Greetings, mizfan fans! And welcome back, after too many months, to a column that makes me supremely happy. That’s right, our patience has finally paid off and the first show of CHIKARA’s 2015 season, “A New Start” (don’t put it on a license plate!) has been released and I’m going to tell you all about how much fun it was. Off we go!!
A New Start
CHIKARA Event, 1/25/15
After the apparent demise of the monstrous Deucalion at the hands of Icarus, it appears that heel mega-stable The Flood is all but disbanded once again into its various subsets, and for the first time in a long time there are no invaders knocking on CHIKARA’s door. How will the remnants of The Flood react to their new circumstances? Will the formerly united CHIKARA locker room adapt back to regular competition? Is there a new threat on the horizon? Let’s find out!
CHIKARA has recently ended their 11 year relationship with Smart Mark Video, so this will be the first event produced in house from the technical side. This doesn’t seem to have resulted in many issues besides a little uneven sound, but there is a somewhat different feel for the experienced viewer. We are greeted immediately by senior referee and LOP Radio guest Bryce Remsberg, head commentator Leonard F Chikarason, and Director of Fun (GM) and real life founder Mike Quackenbush. They welcome us to the show and turn things over to the world’s only “Rock & Roll Announcer”, Gavin Loudspeaker. Gaven plays around with the crowd a bit, including interviewing a little girl who brought a comb to the event. When asked why, she says it’s for Sydney Bakabella, who was revealed to be starkly bald under his bad wig at the December event. Little girl, you should win a prize for that. Gavin continues being generally great at his job for a few minutes before getting the action rolling.
Speaking of Sidney Bakabella, manager of the Wrecking Crew and man trapped in the 80s, he is backstage with a pre-match promo. He trashes the ECW Arena where the show is being held, calls it a dump rather than a famous venue. He also runs down the Throwbacks for the 5 man team they’ve assembled to take on his boys, including heckling them for including “a broad”. Ah Bakabella, he’s the perfect distillation of every 80s manager/promoter negative stereotype. Long may he comb his wig.
Bakebella leads his full stable down to the ring and stops to tell the little girl that her comb is disgusting, but she isn’t fazed because she’s awesome. The technico (face) team follows and is made, and the high flyer Shyron is sporting new giant wings on his entrance attire, holy crap. The ref checks Mr Touchdown’s football to see if it’s been deflated, and Quackenbush on commentary is genuinely astonished on commentary to hear about the recent deflated football scandal. Only pro wrestling for Quackenbush in his free time, it seems. Jaka steals the football and investigates if it’s good to eat. The Wrecking Crew mocks the Throwbacks’ tradition of a team huddle by doing a little team cheer of their own, but it’s too much stalling for Touchdown and he levels Rumblecrunch to start the match with a bang!
The Wrecking Crew (Blaster McMassive, Oleg the Usurper, Max Smashmaster, Jaka, & Flex Rumblecrunch) def. Princess Kimberlee, The Throwbacks (Mr Touchdown & Dasher Hatfield), Shynron, & Jervis Cottonbelly in 15:38
Like the Ascension, but self aware and with good wrestling!
The History: For the uninitiated, McMassive and Smashmaster recently defeated the Throwbacks for the Campeonatos de Parejas, the tag team championships of CHIKARA. They make up 2/3rds of the Devastation Corporation, along with Rumblecrunch, and are the reigning King of Trios, the annual six man tag team tournament held by CHIKARA. Together they were among the most successful members of The Flood, and seem to be relatively unscathed by the demise of the larger stable. Oleg and Jaka are tertiary members of the group also managed by Bakabella, and when all are combined they are the Wrecking Crew. On the other side are former champions the Throwbacks, a marginally time displaced sports themed team, with Dasher Hatfield in the character of a 50s-esque baseball player and Mr Touchdown playing your protypical 90s football jock. They are joined by Shynron, recent winner of the Rey de Voladores (King of the Flyers) tournament in CHIKARA and a man with some truly freakish abilities, Jervis Cottonbelly, a very kind gentleman who enjoys a sporting competition, and Princess Kimberlee, a very talented young female wrestler looking to make her name in CHIKARA. These three joined the Throwbacks to answer an open challenge from Bakabella, who wished to demonstrate his group’s dominance in the face of The Flood’s dissolution.
The Match: Great opening here, CHIKARA is nigh bulletproof with these big team matches with lots of moving parts and this was no exception. Highlights include some amazing moves from Shynron, including a snap spinning cartwheel dive off the top rope to the floor, a handspring double cutter, and a corner-to-far-corner dive onto a dogpile of opponents, truly one of the longest leaps I’ve ever seen in wrestling. Don’t think it was all the Shynron show though, most of these guys deserve praise in one way or another. I will say that Kimberlee impressed me even more here than she has previously, standing up to men more than twice her size with very convincing strikes and selling beautifully whenever overpowered. It’s not easy for a 125 lbs woman to stand up to a 375 lbs man like Max Smashmaster, but those two talented competitors made it work beautifully. In the end the Wrecking Crew zeroed in on the female competitor though, and an astounding Avalanche Belly to Belly Superplex from McMassive to Kimberlee put her down for good.
The Takeaway: Praise for pretty much all these guys, this was a match packed with talent. I will say I’m still not overly fond of Flex Rumblecrunch, who in spite of his awesome name stands noticeably below his two super 80s themed partners in terms of talent. I’m also growing a little tired of the Jervis Cottonbelly shtick, the man under the mask plays the ultra-polite gimmick well but at this point it almost always results in him getting smashed. CHIKARA generally does a good job of allowing a character to be both humorous and taken seriously, but Jervis has veered towards Santino territory in terms of credibility. Also, there has been a small but growing undercurrent of the Wrecking Crew being unhappy with Oleg the Usurper, who was ordered out of the ring at one point by Bakabella in this match for supposedly dropping the ball. Oleg’s character is truly a manic one and he doesn’t do teamwork particularly well, so perhaps a split is rumbling for the Usurper? I would think the fans would get behind a guy like him if the story supported it, the man behind the character plays it with such obvious glee it’s hard not to like the guy. I also want to give a special shout out to Princess Kimberlee, who you may remember took some very brutal and dangerous looking shots at a very recent Beyond Wrestling show. If you want to see a fantastic example of man vs. woman wrestling instead of that frankly frightening clip, this is definitely the place to go.
Awesomeness Rating: ***¾
Ophidian is shown backstage, staring into a mirror surrounded by candles and praying to the gods of Egypt for the strength to defeat his massive opponent. He says he wonders if they are even listening, and says if he fails in his match it will prove to him that his gods cannot even hear him. He prays for victory so that he may believe again. Very interesting here, Ophidian as well as his tag team the Osirian Portal have been somewhat stagnant recently, so this seems like it may herald a coming change depending on the outcome of the next match.
Nokken def. Ophidian to win 3 points towards Grand Championship contention in 8:01
Because why shouldn't a goggle wearing minotaur be #1 contender? Seriously, give me one good reason that's not awesome.
The History: Nokken is the current monster of the Bruderschaft Des Kreuzes, or BDK, a long running major heel stable in CHIKARA. Ophidian has a serpentine persona and is typically associated his tag partner, “The Funky Pharaoh” Amasis, and together they make up the even longer time fan favorite team of the Osirian Portal. Coming into the match both men had two points towards contention for the Grand Championship, the top singles title of CHIKARA. Any singles loss will reset the points to zero, so at the end of the match one man would have three and the other would have nothing.
The Match: Excellent big man/little man dynamic here, with Ophidian weighing in at only 160 lbs and Nokken surely well over 300. They did a great job telling the story of Ophidian clearly being the better wrestler pound for pound but being stopped by Nokken’s raw power. A key point of the match was Ophidian being physically unable to fully lock in his finishing hold, the Death Grip, due to Nokken’s size. Nokken isn’t as talented a big man as, say, the two main parts of the Devastation Corporation, but he definitely shows some promise for a relative newcomer, and Ophidian helped him tremendously to put out a very solid outing here, which isn’t surprising as I’d rate Ophidian’s skill level as extremely high even amongst a talented roster. He certainly sold beautifully for Nokken’s offense, and when he finally wore the big man down he had some great offense to try to slay the giant, including a spot of repeated slingshot knee strikes in the corner that looked purely excellent. The finish came when Ophidian attempted a variation on his Death Grip finisher, only for Nokken to pick him up mid move and maneuver him into a devastating looking piledriver to win the match and the title shot.
The Takeaway: It certainly raises questions about Ophidian’s future, we’ve seen him walk down the heel path in the past but it is unclear where that would leave his partner, who is pretty talented in his own right. They broke up and feuded for a while as recently as 2013, so another similar split seems unlikely. There is also a growing contingent of longtime CHIKARA favorites who may be feeling disillusioned or disenfranchised by the company, laying the seeds for what has whisperingly been called the CHIKARA Civil War. We shall see what forms out of these possibilities. I also must say, I’m a little miffed to be robbed of a potential Ophidian/Icarus match. Nokken is a promising new big man but I would rate Ophidian as one of the best workers in the company, so even if it’s for the sake of a story I feel mildly cheated of that, though we may yet see it down the line I suppose.
Awesomeness Rating: ***¼
Post-match, BDK leader Jakob Hammermeier taunts everyone with the fact that his monster has 3 points. Nokken speaks as well for what I believe is the first time, and he’s not bad at all, albeit sounding a little like Arnold Schwarzenegger. They are meant to be a mid-European stable after all, so I suppose that’s all fine then. Nokken says he’ll tear off Icarus’ wings and grind them to dust.
Backstage, Race Jackson and Hype Rockwell do a promo. As per their usual shtick, Race talks very fast and Hype is sleepy. They do not say anything of interest.
N_R_G (Hype Rockwell & Race Jackson) def. Colony Xtreme Force (Missile Assualt Ant & Artic Rescue Ant) in 1:10
MISSILE!!! ASSAULT!!! ANT!!!
The History: Xtreme Force is a group introduced a few years ago as a heelish attempt to modernize, merchandise, and generally bastardize the longtime fan favorite stable The Colony. Since then, Missile Assault Ant has rocketed (if you’ll pardon the pun) away from this stablemates in terms of skill and popularity. Meanwhile, N_R_G is a team that seems to exist only to annoy me and they keep showing up on CHIKARA shows for some reason.
The Match: The crowd loves Missile Assault Ant and doesn’t care about Artic Rescue Ant. N_R_G rushes Xtreme Force to jumpstart the match, and do very little before pinning Arctic. MAA never even officially gets into the match. After the match, Missile refuses to help his battered comrade up and stalks away to the back.
The Takeaway: In case you couldn’t tell, I don’t care much for N_R_G. I feel they bring very little to the table. You’d think a dominant win like this would allow them to showcase some decent offense, but… not really, most of the match was still spent standing around. Of course, the real focus should be on the Xtreme Force split. Missile Assault Ant seems to have a real future, getting over on his enthusiastic and catchy commitment to the gimmick (including speaking using only the three words of his name in order to increase brand awareness), as well as the incredible pace at which he has improved his wrestling skills since debuting as a rookie. The other two members of Xtreme Force, Artic as seen here as well as Orbit Adventure Ant, have languished far behind, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them phased out quietly over the course of the year.
