CHIKARA Review: Aniversarioct

Last night, CHIKARA made its Framingham, MA debut with Aniversarioma. CHIKARA made a very effective debut with an astonishing Atomicos Increibles, the first ever singles match between El Pantera and Skayde, and a six man tag team match that brought both the Incoherence/Fabulous Two and Claudio/Brodie Lee feuds to a head. Tonight, more teams look to accumulate points, and Brodie and Claudio have their second singles contest! The show marks CHIKARA’s return to Wallingford, CT, in which their first show “Showdown In Crisisland” was critically acclaimed. Can lightning strike twice? Let’s find out!

Commentary is provided by Bryce Remsburg, Louden Noxious, Leonard F. Chikarason, and Mike Quackenbush.

Lightning Storm (Mike Quackenbush & Shane Storm) vs. The Osirian Portal

The match starts of with Quack and Ophidian, but it quickly turns into Shane Storm and Ophidian. Storm and Ophidian exchange moves back and forth, including a really sweet rope assisted hurricanrana from Ophidian. After coming to a stalemate, Quack and Amasis come in. Quack and Amasis are also evenly matched in the ring. Quack went for an Enzugiri, but Amasis ducked. Mike then used his upper body strength to push up, wrap his legs around Amasis’ head, and toss him down to the ground with a forward roll. Ophidian ran in to help out his partner, but Mike caught Ophidian and Alabama Slammed him down onto his own partner. Mike then locked all four of there legs and turned them over for an amazing double sharpshooter. Grown men were giving this a standing ovation and cheering loudly for this. The Portal decides to roll out of the ring after the hold was released and danced to shake themselves out. Amasis comes back into the ring and does a little dance signifying a potential dance off. Amasis however palm strikes Quack in the face! Quack gains a slight upperhand and tags out to Storm. Amasis and Ophidian get the advantage on Storm using their trademark Portal double team tactics to keep him down. They busted out their awesome wheelbarrow arm drag shoulder block combination. Amasis constantly mocked the fans during the match. The high point of this is when Storm was on the ground, Amasis danced off the ropes as if to set up for an elbow of sorts, but instead just calmly lays on the mat and applies a chin lock. Ophidian made the grave mistake of throwing Storm into his own corner allowing Quack to blind tag himself in. Quack came in and nailed an awesome corkscrew DDT onto Amasis for a two count! Lightning Storm followed up with the Total Elimination on Amasis, but Ophidian broke up that count. Ophidian and Storm fought once more, and Ophidian leapt off the top with double knees to Storm’s chest. The Portal recovered and hit a beautiful double STO for the two count on Storm. They once again attempted their wheelbarrow arm drag shoulder block combination, but Quack pushed Amasis to the outside and caught Ophidian with a wheelbarrow suplex! Storm capitalized by nailing Ophidian with That Japanese Move! Storm launched himself onto Amasis on the outside to prevent him for coming back in the ring. Meanwhile, Storm picked up Ophidian and nailed him with the Quackendriver for the win! Lightning Storm now has 2 points. Holy crap, this was an amazing match. This may possibly be the best opening match I have ever seen on any show. The crowd was so awesome, all four men looked so good, and everything could not have worked better. To everyone else on the show, good luck following this one. ****

Vin Gerard vs. Jimmy Olsen

Vin threw his Equinox mask at Jimmy, who side stepped it. Jimmy then came at Gerard with some elbows and dropkicked him out of the ring. Vin attempted to leave the building but Jimmy stopped him. Jimmy delivered a hard lucha arm drag to Vin on the wood floor. Jimmy proceeded to chop Vin all around the ringside area. This came to and end when Vin ducked a chop and Jimmy hit his hand against the ring post. Vin rolled Jimmy back into the ring and began to work him over. Vin delivered hard slaps, chops, and chokeholds working over Jimmy’s neck. Vin stepped on Jimmy’s neck as it was sitting on the second rope. The crowd began to chant JIMMY! cheering for Mr. Olsen, obviously. Vin had Jimmy sunk down into the corner as he went for his patented running knee from the opposite corner. Jimmy moved out of the way and rolled him up for the two. Jimmy and Vin went back and forth with Jimmy getting an advantage with the big chop. Jimmy worked over Vin and got the opening to go up top. Vin stopped Jimmy by digging his fingers into Jimmy’s mouth and throwing him off the top rope. Vin worked over Jimmy some more, attempting the STF which Jimmy countered by pushing Vin away. Vin retaliated with an STO for a two count. Jimmy managed to once again get up to the top rope and hit a beautiful dropkick on Vin. Jimmy looked to hit the Overbomb on Vin, but Vin stopped the move and landed on his legs. Vin fell to one knee and retreated to the corner. Derek Sabato checked up on Vin as Jimmy continuously tried to get at Vin. Vin eventually got up and kneed Jimmy in the gut. He pointed at his head signifying he had tricked Jimmy and the referee. Vin went for a clothesline, which Jimmy contorted into a rollup. Vin countered by grabbing one of Jimmy’s legs, wrapping his other arm in the ropes, and getting the three count! Man, it’s so great watching this match knowing where these two have ended up now. It’s scary because I can imagine these two having the exact same match now and it would make just as much sense. This was truly great; Jimmy Olsen has found a niche for himself as a singles star and Vin is such an awesome character. A great performance overall. ***1/2

Smart Mark is backstage to show Jimmy backstage cooling off. Vin comes and pushes Jimmy and he tells Jimmy not to be too hard on himself. Jimmy tells Vin to lay off because he is going to win the Young Lions Cup, and when Colin comes back, he and Colin will win the Campeonatos de Parejas. Vin tells Jimmy he isn’t coming back, and asks Jimmy if he wants to know where Colin is. Vin then whispers something in Jimmy’s ear, and Jimmy looks at Vin and walks away. Vin ends it by saying “the truth stinks.” A nice prelude of things to come.

Up In Smoke (Cheech & Cloudy) vs. The Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno & Stupefied)

This match was incredible. The match opened with everyone tagging in and out and so many cool flips, dives, double teams, and everything you could think of being thrown out. All four men really gave it their all and put on an awesome show. I could list the moves in this segment, but it really wouldn’t do much good. Everything came to a halt when UIS cornered Stupefied in the ring. Both Cheech and Cloudy tagged in and out to beat up and ground Stupefied using some of their classic double teams to keep him down. UIS attempted to throw Stup into the ropes, but Stup halted and backflipped kicking both men in the head. This allowed Stupefied to make the hot tag to Uno who came in and took out both members of Up In Smoke. There was a neat spot where Cheech attempted to gain the upper hand with the clothesline, but Uno ducked and pulled him by the back of his head right onto his knee. Uno took Cheech and Cloudy to the outside, but Cheech dived through the second rope and rolled up Uno! It was seriously one of the coolest roll up spots ever. The Super Smash Bros. continued to work over Up In Smoke nailing a sweet Alabama Slam/double knee combination on Cloudy. Stupefied hit an awesome looking frog splash on Cheech, but Cloudy broke it up at 2.95. The fans then began to have a split chant between the two teams. The Smash Bros. continued to work over Cloudy as Uno went up top and Stupefied held on. As Uno was coming down, Cloudy moved Stupefied into his target range causing Uno to accidentally nail the M. Bison Stomp on Stupefied! Cheech leapt up and hit Uno in the face with a boot. Cheech placed Uno in a powerbomb position, as Cheech came off the top with a Shining Wizard. Uno crashed down to the mat allowing Cheech to pick up the victory and their first point! More dissension in the ranks when it comes to the Super Smash Bros. I know, I know, I did a poor job giving an idea of the play by play in this match. But to be honest, this match was SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME that I think it really is useless to list all the moves. First of all, I admittedly don’t know all the names of what they did or could explain it better. Second off, I think it’s far better to just see the awesomeness for yourself. This was just as good as the first match; the tag teams really are giving it their all tonight. ****

