Dark Pegasus Video Review: Full Impact Pro — New Dawn Rising

Posted by J.D. Dunn on 08.10.2009

CM Punk expands his New Dawn and it's an ROH vs. FIP dream partner tag in the main event.

Full Impact Pro — New Dawn Rising

by J.D. Dunn
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Promising sign: the crowd has grown to about 100 from just 20-30 a few weeks earlier.

February 11, 2005

From Lakeland, Fla.

Your hosts are Mark Nulty and Dave Prazak. Nulty announces the inmates are now running the asylum.

Opening Match: Laduke Jakes (w/Dave Prazak) vs. Evan Starsmore.
Jakes drops his foreign object yet again, but Starsmore is unable to capitalize. Jakes jabs him in the throat and finishes with a pair of shoulderbreakers at 1:17. 1/4*

Nulty gets ROH Champion Austin Aries' thoughts on teaming up with FIP Champion Homicide. Aries blows off the importance of the FIP Title and promises to carry his team to victory. He offers to put up the title against Florida's best. That brings out every major member of the FIP roster (even Roderick Strong) to make their respective cases. Aries says they should all face off in a gauntlet match, and he'll face the winner at Dangerous Intentions.

The Heartbreak Express vs. Double Deuce.
The Heartbreak Express claim to be on a record-setting winning streak. Double Deuce is Frankie Capone and Marcus Dillon. Just imagine a poor man's Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell. Dillon overpowers both members of the HBE. The HBE wind up in their "compromising position." They get cleared out of the ring and regroup. The HBE isolate Capone and work him over with their circa 1986 offense. They HBE accidentally collide in mid-ring, allowing Dillon to tag in. Double Deuce cleans house, and Capone finishes Phil with a spear at 8:06. The HBE are sloppy and not just because that's their gimmick. 3/4*

Scoot Andrews comes out and says that, since he trained Antonio Banks (MVP), he should get a shot at the FIP Title at Ring of Honor's Do or Die IV instead of Banks. He calls Banks out and asks him for a match to determine the #1 contender. Banks accepts but wants Scoot to acknowledge that Banks has surpassed him once he wins.

FIP Heavyweight Title #1 Contenders Match: Antonio Banks vs. "The Black Nature Boy" Scoot Andrews.
Nice little match with both guys tentatively trading moves early. Scoot suddenly takes out Antonio's leg with a dropkick and goes right to work on it with a legbar. He blocks a hiptoss and grapevines the leg. Antonio tries Triple Verticals but collapses under the third one because his leg gives out. He avoids Scoot's single-leg takedown and tries a back kick, but he just hurts his leg even more. Scoot goes after it again, but Antonio rides him down into the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE at 6:17. Good psychology here, with Antonio selling the injury as he tried to do his normal moves. Plus, Scoot zeroed in on it so much that he started telegraphing his moves, and it cost him. Antonio offers the handshake, but Scoot spits on him instead! **1/4

ROH World Heavyweight Title #1 Contenders Gauntlet:

Sal Rinauro vs. "The Modern Miracle" Steve Madison.
Madison defeated Rinauro at Unfinished Business. He goes low early here and starts dropping elbows. Rinauro starts a comeback but gets kneed in the gut. Rinauro comes back with a flying chinbreaker and a Tornado DDT. Madison blocks a pump-handle and finishes with the piledriver at 4:10. *

"The Modern Miracle" Steve Madison vs. "The Master of the Backbreaker" Roderick Strong.
This is a battle of Florida natives, and Nulty mentions a rivalry between the two over who is the best man from Florida. Strong immediately unloads the chops and hits a dropkick. Madison goes low to cut off the flurry of offense. Madison hits a running Ace Crusher but runs right into a uranage backbreaker at 4:00. **

"The Master of the Backbreaker" Roderick Strong vs. "The Soul Assassin" Rainman.
Strong pescados out on Rainman before the match even gets under way. Rainman comes back with forearm uppercuts, but Strong cuts him off with a dropkick. Rainman hits a Fireman's Carry into a Cradle Shock. Strong reverses a whip, though, and hits a Pump-handle Backdrop Suplex to move on at 4:24. *1/2

"The Master of the Backbreaker" Roderick Strong vs. "The Suicidal Demon" Azrieal.
Azrieal jumps Strong before he can recover, and they brawl out into the barflies. Back in, Strong turns the tide and hits a pair of backbreakers. He launches Azrieal into the buckle and hits a backdrop suplex. A flying elbow off the top gets two. Azrieal blocks a German Suplex and goes low. He stretches Roderick with a surfboard. He tries a springboard rana, but Strong catches him in another backbreaker. Strong ducks a spinning kick and hits another backbreaker. It still doesn't get the win. Azrieal blocks the press gutbuster and hits his own backbreaker. A double-stomp to the back of the head gets two. Strong suddenly roars back with the press gutbuster, but Azrieal rolls through a Gory Stretch into a sunset flip and grabs a handful of ropes to eliminate Strong at 9:30. **3/4

