Now, as promised, a special comment about Friday's CHIKARA show at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago, Illinois.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
Michael & Lauren Langan, Will, and myself got some meager shut-eye before hitting the road for Chi-Town on Friday. On the way out, we gave one of the hotel workers an impromptu education on independent wrestling and CHIKARA in particular...heh. The car conversations went in several interesting directions...honestly, I never contemplated my favorite movie scene of THAT nature. *eye twitches*
Brunch was had in "The Human Wrecking Ball" Pete Madden's home state of Wisconsion at the Bassett Street Brunch Club in Madison. I went with "American Style" (scrambled eggs, sausage, an English muffin, and a whole lotta fried potatoes) with orange juice to drink...most tremendous. I had quite a few new dining experiences on this excursion.
It was a rainy day in the Windy City...Michael spotted a bumper sticker that said "Some Days The Dragon Wins". Perhaps a positive omen for Shynron, who was challenging Hallowicked for the Grand Championship on this night? It wasn't my first visit to Chicago; I had a few family trips there when I was younger. I can recall going to Six Flags-Great America, seeing the fountain from "Married With Children", and bugging my mom to drive past Wrigley Field...only to get us stuck in traffic since there was a Cardinals-Cubs game that afternoon! (One thing I had forgotten about the greater Chicago area was the toll booths on the highway...joy.)
I perused a nearby bookstore while waiting in line for the show; the event was at the venue where All-American Wrestling is running in November with Fenix and Pentagon Jr. on the card. Sweet. SHIMMER is on my personal wrestling bucket list as well and they run in nearby Berwyn.
Your ring announcer was Alex Proen(?), who was sounding a bit hoarse on this night...thankfully he recovered well for the subsequent two shows of the weekend. Your referees were Bryce Remsburg, Larry Peace, and P.J. Drummond.
"The Kentucky Gentleman" Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy(Gentlemen's Club) vs. Jakob Hammermeier & Soldier Ant(Bruderschaft Des Kreuzes), Challenge Of The Immortals: This was my first Orange Cassidy experience; he's a party guy who's burned out for his actual wrestling matches, so he's extremely lazy/lethargic as a result. He'll usually tag into a match, take one good hit/chop, and then immediately tag back out...heh. The BDK team still doesn't have the best communication as Jakob is bossing his partner around and Soldier Ant is fighting his brainwashing. Chuck is a god among men, but you probably knew that. The finish saw Cassidy accidentally spit mist^H^H^Horange juice in Chuck's face, then Jakob blasted Orange with the WORLDSTAR PUNCH~! Cassidy staggered, assured everyone he was okay, and then faceplanted to the mat where he was pinned in 8:46. Bwahahaha.
Oleg The Usurper vs. Farmer Frog: Oleg was unnerved at the sight of his opponent, yelling that he "saw him die"(referring to Estonian Thunderfrog). However, Farmer Frog seems to have no memory of his past life...more on this as it develops. Farmer Frog is a very vocal performer and quickly won over the crowds this past weekend...in this case, the fan support was fairly evenly divided as opposed to the audience outright turning on Oleg as in Minneapolis. They had a good David/Goliath bout; Frog went to the top rope, but Oleg cut him off and climbed the turnbuckles to deliver a super chokeslam! (It was not the same as the one that ended Soldier Ant/Blaster McMassive the previous night as Oleg was facing the ringpost and turned in mid-move to slam Farmer Frog to the mat.) At any rate, that was the finish in 8:46.
Juan Francisco De Coronado & Prakash Sabar(United Nations) vs. Frightmare & Blind Rage(Nightmare Warriors), Challenge Of The Immortals: Rudo/rudo strikes again. Coronado took so much time getting to the ring that the announcer introduced him THREE TIMES before he finally got between the ropes. The U.N. team seemed to be the lesser of two evils for the night, notably. Sabar has been consistently hitting the Bronco Buster these days; it had been a running gag that the opponent would ALWAYS move out of the way. The Nightmare Warriors got the duke when Frightmare pinned Sabar after the Kneecolepsy(standing moonsault into a double kneedrop) in 5:06.
Campeones De Parejas N_R_G("The Generator" Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell) & Young Lions' Champion Heidi Lovelace vs. Blaster McMassive, The Proletariat Boar Of Moldova, & Missile Assault Man: Not sure about the mindset behind the random collection of rudos in this one. This was my first time seeing Missile Assault Ant/Man since he unmasked to join the Battleborn stable. Blaster hadn't competed at the Indianapolis show in June, only interfering on behalf of his Devastation Corporation teammates. Rockwell seems to have dropped the energy-drink gimmick that he had at the time of the Indy show. Heidi was banged up in this one, ending up with a bloody nose and a shiner by the end of it; she did get a big moment as she bodyslammed McMassive(!) Teamwork and continuity made the difference as McMassive accidentally knocked Missile Assault off the top rope; that led to Heidi pinning Missile Assault after the low-altitude Frankensteiner in 11:40. Go champs!
Cue intermission...this venue was packed. Again, no concessions. (Sorry, Ben Simon.)
