Cage of Pain II

Full Impact Pro

www.fullimpactpro.com

$15.00

Reviewed by Joe Babinsack

Full Impact Pro is one of my favorite promotions. It features an old-school mentality, with a distinctive set and a gymnasium feel. On one hand, it does look and feel a bit low-rent, but on the other hand, any pure pro wrestling fan should be paying more attention to the talent than the pyro. 

If that offends you, then I don’t know what to say. 

With Cage of Pain II, there is a bit of an upgrade in the look, in terms of the lighting. I guess they are still using the local school’s pa system, but again, I’m not worried about that – sure, sometimes the promos get a bit garbled or lost in the crowd noise. But again, why worry about the slickness of the production when the talent and atmosphere is so good, and so different (respectively) than most promotions. 

The announce crew of Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard are at the top of the food chain. Prazak doubles as the lead heel manager, and is one of my favorite voices, with the sarcastic wit and penetrating insight that we need in the announcing. And Leonard has emerged as someone who can stand up with Prazak on the repartee. That alone makes up for the minor production flaws. 

FIP is a Florida based promotion that is basically a feeder and training ground for Ring of Honor, but it sports some very highly respected talent, and seems to take pride in the old school mentality and booking process. That’s what I love about it. There’s more of the sense of an event, and less sense of lack of direction in the promotion. 

The home team is supported at the top by the awesome Heartbreak Express. Sean Davis may never see the inside of a WWE ring, but that’s more an indictment of the shape/physique barriers of the mindset, not a fair assessment of the man’s talent. 

Coupled with Phil Davis, they make up one of the stellar tag teams of this age. Sure, there’s not a lot to compare to, but once again, is it a fair indictment of the game, or the player? The Heartbreak Express hearken back to the days of the Midnight Express, and take the notion higher and stronger.  

Bobby Eaton displayed more pure wrestling talent, but nowhere near the psychology and ability to really work a crowd. Sean Davis is like three Bobby Eatons, and I don’t mean that disrespectfully.

 But FIP has featured a lot of younger talent over the past year. The YRR is an interesting faction. Young Rich and Ready for Action (uhm, yeah, there’s an “A” missing, but who’s complaining,) is a combination of some under utilized guys and some potential long term stars. Chasyn Rance, Kenny King, Sal Rinauro and Jason Blade are the team for this DVD, and they are accompanied by Lacey and Rain.

 What FIP allows is that core of guys, including the HBX and the YRR and others, to interact with top indy names and especially ROH guys. The atmosphere, again, is old school. The booking is usually simple, the wrestling a bit on the deliberate side, and there’s really nothing over the top. 

Well, except for Dave Prazak’s awesome heel manager role. 

We open the DVD with a three way. Well, there goes my 500 words of talking up the old school atmosphere! But anyway, it is 2008, and three ways are still a good concept when they feature some good wrestling. Besides, this is an opener, and openers should be a little different. 

I’ve seen Jake Crist (1/2 of Irish Airborne with his brother, Dave) and he’s a solid talent. I’ve seen Seth Delay, and he is, quite frankly, a human crash test dummy and deserves a strong role as an undercard babyface. Scott Commodity is new to me, but he shows some size and ability to work with these FIP stalwarts, so it turns out to be a solid match.

One thing I love about FIP is the way angles get naturally played out and set up by the set itself. If you miss the good old days of guys interacting with the announcer (ok, there’s another announcer in that role of emceeing the event, not Prazak/Leonard, but it’s still cool.) There’s a part of pro wrestling that is lost when the action is set at big rock’n’roll arenas and with a cookie cutter flow. 

Nothing like that here!

We’ve even got some of the top women talent in the biz, as The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew, with Lacey and Rain, taking on Bryan Danielson trained Sara Del Rey and the ultimate underdog, Daizee Haze. 

Like most FIP matches, this is an ongoing storyline. Not intricate, not overly booked, but featuring a sense of pacing that makes each installment worth watching. Yes, if you think I get nostalgic watching FIP, you’re absolutely right. And its about nostalgia, not checking out the chicks, although the patter between Prazak and Leonard is priceless during this match.

The Heart Punch is such a cool finisher. 

Next up is Jay “1/2 of the best men’s tag team” Briscoe up against veteran CHIKARA talent Gran Akuma. It’s a hard hitting match between two guys with great reputations, and a nice change of pace. Cool how the good old match between two guys who like to punish each other doesn’t have to end stupidly. 

