FCW Empire is back with their January event in full from The Tulloch Institute in Perth, kicking off the 2025 season after saving Christmas in December.

FCW Women’s Championship – Brodie Adler defeated Eden by pinfall to retain to retain the FCW Women’s Championship.

Brodie tried to over power Eden in the early exchanges, a nice dropkick from the challenger created separation but Adler soon got back into the driver’s seat to dominate. A fight back from Eden saw her crossbody from the turnbuckle caught for a spinout slam.

Eden continued the comeback, finally landing that crossbody and a stiff wheelbarrow bulldog for a near fall, with a standing moonsault also garnering a two count.

A Samoan Drop from Brodie reset the bout, but a Black Hole Slam was dodged with Eden sending Adler down with an inverted lungblower. A missed Twisted Bliss gave Brodie the opening to crash Eden to the mat with a Black Hole Slam to retain.

This was a slow paced match, Eden showed a lot of nerves with a lot of deep breaths and pauses of thought which interrupted a flow being built which caused a lot of disjointed and awkward turns. The Fair City crowd were very forgiving though, swinging the majority of the support to her especially when Brodie cut off and stamped on the fleets of offense.

Spike Tierney defeated Retro Randy Valentine w/Casey by pinfall.

The ever popular Retro Randy and Casey got the crowd pumped, as the Tulloch Institute went wild to see Retromania run wild. Spike Tierney wanted none of that smoke with a quick exit to the outside to let the chants die down.

A returning stand off just had the Randy chants amp up again as they went into the lock up. Spike showed some nice counters that didn’t impress the Empire Zone who chanted that he “still sucked”.

Both continued to jockey for position, leading to Retro Randy hip tossing Spike over the top rope. A quick brawl to the outside had the Junior Heavyweight Champion gain the upper hand after ramming Valentine’s back into the apron.

Momentum swung back and forth throughout, Randy landed a second rope elbow, Spike unlocked the Retro Rage with his punches being blocked with haymakers and a big boot sent Tierney to the floor before a LEG DROP OF DOOOOM could be unleashed.

Spike countered an elbow drop attempt with a top rope superplex which could only get a two count. Tierney had enough and grabbed Casey from the commentary desk to enrage Retro Randy, in the chaos Spike low blowed Randy and cracked him with an Abra-Kebabra to pick up a win in non-title action.

A solid encounter with plenty of tussling to keep the action ongoing. There was no grey area, everyone wanted to see Spike get his butt kicked so the chorus of boos when he cheated to get the fall was gloriously loud.

FCW Tag Team Championships – DE (Sebastian Asher & Duke) defeated Red Gate (SAMUEL & Valek) by pinfall to retain the FCW Tag Team Championships.

Eden and Spike Tierney returned to accompany their respective factions, Red Gate and DE, but were soon ejected before they could even consider getting involved by referee Sean Moran.

It was a scrappy start with Valek able to out brawl Sebastian Asher to give Red Gate the early advantage and brought SAMUEL in to double team Asher. A sneaky tag allowed Duke to get the jump on Valek to put the champions in control.

SAMUEL paced back and forth, as he could only watch on as Duke and Asher took turns to put a beating to his tag team partner. A deadlift vertical suplex by Sebastian kept Valek grounded but a flying clothesline gave Valek the chance and he got the tag into a feral SAMUEL who came in swinging, dropping Duke with a wheelbarrow sit out slam.

DE soon got back on track but during the setup of a Magic Killer the Sean Moran got knocked down, a Skull and Bones from Red Gate went uncounted as all four brawled in the middle of the ring including Sebastian Asher spearing SAMUEL hard to the canvas.

Duke clipped Valek with a chair as all four men slowly returned to their feet, the lights went off to reveal Kerrigan who chokeslammed SAMUEL and Valek. Eden arrived but the lights went out again to reveal Tommy Cross who grabbed Eden to send her into Kerrigan for another massive chokeslam.

DE looked on before scrambling around to get Sean Moran back into the ring, Asher pinned SAMUEL to pick up the win albeit looking confused at the outcome. Cross and Kerrigan dragged SAMUEL and Valek to the back with DE waiting for them to be out of sight before smugly celebrating like they did all the work to keep hold of their tag team championships.

This is the most we have seen from Red Gate in these Empire episodes so far, and they have organically become a fan favourite team in Fair City Wrestling. SAMUEL had a raw energy that you can tell he has something that can be crafted into remarkable competitor. Valek gave a good account of himself in decent showing all round. The confusion of the Red Gate implosion extended to the crowd who sounded almost shell shocked at the outcome.

The closing moments with Red Gate taking out Red Gate look to set up some chaotic future events which I am interested to see unfold.

