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Simon Watches CHIKARA - 2005
Topic Started: Nov 22 2011, 10:50 PM (2,508 Views)
Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

I need a break from WWF 97 and 92 and WWE 2010 and PWG 2007 aren't done downloading, so I'm getting into this early.


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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Jigsaw, Since 11/19/2004

CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix 2005 Night One
February 18th, 2005
Reading, PA

Match #1: Team F.I.S.T. vs. John Cabbie/Mana [1st Round]

FIST have yet to turn heel, so I have super low expectations. Eddie Kingston is on commentary with Dave Prazak to make this entertaining. FIST have some nice combinations. Icarus' tights are way too big in the crotch region and it is hilarious. This is at least only 6 minutes. Mana has fun power stuff and makes this good. Icarus gets a Fireman's Carry Flapjack on Cabbie to win.
**1/4

In the back, Davey Andrews and Shane Hagadorn cut a promo about how they're from the ROH School, so they're above every other team here tonight and their opponents are the only other team with any concept of honor, Dunn & Marcos. They then argue about who the top graduate is, and Davey says he's Punk's favorite and he beats people up.

Match #2: Dunn & Marcos vs. Davey Andrews/Shane Hagadorn [1st Round]
FUCK YEAH RING CREW EXPRESS! The ROH School kids come out in ROH sweaters to big heat. They put the ROH turnbuckle cover on their corner and when they put it upside down, Eddie starts laughing hysterically and says that Jew's gonna be pissed. <3 Kingston. Hagadorn sucks dick, but Davey is great for a rookie who only wrestled for like a year. Hits hard, bumps well, and is aggressive as fuck. Dunn and Marcos win with the Electric Chair Back Senton.
**1/2

Match #3: Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy [Lance Steel/Jolly Roger] vs. Crossbones/Mano Metallico [1st Round]

Lance Steel is a time-displaced medieval knight and Roger is a pirate who says bro a lot. The others are just fat dudes in masks. This is an enjoyable 10 minutes. The faces are a really fun goofy babyface team that really could only work in CHIKARA where a time traveling knight and a bro pirate aren't really that out of place. Metallico has a metal hand, as you will know if you translate Mano Metallico. They do comedy and it is pretty awesome comedy. Roger gets a cradle on Mano to win.
**3/4

Match #4: Billy Ken Kid/Ebessan vs. Darkness Crabtree/Shirley Doe [1st Round]

Sweeney is now on commentary! Crabtree is an amazing comedy character, that in maycabe, is like 100 years old and slow as fuck and does all comedy stuff. This is enjoyable when it's comedy, but the serious stuff is not great. Ebessan beats Crabtree with the Shining Wizard.
**

Match #5: Arik Cannon/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Allison Danger/Alere Little Feather [1st Round]

Way too even for a match with two non-physically imposing women against hard hitting big wrestlers like AC/CC. The men finally won.
*3/4

Match #6: Jigsaw/Sabian vs. Rorschach/Ravage [1st Round]

Ravage isn't much, but the other three are fine. Jigsaw/Rorschach is being built as the next YLC match, so they fight a lot and have good stuff. Sabian is isolated, and Jigsaw has a good hot tag. This is dudes who have potential to become great who aren't there yet throwing out cool stuff. Which is really a lot of the appeal of CHIKARA, along with watching said guys improve and actually realize potential. Jigsaw and Sabian win with a whacky double submission.
**1/4

Match #7: Jimmy Jacobs/Danny Daniels vs. Din Mak/Matt Bomboy [1st Round]

Never seen Mak or Bomboy before. Jacobs delivers as usual, and it's HUSS-era Jimmy, so that was fun. They keep it relatively short at 8 minutes, which is good since the non-IWA-MS team suuuuuuuucks. Jimmy and Daniels, I guess, do what they can. Jimmy wins with the Back Senton.
*3/4

The next match is Super Dragon/B-Boy vs. a mystery team. CHIKARA Commissioner of Fun Leonard F. Chikarason comes out to draw names out of a hat. The first name is Bob Saget, who is not here. Star Man is also not here, and we wind up with Glenn Spectre and KEN THE BOX! YES!

Match #8: Super Dragon/B-Boy vs. Glenn Spectre/Ken The Box [1st Round]
Ken the Box is...well....

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He's a fucking tree monster. He can't get on the apron, but eventually, they go to him, and...

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HE PUNCHES SUPER DRAGON, WHO DOES A FLIP BUMP TO SELL IT ON THE FLOOR! Unfortunately, they kill Glenn back inside and he loses to the Psycho Driver.
TEN MILLION STARS.

Match #9: Arik Cannon/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Team F.I.S.T. [2nd Round]

They keep it based on lucha, which is for the best, since that's about all FIST can do well offensively at this point and Claudio being Claudio, he's an incredible bumper for arm drags and headscissors and shit. FIST can take a beating well though, so the control seg of AC/CC is fun. Still some rough patches, especially from Icarus. AWESOME finish from AC/CC. Claudio has Icarus up in the air for the Ricola Bomb, but he goes to one knee as he holds him. Cannon then hits Icarus with the Glimmering Warlock to the back of the head, and Claudio follows with the Ricola Bomb to win.
**3/4

Match #10: Jigsaw/Savian vs. Dunn & Marcos [2nd Round]

Acceptable face/face stuff. Good Dunn & Marcos comedy and Jig and Sabian were crisp on all of their big stuff. Jig hits Marcos with the Jig n' Tonic for the win.
**3/4

Match #11: Jimmy Jacobs/Danny Daniels vs. Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy [2nd Round]

Lots of sloppy stuff in this, unfortunately, and this just didn't gel well at all. KE4TPG wins.
*3/4

Match #12: Super Dragon/B-Boy vs. Billy Ken Kid/Ebessan [2nd Round]

SD mostly carried the serious parts of this. Billy Ken Kid had some good looking lucha stylings. Ebessan brought both awesome comedy and shockingly good actual wrestling. Ebessan as face in peril was the weak point, but then BKK was a really good hot tag. Stuff goes down, and the Japanese get a big upset when BKK got a roll up on B-Boy.
**3/4
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Big Tuna
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Jigsaw, Since 11/19/2004


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CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix 2005 Night Two
February 19th, 2005
Emmaus, PA

Match #1: Beef Wellington/The Bear vs. Darin Corbin/Version 2.0 [1st Round]

V2.0 is a guy in Matt Hardy style pants and haircut and look, and judging by the name, he's probably a huge fan. The Bear is a bear in the same way Dragon Dragon is a dragon. Lots of awesome comedy spots involving the bear and they kept it short since none of them are particularly good or anything. Beef and the bear end up getting the win with the BEAR HUG, which is wonderful.
*3/4

Match #2: Necro Butcher/Mad Man Pondo vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco [1st Round]

The non-epic team is the babyface ROH Student team AND THE DEATHMATCH GUYS DESTROY THEM! AMAZING! Lots of just amazing Necro headbutts and chops and shit. Pondo was alright, but luckily the camera was kept on Necro and Necro was fucking Necro. I love the goddamn Necro Butcher. Just this incredible mauling and the ROH kids get killed at the end and the Necro/Pondo team moves on.
**3/4

Match #3: DJ Hyde/Jon Dahmer vs. Corey Kastle/Niles Young [1st Round]

Shitty CZW guys. 9 horrible minutes before DJ and Dahmer win.
3/4*

Match #4: The Night Shift [Hallowicked/Blind Rage] w/ UltraMantis Black vs. DJ Skittlez/Private Eye [1st Round]

Eye is a man in a gigantic eye costume on his head and dressed as detective. The Night Shift is awesome, and UMB is maybe the greatest CHIKARA personality ever. Skittlez and Private Eye are not very good. Blind Rage is one of the original CHIKARA guys and is off and on in 2005 before retiring, but he's pretty good. Unfortunately, the face team sucked and dragged this down. Wicked beats DJ with a Fisherman's Brainbuster.
*3/4

Match #5: Skayde/Milanito Collection AT vs. Trik Davis/Emil Sitoci [1st Round]

Skayde and Milanito are awesome luchadores. They do lots of crisp arm drags and shit and matwork. The other team was not very good though and had to be clearly led through stuff and it was awkward and weird. Skayde finally pins Trik with a whacky cradle to end it.
**

Match #6: Men At Work [Mr. ZERO/Shane Storm] vs. Larry Sweeney/Sharecropper [1st Round]

FUCK YEAH SHARECROPPER. This is the Sharecropper:

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Storm and Zero are weird. Shane Storm is fat and not great and has a construction worker gimmick. Zero is a fat businessman. Cropper and Sweeney keep it basic and work a good formula tag. Storm and Zero have rough patches but are good enough tonight. It goes on far too long by the and and Storm hits THAT JAPANESE MOVE on Cropper to win, which is just a Shining Wizard.
**

Match #7: Kevin Steen/El Generico vs. All Money Is Legal [1st Round]

AMIL are the rare shitty 2000s indy team that I've never seen. But I have faith in Steenerico. And this is the best match of the weekend so far. They keep it to a basic formula tag, it's crisp, and everyone involved is competent. AMIL are fine as like an indy heel version of Cryme Tyme. Generico is isolated and Steen has a good hot tag. Some contrived stuff, but like, there's under 100 people here, it's clearly the indies anyways, so whatever. Good false finishes and the Package Piledriver and Brainbuster in succession wins for Steenerico.
**3/4

It was supposed to be The Blackjacks of Kingston and his cousin or brother or something, Blackjack Marciano, but he quit the business after some shit with Chris Hero, this beginning the awesome Hero/King feud. Although that didn't take place in CHIKARA that much. Anyways, the random drawing for King's partner comes up with...Mickie Knuckles. God fucking damnit. Kingston hates it too.

Match #8: The Superfriends [Chris Hero/Mike Quackenbush] vs. Eddie Kingston/Mickie Knuckles [1st Round]
Surprisingly great match. The Superfriends are the co-trainers at the CHIKARA school and forming their occasional team for this tournament, because Quack has been in like every indy tournament and has NEVER won, so he got the best partner he could, his good friend Hero. This is the longest 1st round match at 20 or so, but then Hero and Quack are clearly the most skilled team in it. Hero and Quack drag the cunt through matwork as Eddie yells at her to do better. King does great for himself and the match picks up with him in. Quack's lucha and crazy holds all look great, and King pulls Mickie in the way of Quack's awesome Tope Suicida, and he completely wipes her out. King and Hero get into it and IT IS AWESOME! They isolate Quack and it is great. Hero's hot tag is good stuff and he absolutely smokes Mickie with some forearms and destroys her with strikes. Hero starts being more heelish to her. HERO DESTROYS KINGSTON WITH A BRUUUUUUUUUUTAL FUCKING HEADBUTT! THIS IS AMAZING! Hero just kills Mickie with a Powerbomb and puts on the Hangman's Clutch to win. This has to be the best Mickie Knuckles match ever.
***1/4

Match #9: Skayde/Milanito Collection AT vs. Beef Wellington/The Bear [2nd Round]

They keep it 7 minutes, so it is fine. More awesome Bear comedy and Skayde rules. Skayde and Milanito advance.
**1/4

Match #10: Men At Work vs. Necro Butcher/Milanito Collection AT [2nd Round]

Another good Necro showing, despite not a great match, as they beat the shit out of the masked fatties. They tried to actually wrestle them, but it failed and did not look good at all. But then it picked up when the deathmatch guys got to fight. Necro threw an insane headbutt. Pondo beats Zero with an STF.
**

Match #11: Kevin Steen/El Generico vs. DJ Hyde/Jon Dahmer [2nd Round]

Steenerico does what they can with the awful CZW team. Generico was an awesome face in peril and almost made up for the CZW guys just being the WORST. Steenerico won, moving on.
**

Match #12: The Superfriends vs. The Night Shift w/ UltraMantis Black [2nd Round]

This is good stuff. Great matwork to begin that unfortunately does not go on long enough, with Hero being more aggressive. Quack is isolated, and it's quality stuff. Hero's hot tag rules and they have a good finishing run. Hero wipes all the heels out with a badass Tope Suicida. Quack beats Blind Rage with the Quackendriver.
**3/4
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Big Tuna
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Jigsaw, Since 11/19/2004


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CHIKARA TAG WORLD GRAND PRIX 2005 NIGHT THREE
FEBRUARY 20TH, 2005
THE STAIRCASE
PITTSTON, PA


This is one of the coolest intimate venues ever, with a stage right next to the ring and a balcony close to the ring.

Match #1: Jimmy Jacobs/Danny Daniels/Alison Danger vs. Eddie Kingston/DJ Hyde/Jon Dahmer
Shame that the CZW guys and Danger are still here. This is the closest indy wrestling ever got to Jacobs/Kingston, which I still maintain would be an awesome feud or brawl. They're the only two who really deliver in any way in this, but it's blatant filler. Feels like it goes on FOREVER too, which is awful. The heels cheat to win.
*1/2

In the back, The Superfriends cut a promo. Quack says they drew Team IWS of Steenerico in the Quarterfinals, but he doesn't care what happens, because tonight is their night. He has the perfect partner and tonight, after trying for all his career, he'll finally win the big one and Hero promises that they'll get to the finals, because he knows how much it means to Quack, and laughs behind him as they walk off.

Match #2: The Superfriends vs. Kevin Steen/El Generico [Quarterfinals]
Hey, so this rules. The Superfriends guide them through awesome matwork and then they get going with some awesome offense. Hero again gets kind of cocky at points. They got moving with some real cool stuff and also managed to have Hero and Quack save a lot for later matches in the night. Quack did a running Hilo off the stage and over the top back into the ring. Quack cradles Steen to win.
***

Match #3: Jigsaw/Sabian vs. Necro Butcher/Mad Man Pondo [Quarterfinals]

Inexplicably, this is mostly matwork, which is not at all why you bring in Necro and Pondo. Necro eventually starts beating the shit out of them and that is amazing. Pondo has enough and kills the faces with a stop sign so the deathmatch guys are DQ'd.
**1/4

They keep destroying Jigsaw and Sabian with chair based offense and it is fantastic.

Match #4: Arik Cannon/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy [Quarterfinals]
This is good and all, but it did not need 18 minutes to get across the idea of top heels vs. beloved comedy team with the comedy team doing shockingly well. As a result, a lot of this drags. It doesn't help that KE4TPG aren't really that good as serious guys. Claudio showed flashes of future greatness when doing power stuff on the smaller guys. The Ricola Bomb/Glimmering Warlock combo ended it.
**1/2

Match #5: Ebessan/Billy Ken Kid vs. Skayde/Milanito Collection AT [Quarterfinals]

Highly enjoyable showcase. Nothing amazing or groundbreaking, but them doing good spots and arm drags and shiot for 13 minutes or so. BKK beats Milanito with a 450 Splash.
**3/4

Match #6: Arik Cannon/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jigsaw/Sabian [Semi-Finals]

Jig and Sabian are hurt from the beatdown, so this is short and to the point. The faces throw out a lot of dives and offense to try and keep the heels off guard, but they get caught and killed. Claudio's Full Nelson Giant Swing is the best. The faces make their comeback, and Cannon fakes re-injuring his clavicle to distract Jigsaw. Claudio takes him out and then they hit the Ricola Bomb/Glimmering Warlock combo on Sabian to win.
**3/4

Match #7: The Superfriends vs. Ebessan/Billy Ken Kid [Semi-Finals]

Some more really great matwork from Hero and Quack. Some of BKK's lucha is sloppy, but Quack covers for him really well. They did a good job gradually getting more aggressive, Hero especially. Ebessan is isolated and it is pretty good. And then it just keeps going and Ebessan does not need to be in a 25 minute match, so the finishing run dragged from having him in it too much. Hero beats Ebessan with the Hero's Welcome.
**3/4

Match #8: Team F.I.S.T./Beef Wellington/The Bear vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco/New Jersey All Stars

NJAS are Lucky and JC Ryder. Another supposedly horrible 2000s indy team I have never seen. This really was not much at all and nothing really impressive went on besides some of Akuma's kicks and Bear comedy. Went on too long for blatant filler. The ROH kids and NJAS got the win.
*3/4

Match #9: Shane Storm/Trik Davis/Emil Sitoci/Darin Corbin/Ryan Cruz vs. Larry Sweeney/Up In Smoke/Davey Andrews/Shane Hagadorn

Version 2.0's name is actually Ryan Cruz, I have learned. The union of Larry Sweeney and Special K is so fucking Pro Wrestling. This is a much better filler match. Storm, Sweeney, Davey, and Up in Smoke all contributed a good deal and carried the mostly shitty face team. Storm beats Davey with That Japanese Move.
**1/2

Match #10: The Superfriends vs. Arik Cannon/Claudio Castagnoli [2005 Tag World Grand Prix Finals]

TONS of great matwork here, in virtually every pairing. For once in the tournament, Hero doesn't get more aggressive as it goes on. He's actually barely in this compared to Quack, which is weird. They keep the matwork constantly unique and interesting for 15 or so minutes until Quack is isolated. Control seg on Quack was good stuff, and he had some awesome fiery hope spots. Hero FINALLY got the hot tag, and then HERO TURNED AND FOREARMED QUACK! WHAT THE FUCK!? HERO HITS THE RUBIK'S CUBE! Hero rolls out and due to lucha rules, it means Quack is then legal, and Cannon pins him to win.
***1/4

In retrospect, the way they worked that match was brilliant. For once, Hero wasn't aggressive. When he got in, he did moves that were easy to escape. When he was on the apron, he kept "accidentally" distracting the ref so they could double team Quack. Really a perfect way to execute a heel turn in a tag match.

Hero celebrates with them and Hero gets on the mic. He tells Quack that when he wakes up, he wants him to see this. He says they first met in September 2001 and they were partners and Quack cost him the win because he messed up. But he's a good guy, and he moved on. He trained and got better and built himself to become the very best, and so good that Quack booked him himself for CHIKARA's debut. But the one thing he can't forget or forgive is Quack beating him in the TPI last year, and he embarrassed and disrespected him in front of his home crowd and his peers. So he had a 15 hour flight after that match to Japan to think about it. So he got Quack's trust. He traveled with him, moved to this state to train with him and to become his friend and his confidant. Someone he could trust. So after Quack lost in the TPI, he told everyone how much he needed to win that big tournament. So when he heard that speech, he knew what he had to do. That's why he volunteered to be Quack's partner and he saw that look in his eyes and he knew Quack wanted to win more than anything in the world. So he carried him on his back to the finals, just to get him SO close to the very thing he wanted more than anything, only to take it away from him. And for that, he feels accomplished, he did what he said he would do, and asks how it feels to fall short ONCE AGAIN.

Hero tells them to finish it off and they pull him up, but Jigsaw and Sabian run out with chairs and they leave.

ENTER, THE KINGS OF WRESTLING.
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Big Tuna
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Jigsaw, Since 11/19/2004


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CHIKARA Remain in Light
March 18th, 2005
Reading, PA


In the back, Mike Quackenbush cuts a promo. He says he watched what Hero had to say, and he wants to know what Hero wanted him to feel. Angry? Sad? Disappointed? What he feels is a messed up neck from what Hero did to him after turning his back on him. He says Hero betrayed him, but he also betrayed himself when he talked about how Quack embarrassed him, and more than anything, Hero fears being shown up again and he knows what it's going to take and what he has to do. If Hero thought he embarrassed him last fall, he has yet to learn the meaning of the word.

Match #1: Delirious vs. Hallowicked w/ UltraMantis Black
Sweeney and Kingston rule it on commentary. This is very entertaining and good. Great comedy based on both men speaking total jibberish and somehow understanding each other. Then they moved into a real match and it is very good. Hallowicked works the midsection with good stuff. Delirious' selling is not great, but that's to be expected. UMB interferes and Hallowicked wins with a Super Fisherman's Buster.
**3/4

Chris Hero comes out to the ring now, debuting the EPIC AS FUCK Superman theme, and Claudio and Cannon follow him out, and they have crowns with them. Hero gets on the mic and introduces all of them. Claudio gets on the mic and says they have the crowns because they are kings unlike all the other people in the crowd. They're winners, so they aligned themselves with another winner, and Hero gets on the mic. He clarifies that TWGP was 100% premeditated and they run this company now.

