Reviews From the City of Orange: FIP: Fallout - 10/8/05

Posted by Mike Campbell on 08.06.2008

Milano Collection AT and Roderick Strong steal the show!

FIP FALLOUT 2005
October 8, 2005
Thanks to the people at Big Vision Entertainment for sending this review copy along.

And this is the other half of the DVD, and as the name implies, it showcases the fallout from the events of the night before. Cabana/Rinauro challenge for the tag titles, Homicide gets his hands on Rainman, and Jimmy Rave and Sean Waltman collide once again.

Milano Collection AT . . . continues to impress me with a very good performance against Roderick Strong.
Colt Cabana . . . may have worked his ass off the night before, but he’s still a comedian at heart.
Jimmy Rave . . . shows some signs of wrestling ability with his ability to work a southern tag match.

RODERICK STRONG vs. MILANO COLLECTION AT
This doesn’t look like a squash match, but it may as well be. Strong’s offense is more or less token, while Milano pretty much annihilates him. Milano targets the midsection of Strong and forgoes his usual array of gaga and tricked out holds in favor of simply and effectively working over the area with things like a body scissors, stomach claw, and bow and arrow. There’s also a very smart touch from Milano after Strong surprises him with a backbreaker and a backdrop suplex. Milano sets up Strong for a reverse piledriver, but smartly takes a moment to sell his back before he does the move. Strong’s offense isn’t very spectacular, his usual array of chops, and a couple of backbreakers to make it look like he’s got a chance of winning. Strong does throw in his own smart touch after he catches Milano with a superplex and remembers to sell his midsection. Other than that, Strong’s big performance here is in his selling of Milano’s assault on his midsection, and it’s to the point that when Milano hits the Armani Shoe Exchange (usually a mid level move) there’s no question that it’s enough to end the match. It’s really too bad that Milano’s stay in ROH and FIP was so short, if this is any indication of the kind of matches that he was capable of having ***1/4

SEAN DAVIS/PHIL DAVIS © vs. COLT CABANA/SAL RINAURO (FIP Tag Team Titles)
How sad is it that I’ve now seen three FIP shows, and I still have no idea if the champions can work or not? Cabana and Rinauro impressed me the night before, but this isn’t a good follow up to that. This is basically fifteen minutes of comedy spots with a copout finish. The comedy was fine at first, it actually seemed to foreshadow a potential strategy for the challengers. Rinauro was running circles around Sean and smacking him in the ass, the underlying message being that Rinauro could use his speed to his advantage. But they just continue with the comedy, and it stops being funny. There is a stretch of about two minutes where the champions get to work over Rinauro, but there’s no hope spots or false tags or anything to generate some drama or emotion to it. Cabana tags back in and its right back to the comedy. SoCal Val interferes to cause a disqualification, not a bad idea in theory, but it helps if it the match gives the impression of new champions possibly being crowned.

AUSTIN ARIES/JIMMY RAVE vs. SEAN WALTMAN/AZRIEAL
At first this looked like it was going to be another match more concerned with gaga, but when it finally did pick up some steam, it came off fairly well. Aries, Rave, and Azrieal all play second fiddle to Waltman, which makes sense given his status. But considering that the angle surrounding the match involved Azrieal, and that the best parts of the match involved Waltman on the apron, the match as a whole suffered from it. Almost the entire first half is Aries and Rave stalling and then stooging for Waltman. It probably seems odd to think of Aries doing that, if you’ve only seen him as the ultra serous ‘Wrestling Machine’ in ROH, but he actually does a very good job of it.

When Aries and Rave get to work over Azrieal is when this finally gets interesting. Like the tag champions, they’re not even close to Tully and Arn or the Midnights, but they know what to do and when to do it, and they’re also helped by the angle itself, which lends a lot of sympathy and heat to Azrieal. And thankfully, it’s given enough time to develop, Aries and Rave are both great at cutting off Azrieal’s comebacks, and intercepting potential hot tags. Cue the hot tag, the heels bump and sell like crazy for Waltman, Waltman tries to let Azrieal get the glory and the heels steal it away from him, with a kick to the knee and another to the head from Aries and Rave finishes off Azrieal with the pedigree. There’s times when being formulaic can be synonymous with being unoriginal, but this is a good example of why a formula exists, the usually duller than dirt Jimmy Rave can follow it and be interesting as a result.

HOMICIDE © vs. RAINMAN (FIP Heavyweight Title - Anything Goes)
At first this looked like the match that Rainman and Banks had the month before, but this isn’t nearly as long and nowhere near as goofy. There’s a still a good amount of brawling into the stands and on the floor, no surprise considering that Rainman had jumped Homicide from behind at the last two shows. But aside from the use of the cooler, they’re not as over the top with the props. Homicide gets some embarrassing payback on Rainman in the form of using the ring bell on his ear, and the camel clutch while pulling Rainman’s beard. There was one really nice touch, although I suspect it wasn’t intentional. Homicide went for a piledriver on the stage area and Rainman back dropped him over. Homicide spent the rest of the match on his back, either he sold what was usually a meaningless transition like death, or he really hurt himself. And seeing as Rainman had to roll him into the ring, kill him with a chinlock, and then Homicide fluke pins him with a small package, I’d bet on the latter. Aries and Rave jump Homicide afterwards and injure his arm (which would lead to Homicide losing the FIP Title in January in ROH), and the rest of the locker room runs out and brawls with each other.

The 411: This is definitely an improvement over the show from the night before, but there’s only four matches, and nothing terribly long. Milano/Strong was the best match of the entire DVD, but they’ve both had better matches. The Aries/Rave tag is a pleasant surprise, but I’ve even seen Rave do better. Recommendation to avoid this DVD.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]