FCW Heavyweight Championship – Ian Ambrose defeated Euan G Mackie by disqualification to retain the FCW Heavyweight Championship.

It was a stripped back Ian Ambrose that entered the contest, no Skully, no Scumbucks, no T-Pose, no gimmicks needed against a former FCW Heavyweight Champion and someone that he has a lot of history with in Scottish wrestling. You could feel a shift in tone, Euan G Mackie entered with less bluster than usual, with a crowd once again split on their allegiance as they exchanged a handshake.

Mackie wanted to soak in the moment but Ambrose immediately challenged Euan to take a shot. The battle began with neither being able to string a combination together. A big lariat from Ian Ambrose allowed him to set the pace, planting Mackie down with a sit out slam.

Like a spider monkey, Mackie managed to get a guillotine but was hoisted out for a stinging vertical suplex to put him on the back foot again but he continued to fight back to land a top rope Boom Drop that couldn’t put Ambrose away.

A dive out the way from a springboard back elbow gave Euan the opening to slap on a rear naked choke but it was powered out, as Ambrose shook off the effects Mackie went for a Sliced Bread but it was countered into a Tombstone for two.

Euan managed to launch the champion off the second rope with a hip toss which fired up Mackie, a Sliced Bread connected was the spike of adrenaline Ambrose needed as they both heavy hits at each other.

The two started to get up in their respective corners, only for Luke Matthews to arrive and booted Ambrose to cause the disqualification before mauling at Mackie as referees arrived to get some separation.

In contrast to the other matches you could feel this hitting different. Whereas the other bouts had young, hungry, and less experienced competitors, this one had two grizzled veterans that tried to steer the match into their domain and keep a check of the tempo. A very good match that was left open ended thanks to the inference from Luke Matthews to leave you thinking “what if?”.

It was noted on the commentary by Jay Robin that Ian had never beaten Euan one on one in title contests and with his being his first win on a technicality I would like to see how he reacts to that being the way the streak was broken.

As the entrances for the main event took place, King Rich Money elected to bring in a second to take his place as he has everything, enter Rhys Dawkins.

Williams Arcade Power Up On A Pole Match – Patryk Peterski defeated Johnny Pressley, JD Wilde w/Eddie Devine, Sam McMillan, Phantasm, and Rhys Dawkins w/King Rich Money to win the Williams Arcade Power Up.

Johnny Pressley conducted a mass shakin’ leg dance before the mass of bodies started flying. JD Wilde and Phastasm battled to the top turnbuckle before sending the other for a moonsault onto a crowd of wrestlers below at adjacent corners to take out everyone.

The firm favourite Johnny Pressley shook, rattled, and rolled to big swing Phantasm with Sam McMillan going to for an Airplane Spin on his back at the same time. Paddy powered McMillan and Phantasm, side stepped JD Wilde, but before he could make the climb Rhys Dawkins wrapped a cable around the neck of Peterski. Sam McMillan arrived with a plastic sword and shield for protection to knock Dawkins out of the ring.

JD Wilde held everyone up with a NES zapper, until Rhys Dawkins pointed out the lunacy of the situation… only to have the zapper smashed over his knapper.

Despite not officially being in the match, Rich Money tried to grab the Power Up but was thrown back through the entrance curtain by Patryk Peterski. Rhys Dawkins made a beeline for the prize but Peterski returned to take out Dawkins with a Pole-ympic Slam and scaled the turnbuckle to retrieve the Power Up from the top of the pole for a mega reaction.

Kevin Williams entered to grant Patryk Peterski’s wish, Big Paddy Cool teased what he was going to use it for, before declaring that he wanted to finally get his hands on Marcus “The Glory” Hunter one on one at ‘Nae Mercy’, adding a lumberjack match stipulation, AND making it the main event in The Tulloch Institute. It was the perfect time to call out “book it commissioner” but it was implied as Williams granted the request and the main event for ‘Nae Mercy’ was official.

Well this was a bit of madness to close the night. The closing the interaction between Patryk Peterski and Rhys Dawkins was silky smooth and I want a bit more of that. Mr Pressley might be one of the weirdest entities I have seen in Scottish wrestling, and yet I was thoroughly enjoyed by the shenanigans. In his moments of offense, Phantasm left a great impression and could be one to keep an eye on in the future on Dundee & Angus Pro Wrestling and Fair City Wrestling shows.

The use of video game related items to add to the Arcade element was appreciated and I can see that escalated in future encounters with the creative limitations only being the wrestler’s imagination. I’m sure Kev still has a Bob-omb lying around…

Once again Fair City Wrestling brought the variety. There were some repeated themes with interference and some villainous cheating but with different ramifications to keep it somewhat fresh. Some matches didn’t hit for me personally but the second half certainly brought the nonstop action and entertainment.

The full show is available on YouTube: