| Simon Watches CHIKARA - 2009 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 26 2012, 12:23 AM (1,149 Views) | |
| Big Tuna | May 26 2012, 12:23 AM Post #1 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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So here's the deal. I have the Best of CHIKARA 2009 comp on my computer, along with all 3 King of Trios shows and the Cibernetico show from this year. There's 4 matches that CHIKARA put up on youtube from 2009, and if anything else should happen to pop up, I'll review it. I reviewed the shows from August 2009 until the end of 2009 on this site back when the board originally crashed and I was into CHIKARA enough to review every single show. I may or may not pull points from there, but I doubt the ratings would match up with what I would rate them as today. This is largely because I've clearly gotten a little stricter when it comes to dropping ***+ on stuff since I began all the review projects. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs. UltraMantis Black/Crossbones, Revelation X (January 25th) Quack tortures Mantis on the mat and keeps asking him to tell him why he wanted the CHIKARA Special secret. Black says he did it for the Eye, and Kingston says he saw on the Podcast that UMB got the Eye of Tyr from Dr. Cube in exchange for giving Chris Hero the CHIKARA Special counter, after which Hero wrestled for Dr. Cube's promotion, which led to a three way trade of sorts. If CHIKARA actually was clearer about that and I didn't have to look on wiki right now, it would have been so much less confusing. That and the whole "bringing in Ares and having him wrestle long matches" thing kind of killed off CHIKARA for me in early 2010/late 2009. Whatever, anyways, this is a great match. Mantis and Crossbones have a great control seg, and Quack's hot tag is fantastic. Great dive, and Jig beats Mantis with the Jig n' Tonic. *** The Osirian Portal [c] vs. Fire Ant/Soldier Ant [CHIKARA Campeonatos Des Parejas], Revelation X (January 25th) For reasons I currently forget, this is only a one fall match. The Portal gets the jump on The Colony, but The Colony seems to have their number as they counter all their big shit and come within seconds of the titles on a few occasions. Amasis fakes an ankle injury, only to get a cheap shot, and that's how they take over. Really really amazing finishing run of huge moves. The perfect storm of great layout, a hot crowd, and everything being hit to perfection that they never really achieved again in their other two matches in 2009. Ophidian counters the Super Beach Break into a SUPER EGYPTIAN DESTROYER~ and he puts on the Ophidian Death Grip for the win. ***1/2 Vin Gerard vs. Jimmy Olsen [CHIKARA Young Lions Cup - Ladder Match], Revelation X (January 25th) This is a ladder match based around trying to do harm with the ladder and based around HATE~, so I loved it. It was still kind of a spotfest, but it was paced well enough and obviously totally different from the Portal/Colony match that it worked out really well. As it went on, Vin went after the knee of Olsen to make him unable to climb. Jimmy has some wonderfully desperate and fiery comebacks, and they have some INSANE bumps and spots. Jimmy gets a DVD off the apron and onto a ladder over the apron and railing, and then he climbs up to get the medal to win. ***1/2 Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw [1] vs. Up in Smoke, If the Airplane is Snowed In, Put your Bloody Skis On and Get Going (February 20th) Great face/face match, with some nice use of logic in how the control segs come about. Some really graceful and beautiful lucha and matwork to open the match. Cheech and Cloudy are able to take over due to having more double teams at their disposal, as well as more experience together. Once Quack is in though, he's able to isolate Cloudy using his matwork. Big amazing finishing run, and Quack beats Cloudy with the QD4. *** |
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| Big Tuna | May 26 2012, 02:52 PM Post #2 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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CHIKARA Campeones Des Parejas: The Osirian Portal, Since 10/19/2008 CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion: Jimmy Olsen, Since 1/25/2009 ![]() CHIKARA KING OF TRIOS 2009 NIGHT ONE March 27th, 2009 Philadelphia, PA Match #1: Arik Cannon/The North Star Express vs. Austin Aries/Tony Kozina/Ryan Drago [1st Round] Aries is playing happy go lucky faux babyface, and it's pretty awesome. Kozina is also decent enough. Cannon and the NSE deliver as they do pretty much every time they come to CHIKARA. Drago was alright too, I guess, and he seemed to have problems with his teammates, since he was being a dick. Drago gets beat with the Cruz Control. **3/4 Match #2: El Generico/The Young Bucks vs. The Osirian Portal/Escorpion Egipico [1st Round] Awesome match. Egipico is not exactly graceful, but he does alright for himself. Everyone else is pretty much great. The Bucks are working face and in a six man, so a lot of their lesser qualities are deemphasized for the most part. Really good finishing run, and Ophidian gets a prawn hold on Generico for the upset win. *** In the back, The Roughnecks of Kingston, Brodie Lee, and Grizzly Redwood cut a promo. They say it was a bad year in KOT for them, since they all lost. Kingston says nobody hits as hard as he and Brodie in this tournament, and then looks hatefully at Grizzly, putting up with him because Brodie likes him. Kingston says he's going to beat them up, Grizzly says he'll chop them down, and Brodie says he'll run over whatever's left. Match #3: Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Dave Taylor vs. Eddie Kingston/Brodie Lee/Grizzly Redwood [1st Round] Really really fun match. The face team, Team Uppercut, dominates Grizzly. Just completely destroys and controls, and it's marvelous. Claudio vs. Brodie and vs. Kingston both get a lot of play and are incredible. Some decent comedy, and the Roughnecks had a solid control seg, working over Danielson's knee, and establishing a story for the entire tournament. Great Danielson selling, and the finishing run ruled. Danielson beats Grizz with the Cattle Mutilation. *** Match #4: Da Soul Touchaz vs. Pinkie Sanchez/Beef Wellington/Greg Excellent [1st Round] And the streak of great matches comes to an end. They had some fine comedy and what not, but no reason for this to go like 15 minutes before the Soul Touchaz got the win. **1/4 I find it important to note that in February, FIST and Chuck won a match against The Colony where the winners go to KOT and the losers are locked out. Post-match, Chuck hit Worker Ant with the Awful Waffle on the wood floor, retiring Worker Ant. Match #5: Team F.I.S.T./Chuck Taylor vs. Necro Butcher/Toby Klein/Brain Damage [1st Round] Fantastic styles clash. Amazing mauling on the floor from the deathmatch guys until FIST can isolate Necro. Good control seg as usual from them. Shit breaks down in marvelous form once again, and Chuck hits Toby with the Awful Waffle for kind of an upset. *** Match #6: Jimmy Olsen/Lince Dorado/Helios vs. Kota Ibushi/KUDO/Michael Nakazawa [1st Round] This is a little disappointing. They didn't need 20 minutes, and if they got 15 and cut out the filler, this might have been amazing. But they also had a little trouble getting on the same page, so there was that too. Equinox puts Michael into the CHIKARA Special for the win. **3/4 Match #7: Mike Quackenbush/Jorge Rivera/Johnny Saint vs. Incoherence/Frightmare [1st Round] Frightmare is a rookie aligned with Hallowicked. They try to do with him what they did with FIST and Chuck, where he'll team with Hallowicked a lot and they call it in Incoherence, but I'm not calling them that. They're still an amazing team though, and he shows a ton of promise. Saint is one of the best technicians ever and has a ton of funky matwork that was the influence for guys like Quack, Hero, Cabana, etc. Lots of awesome mat and lucha exchanged going on here. Quack vs. Hallowicked is the best pairing. Johnny Saint confuses Delirious with his crazy stuff and gets a roll up of some manner to win. ***1/4 Match #8: Vin Gerard/STIGMA/Colin Delaney vs. D'Lo Brown/Al Snow/Glacier [1st Round] So, I really have no problem with this taking place, but it getting 26 goddamn minutes and being the main event is pretty horrible and ridiculous. Way way too long and it dragged big time. The heels are not great enough at straight up wrestling (although they're all fine enough) to get 26 good minutes out of the old guys. I doubt anyone on the card is. The UnStable wins with cheating. *3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | May 26 2012, 08:10 PM Post #3 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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CHIKARA Campeones Des Parejas: The Osirian Portal, Since 10/19/2008 CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion: Jimmy Olsen, Since 1/25/2009 ![]() CHIKARA King of Trios 2009 Night Two March 28th, 2009 Philadelphia, PA Match #1: Austin Aries vs. Fire Ant vs. Player Dos vs. Matt Jackson [Rey de Voladores Semi-Final - Elimination Match] Really fun match. Aries keeps it all together, now doing the Greatest Man That Ever Lived shtick. The other three are fine spotty guys, and they had a lot of cool spots and dives. Fire Ant gets rid of the Young Buck first with the Beach Break. Dos gets rid of Fire with a Frog Splash. Aries vs. Dos is a really enjoyable finishing run, and Dos pulls off the upset with the B-13 off the top. *** Match #2: Team F.I.S.T./Chuck Taylor vs. Arik Cannon/The North Star Express [Quarterfinals] Lots of good shit here. Fun start, good FIST control segment as usual. Fun finishing run and dives. Not overly great, but it has enough good stuff to put it over the top. Icarus gets Corbin with the Pedigree to win. *** Match #3: Davey Vega/Gary The Barn Owl vs. The Submission Squad [Evan Gelistico & Pierre Abernathy] These are all guys from LWA, and judging from the fact that this is maybe the worst CHIKARA match ever, I'm 99% sure that they paid Quack money to get on this show. The Submission Squad did absolutely no submissions. Evan beats Davey with a shoddy looking Here it is Driver. Gogz's WWF 1999 Match #4: The Osirian Portal/Escorpion Egipico vs. Jimmy Olsen/Lince Dorado/Helios [Quarterfinals] On some level, this is disappointing, but a lot of that had to do with how DEAD the crowd is. No fault of anyone in this match, but the last crowd totally murdered what was a good crowd. This didn't need 20 minutes either, and suffered at the end, as they ran out of stuff to do. Helios gets a really great looking DVD on Ophidian to win. **1/2 Match #5: Kota Ibushi vs. El Generico vs. Jigsaw vs. Nick Jackson [Rey de Voladores Qualifier - Elimination Match] This is one of the elite spotfests in indy wrestling history, for the most part. Only real flaw is the final two being Kota/Jigsaw instead of Kota/Generico, since Kota/Generico was by far the hottest pairing, both in terms of chemistry and crowd response. They build up the moves and dives really well, and each thing they do is huger and more impressive. This is one of those things that is AMAZING the first time you see it, but it's done well enough that it holds up even after the wow factor has worn off, like Ki vs. Red or other Kota matches or AJ/Joe/Daniels or Ki/Daniels/AmDrag. Generico/Kota stuff ends the first fall, unfortunately, so you can argue that this peaked too early instead of at the end. Kota gets rid of Generico with a Super Reverse Huracanrana. Within seconds of that, Jig gets rid of the other Buck with the Jig n' Tonic. Jig and Kota have a great final few moments, to their credit, and Kota gets a Phoenix Splash on Jigsaw to win. ***1/2 Match #6: Vin Gerard/STIGMA/Colin Delaney vs. Da Soul Touchaz [Quarterfinals] Fun stuff. They mostly just have The UnStable bumping around, but doing a simple and entertaining match after the last match was definitely a good decision. Willie picks up Vin for a slam, but STIGMA chop blocks him from behind. Vin lands on top and STIGMA holds down Willie's legs from the floor to steal it. **3/4 Match #7: Player Uno [c] vs. Twiggy [ISW Championship] Another light hearted shorter match. Twiggy is super over, and while not great, gets booked due to the Silas Young Theorem, where he gets booked so the fans can sing along to an amazing song. As opposed to Nate Webb, who is a decent wrestler, in addition to having an amazing theme. Uno wins with a Galleria type thing. **1/2 Match #8: Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Dave Taylor vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jorge Rivera/Johnny Saint [Quarterfinals] THIS FUCKING MATCH. MY GOD. SO BEAUTIFUL. Literally every pairing is either a dream match, or guaranteed greatness like Quack/Claudio, Quack/Danielson, and Claudio/Skayde. Every single pairing gets a chance to do stuff on the mat, and it is all amazing. Beautiful, smooth, hard fought, just everything you'd want out of this match up. There was a great subtle clash of styles. Danielson tries to stretch people, Claudio, Taylor, and Saint try to do a lot of funky European stuff, and Quack and Jorge do a lot more lucha, and it comes off like guys defending their very styles of wrestling as the match picks up in pace and intensity. Danielson's knee is still an issue, and he gradually gets more and more pissed off when he gets outdone by Quack's team, and Quack especially. Which is a logical reaction, given that almost nobody ever gets the best of Danielson on the mat repeatedly. Danielson goes after Quack's bad back in anger, so Quack goes after the bad knee. Amazing finishing run of Quack/Claudio stuff, and Claudio hits a Super Ricola Bomb to win. ****1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | May 27 2012, 03:38 AM Post #4 |
