So, in an attempt to better inform people on what Chikara's all about and in an attempt for you guys to learn as I learn, here's a primer to the best of my knowledge:What Is Chikara?
Chikara is an American lucha libre fed that combines a lot of lucha traditions with indie sensibilities and a lucha/indieriffic/puroresu polyglot of in-ring techniques. The main focus is on stables, tag teams and multi-man matches like atomicos and cieberneticos. There is far less emphasis on "serious" characters and a lot of colorful gimmicks. While the wrestling action and out-of-ring storylines themselves can get hot and heavy, there is a lot of comedy infused in matches as well.
Furthermore, Chikara is family-friendly. Wrestlers don't use profanity, and with the exception of Pierrothito threatening to violate people's mothers at a card in Easton, wrestlers keep their gestures and taunts at the crowd PG. The aforementioned colorful gimmicks are cartoony at times on purpose so that nerds like you and me and kids alike can get into them, and the wrestlers love interacting with children, whether they're tecnicos or rudos. They don't just pay lip service like other companies do, you can take your kids to the shows and not feel dirty afterwards.
After the jump...How specifically does Chikara hold to lucha traditions?
Well, for starters, they use the terms tecnico and rudo to refer to their faces and heels respectively. The fact that they plainly and explicitly demarcate their faces and heels is the biggest indicator of their lucha heritage. As previously mentioned, there is a heavy emphasis on tag matches of all magnitudes, and just as in lucha libre, you don't need to physically tag your partner to make a tag. All one has to do is exit the ring to allow another member of your team to come into the ring. Also, Campeonato de Parejas (Chikara's Tag Team Championships) matches are best two out of three falls most of the time.
Several match traditions are imported from South of the Border. The two that most stand out are atomicos and ciebernetico. The former is an eight-man tag team match, usually one fall to a finish. The latter is an incredible 16-man tag match where there's a distinct "batting order" as to when team members can enter the match. It's elimination style, and the match doesn't end when one team has been eliminated. If there is more than one person left on the winning team, the remaining team members then face off against each other, elimination-style, until there's one person left standing.
What traditions do they not import? Well, the piledriver is obviously legal, and you don't get disqualified for throwing your opponent over the top rope.
What other titles does Chikara have other than the CdP?
Just the Young Lion's Cup, a title that's more a trophy and is competed for by wrestlers under the age of 25. Furthermore, a new YLC Champion is crowned each year via tournament, regardless of who the holder is at the time.
So the only two titles Chikara has are a tag title and an under-25 title. It might sound odd, but again, Chikara's focus is more on stables and tag teams anyway, so it makes sense for the tag belts to be the biggest focus in the company. In addition, tournaments have more significance in the fed, including but not limited to the annual King of Trios (six-man tag tournament), Ciebernetico Incredible, Young Lions Cup Tourney and the Rey de Voladores (literally translated as King of the Fliers, a mini-tourney for aerial wrestlers).
And in a final note about the CdP, in a unique twist that puts a lot of emphasis on competition, no team may challenge for the belts unless they've accumulated three points. You get a point by winning a match. If you lose a match, you lose all your points. That is probably my favorite part about the fed, that even in the face of wrestling ants and guys with ice cream cones on their heads, that there's still a clear focus on competition and athletic achievement.
How often and where do Chikara normally run shows?
Chikara runs in "seasons" that coincide with the calendar year. They usually run roughly one weekend a month with two or three shows on that weekend, depending on what's going on.
The shows are usually held at the Palmer Center in Easton, PA, the Riverside in Reading, PA and The Arena in South Philly, although they have branched out into New England, Cleveland, Chicagoland and even internationally in both Germany and Japan. Also, they've partnered up with Dragon Gate USA, so expect to see Chikara talent wherever DGUSA goes, which includes Chicago and Phoenix in the immediate future.
So, that begs the question, how can you follow Chikara if you don't live in the Philly area or in New England? Well, I'm glad you asked...
Yeah, butthead, I'm not privileged enough to live in the NE USA. How can I get into Chikara without having to drive obscene distances?
DVDs. Chikara puts every show they run out on DVD. They're very reasonably priced and you can get them from Smart Mark Video (link again on the sidebar). Right now, you can order DVDs as far back as December of 2008, which isn't really a long time, but it spans something like 24 shows. As you can tell, the fanbase loves the fed, and the DVDs don't stay in stock for epic amounts of time.
You can also follow Chikara indirectly through the ChikaraFans board as well as through following Chikara on Twitter (@chikarapro), Facebook and following their main site. Through all those print media, you can get news updates from Director of Fun Leonard F. Chikarason and read interesting wrestler blogs.
You can also do well by subscribing to Wiggly on Youtube. Who's Wiggly? Well, he's one of the behind-the-scenes guy, and they use his Youtube account to post updates from Chikara brass, wrestler promos, and the best out of the lot, the Chikara Podcast-a-Go-Go. The PaGG pretty much is a vehicle to show clips from matches at various Chikara shows. It's a good way to get a taste of the action. The various videos he posts are a great way to get insight into Chikara's in-ring action and to the storylines.
What kind of storylines does a monthly fed like Chikara run?
While you can go to a Chikara show just to be entertained by the spectacle of comedic lucha libre wrestling, long-time followers get some pretty neat storylines and feuds as well. Feuds are generally based not on stuff like spilled coffee, but on competition, jealousy, getting ahead and other things. One of the biggest feuds of the year featured Team FIST going at it with the Colony, which culminated in a lucha de apuesta match, another lucha staple. The lucha de apuesta is basically a match with a public bet, where either team wagers something. The competitors from Team FIST wagered their hair and the Colony their masks. Seeing that the Colony is still masked today, well, you can tell who won that match.
Storylines/angles are something different. Usually, there are a bunch of minor storylines orbiting a major, fed-wide, tone-setting one. This year's involved the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple using a mystical stone called the Eye of Tyr to bring Delirious under their control...
Wait a second, mind control? That sounds stupid!
It might sound stupid, but remember that there is an element of Chikara that is geared towards kids, and this is the kind of "evil" that kids get into. Blackmailing Delirious into joining their crew, for example, would compromise that element of the fed. Do you have to like it to enjoy the fed? Obviously no, but when it's all said and done, magic can be explained by hypnosis and really, is it any dumber than some of the major storylines that come out of the WWE or TNA?
But anyway, back to the description, UltraMantis Black, the leader of the Temple, thought he had things under control until this guy in a trenchcoat and a voice-changer named Vökoder showed up warning him about these really pissed off guys wanting to take the Eye back. At YLC VII Night 3, a guy dressed in white showed up and sent UMB a message saying "War was coming".
Meanwhile, the Colony gained a suspicious new recruit in Carpenter Ant, a guy who showed up way too conveniently to save the day, but whose intentions seemed to be true. Blogs kept popping up about how people like Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze and Tim Donst, were unhappy with their lot in life in Chikara. Well, fast forward to the Season Finale, when at the end of the show, all hell broke loose. In a nutshell, Vökoder took the Eye of Tyr away from UMB for "safe keeping", only for UMB to find out that the trenchcoated guy was Tim Donst, a guy that the Temple had pissed off in the past. Donst stole the Eye of Tyr for himself. Meanwhile, the guy in white turned out to be Claudio Castagnoli. Carpenter Ant was Pinkie Sanchez. Then, a guy dressed as a viking came out, as well as a wrestler named Ares and the two aforementioned women. Then, those seven wrestlers proceeded to beat the fecal matter of any and every Chikara wrestler and staff hand that was out there at the time, rudo or tecnico.
Calling themselves the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (literally the Brotherhood of the Cross), they declared war on Chikara. And that's how things ended for season number 8. A bit confusing? Yes, even for veterans following Chikara it was, but it should line up for a big year in 2010.
My brain hurts. Can we stop talking about storylines, and can you give me a list of guys to know?
Of course!
Mike Quackenbush - Quack is basically The Man in Chikara. He founded the company with Reckless Youth in 2002, and he's also the head trainer at the Chikara Wrestle Factory.
The Colony - This stable of wrestling ants consists of veterans Fire Ant and Soldier Ant, as well as rookie Green Ant. Fire and Soldier are currently Chikara's Campeonatos de Parejas. Green Ant replaced the fallen Worker Ant, who was retired by Team FIST earlier this year. The Colony all wear ant-motifs, and their unique, triple-team offense makes them crowd favorites.
Team FIST - Basically, before BDK showed up, these guys were Rudo Kings. Led by Chuck Taylor and seconded by Gran Akuma and Icarus, these guys' merciless and underhanded approach to wrestling get them the scorn of fans wherever Chikara goes. They are the reigning Champions of the King of Trios tournament.
UltraMantis Black - UMB is pretty much the Evil Colony counterpart. He's an insectoid rudo with an affinity towards the dark arts. He's been with the company since inception, having been in the first graduating class of the Wrestle Factory. His obsession with the Eye of Tyr and controlling Chikara through fear gained him Delirious as a minion but alienated his close ally Crossbones. UMB is also a regular color commentator on DVD matches.
Eddie Kingston - He's currently one of the indie darlings in the Northeast, competing in ROH and JAPW, but Chikara is his home fed. He's crude and rude, not really caring for anyone or anything, even his stablemates Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood (the latter who was recently thrown out of the Roughnecks). Whether he stays rudo or turns tecnico now that his rival Claudio Castagnoli has emerged as the ringleader of the BDK remains to be seen.
The Osirian Portal - These guys are straight outta Ancient Egypt. Ophidian wears a snake mask and hisses at small children, while Amasis takes the mantel of the Funky Pharaoh, selling phantom shin injuries and dancing whenever he gets the chance. The Portal was rudo for most of the year, but they recently turned tecnico. They spent most of the year as Campeonatos de Parejas until defeated by the Colony (although a lot of that time was spent waiting for Ophidian to recover from a nasty arm injury).
Dasher Hatfield - Dasher is the latest incarnation of "Create-a-Wrestler", a guy whose gimmick resets yearly with the fans having a major hand in what that gimmick is going to be for that season. The fans have really taken a shine to the Dasher persona, launching a major campaign to let Dasher become his permanent gimmick. What is that gimmick you say? Well, he's the old-timey king of swing, a guy with a baseball for a mask and who acts like a guy straight off an '80s baseball diamond... 1880s that is.
The Super Smash Bros. - This fan-favorite team bases their gimmick heavily off video games. Their trunks are gamer-themed and all their moves and mannerisms are themed and named for games. Right now, Player Dos is the YLC Champion, having won the tournament, and there is friction between he and Player Uno because Dos keeps beating him in singles competition.
Of course, there are plenty of other permanent and rotating/guest wrestlers, but aside from the BDK wrestlers that I'm not going to go into right now on purpose, those are the guys to know.
So there, I hope that I gave you guys as good an idea of what Chikara's all about as I have. I want to share the good word and let people know that there is a fed that still knows how to have fun out there.
