Now, as promised, a special comment about Saturday's CHIKARA show at The Arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
DISCLAIMER: I'm biased. Deal with it.
After two nights of not-all-that-great hotel sleep, I took the nuclear option of Benadryl and had my best sleep of the weekend. Score. Breakfast was had at the Bongo Room in Chicago; I had pretzel and caramel pancakes, but couldn't quite finish the whole batch...nice problem to have.
From there, it was car time as we drove through Illinois and Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky. We got some supplies at Super Target(!) and also had dinner at Havana Rumba before the show; I had never had Cuban food before. Sadly, my high school and college Spanish courses never really came into play. I had the pollo empanizado(breaded chicken) with black beans & rice and plantains...for the second time that day, I couldn't quite finish my restaurant meal. At the risk of being deemed a bigot, I didn't really care for the black beans & rice... *runs*
It was a rainy evening in southern Indiana and the venue roof was leaking a bit...the ring crew had to regularly clean up the ring between matches. The conditions made the building a rather hot and humid environment, but it was still a good time and they had a fine turnout.
Your ring announcer was Alex Proen(?), who was sounding much better after being raspy for the Chicago event; your referees were Bryce Remsburg & Larry Peace.
Ophidian & Shynron(Snake Pit) vs. Drew Gulak & Orange Cassidy(Gentlemen's Club), Challenge Of The Immortals: This was a battle of technico teams, though the Snake Pit duo seemed to have a slight edge in popularity. Gulak is a serious wrestler amidst the wackiness of CHIKARA; saw him at the merchandise tables at the weekend shows, but this was the only time I saw him in the ring. At one point, the ever-burned-out Cassidy elected to take a nap in the middle of the ring; Gulak even threw him a stuffed tiger toy. Ophidian QUIETLY attempted to pin him while he was asleep(with the referee counting quietly), but Gulak yelled out "FREE BAGEL BITES!" With that, Orange snapped awake and small-packaged Ophidian for a near-fall...bwahahaha. There was also a wacky series of pin attempt reversals that wore out the referee as he tried to keep up with the shoulders and counts. The end came when Orange went for a cheapshot on Ophidian, but the master of "snake style" avoided it and pinned Cassidy with a bridging backslide in 14:01.
Farmer Frog vs. Prakash Sabar: One of these guys might just win~! MY GOD~! The referee checked Sabar(who pretty obviously had some foreign objects on his person) and found two cucumbers...um, okay, sure. The Frog was aghast at this disrespect of farm produce...but Sabar had one more cucumber hidden in his tights(in the BACK, getyermindouttathegutter) and handed it to a young fan in the front row for safekeeping. Anywho, they had a solid wrestling match...at one point Sabar bailed to ringside and attempted to reclaim his cucumber from the kid, but the kid wouldn't give it to him! A frustrated Prakash had to use other means to win, powerbombing Farmer Frog off the turnbuckles as he was enduring a series of punches in the corner. Sabar got the pin after that with feet on the ropes(FLAIR~!) in 7:44...he repeatedly glared at the kid on the way out and gave him several "I've got my eyes on you" gestures...
AC/DC("The Anarchist" Arik Cannon & Darin Corbin) vs. "Juke Joint" Lucas Calhoun & Missile Assault Man: The Battleborn pairing is working its way up the ladder of contention since Kevin Condron recruited the former Missile! Assault! Ant! to the fold. M.A.M. still likes to shout out his name, but in different context as he beats down his opponents...he even spells it out while doing the Garvin Stomp. Corbin(w/ headband) and Calhoun had an epic karate duel that turned into a slapfight...then we got SLOW MOTION~! to the delight of the fans. This weekend was my first opportunity to see either of the Battleborn guys in action; Calhoun's an entertaining character and I've heard a lot of good things about M.A.M. Chaos broke loose near the end, leading to Missile Assault taking out Corbin with a pump kick in 13:56...that brought the Calhoun/M.A.M. pairing up to two points in the tag team rankings.
Eddie Kingston(Snake Pit) vs. Blind Rage(Nightmare Warriors), Challenge Of The Immortals: This seemed like an obvious win for Kingston as Blind Rage is the low man on the N.W. totem pole. However, the race was tight at the top of the COTI leader board between these two teams...on top of that, Kingston covets the Grand Championship held by Nightmare Warriors captain Hallowicked. Blind Rage worked on Kingston's leg for most of the match and showed impressive power by hitting a Splash Mountain Bomb(sitout Razor's Edge) for a near-fall.
Kingston made the comeback and avoided Rage's double-stomp off the top rope...Rage came up limping badly and rolled out of the ring to regroup. As the referee checked on Rage, Hallowicked ran into the ring to attack Kingston...he laid him out with his new exploder fisherman buster finisher and quickly retreated to the backstage area. Rage's leg was suddenly feeling a lot better(though he still limped after re-entering the ring)...he hooked Kingston in an STF and the referee, not getting a response from Kingston, called for the bell in 9:16. CHIKARA is already setting up their season finale and the war between these sides is far from over...
