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FULL IMPACT PRO DVD REVIEWS

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*** Official OWW.com FIP DVD Reviews by Brad Dykens ***
May 28, 2005 - UNSTOPPABLE - Brooksville, Florida

The first match featured Jerrelle Clark defeating Jared Steel in a quick opening match ( 5.5 / 10 ), followed by The New Dawn making their presence felt inside the "FIP mobile studio." The New Dawn was at full capacity but it didn't take long for it to all fall apart. C.M. Punk admonished his friend Colt Cabana for not getting the job done the night before against FIP Champion Homicide. Cabana stood up to Punk and quit the New Dawn, which resulted in him getting a vicious beat-down at the hands of Punk, Samoa Joe & Azriael. A swift act of vengeance that set the scene for the rest of the night.

Ask and you shall receive..... In my last FIP DVD review I commented that I hoped Don Juan would bring in his tag team partner Chris Marvel to spice up the tag team division. Wouldn't you know it, Don Juan and Chris Marvel debuted as the Texas Treats in FIP and defeated The Heartbreak Express. My intuitions were correct, Don Juan is ten times better in a tag team than he is as a singles wrestler. Excellent match! ( 7 / 10 )

Steve Madison beat Aaron Epic in a squash match designed to get Madison over as a heel ( 3 / 10 ). Vordell Walker continued his winning streak by scoring a victory over Rainman, Evan Starsmore, and The Masked FIPper #2 in a 4-WAY Fray ( 4 / 10 ). I love the Masked FIPper idea to hide students under masks to get them some experience. I have suggested a similar gimmick in the past to friends about doing a Convict storyline for students or developmental wrestlers. Like Convict #1, Convict #2, Convict #12, Convict #73 - and so on. Vordell Walker is great but I feel like he's slipping into a rut, I hope FIP pushes him in a productive direction.

The leader of the New Dawn, C.M. Punk, had an excellent one-on-one match with Sal Rinauro before Punk used a handful of powder to temporarily blind Rinauro and score the pinfall victory. Really good match, great to see Rinauro put into important matches and props to C.M. Punk for making him look great. The finish left doors open and planted the seed for a confrontation later in the show ( 7.5 / 10 ).

Fast Eddie Vegas defeated Jay Fury in a decent match ( 5 / 10 ). Fast Eddie is really fun to watch, it took me quite a long time to actually "get" what he was all about but now I find him to be very talented. Next up ECW alumnus Tony Mamaluke bested Roderick Strong by Submission in the best match of the night ( 8.5 / 10 ).

Homicide successfully defended his FIP Heavyweight title against New Dawn lackey Azriael. Nobody really believed Azriael was going to win the FIP title but he sure did a great job keeping up with the more experienced Homicide. And to his continued credit, Homicide did an amazing job making Azrieal look great. My endless praise goes to Homicide for being a versatile Champion in a promotion oozing with talent ( 7.5 / 10 ).

C.M. Punk and Samoa Joe attacked Homicide after his match, leading to Colt Cabana, Sal Rinauro and the injured Spanky hitting the ring and setting up a huge tag team main event between Punk & Joe vs Cabana & Rinauro. Once again I am thrilled to see Rinauro hanging with the big boys here. After being so impressed by the heel version of Colt Cabana on the previous DVD, I was somewhat saddened by his return to the good side. This was a surprisingly long match but very entertaining from bell to bell. There was a lot of comedy injected into the match, including one five minute stretch where C.M. Punk wrestled with his butt dangerously hanging out of his tights -- shades of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper! It was a good back and forth battle which ended with good prevailing over evil as Spanky foiled Punk's attempt to use powder like he did in his previous match ( 8 / 10 ).

Final Thoughts: While all the wrestling promotions are putting all their efforts into shocking their fans with intense storylines, FIP continues to take the opposite route by entertaining their fans with good old fashioned fun and traditional wrestling values. I love watching the kids in the crowd mark out for the good guys and fear the bad guys. Wrestling in it's purist form and I love it!

If you would like to purchase this or any other Full Impact Pro DVD, please check out ROHwrestling.com - and also be sure to show your support by checking out www.fullimpactpro.com/ - Thank you!



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