Tremendous Tirades 7.05.13: FIP – Declaration of Independence iPPV

Kenneth Cameron vs. Chasyn Rance w/MSL: Many, many times through out the history of reviewing shows I have talked about the importance of the show’s opening match. People make the “jerk the curtain” joke, but it is a damn important match. You either have to have a match that has an established history that the fans in attendance can connect with, or a match that is laid out so that the fans will react and get off their hands. This was neither of those. The opening promo by MSL, which while fine factually, did nothing for me. To be honest with you MSL does nothing for me as a performer at all. The match featured solid but slow action, almost as they were just killing time to get to the finish. Lots of shenanigans by MSL, Dorado came out at one point to stop MSL and Rance from using a chair on Cameron like they did to him, allowing Cameron to score the pin and the victory. Moving along…

Match Rating: *½

Mr. Milo Beasley vs. Earl Cooter: Unfortunately this is not the Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard. Having never watched these guys before, the first impression is that they grabbed the first two guys from the trailer park and threw them into the ring. Unfortunately we’re 2 for 2 on matches that did nothing for me. These two may be nice guys, but it was every lower level independent match you’ll ever see, including cliché spots and lack of selling from the performers, and not emotion from the crowd. I am not saying that they didn’t deserve a spot on the card, but maybe not against each other. It was bad. The fact that Cooter completely bumble fucked getting into the finish (a spinning form of Christian’s kill switch) did the match no favors either. Cooter won in a match that went 9-minutes too long. The match was a total of 9-minutes long. It has to get better from here…

Match Rating: ½*

Derek Ryze vs. “The Product” David Starr : “The Product” David Starr is wearing a shirt over his crotch that says, “look at it.” I am sure Larry Dallas will manage him on his next appearance. They did a spot where Starr shoves Ryze off of the ropes (he was sitting on the buckle) and he tumbled to the floor, and ate the steps on the way down. Third match in guys, not the best of things to do. The little things are getting to me here, I mean, slap your leg for the sound man, I get that, but do NOT do it like two seconds before you kick the guy, I’m talking to you Mr. Starr. I am not feeling what these guys are doing. They are kicking each other in the face and moving onto the next thing like nothing, but then Ryze sells a whip to the buckle like he has been shot. They did stuff, seriously they just did stuff for little to no reason in regards of building a match, the crowd really didn’t care, Ryze kept magically fighting through the leg injury to hit stuff and then sell. Starr hit rolling Alabama Slams, no joke, and then won with a Liontamer. Better than the last match, but that isn’t saying much.

Match Rating: *

Four Way Freestyle Match: Latin Dragon vs. The Madjai Amasis vs. Jessicka Havok vs. Maxwell Chicago : Dragon and Amasis did the high flying as you would imaging, including a very good opening segment. They played the comedy of Chicago off of the brutality of Havok, which worked well. Havok never seemed out of place here, partly due to her being bigger than the normal toothpick women’s workers, and also partly due to the fact that she was in there with small male opponents. Think Sara Del Rey in CHIKARA; it felt like that. For the first time tonight things clicked for me in this match. It had a good pace, good athleticism, and the comedy was in the right spots but never too much to take away from the match, it added to it and the crowd reacted to what they were doing. Havok looked to have things won after a backdrop driver on Dragon, only for Chicago to throw her to the floor (yelling “I’ll always love you”) and stealing the pin. This is exactly what this show needed.

Match Rating: ***¼

Caleb Konley vs. Shane Strickland: Caleb Konley has full broken away from The Scene, and is someone that the WWNlive promotions look at as someone to push in 2013 and beyond. Strickland does a lot of CZW work, and recently worked the EVOLVE shows in Florida. When he is on, Strickland is a lot of fun to watch, and with Konley out of the Scene, I have enjoyed his work more. They worked a very even; back and forth match with some good, hard-hitting offense and the usual flying from Strickland. They did a really good near fall where Strickland did a springboard in, and Konley caught him right into a sit out DVD driver. I would have went with that for the finish, but they went on for a few more minutes trading near falls. Konley then hit the sit out DVD driver off of the second rope for the win. I think it went a little longer than it needed too, but they gave Strickland a lot and protected him in loss. This was another good match, and they had some good crowd reaction, but it just never really got to that next gear. They showed respect after the match, code of honor pro and all.