"The Suicidal Demon" Azrieal vs. "The Shooter" Vordell Walker.
Azrieal begs off, but Walker is having none of it. He hits a series of chops and a bunch of amateur (as in "style," not acumen) armdrags. A standing moonsault gets two. Walker gets a cool back handspring to counter a sunset flip. The Vortex finishes at 3:22. Walker moves on to face Austin Aries tomorrow night. *

"Fast" Eddie Vegas (w/Dave Prazak) vs. "Mr. 630" Jerrelle Clark.
If Clark wins, he gets five minutes alone with Prazak. If he loses, he gets a 90-day suspension. Clark storms the ring and tosses Vegas to the floor. Vegas makes Clark chase him around the ring where Prazak trips him up on the dance floor. Vegas goes to work on Jerrelle's shoulder with a little help from Prazak. Clark comes back with a huracanrana, but Vegas gets his knees up to block a quebrada. Eddie goes back to the arm. Clark hits a version of the Tower of London for two and then tosses Vegas overhead with a German Suplex. Vegas goes back to the arm, including a cool move where he flips over the top rope while bending Clark's arm, snapping it backward. You'd have to see it. The botch a floatover spot, so they repeat it, and Jerrelle hits the reverse rana. Clark goes after Prazak and then hits Vegas with the Pump-Handle Facebuster. Vegas reverses a whip and hits a Snap Cradle-suplex. Clark reverses a powerbomb, but Vegas counters a Crucifix Bomb to a rollup. They exchange rollups for a series of nearfalls. Vegas tries another Snap Cradle-suplex, but Clark reverses to a rollup for the win at 16:25. Despite a few flubs, this was quite a good match. ***1/4

Prazak gets on the mic and tells Clark he should have read the fine print. See, he had a clause in the contract that says if he's injured, he can name a substitute, and since Jerrelle "injured" him during the match, he's naming Laduke Jakes as his replacement. Jerrelle ducks Jakes' clothesline and dropkicks him down. A handspring moonsault puts Jakes down long enough for Jerrelle to chase Vegas and Prazak to the back. This was so old-school.

CM Punk and Azrieal introduce their new friend Mr. Milo Beasley, a man in a wheelchair who was denied access to Latino's Night Club because it wasn't handicap accessible. See, Punk is a friend to the weak and downtrodden. **wink, wink**

CM Punk (w/Azrieal & Milo Beasley) vs. Puma.
Whoa! Puma has his alternate black and teal on tonight. Punk tries to wrestle him to the ground, but Puma uses his strikes to stay in it. Puma uses a nice cross-legged rollup and then twists on Punk's neck after he kicks out. Punk trips him up and goes after the mask. The ref breaks Punk's hold to let Puma readjust the match, so Punk starts working in some sort of foreign object. He tosses Puma to the outside where Milo Beasley hops out of his chair and lays the boots to him. Back in, Punk toys with him, but Puma Victory Rolls them both over the top rope. Back in, Puma blocks a kick and nails Punk with a roundhouse kick. Azrieal jumps on the apron, distracting Puma long enough for Punk to strangle Puma with a piece of rope and then hide it under a sleeper hold. That picks up the win at 15:18. Ah, that's the way to bring back the cheating and make it meaningful. Puma was impressive once again. Punk taunts the crowd with his rope. **3/4

Dream Partner Tag: "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson & Rocky Romero vs. "The Wrestling Machine" Austin Aries & "The Notorious 187" Homicide.
Aries is the ROH champion, and Homicide is the FIP champion, hence "dream partner." Also, Danielson and Romero are both New Japan dojo guys. It makes for an interesting match-up because Danielson and Homicide are in the midst of a blood feud in ROH, and Romero is one of Homicide's fellow Rottweilers. In fact, Romero refuses to take a cheapshot at Homicide early on. Aries controls Romero with a cravat for a while before Danielson comes in with a series of bodyslams. Prazak suddenly remembers his bad back. Homicide gets frustrated and grabs a chair, but Danielson takes it away from him and threatens to nail the referee. The Rottweilers go at it, and Homicide falls for the Spider Web spot. Aries makes the save with a boot to the back of Romero's head. Things start to meander for a while until Danielson busts out the Airplane Spin on Aries, then one on Homicide. Romero tries to congratulate him and winds up taking an Airplane ride himself because Danielson is so disoriented. Funny stuff. Aries gets two off a brainbuster, but Romero jumps back in to make the save. Romero dropkicks Aries into a German Suplex from Danielson. It only gets two, but Danielson floats over into a Cattle Mutilation for the win at 23:29. The usual good stuff from these guys. ***1/2

After the match, Homicide calls himself the real world champion because Aries tapped out and not him.

The 411: It took a while to get into the groove, but FIP really had a lot of old-school territorial fun going here. This was just like those old WCCW and Florida TV tapings I used to watch on cable only with movesets updated for the new millennium and without the pandering "evil Russian" or super patriot characters.

Thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]