The Magnus Analysis – Chikara Crushing Weight of Mainstream Ignorance

Chikara presented this show back in 2006, and from previous reviews that I’ve read of this show, it is one that is a good starting place for any new fans to Chikara. So I have high hopes coming into this. Commentary is as always on rotation, with your commentators being Bryce Remsburg, Mike Quackenbush, Chris Hero, Ultramantis Black, Larry Sweeney and Leonard F Chikarason.

We start with a Claudio Castagnoli promo, first talking about his awesome jacket and then saying he will defeat Equinox tonight because he’s 6 foot 5 and Equinox is not. Seems logical enough.

Match 1
‘Double C’ Claudio Castagnoli vs Equinox
A funny little moment at the start of the show see’s the announcer announce Claudio as one half of the Campeon de Parejas, but Claudio doesn’t have his belt so he runs back to the locker room and gets it. With Claudio able to have great matches with just about any light-heavyweight, this was pretty good stuff, and about the best singles match I’ve seen Equinox have. Claudio wrestled with a power style, throwing Equinox around (at one point throwing him right over the top rope to the floor), while Equinox fought back with lucha moves (he wasn’t botching a lot of moves tonight like he usually does) and came close to pinning Claudio near the end. However Claudio would win this via pinfall with a big European Uppercut- ***

We got a promo with The Order Of The Neo Solar Temple, where Ultramantis talks about being betrayed by Hallowicked who decide to team with Delirious, then says that tonight he and Hydra will crush the ants. Ultramantis’s promo’s have improved quite a bit since the last one that I saw in 2005.

Match 2
The Order Of The Neo Solar Temple (Ultramantis Black and Hydra) vs The Colony (Fire Ant and Soldier Ant)
This is Ultramantis Black and Hydra’s first match as a tag team. Hydra’s whole gimmick is that he think he’s a huge, powerful sea monster and can throw wrestlers around the ring, but in reality he’s very small and can’t lift either of his opponents. The match was decent, but nothing that memorable and the weakest of the matches on this show, not to mention the four men (well, maybe not Ultramantis) are lacking seasoning and some of their moves are a little sloppy. The Colony were impressive at times though, with some nice double team moves. Ultramantis Black would pin Fire Ant with a Tiger Driver ’98 for the three count- **

Match 3
Lance Steel vs Lance Steel
That’s not a typo, this is the good Lance Steel vs the evil Lance Steel, and I can already tell that’s it’s going to be hard to keep track of which Lance Steel is which, and the fans have near no idea who to boo after the opening bell since they are the same person (in storyline terms of course). I think the evil one is the yellow booted Lance Steel and the red booted one is the technico. Looking past the face that Lance Steel is wrestling himself, this was a good, fun match in the old school style of good vs evil although the crowd were pretty much dead (for obvious reasons as they didn’t know who to cheer for), and there was some great counter wrestling near the end. The finish was smart, as the evil Lance Steel brought a chair into the ring, then when Bryce Remsburg put it outside of the ring he switched places with the good Lance Steel so Bryce lectured the wrong man, and this distracted him long enough for the evil version to lock in the Boston Crab for the submission- **3/4

Match 4
Up In Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy) vs North Star Express (Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz)
Two of the indy scene’s most impressive young tag teams here, and this was some good tag team action. Not everything was crisp and fluent but these two teams are growing in team skill and do a lot of nice double team moves. Not to mention that there was some very good high flying, high impact wrestling here too, and the match got especially good towards the end. The North Star Express would come out on top when Cruz pins Cheech after the Cruz Control (not his finisher, the double team finisher of the NSE)- ***

After the match, the two teams shake hands, a sign of Up In Smoke turning from rudos to technicos.

Eddie Kingston cuts a promo, saying that Larry Sweeney broke an unwritten rule of pro wrestling when he tried to end his career at the YLC, and then asks the question as to whether Sweeney is ready to face his rage in their match.

