It was time for the ‘No Sleep ‘Til Ardler’ main event on this week’s episode of Fair City Wrestling’s Empire offering. We were still in the Empire Zone aka The Tulloch Institute in Perth for a bit of the wrestling.

Stevie Wizard was on hand for the championship introductions when ‘The Infamous’ Ian Ambrose faced the challenge of ‘The Filth’ Ryan Roode. Roode jumped the champion before Wizard could complete the formalities to get things going with a bang.

FCW Heavyweight Championship – Ryan Roode defeated Ian Ambrose by pinfall to win the FCW Heavyweight Championship.

Ambrose weathered the early storm to send Ryan Roode to the outside with a dropkick, joining Ryan via a dive through the ropes to stagger Roode backwards. It didn’t take long for some referee discretion to come into play with the brawl heading to the back of the Empire Zone.

Ian kept the advantage until a crossbody dive into the ring was caught by Roode who imposed his will on the champion to wear down Ambrose. Ian fought through to break out of a rear chinlock, biting the fingers of the Ryan Roode to open the space for a couple forearms. A triple dose of Saito Suplexes had Ian building momentum, a Wasteland and standing splash collected Ambrose a two count.

The champion tried to trap Roode for a double foot stomp but Ryan kicked the top rope to have Ian Ambrose weakened enough to be thrown off the top via a Bret’s Rope superplex. Roode followed with a Michinoku Driver for a near fall. Ambrose wasn’t to be broken easily, firing back with a cutter and locked in an arm-trap choke submission. Roode slipped out and powered Ian off the ground to break the hold via a slam to the canvas.

A second wind arrived for Ian Ambrose who flurried chops and forearms, but his rush towards Ryan Roode was met with a kick to the gut and within seconds a package piledriver drove the skull of Ian Ambrose to the mat to lead to a crowning of a brand new Fair City Wrestling Heavyweight Champion.

The credits appeared, the fade out on the episode arrived… until the Quo kicked in for Retro Randy Valentine to strut out with his Game Changer briefcase to cash in.

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

The two swung fists at each other straight off the bat, Randy got the better of the exchange to knock down Roode with a Lariat. Some excessive posing on the turnbuckles to soak in the welcome back chants left Valentine open to be thrown off the turnbuckles.

It unlocked the Retro Rage, Randy countered the punches with some haymakers, a big boot, two leg drops, and a top rope elbow drop crowned Retro Randy Valentine the new FCW Heavyweight Champion.

A popular result in the Empire Zone which wrapped up the episode nicely. The fake out into the cash in was nicely done.

The initial match had some heated moments with the ending being really sudden, it took a moment for the crowd to audibly register the title change and by the time they did Retro Randy was coming out for the next thing.

From a story perspective it made all the sense in the world that Randy would give Ryan as little time as possible to celebrate, but for the live audience they didn’t quite go with the programme, with several offering a round of applause for the dastardly Ryan Roode’s victory. A little buffer of Ryan shouting insults could have built a bit of heat for Randy to extinguish, but regardless of that, the reaction of Randy winning was satisfying.

A contained episode with a hard fought title match and a shock return, a well paced 24 minutes.

The show is available on YouTube: