FIP Heatstroke: Night 2
FIP Heatstroke: Night 2 (8/6/2005)- Bushnell, FL
ERICK STEVENS & STEVE MADIOSN vs. MASKED FIPPERS #4 - good squash
DAVE PRAZAK PROMO- he issues an open challenge for anyone who thinks they stand a chance with Samoa Joe. This is answered by babyface Ace Steel, who comes out and calls Joe a â€"fat coconut eater.†Not cool, dude.
ACE STEEL vs. SAMOA JOE (w/DP Associates)- 5/10
Ace has the match won but the ref is distracted, then Adam Pearce interferes to give Joe the win. Joe and Pearce beat Ace down but Sal Rinauro, Azrieal, and Spanky run out to make the save.
THREE-WAY DANCE: The Heartbreak Express vs. Dunn & Marcos vs. Jay Fury & Jerrelle Clark- 4.5/10
The match was good for the time it got, mostly because the Heartbreak Express was kept out of the ring. This was really just a showcase for the new team of Clark & Fury.
ADAM PEARCE & DAVE PRAZAK PROMO- you couldn’t really here them because the mic was barely working and because there were really obnoxious kids screaming in really shrill voices.
AZRIEAL vs. ADAM PEARCE (w/Dave Prazak)- 5/10
Azrieal worked over Pearce’s hand. Prazak cheated to help his guy win. After the match CM Punk attacked Azrieal but Ace Steel came out to make the save. Punk and Prazak promised that â€"the beatings will continue.†Ace grabbed a steel chair and chased them away.
ANTONIO BANKS PROMO- he tells the crowd about how Rainman turned on him last night, attacking him from behind. Right after Banks said the words â€"attacked me from behind†Rainman ran out and once against attacked Banks from behind, leading to…
ANTONIO BANKS vs. RAINMAN- 6/10
This was a very good, very intense brawl that officially wound up as a no contest as they spent a grand total of about forty seconds in the ring and eventually brawl away behind the curtain.
CM PUNK PROMO- decent hype for the main event. Then Punk says he is going to go to the back and relax until the main event.
FIP TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: DP Associates (Jimmy Rave & â€"Fast†Eddie Vegas)(c) (w/Dave Prazak & Mr. Milo Beasley) vs. Sal Rinauro & Spanky- 7/10
So they spent the first chunk of this match having a very basic match. Not slow or anything (a major improvement over much of the early card), but just a lot of very basic holds and spots. Then Fast Eddie gave Sal a back body drop… and the ceiling was low enough that Sal crashed into with his back pretty much flat, causing a few of those big, cheap ceiling tiles to fall. This was one of those spots that you know probably didn’t hurt, but the visual looked so cool that you could just kind of go along with Sal’s selling.
The wrestlers figured that after something like that you might as well just go into the heat, and the heels of course worked over Sal’s back. Spanky eventually got a hot tag but the heels worked his back over for a bit, too. Things finally built to the big finish which saw a screw-up between Rave and Vegas cost them the match. The match built very well, and is definitely the best tag team match I can remember seeing in FIP so far by leaps and bounds. There was one spot where there was blatant interference that should have been a DQ, but other than that this was a great match. I wish FIP would have more matches like this (well-paced and athletic based on solid, in-ring fundamentals) rather than the droningly slow, stalling-filled southern style with managers interfering all over the place that most of their cards seem to be.
So the babyfaces win the tag titles and celebrate with the fans. Beasley gets driven into a wall. Prazak throws a temper tantrum in the ring. All good stuff. Prazak blamed Fast Eddie for the loss and DP Associates left without him, so he is out of the group.
FIP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Homicide(c) vs. Tony Mamaluke- 6.75/10
Before the match, Dave Prazak came out and said that no matter who wins this match, he wants one of his guys to get an FIP Heavyweight Title shot the next time FIP comes to Bushnell.
These two had a great technical match with a REALLY interesting finish. Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak were a lot of fun on commentary, with Lenny poking Prazak’s buttons after the big title loss.
After the match, DP Associates all came out and jumped Homicide. Ace Steel and Fast Eddie Vegas came out to match the save. They got beaten down until Roderick Strong came out to make the save. Roddy started to focus on Punk and everyone else brawled away from ringside, so we transitioned into…
RODERICK STRONG vs. CM PUNK (w/Dave Prazak)- 7.25/10
They went really long and from the way they were working things in the beginning you could tell there going to go long and it started to seem like they were building up to something big but then they just kept repeating the same general spots over and over again for way too long. Then, when we finally got to the finish, it felt anti-climactic for the finish to a twenty-five minute match).
An okay show from FIP. It had a lot of the problems that most FIP shows from this era seem to have, but this one definitely seemed to pick up once the Banks-Rainman match started (which was actually only about a third of the way into the DVD). It was certainly better than most of the FIP shows I’ve seen thus far, but it also still left me thinking that some of the matches (especially Roddy vs. Punk and Joe vs. Steel) could have been more. A decent show. Thus ends the career of CM Punk in FIP.
