Chikara returned to Chicago, IL this past Saturday night to a standing room only crowd at the Logan Square Auditorium! They actually had moved the merchandise tables down to a narrow hallway downstairs (in front of a dentist’s office) so they could fit more chairs in the venue, but even that wasn’t enough as there was a decent crowd still standing throughout the night.
1. The Batiri d. Da Soul Touchaz: Da Soul Touchaz are local to Chicago, but have appeared for Chikara a number of times before. Marshe Rockett in particular was pretty impressive from the Touchaz, and The Batiri were their normal creepy selves. Before the match, Kobald got a picture of President Barack Obama and was insinuating that Marshe Rockett looked like Obama. He then tore the picture up and stomped on it, which got a huge heel reaction in Chicago as you might expect. After a brawl on the outside, Kobald hit the Demon’s Toilet on Acid Jazz to get the pin. Good opener.
2. Devastation Corporation d. Wayne Campbell & Garth Algar: Sadly Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey were replaced by two guys who obviously are very new to the business. In fact, as they came out, one of them even remarked “and you have no idea who we are, yay!”. Devastation Corporation are managed by Sidney Bakabella, who does an old school greasy hair gimmick. They are HUGE guys, and absolutely destroyed the two local guys, almost killing each of them in the process, though it looked like the local guys didn’t quite take the moves right. They won with their finisher (one guy holds the opponent in a bear hug laying out and the other comes off with a splash from the top). Match lasted maybe 90 seconds if that. The big guys are impressive in size (one in particular), but it would be interesting to see them in a non-squash situation and what they’d do there.
3. El Generico d. The Shard: Probably the match of the night, though the main event was certainly in the mix for that award as well. Generico was absolutely awesome here (as he is almost all the time), and The Shard more than held his own too, he has alot of potential as well if and when this Gekido thing ends. Generico teased the turnbuckle brainbuster a number of times before finally hitting it for the win. Just great stuff, well worth checking out when it’s available on DVD!
4. Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano d. Soldier Ant & deviANT: I’m not a big fan of these forced together teams that Chikara has done this year, and as you’d expect, the troubles between Soldier Ant and deviANT continued here. It’s also interesting to watch Gargano be featured in such a different spot on the card than he is in DGUSA/Evolve. Eventually Solider Ant almost accidentally hit deviANT, but stopped himself in time...thought about it....and hit him anyways. That distracted him long enough though that Gargano got him from behind hit a wheelbarrow gutbuster on Taylor’s knees with Soldier Ant and then into the Hurts Donut for the 3 count.
5. Colt Cabana d. Mike Quackenbush: This was a rematch from their great technical battle in Milwaukee back in August. This started out much the same way, with each man countering the other’s offense, it was clear that they knew each other well. Then, just as it started, it ended just as quickly as Cabana got a roll up on Quack in probably the 2nd shortest match of the night (after the Devestation Corp’s squash). If this went 7-8 minutes I’d be surprised. It was good while it lasted, but I felt like it never had a chance to really get going before the abrupt end.
6. Jimmy Jacobs & The Bravado Brothers d. Fire Ant, assailANT & Jigsaw: Jigsaw filled in here for Green Ant who missed the weekend due to illness. That made me happy as I was disappointed that Jigsaw hadn’t been on the card up until Green Ant had to bow out. assailANT is making the best of this “forced together team” thing, as he’s really overplaying the “good guy” role and “wants to get along” with Fire Ant. It actually comes across pretty funny. But in the end, again there was miscommunication between that team, and the Bravados were able to hit their finisher for the win on Fire Ant. The Bravados have gotten really good since coming back from Japan, and Lancelot seems to have put on some mass as well.
7. Tim Donst d. Gran Akuma: Really, I don’t have alot to say about this match, Akuma was not on at at all here, and unfortunately, that’s been my feeling about him more often than not. I do like Donst’s new direction though, and he is ruthless in his abuse of Jakob Hammermeier. Hammermeier also should be commended for his portrayal of the abused lacky, often heard saying “that was ok, it was my fault” after Donst would smack him around. Hammermeier is going to snap at some point though (likely at the iPPV I would think) and when he does, it should get a HUGE pop. Donst got the win here after hitting Akuma with a loaded bag and locking on a submission on the unconscious Akuma.
8. 3.0 d. Icarus & Sugar Dunkerton, The Mysterious & Handsome Stranger & Sapphire, and The Throwbacks in a 4 way Elimination Match: Sapphire was the story of this match. Sapphire was Stranger’s tag partner, a plastic pigeon. Of course, this led to chants of “tag the bird”, which after the first few minutes of the match going back and forth between the other combatants, the Stranger obliged and tagged the plastic pigeon into the match. He clipped the pigeon to his shoulder and hit shoulder blocks (Sapphire headbuts?) on the rest of the competitors and was going bezerk until he hit Dunkerton and the pigeon got caught in Dunerkton’s afro. Dunkerton ran all over the ringside area screaming like a girl because the “bird” was stuck in his hair, absolutely hysterical. Eventually they first elimination happened when Shane Matthews forced Icarus to tap to the Boston Crab. Shortly after that the Stranger and Sapphire took control again, and it led to Stranger setting Sapphire on a downed Mr. Touchdown for a pin attempt. Touchdown kicked out at 2, and then took ahold of the plastic pigeon, placed it back in the pillowcase that the Stranger had brought “her” out in and proceeded to smash the pillowcase on the mat 5-6 times viciously, while everyone (including El Generico & Fire Ant who were watching from the balcony) were blown away by the actions of Touchdown. He then performed his up/down spalshes on the “fallen bird”. Stranger came in the ring and charged at Touchdown only to be hit with a spinebuster and pinned by Touchdown, eliminating he and Sapphire. Even Veronica (Touchdown’s cheerleader girlfriend) looked horrified at how far he’d gone this time. Eventually 3.0 got the win over The Throwbacks to earn themselves 2 points in the hunt for a title shot! As Touchdown left the ring he got massively booed and Veronica walked away from him as well shaking her head.
9. The Young Bucks d. Ultramantis Black & Hallowicked 2 falls to 1 to retain the Campeonatos de Parejas: The Bucks got a really quick pin in about 2 minutes with a spike tombstone on Ultramantis Black to take the first fall. For the 2nd fall, Hallowicked had to go it alone for the most part, until Black finally regained his senses. Hallowicked hit Nick Jackson with Go 2 Sleepy Hollow for the pin for the 2nd fall. Once the third fall started, The Batiri came out and watched, with Ophidian directing from the balcony. They attacked Hallowicked on the outside which led to a series of awesome dives to the outside by just about everyone! Ultramantis finally hooked in the Chikara Special, but just as it appeared the Spectral Envoy would win the belts, Ophidian came from under the ring (absolutely no idea how he got there) and spit mist in the eyes of Ultramantis Black. Nick Jackson hit a big super kick, but Ultramantis kicked out! At that point the crowd was going crazy thinking they’d see a title change, but alas, it was not to be as the Bucks hit More Bang for your Buck on Ultramantis Black to get the win and retain their titles. An awesome main event to cap off a really really fun show!
Chikara always delivers the goods when it comes to the live experience, if you get a chance, go check them out live if they are in your area, you won’t be sorry!
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