Dark Pegasus Video Review: CHIKARA — The Renaissance Dawns

CHIKARA: The Renaissance Dawns by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 As far as promotions go, this is probably one that I get the most requests to review. I actually started following it passively back in my Rolling Germans days, but I never got around to it. By the time I had a decent collection going, 411 already had a great CHIKARA specialist in Kevin Ford. The promotion took a while to find its voice, but now that it has, it’s one of the fastest growing (and only growing) promotions in America. The premise is this: Imagine if a bunch of comic book geeks got together and decided to start a lucha libre wrestling promotion. The talent is mostly trained by Mike Quackenbush and Tom “Reckless Youth” Carter, and there is a heavy influence of geek culture running throughout CHIKARA’s roster. In other words, imagine if *I* booked a promotion. In the beginning, though, it had a very different feel. The early shows were just a showcase for the wrestlers at the CHIKARA Wrestlefactory. No Eye of Tyr or USApe yet. In fact, as Quackenbush points out on commentary, the show was run by about 12 guys pulling duties backstage and center. May 25, 2002 From Allentown, Pa. Your hosts are Mike Quackenbush and Bryce Remsberg (doing retrospective commentary from 2010). Opening Match: Mr. ZERO vs. Dragonfly. The fun gets underway quickly with Mr. ZERO, the middle-aged business tyrant. Imagine Bill Lumbergh as a wrestler. He even has the cup of coffee. Dragonfly is your basic Japanese knockoff. This is the first match for both guys. The idea is that ZERO is slow and grumpy and can’t keep up with Dragonfly’s skill. ZERO already has one of my favorite idiosyncrasies in CHIKARA – pugnaciously adjusting his tie after every offensive move. He knocks Dragonfly down and slides over to the corner for a sip of coffee. Yeaaaaahhhh. I’m going to need you to go ahead and stay down for this elbowdrop. Yeahhhhhhhh. Hilarious spot as ZERO puts Dragonfly in the Camel Clutch and forces him to read the business section of the paper. Dragonfly telegraphs a shoulderblock and gets knocked off the apron. To the floor, ZERO gets sent into the post. Back in, Dragonfly misses a crossbody. ZERO gets two. Dragonfly hits a springboard bulldog but goes for another one which is countered to a Blue Thunder Bomb for two. ZERO catches him with a German Suplex (sick variety) and finishes with the Last Shaven Unicorn Drop (Reverse Michinoku Driver) at 11:30. Incredibly solid match for two guys having their first ever match. Mr. ZERO quickly became a fan favorite in CHIKARA. **1/4 Mike Quackenbush comes out to talk about the Gold Bond Mafia. CM Punk comes out to defend the Midwest. Yes, Punk was CHIKARA before ROH. Punk offers a handshake of friendship to Quack, but Colt Cabana and Chris Hero jump Quackenbush from behind. Reckless Youth and Don Montoya make the save. Verbal jousting ensues and we have a six-man main event set up. Beauty & The Beast vs. The Night Shift. Night Shift is Hallowicked and Ichabod Slayne. They set the tone before the match by hanging from the corner like bats. Beauty and the Beast are Marshal Law and Love Bug. Ichabod is the wrestler futurely known as Icarus in a modified Carnage mask. Law and Love Bug hit a series of atomic drops and dominate the spooky guys. Love Bug gets doubleteamed and winds up in the heel corner. Marshal (imagine the Big Boss Man) gets the hot tag and squashes Ichabod with an avalanche. The match breaks down as the rookie heels hit a Burning Hammer-type drop on Bug. Bug catches Slayne as the heels go for Poetry in Motion, though, and he powerbombs him. The King Crab (reverse Texas Cloverleaf) finishes Slayne at 12:35. Not really worth of the time they got. The Night Shift were very cool characters, though. * Kid Kruel vs. Zane Madrox. Zane comes out to “Absolutely Bill’s Mood” by They Might Be Giants. He looks just like a big, young Terry Funk. It’s actually kind of eerie. This is his first match also. Kruel was a WWE development guy for years but never really made it. He is light years beyond most of the guys on the roster in terms of execution. He also is quite balanced in the ring, hitting the mat, brawling and flying at various times. Kruel locks in a jujigatame for a bit then goes up for an elbowdrop. Madrox hits a springboard crossbody for two and pummels Kruel in the corner. He wanders around for a bit with a lost look on his face. Quackenbush lets us know Madrox just disappeared one day and never showed up for his bookings. Kruel locks him in the Stranglehold Gamma, but it doesn’t get the submission. Zane powers him up and gutwrench suplexes him. That sets up a Burning Hammer, but Madrox leaves the ring