Yeah, I'll do some more bashing of the residents of Brooksville and (for the first time in ages) the fed known as Pro Wrestling Guerilla, but otherwise I'll be praising what was a fun show, due in part to a bunch of rowdy football fans here on a Friday night

Alas, I wasn't able to make it to the Full Impact Pro show in Crystal River on the 19th (due to "circumstances beyond my control") but at least I was able to make it to this show, and I figured I would attend. I wasn't sure what to expect. I attended their debut event and it's an interesting idea to have younger Florida wrestlers compete against more established guys, but it was clearly different from FIP in some storylines (guys being faces in one fed being heels in the other, or vice/versa) and while I said I enjoyed their March debut show, I still stated that there were some "kinks" to be worked out, and I was interested in seeing how it was now. Hearing less than rave reviews from some about their second show (in April) and how that event's attendance wasn't that great made me worried… but then again one of the guys ended up backpedaling from those statements pretty quickly. It's odd, as at the time right after the show, he praised that particular event, then later on he claimed that the show was "booked for the wrestlers" and other stuff. Curious. He also stated that The Dark Knight opening this weekend would affect the attendance of this event (the third show). Speaking of The Dark Knight, I'll talk more about that next week when Blair's Soliloquies, Issue Nine gets put up, but I plan on seeing that movie around Monday night or so. It's sort of surprising to me that I'll even see it in a theatre, given the number of "popular" movies that I was "supposed" to see in recent years but (for the most part) I've never seen period, and my (I know, not the norm for "my age group") opinion that Batman Begins wasn't that good at all. Hey, most of the characters were stupid/loathsome, 80 percent of the dialogue being parables/PROFOUND STATEMENTS~ didn't exactly impress me, and the action scenes being that shaky cam horse manure… I don't know why so many people went so gaga over it. Then again, Batman fans seem to flip their shit online when anyone makes a comment that even barely offends their fandom. I hopefully will enjoy The Dark Knight more than I did Begins, and at least I'll get to see it at the IMAX Theatre they have in Orlando. I've seen some movies in that format and it's a sublime experience.

It turns out that The Dark Knight didn't seem to have much of an effect on attendance at this show. I'd say it was around 200 or so. There was a large crowd of teenage males there who-judging by their shirts-play football for Brooksville (Central) High School. It was clear from how they reacted that many of them were not hardcore wrestling fans and probably had not been to an indy show before.

The event started around 8:05 PM with the ring announcer… oh Jesus H. Christ, the ring announcer… but I'll get to him in a bit. It wasn't Jonathan Gold, the usual announcer for these events, but someone else.

1. Erick Stevens defeated Austin Amadeus. This was a good opener. The football players there were red-hot right away. After all, they went crazy after Erick delivered a *shoulder tackle* to Amadeus, and they went even crazier when he first chopped Amadeus. That resulted in poor Austin getting chopped often for the rest of the bout. It went back and forth but the end result was Stevens winning with a Doctor Bomb.

2. Bruce Santee defeated Kyle Matthews. At first the football players popped for Bruce (for some reason) but once he badmouthed them and their team, they were eager to support the much smaller Matthews. At one point they referenced the movie Rudy, which dealt with a very small football player making it onto Notre Dame's football team. Up to the very end, Bruce steamrolled over poor Matthews, although at the end he used some athletic moves to get some near-fall pins. But in the end, Santee won with his Big Dump finisher.

3. Chasyn Rance-Jason Blade defeated The Loggers. When The Loggers came out first (yeah, for the most part the good guys came out first and then the bad guys; totally bass-ackwards and I don't know why it was done that way) they won over the football players immediately when Jack Manley (i.e. Lumber Jack Manley) jumped over the barricades and chilled with them for a little bit. Meanwhile, they hated Chasyn and Jason with a passion, especially after Chasyn bashed the entire sport of football. It proved to be quite good, mainly for the football players being so loud for it, although it wasn't like the rest of the crowd wasn't into the show either. It must be said, though, that only one of the football players took off his shirt in order to show off his chubby physique to Chasyn because… well, I don't know why he did that. Anyhow, it was a quite good contest due to how heated it was and how the wrestling was simple yet effective. Chasyn and Jason got the victory after The Lifeguards came out and distracted The Loggers, setting up a match for GEAR's debut in Orlando on August 24th.

I'll mention here the ring announcer… usual ring announcer Jonathan Gold wasn't available to ring announce this weekend for some reason. I guess he got stuck playing Chutes & Ladders or Candyland with that baby Mister Saint Laurent (and I'll say more about him in the Soliloquies I'll post next week). No matter the explanation, Gold wasn't there so they used a chubby African-American gentleman. I didn't hear his name due to the muddled sound system. I got the impression that he must've been a local guy or someone they picked randomly out of the crowd. He was atrocious! He had trouble reading the cue cards, could never quite get the phrase "FIP Florida Heritage Champion Sal Rinauro" correct, butchered the name Go Shiozaki... and best of all, he fell and busted his ass on the floor as he first exited the ring! FIP would probably be better off having a fan from the crowd be ring announcer on Saturday rather than that joker… but from what I understand, The Mighty Ox was ring announcer for the FIP show, thankfully. Not that Ox hasn't made mistakes while announcing before, but I just know he had to be better than what I saw on Friday night.

