Contemplating CHIKARA 05.02.09: Enter the Dragon Gate!

Posted by Kevin Ford on 05.02.2009

News about CHIKARA's deal with Dragon Gate USA, Big Japan Wrestling, results from this past weekends shows, news about two CHIKARA members being off the roster, matches for Aniversario weekend, and TONS more! No shortage of news and information this week, so you best come in and read!

Boy, CHIKARA must read this column. After I complained about how little news came from the CHIKARA camp last week, they made up for it in spades this week. We have so much to discuss, so why don't we get right to it?!


CHIKARA and Dragon Gate join forces



For months now, Gabe Sapolsky (current Dragon Gate USA Vice President and former Ring of Honor booker) has sung the praises of CHIKARA on his blog, citing that they have done a fantastic job with their shows and have really found their niche audience. Gee, I think I know another company just like that…could it be, Dragon Gate?

The choice seems obvious and wise. CHIKARA has really hit its stride within the past year, and with the immense popularity of King of Trios 2009, they have nowhere to go but up. Dragon Gate USA has had so much buzz since it was announced with fans all over the internet anticipating the first show on July 25th in one of CHIKARA's home bases, The Arena in South Philadelphia. With both these companies on the cutting edge of their industry, a partnership is like a wrestling fans' dream.

Looking back, we should've seen it coming. As many know, Mike Quackenbush and CIMA (the "representatives" of the two companies) were both trained by Jorge "Skayde" Rivera who has competed for both companies over the past few years. Gabe Sapolsky has worked with both Mike and CIMA in Ring of Honor, and has taken a big liking to CHIKARA as of late it seems. The styles and influences of both companies seem very similar, and no doubt will the CHIKARA and Dragon Gate wrestlers mesh well when they cross paths.

We know as of now that this partnership will begin at Dragon Gate USA's debut show, when CHIKARA will send eight of their wrestlers for an Atomicos (eight-man tag) match. It reminds me a lot of ECW when they had the Michinoku Pro six-man tag on the Barely Legal show back in 1997.

Needless to say, this is a very exciting piece of news that has the Internet Wrestling Community in a big positive buzz. Much like Paul London and Bryan Danielson's buzz.

Big Japan Wrestling shows official!

As speculated in the past couple of weeks, CHIKARA is in fact working with Big Japan Wrestling in the month of June! The dates were confirmed on CHIKARA's website, and on June 12th and June 13th, seven of CHIKARA's talent will head over to BJW for two events. The seven wrestlers set to go over are Chuck Taylor, The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant), The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (Ultramantis Black & Crossbones), and 2.0 (Jagged & Shane Matthews). More information on these shows as it becomes available.

Results from this past weekend!.

These results come to you from the fine, fine folks over at CHIKARA Fans. Please go to the website; it's an awesome compendium for any and all CHIKARA fans, and has a sweet message board that's loaded with good people.


"Behind The 8 Ball" results

Preshow Notes: Attendance has dipped low tonight, the CHIKARA caravan has moved the show over to another room in the Easton FunPlex. There's a party/concert going on in the normal CHIKARA room, certainly Worker Ant would've been partying out if he were around. Things are running smooth, though the show's starting a bit late. Louden's latest hit single, "The Entrance Theme Montage Medley" is being performed live in Easton tonight. Reports stating the attendance picked up at last second, perhaps things are looking up!

1. Jagged & Shane Matthews [2.0] vs. Hallowicked & Frightmare [Incoherence]: Jagged attacks a 2.0 sign in the crowd, dropping an elbow on it and busting his own face up in the process. Karma! He also tried to fire up a "DE-FENSE" chant while Shane Matthews was thrown in a headlock. 2.0 gets the heat on Frightmare. With distraction from Brodie Lee who came out with Wicked's old mask, 2.0 get the surprise win with double rollups with hands full of tights. Fun opener.

2. Shark Girl vs. Nevaeh: Crowd's not too receptive to the match, though they're polite and applauding the moves that they "should". Shark Girl wins quick with a knee to the head, similar to MVP's Playmaker. "Five minutes that felt like fifteen." Louden chastised the crowd for being so quiet afterwards, "is this a library?"

3. Escorpion Egipcio vs. Helios: Following an arm drag that pulled Escorpion off the top rope,Helios hits a 630 to get the victory in about eight minutes. Seven slow claps started by Helios in that eight minutes.