to offer the crowd some of his chips. Bizarre. He offers Kruel some, and Kruel whips him down into the jujigatame for the submission at 10:19. Like a lot of young guys, Madrox looks alternately like a superstar and a shmuck. Too bad he dropped out of sight because he had an interesting hook. Kruel looked above the promotion at this point (which he was). *3/4 UltraMantis vs. Blind Rage. Blind Rage is the third member of the Freebirdian Night Shift stable. He looks kind of like Jeff Hardy at his most Goth. This is Mantis’ debut, and he’s a tecnico. That’s kind of weird to see now. Rage blocks a backdrop and reverses to an inverted suplex. He gets two off a series of somersault sentons. UltraMantis hits a butt bump, but Rage hits a flying headbutt on a leapfrog attempt. Mantis gets two off an Onryu Clutch (rolling crucifix). They chop it out, and UltraMantis gets two off a Praying Mantis Driver (Butterfly Powerbomb). The Butterfly Lock (Ha ha! Insect references) kills some time. Another Butterfly Driver gets two, and Mantis slowly goes up. Rage recovers and jumps him from behind. Rage’s Niagra Driver gets two, and he finishes with the Gory Facebuster at 10:35. Mantis looked really good in his debut, and it’s no wonder he’s become one of the most reliable CHIKARITES. Rage, the comparative veteran, led him through this quite admirably. **1/2 Black T-Shirt Squad vs. The Gold Bond Mafia. The Gold Bond Mafia are a skinny CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris Hero. Even Colt looks svelte here. The T-Shirt Squad is Reckless Youth, Quackenbush and Dan Montoya. Quack outquicks Hero and kicks him in the face. Reckless Youth and Cabana go at it. Quack points out that Youth, who is now semi-retired, had his soul sucked out of him by WWE Developmental. He also says that he and Reckless Youth were supposed to have a tryout match on Nitro, but Youth had a no-compete clause from a dark match in the WWE. Youth outwrestles Cabana and sends him back to his corner. Punk and Montoya tag in, and Punk tries to stall. Montoya is too fat for Punk to take him over on a fireman’s carry. Hero and Quack go at it again. Quack takes it up-tempo with a running springboard plancha. AWESOME! Quack rips the WWE for not finding a use for Colt Cabana. Montoya chops the ever-loving crap out of Punk and ties him up in the ropes. Hero tries to help but gets tripped and dropkicks his own partner. Montoya calls for the other guys to hold the ropes open for him, but he gets tripped up from the outside before he can hit a tope. The heels isolate Montoya about fifteen minutes in for the first heat segment. He tries to get out of trouble by pantsing CM Punk. Punk drop-toeholds him even with his pants around his ankles. Now that’s talent! They all work in the Chain Submission. In this case, Punk with the half-crab on Montoya, Youth with the abdominal stretch on Punk, Cabana with an abdominal stretch on Youth, Quack with an Octopus on Cabana, and Hero with a sleeper on Quackenbush. Montoya is able to squirm out and knock over the pile like a big, fleshy bowling ball. Youth hits Cabana with a quebrada and mounts him in the corner for a pummel. Punk and Montoya trade rollups for a bit, then Colt and Youth, then Hero and Quack. Hero wins a battle of forearms with Quackenbush. Colt nearly gets the pin on Youth with a Colt .45. Colt tries a sunset flip bomb, but Youth blocks and counters to a Tornado DDT on the floor. Montoya hits Punk with a Doctorbomb, but Hero makes the save. Quack jumps him with the Tornado Bulldog for two. Hero blocks a charge and hits a wicked piledriver. Montoya recovers enough to toss Hero into Punk and finally hits that suicida into them. See, they paid it off eventually. Good storytelling. Quack tries a reverse rana, but Colt blocks. Quack tries again and drops Colt right on his head. That sets up Reckless Youth with the Northern Lights 2K1 Bomb on Colt at 30:55. Good stuff for a long match. Everyone looked great, especially the heels. Not surprisingly, this style is what became popular in CHIKARA for years. ***1/2 After the match, Reckless Youth invites Punk, Hero and Cabana back to the ring for a handshake, and they all pose for pictures. Awhhhh.

The 411: Definitely a successful debut for CHIKARA, which came in with low expectations but exceeded them. The star ratings don't tell the whole story as even the bad matches were interesting, if not well-wrestled. The youngsters looked competent enough to be molded into the solid base they eventually became, though. The main event was not the blowaway match that Ring of Honor had, but it was strong enough to put a satisfactory exclamation point on the promotion's first show. Thumbs up.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]