Full Impact Pro
Turner Civic Center
Arcadia, FL
July 24, 2004

Match 1 - Kahagas defeated "Mad Dog" Hack Myers.
I was really surprised to see this match open up the card. Kahagas was originally supposed to work Super Dragon, but that didn't happen. Now, that I think about it I'm not even sure why Super Dragon wasn't there. Kahagas ended up working Hack Myers. Kahagas comes out to different music than normal. I was confused with that, but then Hack came out to Kahagas' music, so that explained it. Kahagas does the normal "I'm a baby face, so when I stand on the turnbuckles, you cheer." That led to Hack doing the "I'm a heel, so whenever I stand on the turnbuckle, you boo." The crowd must've been trained well because they ate it up. The match starts off with a bunch of headlocks and other rest holds. Hack is getting up there in age, so it's good to see him work this type of old school match in front of fans that can appreciate it. The finish of the match saw Hack go for a power bomb on Kahagas, but he reversed it and turned it into a sunset flip for the win. I'm sorry about not having much on this match, but I had lost my pen and only got one immediately following this match. I was a bit disappointed, but it wasn't because of the match. I was really looking forward to seeing Kahagas work Super Dragon. Also, I was interested in seeing if an angle would be worked out between Kahagas and Ricky O, from Jersey Championship Wrestling. Unfortunately, Ricky O couldn't make it to Florida because of bad weather in the Northeast.

Match 2 - The Heartbreakers defeated Scott Hotshot/Vordell Walker, Jaison Moore/Aaron Epic and Sedrick Strong/Mikey Tenderfoot to advance to the finals to crown the new tag champions.
This was the first of two fatal four way tag matches. The winners of each will meet later on in the night. Scott Hotshot and Vordell Walker come out to one of the loudest pops I've heard since being down in Florida. Dusty and Dustin Rhodes' pop aside, that was definitely the loudest pop of the night. The match starts off with Sean Davis attacking Aaron Epic from behind. The Heartbreakers eventually end up outside of the ring which leads to Jaison Moore giving them a baseball slide dropkick. As the Heartbreakers were regrouping, Epic jumps off of Moore's back and onto the Heartbreakers outside of the ring. Sedrick Strong and Mikey Tenderfoot come in and do double somersault planchas onto everybody on the outside. I guess Vordell Walker and Scott Hotshot felt left out because they ended up climbing the top rope and doing double dives onto everybody outside of the ring. Once all of the action gets settled, we end up back into the ring where we get a six man suplex. The funny thing about the six man suplex is I believe that Tenderfoot ended up suplexing his partner, Strong. Anyway, the eliminations were as followed:

-- Hotshot/Walker get eliminated by Moore/Epic when they use a double crucifix power bomb for the pinfall.

-- Moore/Epic get eliminated when Tenderfoot hit a top rope Michinoku driver on Epic. It looked really nice.

-- Tenderfoot/Strong get eliminated when Tenderfoot is hit with a flapjack by the Heartbreakers, I think. This happened immediately after Tenderfoot got the pinfall on Epic. I went to write the results of that pinfall and when I looked up the Heartbreakers had won.

Match 3 - Joshua Masters w/Fetish defeated Lex Lovett in Lovett's retirement match.
This match was advertised as Lovett's retirement match. The beginning of the match sees a lot of rest holds from Masters. Masters controlled the match early, but Lovett gets his comeback when he hits his leg lariat and then eventually hits his finisher, the Lexbuster. Masters kicks out of the Lexbuster. The match saw a lot of interference from Fetish, Master's valet. She pulled Lovett's foot from the top rope earlier in the match causing him to fall. She also tripped him up while he was running the ropes. He became distracted which allowed Masters to roll him up for the win. Lovett goes under in his FIP retirement match. The ring announcer grabs the mic and announces that the winner of the match is Joshua..........Yep, a ring announcer's worst nightmare. He forgot Joshua Master's last name. Lovett grabbed the microphone and cut a promo basically saying how he's wrestled everywhere (mentions Arcadia--cheap pop) and he thanked the fans because he loves them. The normal baby face stuff after a retirement match.

Match 4 - Phi Delta Slam defeated "Roughhouse" Ralph Mosca/Thunderbolt, Brian "The Blade" Gamble/Antonio Banks and The Hourd ("The Crypt Keeper" LaDuke Jakes/Kiang Shi) w/Luna Vachon to advance to the finals to crown the new tag champions.
For some reason, Mideon's name has been changed to Kiang Shi. I'm not sure what to think about this. I guess the thing that bothers me is that you can't really capitalize on his name and his past in the Fed when advertising for future shows. In order to do that, you have to advertise him as "Kiang Shi, formerly known as Mideon" which kind of defeats the purpose of changing his name. Yeah well, I'll get over it. The eliminations in this match were as followed:

-- Banks/Gamble were eliminated when Banks was tripped by Luna which led to Banks being school boy'd for the pin. It was the same finish as the previous Masters/Lovett match.

-- The Hourd was eliminated when Jakes was pinned when Thunderbolt held down his foot.

-- Mosca/Thunderbolt were eliminated when Kiang Shi, who was still at ringside following their elimination, threw a fireball at Mosca. Phi Delta Slam gets the win when Mosca is pinned immediately. Mosca sells the face burn as the ring announcer calls for some water and ice. The first four way tag match was considerably better than this one.

Match 5 - "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels defeated Jerry Lynn.
At first, I was a little confused with this match being right before intermission, but I then realized that a good portion of the crowd really didn't know who these guys were. That, right there, should be enough proof that Arcadia is an old school town. I must commend Daniels and Lynn for this match because it was really not the style they normally work, but they pulled it off like they had been doing it for years. A friend of mine had commented that it looked like they were going to "mail it in", but I didn't think that was the case at all. There were headlocks galore and several other rest holds during the match. Also, Daniels primarily worked Lynn's back for most of the match. Toward the end of the match is when it started to look like a Daniels/Lynn match that we would actually normally see. Lynn had a nice up and over into a sunset flip that was a near fall. Daniels hits a modified STO onto his knee. He goes for his Best Moonsault Ever, but Lynn moves and Daniels lands on his feet. We get a reversal from Lynn, and he teases his cradle piledriver. Lynn goes for a sunset flip by the ropes, but Daniels grabs the ropes and falls on Lynn to make the pin. It looked really good because referee Billy Dalton was in perfect position that allowed Daniels to hold the ropes out of his view.

Intermission

Match 6 - "Black Nature Boy" Scoot Andrews defeated Chris Candido.
At first, I wasn't sure who was the baby face and who was the heel in this match. Candido came out taunting the crowd. He even swung at somebody at ringside. It was one of those comedy swings where he misses by a mile. Andrews then comes out and starts yelling at the crowd when they begin to call him "Scooter". The match itself was rather funny because they worked a good portion of the match by stealing a bunch of the Fed guy's finishing moves. For example, Andrews used the Stunner and the Pedigree on Candido. Candido used the Sweet Chin Music, Hogan's leg drop (Yes, he Hulked up before it. Pretty funny stuff), the Rock Bottom and the People's Elbow. When Candido went for the People's Elbow, he continued to run the ropes instead of dropping the elbow. After running the ropes forever, he finally dropped the elbow on Andrews. He looked extremely blown up from it The crowd was really into the comedy in this match. Andrews eventually picked up the win with his Forces of Nature finisher.

Match 7 - Dustin Rhodes defeated Cuban Assassin by DQ ; Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham defeated Cuban Assassin & Ryze in an impromptu match.
Cuban Assassin comes out with "The Korean Monster" Ryze. Cuban cuts a promo about how bad America is and how great Fidel Castro is for Cuba. He also begins waving the Cuban flag. He gets enormous amounts of heel heat for it. Yes, this is definitely an old school crowd. Dustin Rhodes finally comes out to a thunderous pop. He steps into the ring, and the first thing he does is point to a huge American flag hanging on the side of the Turner Center. The crowd goes nuts, and all he did was point to the flag. Cuban begins to wave the Cuban flag some more and Dustin points some more giving the crowd more opportunities to boo and cheer. Ryze ends up being barred from ringside. This was your typical match. The baby face gets beat down by the heel, then he gets a comeback. Ryze ends up running in during Dustin's comeback. They attack Dustin which leads to Barry Windham coming out to make the save. Wow, what do I have to say about Barry Windham......? I've seen a lot of good wrestlers from the past make more recent appearances and they resemble nothing like what I remember. I think that Barry Windham may be the biggest, most drastic change of them all. Hell, it was even a big, drastic change from when he appeared in MLW, and that was less than a year ago. He has gained a considerable amount of weight and could barely run to the ring, and he even struggled to get in the ring. A challenge is issued for an impromptu match, and we get it. The heels end up working Dustin, who then gets the hot tag to Windham. We get a double clothesline to the back of Ryze and Cuban, and Dustin hits a bulldog. Windham bends down on all fours behind Ryze, and Dustin hits him with a Lariat and sends him over Windham's back. Windham rolls him up for the win. I couldn't believe the response from the crowd for this match. I was almost scared to see Dusty come out. I wouldn't hold my breath about Windham being back in FIP.

Match 8 - Phi Delta Slam defeated the Heartbreakers to become the FIP tag team champions.
This match was to determine the FIP tag champions. I think Phi Delta Slam were FIP tag champs for less than 24 hours. I'll explain in my final thoughts. As for the match, I don't remember anything about this match. I'm just not really feeling Phi Delta Slam. Although I would have rather had Antonio Banks and Brian Gamble go over in the four way tag, I totally understand Phi Delta Slam being put over in that match. You need a baby face tag team because the Heartbreakers went over in the first four way tag match. I am, however, a bit thrown off with Phi Delta Slam taking the straps. It just makes more sense, to me, to put the straps on heels because I think fans come out to see the heels get beaten up and then, hopefully, lose their titles. Remember, this is Arcadia, where I would say 90% of the crowd haven't found out yet that wrestling is a work. Obviously, you can't put titles on all heels all the time. However, that's not the case here because the tag titles are the only belts established by FIP, right now. I think it would have helped more for the next show if the Heartbreakers would have cheated to win the titles, and then have the rematch for the titles on October 30th which is the next show in Arcadia. Here I go again, pretending like I know how to do booking. Either way, the Heartbreakers attack Phi Delta Slam after the match, and they continue to brawl outside of the ring and up near the merchandise tables.

Match 9 - "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes defeated Garlok (formerly Gangrel) w/Luna Vachon.
Now, when I moved to Florida one of the first things I heard was whenever Dusty Rhodes appears on a wrestling card it's crazy because of how over he was for the last few decades here. At first, I didn't believe it because I've seen him at a few Impact tapings, and, while the pops are rather loud, I expected so much more. However, I'm a total believer now that I've seen Dusty wrestle in Arcadia. When he walked through that curtain I thought people were going to faint in the stands. The woman sitting in front of me was waving her arms at Dusty as if he was there looking for her in a crowd of people and couldn't find her. My friend and I knew exactly how this match was going to go, so he had a timer going to see how much time passed before they locked up. We also took a poll on how many bumps Dusty would take in the match. In a split moment of insanity, I had this notion that Dusty would give us two bumps and an elbow drop. Originally, Dusty was supposed to work Kamala, but there was severe rainstorms in the Northeast that resulted in flights being canceled. Dusty and Gorlok worked the crowd for a bit doing their usual shtick. Finally, seven minutes passed by and Gorlok attacked Dusty from behind after Luna distracted him. He started working on Dusty a bit. They ended up outside of the ring where Dusty delivered an elbow that the crowd popped hard for. They get back into the ring, and Dusty points to his elbow and the crowd lost it. OK, first Dustin points to the flag and the crowd loses it. Now, Dusty points to his elbow and the crowd loses it. His damn ELBOW!!!! Holy shit, do I love this crowd. Dusty hits a Bionic Elbow and an elbow drop for the 1-2-3. I must admit that I got wrapped up in seeing Dusty wrestle in person for the first time. After the match, The Hourd ran in and started to attack Dusty. Dustin and Windham make the save. Dusty cuts a promo saying he knows that Kevin Sullivan is the one that sent the Hourd to attack him. They're definitely setting up a Dusty Rhodes vs. Kevin Sullivan program. From what I'm told, everybody in the Arcadia area comes out for that match. It should be interesting to see turn out for that card. By the way, Dusty didn't take a single bump.

Final Thoughts

-- A lot to cover in my final thoughts, so let me start. The first thing I must say is that the Arcadia crowd was hot during the entire night. Without a doubt, this was the hottest crowd that I've seen since being in Florida. It would even rival the crowds up North that pride themselves on being loud. Attendance was great (FIP reported 675 people. I don't work for the box office, so I'll be damned if I do a head count with as many people that were there). And yes, the venue actually had a box office. They also had real concession stands, real ushers and real security. It was quite the sight seeing this at an indy wrestling show. I'm just used to seeing the promoter's brother's best friend's cousin selling hot dogs and sodas in the corner of some tiny building and seeing wrestlers in training handling the security.

-- It's a shame to say it because I enjoy both of them as wrestlers, but Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels were unnecessary for this card. The crowd was so old school that Lynn and Daniels pretty much went unnoticed during this card. As hot as the Arcadia area is for wrestling, you just can't draw the smart fans. You need to head about 90 miles north to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area to get that. I did recognize a few of the smart fans, but most of them travel to all the shows in the area and most likely would have made the trip regardless of Lynn and Daniels being on the card or not.

-- Dusty Rhodes owns the state of Florida when it comes to wrestling. I didn't understand it before, but I get it now. As sad as it sounds, Barry Windham should not be taking bookings. He is that out of shape. Dustin Rhodes didn't look to be in that good of shape either, but Windham made him look like a body builder.

-- It was fun watching this show because of the way it was run. I've never seen a show like this in person. It reminded me of a lot of the NWA stuff I used to watch as a kid. For the most part, you had one clear cut baby face and you had one clear cut heel. Those lines have been blurred the second wrestling fans became smart. I loved seeing the Cuban Assassin in this role. I've seen him wrestle in other promotions and I've critiqued him, but he did a good job working this crowd. You can tell that Assassin is from this era of wrestling. At first, I was skeptical of seeing an old school promotion being run down here, but this proves that I know absolutely nothing! I'm convinced that a good portion of the crowd doesn't know that wrestling is a work, and I'm dead serious when I say that. If you were in attendance you would think the very same thing.

-- Now for some big news from the FIP office. The following was taken from their website:

"Full Impact Pro will be relaunching in September under the management of Ring Of Honor's Gabe Sapolsky. World Wrestling Network, FIP's parent company, will be continuing to use the current FIP roster and angles under the banner of "Florida All Pro Wrestling". Mr. Sapolsky will be relaunching FIP with a clean slate using only the best Florida, ROH and TNA talent. Therefore, Phi Delta Slam are now recognized as the Florida All Pro Wrestling (FAPW) Tag Team Champions"

I spoke with Sal Hamaoui yesterday, and he explained to me a bit about why the change was made and what they look to accomplish. Florida All Pro Wrestling (FAPW) will be your old school promotion. They will carry the vision of what was in mind originally for FIP. You will see more of the Florida local talent that probably wasn't going to be used under Gabe's booking. FAPW will continue to run the Arcadia venue. As stated above, Phi Delta Slam are the FAPW tag team champions, and they will not be a part of the FIP roster. The vision for FAPW will primarily be focusing more on the actual shows rather than DVD sales. They feel that they can do big numbers attendance-wise with FAPW running the Arcadia venue. The next FAPW show (or should I say the first show) will be October 30th, back at the Turner Civic Center.

As for FIP, they will be converted into a smart mark promotion. It is what Gabe does best as he will be using a good portion of Ring of Honor talent, as well as guys from TNA. Sal assured me that some Florida talent will be used in FIP, but it is unclear as to who Gabe plans on using. FIP will look to run in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, as well as the Ft. Lauderdale area. FIP's vision will primarily be focused on DVD sales rather than drawing huge numbers at their shows. In fact, FIP will more than likely be run in smaller venues than the Turner Civic Center in Arcadia. FIP will become, somewhat, of a sister promotion to Ring of Honor. It could be very interesting how this plays out. I'm wondering if this could lead to having ROH titles being defended on FIP cards or having FIP titles being defended on ROH cards. Either way, this is big news for the Florida indy scene because this will bring much needed exposure to the scene here. For more information, please keep checking back with the FIP website.

Will Rivera
Wriv25@yahoo.com
www.fullimpactpro.com