by Mr. FIP, BIG D

Friday Night, Full Impact Pro returned to the National Guard Armory in Crystal River, Florida to present "In Full Force 2008", featuring the stars of the FIP, joined by the debut of Scotty Too Hotty, and, as a last minute addition: The NEW F’N Show, Jerry Lynn.

Last month’s FIP show ended with an unbelievably brutal Last Man Standing Match between FIP Champion Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens where Strong came out victorious. Stevens was challenged by Roderick’s No Remorse Corps’ partner Davey Richards, and they would face off tonight. Plus, the war between the Black Market and Dark City Fight Club continued.

Typical introduction by the great John Gold welcoming us back. Very hot and rowdy crowd tonight. There were definitely more people here than last month, which is kind of surprising considering all of the hype that Stevens vs. Strong got last month. Well, Jerry Lynn and Scotty 2 Hotty were on this show, so mainstream star power probably drew them.

Match #1: Chris Jones defeated Dingo. Supergeek Chris Jones is back! I’m glad to see him a steady member of the FIP roster. He faced off against Dingo, one of the ROH students. Dingo, even though he was very popular at the ROH shows during Wrestlemania weekend, was obviously playing heel here and the crowd knew and remembered to pop for the geek. Chris Jones ran wild, but sadly didn’t do his typical "here it comes!" routine like I wrote about before. Maybe he read the column and realized he was a dork doing it. Anyways, Dingo cut him off. Dingo needs some work as a heel. Didn’t look too menacing. Chris Jones made a comeback and Dingo went for a cross body but fucked it up. Chris Jones was hit sort of on his side and fell oddly. A mistiming. The finish was another half-way fuck up as Jones went for a moonsault, but ended up BARELY touching Dingo’s knees for the 3. Last time I checked, you can’t knock somebody out by splashing their knees. Finish was a Fail. (*3/4)

Some new guy named Kyle O Reilly came out with some green and black indy pants. I’ve never seen him before so he was new to me. Heartbreak Enterprises comes out with Babydoll. Superstar Sean cut a promo about Fabolous Phil beating up the crowd if they continued to talk. When Sean tells the rednecks to "SHUT UP!" its never NOT funny. He is great. He says that Heartbreak Enterprises will bring in the "Pearl of the Orient" for their July show (which I’m assuming is either Shingo or Awesome Kong, both of which would be very welcome). But tonight, O Reilly will face Damien Wayne.

Match #2: Damien Wayne of Heartbreak Enterprises defeated Kyle O Reilly. Fail. Complete fail. The issue here wasn’t that these guys weren’t great workers or that they flubbed anything up, but the watch was WAY too long. It went almost to fifteen minutes by my count and that is way too much for a low-card match featuring one guy who needs LOTS of time to be built up and another whom we’ve never seen before. I thought they were going have O Reilly win with a flash pin and score and upset or have Damien Wayne squash him. Neither happened. The match had NO HEAT. They just did moves and nobody cared. I wish somebody had told them to go home because this FAILED. This just went on, and on, and on, and on. Finally Kyle makes an impressive comeback (which gets little heat) but gets tapped out to a neckcrank. Thank God it’s over! (*) Match #3: Rain from the Age of the Fall defeated Daizee Haze. Your Shimmer Wrestling Match of the evening. All I have to say is four words: hot girls, blown spots. That describes this one. Daizee is a pretty good, experienced worker and Rain is slowly getting better, but the first half of this match just didn’t click. Lots of mistimed moved here and there. I don’t really mean to nitpick, but it really lacked any sort of interest from my entire section. Also, this match went WAY too long. Undercard matches like these need to NOT exceed 8 minutes, and we’ve had three that have and killed the crowd. Daizee won with something and I didn’t even watch what it was. You know how you fall asleep with your eyes open? Yeah that happened to me. (*)

Okay, so NOW the show kicks into high gear.

Davey Richards comes out and says that he wants to help his fellow No Remorse Corps member Roderick Strong tonight by taking out Erick Stevens, who has been chasing him for about six months now. Stevens cuts a promo too and we have our match.

