That's the short one-word review. Now, the more verbose one :) With ROH, Dragon Gate USA, JAPW, CZW and a host of other indie feds that populate the area and show their wares in the Philadelphia area, to say Chikara is the best at what they do, or at the very least most entertaining, among them is high praise. High praise that is deserved. After two nights in Easton for the prelims of the tournament, the fed came down to The Arena for the finals in a jam-packed card featuring a lot of awesome tag team action on the undercard, as well as a mini-estrellas match and the latest in the blood-feud saga of Claudio Castagnioli and Eddie Kingston. I went to the event with faithful blog reader Sean McLaughlin, and we took our seats right next to the entrance from the back.
Before the show, Lince Dorado was sitting at the merch table. I asked him if he was wrestling tonight, and it turns out he shredded a ligament in his knee from the night before taking a Spanish Fly from Arik Cannon. Tough injury. Lince was a real cool guy and a great conversation. I hope he gets better soon.
Louden Noxious kicked the event off and we were on our way. Trios action started the night with Dasher Hatfield (the newest alter ego of Create-a-Wrestler), Yellow Dog and Player Uno taking on KC "Cloudy" Day, Tim Donst and Hydra. This was an extremely fun opener that had me rolling at several points, mostly due to the antics of Yellow Dog and Hatfield. YD had a dog mask on and a tail and came to the ring with a chew toy, which was used for great comic effect. Hatfield, an old-timey baseball gimmick, played up the baseball schtick perfectly. They got the win, and afterwards, Donst went apeshit and turned heel, suplexing Hydra, Cloudy and YD.
Next match was the Northstar Express taking on Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood. Fun tag match, the NSE was really over, although I wasn't all that much into them. The Roughnecks got the win off a Doomsday Device looking move where instead of a lariat, Redwood hits a Polish hammer to the chest.
Next up is a four-way elimination tag team match. Halcon Guerrero and Chiva VI, the Colony (Soldier and Green Ants), Delirious and UltraMantis Black and Team FIST (Gran Akuma and Icarus) were the competitors. Chiva was clearly the most over guy in the match and the most fun as well. He wears a goat mask and is a huge soccer fan, bringing a ball to the ring with him. At one point, he goaded ref Bryce Remsburg into yellow-carding Icarus and then lining up for a free kick (which he turned into an enzugiri). Sadly, the Mexicans were the first team out, followed by the Colony. Two rudo teams to finish the match, who'da thunk it? Anyway, Team FIST got the win on a rollup. After the match, UMB and Delirious got delivered a white gift box from some guy coming from the entrance from the street. It had a note, which UMB didn't read, but it caused him to head for the hills. Must have been in conjunction with the Eye of Tyr angle they're running right now.
After that was our last match of the first half of the show, the mini-estrella match between Pierrothito and Mascarita Dorada. Pierrothito is probably the world's tallest midget, because he was as tall or a little taller than Grizzly Redwood, and he was really thick too. Dorada was more of what you think of when you think Mexican midget wrestler. He was dressed up like the white Power Ranger. Fun, fun match. Pierrothito played up the Puerto Rican heritage angle, which one other guy in the crowd connected with. Other than him, everyone in the audience was solidly behind Dorada. A lot of arm drags, a lot of flying, a lot of cool submissions, and Dorada won with cool pinning combo.
Intermission was next. I bought myself a Jigsaw mask. Here's the photographic evidence:
It's a bit snug, but it fits. Ophidian, still recuperating from his broken arm, was slithering about the arena during this time with his Campeon de Parajas title belt in tow. I saw him and a young girl exchanging hisses and jeers respectively, so I went over to him and said "Hey, it's not nice to hiss at a young girl like that". He replied "JIGSAW! What happened to you?" That statement had both me and Sean rolling. Lince and Ophidian weren't the only guys available throughout the night. That's one of the things I love about Chikara. The roster is so accessible and friendly, rudo or tecnico.
First match back from break is the tag match, Frightmare and luchador Turbo taking on Mike Quackenbush and Jorge Rivera. I'll tell you what, Rivera is spry for his age. He was more than keeping up with his counterparts in there, who were on point as well. Spot of the match was Quack holding up Turbo for Skayde to hit him, only for Turbo to duck and hit Quack. Rivera profusely apologized afterwards to our amusement. Quack got the duke after hitting Turbo with two variants of the Quackendriver.
Next match, Claudio Castagnioli vs. Eddie Kingston in their long-running feud. Zia-saurus Hiltey, who was there snapping pictures ringside, very cool gig, said that this was the match she was least looking forward to because they're usually boring together. I shrugged it off, but she was right. The beginning and end of the match were both slow, although there was some good action in the middle, really good high-impact moves and some slick exchanges. I can't help but thinking that the end was Botchamania worthy though. Kingston hit Claudio with the Backfist to the Future (URAKEN~!) and a Saitoplex and Claudio rolled out of the ring, where he was being counted out. At around fifteen, Kingston went for a tope on Claudio but fanned on it, and Claudio rolled back into the ring at nineteen. Normally, I thought that the count would be broken and reset for Kingston, but I guess I was wrong, because ref Nick Papageorgio continued the count and counted Kingston out after one second outside the ring.
As was the case with the DGUSA card one month prior, the second-to-last tag match stole the show. This time, it was a three-way Trios match, or a Golden Triangle Triple Threat match. Team one consisted of Fire Ant, Hallowicked and Arik Cannon. Team two was Chuck Taylor, Stigma and Vin Gerard. Team three was the Future Is Now stable, or Jigsaw, Equinox and Helios. This was a frantic and frenetic match with spots going a mile a minute. At one point, six of the nine competitors were locked up in a mass submission hold-o-rama, and towards the end it became Finisher-mania. The funniest part of the match, though, was when everyone started trading bodyslams in the beginning, and Taylor stopped short from one slam and walked into one from referee Bryce Remsburg! After that, all nine competitors cornered the senior ref as most of us in the crowd were laughing our asses off.
There was a scary spot about midway through the match. Fire Ant went for a tope con hilo into a pile of guys on the outside, but he overshot and landed flush on the guardrail. Normally, you don't think anything of those kinds of spots since they happen with the frequency, but when Ant got up, the guardrail was bent.
I repeat, he bent the fucking guardrail. Ouch.
Ant did take a few more bumps and finished the match, but he looked worse for the wear. I hope he's okay. No need to lose another wrestler to injury in the same weekend. Match ended with a SUPAAAAH FISHERMAN-BUSTAAAAAHH~! from Hallowicked on Stigma for the pin. After the match, the two tecnico teams were celebrating in the ring, and they invited Taylor and the two members of the UnStable to come back in. They did, and the tecnicos offered their hands, but the rudo team pulled back at the last second much to the dismay of the crowd.
Last match was for the 2009-10 Young Lions Cup, and it was another pretty good match between Colin Delaney (who's main evented BOTH Chikara events I've seen live... bastard!) and Player Dos. Delaney had a lion's share of the offense, peppering in a lot of WWE spots, including the Five Knuckle Shuffle and the Twist of Fate, complete with his own sarcastic deliveries. Dos got some offense near the end, and in another Botchamania moment, he flubbed a split-legged moonsault badly. It was so bad, the crowd that was solidly behind him started booing him. Still, Dos won, and when he did, the arena exploded in congratulation.
In closing, it was a pretty good show. The wrestlers are super-engaging, the comedy was excellent and so was the wrestling. If you're in the New England area, New Hampshire and West Springfield, MA, go see them when they come up. It is the best value in wrestling, the most bang for your buck.
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