Turbo vs. Jorge “Skayde” Rivera

It’s teacher vs. student! Skayde picks on Bryce at the beginning of the match to get the fans to boo him. The story of this match was Skayde showing Turbo that he was the boss. They started off with some back and forth, but Skayde locked Turbo’s arm and took control. Turbo tried anything he could to get out of this arm lock: reversals, the ropes, even Bryce, but he couldn’t get out. Turbo used the ropes once more and hit Skayde with a hurricanrana to get out of it. They did some more back and forth but Skayde once again locked Turbo’s arm to show him he was the boss. Turbo this time ran up the ropes and arm dragged his way out of the arm lock. Turbo then had a slight advantage showing that he could hang with his teacher, even busting out Skayde’s own cartwheel arm drag off the top rope. Turbo followed up with a somersault plancha onto Skayde! The back of Skayde’s head hit a chair which he was tending to on the outside. Skayde rolled back into the ring and took Turbo down. The two went at it on the mat, and Skayde locked on a submission. In an awkward moment, Turbo slapped the mat to signify pain and to try to get the crowd behind him, but Bryce mistook it for a submission and called for the bell. Skayde quickly told Bryce no and the match continued. The two went back and forth why the fans discussed amongst themselves what the heck happened on the outside. Luckily, they got back into the thick of things and once again continued putting a great lucha clinic. Skayde tossed Turbo into the ropes, who countered by stopping his momentum and wrapping his legs around Skayde’s head. Skayde carried him in an Alabama Slam position and twirled him around causing Skayde to splat on the mat. Skayde then hooked his leg around one of Turbo’s arms and pinned for the victory! The fans applauded and chanted “Gracias!” as the two luchadores shook hands. Very good match, awkward moment or not. ***

Leonard F. Chikarason announced Steve “The Turtle” Weiner as the next Young Lions Cup participant. God damn it.

The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (Hydra & Tim Donst) vs. Los Ice Creams

Hydra and Ice Cream Junior started out doing lucha. Hydra went for a headscissors takedown, but Junior threw him off. Hydra tried once more only to get thrown off again. The third time was a charm however, as Hydra got the headscissors and had no less then a dozen super fast rotations much to the delight of the fans. Junior was thrown to the outside and wiggled his way to his corner. El Hijo del Ice Cream and Donst then came in to face one another. The two went back and forth with Donst delivering a hard slap to Hijo’s chest. Hijo began to cry which caused Donst to be concerned. Hijo kicked Donst right in the chest and yelled ESTUPIDO! to the crowd. Donst began to cry himself and pushed Hijo away. Once Hijo came close, Donst attacked him. Donst ran to his corner allowing Hydra to come off the top rope with a cross body block. Junior came in, and Los Ice Creams tossed Hydra to the Temple corner. Donst caught Hydra and tossed him to the apron for safety. Hijo ran at Donst, but Hydra jumped to the second rope and screamed which caused Hijo to scream and run in terror. Junior caught Hijo in a Sunset Flip, and Hydra came in to count. Hijo countered into a pinfall of his own which Hydra also counted. Junior rolled back into a pin which Hydra counted again. Los Ice Creams then leapt to their feet in a stand up with Hijo rubbing his ice cream cone beard and Junior is a fighting stance. This was a hilarious sequence. Hydra told both Ice Creams they had gotten a two, which caused the Ice Creams to kick Hydra in the stomach and deliver a double team Cold Stone Stunner. Los Ice Creams then worked over Hydra for awhile, with Hijo RIPPING OFF HYDRA’S SKIN TO SLAP HIM ON THE BACK! Why this was not a DQ I have no idea. Hydra got the tag to Donst who came in with the upper hand, but got side stepped by those dastardly Ice Creams. Los Ice Creams proceeded to work him over, with Hijo dancing at any opportunity he got. Junior was on the top rope while Donst was on the ground. Junior kept instructing Hijo to move Donst on the mat. Eventually Hijo got sick of his brother and went to the apron refusing to look at him. Meanwhile, Hydra came from behind and pushed Junior off the top rope to the delight of the crowd. This gave Donst the opportunity to tag in Hydra who came in and took down both Ice Creams. Hydra and Donst worked as a team to take them down including Donst powerbombing Hydra onto both Ice Creams on the outside. The Temple even introduced a new handshake which ends with Donst playing air guitar on one knee while Hydra air drums right behind him. The teams went back and forth once more hitting some signature double team moves, but the finish came when The Temple locked on a double Hydralock on Los Ice Creams, leaving them no choice but to submit. Hydra and Donst have collected three points and will now receive a future title shot! This was so fun, and the crowd ate it up. A really unexpectedly great tag team contest. ***1/2

F.I.S.T (Icarus, Gran Akuma, & Chuck Taylor) vs. The Colony (Fire Ant, Soldier Ant, & Worker Ant)

Akuma says that even the best teams have setbacks, which is true for F.I.S.T, especially with the Colony. Akuma says tonight he looks to break the streak of setbacks against them. Icarus points out that not only have they never beaten The Colony in CHIKARA, but last time in Wallingford, CT they lost to The Colony in trios action. Icarus says they have upgraded from Max Boyer to Chuck Taylor, and that F.I.S.T. will do anything to make sure The Colony is never victorious over them again. Chuck Taylor says they need to get fired up and says he is going to eat the Colony tonight; the usual Chucky T. greatness.

Icarus and Worker Ant started off for their respective teams. The two went at it getting into a battle of shoulder blocks off the ropes. Each wrestler tried to knock the other down with no luck. Icarus had the idea of grabbing a fanny pack (which he was wearing to the ring) and putting it around his shoulder. Icarus ran off the ropes and sent Worker Ant flying with the fanny pack assisted shoulder tackle, raising questions as to the fanny pack’s contents. Worker Ant took his own fanny pack and put it around his shoulder hoping to yield the same results. The two run at each other and get knocked down, with Icarus being so devastated that he rolled to the outside. Akuma comes in and battles with Worker Ant. Worker Ant shortly tags in Fire Ant, and from the outside of the ring, the Colony forms the ant hill to launch Fire Ant in the ring. Fire Ant rolls up Akuma in a sunset flip for the two count only. Akuma and Fire Ant continue to battle with Fire Ant throwing Akuma to the outside of the ring with a headscissors takedown. Fire Ant fires himself up as he looks to jump onto Akuma. As he is running to the ropes, Chuck comes in the ring and stops him. Fire Ant and Chuck wrestle for a short while until Solider Ant is tagged in. Soldier salutes Chuck, who throws down his arm and punches him. Soldier again salutes and Chuck again attacks. Soldier and Chuck brawl, and Soldier tosses Chuck outside the ring. Chuck lands on the apron but just barely. He tries to hit Soldier from the apron, but Soldier Ant uses his salutes to block. Chuck comes back in the ring and Soldier puts him in a saluting position. Soldier then pushes Chuck to the mat and forces him to do push-ups. After about five push-ups Chuck starts to wobble and barely gets a seventh push-up before giving up. Chuck gets back to his feet and Soldier calls him to a salute. He then begins to HUT! and Chuck starts marching around the ring. Leonard F. Chikarason on commentary hypothesizes that Chuck was in a military family growing up and couldn’t help but follow the commands. After Chuck tires out, Soldier Ant goes for a roll-up and only gets two. Soldier Ant calls Chuck to a salute again, but Chuck retaliates with a kick to the gut and a punch to the face. Chuck then pulls out his invisible grenade. The Colony all comes in the ring pleading with Chuck not to throw it. Chuck pulls out the pin and everything goes into slow motion. He tosses the grenade on the mat near the Colony and Bryce who begin to panic. Soldier Ant takes the initiative to push Fire Ant and Worker Ant out of the way and dive on the grenade. The grenade explodes, everyone jumps, Chuck hits an elbow drop, but only gets a two count! Everyone is standing, clapping their hands, and chanting “That was awesome!” Indeed it was. Chuck pulled Soldier Ant back to his corner and F.I.S.T. made quick tags in and out to destroy Soldier Ant. Akuma came in and was completely vicious and Soldier Ant with hard hitting moves including his awesome Cheetah Swipe. There was a moment when the CHIKARA banner under the bingo sign fell down and Chuck distracted Bryce with that while F.I.S.T. triple teamed Soldier Ant. Icarus and Akuma had Soldier Ant up for a move but he managed a double salute forearm to get out. He went to his corner