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CHIKARA Campeones Des Parejas: The Osirian Portal, Since 10/19/2008 CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion: Jimmy Olsen, Since 1/25/2009 ![]() CHIKARA KING OF TRIOS 2009 NIGHT THREE MARCH 29TH, 2009 PHILADELPHIA, PA Match #1: Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Dave Taylor vs. Vin Gerard/STIGMA/Colin Delaney [Semi-Finals] Great opener. This goes exactly how a match with babyface superteam vs. cowardly outmatched heels should go. They have to go after Danielson's knee to get anything going though. His selling is once again awesome and Claudio has quite the hot tag. Dave ends up getting Colin with a Butterfly suplex to win. *** Match #2: Team F.I.S.T./Chuck Taylor vs. Jimmy Olsen/Lince Dorado/Helios [Semi-Finals] Really awesome match. Lots of really spectacular offense by both teams in the finishing run, and all the stuff before then was well done with the opening shine and FIST's control seg. But yeah, really really great final moments. Huge dives, big spots, counters, etc. Chuck gets Helios with a low blow and then the Awful Waffle for the win. ***1/4 Match #3: El Generico vs. Arik Cannon Ton of fun. Great clash of styles with Cannon using mostly strikes to ground Generico, and Generico's only real hope being high flying and/or flurries of head drops. Awesome awesome finishing run of huge offense and a Generico dive. Shockingly, Cannon wins with the Glimmering Warlock. *** Match #4: THE MOTHERFUCKING CHIKARA GAUNTLET #1 and #2 are Hallowicked/Frightmare and Ryan Drago & Tony Kozina. This is pretty solid, and faux-Incoherence looks good. Weirdly, Kozina beats Frightmare with a German Suplex. #3 is THE SEA DONSTERS! YEAH! They do some stuff and Donst rolls up one of them. #4 is UMB and Crossbones. They are mad at the Donsters still and destroy them. Mantis pins Hydra with the Cosmic Disaster, which is now the name for his Steiner Screwdriver. #5 is STEVE THE TURTLE WEINER AND BEEF WELLINGTON! AMAZING! They have some amazing comedy stuff, and Crossbones beats Beef with the Freaking Sweet Driver. #6 is Player Uno and CAW! They have a really nice run with the Order and CAW rolls up Crossbones to win! #7 is Mitch Ryder and Pinkie Sanchez. Mitch could not give less of a fuck, and this is his final appearance, I believe. Pinkie looks great though. He gets a sunset flip on Uno for the elimination. #8 is Marshe Rockett and Willie Richardson of Da Soul Touchaz! They are just SO MUCH GODDAMN FUN. Willie gets his crazy Flying Legdrop off the top to Pinkie for the pin. #9 is The Young Bucks! They have a really great 2 minutes against DST and they hit More Bang For Your Buck on Marshe to win. #10 is UP IN SMOKE! UP IN SMOKE VS. THE BUCKS! AND IT DELIVERS! Up in Smoke wins with a roll up. #10 is Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood! They kill them with DAS BOOT. #11 and last is Quack and Jigsaw. Great little run, and Quack gets Grizz with the #D2, and QuackSaw has their 3rd point! *** Match #5: Fire Ant/Soldier Ant/The North Star Express vs. The Osirian Portal/KUDO/Michael Nakazawa Really fun filler match. The Colony and Portal work real well together again, and Soldier can bring the comedy, along with Amasis and Nakazawa. KUDO is still awesome with his kicks and double knees variations. Plus, they let someone with Downs Syndrome do commentary for 15 or so minutes. Fell part a little at the end, and KUDO hits one of the NSEs with a Flying Double Knees for the win. **3/4 Match #6: Austin Aries vs. Eddie Kingston Aries is again a fantastic dick, mostly taunting King for being fat. And King is forced into a role of situational babyface against the outsider. So yeah, lots of great offense from both men, big Aries bumping, great Kingston selling, etc. King wins with the Sliding D. *** Match #7: Kota Ibushi vs. Player Dos [2009 Rey De Voladores Finals] This is way better than I would have expected, given that I doubt most would have been surprised if this was kind of a mess. Great story with Dos being totally outmatched, in terms of skill and experience. He tries to make up for it by being