Someone on the DVDVR messageboard thought the same way about the GEAR announcer that I did, and from there (and from what I overheard at the show) he was Pro Wrestling Guerilla ring announcer Jon Ian! He must have flown in from Southern California with Joey Ryan. Some DVDVR'ers said that Ian has never done this badly before, so I have no explanation why he was so shit-tastic here. As for Pro Wrestling Guerilla, it's not one of my favorite feds, to say the least, which is why I did not recognize Ian. It's not really the wrestlers they have in the fed, but rather that from what I saw, the bouts themselves did nothing for me, but much more importantly, their sense of "humor" is WAY too forced and stupid. You know, having show titles like "Tango & Cash Invitational", "44 Ways To Kill You With A Pimento", and "Teen Outreach Summit"… that's pretty Goddamn stupid, and I'm a fan of the movie Tango & Cash! Let's not even go into business-exposing shit like having wrestlers wrestle in slow motion (talk about a slap in the face to the entire profession, no matter who does it or where it's done) or how terrible the commentary is. Then again, I'm someone who doesn't care for CHIKARA at all due to its disgracefully small/poor ring and how its humor is way too absurdist.

4. Tyler Black defeated Jon Davis. This was another quite good contest. After Jon jaw-jacked with the footballers, they immediately hated him. In this bout you had the usual high amounts of athletic moves from Black, and the usual power moves from Jon. It was a nice percolating blend. This got a good amount of time too so you had many near-falls. Black got the win with his Small Package Driver.

Intermission. It was around 15 minutes long and included a raffle. I'll take this time to mention the hillbilly fans that were right behind me. That party included a father and a son, who I think was around 8 or 9. Sure, it wasn't like he wasn't annoying at times, but you'd be shocked at what the father said to his son. Besides calling his son a "dickhead", he also threatened to knock him unconscious! God bless that man. Why do I keep on sitting by these types of people at shows?

5. Nigel McGuinness defeated Kory Chavis. This was a non-title match; Nigel's ROH World Title was not on the line. This was a good bout, although the crowd wasn't into the bout at all for some reason. Then again, some people heeled Nigel just because he was British! Go figure. Things went back and forth fine enough, I thought, but the lack of crowd heat hurt it. Nigel won with his Tower of London finisher.

6. Jerrelle Clark/Nooie Lee defeated Sal Rinauro/Joey Ryan. Sal came out first and the football players didn't think too highly of his "Flo-Jo" tights (where there was one leg missing). He introduced his friend Joey Ryan, and his flowery purple tights and 80's look angered the football players also. It was great hearing his Magnum P.I. theme music, though. I'll also say this was quite good, due to how much the crowd was behind the good guys and how much they hated Sal and Joey. What got the loudest pop (or rather, POP!) of the night was when Joey's face ended up in Sal's crotch! There were hoots and hollers (pardon me, HOLLERS!). Sal and Joey cheated at various times, but it wasn't enough, and they lost after a Clark moonsault. Afterwards, Rinauro and Ryan hugged each other (awwww), but then Sal attacked Joey. This set up them facing off against each other at FIP the next night. I'm surprised that a GEAR storyline would reference something in FIP, myself.

7. Roderick Strong defeated Chris Jones. This was a very good contest and was the match of the night. As I figured, Strong destroyed Jones for much of this lengthy bout, but Jones was able to fight back often to make it interesting rather than boring. The highlight was when Jones had some great counters to avoid one of Roderick's backbreakers. Man, poor Chris Jones took a beating here, though. He got hit hard time after time after time, and the chops… part of his chest turned a different color. But, it was the best match of his career and it was quite the fight.

8. Kenny King defeated Jimmy Jacobs. This was a good main event, but the football players didn't seem to care a whole lot about it. It may be because Jimmy looks VERY emo, and not to be stereotypical, but it isn't a stretch to say that football players-or any kind of jock-doesn't care for emo boys at all! Of course Tyler Black doesn't look as emo, so that's why the jocks felt free to cheer for him. At least you had some kids who were into Jacobs, but not even the rest of the crowd seemed to be into him. I mean, they disliked Kenny from what he's done at past GEAR shows and from him saying at this event that the men were toothless and the women were barefoot, but the match didn't seem to engage too many people, as quite a few actually left before it was over with. It's not like this was a long show (I believe it was around 2 hours and 45 minutes), but I guess they wanted to make it back to their front porch so that they could watch their bug zapper in action before they turned in for the night. Anyway, Kenny won with his Coronation finisher.

The last match aside, I had a lot of fun at this show. While I wish I could have made it to FIP (I *did* have time on Saturday night to go to a fun locale, but more on that also in the next Soliloquies), at least I got to see this and I had a blast with the rowdy crowd, seeing the people I know, and watching good action in the ring.

This is most likely my last July show; however, I plan on seeing several August events. I do plan on being at the GEAR show in Orlando. They have a full liquor bar there; I know some will shake their head when they hear this, but I just may have to have a sample of what they offer!