In a break from the FCW Empire episodes, it was the turn of Fair City Wrestling’s flagship event. The Ardler Complex has housed some of the biggest professional wrestlers past, present, and future.

I’ve seen Joe Hendry in that venue, Jackie Polo, Big Damo, Emersyn Jayne, Piper Niven, Diamond Dallas Page to name a few, and it holds a special place in my heart for Scottish wrestling.

It’s also the place I made my commentary debut which gave me so many opportunities to grow further into the world I’ve dedicated so much time and energy in.

A big crowd was on hand at the Ardler Complex in Dundee for a night of professional wrestling.

FCW Junior Heavyweight Championship – Botchico defeated Spike Tierney by pinfall to win the FCW Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Spike tried to get the jump but it was scouted. Tierney tried to rush through but Botchico found ways to subdue the champion but a straight right fist rattled the challenger.

Another valiant flurry from Botchico had Spike on the back foot but Tierney struck in return to take control. A straight boot to the masked face of a charging Spike Tierney opened up the possibility of a moonsault attempt that was stopped by Tierney, whose powerbomb was countered into a Frankensteiner.

Botchico fired back to hit a Dumbarton Destroyer that had Spike bouncing off the canvas at height. However, he couldn’t capitalise, taking too long to drag himself over to drape an arm onto the chest of Tierney to earn a near fall.

The sound was reverberating around the Ardler Complex, Botchico dominated Spike as the roars continued. A running battering ram headbutt got two, a DDT earned another. Spike nabbed an Salida del Sol but Botchico rolled a shoulder up.

Tierney attempted an impressive 630 splash but Botchico rolled out of harms way to cause a hard landing. A Flatliner from the second rope, the most dangerous rope, from Botchico kept Spike Tierney down for three to end his titanic FCW Junior Heavyweight Championship reign.

A wild crowd celebrated the title change hands as the camera followed Spike stumbling his way into the car park of the Ardler Complex.

It took a minute for Botchico to settle in with a couple slips ups, but as it entered the finishing straight the support was electric and that seemed to power up Botchico to near indestructible levels. Spike Tierney was like an elastic band, pinging around the ring at force.

Opening with a big crowd pleaser got the audience hooked into the night.

FCW Women’s Championship – Triple Threat – Eden defeated Moxie Malone, and Brodie Adler by pinfall to win the FCW Women’s Championship.

It was Moxie in the middle to kick off with Malone being send back and forth between Brodie and Eden with punches. A double team hip toss sent Moxie out of the ring to leave Adler and Eden battle it out.

Brodie got the better of the exchange but Malone was soon diving back in to attempt to lock in her Dragon Sleeper. The fracas lead to Eden and Adler being sent to the outside for a flying Moxie Malone to dive through the ropes to take them both down.

Eden tried to sneak a win off the back of a Brodie Adler Samoan Drop to Moxie Malone. A Codebreaker sent Brodie to the outside as Eden turned her attention back to Malone, a standing moonsault got two, a Codebreaker got another.

As Eden rained punches on Moxie, Tommy Cross and his way out. After some yapping, SAMUEL and Valek also marched out. Red Gate assaulted Moxie and Brodie, a Curb Stomp to Adler left her prone for a Twisted Bliss from Eden to crown a new FCW Women’s Champion.

It was a chaotic ending to a good match. Moxie Malone is consistently great, and has a solid chemistry with Brodie Adler, while Eden showed plenty of hunger.

The Red Gate reunion got a loud response, and the smart call was to make sure it was Brodie Adler getting pinned to maximise the negative reaction.

FCW Tag Team Championships – ADM & Caleb Valhalla defeated DE (Sebastian Asher & Duke) by pinfall to win the FCW Tag Team Championships.

ADM and Caleb Valhalla retrieved a physically decimated Tom Atlas as they made their entrance.

A little miscommunication from Caleb and ADM put a stop to their dominance over Sebastian Asher from the bell.

An eye rake by Duke had DE try to isolate ADM who didn’t make it easy on them while he was stuck (like a moth in a bath) in the wrong side of town. A barrage of attacks on The Clyde River Killer while also keeping Valhalla out of reach worked for the most part until the long legs of ADM pushed back both members of DE to complete the tag to his mighty tag team partner.

Valhalla ran wild over Asher and Duke until a Doomsday Device was countered to send Caleb crashing off the top turnbuckle to the floor.

Once again DE tried to keep ADM at bay but couldn’t stop a rampaging Caleb Valhalla breaking the fall following a Pina Collider by shoving Asher into the pin attempt.

A Helride to Sebastian Asher should have been the end of it but a revived Tom Atlas dragged referee Chris Quinn out of the ring.

Pandemonium broke out with DE all diving out to slay Caleb Valhalla, however, they didn’t notice ADM getting his hands on Atlas, who made his way out into the pile via a Crucifix Powerbomb.