Match #2: Darkness Crabtree vs. USApe
USApe is an ape suit in a USA singlet. Enjoyable and basic comedy for 4 minutes or so. USApe does an epic Monkey Flip for the win.
*3/4

Match #3: Daizee Haze vs. Allison Danger

UGH. Fine exhibition and all, but I just...I can't will myself to care about this pairing. Not interesting, until the very end where Haze gets heelish and cheats to win. Heel Haze in CHIKARA is interesting.
*1/2

Match #4: Team F.I.S.T. vs. Men At Work

Better than expected. Some sloppy stuff, but Icarus and Men At Work all looked much better than they did on TWGP weekend. Akuma was as good as he looked then though. The lucha and matwork all was fairly well done for the most part. FIST gets more aggressive and isolates Shane Storm a bit, working on the leg. Some really great leg stuff from Akuma, but they didn't get to do it that long. The finishing run is where it starts to drag, since they work a 15 minute draw and don't have enough stuff for 15 minutes yet. Real close though.
**3/4

Match #5: Rorschach vs. Niles Young

Niles Young is the WORST. He looks like a slightly Jewish and Polish-er looking Trent Baretta with nowhere near the skill. That's not a compliment to Trent. He's a good enough midcard babyface, but I mean that as "Niles Young" is just the worst. Rorschach wins with some fancy hold.
*3/4

Match #6: Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy vs. Larry Sweeney/Mano Metallico

Not great, but acceptable. Sweeney's bullshit is fun, and some of KE4TPG comedy is also enjoyable. Metallico sucks and drug this down a lot. Jolly Roger cradles Sweeney to win.
**

Match #7: Crossbones vs. Emil Sitoci

Sitoci sucks dick. Crossbones is entertaining, but not actually very good in terms of complete matches. He has occasional nice moments of power offense. Sitoci wins with an absolutely hideous looking Wheelbarrow Stunner.
*1/2

Match #8: Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Sabian

This is the first CHIKARA match I saw that I absolutely LOVED. For the first time in a long fucking time in his career, Quack starts the match trying to fight, and goes right for Hero, but Claudio cuts him off. Really awesome lucha and matwork stuff early on. They manage to make it quick and frantic and yet totally crisp and clean. There's a few instances of people being caught waiting around for moves, but mostly that doesn't happen. The control segs from the future KOW are amazing. Hero had the extra snap to his movements as a heel now and come off looking like clearly the best wrestler in the match. Quack had a great hot tag and the shitty crowd finally began to come alive for a bit. Their lack of reaction did hurt this. Claudio throws Sabian out onto Quack and Jig is hit with the Ricola Bomb/Glimmering Warlock combo. Claudio then chokes Quack with a chair on the floor and Hero puts Jigsaw in the Hangman's Clutch. Jig passes out and the ref stops it.
***1/4
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Big Tuna
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Jigsaw, Since 11/19/2004


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CHIKARA Don't Eat The Black One
March 19th, 2005
Emmaus, PA


In the back, Jigsaw and Sabian talk about their YLC match tonight and have a really awkward promo about how they're boys, but they both want the cup.

In the back, Larry Sweeney talks to Crossbones and Mano Metallico and tells them not to drop the ball again tonight.

Match #1: The Dark Breed vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco
Night Breed is UMB and Hallowicked. They look good when they control the ROH students, but the kids are still really inexperienced and aren't nearly as good. Finishing run is what it is and UMB and Hallowicked hit Turner with a Double Super Fisherman's Brainbuster for the win.
**

They keep beating on Turner post-match, but Franco makes the save.

Match #2: Allison Danger vs. Daizee Haze
Haze cheats more constantly throughout this, making it interesting, if not actually very good. She works the back and it is fine. Danger doesn't sell well at all though, so it's all basically a waste of time. Danger catches Haze out of the air with an STO for the win.
*3/4

Hero, Claudio, and Cannon come out for some mic time. It's basically a rehash of the promo from last night's show, but now with them bragging about winning last night's main event. Hero says they'll beat Quack and the Men At Work tonight, because they will always win, and people better get used to seeing them at the top of this company since they're the most dominant group in CHIKARA history.

Match #3: Delirious vs. Ravage
Shockingly good for a Ravage match. He's a shitty lower card CZW guy, but this has to be his best match ever. Not great or anything, but simple and focused. He worked on Delirious' head and neck a lot, and Delirious sold it well and what not. Ravage keeps working on the neck at the end, and Delirious manages to pull out the win with Shadows Over Hell.
**1/2

Sweeney, Crossbones, and Metallico come out for their match. Sweeney says Share Cropper is busy with his crops at home, so he needs a fourth men for this eight man tag. They have a random drawing, and they get Darkness Crabtree, much to the dismay of Sweeney.

Match #4: Team F.I.S.T./Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy vs. Larry Sweeney/Crossbones/Mano Metallico/Darkness Crabtree
Highly enjoyable comedy bullshit. Just complete indescribable bullshit for 20 minutes. They do knight and pirate spots for the faces, and then Crossbones is mad at Mano not kicking people in the back well enough, so he teaches him how by doing it to him. He leads everyone else to do it, including the ref, Eddie Kingston on commentary, fans, camera people, other wrestlers in the back, and his opponents. Darkness takes his meds and goes nuts on everyone. Eventually, after all that, Sweeney hits Lance Steel with a Piledriver to win.
**3/4

Match #5: Rorschach vs. Emil Sitoci [#1 Contender's Match]

Sitoci sucks dick, but they did at least try a story here based around Rorschach injuring Emil's back. He couldn't sell a god damn fucking thing, and this dragged on so so so so fucking long before Rorschach wins with a crazy hold. I don't know what to call it, but I've seen a lot of people do it. Like, he uses his legs to push the guy's arms back while he pulls forward on the head and neck. idk
**

Match #6: Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon vs. Mike Quackenbush/Men At Work

The Kings all look amazing again and this ruled. A small little thing, but after rushing in last night and being dominated, I like that the faces went in calm here. Not as good as last night, due to them having to do comedy since Shane Storm isn't good at actual wrestling. Quack carried his team completely. The KOW control seg on Shane was great. Big strikes and mocking him for being fat and useless and bad. Finishing run really dragged due to not having enough Quack in it. Hero beats Zero with the Hangman's Clutch.
**3/4

Match #7: Jigsaw [c] vs. Sabian [CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup]

This was really disappointing and so much below what they're capable of. Overly long with no real flow. Dead crowd. Lots of botched and sloppy stuff. Jig gets a roll up to win.
*3/4
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Jigsaw, Since 11/19/2004


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CHIKARA WarGrapes
March 20th, 2005
The Staircase
Pittston, PA

Match #1: Hallowicked/Darkness Crabtree vs. Emil Sitoci/Allison Danger [Parejas Incredibles]

This went on too long for these four in a straight match. Crabtree did comedy and it was fine, but nobody else played along. Danger beats Crabtree to win.
*1/4

Match #2: Matt Turner vs. Cheech w/ Cloudy

This is good for two guys without a lot of experience. Turner's family was in the crowd, so they were unusually hot for him. Cheech did some great heeling based around teasing big flips and shit and then just doing headlocks. Franco had good work on the arm and Cheech sold well. Cheech sat down on a sunset flip try and grabbed Cheech's arms on the floor for illegal leverage and the pin.
**1/2

Match #3: Davey Andrews/Shane Hagadorn vs. JC Ryder/Danny Rage

This blew. Davey was the only good one in this, and everyone else blew pretty much everything and their stuff looked awful. Davey wins with a knee strike.
3/4*

Match #4: Jigsaw [c] vs. Rorschach [CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup]

This was good, largely in part due to them limiting it to 8 minutes. Their stuff also all looked really smooth and they had some near spots. This is a mid-2000s indy show, so a Northern Lights Suplex into the corner is hit. They had some nice dangerous bumps too. Jigsaw retains with the Jig n' Tonic.
**3/4

Match #5: Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon vs. Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy/Shane Storm

Better than I could have expected for these guys for 28 minutes. Shane isn't as bad as last night and looks better holding his own. Lance and Jolly have good comedy early on, baffling the KOW, before they get matwork going. Hero is just a fantastic dick to the kids, mocking their attempts at matwork and striking and ruffling their hair off breaks in the corner. He bumps around real well too for their lucha. They isolate Roger. Great double and triple teams and cut-offs. Finishing run dragged a little bit, but not as much as the previous night. Kings win with the Glimmering Warlock, Ricola Bomb, and Hangman's Clutch in succession.
***

Match #7: Anthony Franco vs. Cloudy w/ Cheech

These are the lesser members of their teams, so this is not as good as Turner/Cheech. Cheech distracts Franco and Cloudy rolls him up to win.
*3/4

Match #8: Mike Quackenbush [c] vs. Larry Sweeney [AULL Mexican Middleweight Championship]

Great contrast between Sweeney's old school basic heeling and Quack's lucha and matwork. Unfortunately, it never really clicked into a complete match. Quack wins with some manner of a Corkscrew Senton.
**3/4

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CHIKARA Speaking In Tongues
April 15th, 2005
Reading, PA

Match #1: Larry Sweeney/The Sharecropper/Rorschach vs. Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy/Allison Danger

No idea how Danger keeps getting on these shows. She's the worst. That being said, this was an enjoyable comedy opener based on the pirate/knight shtick of the babyface team and Sweeney being the absolute best with his stalling and then cheating. So goddamn entertaining. Lance Steel makes Sweeney tap to the Boston Crab.
**1/4

Sweeney is mad at his team for losing and blames them. He demands a rematch because he knows they can win. Jolly Roger says they've beaten SNSI twice now, and Roger challenges him to a match where if he loses, the SNSI team has to wear diapers, since they're crybabies. Sweeney says he accepts if Danger is his slave for 30 days if they lose, and she accepts.

Match #2: Niles Young vs. Chandler McClure
Chandler works a ref gimmick and it is absolutely awful. Both men suck, so this is not good at all. Young wins with a shitty Yakuza Kick.
3/4*

In the back, Men At Work cut a promo and say this time, they'll have enough time to beat Team F.I.S.T. with a 22 minute time limit. What a ridiculous time limit. I love it.

Match #3: Team F.I.S.T. vs. Men At Work
These two teams mesh quite well again. Icarus and Akuma are more serious. Good matwork early on, and they do a surprisingly good job of utilizing the 22 minutes well so they don't run out of shit. They gradually got more aggressive, especially on FIST's end. Icarus is clearly improving a lot in 2005. They all worked pretty stiff near the end, which helped the idea of increased aggression. they go to the 22 minute time limit for the second draw in this rivalry.
**3/4

Match #4: Davey Andrews vs. Shane Hagadorn

They kept it basic, and as a result, it was much better than I would have expected. Hagadorn is a huge huge dick to Davey, who then beats the shit out of him in revenge. Davey wins with a flying knee strike to the face.
**1/4

Match #5: Sabian [c] vs. Ravage [CZW Junior Heavyweight Championship]

Ravage sucked here, and dragged Sabian down with him big time. Sabian wins with a Flying Double Stomp.
*3/4

Match #6: Hallowicked/Mano Metallico vs. Trik Davis/Emil Sitoci

This didn't work. Two random teams that didn't gel. Trik isn't any good yet, and Sitoci is still not good. Wicked beats Trick with the Graveyard Smash, which is a Fisherman's Suplex lift dropped down into a Sky High landing.
*3/4

Hero vs. Mickie Knuckles is set to happen, and her arm is taped up. Hero comes out and gets on the mic. He says she calls herself a student of his, and he did train her, but she's no student of his, because he doesn't train failures and losers. He mocks her for hurting her arm against Daizee Haze in IWA-MS last week and says it's okay if she wants to give up AGAIN and forfeit the match tonight. She refuses, and Hero keeps mocking her. He says since he's so much better than her and she couldn't beat him with two arms, let alone one, he won't go after her bad arm. He then gets a cheap shot kick to the gut to start the match.

Match #7: Chris Hero vs. Mickie Knuckles
This was amazing in its simplicity. Hero was such a huge dick on the mic and in this match that it actually got me to root for Mickie at points. This is based on Mickie trying to be tough and hang strike for strike with Hero. His stuff looks amazing as usual, and since this is like 95% Hero, Mickie's weak offense doesn't hurt it, and it actually kind of helps Hero come off as even more of a dick. She fights back, AND HERO GOES TO THE INJURED ARM! AHAHAHAHAHHA! He puts on a Cravat Crossface hold and she immediately taps.
***

Hero standing over a injured woman as "Holding Out For a Hero" plays is an AMAZING contrast.

Match #8: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs. Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon
Completely unsurprisingly, this was great. Awesome matwork early on with all four. Quack and Claudio broke out a really amazingly done lucha sequence that is a sign of what they're capable of together. Jigsaw got isolated and AC/CC had another really awesome control segment. There was some sloppiness as it went on, unfortunately, and the dead crowd did not help. Quack got in and the finishing run happened. Too much contrived shit compared to usual, but it picked back up again at the end. Jigsaw gets a roll up on Cannon to win.
***

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CHIKARA Trial By Foam
April 16th, 2005
Emmaus, PA

Match #1: USApe vs. Rorschach

This is 90 seconds and a fine comedy showing by USApe. Monkey flips, etc. He gets distracted by a banana at the concession stand and gets Bryce to buy it for him. Rorschach takes advantage before he can eat it and he puts USApe in the Rorschach Lock for the win.
*1/2

Match #2: Matt Turner vs. Anthony Franco

It is announced on commentary that the winner of the ROH Students Round Robin will get in the Young Lions Cup tournament this year. They again had a good story and kept it simple and short, and it worked. Franco works on Turner's neck, while Turner keeps trying for submissions. Franco ends up hitting Turner with a Tombstone for the win.
**1/4

Match #3: Darkness Crabtree vs. Allison Danger

This isn't good. They already did the gag with Crabtree being a pervert to Danger on one of the previous shows, so it's not as funny anymore and the actual wrestling kinda blows. Danger wins with a Reverse DDT.
3/4*

Match #4: The Dark Breed vs. Emil Sitoci/Trik Davis vs. All Money Is Legal vs. Team F.I.S.T. vs. Danny Rage/JC Ryder vs. Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy vs. Larry Sweeney/The Sharecropper

The Breed and Emil/Trik begin. It was acceptable, but I could have done with less time, since Trik and Emil suck. Hallowicked and UMB both looked good though. Horribly, Sitoci beats UMB with a roll up. AMIL is next. This gets like fucking 12 minutes with is just awful, since nobody is actually good and the crowd is dead. AMIL wins and FIST is next. This is the best actual match so far, since it's only 5 minutes. The random dudes are next and they also blow. FIST beats them. KE4TPG is up next and that is a very good pairing, but it's only 3 minutes. What the fuck? Lance makes Akuma tap to the Boston Crab. SNSI is out last and they do some stuff. Sweeney is entertaining as always. He accidentally hits Cropper and Jolly Rogers rolls him up to win. This was laid out and timed really horribly, giving way too much time to guys who can't handle it.
3/4*

Post-match, Knight Eye for the Pirate Guy issue a challenge to Cannon & Castagnoli for next month.

Match #5: Shane Storm vs. Chandler McClure
This was good, but not really great. Not the most interesting match, and sort of just a showcase of some moves. Shane wins with the Air Raid Crash.
**

Match #6: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Mickie Knuckles vs. Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon

This show finally delivers a good match. Lots of awesome matwork to begin, as expected. Hero avoids Quack again, leading to a great Quack/CC exchange. They deserve a ton of credit for always changing up the sequences they do in these tags and six mans. They isolated Jigsaw and it ruled as usual. They kept going after his mask. They then worked on Mickie's bad arm, which was great. Quack got in and went after Hero. Really good finishing run, despite the horrible crowd. The KOW wins with the Ricola Bomb/Glimmering Warlock combo.
***

Quack gets at Hero post-match, but they have to be held apart by the entire locker room.
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CHIKARA Grape American Bash
April 17th, 2005
Pittston, PA


In the back, Chris Hero cuts a promo. He says once again, the KOW were victorious again. He says Mike Quackenbush nearly fractured his eye socket last night, and all it did was make him that much more. And after he beats Jigsaw, embarrasses his tag partner again, and now takes that coveted CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup. And when Jigsaw comes back crying and asks Mike how this could have happened, the real answer is because, just like Quack, his students are all failures too.

Match #1: Larry Sweeney/The Sharecropper/Chandler McClure vs. Trik Davis/Emil Sitoci/Mickie Knuckles
This was an inoffensive 10 minute opener. Sweeney's shtick was a lot of fun once again. Everyone else was hit and miss. Sweeney beats Sitoci with a Gourdbuster.
**

Match #2: Gran Akuma vs. Davey Andrews

This was 6 minutes of kicks and head drops. This was good for what it was, and they kept it short and simple. Not a ton of sloppiness, but there was still some due to inexperience or whatever. Akuma wins with a Falcon Arrow.
**1/2

Match #3: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Shane Storm

Good CC carryjob. He dragged Storm through lucha sequences, and then had a sweet control seg. Lots of nasty European Uppercuts and power offense. Finishing run was acceptable. They went to a 15:00 draw before Storm could get the pin off of That Japanese Move.
**3/4

Match #4: Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy/New Jersey All Stars vs. Rorschach/Crossbones/Mano Metallico/Shane Hagadorn

Blatant filler. Too long at 17 minutes though. Way too long. Some good comedy though. Crossbones kills one of the NJAS with a Chokeslam to win.
*1/2

Match #5: Mike Quackenbush vs. Arik Cannon

This ruled. Really great aggressive matwork early on. They both started wrestling dirtier as it went on. I can buy Quack doing this all and punishing people with matwork instead of straight up brawling, since he's not exactly an intimidating or strong guy, as far as wrestlers go. He wins with a roll up.
***1/4

Quack throws Cannon out post-match.

Match #6: Up in Smoke vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco
This is notable for UIS debuting "Hollaback Girl" as a theme. I thought some 16 minutes was too long, and I guess it was, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Good basic tag stuff. Cheech and Cloudy have some great heel bullshit. Franco rolls up Cloudy for the win.
**3/4

Match #7: Jigsaw [c] vs. Chris Hero [CHIKARA Young Lions Cup]

This was great. No shocker. Awesome matwork, and Hero is upset that he can't dominate Jig on the mat, and they move into some great lucha stuff. Hero targets the arm, and has some amazing work on the arm. His selling is pretty awesome during the comeback and finishing run. He seems like he might be able to win, but Cannon and Claudio come out to attack for the DQ.
***

Quack runs out to save, but he also gets beaten down. Hero gets on the mic and says Quack is running out of partners at this rate, and he challenges him to find any partner he wants for the Aniversario weekend next month, because they'll beat them too.
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CHIKARA Aniversario Blue
May 20th, 2005
Reading, PA


New Director of Fun Leonard F. Chikarason comes out and announces the Young Lions' Cup tournament in July.

Match #1: Equinox vs. Darkness Crabtree
Equinox debuts here. He sucks, as he generally does until 2007 or so. This is like 3 minutes or and Darkness does his comedy before Equinox wins with a shitty Standing SSP.
*

Match #2: The Dark Breed vs. Kanjyouru Matsuyama/Shun the Kabuki Kid

Shun sucks. Matsuyama is solid enough. UMB and Hallowicked look good once more. Some of the Wicked/Matsu lucha stuff is shockingly good. Matsuyama accidentally mists Shun at the end and UMB rolls up Kid for the win.
**1/4

In the back, The Kings of Wrestling cut a promo. Hero says Cannon has something to prove tonight after losing to Quack last month while he and Claudio were undefeated in tag matches, especially since Sabian might be Quack's mystery partner. Cannon says he doesn't need to be told anything, and tells them to watch this. Hero snaking his way in and making Claudio loyal to him and not Cannon is fantastic.

Match #3: Arik Cannon vs. Sabian
Really good stuff. Surprisingly great matwork early on. Cannon took over and was an awesome dick heel in his control. Some awesome strikes to Sabian too. He made a good comeback and they had an awesome indytastic finishing run. Cannon hits a wicked Saito Suplex and the Glimmering Warlock for the win.
***

Match #4: Dr. Cheung vs. Niles Young

Cheung has a doctor gimmick. This wasn't really good at all, due to Cheung being green as hell and Niles sucking. Cheung wins with the Doctor Bomb.
1/2*

Match #5: Davey Andrews vs. Anthony Franco

Davey is real good again. Good basic matwork before Davey starts throwing down. Franco holds his own in the strike department, and they just kill each other. The 10:00 time limit expires though, so it is a draw.
**1/2

Match #6: Team F.I.S.T. vs. Men At Work

The booking here is awesome, but it limits how good the match can be . They get a 30 minute time limit now, and instead of doing the expected thing, they go all out. Lots of good lucha and aggression from FIST but Storm gets a roll up on Icarus at FOUR MINUTES for the win!
**

Icarus and Akuma are pissed, and they walk out when ZERO and Storm offer handshakes.

After intermission, Icarus and Akuma come back out and Icarus gets on the mic. He says he thought they would finish this rivalry tonight, but he wants Storm and ZERO to come back out. They come out and Team F.I.S.T. offer their hands. They shake hands and Icarus and Akuma hold up their hands, BUT THEY CLOTHESLINE THEM DOWN! They keep up the attack and throw down referees who try and break it up. Icarus hits ZERO with the nasty looking Tornado Pedigree, and his neck is badly injured. Referees finally make them leave, and they check on ZERO. I believe this is the end of his full-time career.