Match #4: Erick Stevens defeated Davey Richards in a badass match. STIFF~!. That was the name of the game here, even though something was aloft. Davey Richards had a really fucking strange stain on his back, like he just shat his pants before coming out. Some people in the crowd poked fun while others like myself were just confused. But oh well, I don’t try to stare at MALE ass like a few other people, so I just ignored it. Crowd was amazingly HOT for Stevens. I always said he and Black Market are the most over acts in FIP and this proves it. Stevens starts out offensively but gets cut off. Lots of hard chopping and kicking back and forth. Davey starts to pound Stevens. Grabs on a Kimura but Stevens makes it to the ropes. Davey missed the Chris Benoit/Dynamite KId HEADBUTT~! Continues to pound him. Stevens makes a small comeback. Stevens hits the lift up powerslam. A few more nearfalls before Erick hits the Doctor Bomb for the win. Great Match, but I’m sure they can do better. (**3/4)

Match #5: The Dark City Fight Club defeated The Black Market in an Anything Goes Match. I knew before the match started that this would be our "lets fight into the crowd and wreck the place" match. So yes, mayhem. Two things going on at once like usual. One guy fights one guy on one side of the building and vise-versa. Highlights included Kory Chavis getting powerbombed through one of the merchandise tables in the BACK of the Armory, nasty chairshots and garbage can shots all over, and some chubby fat fuck in a Ric Flair shirt with a Coors Hat trying to get himself over on camera like a mark. Man, who is that guy? Damn he’s a handsome man. Anyways, finish came when Davis hit a DVD into a Powerbomb-type finish (I’m not sure if this has a name yet) for the threecount. Afterward, they lightly teased a split between Black Market (bad idea in Florida), and a promo from the Dark City Fight Club where they stated that they have ended Black Market. I doubt this feud is over. Fun match, but not different than any other Black Market match. (**3/4)

Johnathan Gold introduces Scotty 2 Hotty. Pretty big reaction. He says that even though he’s from up north, this weekend, Florida is his home. Ok. The YRR come out. Sal Rinauro cuts a promo on Scotty. Some back and forth banter until the YRR jump him. They throw him in the ring to lay a beating on him until Delirious comes out to make the save. So now we have a tag match booked for later tonight.

Intermission

Notes from Intermission: "Living Legend" Larry Zybysko was there selling his brand new book next to Babydoll. He told me he’s got "the dirt on McMahon". Sounds cool. Jerry Lynn came out for literally about 2 minutes to the autograph table, then dipped. Scotty 2 Hotty and his daughter were there signing autographs and selling pictures.

Match #6: FIP Tag Team Champions Kenny King and Jason Blade of the YRR (w/ three hoes) defeated Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs (w/ Rain and some chick from the crowd) of the Age of the Fall to retain the titles. Before the match starts, Tyler Black cuts a promo welcoming the leader of the AOTF fall to FIP: Jimmy Jacobs. Besides that, the NEWEST member of the AOTF: MR. MILO BEASLEY, is also there. Also, some random chick from the crowd says that she believes in their cause and is immediately put in the group. It’s pretty cool to see the Age of the Fall in FIP in full force, no pun intended. We just need Necro to return. Age of the Fall got a pretty decent pop.

They run wild for the first part of the match. Lots of back and forth action. Tyler Black is easily the most athletic and versatile of the two, but Jimmy has his moments of flash as well as a nice arsenal of moves. It’s kind of strange to see the Age of the Fall working babyface when they are probably the top heel faction in ROH. Heels cut them off and work them over for a long time. Blade and Kenny work very well together and I’d like to see them keep the belts for a little while longer, although I know if AOTF won, I’da popped. So fuckin, after a lot of heat, hot tag is made to Jimmy who runs wild and shenanigans occur. Lots of shenanigans from the chicks on the outside, breaking up pins and whatnot. Rain sees this and we have a catfight, ala Joey Styles. The three YRR hoes call the AOTF chicks into the ring. Ref is ok with it it seems. So it’s the three women on two and suddenly Mr. Milo Beasley jumps out of his wheelchair (It’s a MIRACLE!) to save the women, picking one up on his back and carrying her to the back. This was a MONSTER fucking pop~!. We have the GREATEST moment in FIP history. I have rarely seen a crowd pop THIS much. Lots of FUCKING AWESOME nearfalls after this that even fooled me, and I’ve been watching this business for a long time. Crowd continued to get hotter and hotter. Finish came when the other members of the YRR interfiered and cost Jimmy and Tyler the match. Fucking badass. Best match of the night by far. This is not over. (****)

Johnathan Gold comes to the ring to announce the title match (ALREADY?) and says that next month, FIP has signed Age of the Fall against the YRR once again for FIP in July, but this time, 2 out of 3 falls. Sounds good to me.

Match #7: FIP World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong defeated Austin Aries and JERRY LYNN~! In an Elimination Triple Threat Match to retain the title. Old-school ECW 3-way rules here. One issue I had with this is that this match should’ve gone on last and indeed it did not. I understand putting your name value talent on top like Scotty, but the World Title is much more important, not to mention its JERRY LYNN~!. By the way, Jerry Lynn is FUCKING OVER. Huge "Jerry" and "New F’N Show" chant.