as crazy as Ibushi in a gamble, but it costs him, as he basically kills himself doing it and his crazy stuff doesn't win. Thus Kota is able to endure, and he wins with the Phoenix Splash. ***1/4 Match #8: Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Dave Taylor vs. Team F.I.S.T./Chuck Taylor [2009 KING OF TRIOS FINALS] The rudos ambush the superteam as they come out, AND CHUCK GOES AFTER DANIELSON'S KNEE AND INJURES IT! Loved the story where the heels are totally outmatched and their only real hope is going after the leg, and they do an amazing job. And Danielson's selling is top notch as usual. Claudio has an amazing hot tag and dive, and Danielson gets back in. Chuck hits him with the Awful Waffle, BUT DANIELSON KICKS OUT HOLY SHIT! CHUCK PUTS ON THE KILLER CRAB ON THE BAD LEG! AND DANIELSON TAPS OUT! FIST WINS! ***1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 2 2012, 02:30 AM Post #5 |
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Jimmy Olsen [c] vs. Colin Delaney [CHIKARA Young Lions Cup], Behind the 8 Ball (April 25th) Jimmy took off his stupid mask, and this was the violent and hateful fight that two brothers in a fight should have. Lots of great selling from Jimmy, and both men took some incredible bumps and shots. Jimmy wins with just an ungodly straight punch to the jaw for the KO and a pin. *** The Colony vs. Chuck Taylor/Icarus, Behind the 8 Ball (April 25th) Fire and soldier are understandably pissed at Chuck for putting Worker Ant out of wrestling, so this is a shockingly great brawl. FIST takes over, and has a great control segment on Soldier as usual. Fire has the FIERY hot tag. Good finishing run without giving away too much before the blowoff. Icarus fakes a low blow to distract the ref so that Chuck can get Soldier with a low blow. He puts on the Killer Crab, and Soldier taps! *** They have to be pulled apart post-match Incoherence/Frightmare vs. Eddie Kingston/Brodie Lee/Grizzly Redwood, The Bobliographon (April 26th) Awesome awesome shit. Frightmare is amazing here as a fiery rookie, and he also takes a hell of a beating. His small size also helps to enhance the brutality of the bumps he takes. Great finishing run of dives and a Hallowicked/Kingston exchange. On one hand, I'm glad CHIKARA doesn't burn through big singles matches at the rate of other indies, but on the other hand, it's a goddamned crime that Kingston and Hallowicked have only had 2 singles matches since they both became great, and they haven't had one in like 5 years. Anyways, after a flurry from all three men, Frightmare shockingly pins Brodie. *** Post-match, UMB and Crossbones kidnap Delirious using the Eye of Tyr. Arik Cannon vs. Delirious w/ UltraMantis Black & Crossbones, Aniversario Ying (May 23rd) Really fun 7 or so minutes, but there's not much reason for this to be on a Best of 2010 comp. instead of another of the Kingston/Claudio matches. Not bad or anything, just not up to the standard of other stuff on here. Delirious sells the brainwashing really well, being more vicious, and not freaking out at the bell like usual. Cannon delivers as usual. Delirious wins with the Cobra Stretch. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 2 2012, 06:35 PM Post #6 |
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Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Lince Dorado/Helios vs. Hallowicked/Frightmare/Up in Smoke, Aniversario Yang (May 24th) Incredible spotfest. Lots of amazing lucha and dives and counters, and yeah. Not a ton to say here. Pretty much every combination worked in some way. Went by really really fast and didn't feel like 14 minutes at all. Up in Smoke beats Lince with the Thunder and Lightning. ***1/4 Fire Ant/Soldier Ant vs. Chuck Taylor/Icarus [MASKS VS. HAIRS], Aniversario Yang (May 24th) Kind of rough in the middle, but it's not outright bad, and the final 10 munutes and beginning were so great that I can overlook it. Lots of awesome twists and turns. Soldier Ant gets taken through a table and taken to the back, so Fire is all alone. Really great spirited comebacks, before Chuck gets the Killer Crab. BUT SOLDIER ANT HOBBLES BACK OUT TO SAVE! YEAH! Gran Akuma tries to interfere, but the new Colony members Green Ant and Carpenter Ant take him out. Awesome finishing run, and Fire beats Chuck with the Beach Break. ***1/2 Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs. Team F.I.S.T., Never Kneel Before the Altar of Conformity (July 31st) Quack is coming off another back surgery, so that is the