Match #7: Larry Sweeney/The Sharecropper vs. Knight Eye For the Pirate Guy w/ Allison Danger [If KE4TPG Win, SNSI Wears Diapers Tomorrow; If SNSI Wins, Danger is Sweeney's Slave]
"Giving women the right to vote is when this country started going to down the toilet." - Eddie Kingston, ruling commentary as usual. Good bullshit match full of cheating and shenanigans. Sweeney accidentally hits Cropper with a chain and Lance Steel covers for the win.
**1/2

Match #8: Skayde vs. Nebula

Skayde is awesome with his fancy lucha and a ton of crazy holds, but Nebula isn't much. This is basically a Skayde showcase that goes on too long before Skayde wins.
*3/4

Match #9: The Kings of Wrestling vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw

Awesome match, but that was a given. The main point of this is to build Hero/Quack on 5/22, and Hero keeps avoiding him. Good Claudio/Quack run, going into the KOW isolating Jig. Some really nasty blows from Hero and cool double teams. Quack has his most fiery and energetic hot tag yet. Felt like the most angry he's gotten yet, like him not being able to get Hero still is driving him more and more insane. Real good finishing run, and Cannon runs out to cause a DQ.
***1/2

They try to take off Jig's mask, BUT RECKLESS YOUTH RUNS OUT TO SAVE AND THEY RUN THE KOW OFF! Reckless Youth is Quack's original tag partner and best friend who opened the school with him, but has since retired. Great angle.
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CHIKARA Aniversario Orange
May 21st, 2005
Emmaus, PA

Match #1: Hallowicked w/ UltraMantis Black vs. Equinox

Fine enough 6 minute match. Equinox looks better working someone like Wicked, who is actually good, and Wicked gets a win. Hallowicked carries the kid through some matwork, but when they pick up the pace, Equinox is exposed for how inexperienced he is. He does have a good Tope though. UMB causes a distraction and Wicked gets an O'Connor Roll for the win.
**1/4

Match #2: Rorschach vs. Private Eye

Eye is a purely visual comedy gimmick, so it gets less funnier every time. This really didn't need 10 minutes at all. They do some stuff and the Rorschach Lock wins.
*1/2

Icarus comes out to the ring and he gets on the mic. He says as of this weekend, CHIKARA has been around for 3 years, and he's been here since day one, and has never gotten any respect. He says he hasn't been invited to any of the Young Lions Cup tournaments and he doubts Chikarason even knows his name. He says last night, when Shane Storm got a lucky pin on him in a tag match, that was the end of not getting any respect. Chris Hero comes out and he says he recognizes how good Team F.I.S.T. is, and he's been paying attention. He says Icarus and his partner deserve respect for how hard they work, and when he, Claudio, and Cannon weren't getting respect, they took it. And that's what Icarus did last night. Hero says Icarus doesn't need the people's support and he's been where he's at right now. Hero offers his hand, and Icarus shakes it. Hero and Icarus then leave together. Hero using the anger of two kids like Akuma and Icarus to worm his way into a mentor role for them so he can turn them against Quack is an amazing heel move.

Match #3: Shane Hagadorn vs. Matt Turner
More Hagadorn than Turner, so this sucked. Slow, boring, dull, uninspired cheating, etc. Hagadorn wins with a roll up with the tights.
*1/4

Match #4: Dr. Cheung vs. Andy Sumner

Better than last night. Some nice matwork before they got going. Both men are pretty inexperienced though. Cheung wins with the Doctor Bomb.
*1/2

Match #5: Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy vs. Skayde/Kanjyouru Matsuyama

Fun stuff. Skayde got to do all his super fun lucha and shit. Sort of just an exhibition though. Matsu failed to impress on this night, and it just became a mess at the end. Skayde gets a roll up to win.
**

SNSI of Sweeney, Crossbones, and Mano Metallico now has to come out in diapers. Sweeney is very upset about this and hides his under a towel. Crossbones says he's okay with this, because now he can poop during a match if he wants, and it's okay. Sweeney yells at them for their losing streak forcing him into this stipulation. Crossbones pulls off his towel to reveal Sweeney in the diaper, and he fires them all and ends SNSI. For now...

Match #5: Icarus vs. Nebula
Good showcase for Icarus, but not great or anything. He wins with a DDT.
**

In the back, Shane Storm says he doesn't know about his mentor and tag partner Mr. ZERO's future, but he dedicates this match to him.

Match #6: Shane Storm vs. UltraMantis Black w/ Hallowicked
Shockingly great. UMB dished out a ton of really painful strikes and offense and this really felt like a huge fight. Storm is best as an underdog getting beaten up on, and this was that. Some really insane bumps from both guys, and Storm gets a legitimate seeming win with the That Japanese Move. I sort of buy him as a top guy due to this match now.
***

Match #7: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Reckless Youth vs. Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon

Great match. Awesome matwork from everyone early on. Faces then control with some great high flying stuff and then Jigsaw is isolated. Some brutal strikes from all three Kings. Hero is just an amazing piece of shit on the apron, and they keep going after Jig's mask. Reckless had a good hot tag, but they took advantage of his ring rust to isolate him too. Things start to break down and Quack has to be held back as they blatantly low blow Reckless behind the ref's back. Awesome finishing run, and they play on the finish of all the previous six mans with Quack being able to save Jig from the Hangman's Clutch after the Glimmering Warlock/Ricola Bomb combo. Quack and Youth take out Hero and Claudio with Stereo Tope Suicidas. Cannon rips the mask of Jigsaw, which fires him back up, and he hits the Jig n' Tonic for the win and the Kings lose their first ever trios match.
***3/4
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CHIKARA Aniversario White
May 22nd, 2005
Pittston, PA

Match #1: The Dark Breed/Rorschach vs. USApe/Equinox/Shun the Kabuki Kid

The heel team was awesome here. Faces sucked, despite the Ape jokes being awesome. He gets Rorschach with a Monkey Flip and Equinox then wins with a Standing SSP.
**

Match #2: Crossbones/Mano Metallico vs. Davey Andrews/Shane Hagadorn

Davey rules again. This is a fine 5 minute match. Shane Hagadorn still sucks dick, but everyone else is fine enough. Metallico beats Hagadorn with a Chokeslam.
**

Match #3: Shane Storm vs. Dr. Cheung

Storm continues to look good in singles matches. He's improved a lot from where he was earlier in the year. He's still not great or anything, but his renewed willingness to take big bumps and try hard has won me over, despite his flaws of sloppiness and being fat and inexperienced. Don't think this really needed 9 minutes though. Cheung does alright. Storm wins with That Japanese Move.
**

Match #4: Up in Smoke vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco

This feud is fun again. And more importantly, it breaks that weird ** streak. I like the idea of this feud a lot, but Turner and Franco are having an off night and aren't really that great anyways. They try hard, and that's great. Up in Smoke were a fine heel team, and this goes to a double DQ when both Cheech and Turner refuse to break their submission holds.
**1/4

The two teams have a pull apart.

Match #5: Jigsaw vs. Nebula
This sucked. Nebula drags it down again and is sloppy as hell. Then inexplicably, he gets in a low blow and gets a roll up to win. Weird.
*1/2

Match #6: Arik Cannon/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy

Finally, an above average match. Actually, a great match. Good matwork and lucha until AC/CC isolated Jolly Roger. Lots of awesome Cannon strikes. The first 20 out of 26 minutes of this are actually incredible. The control seg by the rudos is amazing. Brutal offense, J-Ro is a great face in peril, and they have some fantastic cut offs. Lance has a solid hot tag, but then the finishing run drags on for a while and the crowd loses interest. Cannon hits J-Ro with a chain for the win.
***

Match #7: Skayde vs. Kanjyouru Matsuyama

They do not work well as opponents, as fun as Skayde's stuff is. Skayde wins with the Skayde Special.
**1/4

Match #8: Chris Hero vs. Mike Quackenbush

This is such a great swerve. It's built up as the end of this, but this feud has raised DVD sales and attendance in the last three months so ending it now would be stupid, so they make it a 10 minute match and make it serve as more of an angle. Hero jumps Quack and has a good control seg. Quack has an awesome fiery comeback, but the ref gets knocked away AND HERO GERMAN SUPLEXES THE REF! Claudio and Cannon come out, and they hit Quack with the Glimmering Warlock/Ricola Bomb combo. Hero drags another ref out, and orders him to count 3 and he does.
***

Hero gets on the mic and says Quack's team might have beaten them last night, but he didn't beat Chris Hero last night, and he lost to Chris Hero tonight. Hero says he's beaten Quack again tonight and Mike Quackenbush will NEVER get another singles match against him again.
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CHIKARA Stop Making Sense
June 17th, 2005
Reading, PA


The return of Talking Heads titles!

In the back, Crossbones cuts a crazy promo about how he's a barbarian and hates gravestones and how Andy Sumner is stupid. Awesome.

Match #1: Crossbones vs. Andy Sumner [Young Lions Cup Qualifying Match]
Good 3 minutes. Sumner is still really green, but Crossbones hits hard and this is short. Larry Sweeney is on commentary and talks about going to the TexArkana region last month. It's coming! Crossbones wins with a Camel Clutch.
*3/4

Match #2: Skayde/Equinox vs. The Prescription Thugs [Darkness Crabtree/Dr. Cheung]

Solid enough match for who was involved. Darkness' comedy is good, and Skayde carries everyone. Equinox beats Crabtree with the Standing SSP.
**

Match #3: Din Mak vs. Matt Bomboy [YLC Qualifying Match]

This was not much. Bland STIFF~ stuff with no story and kind of sloppy. Bomboy wins with the Tazzmission. Lame.
*3/4

In the back, Larry Sweeney says he won't be in the ring tonight, but he has a big surprise for everyone soon.

Match #4: Icarus vs. Kanjyouru Matsuyama [YLC Qualifying Match]
Alright match. Icarus is really developing as a heel. Not the best in the ring, and never really got amazing in the ring, but he's good enough and he has this incredible hateability that makes him a truly natural heel and is just a huge piece of shit. Some awkward stuff due to Matsu. Icarus debuts the Wings of Icarus submission for the win.
**

Match #5: Gran Akuma vs. Shane Storm [YLC Qualifying Match]

Another shockingly good sub-10 minute Shane Storm match. They throw bombs for 6-7 minutes and Storm wins with the Air Raid Crash.
**3/4

In the back, Hero and Claudio cut a promo. Hero says he's going to embarrass Sabian tonight and Claudio says he will qualify tonight for the YLC and bring the Cup to the Kings of Wrestling, because he has yet to lose in CHIKARA.