Duke was thrown back in for a Doomsday Device to mark another title change.

Constant action, this was a fun tag team match. ADM and Caleb brought an unpredictable energy to proceedings

DAPW Championship – Triple Threat – Sami Sparx defeated Fulton King, and Jay Robin by pinfall to win the DAPW Championship.

Fulton King pushed Sami Sparx out of the way to start the match against Jay Robin. Sparx grabbed King to connect with a cutter catch the DAPW Champion off guard.

The Juggarnaut returned to thrown Sami for a Fallaway Slam as the implosion of Legends Never Die took place at ArdlerMania. Jay Robin re-entered to take advantage of the situation by delivering a double superkick along with Sami Sparx to Fulton, then joining King to give Sparx some Punk Tactics.

Robin knocked Fulton King down with a Pele Kick, as Jay made his way over to make the cover Sparx ran up for a Natural Selection to land Robin onto King. Fulton was rolled out of the ring and The Chaotic Luchador hit a Frog Splash to win the DAPW Championship.

It was a break neck triple threat contest. The immediate twist set the tone to create some strange bedfellows tandem offense. A highly enjoyable match.

Open Challenge – Tommy Lockhart defeated Ian Ambrose w/Eddie Devine by pinfall.

A debuting Tommy Lockhart went hold for hold with Ian Ambrose, who resorted to a hard chop to try and gain the upper hand. Lockhart bamboozled Ambrose with a top turnbuckle headstand to leap over Ian.

Ambrose laid in a corner running back elbow to regain the advantage momentarily, Lockhart kept coming back to meet Ian with an exchange of forearms.

Tommy connected with a headbutt stagger Ambrose. Eddie Devine tried to intervene but Lockhart saw through the deception to kick back Ian Ambrose and soar with a top rope flying headbutt to take victory.

Ian begrudgingly accepted a handshake as he stormed off with the loss.

A top quality match, there was a couple Skully shenanigans but overall this was all business Ian Ambrose who looked to relish in the technical wrestling opening third. The expressions to convey the trouble that Ambrose was in made everything Tommy Lockhart was doing more grandiose.

Rich Money arrived to steal the Cash For Kids charity bucket. Johnny Pressley ran out but was attacked as Rich left with the charity bucket and Pressley’s King of the Class Crown. The bugger.

FCW Heavyweight Championship – Retro Randy Valentine defeated Ryan Roode by pinfall to retain the FCW Heavyweight Championship.

Ryan Roode started swinging as Flash Gordo made the championship introductions.

Valentine fought back with the haymakers, but was was sent hurtling backwards from a second turnbuckle dropkick from Roode that shook the ring.

Roode smelled blood, dropping Randy back first onto the edge of the apron. He wasn’t done, crotching Valentines onto the metal ringside barrier to have Randy jelly legged.

The former FCW Heavyweight Champion swept the commentary table with bad intentions. Roode continued the punishment but Randy managed to toss his former tag team partner from the top turnbuckle for a bit of space.

An Elbow Drop (of Doom) was scouted with Ryan Roode sending Retro Randy crashing with a superplex. Valentine hit a second wind to slam Roode, landing a Leg Drop of Doom, and colliding his elbow to the heart of Ryan Roode. It wasn’t enough as the shock filled the Ardler Complex when Roode jolted his arm up to break the count.

Carnage continued, Roode tried to use the FCW Heavyweight Championship but was stopped by Valentine. Ryan had his head cracked off the table to be laid across the wood. Randy teased a Cactus Elbow from the apron but scaled to the top turnbuckle to increase the damage.

Randy rolled Ryan back into the ring but Roode had grabbed the title, while Chris Quinn tidied up the table, Roode smashed the gold off the forehead of Valentine.

The Retro Rage started whirring, a Ryan Roode Blue Thunder Bomb unlocked the full form to revive Randy Valentine. A second rope leg drop didn’t manage it, but two follow up Elbow Drop of Dooms wrapped up the match for the champion to be the sole retainer of their championship at ArdlerMania.

A defeated Ryan Roode accepted a handshake to close the night.

An excellent main event with so much drama, the audience bit for everything, the escalation of events was fantastically paced, it had plenty of fire and spectacle to earn its place as the final match on the show.

This was quite possibly the best Fair City Wrestling show I’ve seen in recent memory. The crowd was hot, there was an abundance of well crafted matches and exciting moments with so many highlights. It was a night of massive changes in Fair City Wrestling, title changes, returns, debuts, and the destabilising of factions.

Kevin Williams, Stevie Wizard, and Patryk Peterski provided a passionate turn on commentary to really sell the emotions involved, like the elation for the downfall of DE, and the hatred for Ryan Roode as examples.

The backstage extras of post-match reaction was a nice touch to level up the production for a full event release.

The full show is available on YouTube: