FIP Return of the Dream, Pinellas Park, FL
Back before FIP brought the hottest indie stars of the day to sunny Florida and later had other shows in sunny Florida, it was a Florida indie that often traded on some of the names of yesteryear. Anyway here’s the main event of their show from Nov. 29, 2003 in Pinellas Park.
Ralph Mosca takes a long time to walk out and the ring announcer goes HE WON’T BE COMING OUT UNTIL YOU MAKE SOME NOOOOIIIIIIISE and it’s like, well. Mosca was a vet, had done some job work for the WWF in the early 90s. Sullivan and Dusty you know, surely. And then there is Bubba the Love Sponge, a local morning show host (at the time) who has been involved in wrestling occasionally.
Against norms, Bubba starts the match with Mosca. Bubba doesn’t have the worst collar-and-elbow you’ll ever see in a pro wrestling ring, and Mosca gets up nicely for a hiptoss and does the best he can getting up for a scoop slam.
The Florida legends tag in and Sullivan gets right on Dusty, throwing some of the loosest punches you’re gonna find, as these are old men. Dusty knocks over a table outside and Sullivan hits him with a bit of metal a bit. They go back into the ring and Dusty no-sells a few shots and hits a series of elbows within the flip, flop n’ fly.
Mosca comes in with Dusty to take a few shots of his own, then pokes Rhodes in the eye to take control. Dusty’s at that age and in that condition where he can’t really sell anymore other than to make faces; Sullivan never sold, really, but I saw something similar in that 2019 match between Kevin and Brian Pillman Jr. Even considering Sullivan never sold, he really can’t anymore. His body doesn’t work for whipping your head and back around or anything, certainly not taking bumps.
Bubba gets in with Sullivan and takes a bump on a clothesline, then Dusty “tags back in” after Sullivan feebly misses an elbow drop. The thing is, Dusty never actually left the ring to be tagged back in. I mean, Bubba tags him, but Dusty wasn’t going back on the fucking apron, stepping through the ropes two more times.
Dusty does a bit more on Mosca, while Sullivan fucks off somewhere, done for the night. Bubba gets the tag to finish with a splash from the second rope, beautifully executed. Dusty and Bubba leave triumphantly to some horrendous cover of “Midnight Rider.”
Again, this is another of those novelty matches where I understand that this is not “good” and is not even a two-star match, but I also cannot get mad at this, because it’s exactly what you should expect it to be. Not every movie in the world is going to be a classic or even competent, and the same goes for wrestling matches, but there is some fun to be had with, like, seven minutes or whatever of this bullshit total. Bubba the Love Sponge seems like a dink to me, but hey, it’s Dusty and Sullivan in Florida, they do a couple things, Ralph Mosca’s out there trying to pull this thing together into resembling a remotely competent wrestling match, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s fine for being exactly what it is, which is a way to promote your local wrestling show on a local radio station. That it was recorded and I could watch it on the internet 16 and a half years later is just a blessing.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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