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Full Impact Pro: Fallout part I DVD Review
by ProjectSelfRevolution

Fallout Part One comes after Emergence where FIP held a tournament to determine the first champion of the promotion after the relaunch with Gabe Sapolsky as the booker. Homicide was able to beat CM Punk in the finals of the match after a brawl that supposedly took place during a hurricane. The show date is November 11th, 2004.

Opening Match: Sal Rinauro vs. Vordell Walker.

The Backstory: None.

Outcome: Vordell Walker via pinfall after a Jumping Roundhouse Kick to the face.

Analysis: This is about as basic as a show opener can get. There is really nothing major to talk about with this match. Vordell Walker is the bigger of the two men and uses the advantage as you would imagine. When he has the advantage in the early going, he uses a lot of double handed chops and some power moves. Vordell also manages to throw in a Standing Moonsault as well. During the few times Sal gets any offense, it's chops in the corner or something largely unimpressive. He is a pretty small guy but he just gets hardly anything in this match as it's just Vordell steamrolling over him for the most part. Like I said though, this is about as basic as a match can get basic. No flashy moves, nothing that's overly impressive. Pretty dull but it's mainly geared towards getting Walker over. 1/4*


Second Match: Mikey Batts vs. Roderick Strong

The Backstory: None.

Outcome: Roderick Strong via pinfall after a Spinal Shock.

Analysis: If anything, this should have opened this show. Strong is from Tampa where this show is taking place. He is also the bigger of the two. The opening gets the usual indy opening. Near misses, armdrags, all that sort of thing. Batts gets the first advantage of the match using his quickness. He gets Strong into the corner a couple of times and tries to wear him down with punches but the whole thing goes sour once Strong gets control and that's where some of the fun begins.

Strong, while not huge, he is probably one guy who could paste your chest with chops. Make ya bleed. Roderick gets his advantage following blocking a Batts springboard. He sets up Batts on the second rope, stomach first. Roderick grabs the ropes and jumps, DOUBLE STOMPING THE BACK OF BATTS! I mean, there is painful looking and then there is painful looking. The stomp to the back sets the basis for what is normally part of his offense, backbreakers. He doesn't take that route as he rather just paste poor Mikey Batts with vicious chops. I want to cry for Batts. But Strong mainly toys around with Batts. Allows him a few hope spots here or there. Every time Batts tries something, Strong just comes back with the chops or something involving power.

Finally Strong gets going on the back after he dumps Batts on the floor. Once he tries to attack, Batts keeps on trying to get something going on Strong. Once Batts does get things going, he tries a backslide and then a Lifting DDT in order to turn the match is his favor. Once he does though, Strong finally uses one of this backbreakers to get Batts back under control. It doesn't work as Batts nearly wins the match with a Code Red. After trying it again... Strong takes advantage that gives us the outcome.

A pretty decent match. It basically took the same style of the opening match and gave it more time. Strong looked more impressive then Walker in the role of ass kicker by leaps and bounds. Same match as the opener, just longer and better. **


Third Match - BJ Whitmer vs. Antonio Banks

The Backstory: BJ was bad mouthing Tampa and Florida in general. Banks took offense to that and challenged Whitmer to a match before Whitmer's title shot tonight at Homicide.

Outcome: BJ Whitmer via pinfall after a Wrist Clutch Exploder.

Analysis: BJ Whitmer pretty much kicks the future MVP's ass all over the place. It's not a whole lot. Just an exhibition to get Whitmer built up for a title match later on in the night. Banks does get the early control but it hardly goes anywhere as Whitmer pokes him in the eye, playing the first defined role of a heel tonight. Just the normal fare from both men until the finish. I wasn't impressed with it much as you don't see me going on about it. The only notable thing about this match is the first face/heel set up. *


Fourth Match - Azrieal vs. Rainman

The Backstory: While not part of the match, Azrieal is part of the CM Punk stable called "The New Dawn" which basically was a society of misfits that were outcasts. Punk rocks the mic before the match, no surprise there. Punk says that Azrieal doesn't need Punk's help to beat Rainman tonight. So there you go.

Outcome: Azrieal via pinfall after CM Punk helpage.

Analysis: Azrieal is the smaller of the two. Just thought I'd clear that up. Rainman has a gangsta gimmick it seems but I don't know for sure. Not huge on either man but I'll try to be fairly biased on this match. But this is just a horribly boring match. I'm sorry. Neither man excite me during this match or make me care. Rainman uses his power to take the advantage which seems to be the cliche of the night so far. Azriael tries to use his speed and cheat to get the win. The most impressive move of the contest is yet another Double Stomp. From the top rope to the back of Rainman's head, that's how Azriael gets some order in this match. I mean, he's a fairly decent worker but nothing sets him apart from other indy spot merchants. This should be skipped over for the most part as there is no real constant enjoyment to this show yet. *1/4


Fifth Match: "Fast" Eddie Vegas vs. Jimmy Rave

The Backstory: None. Although I'd like to point out that Eddie Vegas is blind.

Outcome: Double Countout.

Analysis: Finally, a decent contest not involving Roderick Strong. Eddie and Jimmy are bad here but they just throw out moves for the most part, more so on Rave. Sure it's weird watching current/future Embassy members in a non heel role as both men really don't do anything to establish that they're heels or anything. Naturally though, it's strange that when the commentators say "high fliers" to describe the two wrestlers, they start with wrestling. Why not just bust out of the spots from the git go. I guess they need to establish the fact that they know more then moonsaults and planchas. Whatever. But as you could imagine, both men get a control segment with the mat wrestling part until Fast Eddie takes advantage with a Backbreaker/Reverse X Factor combo. Pretty nice. So after that Backbreaker, you'd think Eddie works over the back, right? Well, he actually tries to but it mainly consists knee strikes and weak looking backbreakers.

It's nice that Eddie shows some personality in this. He shows that he has that natural charisma to be a decent heel, which he would become. But once Rave gets in the control, he completely forgets about the few moments of back work done by Eddie which negates part of this match. This shows that Rave wasn't quite there yet. He goes for his usual offense you've seen in RoH a bit... like the Ghanarea, not yet named that. But at no point do they attempt to sell the work done to each other but they do show some continuity going after the back in Eddie's part and the neck in Rave's part. It's just that the selling isn't there of it.

The finish was pretty lame as I personally hate any form of a countout. I'd rather see a time limit draw or a double knockout in the ring. But as it stands, it was a pretty decent match. Both men showed what they were able to do and everything but that's the jist of it. **1/4

Post Match: Dave Prazak comes out and offers both men a spot in his newly formed stable called Dave Prazak Association. Or DP. Get the joke? Eh? They accept the invitation and we have our first angle in the mid card ranks. Weeeeee!!! Although it's nice to see Jimmy Rave reading the stuff to Eddie.


Sixth Match: Insane Dragon vs. "Mr. 630" Jerrelle Clark

Backstory: None.

Outcome: Jerrelle Clark via pinfall a Backbreaker Slam? It looked weird.

Analysis: This is like the match before it only it's just a total throw out a move and hit it for no reason. They do the whole mat wrestling thing and then Jerrelle Clark basically kicks Insane Dragon's ass for a good deal of time. So much so it feels like a squash match at certain points. Then they do a double KO spot and Insane Dragon gets control until the finish. Both men are just doing anything to win without a rhyme or reason and for that reason, I extremely dislike that match. I just can't find a good thing to say about it other then the moves they threw out were pretty clean. But just generally skip over this match as well. *1/2

Post Match: Dave Prazak offer both Dragon and Clark a spot in DP Association. They turn him down. So Rave and Vegas come out and beat them down. See, this is a good angle and it progresses. And I found myself rolling on the floor when Prazak yells "You'll be sorry you turned down DP!" Clark does make a challenge to them for the next night.


Seventh Match: Don Juan w/Angel Williams vs. Jared Steel

Backstory: None.

Outcome: Don Juan via pinfall after a Super DDT.

Analysis: I love Don Juan's gimmick. He has that whole "ladies man" thing as you could probably tell by his name. He fricken dances with a woman in the crowd before the match. It was great. But this match has that face/heel dynamic in effect, something not seen much in this show. But much like the theme of this show, it's unimpressive. Jared Steel doesn't show me anything remotely interesting in the way of a personality. The deepest moveset doesn't mean anything if you don't have a personality. Still, Don Juan spends most of his control segment either stomping on Steel or jawing at the crowd. But when Steel has the advantage, it's just, there. Still, seeing Don Juan, who was a favorite of mine for a while, was fun. This match as a whole, was lacking. Nothing more to say. 3/4*

Post Match: Jared Steel spanks Angel Williams. He lost but got to spank some good looking ass. He is the real winner.


Eighth Match: CM Punk vs. Dan Maff in a No DQ, No Countout Match.

Backstory: CM Punk is the top heel thus far in FIP. He wants the World Title and needs to make a statement before facing Homicide the next night. So why not go after Homicide's then friend. Also both of these men feuded in Ring of Honor in the Second City Saints vs. Prophecy angle.

Outcome: CM Punk via pinfall after using the ropes for non cheating purposes.

Analysis: This match is fun! Seriously, Punk as a cowardly heel is probably the best thing ever. The first thing to notice is when Maff wants to shake his hand. Punk does and Maff squeezes it. Punk sells it like death! I don't like the crowd chanting much during shows but "Punk's Got An Owwie" is fantastic. Maff does work on the hand a bit too, evening biting it. Then the next fun thing about this match is Maff using the old Three Stooges Nose Slap Of Doom!!! Words can not do the beginning of this match justice. It's that much fun. Notice this is the first time I've used that word so far. Fun. While this match isn't gonna be a MOTYC or anything, it's just a barrel full of laughs for the most part.

I mean, at one point, Azrieal runs in to help his leader. Heel powder gets involved and it goes in Punk's face. The ref gets knocked out. Punk accidentally Piledrives Azrieal and covers him. Maff drops down and makes the three count. Punk gets up and acts like he is the best of all time. Then it dawns on him Maff was just screwing with him. Following that, we settle into a more of a normal match for a while with both men having a control segment in the ring. Kind of generic as it's a No DQ match but when people think of No DQ, they think of chairs. Still, it wasn't that bad. After Punk manages to throw Maff out of the ring, the fun starts again.

They brawl and my god is it fun. First, Maff gets control back and hits Punk with a bucket full of condoms and well, let's say a parking cone was used for purposes it wasn't made for. Another humorous fan yelling something was when Punk was thrown into a moving truck. So a smartass fan just yells out "The driver is gonna be pissed!" While it's a small crowd, they're pretty fun. Once they get back into the ring though, it settles back into a normal match. So basically, this match is put into two parts. The fun sections and the normal match segments. The normal segments are by no means bad but after the fun start, the match doesn't know if it wants to be a wild brawl or a normally structured match. But this was very enjoyable and a very fun match for the most part. **3/4


Ninth Match: BJ Whitmer vs. Homicide (c) for the Full Impact Pro Heavyweight Title.

Backstory: The first defense of the title. BJ was just named the contender for this night. I have no idea why and it really doesn't matter much.

Outcome: Homicide via submission after putting Whitmer in STF.

Analysis: While this match is the best of the night, it does have it's faults to it. First, the generic mat wrestling to start. Now, I'm all for mat wrestling but when they do those deep arm drags and it doesn't lead anywhere, it tends to annoy me. And I get annoyed a lot. But everything is crisp in this match. The story is very little as it's mainly both men just doing what they can to put the other away. When Whitmer is in control, he wrestles like the heel, which is what he is being booked as in this show so it only makes sense to have him the weardown holds to get the face sympathy for Homicide but at no point did I think Homicide was in danger of losing the title. But for his credit, Whitmer does his best to try.

As far as Homicide goes, you don't see him acting like an asshole like in RoH during this time period. He is a face down in FIP. So his offense is different. His control is pretty good though. He uses different Suplex types and his knee like facewash to wear down Whitmer. But the home stretch of this match is what makes it worth watching at all. Whitmer tries everything he can think of to end the match but there was just no chance for him get that three count because the dangerous Wrist Clutch Exploder, as demonstrated earlier in the show, didn't make an appearance. So while Whitmer lost, his finisher didn't get killed. Homicide on the other hand, only attemps the Cop Killa once and that was it. He does use his Ace Crusher twice though which devalues the move a bit seeing as how the second time he just transitioned to a Piledriver afterwards.

Regardless, this was match of the night despite not ever having me think for a second that Whitmer was going to win because the big money feud for FIP at the time was going to be CM Punk and Homicide. Good match but they had better. ***


Final Thoughts: This is a ho hum DVD. There isn't anything to go out of your way to see but it's fun in a way to see the cowardly CM Punk or Homicide as a face again. While this show ended on two good matches, there is just too much bleh to go through in order to get to those two matches. And even so, Punk vs. Maff and Whitmer vs. Homicide had better stuff in Ring of Honor. Thumbs down for Full Impact Pro Fallout Part One. While it does set the stage for some of the early angles, it's just too mediocre. I mean, when my analysis is only a paragraph for more then half the matches, it means that I just can't find anything to really say about the match. You're better off skipping this one kids.

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