Erick Stevens has been getting an interesting push in ROH over the past six months. There’s some arguments against him, and that is always the case with established names and newcomers challenging for a spot. Unfortunately, too many of my peers in fandom are too quick to criticize something different and play too nice with the status quo. 

Until this match, I saw Stevens as a big guy type who didn’t really really show a lot of fire. Well, this match turned my impression of Erick Stevens around, and I’m sure it will for you as well.

 Necro Butcher, of course, is someone you don’t see fitting in with FIP, but strangely enough, he’s different and brings to play an ability to work through the crowd and make a “Falls Count Anywhere” match true to its intention. 

The good thing is, we don’t see the over the top craziness of Mr. Butcher. We do see that he has an impressive ring (or is that, out of ring) psychology. And between Stevens and Necro, they put on a really, really interesting match. 

What’s really cool is how the match plays off of the reputations. Call Necro Butcher anything you want, but the bottom line is that he’s a tough wrestler who puts his body on the line in his style of the craft. Pitted against Stevens, you sort of expect a bloodbath and a garbage/weapons match.  

But it isn’t. 

It’s more, dare I say, reminiscent of Bruno Sammartino plowing through an opponent worthy of the challenge to the title holder. Here, Stevens isn’t quite as over to the masses, but his relentlessness, power and overall ability shines and he comes out of the match a lot better than he came into it.

 I know belts are pathetic props these days, but when FIP puts on a display like this, it makes you cheer. It makes you want more. And isn’t that what it’s all supposed to be about? 

Dragon Gate makes its appearance in FIP, and well, that’s always a good thing. Actually, usually a great thing… On one side we’ve got Jack Evans, BxB Hulk and Yamato. On the other, three masked maniacs, by the names of Delirious, Hallowicked and Jigsaw. 

It starts out with some comedy, some dancing and other shenanigans, but turns into a quite refreshing change of pace match, even if it did go almost twenty minutes. But, as anyone who watches the Lucha inspired antics of CHIKARA or Dragon’s Gate knows, these matches can never drag.

Roderick Strong defends his FIP World Heavyweight Title against the infamous Larry Sweeney. If you’ve not seen Sweeney, or heard him speak, you’re missing out on an awesome talent. Roderick Strong is better known for being part of Generation Next and the No Remorse Corps  (or corpse, at this point) but he’s another talent you should appreciate.

Sweeney does the Larry Z stall trick like few others – as in, he has enough heat and enough understanding to pull it off. But between the two, it’s another solid match. There’s a great theme running through this (and most FIP DVDs) and that’s the use of different styles and different feels for the matches.  

Watching the same cookie cutter match type is not a problem here.

And then we come to what is just a brilliant display of pro wrestling sensibilities. The Cage of Pain is a throwback to the War Games. Sure, there’s no JJ Dillon flipping a coin, but the enclosed fencing and the four men to a team and the carnage is just all there. 

FIP rarely does the blood and the nonsense, but when they do, it’s still in that understated and “FIP atmosphere” 

In this match, with light tubes galore and all sorts of “plunder” there’s a fine line to be held, and these guys do it well. Of course, any match with a Tiki torch used as a weapon is breaking new ground, and it should be appreciated.

 But the best of the match is the build up. It’s been a year since the first Cage of Pain, and that was between the Heartbreak Express and the Black Market. Those two teams feuded to a culmination, their own sort of “Last Battle of Georgia” and it played out well. HBX turned face afterwards, and they’ve teamed up with the Black Market to take on the annoying young upstart heels, the YRR. 

What’s fun is that the YRR are obviously out of their element, and it never gets played much differently. The veterans are bigger, meaner and more capable of inflicting violence. The heels are set up for the massacre of sorts. It all plays out nicely. 

Until the lights go out. 

At that point, it’s a moment that we all yearn for more often in the sport, and despite the best efforts of Hollywood writer types and the supposed history and brilliance of many who call themselves Creative, it rarely reaches such a crescendo.

 I’ll not ruin the moment, but bask in the brilliance of it all, and trace it back and see just how well it all plays out, makes sense, and makes you want to come back for more. 

Joe Babinsack can be reached at [email protected]. I’ve got stacks of good stuff coming in, from Big Vision, from ROH, from SHIMMER and from assorted book publishers. If you’ve got something you want reviewed, drop me a line!