Match #6: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jolly Roger [YLC Qualifying Match]
Shockingly one sided, but this is J-Ro's last weekend of shows, so I guess it works to put over Claudio. He had some awesome offense before winning with the Ricola Bomb.
**1/2

Match #7: Chris Hero vs. Sabian

Great stuff. Hero carries Sabian on the mat and has some awesome stuff in his control seg. Sabian takes a fine beating. He came back with some awesome lucha and flips and shit. They do some stuff, and Hero wins with a Standing Hangman's Clutch.
***

He keeps beating on him until referees come out to pull him off.

In a pretape, Hallowicked and UMB dabble in the black arts to reanimate Blind Rage as their partner for the night.

Match #8: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Reckless Youth vs. The Dark Breed/Blind Rage
Great stuff. Fairly low key mat based stuff, but they're all good at it, so it works. Once they got going with spots, it kind of dragged due to Youth and Rage being mostly retired and rusty. Quack and Jig vs. Wicked and UMB was a great pairing though. Jigsaw gets a roll up to win.
**3/4

Jig and Hallowicked keep fighting and the two teams and some referees pull them apart.

On the next show, 6/19 (which is the one show NOT on XWT from 2005), Team F.I.S.T. officially joined the Kings of Wrestling by taking Jolly Roger out of action with the Burning Wings of Icarus.
Edited by Big Tuna, Feb 1 2012, 03:12 PM.
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CHIKARA Young Lions Cup III Night One
July 22nd, 2005
Reading, PA


Everyone in the tournament tonight comes out for the photograph. YLC format is basically two nights of a Survival of the Fittest format, but then the winners of the six-way matches face on Night 3 in the Finals.

Match #1: Rorschach vs. Trik Davis [1st Round]
This is whatever for 5 minutes. Trik still sucks at this point. Rorschach wins with the Rorschach Lock.
*3/4

In the back, Sabian says this is his third shot at the Cup and he says he thinks this is his chance to prove people wrong for underestimating him.

Match #2: Sabian vs. Dr. Cheung [1st Round]
This was better than I expected. Not amazing or anything, but solid enough. Cool finish as Sabian ties up the doctor's limbs in each other, rolls him onto all fours, and then hits a Flying Back Senton to the back to win.
**

Match #3: Icarus vs. Prophet [1st Round]

Prophet is HORRIBLE. Luckily, this is like 4 minutes before Icarus wins with the Burning Wings of Icarus.
3/4*

In the back, Mickie Knuckles brings about being the first woman in a YLC tournament. SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Match #4: Mickie Knuckles vs. Retail Dragon [1st Round]
Retail Dragon is working a Wal-Mart gimmick. Not among CHIKARA's better gimmicks, although his tag team with the eventually debuting Dragon Dragon known as Triple Dragon was amazing. Mickie wins with a Powerbomb. Whatever, moving on.
*1/2

In the back, Arik Cannon cuts a promo saying he won the last tournament CHIKARA ran back in February, and he's going for two straight in 2005.

Match #5: Arik Cannon vs. Matt Bomboy [1st Round]
Good Cannon performance. Not a carryjob because this wasn't really great, but Cannon looked real good. Crowd absolutely did not give a shit after Bomboy's recent terrible showings. Cannon wins with the Glimmering Warlock.
*1/2

Match #6: Cheech vs. Ricky Reyes [1st Round]

By far the best of the 1st Round matches tonight. One of the weaknesses of YLC shows is that the first two nights are often bogged down with shitty green guys. They worked shockingly well together. Reyes isn't great, but he's at least competent, which is more than you can say for a lot of these guys. Cheech was a quality coward against Reyes' stiffness. Reyes wins with the Dragon Sleeper.
**1/2

Match #7: Larry Sweeney [c] w/ Mana vs. Josh Abercrombie [ICW-ICWA TexArkana Television Championship]

In absolutely no way is this a made up title. Abercrombie is not a good babyface, and in fact, he does a lot of the same shtick as Sweeney does, but in IWA-MS, so this was kind of disappointing. The best part of this is Dave Prazak and Bryce Remsburg calling the match together, which is insane to listen to, since they are almost mirrors of each other. Sweeney's shtick was great, but that's all this was. MAna holds Josh's legs down after a clothesline pin to steal it.
**

Match #8: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Lance Steel vs. Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Gran Akuma

Shocker, this ruled. AND HOLY SHIT, KINGSTON AND PRAZAK SING "BREAK IT DOWN AGAIN" AS QUACK COMES OUT! One of the great things about having a 5 man stable like the Kings have is that there's a ton of combinations for trios and eight man tags. Hero carries Lance through matwork, avoids Quack, etc. One of the more low key Kings vs. Tecnicos matches, but still enough great stuff to put it into the territory of great. At this point, the feud is becoming a draw and fans who actually make noise are coming in, making the shows more fun and easier to watch, hence the increased number of reviews in this thread lately. A lot of CHIKARA multimans in the BDK era and post-KOW in general tried to do the deal where a multiman tag has several different control segments, but it never really worked as well as it did in these Kings/Quack feud matches. It manages to both put over the faces as fiery enough to fight back and then puts over the Kings' teamwork for quickly shutting down hot tags, and thus builds to the final hot tag and chaotic finishing run really well. Akuma was very impressive in short bursts here, and is a natural heel, much like Icarus. Big finishing run and Claudio hits a big European Uppercut on Quack and it barely gets 3 for an upset.
***

The Kings taunt Eddie Kingston at commentary post-match, and he has to be restrained.

Match #9: Arik Cannon vs. Icarus vs. Sabian vs. Ricky Reyes vs. Rorschach vs. Mickie Knuckles [Semi-Finals - Elimination Match]
Not the greatest, but considering the level of talent, it was better than I expected for 23 minutes. No slight against them, except Mickie because fuck that bitch, but Cannon is the closest thing to a great wrestler here. The Cannon/Sabian stuff was pretty great, like their singles match from last month. Rorschach is out first after a shitty German Suplex by Mickie. Luckily, Icarus rolls her up seconds later to eliminate her. Cannon goes after Icarus now, despite them being stablemates. Some more stuff goes on and Cannon beats Reyes with the Glimmering Warlock. It starts to drag in the final 3 at points. Sabian rolls up Cannon to eliminate him and then Icarus wins with the Burning Wings of Icarus.
**1/2
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Vacant

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CHIKARA Young Lions Cup III Night Two
July 23rd, 2005
Hellertown, PA


This is the debut in Hellertown, probably the best ever CHIKARA venue.

The YLC guys come out for the group photo.

Match #1: Shane Storm vs. Vries Kastelein [1st Round]
Again, YLC brings in a lot of shitty or inexperienced guys to stink up the undercard. This was sloppy and they really didn't mesh well. Storm wins with That Japanese Move.
*1/2

Match #2: Lance Steel vs. Equinox [1st Round]

Alright short little match. Nothing overly great, but they had good enough chemistry and didn't totally embarrass themselves. Equinox kept managing to counter the Boston Crab and he hits the Standing SSP to win.
**

Match #3: Crossbones vs. Shiima Xion [1st Round]

Good big vs. small match. Nothing amazing, but some good stuff. Crossbones wins with the Freaking Sweet Driver. Big Evil is a faggot for not reading these.
**1/4

Match #4: Josh Abercrombie vs. Niles Young [1st Round]

Abercrombie has some good offense here, and this is Niles' best CHIKARA match yet. He is still absolutely the worst guy. And for whatever fucking reason, he wins with a Tombstone.
**1/4

Match #5: KUDO vs. Anthony Franco [1st Round]

FUCK YEAH KUDO! KUDO is a kicky small guy from Japan and the guy who originally did all the Double Knees variants that everyone uses these days. Surprisingly good matwork here. His kicks are also amazing. Franco also showed some good stuff, but this was a KUDO showcase. He wins with the Flying Double Knees.
**

In the back, Claudio cuts a promo. He says he's never been beaten in CHIKARA and unlike Cannon last night, he will win the semi-finals and bring the Cup to the KOW.

Match #6: Claudio Castagnoli vs. CJ O'Doyle [1st Round]
No idea who O'Doyle is, but he doesn't really matter, since this is an obvious Claudio win. His heel stuff was also fun. His bumping was good too, but not to the level it would get at starting in 2007. Claudio wins with an Atlantida Cutter.
**1/4

In the back, the KOW team cuts a promo. Cannon blames Icarus for costing him the six way last night, but Icarus says he won, and all that matters is that the Kings have a man in the finals. Hero says it will be Kings vs. Kings in the final with Icarus vs. Claudio, and calms them both down before they get mad enough to fight or something. They both walk off in opposite directions.

Match #7: Chris Hero/Arik Cannon/Team F.I.S.T. vs. The North Star Express/Trik Davis/Mickie Knuckles
Not the best face team, but he heels are great enough to carry them. Kingston is on commentary again to shit on Hero. The NSE are continually improving and are actually becoming good. Not quite there yet. Mickie Knuckles sucks still. A lot of the opening stuff was mediocre due to the faces not being on the level of the heels. Trik had a shockingly great hot tag, but then got shut down leading to the great KOW control seg. Mickie's hot tag wasn't much though. Hero gets her down and gives Eddie Kingston a shout out and wins with the Hangman's Clutch.
**3/4

FIST stops the other faces from saving as Hero keeps the hold on, AND CANNON KEEPS PUNTING HER IN THE FACE JESUS CHRIST! EDDIE KINGSTON FINALLY GETS UP FROM COMMENTARY AND RUNS OUT TO SAVE! KINGSTON AND HERO FINALLY GO AT IT! YES! They get pulled apart by referees and people in the back. Hero gets on the mic and says Kingston can't do it without his tag partner and says he's the true King of CHIKARA. Hero leaves as Kingston checks on Mickie. She is helped out and Kingston yells for Hero to come back here. He says this is his company, but he's been injured and sitting at commentary for months. He says he'll sit here until Hero comes out, and he takes a seat in the ring.

Before the next match, King is still in the ring, and Bryce Remsburg comes to tell him that Hero has left.