Match 5
‘The King Of Diamonds’ Eddie Kingston vs ‘Sweet and Sour’ Larry Sweeney
A good, smartly worked match that told a good story as Kingston was injured from the previous show after being choked over the top rope by Sweeney, so Sweeney worked over the throat and neck during the match effectively. When Sweeney got too cocky and started disrespecting Kingston, it cost him as Kingston fought back with hard hitting moves. After Sweeney looked to have the match won with a Piledriver (working on that neck), Kingston escaped and after countering a second Piledriver he rolled up Sweeney for the three count. This was about the best way to advance the feud in my opinion- ***1/4

Next the good lance Steel comes out and challenges the evil Lance Steel to a Loser Leaves the Present match.

Chris Hero cuts a promo, saying that he’s the best worker in the world and a king, and despite Shane Storm being a hard worker he’s just a peasant compared with him and he will win tonight.

Shane Storm and Jigsaw then cut a promo, saying that tonight Jigsaw will be taking Icarus’s hair, while he will be battling Chris hero. Before he can go any further Arik Cannon comes in and asks if he can team with them in a six man tag next month (they were going to ask Quack, typical).

Match 6
Chris Hero vs Shane Storm
A great match, with Hero basically schooling Storm in the way that he controlled this match at times, although when Storm was able to get in his moves he looked great and Hero made Storm look like he could beat him. Hero wrestled a hard hitting and technical style, and this was a fine example of how good Hero can be. Storm was very much the underdog, fighting back when he could with high flying lucha moves, and came close with a few near falls. Hero would win it with a rollup after a knockout forearm- ***1/2

Mike Quackenbush is next to cut a promo, saying that tonight he starts his hunting down of the Kings of Wrestling, and he will be starting with Gran Akuma. He says the Kings of Wrestling are no longer the hunters but the hunted.

Match 7
Gran Akuma vs ‘Lightning’ Mike Quackenbush
A match that I was really looking forward to here with two of my favourite wrestlers. Quackenbush used lots of his crisp lucha style offense, while Akuma worked over the back of Sweeney with hard hitting moves, strikes and submissions. The result was a very good match with good psychology and crisp and believable offense. Akuma used a lot of big moves near the end, but could not put Quack away, and this would come back to haunt him as Quackenbush would pin Akuma with the Quackenbush Driver 3 (QD3)- ***1/4

Match 8
Young Lions Cup- ‘The Anarchist’ Arik Cannon vs Jon Moxley
Cannon’s gimmick in Chikara is that he yells “Oh Yeah” like in the Kool-Aid adverts. It’s as annoying as it sounds, but it doesn’t take away from the wrestling since he doesn’t do it all that often. The match ended up being fun, but I’ll admit that I’ve seen better Young Lions Cup matches before. This match was fairly slow and mat based, using lots of submission and strikes as well as lots of playing to the crowd from both men. The match ended with Arik Cannon retaining with the Glimmering Warlock. Despite being quite impressive, Jon Moxley was never seen in Chikara again past this show- **1/2

Icarus cuts a promo saying that he’s already taken one of Jigsaw’s masks, and says that Jigsaw shouldn’t be worried about his mask being taken, he should be worried about his career being ended.

Match 9
Hair vs Mask Match- Icarus w/Gran Akuma vs Jigsaw w/Shane Storm
It’s Icarus’s hair vs Jigsaw’s mask in this match. This match was great and also quite long, being given significant time to build. Personally I would have taken five minutes or so off of it, but with our without it the match was still very good. We saw lots of matwork and submission wrestling to go alongside the high flying, plus with the stipulation this had the big match feel and made it that little bit more special than the usual match that these two would have with each other. The match got very hot near the end with both men kicking out of each others finishers, and Jigsaw being attacked on the outside by Gran Akuma, nearly getting counted out but still coming back in at 19. Jigsaw would eventually win the match with a second rope Jig N’Tonic. Excellent main event match overall- ***3/4

After the match, Icarus tries to run away, but when he goes the one way, Jolly Rodger comes back and stops him, then when he try’s to go the other way Mister Zero returns and stops him. He finally gets put in the chair and has his hair shaven off. Gran Akuma takes him to the back but then Mike Quackenbush takes him back. He has a ton more cut off before going to the back again.

The 411: This is a really good all round Chikara event. There is not a single match here that i would say is bad or awful, but at the same time I would say that there's no MOTY candidates or anything like that. In many ways you could call it Chikara's version of Manhatten Mayhem. Either way, if your a new fan to Chikara and need to see an event that will sell you on the company straight away, this would be it. Highly recommended.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]