Match Rating: ***

Zero 1 International Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jonathan Gresham © vs. Lince Dorado: Lince Dorado had a hell of a weekend on the recent EVOLVE triple shot, with some out standing performances. Some will remember Jonathan Gresham as a member of the Osirian Portal, under the name Hieracon. Now I know that many people will think that since this was a “Junior Heavyweight” style match that they just went in the ring, did the highflying shit and went to a finish. Not at all here. They did a very high-quality opening segment where they did a bunch of catch/counter wrestling, which was a really nice change as opposed to what had been on the card thus far. The match actually worked that style most of the way, as the story was that Jonathan Gresham has evolved since going to Japan and is more of a grappler and submission style worker, and uses his size and power advantage against high-flyers like Dorado. The match was going very well, but then they broke into the cliché slow motion exchange, hoping for “BOO and YAY” from the crowd, and got nothing. And then they started to repeat the same few spots (rolling German into the sliding clothesline), and the crowd just did not react. That was telling, because the crowd really didn’t care for much, and I feel that is because they saw the finish coming a mile away. On top of that, the match featured a title for Zero 1, and the chances of a title change on a US Independent iPPV were not high, Gresham was winning pretty much no matter what. The match featured a lot of good exchanges and work from the guys, and if they could have trimmed a few minutes off and if it was in front of a better crowd, could have been something special. Overall this was as good as the last two matches, but just lacked that special something to get to the next level.

Match Rating: ***

FIP Tag Team Title Match: Los Ben Dejos (Jay Rios & Eddie Cruz) © vs. The K.O.A. (Sugar Dunkerton & Aaron Epic) vs. Lancelot & Harlem Bravado w/Trina Michaels: Dunkerton & Epic came out wearing the FIP Tag Titles, which they stole at the last iPPV. The story of the match was The K.O.A. and Bravados (both heel teams) constantly working over Los Ben Dejos (the face team). This led to eventual miscommunication and the hot tag to Rios. From there the match picked up tremendously with near falls from all teams, some great double team moves and even ladders brought into play. After everyone had their turn to run wild, and people spilled to the floor, Harlem bravado looked to climb the big ladder but got crotched and then Rios did a moonsault to the floor and Cruz climbed the ladder and hit the big cross body onto the pile on the floor. The end saw Trina distract Dunkerton as the K.O.A. looked for their finish, and that allowed Harlem Bravado to his a solo gentlemen’s agreement for the win and the tag titles. Rios and Cruz, having not been pinned, were pissed. They attacked the new champions with the ladder after the match. The K.O.A. then cleared out the former champions and left with Trina Michaels because Sugar wanted, “some of that ass.” This was a good tag team match, possibly leading to a ladder match down the line. I am just guessing, but that would make the most sense judging by what they did here tonight. The Bravados are simply great, and deserve to be featured with the titles.

Match Rating: ***½

FIP Title Match: Jon Davis © W/MSL vs. Trent Baretta: Jon Davis is coming off of a great No DQ match with Chuck Taylor from the recent EVOVLE triple shot weekend. Davis is such an enigma to me, as there are times I think he is great, and then there are times I do not care at all about him. Former WWE performer Trent Baretta had the match of the night vs. AR Fox at the last FIP iPPV and is coming off of a tour with NJPW. While there isn’t a huge size difference height wise, they worked the big man/strong man vs. little guy formula her, with Davis seemingly destroying Baretta. I also want to discuss how good Baretta is. The man is a really good worker, and it shows when he works these independent shows. The guy gets it. He is always in the ring place, he does the right thing at the ring time and gets a reaction when doing it. He worked to Davis’ strengths here, and due to all of these things we ended up with a really good main event; until Baretta ducked a lariat and Davis killed the referee. Baretta got a great near fall, hitting a running knee and the back up ref arriving in time, but Davis just barely getting the bottom rope for the break. Scary moment as Davis went for his powerbomb off the second rope, countering a RANA, and they slipped. Thankfully Davis landed on his feet, hit the move only for Baretta to kick out. Davis then killed the second ref, on purpose, with a lariat as commentary played up that Davis was doubting himself. Baretta fought back, hitting several knees, kicks and then the Kazarian style fade to black for the victory and the title.

Nope, Dusty finish as Baretta is announced as the winner via DQ.

Match Rating: ***½