BRM Reviews FIP New Year's Classic 2006

[Big Red Machine]

FIP New Year’s Classic 2006 (1/6/2006)- Bushnell, FL


BLACK MARKET PROMO- meh
If they don’t get what they want, they’re going to take it. The guy doing the talking had this odd look on his face like he was trying to be tough but couldn’t stop smiling.

BLACK MARKET (Murphy & Machete) vs. MASKED FIPPER #9 & BENNY BLANCO- squash
People wrestling while wearing neckties always looks dumb, and Black Market did so here. It didn’t stop them from winning, though (unfortunately).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Erick Stevens & Steve Madison came out and beat up Masked Fipper #9. They declare that 2006 will be their year, and Stevens calls Jay Fury out to fight. Fury comes out and obliges, so we get…

JAY FURY vs. ERICK STEVENS (w/Steve Madison)- 5.75/10
Stevens worked the neck, but the real story here was Madison interfering to help Stevens. Fury’s tag team partner Jerrelle Clark tried to come out to put a stop to it but just wound up distracting the referee at a key moment, resulting in Madison punching Fury (presumably with some sort of gimmick), knocking Fury out and allowing Stevens to cover him for the pin.

DAVE PRAZAK PROMO- amusing
The ring announcer mistakenly called DP Associates “Dave Prazak Associates,” giving Prazak an excuse warn him that “what DP does is stretch people” and so he had better stop screwing up if he didn’t want to be stretched by Bryan Danielson. He also built up tonight’s main event by telling us what would happen to their opponents: “Austin Aries will pound ‘em; Bryan Danielson will stretch ‘em.” He then made an open challenge on behalf of Jimmy Rave, which resulted in…

KAHAGAS vs. JIMMY RAVE (w/DP Associates)- DUD!
This was all dog and pony show offense for Rave and the heels without Kahagas getting much of everything, so it was really just like watching a long boring squash of a guy who seemed like an undercard talent that had some potential to rise up the card.

HEARTBREAK EXPRESS PROMO- fine
Sean Davis did all of the talking. They explain that they don’t like the no DQs stips and have only agreed to defend their titles under them in exchange for the stipulation that Cabana & Rinauro (or any other team involving Rinauro) will never get another title shot if they lose. Cabana and Rinauro came out and attacked them, leading into the…

LAST CHANCE NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH FOR THE FIP TAG TEAM TITLES: The Heartbreak Express(c) (w/SoCal Val & Kory Chavis) vs. Colt Cabana & Sal Rinauro- 1.75/10
The babyfaces immediately had the heels on the ropes… then started acting like goofballs instead of following up, giving the heels the chance to get all of their dirty but now legal tricks ready, which they then used to take over. Sean Davis tried to suffocate Cabana with a plastic bag. And they said FIP was the more “family friendly” Gabe-booked promotion, LOL.
The presence of Chavis and Val already gave the Heartbreak Express a numbers advantage, which was increased when Chavis dragged Cabana to the back and apparently incapacitated him, as Chavis soon emerged form the back but Cabana did not. Rinauro got beaten down three-on-one for about a minute, but Cabana then reemerged with a steel chair in hand and ran wild on the heels. Val tried to protect her charges but wound get getting spanked. Cabana and Sal set up for what I assume is their finisher but Erick Stevens & Steve Madison ran out to interfere, pushing Sal off the top rope and giving Cabana a Spike Piledriver, allowing Sean Davis to pin Cabana for the win.
There was some solid psychology and storytelling in here at times, but most of it was one of those crappy early ECW “let’s brawl all around the arena and hit each other with stuff for the sake of being able to say that we brawled all around the arena and hit each other with stuff” brawls, with a frustrating f*ck finish to boot.

STEVE MADISON PROMO- He explains that he and Stevens screwed Cabana and Rinauro out of the tag titles because they’re upset that Colt beat Madison at Florida Rumble 2005 last month.

ANGEL ARMONI & JAISON MOORE vs. CHASYN RANCE & SETH DELAY- 4.75/10
Rance & Delay worked together to get the win.

TONY MAMALUKE vs. JERRELLE CLARK- 7/10
These two had a great technical wrestling match. Mamaluke worked over Jerrelle’s arm, so Jerrelle had to rely on a lot of foot and leverage-based offense. The finish saw Jerrelle hit the Jerrelle Driver and make the cover but the referee noticed Mamaluke’s foot on the ropes right after he hit the mat for the three so he negated the call. Jerrelle wouldn’t accept this and argued with the referee, and after a while Mamaluke was able to recover, grab Jerrelle from behind, lock in a Fujiwara Armbar and get the submission victory.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Erick Stevens & Steven Madison attacked Clark after the match. Jay Fury came out to make the save and wound up brawling to the back with Stevens. Madison then grabbed a microphone and bragged about all of his and Stevens’ “victims” (Cabana, Clark, Fury), and said that this would keep happening all year. Sal Rinauro came out to brawl with him, so we got…

STEVE MADISON vs. SAL RINAURO- 6/10
Stevens eventually came back out to ringside and helped Madison win.

JACK EVANS & RODERICK STRONG vs. DP ASSOCIATES (Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson) (w/Dave Prazak, Jimmy Rave, & Mr. Milo Beasley)- 7/10
We started off by wasting several minutes with a comedic dance-off… and Dragon being Dragon, he still took a bump in the process.
Once things got going this became quite good. It also includes possibly the single craziest “get past the heels to make the hot tag” spot I’ve ever seen. An excellent last few minutes just get this past my bar for the minimum quality acceptable for a main event. Roddy made Dragon tap out, which I believe is what earned him the shot at the ROH World Title he would eventually get at Supercard of Honor at the end of March.

Despite a great main event and a great wrestling contest between Clark and Mamaluke, this was nowhere close to being a good show. The frustrating end of the tag title match, combined with the Kahagas vs. Rave dud and the meh nature of the majority of the matches killed this show by the time intermission was over, with the two great matches managing to only save this from being at the very bottom of the barrel. But yes, I will still keep watching this FIP stuff. Why? Because the next show is Strong vs. Evans, and when Gabe names a show X vs. Y, it means something. At this point, the only two we had had so far were Joe vs. Punk II and Joe vs. Kobashi, so if Gabe was willing to give that honor to tomorrow night’s Roddy vs. Jack match, it means he’s quite confident that others will agree that the match was of astronomical quality. But we’ll have to wait until next time to find out.