Nineteen years ago yesterday, Tom Carter and Mike Spillane ran their first show out of their newly-formed wrestling school. They chose the name "Chikara," which is a Japanese word that translates as "power." For 18 years, the company was a deeply-rooted part of the Philadelphia wrestling scene, and one that had live reach to locales like Chicago, North Carolina, and England. All of that went down the toilet when the extent of abuses perpetrated within the company was exposed during Speaking Out. Not only were individual wrestlers named, most graphically and specifically Kobald, but Spillane himself, who competed under the name Mike Quackenbush and carried on the company and school after Carter, also called Reckless Youth, left later on in 2002, was implicated in turning a blind eye to abuses by wrestlers and trainers to perpetrating mental abuse and short-shrifting on payments. The groundswell of, well, speaking out caused Spillane to close the promotion and for students and longer-tenured wrestlers, all the way up to Hallowicked, who had been there since day one, quit the company and resigned their posts as trainers at the Wrestle Factory.
The last time Chikara presented any new content was on June 20, when they aired the last installment of pre-taped Action Arcade Wrestling on IWTV. Four days later, the promotion had shut down after the allegations became too heavy. That did not stop Spillane from almost immediately going on the offensive to rehabilitate his image. He started posting rambling, self-absorbed videos where he did everything but apologize for the sloppy shop he was running. When the Philadelphia Inquirer came calling to him for an interview about how things went down, he compared the people making accusations about his company to a "mob lighting [his] house on fire. He basically has gone onto discrediting the accusers, one of which came out and said that Kobald raped and abused her, in an attempt to pave the way for a comeback that thankfully has not happened yet.
It's hard to say that the actions of one person tainted nearly two decades of pro wrestling memories and experiences for fans and the wrestlers who were fortunate enough not to feel the pinch of either Spillane or any of the deviants in the company, mainly because even if the buck did stop at Spillane, there were plenty of other people who contributed to a miserable atmosphere. Aside from Spillane, Ophidian, a long-time wrestler with the company and trainer at the school at the time of Speaking Out, was accused of impropriety. Yolanda, the popular gear-and-merch designer/maker, levied accusations against Ophidian's longtime tag partner Amasis. That doesn't even begin to cover the number of wrestlers who were booted from the company after their misbehavior reached critical mass, i.e., Spillane could no longer ignore it, like with Thomas Sharp/Blaster McMassive and Rory Gulak.
Still, there were a lot of things about Chikara that were, at the time, fun experiences where people made long-lasting friendships and had their itch for pro wrestling gratification scratched to perfection. Yes, the guy at the top turned to be evil, but Vince McMahon is categorically worse in deed and ego. Does that make the moments at WWE shows etched in memories of fans invalid? Absolutely not. The only difference between McMahon and Spillane is that the former has enough money to smooth any problem over, and there are far more vocal fans of WWE who are willing to forgive him as long as he satisfies them than there are for Chikara. The thing about fostering an environment where "everyone was welcome" with a veneer of tolerance, respect, and inclusivity is that even if you yourself are full of shit like Spillane was and still is, the people who flock to your promotion, whether it be as fans or workers, buy into it. When you hurt those people, they will not easily let you forget it. When the margins are much slimmer than what they are at the big companies in Stamford and Jacksonville, shit like this sticks more easily.
And so you have a legion of fans, not numerous like what would and will again pack arenas for live telecasts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, but still statistically significant, who are orphans. For wrestlers and other personnel like Bryce Remsburg, Eddie Kingston, Kimber Lee, and Tony Deppen, further high-profile employment was in the cards, but the younger trainees with less cache were stuck with a bill they didn't deserve. They went from underpaid and exploited but part of a collective that at least could have increased their exposure to a wider world to unpaid and without any greater collective with a strong name brand. Some of them have learned to tread water enough to keep going, but the whole house of cards coming down left an entire community in shambles. Some of who were adversely affected deserve it, no doubt. I'm not sure a majority of those who were rudely awakened had it coming though.
Chikara as a brand name belongs to Mike Spillane, but I'm not sure the memories are his to tarnish though. It can be tough to get over those callouses, and if one cannot, it cannot be held against them. People in 2021 still cannot watch Chris Benoit matches for the same reason, but not everyone has trouble separating art from artist, or in this case, because wrestling is not art, wrestling content from person behind the wrestler. What I am saying is you should not let Spillane ruin the memories for you if you don't want them to be ruined. Chikara was more than wrestling anyway. There were friendships forged in the crowd there. It was an experience that was a huge part of people's lives, and in this era, where life itself does a good enough job of depressing the fuck out of people, happy memories should not be so easily turned from joyous to miserable.
Do not take this message as a tacit endorsement of Spillane's comeback. That's because Chikara does not belong to him, even if he owns all the copyrights and other legal bullshit. He can try to weasel his way back in the scene without earning it. He can try to run shows under the Chikara name without taking back comparing rightful consequences he suffered to vandals, but it won't change that the time spent at the ECW Arena or Logan Square Arena or the Wrestle Factory aren't dependent on his bullshit providence. The times you spent watching matches you couldn't find anywhere else, chatting up Remsburg between matches, having wrestlers on your podcast, or eating post-show meals with friends you made at these shows are yours. Take them if you want. Nothing a scumbag with capital, however much or little, can do will take them from you.