focus here. Basically the same deal as the FIST vs. Quack/Jig match from May 2006, but now all the students are much better, so this is a great match as opposed to a really good match. Icarus gets Quack with a low blow and hits the Blu Ray (DVD) into the corner for the win. *** Fire Ant/Hallowicked/Arik Cannon vs. Jigsaw/Helios/Jimmy Olsen vs. Chuck Taylor/Vin Gerard/STIGMA, Young Lion's Cup VII Night Three (August 16th) Another great spotfest. Lots of really cool and intricate three way exchanges and spots, and this whole match is an example of how to lay out an amazing multi-man spotfest. Not a ton of substance here, but a whole load of really cool stuff. Hallowicked beats STIGMA with a Super Fisherman's Buster. ***1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 8 2012, 04:55 PM Post #7 |
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Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs. Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli, Hiding in Plain Sight (September 13th) Lots of amazing matwork when Quack is in, but then Danielson is kind of a dick to Jigsaw. Claudio and Quack do their thing too, and it's goddamned amazing. CLAUDIO CATCHES A TOPE CON HILO, AND THEN POWERBOMBS QUACK OVER THE TOP AND BACK INTO THE RING! They go for Jig's bad knee, and do a ton of super nasty stuff, just torturing the kid. Jigsaw puts on the best performance of his career with his knee selling. Danielson keeps taking cheap shots at Quack too, continuing that issue. Great hot tag and finishing run, with Jig still selling his ass off. Quack rolls through a sunset flip from Danielson and gets the Alligator Clutch pin, and he finally beats Danielson! ****1/4 Claudio Castagnoli vs. Player Uno, An Optimistic View of a Pessimistic World (October 17th) This is a really good 6 minute match, but it doesn't belong on a Best Of set instead of a bunch of other better stuff. Claudio wins with the UFO. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 8 2012, 08:14 PM Post #8 |
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CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion: Player Dos, Since 8/16/2009 CHIKARA Campeones Des Parejas: Fire Ant/Soldier Ant, Since 9/13/2009 ![]() CHIKARA Cibernetico Increible October 18th, 2009 Philadelphia, PA Match #1: Los Ice Creams vs. The Throwbacks The Throwbacks are Dasher Hatfield, working an old-timey baseball gimmick, and Sugar Dunkerton, working a Harlem Globetrotter type deal. They're entertaining the first few times. One of those CHIKARA gimmicks that eventually ran its course and then stuck around too long, like the idea of Shane Storm being a good wrestler. This is a ton of fun though, because the schtick is still new and Los Ice Creams are the greatest pure comedy act in CHIKARA history. For whatever reason, I find their act timeless. Dasher hits a Super Powerslam, and sugar follows with a Flying Elbow to win. **1/2 Match #2: Vin Gerard vs. Ryuichi Kawakami The jap fellow is alright, but this is short and underwhelming with a dead crowd. Vin wins with the STF. ** Match #3: Sara Del Rey/La Malcriada vs. Daizee Haze/Bullfight Sora SDR and Haze are both pissed at their partners for sucking. This is more of a storyline match than anything great. Sara kills Sora with the Royal Butterfly and several Piledrivers, but refuses to pin, so the ref calls it a DQ for excessive punishment. *3/4 Sara stomps off mad, and Haze follows her. Match #4: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Sal Rinauro Great comedy. They do an amazing job playing up Sal's lack of any advantage, and he is an amazing stooging coward. Sal ends up tapping out to the Giant Swing. TEN MILLION STARS Match #5: Chuck Taylor/UltraMantis Black/STIGMA vs. Icarus/Crossbones/Colin Delaney [Parejas Incrediblas] This was also only like 7 minutes. Fun heel vs. heel stuff. This also gets sacrificed for the build to the BDK thing, unfortunately. Men in white come out to confront UMB, so he flees. Icarus then rolls up STIGMA to win. **1/4 Match #6: The Osirian Portal vs. Brodie Lee/Grizzly Redwood This actually got time, and was great. This is the CHIKARA I have come to expect, putting on a great formula tag while furthering a storyline, in this case it is Brodie's anger with Grizzly being weak resulting in him using Grizz as an offensive weapon for much of the match. Awesome finishing run, and the Portal beats Grizzly with the Osirian Sacrament. *** Brodie lays out Grizzly with the Big Boot and walks out on him, Match #7: Mike