Fair City Wrestling’s YouTube programming has returned with Empire gracing the online wrestlesphere once more. Two matches were featured in a tight 30 minute-ish episode to provide a snapshot into what to expect when FCW come to town.

Junior Heavyweight Qualifier – Triple Threat – Valek defeated Mikey Devine, and Tom Atlas by pinfall to advance.

Tom Atlas went straight for aggression with a kick to the stomach of Valek and dumping him to the outside, but was immediately at the mercy of Mikey Devine who outpowered and outsmarted the self-proclaimed Fallen God. Valek returned to the action for a nice sequence, pushing Devine into a mid-slingshot Atlas who got caught for a draping DDT forced by a neckbreaker from Valek to Mikey.

A short armed lariat from Tom took down Devine, but Mikey was soon back on offense, delivering a 6-1-Devine to Valek, sending the Red Gate member to the outside for a punt kick to the chest. It was all Devine until a top turnbuckle crossbody was dodged by Tom Atlas to put Mikey on defense.

Another three man combination saw Devine give Valek a Flatliner thanks to a running knee by Atlas. Devine once again took to the skies and successfully landed a second turnbuckle Codebreaker but couldn’t take advantage with Atlas firing through the ropes for a double slingshot spear.

The strikes and forearms flew in with Mikey Devine absorbing chop after chop from Tom Atlas, but Devine was sent crashing to the canvas with a hard clothesline. A Uranage from Devine sent Atlas rolling to the outside with Mikey running into a Sister Abigail from Valek to end the match.

There were some arm flailing in parts that interrupted the flow, Mikey Devine kept a tempo going by subtly trying to get the crowd back in by stomping the mat for an easy call and response. Tom Atlas settled into the match as it went on, he did have his own stumbles but nothing egregious. Valek picked up the win but the crowd investment was missing so when the pin came it was definitely met with a reaction but it couldn’t be defined by positive or negative, more a polite applause. There were some adventurous ideas that didn’t quite come together either from an in-ring or from the anticipated crowd response. The triple downs, as an example, were good but were often met with a murmur.

Brodie Adler defeated Hera by pinfall.

An irate Hera began monologuing about not getting any respect for her debut, which lead off into a pose down, but with Brodie getting the better of the reactions, Hera tried to strike and was quickly sent scurrying to the outside to avoid the smoke from The Dynamite.

The Goddess tried to get another jump when Adler returned to the ring, which Brodie fought back from, only to meet shoulder to shoulder with Hera standing her ground. A flurry of strikes rocked Hera back and to the ground for a leg drop that garnered a near fall.

Brodie went for the Samoan Drop but Hera slipped out to throw punches of her own to ground Adler, adding chokes on the rope and boots to the spine to continue the dominance. Hera hoisted Brodie onto her shoulders with ease but it was Adler’s turn to get out of the fireman’s carry position and build momentum, launching herself backwards off the second turnbuckle for a crossbody block that caught a two count.

Hera barrelled through to once again take control, tipping Brodie for a sidewalk slam for two. As Hera questioned the count with the official, then the crowd, she turned and ran into a Black Hole Slam for Adler to the take the victory.

Eden interrupted the celebrations to point at the ArdlerMania banner to close the episode.

It got scrappy, but the dynamic of two strength based wrestlers trying to jostle to get the leverage was a good thread to go on. The DAPW crowd came alive for Brodie Adler and offered support in her resurgence throughout the match.

For a reset to the Empire episodes, the length was great – it didn’t outstay it’s welcome with two matches to draw you in enough to peak your interest into checking out the next episode, and maybe build into grabbing a ticket for the next event. The production was well done, there could have been a benefit with commentary just to push forward lore into the matches, add some context, and hide the lulls in crowd noise. It wasn’t like it was a bad crowd, just not super vocal bar the wave of chants for Brodie Adler.

The show is available on YouTube: