Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Mark Nulty with Lenny Leonard doing intros and interviews.
Opening Match: Don Juan vs. Mikey Batts.
Juan is pissed because his valet, Angel Williams, was spanked the night before and refuses to show up. Prazak uses that as evidence that women are useless. Batts confounds Juan with his quickness, but Don Juan catches him with a tilt-o-whirl backbreaker. Juan picks him apart while arguing with the crowd. Batts hits a wheelbarrow stunner and a thrust kick. The Fameasser puts Juan down. Juan reverses Mikey's rana to a powerbomb for two, but he stops to argue the count, allowing Mikey to hit the Code Red for the win at 5:39. **
Kahagas vs. Erick Stevens.
I swear Kahagas is one of those generic wrestlers you have to beat on THQ wrestling games. Kahagas controls with chops early, but Stevens catches him with a powerslam. A senton gets two. Kahagas reverses a whip and hits the reverse suplex for the win at 3:24. Nothing much happening here. Neither guy was particularly impressive. 3/4*
Antonio Banks vs. Jared Steel.
Banks is pissed off after last night, but he offers Steel a handshake anyway. Nulty goes into Banks' criminal history. Don't hear about that on Smackdown. Pretty clean match from both guys. Banks gets a nice armbar/legscissors combo, triggering a slugfest. I wonder how much Banks is influenced by the Rock because some of his mannerisms are spot on. The dropdown actually works, as Bank trips up Steel. I can't remember the last time I saw that actually work. Banks boots Steel for two and hits a stiff clothesline. Steel comes back with a German Suplex and a Russian Leg Sweep. The spinebuster sets up a quebrada for two. Banks slugs Steel in the gut and finishes with a roundhouse back kick at 6:16. **1/2
911 Inc. (w/Ron Neimi) vs. Double Deuce.
Neimi makes jokes about his team being on steroids. Hey, truth in advertising could work. Double Deuce is Marcus Dillon and Frankie Capone. Usually, the Shane Twins (the Gymini in the WWE) are a regular team, but Rod Steel is subbing for Todd Shane. 911 Inc. plays the heel role. I rolled my eyes when these guys came out, but damned if they're not all pretty good. Capone plays face-in-peril for most of the match, but Dillon cleans house once he gets the hot tag, and Capone finishes Steel with a spear at 5:50. Rushed tag formula match. *1/2
Strong-Style Challenge: BJ Whitmer vs. "The Master of the Backbreaker" Roderick Strong.
Whitmer has been running down Florida, and Strong is from Florida, so this is a natural feud. It's a clean, technical match until Whitmer goes to the eyes. Strong fires back with chops. BJ blocks a charge and slows it down with a headlock. BJ blocks a sunset flip and hits a rope-assisted neckbreaker. OUCH! BJ goes to work on the neck with another neckbreaker and a series of elbows to the back of the neck. Roderick FIRES back with a chop, but BJ stands strong and swats away a missile dropkick. Roderick fights out of a sleeper, and they chop it out. Strong hits a desperation backbreaker for a double KO tease. Roderick recovers first and fires off a series of chops and the uranage backbreaker. BJ counters the Half-Nelson Backbreaker to a German Suplex and powerbombs Roddy for two. Roderick escapes the Wrist-Clutch Exploder and powerslams BJ. The double gutbuster finishes a hard-fought match at 13:14. I don't know if I'd necessarily call it "strong-style," but it was a nicely put-together match. ***
Four-Way Fray: Azrieal (w/CM Punk) vs. Sal Rinauro vs. "The Soul Assassin" Rainman vs. Dan Maff.
Punk leaves to get ready for his title match, so Azrieal is on his own. Maff opens up on everyone and slaps Rinauro around. Azrieal picks his spot and jumps Rainman. The idea here is that Maff and Rainman are both buddies to Homicide, so they hate the New Dawn. Rinauro gets all cocky and gets squashed with the Burning Hammer at 3:35.
That leaves Azrieal alone with Rainman and Maff. Azrieal, do you like movies about gladiators? Maff and Rainman take turns chopping Azrieal's chest into hamburger. Rainman hits a powerslam, and Maff adds a packaged Dragon Suplex. It's Rainman's turn again, so he hits the Side-Splitter. Maff kicks him out of the ring, though, and gets the pin for himself at 5:56.
Rainman is still hurt, so Maff goes heelish and starts rattling off power moves. A German Suplex gets two. Rainman tries to slip over him, but Maff blocks and hits the Half-Nelson Suplex for two. Rainman blocks a suplex but gets elbowed in the head. The cannonball misses, allowing Rainman to recover. They slug it out, and Rainman hits a dropkick and a backdrop. Maff begs off but blocks Rainman's charge with a boot. The Dark City Street Cutter (piggy-backed Stunner) only gets two. That was WAY oversold by Maff. Maff avoids the Shining Wizard but get dropkicked in the back of the head. Now it's Rainman who can't finish Maff as he only gets two off a moonsault. Maff catches him with a clothesline, but Rainman finishes with another Dark City Street Cutter at 12:50. *3/4
"Fast" Eddie Vegas & Jimmy Rave (w/Dave Prazak) vs. "Mr. 630" Jerrelle Clark & Insane Dragon.
The previous night, Vegas and Rave wrestled a decent match and were offered contracts to join Prazak's DP Associates. They saw the dollar figures and decided to accept the offer. Prazak made the same offer to Clark and Dragon after their match, but they declined, so DP Associates attacked them, and we get this match. Rave can't figure out Clark's crazy offense -- well, a hammerlock – so he tags out in a hurry. Clark winds up playing face-in-peril. Jimmy nails him with a few elbows, but Clark comes back with a series of armdrags. Goofy spot as the heels try to punch the babyfaces, but they're standing too close and wind up hooking each other's arms. Much like the Dodge Dart, I'm not buying it. Now, Izzy winds up playing face-in-peril thank to a sneak attack from Vegas. DP Associates goes to work on Izzy's back. He tries a sunset lip, but Rave rolls through to a knee to the face. They team up for a Double Goozle for two. Izzy hits a springboard DDT and gets the HOT TAG TO CLARK! Clark cleans house, and he and Izzy hit a modified Death Sentence with Clark hitting his 630-splash. It's the illegal man, though, so the ref won't count. Vegas hits Izzy with his Tombstone Piledriver, but Izzy's not legal either. The ref breaks up the Clark Bar. The finish sees Insane Dragon holding Eddie, but Clark accidentally hits him with the spinning kick. Izzy gets pissed and dropsaults Clark, leading to a Cradle Suplex and the Rave Slam (Ghanarrhea in ROH). That's enough for the win at 18:27. After the match, DP Associates and Izzy lay the boots to Clark until all the other babyfaces make the save. **1/4
FIP Heavyweight Title, Falls Count Anywhere in Tampa: Homicide vs. CM Punk.
It's no DQ, so Azrieal runs down, and the New Dawn doubleteams Homicide. Rainman runs out and brawls with Azrieal, making it a fair fight again. Homicide and Punk brawl out into the crowd and up to the sound system area. The brawl spills over to the pool table where Punk gets two. A garbage can gets involved as Homicide blocks a can shot and dumps it on Punk's head. Punk extricates himself from the garbage bag, and they brawl to the outside. Punk scurries up to the top of a Ryder truck, and we can't see anything because the camera crew can't get to the top. Punk goes for the Pepsi Plunge but gets clotheslined. They scale back down where Homicide rakes Punk's face across a nearby mesh fence. Eventually, they brawl all the way to "Li'l Tootsie's" strip club. Homicide hits a chop but gets backdropped on the concrete. We get a clip as the brawl spills into the strip club. BUT THEY DIDN'T PAY THE COVER! Punk uses the stripper pole to hit a 619 on Homicide and then stops to dance with one of the strippers. The stripper gets in the way of the cameraman, but no one is complaining. She ignores the match, climbs up the pole and distracts Punk for a bit, allowing Homicide to recover. They fight into the back room where Homicide hiptosses Punk onto a couch. You know, while I'm sure it's softer, I still think it's probably healthier to get hiptossed on the concrete. They brawl back to where the girls are doing a little lesbian routine. Classy. Punk stops to call them whores. More clipping leads to the outside where Homicide drops Punk on his head with the piledriver on the concrete for the anticlimactic win at 12:32. Homicide celebrates with the strippers. Um…w-words cannot describe this. It was every WWE hardcore match during the Crash Holly 24-7 years rolled into one. It's definitely interesting and creative. ***
The Sandman (w/Missy Hyatt) vs. New Jack (08.30.03).
This is a DVD bonus match. Not sure why they didn't just release these shows because, while the talent isn't as good, the crowd is about five times bigger. New Jack says it ain't personal and after the match, they can go get some crack. Speaking of crack, Missy arrives and gives Sandy a beer and a cig. In fact, Missy could probably be arrested for hauling fifty pounds of crack in those spandex bottoms she's wearing. Not good, grandma. Not good. Sandy beats on the Nuje with a tire iron and bulldogs him on some sort of sheet of metal. They brawl into the crowd. Somehow, New Jack gets busted open pretty badly. He still manages to grab a cash register, though. Missy turns on Sandman, allowing New Jack to smash the register over his head at 5:40. I guess what they say is true: once you go black, you go from black to Asian to Mexican to Norwegian to American Indian to Tutsi to Czech and back to black again. New Jack gets on the mic and says there was a time when blacks couldn't ride the bus, now they own the bus company and are "fucking the white women." Al Sharpton couldn't have said it better. Longer maybe, but not better. Missy grabs the mic and confirms the whole "once you go black" axiom. I'll give this 1/4* only for the thought of someone trading up to New Jack.
The 411: A damn sight better than the first two shows thanks largely to the direction they were able to establish in the booking. I actually like the DP Associates angle, and the Punk/Homicide rivalry is producing some fun, if not technically "good", matches. Good enough for a thumbs up.