Awesomeness Rating: ¼*
The great and devious Ultramantis Black is backstage. He talks about vanquishing Delirious but how great the cost has been, referring to Delirious’ parting shot using the mysterious Eye of Tyr to somehow change the personalities of Mantis’ longtime allies Frightmare & Hallowicked. Mantis discusses how the Eye of Tyr has been changed and distorted since it was reassembled, and that it has wrecked unknown havoc on the minds of his former partners. He states for the moment he will be a solitary traveler, and warns Juan to beware. Man, Mantis is so good at these promos, the charisma really shines through.
Back in the arena, Ecuadorian aristocrat Juan Francisco de Coronado takes an age to get down to the ring, perfectly baiting the fans who engage in a chant of “hurry up” to join in the fun. He cuts a promo that is subtitled in Spanish, for the benefit of his fans in Ecuador. He insults the residents of the United Stations and their terrible leader, Barris Oprah, and tells the crowd to follow him as their leader instead. He is also quite excellent at his shtick, I got a lot of love for JFDC.
Ultramantis Black def. Juan Francisco de Coronado in 8:43
Ultramantis loves being great and devious, almost as much as he loves bead necklaces and smoky dark rooms.
The History: There’s really no history between these two directly, just a nice showcase between the veteran Mantis and the hot newcomer Juan Francisco. Juan is looking to bounce back after a loss at the December show to “Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington, and Mantis is reeling from the loss of his faction the Spectral Envoy due to Delirious’ mysterious actions before leaving the company.
The Match: Really strong match overall, nice bit at the beginning with Mantis clocking Juan with the thick necklace he always wears. He may be a face, but he isn’t called devious for nothing! Some smart early offense that allows Juan to play the fool, injuring his backside in a couple of comedy spots, but the match allows him to get his heat back as he smashes Mantis’ arm against the guardrail in impressive faction. Juan does a picture perfect job working over that arm, only for Mantis to eventually take advantage of Juan’s overconfidence and regain the advantage, finishing him with a great looking Mantis Bomb (Tiger Driver).
The Takeaway: Interesting to see Mantis as solo act, as despite his long running popularity he has rarely been seen without a stable of some kind at his command. I have no idea why though, he’s above average in the ring and this was a great example of that. Juan is also an incredibly promising relative newcomer, he is one of the most natural heels I have seen and already a borderline genius of ring psychology, I’ve rarely seen a guy these days so adept at picking over a body part. Hard to say if there will be anything specifically related to this match storywise in the future, it was fairly cut and dry. One small point, this match was refereed by one Derek Sabato, who previously betrayed CHIKARA to work for the BDK and cheated extensively to give that team an advantage over the CHIKARA faithful. He was eventually discharged from the company (in storyline) but was mysteriously rehired by Mike Quackenbush, who refuses to say exactly why he has done so… the commentators did make mention of this, so I suspect there may be something more under the surface there. We shall see.
Awesomeness Rating: ***½
The current full line up of the BDK is hanging out backstage, made up of Jakob Hammermeier, Nokken, & the returning Pinkie Sanchez, and they are all quite happy about something. Jakob is very happy about his allies, not only the BDK but also Soldier Ant. He claims Soldier wants to destroy the Colony even more than he does. Soldier comes when called and Jakob claims they are friends, but Solider only growls and walks off. Jakob still seems pleased.
The BDK (Pinkie Sanchez & Jakob Hammermeier) & Soldier Ant def. The Colony (Silver Ant, Fire Ant, & Worker Ant) in 20:28
Deucalion may be gone, but Soldier's rage remains...
The History: Oh man, where to start here? I’ll try to give the short version, all within storyline of course. Due to some bungling by the previous management of CHIKARA, the former unit of longtime fan favorite group The Colony was disrupted. At that time made up of Colony founders Fire Ant & Soldier Ant, along with Silver Ant (then Green Ant), previous CHIKARA manager Wink Vavasseur forced Soldier Ant to leave the group and join a succession of heel groups, in an effort to “shake things up”. Due to this treatment, Soldier Ant eventually resigned from the company. Meanwhile, the Colony was forced to accept a heel into their group, a man who was at the time called Assailant and who came from a counter-Colony group looking to destroy the originals. Over time Assailant reformed and rejected his past allegiances, due to wanting to turn over a new leaf after the birth of his first child. The Colony eventually accepted him and renamed him Worker Ant, after a retired previous member of the group. Unable to locate Soldier Ant, the newly formed trio started working together regularly. However, eventually Soldier Ant returned, looking very battered and attacking the Colony without warning or explanation. He has still not explained his actions but now appears to be returning to the company, aligned with heels such as the BDK out of necessity in order to oppose his former friends. Just because I haven’t typed the word “Ant” enough times yet, Pinkie Sanchez is also a former Colony member under the guise of “Carpenter Ant”, but this was only a ruse by the BDK and Pinkie quickly betrayed the group after being accepted and there has been bad blood between them ever since, and now banded under current BDK leader Jakob Hammermeier they are set to oppose the Colony once more.
The Match: Best match of the night in my book by far, definitely showing off why CHIKARA is so good at 6man tag matches that they have an annual tournament to show off their skills. Definitely have to give a special shout out to Pinkie Sanchez, who not only looked fantastic in his return match, having been gone from the company for almost 4 years, but also displayed great emotion and character all through the bout. He got the action started, needling Silver Ant until he attacked him recklessly, and put on a number of especially good sequences with Silver during the match, and also had excellent interaction with Soldier Ant, who on several occasions would hurl Pinkie out of the ring after being tagged in so he could attack the Colony alone, which Pinkie sold beautifully. The rest of the match came off extremely well too, with great storytelling all around and some particularly good flying from the talented Fire Ant, not to mention Soldier Ant perfectly showcasing his single minded desire to take some kind of revenge on the Colony. Easily my favorite moment of the match came very late in the game, where the ring ended up cleared of everyone by Fire and Soldier, and they turned and were both about to strike when they both hesitated, remembering their 9 year friendship. Fire Ant has been extremely hesitant to attack Soldier through this whole story, and though he tried to regain his composure here he was too slow as Soldier recovered first and leveled his former friend hard. Soldier then began to choke Fire Ant viciously, and though he tried Fire was not able to break the hold. As Fire faded into unconsciousness, however, he weakly raised his hand into a salute to his former friend, which had long been a sign of friendship and respect between them. Soldier was clearly taken aback at this gesture in the face of his almost murderous rage, and released Fire and exited the ring in consternation. Unfortunately for the Colony, Jakob was able to take advantage of this by isolating Worker Ant and putting a Sharpshooter variation on his weak knee, gaining the hard fought tap out victory.
The Takeaway: Extremely interesting match as well as being very high quality. Soldier’s distaste for working with the BDK was apparent, but it’s unclear if Fire Ant’s gesture will truly get through or only caused a momentary lapse in his desire for revenge. A possible point of interest is Soldier Ant appearing more normally vulnerable here than he did at the December event, where he seemed to be able to absorb almost unlimited damage due to whatever was driving him. He still looked very strong here, but less unnaturally so. The whole Fire/Solider dynamic is just fantastic though, and I can’t wait to see them finally lock up in what is sure to be an emotional singles match. My only real issue here is that Jakob himself seems somewhat out of place among the rest of these workers, he is strong as a talker and a charismatic type leader with a good character, but in ring he lags behind the rest here, even Worker who is weak in singles matches but steps up well when in a team of some sort. The match was still great, but it stood out a little in my view.
Awesomeness Rating: ****¼
Eddie Kingston is backstage to cut what is unquestionably the promo of the night. He comes very close to the camera and speaks directly to Kevin Condron, his opponent. He says, shockingly, that he doesn’t regret helping to kill Condron’s friends because we’ll all die at some point, and says he did what he felt had to be done at that time. He says Condron is privileged and he’ll take him to war and into the ground. Yikes, Kingston is so damn good it’s a little scary sometimes.
Kevin Condron def. Eddie Kingston via DQ in 5:40; Kingston loses all points towards Grand Championship contention
Condron did suffer... but Kingston would suffer more.
The History: Another loaded match here, to summarize briefly Eddie Kingston has become obsessed with the CHIKARA Grand Championship to the point of anthropomorphizing it, and after losing it last May he briefly joined The Flood in an effort to get it back. In the process of doing so, he participated in a harrowing scene that saw Flood leader Deucalion rebuff an ill-conceived attack from three CHIKARA rookies, one of which was Kid Cyclone, who would later unmask himself as Kevin Condron. The other two rookies were “killed” by Deucalion, a character with the CHIKARA specific ability to kill off characters for good. Cyclone, who had been most vocal about calling Deucalion out originally, broke and ran, tearing himself out of part of his costume in order to escape a similar fate, and for 3 months he wasn’t seen anywhere. He returned in December, attacking Kingston with a wrench after his match with Jimmy Jacobs and unmasking himself during a great promo, calling out CHIKARA and the fans for accepting Kingston back into the fold after the things he had done. He vowed revenge on Kingston and to expose CHIKARA’s hypocrisy in general, and left us with the following harrowing quote:
“For those who would follow me, and there will be followers, hear me now for I will only say this once. Follow me, and I will spend you. Follow me, and… when the plane goes down and we begin to starve, I will eat your flesh. Follow me, and I will break your heart.”
-Kevin Condron, Tomorrow Never Dies
In spite of this warning he was quickly proved right, being almost immediately followed by former brain washed captive of The Flood, the Lithuanian Snow Troll, after Condron freed him. This will be his first match in CHIKARA proper, and he has goaded Kingston into an immediate singles match even though it risks Eddie Kingston’s 3 points for another title shot at the championship he loves so much that he calls it “Her”.
The Match: Kingston will never have the best look in the wrestling industry, but I’m hard pressed to think of anyone who is better at conveying emotion. This was on full display here, as he was forced to balance his rage at Condron and his overwhelming desire not to lose his points due to a disqualification. Condron did a wonderful job of trying to bait him, wrestling the entire match not so much to beat Kingston physically as to beat him mentally and make him cost himself the points in order to drive the stake into the heart as hard as possible. Kingston kept his cool for the most part, hitting some truly excellent strikes and suplexes as Condron seemed to be outmatched physically. The story of the match was unfolding swimmingly, when unfortunately the ending of the match abruptly let everyone down a little. Condron went for a German Suplex on Kingston but was unable to get him up and over, so instead Condron released the hold while the ref’s back was turned and fell to the ground, acting as though Kington had low blowed him. For some reason, the referee took this as enough to disqualify Kingston and award the match to Condron. Post-match, Kingston is so pissed that the referee bowls people over running to the back, and Gavin Loudspeaker tries to lighten the mood by telling Kingston he gets “no consolation prize or set of steak knives”, and Kingston responds by throwing tables and chairs around ringside in rage.
The Takeaway: First of all, for a guy who from everything I can tell is a genuine rookie, Condron looks amazing in every way. He’s got a fantastic look for his character, his visual design is perfect, his mic skills are already excellent and his ring work looked good, at least what we saw of it here. I see big things for this kid, both in CHIKARA and probably elsewhere if he’s of a mind to branch out. I keep thinking of that quote above and the slight rumblings we have heard of a CHIKARA Civil War, and as a guy with a legitimate gripe against the company and the fans he may just be the perfect man to lead the opposition despite his warnings and his youth. Time will tell, but there are enough disaffected veterans right now who might just be looking for a change to support a charismatic young man like this… I love how this story is far from black and white in terms of morality, Condron really does have a genuine grievance considering that the CHIKARA faithful forgave Kingston for being essentially accessory to murder on multiple occasions without blinking an eye, but the way he goes about it is so self-righteous and self-centered that he still comes off as something of a villain, while Kingston is probably the closest thing the wrestling world has to a genuinely “Wolverine” like character, who has both a good heart deep down but also a lot of rage, who drives himself on emotion before conscience and sometimes does the wrong thing in the moment, very much a tortured warrior persona that I think fits him wonderfully. Hard to believe Kingston will let the issue rest here, so stay tuned for more on this story. On a minor note, the Snow Troll appeared here at Kingston’s side, still holding the wrench that Condron gave him and seemingly more than willing to sacrifice his body to help his new leader. Poor Snow Troll, he’s like a victim of abuse who doesn’t know how to leave. It bears mentioning that the Flood also killed off his former stablemates, leaving him all alone and at the mercy of the Flood which is how he got captured in the first place. All in all very interesting from a story perspective, although I wish the ending had been structured better. CHIKARA doesn‘t usually rely on referees making dumb calls to progress a story.
Awesomeness Rating: *¾
Frightmare & Hallowicked def. The Batiri (Obariyon & Kodama) in 13:02
And now you can't sleep either! You're welcome.
The History: At the December show, Ultramantis at long last forced opponent Delirious out of the company after a feud spanning many years, but before Delirious left after the match he attacked Mantis’ stablemates Frightmare and Hallowicked with the mysterious Eye of Tyr, an item with known abilities to control or influence the minds of others. After doing so, Hallowicked attacked Ultramantis and then summoned Frightmare to walk out on their former friend, and they haven’t been seen since. Meanwhile the vaguely demonic Batiri are no strangers to this team, having been originally brought in years ago specifically to plague Ultramantis after one of his devious deals went bad. They’ve recently sided with the CHIKARA faithful to protect the company from extinction, so it’s interesting to see the dynamic switched here.
The Match: Definitely the thing that caught the eye the most was the radically different new look of Frightmare and Hallowicked. Hallowicked has been around and pretty much unchanged since day 1 in 2002, and Frightmare has also been pretty much exactly the same since his debut. This was a massive departure from that, both guys had abandoned the simple stitched dark masks and ragged shirts that had long been their look and instead wore elaborate white and red masks and something resembling armor as they came down to the ring. They also carrier a giant red banner with an unknown symbol on it. The whole thing was a little Silent Hill-ish, if you’re at all familiar with that brand of nightmare fuel. Once the match got started, it was definitely a solid affair between two talented teams. I think Frightmare & Hallowicked need a little time to adjust to the heel side of the spectrum, Hallowicked hasn’t played a heel in almost a decade and I don’t think Frightmare ever has so there was a small learning curve in this first match out. Still, they did a great job establishing their new characters with some very different behaviors, and Ultramantis Black on commentary stated he barely recognized them which was a nice touch. The match was a tiny bit awkward due to the learning curve above, but both teams are quite good and this featured a lot of good action. Hallowicked in particular looked revitalized and hit some great combinations, and they finished off the Batiri with a great superkick/crucifix bomb combo.
The Takeaway: It’s clear from his commentary that Mantis has far from given up on his former stablemates, and if anyone has enough tricks up his sleeve to counter whatever dark influence has been put on Frightmare & Hallowicked it’s the devious one himself. The strange symbol gives me pause though… typically everything means something CHIKARA, and I doubt that this change is just a generic one. Expect a lot more layers to come out of this transformation before all is said and done.
Awesomeness Rating: ***
Chuck Taylor is backstage, and he is in serious mode which makes me a bit sad but I suppose considering he’s about to walk into a world title match we can forgive. He talks about his 9 year history with the company and how he has won nearly every award and title, except the big one. He talks about being the man to make Bryan Danielson tap out in 2009 to win King of Trios alongside Icarus, and how he has always known because of that moment that he is better than his longtime team mate and looks to prove it tonight.
Crowd is pretty split as these guys come out, which is a big change for Icarus who remained extremely popular while fighting against the Flood. Perhaps without an evil army knocking at the gates, the fans will split off into other favorites? Taylor is always immensely popular though, so perhaps it’s an isolated incident.
