FIP (not EWE!) in Clearwater, April 7th, 2006
Me paraphrasing a conversation:

Male Individual: "Are you going to the Crystal River show tomorrow on your bike"?

Me: "Bike? No; I don't even own a bike"

Male Individual: "That's a shame, as (flexes his biceps) you can ride these mountains"

Yes, a guy told me that pickup line (one I hadn't heard before, incidentally) earlier tonight, although I'm sure he was telling me that just as advice for my "game" (which isn't much better than Colecovision, by the way)… at least I hope he wasn't making a pass at me!

I don't have too much of an intro for this show. Originally they were going to have Roderick Strong vs. Jack Evans II as the main event, but at the last minute Jack Evans cancelled; why, I'm not sure. While it was disappointing news (as their first matchup is like 1 or 2 on the list of the best matches I've seen live this year) I was still expecting this show to be a good time, and that was fulfilled.

Before I arrived at the building, I stopped at the Hooters in Clearwater; that locale is famous as that's where the first-ever Hooters was built. I went there for that historical reason, I swear!

The show started around 8:15 and there was a crowd of around 100… or maybe it was a little more. I mean, it didn't seem that way as they had us sit on only two sides of the ring and the crowd was sufficiently loud for my tastes.

1. Jerrelle Clark defeated Krazy K and Dexter Poindexter in a three way dance (first pinfall wins the match). While I've seen Jerrelle a plethora of times and I've seen K a few times, this is my first time viewing the character of Dexter Poindexter. Just from the name you should be able to surmise that Dexter is a wrestler who dresses like a stereotypical nerd, with black-rimmed glasses and suspenders and all. He came out to the opening song from Star Wars (to be exact, Episode IV). I thought that was curious; is the message of "All Star Wars fans are dorks" trying to be said here? I won't say it, as I've known some hardcore Star Wars fans in my life, and they'd all kick the shit out of me if I ever referred to them as spazzes or dweebs! As for the match, it was pretty good. It was given a good amount of time and all three guys used impressive moves. The bout started off with Dexter trying to join in on Clark and K grappling with each other, but a few times they both delivered shots to the poor nerd. Eventually he got things going and he's certainly not bad as a wrestler. Looks are deceiving. Among the nutty moves that Krazy did included delivering a double stomp from the top rope onto Dexter, who was tied up in the ropes, but most of his body was on ring apron. Like I said, nutty. Jerrelle pinned Dexter with his 630, a move I haven't seen him do in literally months.

DP Associates came out (tonight, only DP, Mr. Milo Beasley (w/ sign saying "Fell on hard times. Please give me money" and Bryan Danielson). They called out Jay Fury and said he wasn't worthy of getting a shot at Bryan's FIP belt at the Saturday night Crystal River show, so Bryan demanded that Jay face an opponent of his choosing, and if he won he gets the title shot. Fury agreed but stated that he wanted to do the same for Bryan tonight. Initially he refused but after the crowd called him "chicken" he agreed.

Black Market came out and they demanded a shot at the Heartbreak Express for their tag team titles. Chasyn Rance and Seth Delay came out and they disagreed, as they defeated Black Market by DQ at the February Clearwater event. The Express, So Cal Val and Kory Chavis came out, and Val agreed for Sean-Phil Davis to face off against both teams; they were hesitant to do so but eventually agreed.

2. Black Market defeated Chasyn Rance-Seth Delay and The Heartbreak Express (w/ So Cal Val-Kory Chavis); however they did not win the tag titles. I'll explain why. This was also a "first pinfall wins the match" contest, and Black Market pinned Chasyn, I believe. Because Sean or Phil wasn't pinned, Val said that they don't get the titles. Anything goes, I guess. This bout was fine. Most of it was fought with Black Market on the ring apron. Seth was punished by Sean and Phil, and they mainly worked over his ribs-stomach. Once Chasyn was tagged in, it was pandalerium. After the bout Roderick Strong came out and started mentioning something about being "an enforcer for FIP", but we never got to find out what exactly he meant, as Kory Chavis attacked him. During all this all three teams in the last match fought their way to the back. In the midst of that a garbagecan was knocked over. In a hilarious moment Phil Davis slipped on the trash and fell right on his back! He was fine, though.

