by BIG D - THE EMPIRE'S FIP Correspondent

Last month, FIP became REDEFINED, as a lot of things came to an end and a lot of things became anew, and others were refreshed. Roderick regained the championship in controversial fashion and Aries challenged for it. So that main event was immediately signed and placed on this card. Besides that, we also saw the return of FIP favorites Delirious, Jigsaw, and the Briscoes.

A lot of people around me were calling this show the "appetizer" to the insane wrestling weekend next week. I couldn't mind a more fitting title. This show, while it didn't have the barbaric main event we saw at Redefined, still furthered storylines and was really used to set up next week's ROH weekend (at least in the main event picture).

"Unfinished Business 2008" was held at the National Guard Armony in Crystal River, Florida, or as I affectionally call it - the FIP Arena.

Show opens with Johnathan Gold welcoming us as he always does kindly. Erick Stevens comes out and cuts a promo on Roderick Strong talking about how he was screwed last month. The rematch is indeed signed as one of the big main events during the ROH/Wrestlemania weekend. Of all people, SHANE HAGADORN~! comes out and interrupts Stevens. With the crumbling of the DP Assosiates, Hagadorn, (as well as Milo Beasley who is now homeless) is now without any guidance. So he challenges Stevens to a match tonight to try to ruin his momentum. Stevens says he doesn't want to wait until later and attacks him.

Match #1: Erick Stevens defeated Shane Hagadorn with the Doctor Bomb. Poor Erick Stevens. He went from Main Eventing and losing the FIP World Title to opening the show with SHANE HAGADORN of all people. But seriously, this match was designed to make Stevens look like a monster. He ran wild at the start, stiffing and pounding the former ROH Wrestling School student. Shane got the heat for a short while until Stevens powered out of his figure four leg lock. Stevens made his comeback with the Choo Choo Clothesline and the Doctor Bomb for the win. Decent match, perfect for TV. (**)

After the match, Roderick Strong came out and blindsided Stevens with the FIP championship belt, knocking him out cold.

We then had two nameless guys come out (well they announced their names, but I totally missed it). I REALLY hate to use the term "Vanilla Midgets", but these guys exemplified that. Then again, they were supposed to since they were there as enhancement talent to put over two other guys. We had the MYSTERIOUS MASKED MEN that attacked the Black Market last month appear. They got into the ring and unmasked to reveal that they were JON DAVIS and KORY CHAVIS (Yes, the same Kory Chavis who got "beat up" by Kurt Angle in a "SHOOT~!" on Impact). They cut a promo on the Black Market. They didn't really give a REASON for beating up Black Market other than to make a name for themselves, but I may have missed it if they did. They reveal their name to the DARK CITY FIGHT CLUB~! (Two movie titles combined).

Match #2: Jon Davis and Kory Chavis squashed Two Jobbers (I did not catch their names)

These men proceeded to destroy the two vanilla midgets quickly. We saw some pretty cool looking tag moves (not so sure how they'll be able to do them on 400 lb Shawn Murphy), including one nasty bump one of the jobbers took to the floor that sounded absolutely sick. All you heard was a THUMP when he hit the ground. But yes, the Dark City Fight Club absolutely killed these men, I suppose to send a message to Black Market, who were not in attendance tonight.(*)

After the match, Dark City Fight Club cuts a promo on Black Market.

Match #3: Ernie Osirus defeated Chris Jones. Top of the Class Trophy winner Ernie Osirus makes his debut in FIP (to my knowledge) to face Chris Jones, a relative newcomer who worked the previous night at the new Pro Wrestling GEAR promotion, headed up by Roderick Strong. Pretty decent match for two guys new to FIP. Chris Jones is very crisp with his moves and an absolute GEEK. He's basically Matt Sydal 2.0. The man had to ask the crowd before he did ANY move "should I do it?" then when they said yes he went "here it comes!" then after he did it he went "there it goes!". Ernie didn't have much of a personality - something he should work on. We laughed quite hard at the geekyness of it. Overall, not a bad undercard match. Chris Jones wins with a Backlund Bridge! (**)

The Dark City Fight Club returned once again and beat the piss out of Osirus and Jones. Then, Johnathan Gold steps into the ring (the poor bastard) and tells them that he got off the phone with Black Market and that they will indeed be here next month. Dark City accepts the challenge. Kory Chavis asks Johnathan Gold how he knows this and if he's a friend of theirs. Gold doesn't really know what to say, but if you've been watching wrestling for any length of time, you know what's about the happen. Funny enough, the crowd was begging for them to do it. So yeah, Chavis has a "message" for Black Market and yes, they beat the fuck out of Johnathan Gold. The most shocking this about this was, during the beating, HIS GLASSES DID NOT FALL OFF~!. I stood there in awe as this man took two big power moves and got dropped all over the place and his GLASSES DIDNT FALL OFF! HOW? He's like Doctor Octopus~!

"The Man with the 1980s Ric Flair House Show Schedule" Lenny Leonard will now take over the announcing duties for the night.

They screwed up the music at first and had to do a retake, but that's OK. The YRR come out and talk their usual shit (with NEW HOES, as Kenny King put it). Tyler Black from the Age of the Fall comes out (as a babyface in FIP).

Match #4: Tyler Black (w/ Lacey and Rain) defeated FIP Tag Team Champion Jason Blade. REALLY Good match, best one of the night up until this point. Jason Blade is one of the most underrated young guys in wrestling and Tyler Black is a tremendous athelete and performer. It's so eerie as to how much Black reminds me of old-school CM Punk. They have a similar build, similar hair style, similar beard and face, and similar maneurisms. Black may be the better athelete of the two though. Black ran wild and then got cut off. This happened a couple of times until Black made his big comeback and won with the Small Package Driver DANGEROUSSSSS!!! (***1/2)

Afterwards, the YRR, as usual, jumped on Tyler Black until he was saved by the returning Briscoes, who want their gold back. Briscoes challenged the YRR and Sal Rinauro says that they haven't beaten the YRR yet. Basically, if they win tonight, we will probably see the Tag Title match in April.

Match #5: The Briscoes versus Kenny King and Sal Rinauro went to a No-Contest. This didn't last long as Chasyn ran in and helped YRR stomp the Briscoes out. Then DELIRIOUS made his return and ran wild, cleaning the ring out. Huge pop. We now have a six man tag...

Match #6: The Briscoes and Delirious defeated FIP Tag Team Champion Kenny King, FIP Florida Heritage Champion Sal Rinauro, and Chasyn Rance of the YRR in a 6-Man Tag Team Match. The match opened with a lot of comedy spots from Delirious and the Briscoes calling Sal Rinauro a chicken. Lots of Chicken chants. Yes, this sounds unbelievably corny in 2008, but it was actually pretty funny there in person. The image of Mark Briscoe doing a chickendance will be engraved into my skull for many decades to come. Delirious even pulled a kid out of the crowd to do it with him. He then took Sal's back and Sal tried to break out and Delirious sort of let him go, with Sal still thinking he was there, and moving his elbows and shoulders like a chicken in the process. Like I said, it sounds corny, but there isnt one person in that crowd who didnt think it was funny as fuck. Anyways, Delirious ran wild. We saw some early tag action. YRR gets the heat on Jay Briscoe. After a few minutes, hot tag to Delirious who also ran wild but got cut off. Heels began to beat Delirious down. Lots of teasing. Hot tag to Mark who came in like a house of fire and also got cut off after a few. He got beat down as well. Some cheating involved of course. Finally our FOURTH HOT TAG~! to Delirious who ran wild again. All six men got in the ring and it broke down. Delirious nails the Panic Attack on Sal Rinauro. Then we saw a Jay Driller and a Cutthroat Driver on the other YRR members. Delirious slaps the Cobra Stretch on Sal and he taps, probably setting up Delirious vs. Sal for the Heritage Title. Very fun match, though a little long. (***3/4)

--Intermission--

After Intermission, SUPERSTAR SEAN DAVIS came out from the Heartbreak Express (so much for saying goodbye). Sean Davis tells us that if we thought we'd seen the end of him, we were mistaken. He says that they are no longer allowed to wrestle in FIP, but that doesn't mean they cant do other things. Sean says he went out and got his managerial license and that Fabolous Phil got certified as a security guard. He presents the newest entity to conquer FIP: HEARTBREAK ENTERPRISES. He brings out Rex Sterling and Damien Wayne, the first new clients of HBE.

