The problems continue for Impact Elite. It’s been three weeks since any member of Impact Elite has heard from “The Natural Born Leader” Johnny Z. It has taken a great toll on Kevin Morgan and is adding onto the already heavy load on the cancer ridden Madame Commissioner Erica. Morgan swore to Erica that he would find Johnny Z by striking fear into the hearts of everyone and would indeed find him tonight.

 

Erica stated that she had pressing business to take care of and took center stage in the Impact Arena. Madame Commissioner was very upset that the loss of a coin tosshad granted “The #1” Shawn McHale the right to choose the participants in the Impact Player of the Year Tournament and that the match-ups would be chosen at random. In a grasp for some sort of power she decided that she would start the night’s event with a match from that very tournament, pitting Impact Elite’s own “Lights Out” Jordan Jacobs against Vinny Camacho.

 

 Neither Camacho nor Jacobs had much support from the IZW World, especially as Vinny spent the early part of the match salsa dancing rather than wrestling. Jacobs soon became tired of Camacho’s antics and brought the fight to the youngest of theSexy Camachos. The match went back and forth, even spilling to the outside before Jacobs was able to drop Vinny throat-first onto the middle rope and gain a measure of control. As Jacobs rained down punches from the second rope, Camacho lifted “Lights Out” on his shoulders and dropped him face first with an inverted powerbomb. Jacobs was able to shake off the damage and apply a figure-four leglock but Camacho fought out and leveled Jacobs with a clothesline and a dancingelbow drop. Camacho seems almost more worried about dancing than he is winning and after landing several big moves, took the time to dance and was caught off guard by a big superplex. Vinny again was able to sway things in his favor but took too much time showing off and was caught with an ES2 from Jacobs which put Camacho down for the count. Jacobs will advance to the second round of the ImpactPlayer of the Year Tournament but took quite a beating in an impressive first-round showing by Vinny Camacho.

 

In the Impact Elite office, Jordan Jacobs was eager to start celebrating his win. Kevin Morgan, however was worried about the whereabouts of Johnny Z. In fact he was irrritated by Jordan’s focus on the tournament and lack of focus on finding “The Natural Born Leader”. Morgan made it quite apparent that he expects Jacobs to shape up and be much more in tune with the rest of the group in locating their savior.

 

Randy Price, who seemed to be negotiating his latest commercial endorsement deal, bumped into referee Brock Landers. Even though Price was the one walking, he demanded Landers apologize and even got physical with the much smaller Landers. But instead of backing down and giving Price the apology he wanted, Landers refused saying that he was tired of being bullied and had been training to wrestle so that he couldd stand up for himself. After laughing hysterically at the thought of Landers wrestling, Price proceeded to continue mocking Brock and challenged him to a match later that night.

 

Our next match would be the second Impact Player of the Year Tournament match ofthe night. The participants would be one half of The Brothers Righteous, O’Malley. After O’Malley made his way to the ring, the music rang out that signified Copycat would be his randomly matched-up opponent. This comes as a chance at revenge for Copycat, who has plenty of history with O’Malley and still owes him one after Copy was knocked out with O’Malley’s brass knucks at Violent Valentine. The IZW World continued to await the arrival of “The Forgotten Champion” but, though the music played, Copycat never came through the curtain. A backstage camera crew caught up with Copycat, unconscious, laid out, face-first in a steel chair, the obviousvictim of a vicious beating. The referee had no choice but to count out Copycat and declare that O’Malley was the winner and would be advancing in the Impact Player of the Year Tournament.

 

As O’Malley looked to walk away with an easy victory, Madame Commissioner Erica hit the stage. She said that she was impressed with the number that was done on Copycat if it was O’Malley’s work. But she went on to inform that she refuses to pay anyone for doing nothing and that he would indeed be in a match against a man, looking to make it to the ranks in IZW, Spike.  Spike was eager to get things started and lit the gargantuan O’Malley up with a flurry of strikes. As Spike got his momentum going he was pancaked by a huge cross-body from O’Malley which he was barely able to kick out from. O’Malley then mauled the young upstart but Spike showed some fires, slapping O’Malley across the face but all that got him was even more beating from O’Malley. Spike continued to do his best just to take O’Malley off his feet but his every effort was met by brute force and the preaching of the righteous rhetoric from his much larger opponent. Spike was able to take advantageof O’Malley’s overconfidence and land a flying clothesline from the top rope finally toppling “The Hate Machine” but was only able to score a two count. Tired of playing with the newcomer O’Malley unsheathed his famous brass knuckles and laidout Spike, giving him a very bittersweet disqualification victory.

 

In another installment of Jordan Jacobs’ Lights Out Lounge, Jacobs was once again more than happy to tell the IZW World that he would win the Impact Player of the Year Tournament and gloat about his victory earlier in the night. Luckily, Jacobs informed us that he would actually have a guest this week and not be his own guestas in weeks past. But before he brought out his guest he let the IZW World know that the ES2 he used to win his match would no longer bare the name that JermaineJohnson gave it, but would now be known as the Light Switch as Jacobs was the manwho invented the move in the first place. Jacobs then brought out his guest Soto Miyagi and proceeded to embarrass the martial artist by asking loaded questions about how Miyagi never made it into the Impact Chamber at Coronation. As Jacobs continued to poke fun at Miyagi, Kevin Morgan made his way onto the stage and demanded Miyagi answer the only question that Morgan cares about at this point “where’s John?”. When Miyagi didn’t give Morgan the answer he wanted, Morgan attacked him and carried him down to the ring to inflict further ppunishment.

 

Miyagi continued to refute the fact that he knew the location of Johnny Z but Morgan found no comfort in his denial and poured on the pain, brutalizing the much smaller Miyagi. Morgan literally threw Miyagi across the entire length of the ring, from one corner to the other.  Every attempt at offense by Soto was quickly stoppedby the power of “The Image of Fear” but Morgan refused to go for the win. Repeatedly asking Miyagi “where’s John?”.  Finally the distraction allowed Miyagi to gain a bit of momentum and take Morgan off his feet and start laying in blistering kicks to Morgan’s Chest but Morgan caught the leg of the mysterious man from the Orient and lifted him high above his head and ended Soto’s efforts with the Momentof Fear. The referee stepped in after a second Moment of Fear and stopped the match, possibly saving the career of Soto Miyagi in the process.

 

Next up was Randy price taking on IZW referee Brock Landers. Price was very disrespectful in this outing. He obviously outmuscled the smaller Landers but still felt it necessary to put the bad-mouth on Landers at every opportunity. Price dropped repeated elbows, knees, suplexes and chokes on Landers and when he probably could pin the man, refused to make a real cover. After jawing with the fans,Price set Landers up for a vertical suplex but Landers hooked Price in an inside cradle and pinned Price for the 1,2,3! A shocked price was absolutely beside himself, unable to believe he’d been beaten by a mere referee but apparently there’s more to Brock Landers than meets the eye.

 

In the main event of the evening IZW Champion Double D would be in his fourth consecutive big time main event match. This time his challenge would come in the form of the nearly five hundred pound Big, Bad and Sexy Angel Camacho.  The IZW Champion gives up a lot of size in this match up and would need to use speed and agility to avoid the girth and power of Camacho. The wear and tear of weeks of being a fighting champion had certainly taken their effect on Double D. Each clubbing blow Camacho connected with sent visible bolts of agonizing pain down the back of the champion. His timing seemed to be lacking as well as when Camacho charged Double D, D pulled the top rope down, intending to send Camacho over the rope and to the floor but Camacho saw the ploy coming and stopped short and continued his assault on “The Captain of the Force”.  Both D’s offense and defense was much less effective than normal as his normally devastating strikes didn’t rock Camacho as perhaps they normally would, allowing Big, Bad and Sexy to keep control. Camacho focused his attack on the back and midsection of D, the same area that Randy Price dealt a great bit of damage to the previous week.  Double D fired back with a series of chops but even his signature Force Chop wasn’t at full power and it took two to take down the enormous Camacho. Camacho fought back to his feet but was meet with a pair of knees  and an enzugiri kick that still only brought him to a knee. D connected with his nine mountain-climber knees in the corner but as he was going for the tenth was scooped up by Camacaho who had him in position to flatten him like a pancake but on the way down D reversed into the tenth knee. D scrambled to the top rope and with the last of his energy was able to hit the high cross-body for the win.

 

Exhausted, Double D’s problems were just starting as Kevin Morgan made his way to the ring and was met with a flurry by D, but Morgan’s power was unstoppable. Morgan brutalized D all over the ringside area. He physically dissected the man he believes holds the key to finding Johnny Z. he then brought him into the ring and drove home the point with the Moment of Fear. Will anyone be safe from the image of Fear as long as he has lost his savior and with repeated title defenses and main even matches how long can Double D last before the damage catches up with him?