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| Tim Donst, Vanquisher of both Smash Bros. |
DVD started off with a promo from Green Ant directed at Pinkie Sanchez. Pretty good stuff. First match was obviously the Colony against the BDK trio of Sanchez, Daizee Haze and Lince Dorado. Sara del Rey accompanied the über-rudos out to the ring. The Colony started off hot, waiting to get their hands on the BDK. Daizee started by begging off from the Ants with the other two members getting the Pearl Harbor in. Fire Ant served as a punching bag early, but was able to escape to let in Soldier Ant, who soon enough ended up in the grasp of the BDK. The Colony played underdog for a good part of the match. At one point, Lince got Soldier in a Mexican surfboard and Sanchez landed a springboard double stomp. Brutal and good looking spot. Despite getting hammered down most of the match, the Colony had their moments. Green pulled out a nice leglace counter out of Sanchez planting his foot on his chest. During the Colony's comeback, the men of the team left Daizee in the ring by herself to play up the "chivalry" thing and then slapped all three in the face. The Ants had enough and started unloading on her. No, that wasn't a sexual reference, seeing as this is family friendly. Match ended with Soldier locking Sanchez in the Chikara Special, but del Rey broke up the hold. No she wasn't a legal competitor, so it was a DQ. This was a really tense, very hot opener. I really liked the struggle to get in the Chikara Special at the end. Sanchez really has been a revelation.
Next up, Delirious, still under the control of UltraMantis Black and the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, took on Player Dos. Pre-match, Mantis cut a brilliant promo detailing all the things he wanted the Order to accomplish (which they wouldn't). Delirious stood still before Mantis called out to him from the Commentation Station, turning Delirious into a raving madman. Almost like Festus, only shorter. A lot of the initial action took place outside the ring, but once it got inside, it stayed fairly grounded with Delirious in control. One of Dos' first attempts at high flying, a springboard body press, was countered beautifully into a gutbuster by Delirious. They really put over how extra-brutal the then-pet of Mantis was since joining the Order, both by Mantis himself on commentary and in the match with Delirious putting extra oomph behind his moves. Dos did make a comeback, but Delirious won, countering out of a fireman carry spinout into the Praying Mantis Bomb/Tiger Driver '98 for the win.
Next match was an atomico. FIST's Icarus and Gran Akuma teamed with the Badd Boyz to take on Incoherence (Hallowicked and Frightmare) and the Osirian Portal (Ophidian and Amasis). The rudos taunted some fans on the outside. Obviously, Icarus is far inferior in this department than his FIST stablemate Chuck Taylor, but then again, Chuck Taylor doesn't have the bad judgment to get a horrible tattoo on his back like the one Icarus has. Match started out on the spotty side, but there were a few really impressive ones, especially Frightmare leaping over Akuma onto the turnbuckles, and then leaping back to hit a rana. A dance-off broke out mid-match, much to the dismay of one of the Badd Bros. Amasis wanted Akuma in the ring, who teased dancing to Lady Gaga, but double-crossed the Funky Pharaoh with a kick to the gut. Akuma's such a dick, it's delicious. Or he was a dick. Who knows if he's going to be tecnico when he comes back now that he's been booted from FIST. Amasis spent much of the match after the fake-out taking a beating from all four rudos. It got a little slow at this point. Match picked up when there was dissention in the ranks among the rudos, and the tecnicos made a comeback. Tecnicos got the win when Hallowicked surprised Icarus with a kick to the face as he was trying to do a running plancha to the outside. Forgettable match, although it wasn't really bad.
The Throwbacks cut an anti-BDK promo, and then we went into Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton against Claudio Castagnoli and Ares. The Throwbacks came sliding into the ring and were met with stomping from $wi$$ Money Holding. After an initial flurry comeback, the BDK team kept Dasher Hatfield away from his tag partner for a good part of the match before making a comeback of his own and allowing Dunkerton to get in the ring, who landed a nice sliding DDT on a kneeling Ares. $MH ended up winning when Dunkerton went for a tag on Dasher, but Dasher wasn't there because Claudio pulled him off the apron. Ares got a stunned Dunkerton and nailed him with a Tiger Driver that looked more like Tiger Driver '91. Didn't know if that was a botch or not. Okay match, but not enough of the fun Throwback spots that usually pepper their matches.
A Tim Donst promo preceded his match against Player Uno for the Young Lions Cup. Uno came out guns blazing, but Donst retreated between the ropes, then attacking after Uno retreated per BRYCE~!'s orders. Uno came out working pretty intense but pretty smart too, playing up getting revenge for his friends Hydra, whose career Donst ended, and Player Dos, whose YLC Donst took. A lot of set-up work for an arm submission called the Joystick. Uno was really good here. Donst was pretty good too, as he worked a good ground game, including the illegal but TH-pleasing fishhook on the outside of the ring. He also had a really good counter of the Joystick into a pinning combo. Donst went for the worst-looking frogsplash not done by a leprechaun ever, but Uno countered it with double knees and broke out the HydraLock (full nelson) to the delight of the crowd. Donst retained after hitting Uno with a second Donstitution, which is a front chancery-STO. Good match, a very well-worked affair with a personal-stake feeling to it rather than a lucha libre sprint. The Chikara roster has done a great job of putting over the feeling and the "fight for your life" feel of this war. This might have been Uno's best performance I've seen to date.
Eddie Kingston cut a promo where he called Tursas "Turd-sauce" and then the match between the two was next. Kingston landed a yakuza kick and two hard punches, and Tursas shook them off like mosquito bites. Tursas spent the next few minutes manhandling Kingston, but Kingston did a great job putting over his "no-quit" spirit. Tursas actually landed an impresive-looking German suplex, which for a guy his size is an impressive feat. Claudio appeared mid-match and got wiped out by a Kingston plancha before he could do anything. Then, as Kingston got tied up with Tursas, Claudio heel-tripped him onto the apron out of the sight of referee Nick Papageorgio, setting up a second-rope splash from Tursas and another BDK victory. This was a shortish, almost squash, which did wonders for Tursas' standing, given how over Kingston was in the fed. I don't know why Claudio had to interfere, but I guess this is just building to a season finale showdown this year between the two.
And now, time for our MAAAAAAAAAAINNNN EVEEEEENNNNTT~! The Future Is Now (Jigsaw, Equinox and Helios) teaming with mentor Mike Quackenbush against the unholy union of The UnStable (Colin Delaney, STIGMA and Vin Gerard) and Brodie Lee. Unorthodox start with patented Chikara comic relief with Equinox rolling out of the ring to leave Gerard to Quackenbush, Quack taking Gerard down with an unusual leg takedown and then Brodie Lee and Equinox hugging it out to a chant from the crowd. There was one point where there was a contrast in selling, going from STIGMA not selling a crossbody at all to Delaney overselling an inverted atomic drop and a foot stomp. As was the theme of the night, the faces spent most of the match in peril, with the UnStable really playing up the dick-heel antics, at one point with Gerard mocking Quack's legit injured back. Quack got to escape and Equinox cleaned house, hitting his former (and once again) tag partner Delaney with a deadlift alley-oop before taking his turn to get worked over by the rudos. The best highspot of the match came from Brodie Lee, who surprised everyone, including Gavin Loudspeaker who was in the Commentation Station for this match, by landing a suicide dive to the outside.
The tecnicos made a big comeback with Helios just hitting everything in sight, which led to Equinox, Quack and Jigsaw landing a triple plancha on the rudos on the outside right in the front row. There was this one black fan who took a fair part of the brunt of the hold, which wasn't the first time he took a bump all-night. I think he took one in the Throwbacks/BDK match too. The tecnicos got the exciting if a little sloppy win via a Quackendriver Classic, an inverted Razor's Edge position Iconoclasm, on Delaney. Good cap to the card, although there were a few sore points, specifically STIGMA no-selling that body-press and some obvious ballet from Helios towards the end during his big comeback. Still, a nice main event.
The crew had a tough task following their season premiere, A Touch of Class, but I think they did a fine job of breaking in the new building. It was punctuated by an opener and a main event that pretty much defined what Chikara is to a tee and had a nice journey in-between, especially a visceral feel to the burgeoning BDK/Chikara war, typified most by the YLC match. At the time, it was disheartening to see the BDK whitewash Chikara with only one loss coming via DQ, but looking back now with the BDK on its heels, it stands as the second chapter in a good story. It may not have been the best meatloaf and mac 'n cheese that Chikara had ever served up (that would come a month and a half later at KoT), but it was still damn good comfort food and worthy of going back for seconds.
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography
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