currently? Or perhaps ever? I can’t.
On the other side though, one has to wonder if this would resonate well with the large crowds were she to get called up with it. I know there have been some crazy gimmicks on TV before that have taken off, so there’s no telling. I just hope that Raquel takes this ball and runs with it because this could be pretty cool if it succeeds like I think it could. I know everyone will probably be all “WTF” over it at first, but with some time, anything is possible in the wrestling industry. I still loved her promo tonight and I think she can really pull off any sort of character they give to her, so I’ll give it some time to see how she does with it. I believe we still have another segment left in her before FCW stops airing on TV, so let’s see! Until then, hit the comments area to discuss what happened on this week’s FCW!