Anyways, the match begins with Lynn and Aries trying to wrestle and Roderick trying to cheapshot them, but failing. Lynn and Aries do a few comedy spots, including a Jeff Jarrett strut, since both guys are familiar with THAT. Indeed, Fuck TNA~!. Anyways, really good wrestling early on. Fun three-way spots. The story early on is that Roderick wants to have Lynn and Aries beat each other so he can capitalize, but Lynn and Aries don’t make it that easy for him. We saw a nice Powerbomb/German Suplex combo and things like that. Lynn and Aries go one on one and Lynn hits the CRADLE PILEDRIVER~! to eliminate Aries. Then we got Roderick vs. Jerry Lynn, a match that can easily main event any FIP show (and needs to in the future). Lynn runs wild but gets cut off fast. Roderick starts to lay it in to Lynn. We see a lot of variations of backbreakers here and there. Roddy even busts out some of the ones we haven’t seen in a while. He works him over for a long time until Lynn makes a short comeback. Roderick cuts him off again and hits his super flying kick and goes for the Gibson Driver, but Lynn kicks away at him and goes for a Cradle Piledriver, but Roderick reverses, winds up, knocks Lynn’s jaw off with another kick, hits Gibsondriver for the win. Awesome! (****) About 18 Minutes of fun. Like I said - should’ve gone on last.

After the match, Roderick Strong cuts a promo proclaiming himself to being "unstoppable" and starts to list all of the people he’s beaten, including one of the all-time best in Jerry Lynn. Erick Stevens runs down and attacks Roderick and chases him off. Stevens grabs the microphone and says that Roderick indeed IS NOT unstoppable because he has beaten him on TWO SEPARATE occasions. He says there will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in July when FIP returns to Crystal River. He says they will have a match that he is very familiar with for the FIP title - A Dog Collar Match~!. Cool!

Match #8: Scotty 2 Hotty and Delirious defeated FIP Florida Heritage Champion Sal Rinauro and Chasyn "Not Cocky" Rance of the YRR. All comedy. My issue with this match was mainly two things; it went on FAR too long for a comedy match, and regardless of how big of a star Scotty is (which is debatable), the World Title should always go on last unless you’re doing a major feud blowoff gimmick match (War Games, etc). First 10 minutes again were Delirious doing the chicken shit with Sal (just like the last couple of months). Whatever.

Pure comedy all around, mainly by Delirious. One thing I will say about Scotty is that this man is VERY good at not only getting the crowd to pop loud (the crowd reaction during this match was ridiculous), but his facial expressions and body language are REALLY good. He would make a good agent in showing some of the younger guys how to react to certain things. Experience comes a long way. Anyways, he gets the hot tag. More comedy. The babyfaces literally dominated this match for the first half. Heels finally got some heat back after a while. Back and forth action. Lots of playing to the crowd. They tease the worm a buncha times. One thing I’ve always hated is the worm. So naturally, I’m not gonna be as marky as some of the kids in the crowd, but that is ok. Who am I to ruin somebody else’s fun? Anyways, Scotty finally hits the worm on Chasyn for the pin. Comedy Match. Too Long. NO BUYS main event. Crowd was completely into it though. (**)

After the match, Scotty cuts a promo (which I am not sure will make it to DVD) thanking FIP for letting him wrestle here. He says the one thing he knows everybody wants to see is Delirious doing the worm. MANY BUYS~! He says his young daughter Taylor is there (that would make her Taylor Taylor… not really). He says she has always wanted to do the Worm with Scotty so she will get her chance. She does it and it’s kind of cute and gets a big pop. Then came the true main event of the show, with Delirious hitting the Worm and flopping around like a fucking fish. Hilarious! And that’s it for our show.

This show was ehhhhh… not too good. Make no mistake there’s a handful of fun matches on the show, but the first three matches are, in my opinion, somewhat boring and the main events should’ve been switched (comedy match was fine, but not as a closer to a show). Either way, there is still some good here. I kind of wish there was more fanfare for Jerry Lynn.

Full Impact Pro will be running in Arcadia, FL on Saturday Night, May 31ST, featuring Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Davey Richards, Jerry Lynn vs. Austin Aries, and NORMAN SMILEY vs. GREG VALENTINE~! BUYS~! They are also teasing the Gymini being in action as well as most of the FIP roster (a huge chunk of the roster is going to Jay Briscoe’s wedding, congrats to Jay).

Full Impact Pro will return to the National Guard Armory in Crystal River, FL on July 19, 2008, headlined by the YRR defending the tag straps against the Age of the Fall in a 2 out of 3 falls match, and Roderick Strong defending the FIP World Heavyweight Title against Erick Stevens in a Dog Collar Match. For more information, check out http://fullimpactpro.com. {plug}