Match #7: Rex Sterling and Damien Wayne of HEARTBREAK ENTERPRISES~! defeated Jigsaw (w/o the mask) and Seth Delay

This match was in a bad spot in the card. I understand it's a buffer match and all, but the crowd was dead at this point and it went on way too long. "Kool" Seth Delay ran wild and got cut off. Sterling and Wayne took turns beating down Seth. By the way, when I said Vanilla Midgets earlier, I really don't want to offend ANYBODY, but this guy is the purest manifestation of that. He was a chunky kid with a mushroom cut and redhair and wrestling tights. SUPER DUPER INDY~! At least Damien had the "gay biker" look to him with the leather pants. In fact, they should switch names. "Rex Sterling" sounds a lot more biker-ish. Anyways, hot tag to Jigsaw who ran wild. Finish came when Superstar Sean, behind the ref's back, clocked Jig in the back of the head with a shoe and then Damien delivered a disgusting jumping piledriver for the 3. I can't say I was too big a fan of this match, but overall, nothing sloppy or anything like that. (*3/4).

On a personal note: JIGSAW NEEDS THE MASK~!~!. When he had the mask, Jigsaw stood out and was very over. I remember a few months ago he challenged Erick Stevens for the Heritage Title and actually was MORE OVER than Stevens (who's very popular down here). The people were cheering for him. When he came out tonight, he was JUST ANOTHER GUY. I also told a few people about the missed merchandise opportunities. Jigsaw masks would sell and fact is, he had one of the coolest and most creative looking masks in wrestling. Now he just looks like another indy geek with red pants. He MUST put the mask back on.

Larry Sweeney comes out and actually gets an unbelievable pop. I was pretty shocked at this, as only a handful of people understood the greatness that is Larry Sweeney, but apparently he is getting unbelievably over as a babyface. It seems like it's IMPOSSIBLE to hate Larry Sweeney, but damn did Larry try when he cut a promo about how ugly the fans were and how trashy Crystal River is and whatnot. He tried to heel the crowd, but it didnt work. It was hilarious. He went and said he looked better than everybody in the crowd, and the crowd actually cheered that, some people even nodded and others were like "YES YOU ARE LARRY". What has the world come to. Sweeney said he's taking the belt tonight. Last time we saw him, he had the Tex-Arcana Television Title - but that belongs to the EMPIRE now.

Nigel comes out and says while all the fans around the world are dicks, he knows he can count on the Floridians to stay behind him, which we did. He threatened to kick Sweeney's ass and off to the races we went.

Match #8: ROH World Champion Nigel McGuiness defeated "Sweet and Sour" Larry Sweeney to retain the title. This was a very good old-school heel vs. babyface match, but a little bit odd. Lots of stalling in the early parts of the match. McGuiness started the attack on Sweeney, but one thing that stood out about the match was that Nigel was being very careful with Sweeney, and it showed. Whenever Nigel hit one of his big lariats, he didn't really STIFF him or even hit him that hard at all. He was being extremely careful with this man, and while it's good to protect the other worker, a lot of the fans thought it came off as weak since he's been breaking people's jaws for the past year and a half or so. Anyways, Sweeney made the heel comeback and tried to win using the ropes a number of times. Nigel made his comeback, hit him with the Tower of London, then an admittedly soft Lariat and got the pin. Pretty decent old-school match, but nothing to go out of your way to see. (**3/4)

Match #9: FIP World Champion Roderick Strong defeated Austin Aries to retain the title. This was the main event of the show for the FIP World Title. This was very much like the pay-per-view match they had, with damn near every wrestling move in the book used. Difference is, this went on last, which was a good thing, but also, the crowd was getting really tired to the point where Aries even said "you guys aren't gettin tired on me are you?". Yes Austin, we were, this is a four and a half hour wrestling show and I personally drove an hour or so from Tampa to get there. But anyways, the match started with typical armlocks and reversals, lots of ground work. They slowly started to speed the pace up quicker and quicker as they went along. Lots of stiff chops and forearms, not unlike any of the other matches that they've had. Finish came when both guys went to the outside and Roderick crawled back in. Nigel came in out of nowhere and clocked Aries and Roderick won via countout to retain the title. (***3/4)

Good match to close the show, but I gotta say, I wouldn't have done two countouts on back to back shows like that. I know it's a little bit of a different style of finish and I guess they didn't want Aries to get pinned, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to do them two months in a row.

I had been hearing leading into the show that they would announce the stipulation for the Stevens/Strong match at ROH Tonight, but I heard no such thing. Overall a pretty decent show - thumbs in the middle. I don't think it was as good as last month's, mainly because of that killer main event, but that's alright because the show furthered storylines, debuted some new people, and brought back some favorites. They also set up Stevens vs. Strong and Nigel vs. Aries for the Ring of Honor Weekend Shows. Full Impact Pro returns to the National Guard Armory in Crystal River, Florida on April 2008. For more information, check out http://fullimpactpro.com.

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