ERICK STEVENS & STEVE MADIOSN vs. MASKED FIPPERS #4 - good squash
DAVE PRAZAK PROMO- he issues an open challenge for anyone who thinks they stand a chance with Samoa Joe. This is answered by babyface Ace Steel, who comes out and calls Joe a â€"fat coconut eater.†Not cool, dude.
ACE STEEL vs. SAMOA JOE (w/DP Associates)- 5/10
Ace has the match won but the ref is distracted, then Adam Pearce interferes to give Joe the win. Joe and Pearce beat Ace down but Sal Rinauro, Azrieal, and Spanky run out to make the save.
THREE-WAY DANCE: The Heartbreak Express vs. Dunn & Marcos vs. Jay Fury & Jerrelle Clark- 4.5/10
The match was good for the time it got, mostly because the Heartbreak Express was kept out of the ring. This was really just a showcase for the new team of Clark & Fury.
ADAM PEARCE & DAVE PRAZAK PROMO- you couldn’t really here them because the mic was barely working and because there were really obnoxious kids screaming in really shrill voices.
AZRIEAL vs. ADAM PEARCE (w/Dave Prazak)- 5/10
Azrieal worked over Pearce’s hand. Prazak cheated to help his guy win. After the match CM Punk attacked Azrieal but Ace Steel came out to make the save. Punk and Prazak promised that â€"the beatings will continue.†Ace grabbed a steel chair and chased them away.
ANTONIO BANKS PROMO- he tells the crowd about how Rainman turned on him last night, attacking him from behind. Right after Banks said the words â€"attacked me from behind†Rainman ran out and once against attacked Banks from behind, leading to…
ANTONIO BANKS vs. RAINMAN- 6/10
This was a very good, very intense brawl that officially wound up as a no contest as they spent a grand total of about forty seconds in the ring and eventually brawl away behind the curtain.
CM PUNK PROMO- decent hype for the main event. Then Punk says he is going to go to the back and relax until the main event.
FIP TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: DP Associates (Jimmy Rave & â€"Fast†Eddie Vegas)(c) (w/Dave Prazak & Mr. Milo Beasley) vs. Sal Rinauro & Spanky- 7/10
So they spent the first chunk of this match having a very basic match. Not slow or anything (a major improvement over much of the early card), but just a lot of very basic holds and spots. Then Fast Eddie gave Sal a back body drop… and the ceiling was low enough that Sal crashed into with his back pretty much flat, causing a few of those big, cheap ceiling tiles to fall. This was one of those spots that you know probably didn’t hurt, but the visual looked so cool that you could just kind of go along with Sal’s selling.
The wrestlers figured that after something like that you might as well just go into the heat, and the heels of course worked over Sal’s back. Spanky eventually got a hot tag but the heels worked his back over for a bit, too. Things finally built to the big finish which saw a screw-up between Rave and Vegas cost them the match. The match built very well, and is definitely the best tag team match I can remember seeing in FIP so far by leaps and bounds. There was one spot where there was blatant interference that should have been a DQ, but other than that this was a great match. I wish FIP would have more matches like this (well-paced and athletic based on solid, in-ring fundamentals) rather than the droningly slow, stalling-filled southern style with managers interfering all over the place that most of their cards seem to be.
So the babyfaces win the tag titles and celebrate with the fans. Beasley gets driven into a wall. Prazak throws a temper tantrum in the ring. All good stuff. Prazak blamed Fast Eddie for the loss and DP Associates left without him, so he is out of the group.
FIP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Homicide(c) vs. Tony Mamaluke- 6.75/10
Before the match, Dave Prazak came out and said that no matter who wins this match, he wants one of his guys to get an FIP Heavyweight Title shot the next time FIP comes to Bushnell.
These two had a great technical match with a REALLY interesting finish. Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak were a lot of fun on commentary, with Lenny poking Prazak’s buttons after the big title loss.
After the match, DP Associates all came out and jumped Homicide. Ace Steel and Fast Eddie Vegas came out to match the save. They got beaten down until Roderick Strong came out to make the save. Roddy started to focus on Punk and everyone else brawled away from ringside, so we transitioned into…
RODERICK STRONG vs. CM PUNK (w/Dave Prazak)- 7.25/10
They went really long and from the way they were working things in the beginning you could tell there going to go long and it started to seem like they were building up to something big but then they just kept repeating the same general spots over and over again for way too long. Then, when we finally got to the finish, it felt anti-climactic for the finish to a twenty-five minute match).
An okay show from FIP. It had a lot of the problems that most FIP shows from this era seem to have, but this one definitely seemed to pick up once the Banks-Rainman match started (which was actually only about a third of the way into the DVD). It was certainly better than most of the FIP shows I’ve seen thus far, but it also still left me thinking that some of the matches (especially Roddy vs. Punk and Joe vs. Steel) could have been more. A decent show. Thus ends the career of CM Punk in FIP.