BG Says: FIP Unfinished Business 2007

January 13, 2007 – Crystal River, Florida

When we last left FIP
The Heartbreak Express started their journey to become fan favorites by giving the Inverness crowd their thanks and starting a little feud with the irritating Shiima Xion. They also made nice-nice with the always lovable Pelle Primeau. In preparation for his dog collar match against Erick Stevens tonight Steve Madison paid Brent Albright to take on the explosive one. In the main event Roderick Strong and Jack Evans reformed their team to defeat DP Associates of Shingo and Jimmy Rave in a fantastic match.

Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard team up for commentary goodness on this DVD. There’s a big crowd on hand tonight. It’s mostly children but when compared to the crowds FIP was pulling in just after the relaunch this is very impressive.

VS.
Sweeney stalls to start. They lock up but Sweeney stays in the ropes. He pushes Claudio into the corner and hits a cheap shot. They knuckle up and Claudio hits a hiptoss. Sweeney hits a stun gun and stomps Claudio on the mat. He puts on a chinlock and slams Claudio to the mat by his hair. He dumps Claudio to the floor where he choke shim with his wrist tape. Back in the ring he hits a splash and takes down the straps. He climbs the ropes but misses a flying elbowdrop. Claudio comes back with chops and a dropkick for 2. Sweeney hits a spinebuster for 2. Claudio hits a crossbody for 2. He hits a Cactus clothesline and both men fall to the floor. They scramble to keep each other from the ring and both get counted out at 9:17. Not much went on here, but the kids dig booing a blatantly cheating heel.
Rating: *½

The YRR comes out with champagne in hand. Chasyn Rance gets on the microphone to pump Sal Rinauro and Steve Madison up for their big matches tonight. Daffney takes a big swig of her drink and brings out Steve’s little sister Talia Madison. Talia gets on the microphone and runs down Allison Danger for the way she’s been picking on Daffney. Tonight she’s going to beat Danger down. The Dangerous Angels come out and call the YRR girls crack whores. Danger challenges the two of them to a tag team match. I guess we’ll have to watch that now.

VS.
Talia and Sara start. Sara gets a crucifix pin for 2. Talia gets a lazy pin for 2. Sara puts on a wristlock and then leans back into a bow and arrow. Daffney breaks it up and tags in, demanding that Danger do the same. Danger tags in and takes Daffney down with right hands. She tosses her around the ring by her hair but walks into a cheap shot from Talia. Daffney kicks Danger’s back a couple times for 2. She keeps pressure on Danger’s back and distracts the referee so Talia can get a choke in. Daffney lays in some of the least convincing shots I’ve ever seen and chokes Danger in the corner. Talia tags in and chokes Danger against the ropes. Danger comes back with chops but Talia goes to the eyes. Daffney tags in and goes for a vertical suplex but Danger counters to a side Russian legsweep. Sara and Talia tag in and it’s not hard to guess which one cleans house. Sara hits a northern lights suplex for 2. The YRR run out but are immediately followed by the Black Market, Erick Stevens and Seth Delay. The men brawl on the floor as Sara hits a big boot on Talia for 2. Daffney gets dumped to the floor and Danger hits a facebuster on Talia. She hits a knee to the back and Sara hits the Royal Butterfly for the win at 9:05. Shockingly not a complete mess, but there wasn’t a part of the match where I thought these girls deserved to be on the show. After the match Joey Machete grabs a microphone (because it’s like crack to him) and puts his money on Delay and Stevens in their matches tonight.
Rating: *¾

The Heartbreak Express comes out for some promo time. Sean Davis talks about the Cage of Pain again because that’s his way of getting the crowd to buy him and his brother as babyfaces. He says the fans’ adulation has come as a surprise to them, but they’ve come to appreciate it. Shiima Xion comes out and says that his new friends are going to help him get revenge on the Davises for what they did to him the night before. The Heartthrobs of Romero and Antonio turn out to be those friends. They ramble on for a bit but why would I care to listen to these two washouts. The whole segment leads to the obvious six-man tag match also involving Pelle Primeau.

