The Magnus Analysis- Chikara Tag World Grand Prix 2005 Night 3

This is the third and final night of Chikara’s 2005 Tag World Grand Prix, which includes the quarter finals, semi finals and final matches in the tournament, plus several non-tournament matches. Commentary is done by Dave Prazak and a variety of commentators including Trik Davis, Larry Sweeney and Eddie Kingston

Danny Daniels, Jimmy Jacobs and Allison Danger vs Eddie Kingston, Jon Dahmer and DJ Hyde
A solid, fun opening match with some good action throughout. Both Jimmy Jacobs and Eddie Kingston took ages with their entrances. with Jimmy taking time to slap hands with all the fans in the balcony as well as on ground level, while Kingston took ages to yell at many of the fans in attendance and chat up the women (his entrance may have single handedly been the longest in the history of pro wrestling). The in-ring action was rock solid, but nothing really special, about as good as you’d expect from these six at this point. Kingston won the match for his team by pinning Danger with a Schoolboy with a handful of the trunks- **1/4

Team IWS (Kevin Steen and El Generico) vs The Superfriends (Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush)
This was a meeting of two teams who were having problems getting on with each other. I really enjoyed this match, it was one of the best of the night, both for entertainment value and wrestling. Hero and Generico had a great exchange of old school style strikes early on, including the use of the Tomahawk Chop and the Heart Punch. The rest of the match was filled with great mat and chain wrestling action from start to finish, along with some good high flying from the two smaller men and hard hitting from the two bigger men. Quackenbush did an amazing Running Swanton into the ring from the stage next to the ring, over the ropes, onto Steen. The finish saw Quackenbush counter a Steen Powerbomb into a pinning combination for the three count- ***1/4

Jigsaw and Sabian vs The Death Match Kings (Necro Butcher and Mad Man Pondo)
Again, while you would expect the Death Match Kings to brawl, Mad Man Pondo actually wrestled in this one and displayed some good technical skill. Necro wanted to brawl though, and was seemingly a bit jealous of Pondo’s wrestling ability, like he was on Night 2. He soon made up for that with hard chops. Sabian and Jigsaw held their own with the Deathmatchers though, frustrating them which would eventually lead to them getting DQ’ed when Pondo hat Jigsaw over the head with the stop sign- **

After the match, Necro and Pondo destroyed Sabian and Jigsaw with weapons out of frustration. Pondo cut a short promo, but I didn’t understand a word he said.

Arik Cannon and Claudio Castagnoli vs Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy (Jolly Rodger and Lance Steel)
A good technical wrestling match. Cannon and Castagnoli worked so well together as a team here, but KEFTPG held their own here as well, showing why they did so well on Night 1. Jolly Rodger took quite a prolonged beating from Cannon and Castagnoli, keeping him down with high impact strikes and submissions. When Lance Steel got the tag,. he locked in a Double Boston Crab on both of his opponents. This lead to some near falls for KEFTPG, before Castagnoli pinned Steel after the Glimmering Warlock/Powerbomb combo- **1/2

Team Toryumon X (Milanito Collection AT and Skayde) vs Team Osaka Pro (Ebbesen and Billy Ken Kid)
The international match of the 2005 tournament, and it was a good one, my favourite of the night. Exactly what you would expect, a good Japanese style Junior Heavyweight match with lots of great high flying and near falls. I enjoyed watching this match, and it was as good as you’ll see. There’s not too much else to say, since you can only appreciate this by watching it for yourself. Billy Ken Kid got the pinfall on Milanito with the 450, slightly overshooting it resulting in two knees in the chest of Milanito. My match of the night- ***1/2

Arik Cannon and Claudio Castagnoli vs Jigsaw and Sabian
Jigsaw and Sabian were very clearly suffering the effects of the beating they took from The Death Match Kings, but were still able to put up a good fight with Cannon and Castagnoli. A short but good match here, mainly because of the condition that Jigsaw and Sabian were in. However, Cannon ended up faking a re-injury of his collarbone, which distracted Jigsaw and Sabian long enough for them to hit the Glimmering Warlock/Pyramid Bomb combo for the three count. Smart finish- **

The Superfriends (Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush) vs Team Osaka Pro (Ebbesen and Billy Ken Kid)
A great match here from arguably the two best teams in the tournament. Quackenbush and Ebbesen did lots of Ric Flair stuff early on, and had some fun during the feeling out process before things got serious. The action was crisp and quick throughout, and both teams looked really good here, and was also very technically sound as you would expect. Lots of submissions were put to use, including some unique one’s from Quackenbush. But once again, you could see the tension between The Superfriends because of Hero’s change in attitude, but it soon becomes apparent why he’s doing this at the end of the night. The last few minutes were filled with near falls for both teams. The finish saw The Superfriends win when Hero pinned Ebbesen after the Hero’s Welcome. Good, but I liked the Team IWS match better- ***

8 Man Tag Team Match- Team FIST (Gran Akuma and Icarus), Beef Wellington and The Bear vs Lucky, JC Ryder, Anthony Franco and Matt Turner
A fun match, but not as good as the Bear’s tag team matches on Night 2. The wrestling was all pretty solid, with a good mixture of mat wrestling and high flying. Lucky was quite impressive, doing some nice fast paced moves, and it makes me wonder why Chikara didn’t book him after this but did book JC Ryder several times. The Bear wasn’t as funny as he was on Night 2, mainly because he went into hibernation shortly after getting the hot tag. Beef did the Butt Punch (it’s Chikara, so no swearing) on Lucky and JC Ryder at the same time, which turned them inside out. We also saw a seven man Suplex spot with everybody taking damage, and Lucky did an impressive Shooting Star Press to the floor. The finish saw The bear wake up from hibernation, only to be tripped up by Turner, who then locked in the Fujiwara Armbar for the submission- **1/2

10 Man Tag Team Match- Perfect Strangers (Emil Sitoci and Trik Davis), The North Star Express (Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz, Team MPW) and Shane Storm vs ‘Sweet and Sour’ Larry Sweeney, Davey Andrews, Shane Hagadorn and Special K (Cheech and Cloudy)
A decent match, but slightly messy. This match does have the beginning of Eddie Kingston calling Davey Andrews ‘The Animal’ and the start of his obsession with Emil Sitoci’s abs (as in saying “Look at those abs” every two seconds during the rest of his Chikara matches), plus the debut of Cheech and Cloudy who became Chikara regulars after this. There were some good submission spots, including multiple submission holds in the ring at the same time. Davey was really aggressive in this one, just destroying anyone who got him angry, even one of his own partner’s late in the match (although I’m sure it wasn’t intentional). I didn’t like the dive sequence in this one, simply because there wasn’t very much room for them to land, and some of the dives were sloppy. Shane Storm won this for his team by pinning Andrews with That Japanese Move- *3/4

TWGP Finals- The Superfriends (Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush) vs Arik Cannon and Claudio Castagnoli
Well, the final ended up not being about the TWGP tournament, but would end up being all about the formation of The Kings Of Wrestling stable. Most of this match is the working over of Quackenbush by Cannon and Castagnoli, with the crowd really getting into it. When Quackenbush managed to fight back, he made the tag to Hero, who proceeded to turn on him right there and then by hitting him with the Rubix Cube, then Cannon pinned him to win the tournament. To be honest, I didn’t really like this happening in the final, because it sort of wastes the rest of the tournament, but it was a good plan because Hero was able to deny Quackenbush the tournament win he craved right at the end. And couldn’t Hero have just turned on Quackenbush right at the end of the match after some nearfalls rather than right after the hot tag. Anyway, until Hero turned on Quackenbush, this was really good, and would have been the best match of the tournament if it had been a full match- **3/4

Hero cuts a promo after the match explaining his actions, and this promo also begins the formation of the King Of Wrestling stable, the stable that would dominate Chikara all the way to the last show of 2005 before Arik Cannon turned on the group and went on his own path.

The 411: I enjoyed this show about as much as the others, outside of the main event which left a bad taste in my mouth compared with the rest of the tournament. A shame since besides that it was a very fun night of wrestling action. So I would say that Nights 1 and 2 are better because of this.
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]