Quackenbush, Jigsaw, and Sabian come out for the next match, but King won't leave. Kingston gets on the mic and says he hears they need a partner for tomorrow night against the Kings of Wrestling in an eight man tag, and he wants it to be him so he can get Hero, and he at least respects Quack, even if he doesn't like him. He says they both hate Hero and if he gives him the spot, he'll get out of the ring now and the show can continue. Quack gets on the mic and says since he came into CHIKARA, Kingston has done nothing but run him down and spit in his face, but now he needs a favor, and he could have done this in the back. He decides to be the bigger man and tells Kingston to bring his boots to Pittston tomorrow, and Kingston leaves. Awesome angle.

Match #8: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Sabian vs. The Dark Breed/Blind Rage
Good stuff, focusing on the Hallowicked/Jigsaw rivalry again. They work so well together. Nothing overly amazing overall, and it seemed more like kind a of a house show main event. A lot of fun stuff, but not a huge effort, etc. This time, Hallowicked rolls Jigsaw up for the win.
**3/4

Hallowicked and Jigsaw fight on the floor again, and they get pulled apart.

Match #9: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Shane Storm vs. KUDO vs. Crossbones vs. Equinox vs. Niles Young [Semi-Finals - Elimination Match]
Better than last night's, but that's due to a GREAT finishing run. I'm pretty sure Andy is the only one who reads the CHIKARA reviews. It comes down to KUDO, Claudio, and Storm, which makes sense since they're the three best. KUDO/Claudio is really fantastic. Claudio beats KUDO with the Ricola Bomb. Claudio/Storm is really fucking great. Ton of great nearfalls and a ton of crowd heat. Storm wins with That Japanese Move. For whatever reason, CHIKARA crowds in 2005 LOVE Shane Storm, so they're right to go with that.
**3/4
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Vacant


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CHIKARA Young Lions Cup III Night Three
July 24th, 2005
Pittston, PA

Match #1: Lance Steel vs. Prophet

Prophet is once again THE WORST. They do some stuff, Prophet drags it way way down, and Lance wins with the Boston Crab. Fuck this clown. Hope Prophet never comes back.
3/4*

Match #2: Crossbones/The Prescription Thugs vs. Mickie Knuckles/Allison Danger/Alere Little Feather

UGH INTERGENDER BULLSHIT. I wouldn't be mad if they were using good women's wrestlers for this, to be fair. This really didn't mesh that well. Moving on. Knuckles beats Cheung with a German Suplex.
*1/2

Larry Sweeney comes out and he offers an open challenge for his ICW-ICWA TexArkana Television Championship, and that Vries Kastelein kid comes out to accept.

Match #3: Larry Sweeney [c] vs. Vries Kastelein [ICW-ICWA TexArkana Television Championship]
This is a showcase for Sweeney's shtick and heel bullshit, but that's the best thing on the show so far. Vries brings absolutely nothing to this, so he was really the wrong guy to use this finish on, as Sweeney takes a count out loss to retain his title.
*3/4

Match #4: The Night Shift vs. The North Star Express vs. Davey Andrews/Shane Hagadorn vs. Retail Dragon/Discount Tiger [Elimination Match]

I do not remember Discount Tiger AT ALL. Really fun match. Good Tiger comedy stuff based on him being a Tiger, and Retail has a shockingly great dive. Davey eliminates Tiger with a Stretch Plum. NSE have some great double teams next and Corbin and Davey have an AMAZING forearm exchange. Really unexpected how great that was. Cruz rolls up Hagadorn to eliminate him. Great great finishing run between the NSE and the Night Shift. Hallowicked gets Corbin with a Super Fisherman's Buster for the win.
**3/4

In the back, Eddie Kingston cuts a great promo. He says it's been 4 months since he's been in a CHIKARA ring due to injury, and he says it's sucked not being able to be in a company he helped build. He said he went everywhere as part of the Blackjacks, and he wore the CHIKARA name like a badge of honor. He says he's had to watch from commentary as Chris Hero and the Kings have taken over CHIKARA , but he couldn't do anything because he wasn't allowed to. He says for whatever reason, last night was his breaking point. He says he's the last of a dying breed, and Hero will feel him tonight.

Match #5: Mike Quackenbush/Eddie Kingston/Sabian/Equinox vs. Chris Hero/Claudio Castagnoli/Arik Cannon/Gran Akuma
This is great, but beyond that, it's a match with a lot of sentimental value. I downloaded a CHIKARA Best of 2005 torrent in the spring of 2007. I was enjoying it, especially the KOW six mans, but this was the match that made me a really huge CHIKARA fan, and got me to download a lot more, which led to Hero vs. Quack in May 2007, which has a personal story that I've told several times. When I get to that specific match in the reviews, I'll probably tell it again. ANYWAYS, this is a killer eight man. They play on all the issues here perfectly with Hero dodging Quack and Kingston, Akuma and Kingston still hating each other, etc. Equinox doesn't embarrass himself. AMAZING dive train in the first half before Equinox is isolated. Spectacular Kings control seg. Big awesome finishing run, AND QUACK BEATS HERO WITH THE HERO'S WELCOME! OH SHIT!
***3/4

Quack gets on the mic post-match. He announces that on August 13th, CHIKARA will debut at the ECW Arena, and after embarrassing him tonight, he wants his ultimate revenge and he challenges Chris Hero to face him in a rematch in the main event of that big show. Hero and Co. are on the floor, and Hero says he already beat Quack in a singles match, and he will NEVER fight him one on one again! Kingston gets on the mic and challenges Hero fight him then, since he's scared of Quack. Hero refuses and says Kingston is lucky, because he would put him out of wrestling like he did to Blackjack (King's former tag partner). King is PISSED and Leonard F. Chikarason comes out. He says Hero can choose between Kingston and Quack to fight on 8/13, but he has to pick one of them, or else he's suspended! Hero thinks about and says while he'd love to beat Quack again, the fans will have to settle for him humiliating Kingston once again! The Kings leave and Kingston says he's going to destroy him. Quack says he was hesitant to trust Kingston tonight, but he proved himself and he hopes he sends Chris Hero out of Philadelphia in an ambulance, and they shake hands to cement Kingston's face turn. Great segment to set up their biggest show to date.

Match #6: Up in Smoke vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco [No DQ]
I AIN'T NO HOLLABACK GIRL! Not amazing, but they had a ton of insane spots around the building and really went all out with the stuff they did and bumps they took and it put it over the top for me just due to how hard they were working and how much they've improved over the course of this feud. Really came off as this hate filled feud ending chaotic mess of a brawl, in the best possible way. Amazing how much CHIKARA has gotten out of the ROH students, compared to ROH. The ROH kids hit Cloudy with a Spike Tombstone off the middle rope for the win.
***

Cheech attacks them from behind, but fellow ROH school grads Davey Andrews, Evan Starsmore, and Shane Hagadorn come out to save. They run him off, AND THEN THEY ATTACK FRANCO AND TURNER! They beat the fuck out of them, and they bust open Franco badly. I have no idea at all how the matches will turn out, but they've done a great job establishing the students as a feelgood babyface team and a dick heel team, and I actually want to see them fight now.

Match #7: Icarus vs. Shane Storm [YOUNG LIONS CUP IIII - FINALS]
Icarus is the one who retired Storm's tag partner and mentor Mr. ZERO, so this has a lot more on the line than the Cup. There are a lot of CHIKARA matches where the guys involved aren't guys you'd call great or complete wrestlers by any means, but they are just masterpieces of booking and drama where everything goes right and they produce a match far beyond what you might expect. This is one of those matches. Some of the strikes suck, the first few minutes aren't good, but when the locker room empties to surround the ring and the crowd really gets going and they have this awesome story filled finishing run, it really really sucks you in. They play off the Mr. ZERO injury well, and Storm wins with ZERO's finish, the Last Shaven Unicorn Drop. In a lot of ways, this is the first CHIKARA Big Epic Match, with a lot of elements that they would tighten up until the complete perfection of the match in 2008 with Fire Ant vs. Vin Gerard.
***
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Shane Storm, Since 7/24/2005


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CHIKARA Negative Balance
August 13th, 2005
The New Alhambra Arena
Philadelphia, PA

Match #1: Ken The Box/Retail Dragon/CP Munk vs. Rorschach/Darkness Crabtree/The Sharecropper

Wonderful bullshit opener. Ken the Box is always super entertaining. CP Munk is a straightedge chipmunk. Retail again has some shockingly good stuff. Crabtree collapses so Dr. Cheung comes out to give him some super pills, and he wakes up and moves really fast and wins with the Pedigree.
**

Match #2: Allison Danger vs. Sumie Sakai

Ugh. Okay look, I don't hate women in CHIKARA. Del Rey and Haze have had an awesome rivalry in CHIKARA in the past. These two just suck. Sakai wins with a Moonsault.
3/4*

Lance Steel comes out and says he needs a partner to fight UMB and Blind Rage, and he says nobody is better suited to be his tag partner than another version of him from the past! AND ANOTHER LANCE STEEL COMES OUT! AND SO LANCELOT WAS BORN!

Match #3: UltraMantis Black/Blind Rage vs. Lancelot
Fun 7 minutes. Nothing overly complicated or amazing, just some good lucha stuff from the Lances. UMB hits a real cool looking Splash Mountain into an Ace Crusher for the win.
**1/4

Match #4: Arik Cannon vs. Reckless Youth

Hey, this ruled. Some really awesome matwork early on. Cannon was working as more of a face here. Not that he wasn't aggressive, because that played into it, but he never cheated or did anything really heelish. Cannon focus his attack on the neck and while Reckless can hang with him on the mat, his inexperience due to retirement for years makes him unable to hang as much when they throw bombs at the end. Youth goes to the arm though, and it creates openings, and allows him to hit the 2K1 Bomb for the win.
***

Youth offers a handshake post-match and shockingly, Cannon takes it without attacking him or anything.

Match #5: Team F.I.S.T. vs. Skayde/Equinox
This really isn't their fault that this wasn't that good, but it still was kind of a bomb. They have some good lucha sequences in the opening moments, but then Equinox gets knocked out, and the match falls apart when he has to do stuff, as you might expect when a guy with a few months experience has to work loopy for the first time. The Skayde parts are good though. Icarus beats Equinox with the Burning Wings of Icarus.
**

In the back, Franco and Turner cut a promo. Franco says he doesn't know why they have Cheech and Cloudy again, but they'll end it for good tonight. Turner says they haven't forgotten about what their classmates did to them last month and they embarrassed him in front of his friends and family after their biggest win yet, and they challenge them to a match next month in Pittston.