Quackenbush/Hallowicked/Player Uno/Soldier Ant/Matt Jackson/Lince Dorado/Carpenter Ant/Cheech vs. Jigsaw/Frightmare/Player Dos/Fire Ant/Nick Jackson/Helios/Green Ant/Cloudy [TORNEO CIBERNETICO] I thought this was weird at the time, but it makes a lot of sense doing it with all babyfaces given that the only real strong heel unit in 2009 was FIST, and the best matches of 2009 with regular guys were mostly these kinds of face/face spotfests. So this is probably the 2nd or 3rd best Cibernetico due to how well they pace the match and how they build it up gradually. It's not touching 2005's Cibernetico, nothing is, but due to not having Thomasellis in it, it's a little better than 2006's. TONS of amazing lucha stuff. I won't recap all the eliminations, but for the most part, they did it in a logical manner. The least experienced guy, Green Ant, is out first. They do a great job sprinkling in dives and bigger spots throughout. Fire Ant winds up as the final guy on his team, and he has a fantastic desperate babyface performance. Quack gets rid of him though and it goes down to Quack, Soldier, and Carpenter. Soldier gets rid of Quack with a Skayde Special. Carpenter gets Soldier with an Inverted CHIKARA Special to win! ****1/4 The implication is that Carpenter knows the hold because he's from the future, which is all a ruse and is again part of the BDK thing. I've come to the realization that if BDK had someone even remotely good as one of the centerpieces, instead of that worthless sack of shit Ares, it would be one of the greatest storylines/angles of the last 10 years. But alas, Ares kills everything. |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 9 2012, 04:41 PM Post #9 |
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Tim Donst vs. Hydra [Loser Leaves CHIKARA], Throwing Life's Instructions Away (November 21st) Surprising amount of fire and hate here. Donst is not perfect as a heel, but he has a great piece of shit attitude going for him. This is really the best you could ask for in a grudge match between a comedy character and someone being a heel for the first time with only 2 years of experience in general. Hydra takes some impressively huge bumps, and Donst has a really brutal control seg. In an amazing piece of payoff, HYDRA FINALLY HITS THE CHOKESLAM! HOLY SHIT! He gets the Hydralock, but Donst pulls the ref down and gets a low blow for the win. ![]() ***1/4 Jigsaw vs. Gran Akuma, Throwing Life's Instructions Away (November 21st) This was awesome. They had to struggle to get the crowd back into it after Donst/Hydra, but they did. This is less based on emotion and more on a lot of cool moves and strikes, and thus, there is less to write about. Jigsaw wins with the Super Jig n'Tonic. *** Hallowicked/Frightmare vs. UltraMantis Black/Delirious, Three Fisted Tales (November 22nd) This is another match that is very good, but feels out of place on a Best Of. Hallowicked vs. UMB is really great stuff as always. Frightmare has some cool spots, and Delirious is also there, I guess. He has a nice run vs. Delirious at the end though, so there's that. Delirious hits Frightmare with the Praying Mantis Bomb to win. **3/4 Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston [Respect Match], Three Fisted Tales (November 22nd) Really amazing slugfest. Claudio has a ton of amazing strikes and power spots, but this is Kingston's match. Incredible selling, both physically and character wise. Some amazing facials, and they do the whole deal at the end where King is clearly outgunned, but he refuses to stay down. They do a really gradual double turn where because of the heart he shows, the crowd starts to get behind King again, and Claudio is pissed at this. They build on previous finishes from 2009, teasing a Kingston roll up and a count out finish. Lots of awesome counters too. Claudio gets the Alpamare Waterslide on the apron, a Lariat, and a Gutwrench Superplex, with King kicking out of each of them. Claudio then gets a Bicycle Knee and a Rolling European Uppercut to win. ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jun 9 2012, 05:09 PM Post #10 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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2009 continues to be the year of long-term workhorses getting a long overdue WOTY award. Mysterio in WWE, Lost in PWG, Steen in ROH, and now this. Wrestler of the Year: Mike Quackenbush Tag Team of the Year: The Osirian Portal |
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7:12 PM Jul 10