4. Atomico Incredibles: Player Dos, Brodie Lee, STIGMA & Tim Donst vs. Player Uno, Buck Hawke, Vin Gerard & Hydra: Brodie Lee in to replace Mitch Ryder, who is clearly running scared from BIG BAD BUCK HAWKE. Both teams came out to Mortal Kombat theme. Hawke called the replacement Brodie "burly" and renamed the UnStable "the UnWashed". Vin cartwheeled at STIGMA, a clear taunt towards his fellow stablemate. A really fun match so far, with a lot of neat interactions of partner vs. partner. Hydra took Donst's back and teased the beatdown, only to give his BFF a shoulder massage. Lots of dives and brawling at the end, with a special focus on STIGMA and Donst tearing into each other at the end. Player Dos pins Buck Hawke with a frog splash.Awesome match.

5. Gran Akuma vs. Shadow Phoenix: They start off trading holds early, which soon gives way to stiff kicks to the back from both men. Brutal kicks to the chest leave both men sore and red, and a beautiful tope suicida from Shadow Phoenix on the floor. Gran Akuma puts away Shadow Phoenix with a Joker Driver in what was described as a great match, if a bit sloppy.

6. Fire Ant & Soldier Ant [The Colony] vs. Chuck Taylor & Icarus [F.I.S.T.]: The Colony: Both teams going to war with one another, hard hitting action from the opening bell. In a crazy finish, Icarus faked a foul and while Nick Papagiorgio was checking on him, Chuck Taylor fouls Soldier Ant and taps him out with a one legged crab for the win. A huge brawl after the match is broken up when Leonard F. Chikarason comes out…however, he's not needed as both teams have laid out a MASK VS HAIR MATCH FOR NEXT MONTH.


DVD cover for "Behind The 8 Ball". Available soon at Smart Mark Video!

7. CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Title Match ~ V2: Jimmy "Equinox" Olsen [c] vs. Colin Delaney: Colin's demanded that he not face "Equinox" tonight, but the real Jimmy Olsen, wanting to teach his brother a lesson…and the mask comes off. THIS MEANS WAR. They lay it into each other heavy early on, incredibly stiff battle here. Jimmy goes for the tope tornado DDT, Colin ducks out of the way and boots him to add to his pains. Colin taunts Jimmy and tells him this one's gonna be "just like Streamwood". Colin goes for a big clothesline and Jimmy reverses it for the CHIKARA Special, but Colin manages to get the ropes before he can lock it in. Colin goes for the Attitude Adjuster, but Jimmy kneed him straight in the face. Jimmy Olsen retains the Young Lions Cup following a KNOCKOUT PUNCH~! and a pinfall. Really good match; crowd wants them to hug it out afterwards but Colin bails.

8. CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas ~ Best of 3 Falls ~ V3: Amasis & Ophidian [c] [The Osirian Portal] vs. Jigsaw & Mike Quackenbush:

Primera Caida: The rudos trying to get an unfair advantage when working over Jigsaw; Amasis attempted to sneak into the ring but was QUACKENFACE'D and immediately returned to his corner. Reports of a "Hammer Time spot" here, as well. Amasis turned Jig's mask around on his head and rolled him up with a handful of tights for the champs to go up 1-0 in a little over 12 minutes.

Segunda Caida: The Portal immediately go after Quack…and it seems that he's been knocked out of the match as they target his back. Things aren't looking good for Jigsaw…but Quack pulls himself back together. Jig hits a Superfrankensteiner, Quack with a senton and Jig with the ever deadly REVERSE ROLLING PRAWN HOLD for the pin to tie it up 1-1.

Tercera Caida: All out madness as both teams are sprinting towards the finish line to take home the gold. Ophidian kicks out of a QD3, Amasis kicks out of a QD4. In the end, it's Quack and Ophidian both reversing each other's holds until Ophidian ekes out a flash pin on Quack to retain the Campeonatos de Parejas. Incredible match!


"The Bobliogrpahon" results

Preshow Notes: The notoriously right on time Philly crowd showed up in droves with minutes to go right before the doors opened, estimated attendance is around 300 after some late arrivals.

1. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Shadow Phoenix: Crowd was loud and really into everything both guys did in what was a really fun opener as both guys brought their workin' boots. Claudio puts Shadow Phoenix away in 7:58 with the bicycle kick. Fun times.

2. 4 Corners Elimination Match: Player Uno & Player Dos [Super Smash Bros.] vs. Jagged & Shane Matthews [2.0] vs. Colin Delaney & STIGMA [The UnStable] vs. KC "Cloudy" Day & Cheech Hernandez: Colin and Jagged square off early and do some awesome wrestling that was intentionally bad. 2.0 are back to zero points as Cheech reverses Shane Matthews' patented Boston Crab for the first elimination. Not too long after, Player Dos sends the UnStable packing after pinning Colin Delaney with a frog splash. SSB vs C&C as the final two teams left! A pretty neat match ends as Cloudy hits Uno with the tidal wave to give C&C their second point and the win.

3. Create-A-Wrestler vs. UltraMantis Black: Neat little match, CAW looked fantastic with a lot of neat stuff. At one point Mantis nearly had him put away with a Praying Mantis Bomb, but CAW reversed it into a sick "Beach Break-like maneuver". Ultramantis Black schoolboys CAW with a grab of the tights for the win. Schoolboy with tights is the rudo version of the Prawn Hold after this weekend, three wins for them by those means.

4. Brodie Lee, Eddie Kingston & Grizzly Redwood [The Roughnecks] vs. Hallowicked, Delirious & Frightmare [Incoherence]: Brodie kicked Louden Noxious off the apron during the Roughnecks' entrance, leaving him incapable of introducing Incoherence while in recovery state. Hell of a sell job there. They're racking up the body count today, as Frightmare eats double Yakuzas from Brodie and Eddie. Brodie did a running ‘rana ala Hallowicked, quite the taunt. In the HUGE upset,Frightmare pins Brodie Lee with a step-up frankensteiner! GREAT match…but afterwards, the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple catch Incoherence in the entranceway and capture Delirious, running away with him to the back!

5. Sara Del Rey vs Shark Girl: Sara with an armband in memory of Bea Arthur. A bit of butt-biting comedy early on in what was a good little match. Sara wins with the royal butterfly in six minutes.

6. Jimmy "Equinox" Olsen, Helios & Lince Dorado [The Future Is Now] vs. Amasis, Ophidian & Escorpion Egipcio [The Osirian Portal]: The Osirian Portal waste absolutely no time and attach the Future is Now right out of the gates, not even letting the tecnicos get to the ring before putting the beatdown on them. The Future is Now bring the hate right back to them as Jimmy rips up the mask of Escorpion a bit, tearing the tail right off of the top of the hood, and Lince went right to it and ripped it up some more. After Escorpion drops the ball and accidentally hits his teammates a few times, Ophidian and Amasis quit on him and leave him on his own. Double dropkicks and a 630 from Helios on Escorpion gives The Future is Now the win.

7. Vin Gerard vs. Glacier: Crowd not really into the match due to Vin's stalling tactics and the distraction from STIGMA and Colin on the outside. Glacier missed some moves. Ref bump, brass knucks by Vin for the victory.

8. Fire Ant & Soldier Ant [The Colony] & Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Gran Akuma, Icarus & Chuck Taylor [F.I.S.T.] & Buck Hawke: Tons of insane action all around, hard to keep up. Gran Akuma gets the win with the Rubik's Cube on Jigsaw. Match started off slow but ended quick, awesome stuff.

Very interesting stuff going on here; Delirious being kidnapped by the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple has me most intrigued. The Order has been looking for a new third member since the new year, and who better to pick then someone who has bested The Order numerous times? We'll see what comes out of this is the new future.

But, aside from Dragon Gate, other news has come out of this weekend…

Say sayonara to Escorpion Egipcio and Mitch Ryder!


I think it's fairly safe to say that no one expected that by the end of this past weekend, two of the main players would be gone: Mitch Ryder and Escorpion Egipcio. Both their listings are officially off the CHIKARA page as well, which generally means the departure is finalized.

Escorpion was written off in storyline. He lost to Helios on Saturday night, and then lost again on Sunday during the trios match. Ophidian followed up with a blog regarding Escorpion's failures:

4/27/2009: So "Behind the 8 Ball" is over. There's ssstill gold around my waist. And "The Bobliographon" is in the record booksss. So let the record show, that a championship team is only as strong as its weakest link. And there's no mystery about who was the weak link in The Osirian Portal. It was you, Escorpion.

Back in March, the biggest pro-wrestling tournament of the entire year was ours for the taking. But as far as Amasis and I are concerned, sssomeone didn't pull his weight, and the result was King of Trios 2009 ssslipped through our fingers like so much Qattara sand.



Amasisss and I are the top tag team on the circuit today. We captured the prestigious Campeonatos de Parejas before anyone ever heard of Escorpion Egipcio. And we've defeated the biggest stars in all of CHIKARA - from The Colony to Jigsaw to theSuper Smash Brothers to Mike Quackenbush himself - and we did it all without the help of Escorpion Egipcio. How is it that Amasis and I could do all this on our own, but with the added "help" of Escorpion's vaunted sstrength, we could not overcome The Future is Now?

It's simple. Pro-wrestling requires a lot more than brute ssstrength. A tall stature and unrefined power are no substitute for speed, agility and cunning. Amasis and I intend to be the longest-reigning Campeones of all time, and that won't be possible carrying around a giant load of dead weight on our backs. The chain must be strong, and the weakest link must go. Welcome to the ssscrap heap, Escorpion.

For the glory of Osiris!
OPHIDIAN

So there you have it; The Osirian Portal is once again a duo. From what I've heard, Escorpion was originally slated to be a six month character any how, so it's not as if his departure is a gigantic surprise.

However, no one could expect Mitch Ryder's departure. The story of why he is no longer of the roster has yet to be released (and it may never be released). All we know is that he was replaced by Brodie Lee on the Easton show, and on Sunday morning he was already replaced with Shadow Phoenix in Philadelphia. The match graphic read "UPGRADE!" above it, giving a slight wink to the fans that Mitch's departure may not have been on the best of terms. Who knows what the story is here, but updates will be provided if any come.

Matches for Aniversario weekend announced!



The first match announced for "Aniversario Yin" (Saturday May 23rd from Easton, PA) is a battle of two homegrown talents. For the first time, Eddie Kingston and Create-A-Wrestler will cross paths in one on one competition. As we learned from Eddie's feud with Hallowicked, Eddie is very committed to making sure everyone knows that he, and no one else, is the best wrestler to come out of the CHIKARA Wrestle Factory. While CAW has yet to be claimed as such, no one can argue that he has improved tremendously since his debut back the 2007 installment of King of Trios. Eddie is no doubt fearful of these new CHIKARA students coming up, and he refuses to let them use him as a stepping stone. This has been proven when he destroyed Tim Donst and Lince Dorado in the past couple of years. Eddie will no doubt try to derail yet another CHIKARA students success, but will he be successful?



Another first time bout will come to Easton when "The Mini-Man Monster" Hydra battles with "The Littlest Lumberjack" Grizzly Redwood. The Roughnecks are no stranger to Hydra. Eddie Kingston and the BLK Out destroyed Hydra at the 2008 King of Trios tournament in the second round, and Eddie again punished Hydra in the 2008 Torneo Cibernetico. Brodie and Hydra crossed paths at "La Lotería Letal" in which Brodie was victorious. Now it's Grizzly's turn to prove his worth against Hydra, and he'll get his chance in Easton. Hydra came off a big singles victory when he defeated his former mentor (now enemy) Ultramantis Black at CHIKARA's season finale in December. Will Grizzly follow his stablemates path and inflict more punishment on Hydra, or will Hydra be able to keep his singles victory record going?



A fun eight-man tag has been signed, with the Tecnico squad of The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant) and The Super Smash Bros (Player Uno & Player Dos) taking on the Rudos squad of Los Ice Creams (El Hijo del Ice Cream & Ice Cream Jr.) and the current reigning Campeones de Parejas, The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian). Interestingly enough, it was the Super Smash Bros. that the Osirian Portal dethroned to become the current campeones. Aside from that, the Portal also successfully defended their belts against The Colony back in January. The Tecnicos squad has a lot to gain by pinning one of the campeones in this match, especially The Colony who would love to pick up some steam going into their giant match the next night (more on that later). Which four-man team will come out on top?



Oh yeah! Arik Cannon returns to CHIKARA at Aniversario Yang when he locks up with Ophidian. Newer fans recall Cannon's involvement in the past two King of Trios tournaments when he teamed up with the North Star Express. He also defeated El Generico on Night 3 of this years King of Trios. However, many fans remember Cannon from when he was in the Kings of Wrestling with Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero in 2005. In fact, Cannon won the 2005 Tag World Grand Prix with Claudio. In addition, Cannon won the fourth annual Young Lions Cup tournament back in 2006. If you think Cannon is a CHIKARA noob, you are incorrect. His opponent will be the venomous, vile Ophidian, currently one half of the CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas. Ophidian has proven to be one of the most impressive recent CHIKARA graduates, ascending to the top of the roster in an expedient fashion. While Cannon certainly had the experience advantage, Ophidian has proven so much in his nearly two-year CHIKARA career. Surely defeating Ophidian would help secure Cannon another stable spot on the CHIKARA roster, but will Ophidan allow the victory to slip by?



Also signed for Aniversario Yang is a tag battle stemming from The Bobliographon. As stated above, Vin Gerard cheated to defeat Glacier in their one on one encounter (with a little help from the UnStable). Glacier challenged Vin and any partner of his choice to take Glacier on in a tag match. Glacier revealed his partner to be a partner of his from King of Trios; D'Lo Brown!