Match #6: Up in Smoke vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco [Elimination Match]
Their match last month was a great blowoff match, so this is kind of a let down as the feud ender. Still good though. Cheech and Cloudy are becoming actually good now, and I credit that to CHIKARA letting them actually show their stuff off and develop offense of their own. The booking is also a big contrast to last month, as Up in Smoke sweep it and they both survive. Still, pretty great offense from both teams. Some great dives from UIS. They win with a Tandem Pendulum Hold on Franco.
**3/4

Match #7: Mike Quackenbush vs. Claudio Castagnoli

For people who started watching CHIKARA from 2005-2007, like me, this is most likely the gateway match that that first created interest in the company. And for good reason, since it is 10 minutes and just a total blast. These two match up together just SO well as I've gone over before. Even 7 years later, a lot of the stuff they're doing here is mindblowing. So intricate and complicated, but they do it with such speed and precision that it doesn't come off as contrived at all, and a lot of them are counters to their usual offense. A lot of it is also counters to things that worked previously in the match. Claudio stops a Tornado DDT in mid-swing and pops Quack up, but he counters into a Snap Rana for the win.
***3/4

Match #8: Jigsaw/Shane Storm vs. Hallowicked/Larry Sweeney

All four men have been YLC Champion before, so that's why this is happening. It also furthers the Jigsaw/Hallowicked rivalry, and that is a great pairing once more. Also, Quack finally comes to commentary to save us from Eric Gargulio. He is the worst commentator in indy history, so of course he's from CZW. He has no idea about CHIKARA and tries to be funny and like Joey Styles, and he is just the worst. Anyways, the match was good. Storm beats Hallowicked with That Japanese Move.
**3/4

In the back, Eddie Kingston cuts a promo. He talks about having to watch Hero take over a company he helped build, but says he's finally able to get him one on one tonight. He says since the first day he met Hero, he knew he was a scumbag, a liar, and a sneak, and he saw right through him. He was the bad guy then, but he was right. He says he's going to beat Hero down worse than he's ever been beaten down before, and tonight is his renaissance.

Match #9: Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston
Amazing slugfest, as usual for these two. Just a ton of hate as well. Brutal shots from both guys, huge bumps, etc. Hero even does a great dive off the apron. Hero's control seg was fantastic, and King's selling ruled. Hero slowing it down and trying to extend the match because he has better stamina was a great piece of psychology. Still really violent of a control segment. King's comeback ruled, etc. Sort of overlong at the end, but nothing truly annoying. Hero gets a punt to the dick and then a huge headbutt for the win.
***1/4
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Shane Storm, Since 7/24/2005


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CHIKARA Son of the International Invasion of International Invaders
September 16th, 2005
Reading, PA

Match #1: Lancelot vs. The Prescription Thugs

Acceptable comedy opener. I enjoy the Lance Steels' shtick. One of the Lances wins with the Boston Crab.
**

Match #2: Allison Danger vs. Sumie Sakai

This sucked much less than their match on the last show. I wouldn't call it good, but it was certainly less boring since most of it was them hitting each other really hard. Sakai rolls up Danger for the win.
*1/2

Match #3: Larry Sweeney [c] vs. Jervis Cottonbelly [ICW-ICWA TexArkana Television Championship]

Cottonbelly is a ridiculous old style British gentleman gimmick. Looks like this:

Posted Image

Enjoyable Sweeney shtick match. Opening matwork was fun. Cottonbelly had some hilarious stuff based around his gimmick. Sweeney gets a hot shot into the ropes and gets a pin with his feet on the ropes to retain the prestigious title.
**1/4

Match #4: Rorschach vs. Shiima Xion

Solid and entertaining 6 minutes. Better than I expected it to be. Rorschach wins with the Rorschach Lock.
**1/4

In the back, Eddie Kingston cuts a promo. He says last month was supposed to be his renaissance, but Chris Hero had to cheat to beat him like the scumbag that he is, and he should have known better. He says he's going to take it out on Gran Akuma tonight. He says he remember a little over a year ago, Akuma took his hair from him but they're both different people now, and he'll go through Akuma if that's what it takes to get Hero again.

Chris Hero comes out to do commentary on the next match.

Match #5: Eddie Kingston vs. Gran Akuma
Really fun 10 minute slugfest. They added some nice psychology to it as well with Akuma working the legs. Kingston had awesome selling of the knee, and Akuma kept going back to it in the final moments when he couldn't throw bombs with Kingston standing up. He had this nasty Double Legbar thing at the end, causing King to pass out.
***

Match #6: Chris Hero vs. Adam Knight

Hero's worst CHIKARA match all year. Really nothing against Knight, but this was an obvious Hero win, something that couldn't be said for most of Hero's 2005 CHIKARA stuff. Knight is a fat Canadian guy with a cowboy gimmick, but he's game enough for Hero to at least be able to carry him through this. Hero's offense ruled as usual, and he wins with the Hangman's Clutch.
**3/4

Match #7: Claudio Castagnoli vs. KUDO

Really really fun match. It's Claudio vs. a small flippy guy for 10 minutes, so it delivers. KUDO missed the double knees, so CC had some really amazing legwork. KUDO's selling of the leg sucked dick, but he came back with some really awesome offense. Awesome finishing run and Claudio KILLS him with the Rolling European Uppercut for the win.
**3/4

Match #8: Shane Storm [c] vs. Icarus [CHIKARA Young Lions Cup]

Not as good as in July, but that was probably a given. Awesome brawl to start, but then it settled down into a normal match. Good, but not super great or anything since the crowd was awful after the brawl had settled down. Storm wins with the Air Raid Crash.
**3/4

Match #9: Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Reckless Youth vs. Skayde/Milano Collection AT/Chuichiro Arai

Really enjoyable face vs. face match. I'm not familiar with Arai at all, but he's solid enough. Milano is really fantastic and Skayde is fantastic on the mat as always, especially against Quack. Really great matwork from everyone to begin. They did a great job of picking up the pace as well as the intensity. Breaks down nicely at the end, and Jigsaw hits Arai with the Jig n' Tonic for the win.
***
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CHIKARA Young Lion's Cup Champion: Shane Storm, Since 7/24/2005


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CHIKARA Son of the International Invasion of International Invaders - Night Two
September 17th, 2005
Pittston, PA

Match #1: Lancelot vs. Crossbones/Rorschach

Fun for what it was. Fine matwork, comedy, lucha, etc. Nothing amazing, but it did the job it needed to do. Crossbones had some fun offense. Lancealot wins with the Boston Crab on Rorschach.
**

Match #2: Cheech vs. Retail Dragon

This was fun, but not great. They got a little ridiculous with kick outs and head drops at the end, but most of this was filled with awesome Cheech heel bullshit. Retail Dragon wins with a bridging O'Connor Roll.
**

Match #3: Shiima Xion/Jervis Cottonbelly vs. Dr. Cheung/Adam Knight

This was whatever. Good comedy from Cottonbelly, but Xion is still way too inexperienced to be great and Knight is terribly mediocre. Cheung is somewhere in between. Cheung beats Cottonbelly with the Doctor Bomb.
*1/2

Match #4: Larry Sweeney [c] vs. Reckless Youth [ICW-ICWA TexArkana Television Championship]

Sweeney's shtick again delivers. He's now starting to develop into being an actually good wrestler, making his matches both entertaining and actually good. Reckless does his stuff and he's good, but he's really just another dude in a Sweeney match. He wins with a roll up using the tights.
**3/4

In the back, Franco and Turner say it's a shame Hagadorn and Andrews don't want to face them like they challenged, but they have FIST instead.

Match #5: Team F.I.S.T. vs. Matt Turner/Anthony Franco
Good FIST showcase. The ROH school kids were rough early on, but FIST's control seg picked up the match a lot. Lots of hurty looking offense. The rookies' comeback and finishing run were both awesome. Akuma hits two Buzzsaw Kicks to Turner for the KO win. Good booking to get over their new aggressiveness under Hero's tutelage.
**1/2

Match #6: Mike Quackenbush/Shane Storm vs. KUDO/Chuichiro Arai

Good shit. Awesome matwork early on. It was mostly carried by Quack, but they did fine in there without him, so it's more that he's clearly the best guy in this match. The foreigners isolated Storm and had some great offense on him. Awesome awesome finishing run. Big strikes, awesome dives, etc. Quack takes out KUDO with a dive, and Storm hits Arai with a German Suplex for a shocking win. Not shocking that they won, but that a German Suplex did it.
***1/4

In a pretape, The Dark Breed are lighting things on fire at a farm and they say Jigsaw's reign of goodness and happiness will end.

Match #7: Jigsaw vs. Hallowicked w/ UltraMantis Black
This rules, obviously. Sweeney and Bryce sing along as Jigsaw comes out to "You Give Love A Bad Name". Good matwork early on, and then they start doing some awesome stuff. Hallowicked had a sweet dive to go into his control segment. Usual good stuff from him on offense there. Great finishing run. They got crazy while still holding a lot back for the rematch this sets up. UMB provides a distraction and Hallowicked hits a nasty RUNNING Reverse Huracanrana to win.
***

In the back, the Kings of Wrestling and FIST talk. Hero says it's fitting that the Kings main event Invaders weekend, since they're both world-renowned athletes. Claudio says it's nice to have a break from Quackenbush and Kingston not leaving them alone. Hero says he's secured some outside help for the Cibernetico next month. FIST and Claudio are confused, but he says to have faith.

Match #8: The Kings of Wrestling vs. Skayde/Milano Collection AT
This RUUUUUULED. Really really amazing matwork early on from everyone, and the Kings' stooging was spectacular. Skayde then does some insane lucha stuff vs. Claudio. The Kings took over and then it was just absolutely amazing. AT had a pretty awesome hot tag and the finishing run kicked dick. Really helps that CHIKARA has really hot crowds for the most part now. Awesome counters, and AT gets Hero in the AT Lock, but ICarus and Gran Akuma come out to attack for a DQ.
***1/2

They throw the ref out and they keep beating on Skayde and Milano. Quackenbush, Jigsaw, Shane Storm, and Reckless Youth all run out to save, BUT THE DARK BREED COMES OUT AND THEY HELP THE KINGS OF WRESTLING! Hero shakes hands with UMB, Hallowicked, and Blind Rage. They really just destroy Reckless Youth. The Kings hit him with a Super Bomb, and Icarus puts on the Burning Wings of Icarus! Nobody can get him out of it for several minutes, before he lets go. Reckless Youth is helped out and is clearly injured. Hero gets on the mic and said he's made a deal with the devil to bring The Dark Breed to Team Hero for the Cibernetico next month. He says he warned Quack that he would take over CHIKARA, and now he has. Really great angle.
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