VS.
Our heroes hit hiptosses on their opponents before the bell. Xion and the Heartthrobs bail and stall for a while. The bell rings with Phil and Antonio get in the ring. Antonio works over Phil’s arm but Phil comes back with a short-arm clothesline. Romeo tags in but Phil forces Antonio to collide with him. Primeau tags in and drop toeholds Romeo into the corner. Romeo hits a pair of back elbows but the Heartthrobs get slingshot into the ring. Xion gets tossed into the ring and Primeau hits all three opponents with a crossbody off the top. Xion tags in and hits a dropkick on Primeau. He hits a vertical suplex and stretches Primeau out. Antonio and Romeo tag in and double-team Primeau for 2. Romeo puts on a cravat but gets crotched on the middle rope when Primeau dodges a blind charge. Antonio tags in and hits a back suplex for 2. He puts on a chinlock and Romeo gets a few cheap shots in. Romeo tags in illegally and hits a delayed vertical suplex. Antonio tags in and the Heartthrobs hit a double legsweep for 2. Antonio hits a bodyslam but misses a double jump moonsault. Primeau dumps Romeo to the floor and tags to Sean. Sean cleans house, hitting clotheslines on everyone. Phil and Sean double-team Antonio and hit a double back bodydrop on Romeo. They launch Xion into the air before our heroes send the villains crashing into each other in the center of the ring. Xion goes for a sunset flip on Sean and dodges the splash. He goes for another sunset flip but this time Sean successfully sits on him for the win at 10:20. Considering those involved this was pretty good.
Rating: **¼

VS.
Akuma puts on a wristlock to start but Evans comes back with a head scissors takedown. They flip around the ring until Evans spins into an armdrag. Evans uses some swing dancing moves to get another head scissors takedown. Akuma rolls to the floor so Evans follows him out with a missile dropkick from the apron. Back in the ring Evans hits a triple jump corkscrew press for 2. Akuma blocks a blind charge and opens up with kicks for 2. He puts on a half crab but Evans gets to the ropes. He hits a headbutt to the back for 2. He puts on a stranglehold but Evans gets to the ropes. Akuma hits a thrust kick to the back of the head for 2. Evans dodges a charge and hits a handspring elbow. Akuma catches him coming off the ropes with a kick to the chest for 2. He puts on a painful looking Sharpshooter variation but releases to put on an Indian deathlock. He puts on a chinlock, which feels totally out of place in this match. Evans fights out and hits a moonsault press (with helpful yet obvious editing) but Akuma comes back with a dropkick. Evans hits a springboard spinning kick for 2. He hits a cartwheel kick and the Ong Bak kneedrop for 2. Akuma counters a handspring elbow to a facebuster for 2. He hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and a snapmare driver for 2. Evans hits a step-up enziguiri and a senton/standing corkscrew splash combo. He hits a few more kicks and the Busaiku knee kick for 2. He climbs the ropes but Akuma dodges the 630 senton and drives Evans’s knees to the mat. He hits a vertical suplex and climbs the ropes. He misses a frog splash and Evans hits a northern lights suplex. Akuma blocks a fisherman buster and hits a cross-arm fisherman bomb for the win at 11:32. The magic of post-production and some hard work from both wrestlers left us with a very entertaining match.
Rating: ***¼

VS.
Jacobs grabs a wristlock to start. They pull each other’s hair and Rave stalls. Jacobs grabs a headlock and bowls Rave over for 1. He hits a pair of hiptosses and a dropkick and Rave bails. After stalling for quite a while Rave gets back in the ring and hits a cheap shot. He puts on a headlock but Jacobs comes back with the head scissors takedown. Rave hits a back elbow and distracts the referee so Milo Beasley can hit a clothesline on Jacobs. Rave slugs Jacobs down for 2. He puts on a chinlock and puts his feet on the ropes for leverage. He slams Jacobs to the mat by his hair but Jacobs dodges a knee in the corner and Rave falls to the floor. Jacobs follows Rave out with a suicide dive and hits a crossbody off the top back in the ring for 2. He hits a spear for 2. Prazak keeps Jacobs from hitting the Contra Code but doesn’t keep him from rolling Rave up for 2. Milo trips Jacobs and Rave puts on the heel hook for the win at 10:19. Rave is just a whole mess of boring. Jacobs was entertaining but how do you make Rave interesting when his boring offense takes up the majority of a ten minute match.
Rating: **¼

VS.
Apparently Albright is getting this title shot because Erick Stevens was the number one contender and he beat him last night. I don’t remember anyone saying that Stevens was the number one contender. In fact Davey Richards technically became the number one contender back at Cage of Pain by defeating Bryan Danielson. Oh well, this should be good at any rate. Strong grabs a waistlock to start. Albright puts Strong on the mat but Strong goes to the ropes. Albright grabs a hammerlock but Strong goes to the ropes again. Albright overpowers Strong but Strong comes back with a roll up for 1. They knuckle up and Albright puts Strong on the mat for 2. Strong comes back with a sunset flip for 2. Albright goes after the arm but Strong rolls him up for 2. They knuckle up again and Strong shoves Albright down for 2. He hits a snapmare for 2. He puts on a front facelock but Albright gets to the ropes. Strong gets another roll up for 2. He dropkicks the knee and rolls Albright up again. He slingshots into the ring to hit another roll up for 2. Albright hits a forearm to the face to cut off Strong’s momentum. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. He hits a backbreaker and an elbowdrop. He hits a knee to the gut for 2. He puts on a waistlock but Strong comes back with a roll up for 2. Albright puts him right back down with an elbow and shoves Strong to the floor. He rams Strong’s back into the apron and gets back into the ring. Strong gets back in the ring but walks into a gutwrench suplex. That gets 2 for Albright. Albright goes back to the waistlock as Prazak and Leonard argue over whether or not a wrestler being killed in the ring would result in jail time for the wrestler who killed him. Strong escapes the hold with a chinbreaker and ducks Albright’s strikes to hit chops and an enziguiri. He this a dropkick and trades forearms with Albright. Albright hits the 908 knee and a swinging uranage for 2. Strong hits a dropkick to the back, a clothesline and a forearm. He sets Albright up top and hits a superplex for 2. Albright hits a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Strong comes back with a big boot, the gutbuster and the tiger driver for the win at 16:49. It was interesting to see Strong wrestle someone bigger than him and completely change his game up to adapt. Albright proved early to be much more powerful so Strong relied on quick roll ups and strikes rather than backbreakers and suplexes. On its own it’s good, but when put up against Strong’s typical matches it’s fascinating.
Rating: ***¾

Black Market comes out so that Joey Machete can cut a promo that he could have accomplished the last time he got on the microphone. He says that even though he and Murphy are supposed to fight Kenny King and Chasyn Rance tonight they’re willing to fight all four members of the YRR. Dave Prazak and his Associates come out instead and insert Shingo and Shane Hagadorn into the match instead of Madison and Rinauro.

VV
Murphy and Machete send everyone who tries to get into the ring back to the floor. The YRR and DP boys get a game plan going on the floor and decide that Shingo should start off against Murphy. Murphy grabs a headlock and bumps Shingo around so Shingo goes to the eyes. Hagadorn, King and Rance pull Murphy to the floor and put the boots to him. Shingo chokes Murphy with a chair as Milo distracts Machete and the referee. Back in the ring Rance gets 2 on Murphy. King tags in and goes to the eyes. Hagadorn tags in and gets a crossbody after Shingo clips Murphy’s knee. Rance comes in illegally and pins Murphy for 2. Hagadorn tags back in and goes to the eyes. Murphy is going to go blind. Shingo and Hagadorn hit a double shoulder tackle and Shingo walks on Murphy’s stomach. King tags in and hits a side Russian legsweep and a double jump legdrop for 2. Rance makes a blind tag and hits an enziguiri for 2. King tags in and goes to the eyes again but Murphy hits him with a backbreaker and a vertical suplex. Machete tags in and cleans house on all four opponents. He hits a backdrop on Hagadorn and a powerbomb on Rance for 2. Shingo hits him with a DDT for 2 when King pulls him off. Dissension emerges between King and Shingo so Machete rolls Shingo up for 2. He cradles King for 2. He gets a backslide on Shingo for 2. Shingo and King get back on the same page just in time for Machete to hit them both with clotheslines. Murphy tags in and hits an overhead suplex on Shingo and then hits one on King. Holy crap his face is purple, but that’s not enough to stop him and Machete from hitting the Blackout on Hagadorn for the win at 8:22. They definitely made Black Market look strong here, and since none of the heels got decimated it didn’t hurt them too much either.
Rating: **

Machete cuts his third promo of the night after the match. He does his best Ian Rotten impression by talking about everything else on the card even though he’s not involved in it. He announces that next time FIP comes to Crystal River it’ll he the Black Market vs. the YRR in a Loser Leaves Town for 90 Days match.

This is the THQ version of a TLC match in that the match ends in a pin and not by climbing a ladder to reach anything. Sal stalls to start and then uses the referee as a human shield. Delay catches him with a back bodydrop. He goes after Sal with a chair but Sal kicks his face to gain control. Delay goes for the chair again so Sal bails again. This time around Delay follows him out with a topé suicida. He rams Sal’s head into a table and rolls him back into the ring. Sal hits a back elbow and tosses Delay into the turnbuckle. He hits a basement dropkick for 2. He hits a back suplex and sets up two chairs. He stands on the chairs and hits a back suplex off of them for 2. He goes to the eyes and kicks Delay’s face for 2. He hits a neckbreaker and brings a second ladder into the ring. Delay dropkicks the ladder into Sal but Sal comes back with a hiptoss through a table on the floor. He goes for the pin but they only count in the ring. Sal plants Delay on the apron for 2. Delay comes back with a chair shot to the face, busting Sal open. It gets 2. He sets a ladder up in the corner and catapults Sal into it. He hits a series of clotheslines and a leaping forearm for 2. He tosses Sal crotch-first into the ladder and dropkicks his back for 2 after Sal falls back onto a chair. Delay sets up another pair of chairs and tries to suplex Sal onto them but Sal blocks and suplexes Delay to the floor. Sal rams Delay’s head into the post and goes for a sunset bomb off the second rope. Delay comes back with a backdrop off the second through a table on the floor. Back in the ring Delay gets 2. He sits Sal in a chair and clotheslines him out of it. He climbs a ladder but misses a splash off of it. Sal brings in the second ladder and drives it into Delay’s back for 2. He sets the second ladder up next to the first and pulls Delay up. Delay fights back and hits a hurricanrana off the ladder for 2. Sal crotches Delay up top and then hits a super duperplex off of the ladder for 2. That really could have been the finish. Sal sets a chair up in the corner and then puts Delay up top. Delay hits Sal with the chair and comes off the top with a backflip senton for 2 when Claudio Castagnoli runs in to break up the pin and hit Delay with his briefcase. He drapes Sal on top for the win at 19:02. You’ve seen all these spots before in WWE ladder matches, but they were executed well enough here to entertain for twenty minutes. The finish was an awful way to end the match and an awful way to introduce Claudio as a member of the YRR, so points shaved for that.
Rating: ***½

Erick Stevens makes the save with his dog collar chain and the Black Market clears the YRR from ringside. Weren’t they supposed to keep EVERYONE from the ring during the TLC match? Why was Claudio able to get through? Stevens slowly walks out and the main event begins.