Icarus def. Chuck Taylor in 11:43 to retain the CHIKARA Grand Championship
AWFUL WAFFLE!!!
The History: F.I.S.T. was one of the earliest stables in CHIKARA, founded in 2003 by Icarus along with Gran Akuma and joined in 2007 by Chuck Taylor, who would stay with the group until their eventual breakup in 2013. During this long run the stable was essentially a multi-man incarnation of the “dirtiest player in the game” moniker, taking every possible shortcut and bending every possible rule, and they achieved a lot of success in that time including multiple tag team reigns and the previously mentioned King of Trios win in 2009. When the stable broke up in 2013 it didn’t exactly put Chuck and Icarus on opposite sides of the fence, but it left the relationship strained. When CHIKARA was temporarily shut down, Chuck was the first person Icarus turned to for help in resurrecting it, but Chuck turned him down and told him to move on. Since Icarus turned over a new leaf and was proved right in his faith in CHIKARA and achieved Grand Championship success he and Taylor haven’t interacted at all so far, but when Chuck gained the 3 points needed for title contention he was quick to cash them in. Now we are ready for the F.I.S.T. Powers to explode…
The Match: Nice character work by Taylor pulling no punches against his former partner. Having essentially remained the same scoundrel type character while Icarus took on a much more honorable persona, Taylor was keen to use every dirty trick in the book against Icarus to get the advantage. Unfortunately for Chuck, turns out Icarus remembers all those tricks too, and every time Chuck tried to cheat Icarus had something up his sleeve to turn the tide right back. When Chuck threw blinding powder in Icarus’ eyes, Icarus went to his own cache of the stuff and threw it right back. When Chuck hit a low blow behind the referees back, Icarus responded with a carefully timed use of the title belt against Taylor’s skull. It was a relatively fun throwback to Icarus’ former persona, but I admit it was kind of jarring considering how much he has matured since his days in F.I.S.T. I’m not sure it did the match many favors in the end, especially with the limited run time they had to work with and how much time was spent on these shenanigans. I was much more hoping for a serious title match because I know these guys can tear the house down, so what we got was still fun but I feel it could have been more. They definitely had a few impressive moments outside of the tomfoolery, including some great flying from Icarus, a couple of suplexes onto chairs out on the floor, and the amazing Awful Waffle from Chuck Taylor, which no one should kick out of but Icarus did, which I was actually just a tiny bit annoyed at because the Awful Waffle is the best finisher of all time. Regardless, Icarus finished up by making Chuck tap out to the CHIKARA special, ending a fun main event but one that admittedly did not live up quite to my expectations. Main event rematches are somewhat rare in CHIKARA, but I do hope they get to revisit this one at some point, there is a lot that can still be done here.
The Takeaway: I was a big fan of the Icarus title run, but I never realized that without the Flood to oppose he would look this vulnerable as champion… now that CHIKARA is saved from the bad guys, it seems like his days with the belt might be numbered. He’s still a hugely talented guy and very over, but in CHIKARA they almost always work with a defined purpose and Icarus may have served his after a great reign. It’s not over yet though, I have little doubt he will retain against Nokken at the very least, so look to later in the year for the eventual title switch, although don’t say it for sure! CHIKARA can be very unpredictable.
Awesomeness Rating: ***¼
And so the stage is set, dear readers, for another deep and twisting chapter in the legacy of CHIKARA. There are a ton of moving parts in play, as you can see, so what the year will bring exactly is impossible to say. I’m quite excited to see what comes though, I can tell you that much!
Any and all feedback on the format or the content is welcome, I’m very much experimenting with these long form reviews so please let me know if I’ve got too heavy or too light on anything in particular. I hope to do these for the foreseeable future, so keep an eye out for a review of the February event “National Pro Wrestling Day” coming very soon! Until then, mizfan fans, stay safe, healthy, and of course, awwwesome.