Vin Gerard responded with another "future endeavor'd" former WWE superstar, Colin Delaney. Interesting that Vin didn't choose STIGMA, as he has mocked D'Lo for the past couple months. Will The UnStable be able to prove once again that they're better than Glacier, or will Glacier and D'Lo score the victory with a more even playing field?



The rivalry between the Colony and F.I.S.T has really escalated as of late. These groups have been at it for awhile, but the violence went up a notch when Chuck Taylor put Worker Ant on the shelf permanently. Fire Ant and Soldier Ant have faced the duo of Icarus and Chuck Taylor twice in the past few months. Those two matches had fouls and disqualifications, but that will stop when CHIKARA returns to Philadelphia for "Aniversario Yang" (Sunday May 24th at The Arena). The stakes are at their absolute highest as this bout will be a lucha de apuesta (match with wages). If The Colony defeat Icarus and Chuck, they will have to shave their heads. If F.I.S.T. wins, the Colony will have to unmask. Icarus is by far the most experienced man on the roster when it comes to Lucha de Apuestas, competing in three total in his CHIKARA tenure. He lost his mask in one back in 2002 (when Icarus was known as Ichabod Slayne) and his hair back in 2006 to Jigsaw. The third match was a six man tag in which he, Gran Akuma, and Mike Quackenbush defeated Jigsaw and The Wild Cards (Blackjack Marciano & Eddie Kingston) in which The Wild Cards had to shave their heads. So while Icarus may have lost both his singles lucha de apuestas, his tag encounter was a success. Icarus knows what it's like to be humiliated twice, and there is no doubt he doesn't want that to happen for a third time. The feud ends here, and the future of one of the teams will end. Will The Colony be able to humiliate F.I.S.T, or will F.I.S.T's King of Trios momentum continue and allow them to unmask and change the careers of The Colony for good?

2009 Create-A-Wrestler Contest!


I'd be remiss not to mention that currently going on is the 2009 Create-A-Wrestler contest. You, the fans of CHIKARA, get the opportunity to see a wrestling character you dream up be made into a reality. The winner of the contest will see CHIKARA mainstay Create-A-Wrestler portray the winning persona for the latter half of 2009.

How do you enter? I'll just copy and paste the instructions from CHIKARA themselves:

So, what do you do? Send us a .jpg image of the character you've created, along with his name, and a description of 200 words or less explaining as much about your creation as possible. (Please don't send .gifs, .tifs or .bmps, and trust us when we tell you, we can't read 20 pages of backstory - we're just going to delete the ones that don't adhere to these simple guidelines.) You can send in as many entries as you like - just be sure to include your name, age and address with it, so we can track you down if you're the lucky winner! When Create-A-Wrestler debuts with his new persona, the winning creator will be mentioned by name at the event, and they'll get a free copy of the official CHIKARA DVD release of the show! We want you to get involved! Send your entries to the Director of Fun at [e-mail], and get cracking - you've only got until the end of May to send 'em in!

Don't dilly-dally folks. Get those awesome submissions (and no, I don't mean the STF or Fujiwara armbar) in right away and see if you're the winner come June.

YouTube fun!



This is the 159th episode of CHIKARA's Podcast-A-Go-Go. "The Global Gauntlet, Night 2" is covered again with emphasis on the big 7 vs. 7 CHIKARA vs. Big Japan Global Gauntlet match. Check it out!



A fun video of The Sea Donsters and Louden Noxious playing music and singing after "Behind The 8 Ball." Shane Matthews makes a special guest appearance.



Finally, another video from YouTube user "MX5PWS". This time he highlights the AMAZING Rey de Voladores Qualifier between El Generico, Nick Jackson, Jigsaw, and Kota Ibushi. I thought this was the match of the whole weekend, and this video helps you see why. The King of Trios DVD's are available at Smart Mark Video (link at the end).

Alright, that's enough for this week. There was A LOT to take in this week and I thank each and every one of you for making it through the whole damn thing. Next week I'll be back with more information. In the mean time, be sure to check out my CHIKARA DVD reviews on the site as well. See you in seven!

Links!
The CHIKARA Home Page: www.chikarapro.com
CHIKARA Fans!: www.chikarafans.com
Buy CHIKARA DVD's at Smart Mark Video: www.smartmarkvideo.com
Follow CHIKARA on Twitter!: www.twitter.com/chikarapro
Follow CHIKARA Fans on Twitter: www.http://twitter.com/chikarafans
CHIKARA on Myspace: www.myspace.com/chikarapro