3. Roderick Strong defeated Kory Chavis (w/ So Cal Val). This was a good bout. Due to Kory blindsiding Roderick, Strong had to fight most of the match on the defensive. Despite this advantage, along with Val's cheating, Chavis wasn't able to win the bout. Eventually Roderick got Kory in his "Strong Hold" submission and Kory had to tap out. The crowd razzed on Kory for tapping out.

Intermission time. It lasted between 15 and 20 minutes. I apologize for this being a rather brief review (for me). Just look at the time this was posted. I didn't go straight home after this show was over with. Then, I had to post two new photos on my Myspace page… I'm lucky I'm alert enough to type this up before I finally am able to head to bed.

We find out that Bryan Danielson's selection of an opponent for Jay Fury is… Tony Mamaluke. Interestingly enough these two were involved in that tag bout at the February tag match, but it was Tony's partner, Chad Parham, that got pinned.

4. Jay Fury pinned Tony Mamaluke. This was a pretty good bout. Tony was being all heelish and twice he tried to blindside Jay early on but both times he was thwarted. Eventually Tony was able to work over Jay's neck-head with various submissions-holds, but wasn't able to get the win. Fury was loudly supported by the crowd, BTW. Fury was able to get in offense but often was bothered by his neck-head. He however was able to get the win by using one of his many kicks.

We now find out that Bryan's opponent tonight is… Alex Porteau. A rather nice spot for Alex to be in, considering this is his second-ever FIP match.

5. Bryan Danielson (w/ DP and Mr. Milo Beasley) defeated Alex Porteau. This was a give and take match that was good. Porteau is a nice find for FIP, as even though he's heavier than he was 10 years ago when he was briefly in the WWF he certainly still knows how to wrestle. It's great that he's here rather than in some shit show fed. They spent some time fighting on the outside of the ring, including them going right into my section; I came this close to getting my ass knocked down! It was a real close call. A rotund man who was sitting in another section wasn't as lucky as me. In the unintentional comedy moment of the night (and probably the weekend) on another throw into the chairs this guy didn't get out of the ring and Danielson pretty much rolled over him as the guy ended up flat on his back! Thankfully he was fine afterward, but man that was just unexpected in this contest. Bryan won due to some assistance from Prazak; this made the crowd quite angry, as they just hated the bad guys by this point. Afterwards Mr. Milo Beasley (who now had a sign saying "Oh you know I just need the money for beer"; he did get a dollar from a lady in the front row. How nice of her) and Danielson tried to blindside Fury, who came out, but he was able to KO Beasley with another kick. DP came out and had to drag Milo to his wheelchair. Milo was upsidedown in the chair, though, so his crotch was close to DP's face… that was a rather unsettling image.

6. Colt Cabana-Sal Rinauro defeated Steve Madison-Erick Stevens in a Clearwater Streetfight. This was a pretty good contest. Madison was adamant about not fighting in a brawl like this. Instead he wanted to fight in a straight-up wrestling match (although he DOES hide his famous chain in one of the corners). Colt and Sal came out with a bunch of "plunder" as if they are both a white version of New Jack. However, Madison just refuses to fight in a brawl, despite repeated comments about Miracle Violence Connection 2006 being "chickens". Colt gets frustrated and finally agrees to a catch as catch can match. They fight and it's the usual goodness you would expect from these guys. Sal gets beat upon for a few minutes, but once Colt gets in the ring, he says on the mic (to paraphrase) "The hell with this; I want a streetfight right now!" and it's on. It's more goofy than the hardcore brutality we saw in the brawls with MVC and Fast N Furious, but it was still very enjoyable to watch. We saw such things as a basketball right to the face of Stevens; it bounced off his head and ended up by the merchandise tables… also, poor Erick ended up in a wheelchair (not Milo's chair, though) and was rolled into one of the gym walls. The end came when Madison accidentally knocked out Stevens with his steel chain. Afterwards Steve was complaining about having to "carry" Erick, but they will still team together in the streetfight for the Crystal River show.

Overall, even though this was a 6 match event that lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes it was still a quality show, IMO. See, without Roderick vs. Jack Evans II this still turned out well. My next review, in case you had any doubts in your mind, will be the FIP extravaganza in Crystal River, which will be posted around this time (but hopefully a little earlier) tomorrow night.