to make the save but was stopped by Chuck. Chuck tagged in Icarus. Icarus and Soldier Ant went back and forth. The momentum shifted when Soldier Ant did a wheelbarrow into an arm drag throwing Icarus to the outside. Soldier Ant followed up with a salute headbutt dive onto Icarus on the outside, allowing the Colony to tag in! Worker Ant and Fire Ant team up to take on both Akuma and Chuck. Fire Ant and Worker Ant do separate tope con helo’s to the outside onto their respective F.I.S.T. opponent. The entire Colony comes back in the ring with Icarus and hit him with an assisted flip kick to the face. They isolate Icarus in the corner and hit him with the Ants Marching triple dropkick. Akuma and Taylor pull Soldier Ant out of the ring and attack Fire and Worker in the ring. They hit a powerbomb and pinning combo on each Colony member for the two count. Soldier Ant came back in the ring doing his best to take on all three F.I.S.T. members himself, but they hit a dropkick/double enzugiri combo to end that madness. Following this we had a sequence of each F.I.S.T. member hitting a Colony member with a big move, and vice versa. It came down to Fire Ant and Gran Akuma facing one another in an awesome miniature one on one bout. Akuma hit his epic face kick to Fire Ant who no sold and fired back! Fire Ant went for a victory roll, but Akuma turned it into a tombstone than into a face plant. Akuma went for the pin, but Soldier and Worker Ant came in to break it up. They hit the Ants Marching powerbomb/neckbreaker combination and attempted the Ant Hill with Fire Ant. Icarus came off the top and hit double knees to Fire Ant to send the Hill crashing down. Taylor came in and hit the Awful Waffle on Worker Ant to take him out. Taylor and Akuma then hit Soldier Ant with the Yoshi Tonic/Sole Food combination for the three count! F.I.S.T. has finally defeated The Colony. The fans chanted “Purple Heart!” and Soldier Ant afterwards. This was such a great contest; it’s no wonder why they are the two top trios in CHIKARA. ***3/4

The Fabulous Two (Mitch Ryder & Shayne Hawke) vs. Lince Dorado & El Pantera

Mitch and Shayne cut a promo saying how Mitch and Lince’s feud renews tonight, they are going to obtain their third point, and how they will beat Incoherence for the Campeonatos de Parejas. Not much to this one.

Shayne and Lince start off. Shayne uses very old school maneuvers attempting to keep Lince on the mat. Shayne asks for a test of strength, switching the hands in which Lince can start with. Lince eventually gets the test of strength, but Shayne trips Lince down to the mat. Shayne drops down the mat and begins convulsing, mocking Lince’s seizure at least year’s Chapter 11 show. He rolls to the outside tagging in Mitch. Lince tags in Pantera giving the two veterans the stage. Mitch and Pantera go back and forth with Pantera getting the advantage. Pantera fakes out Mitch on a dive and tags Lince back in. The Fabulous Two get the advantage on Lince and keep it for a very, very long time. The Fabulous Two use all the double team heel tricks from the 80’s handbook: the assisted abdominal stretch, having one partner keep the face in a headlock while the other partner works over the back, tags behind the refs back, etc. It actually worked in the end because Lince got the upper hand when Shayne missed a very new wave move, the Senton! Pantera gets tagged in and goes to work on both members of the Fabulous Two. He takes Shayne to the outside leaving Mitch and Lince in the ring together. Shayne grabs Bryce Remsburg’s foot distracting him which allows Mitch to low blow Lince. Mitch rolls up Lince for the pin giving the Fabulous Two their third point! The match was alright, certainly the weakest on the show. It was totally old school (which is not a negative), but it went on too long and was placed poorly on the card. The match was mostly based on the Fabulous Two’s interactions with the crowd, hence the lack of wrestling and moves in the match. **1/2

Brodie Lee vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Brodie says that tonight he becomes the top dog in CHIKARA. He says Claudio has been running roughshod for so many years, but now it’s time to take him behind the shed and but a bullet in his head because it’s his time as the top dog.

This a re-match from “Passion & Persistence”, which Brodie won after Claudio accidentally hit his Sweet Schwinn Music on referee Todd Sabato. Tonight’s referee is Bryce Remsburg.

Brodie cracks his boot against the ribs of Claudio before the bell even rings. Brodie begins to beat down of the “Say “Hey!” Kid” with thrusts to the throat, chops, clotheslines, and any other hard, quick offense you can think of. Claudio came back and started beating Brodie as well, and in a moment of great strength, hoisted Brodie over his head and tosses him to the outside of the ring. Claudio followed up with a beautiful tope onto Brodie. The men continued to brawl on the outside with Brodie getting the advantage. Brodie came back with more hard offense to Claudio throwing him around the ring into the corners. Brodie and Claudio brawled to the outside once again, and Brodie whipped Claudio into the seats. Brodie tossed Claudio back in the ring to continue dishing out punishment. Claudio and Brodie had a long battle to see who could suplex one or the other, with Claudio eventually winning. From here Claudio came at Brodie with hard European uppercuts to take down the big man. Claudio attempted the Alpamare Waterslide, which Brodie managed to escape from. Brodie then ran off the ropes, but Claudio caught him with a powerslam to keep his advantage going.. He grabbed Brodie by his waist to attempt a German suplex, but Brodie struggled out of it. Claudio tried once more and delivered a huge German suplex to Brodie. Claudio then jumped to the second rope for a diving European on Brodie but Brodie caught him on the way down. Brodie picked up Castagnoli and drove him to the mat with a chokeslam. Brodie continued to beat down Claudio, even going up top for a splash! This may have been the first time Brodie had ever gone to the top rope in CHIKARA. Claudio got to his feet and Brodie came at him with the big boot. Claudio moved and Brodie nailed Bryce with the boot sending him to the floor! The two powerhouses continued to brawl with Claudio giving Brodie the Big Swing. Claudio attempted to follow up with the Ricola Bomb, but Brodie escaped and instead hit the Running Liger Bomb on Claudio! Brodie made the visual cover, but there was no referee. Bryce returned to semi-consciousness and called for the bell. Nick Papagiorgio came to Bryce’s aide, and got the official word that Brodie was DQ’d giving Claudio the victory. Brodie turned around and walked right into the Sweet Schwinn Music by Claudio! Claudo then once again goes for the Ricola Bomb, but Brodie drops to his knees and roles out of the ring. This was the exact reverse of what happened at Passion & Persistence making it such an amazing ending, and the best way to continue this feud. Brodie looked awesome, Claudio looked awesome, Bryce did a great job, and the fans were totally into it. A great main event to an astonishing show. ****

The 411: You must buy this show. I am not joking when I say this is one of the best pro wrestling shows of 2008. It’s up there with Wrestlemania 24 and Supercard of Honor III. This is a wrestling show for everyone. It has astounding wrestling, hysterical comedy, and one of the best crowds at an independent wrestling show I’ve ever seen. Not to mention the amount of storyline advancement that took place. If you ever wanted to know what CHIKARA was, this is the quintessential definition. Make sure you absolutely do not miss this show.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]