Intermission~! Talked to promoter/retired wrestler Mike Quackenbush for a bit...I hadn't seen him at the first two shows on the tour, but he was at this one and the one in Columbus. Saw a few of his matches in the St. Louis area, primarily for the Lethal Wrestling Alliance(now St. Louis Anarchy)...it's too bad he never progressed farther in his in-ring career than a cup of coffee with Ring Of Honor. Also chatted with Oleg The Usurper, who was disappointed that he didn't have a scheduled fight for the evening...thank goodness for encores, then. Had to appreciate people with dedication to their characters like Oleg and Dasher Hatfield...Dasher was really nice and appreciated my Pac-Man T-shirt(calling the changing symbol "voodoo" of some sort :)).
Juan Francisco De Coronado & The Proletariat Boar Of Moldova(United Nations) vs. Jakob Hammermeier & Soldier Ant(Bruderschaft Des Kreuzes), Challenge Of The Immortals: Ring announcer Alex really hit his stride over the course of the week; he joined in the gag of people dozing off in the middle of Juan's slow entrance (including front-row fans and referee Bryce Remsburg). The U.N. duo seemed to be the crowd favorites in this rudo/rudo bout. Each side seemed like a mirror image of the other with the smaller bossy "leader" pushing around the powerhouse guy to do the grunt work. Juan and Jakob had a fun opening segment as they tried to out-cheapshot each other. The lucha tag rules came into play when Jakob simply dove out of the ring to touch the floor, thus allowing Soldier Ant to legally enter the match...however, he nearly wiped out on the guardrail in the process(OW). Soldier Ant's big power spot saw him block a Gore from the Boar and hoist him up into a running powerbomb...yikes. Juan took out Soldier Ant with a suicide dive, allowing the Boar to Gore Jakob for the win in 10:50.
"The Kentucky Gentleman" Chuck Taylor(Gentlemen's Club) vs. Blaster McMassive(Wrecking Crew), Challenge Of The Immortals: The Gentlemen's Club had a rough weekend in COIT competition for the most part...needed more Swamp Monster. *nodnodnod* It was a battle of experience and agility versus sheer power and size...and Chuck's no angel as he'll throw the rulebook out the window if the situation calls for it. The match was surprisingly quick compared to other bouts in the weekend...Blaster won with a sitout Blackhole Slam in 5:33.
Grand Champion Hallowicked, Campeones De Parejas N_R_G("The Generator" Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell), & Young Lions' Champion Heidi Lovelace vs. The Throwbacks(Dasher Hatfield & "Mr. Touchdown" Mark Angelosetti), Icarus, & Princess Kimber Lee: All of the reigning titleholders were put on the same team for this feature bout...that put Heidi opposite the ring from her Dasher's Dugout stablemates. Heidi was sporting a black eye from a boot she took in her Chicago match. Hallowicked and Icarus have all kinds of history as they were tag partners in the early days of CHIKARA(Icarus was "Ichabod Slayne" when he competed under a mask)...on top of that, Hallowicked dethroned Icarus for the Grand Championship. Hallowicked was the lone rudo and wanted little to do with his teammates, particularly Heidi...while Touchdown had been teasing a heel turn in recent times, he seemed to play it straight for the weekend. Of course, it was all in the name of competition...if anyone could score a fall on a titleholder, it would put them in line for a championship match. The Throwbacks are former Campeones De Parejas and would definitely be gunning for another crack at the gold.
Anywho...YAY WRESTLING~! Hallowicked's partners made an effort to be good sports(especially when up against Kimber Lee)...that didn't sit well with the stemmed one. Icarus wanted a piece of Hallowicked while the champ made an effort to stay away from his old acquaintance. Bodies flew all over the place. leaving Hallowicked alone in the ring and the referee on the floor to check on the carnage. That brought out a vengeance-seeking Eddie Kingston and he wasted no time in wiping out Hallowicked with a spinning backfist! Eddie limped out of the ring and back to the dressing room area...it was just a matter of who would be able to capitalize on the situation. That person was Princess Kimber Lee as she re-entered the ring, wrapping up the Grand Champion in a folding press for the three-count! In the span of three days and shows, Kimber Lee scored victories over both the Young Lions' Champion and the Grand Champion...tremendous weekend!
Did the fans want One More Match(tm)? As a matter of fact, they did...
Fire Ant vs. Oleg The Usurper: Don't blink. Fire Ant met Oleg in the aisleway with a suicide dive and they kicked it into high gear right away. The match went a mere 1:23 before Oleg scored a major win with the Off With His Head(crossface smash). Cue mutual respect and we're out.
On the way out of the building, I crossed paths with someone who I'd never met in person, but who had competed in my neck of the woods at one time: 2 Tuff Tony. I name-dropped Big Bad Ben in reference to his days in the St. Louis scene and we talked for a bit before I left The Arena.
Our group stopped for ice cream at The Comfy Cow...I had a peanut brittle waffle cone. Mmm, ice cream. We had no hotel reservations for the area, so we left for Columbus, Ohio(passing through Cincinnati) for the last leg of our journey.
Of course, that's another story for another 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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