Icarus(Dasher's Dugout) vs. Eddie Kingston(Snake Pit), Challenge Of The Immortals: This match's history ran deep as Icarus ended Kingston's reign as the first Grand Champion of CHIKARA. Icarus went from one of the most hated guys on the roster to the company's savior as he attempted to wrest the championship from Kingston; his best opportunity was cut short by the promotion's abrupt hiatus. Icarus would finally win the title after CHIKARA's revival, but he lost the title to Hallowicked earlier this year. While the COTI competition was the main focus here, both men were hoping to move back into title contention...while I hadn't seen their previous encounters, they had plenty of familiarity moments where they countered each other's signature moves. Both are technically fan favorites, but Kingston's attitude and character allow him to easily slide into tweener/rulebreaker mode. In contrast to the other shows of the weekend, Icarus focused his attack on Kingston's arm rather than the knee in an attempt to neutralize his power-based offense. Kingston worked on the neck to soften up Icarus for a potential Saito suplex/backdrop driver. The finish came down to a twice-reversed small package as Icarus edged out a hard-fought win in 14:44...nicely done. Kingston sulked after the bell, then finally snapped and leveled Icarus with his spinning backfist before storming out of the ring. The setup of the building was a nice touch as Kingston went to the backstage area and taunted Icarus from the balcony as he was being helped away from the ringside area.
The Throwbacks(Dasher Hatfield & "Mr. Touchdown" Mark Angelosetti) vs. AC/DC("The Anarchist" Arik Cannon & Darin Corbin) vs. The Punk Rock All-Stars(Drake Carter & Shaun Cannon) vs. Los Ice Creams(El Hijo Del Ice Cream & Ice Cream Jr.), four-way dance: Points were in play in this one...if a team could score all three eliminations, they could qualify for a shot at the Campeonates De Parejas in one night! Los Ice Creams took a seat in the audience after being announced first, observing the entrances of the other teams...then they got into a tiff with AC/DC over their clashing outfits(both wore pink). They opted for a temporary partner switch as Jr. stood in Corbin's corner and Hijo stood with Cannon...heh. Touchdown organized an impromptu football scrimmage in the middle of this one...then Corbin triggered the slow-motion sequence which got a slow "thiiiiis isssss awwwwwesooooome" chant.
Chaos broke loose and the All-Stars hit Hijo with their Blue Thunder Bomb/neckbreaker combo, allowing Carter to pin Hijo in 8:51. Shortly after that, Shaun Carter rolled up Corbin out of nowhere for another elimination in 9:28...aww. That left the former Tag Champs with the newcomers...there's a plot point in Dasher doing a People's Elbow and Touchdown going out of his way to retrieve the elbowpad (don't know the whole story there). The Punk Rock All-Stars got the surprise win as Carter pinned Touchdown after the Blue Thunder/neckbreaker combo in 15:03...just like that, the newbie team has three points and can challenge for the Tag Titles! The members of N_R_G stood on the balcony with the belts to tease that upcoming matchup.
Hallowicked vs. Shynron for the Grand Championship: Shynron earned his three points with consecutive wins over Boar, Touchdown, and Mark Andrews. Hallowicked has been around since the beginning of CHIKARA and Shynron is the young rising star with sensational aerial moves (he faced Amazing Red at Beyond Wrestling on Sunday). They had a really strong match with Shynron scoring several convincing near-falls...everyone bit on the pin attempt after a far-corner-to-far-corner Van Terminator, but Hallowicked got a foot on the bottom rope at the last split-second...yikes. Hallowicked managed to hit a last-ditch exploder fisherman buster to barely retain his title in 14:58...tremendous.
That was the main event, but the fans wanted One More Match(tm)...and so it came to pass.
Fire Ant vs. Ophidian vs. Princess Kimber Lee: It looked like a one-on-one match between Kimber and Ophidian, but then Fire Ant entered the fray to make it a triple threat. Fire Ant's entrance involved a slight slip on the ropes, then nearly splatting on the floor with his springboard somersault dive...ouch. He recovered well from that big leap and they had a fun little encore match. Fire Ant was taken out of the equation and Ophidian tried for a move off the top rope, but Kimber Lee countered into a powerbomb and pinned him with the folding press in 4:29. Woo.
Post-show, our group of four made its way to Pequod's Chicago Pizza...mmm, pizza. I had sausage and pepperoni deep-dish pizza and root beer as we watched the end of the A.L.C.S. game where the Kansas City Royals clinched the pennant against the Toronto Blue Jays. I'm not a HUGE baseball fan but I still pull for the Cardinals when they're in contention...now that I no longer have a horse in the race and it's down to the World Series, I'm rooting for the Royals against the New York Mets. On one hand there's the 1985 Series...on the other hand, there's pond scum. Do the math.
More truly weird car discussions ensued from there as we made our way back to the hotel...I'll simply say "CHIKARA After Dark" and leave it at that. I wish I had researched Chicago's comedy scene to see if there were any open-mic shows to check out...want to investigate that avenue at some point.
Anywho, that's the halfway point of the CHIKARA excursion...more to come next time. Same Pat-Time, Same Pat-Channel.
Good night, good luck, and #yaywrestling.
-PB, Watching Wrestling Wrong Since 1991
P.S. We are all marks.
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