Contemplating CHIKARA 03.14.09: An Idiot’s Guide

Hello everyone! I am Kevin Ford, formerly a writer of the now defunct Cool Kids Table website. Over there, I was there “CHIKARA guy”, so to speak, posting bi-monthly columns and a weekly DVD review. After a few months off, I have a found a new home here at 411, and I am very thankful for them welcoming me aboard. You can expect a weekly CHIKARA column every Saturday from now on, and a plethora of CHIKARA DVD reviews starting next month.

For a first time column, it was tough for me to figure out what to write about. I decided to leave any and all talk of the humongous King of Trios tournament coming up at the end of March for next week’s column. This left me in kind of a rut, because I began having difficulty coming up with a column for this week. Suddenly, I decided that I would re-do one of the most requested columns I did over at the Cool Kids Table: An Idiot’s Guide to CHIKARA.

The fact that a guide to CHIKARA was requested by the readers isn’t surprising. CHIKARA is unlike any other independent wrestling promotion out there. Most independents seem to have the same cut and dry rules as American pro wrestling has always had. Seeing as CHIKARA is founded on the rules of Lucha Libre (and to some extent, Puroresu), and has a reputation for being quite wacky, it’s no wonder most people have difficulty understanding or getting into it. My goal today, is to lay out the ground work CHIKARA to give you, the reader, a greater understanding of the company.

Before I go any further, I MUST pimp CHIKARA Fans. A good man by the name Dan Lowth puts a ton of work into the website. There, you can find bios of each and every member of the main CHIKARA roster, results of past shows, title histories, etc. So go to CHIKARA Fans for really intricate information; it’s your best friend and a great companion.

An Introduction

Vince McMahon purchased WCW and ECW in 2001, becoming the only main player in the professional wrestling world. WCW was considered by most to be a worse version of WWF in its dying days, but ECW was a different story. ECW offered something completely different than both the WWF and WCW. It was raunchier, more violent, and it also gave a stage for many to put on lengthy professional wrestling clinics, something the WWF and WCW traded in for sports entertainment long ago. With ECW gone, it left a niche that people wanted filled.

Roughly a year later, many independent professional wrestling companies started up to fill this niche. Companies such as Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla fulfilled the wrestling element fans wanted, while companies such as Combat Zone Wrestling and Xtreme Pro Wrestling (who existed prior to the WWF’s buy out) fulfilled the hardcore and ultraviolent elements fans wanted. While these companies (and most other United States pro wrestling groups) seemed to be offshoots of ECW, two wrestlers decided they didn’t want to end up like every other U.S. independent company.

Tom Carter (known as Reckless Youth) and Michael Spillane (known as Mike Quackenbush) had grown weary of the countless cookie cutter wrestling companies across the nation. Tom was in the WWF’s farm system, until he decided he didn’t like the travel the WWF demanded. Mike was a well-traveled pro wrestler, trained in England, Mexico, and the United States, and wanted something new. These two men then started CHIKARA Pro Wrestling.

What made CHIKARA so different? Instead of focusing on the American wrestling style, they wanted to incorporate Lucha Libre (Mexican style) and Puroresu (Japanese style) into their company while also hosting a cast of wacky characters. Quack and Carter wanted to make pro wrestling fun again, not taking themselves too seriously (which some companies most definitely do). Based out of Pennsylvania, the company started running shows in Allentown, Palo Alto, and Emmaus. Carter eventually left to become a full time accountant and to take care of his family, leaving Quackenbush in full control. While it seemed like Carter’s leave was the nail in the coffin, the company went on. While it struggled for many years, its fan base grew and grew as people saw its differences as big time positives. CHIKARA became home for some wrestlers you couldn’t see anywhere else, and the start of some wrestlers careers. Guys like Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Larry Sweeney, and Eddie Kingston thank CHIKARA for making them the pro wrestling juggernauts they have become. CHIKARA grew to running more shows in Pennsylvania such as Barnesville, Hellertown, Reading, and even reaching the Mecca of pro wrestling in Pennsylvania: The Arena (ECW arena, New Alhambra arena, etc.) in Philadelphia. In the past year, CHIKARA has branched out of Pennsylvania to New England, the Midwest, and Oberhausen, Germany. Indeed it is safe to say that CHIKARA has made great strides in its six (almost seven) years of existence, and will continue to be a force in independent wrestling for years to come.

The CHIKARA Wrestle Factory

In addition to being a wrestling promotion, CHIKARA started out as wrestling school out of Allentown, PA headed by Tom Carter and Mike Quackenbush. Both Carter and Quackenbush trained the first class consisting of current CHIKARA mainstays Icarus, Ultramantis Black, Hallowicked, and CHIKARA veterans Mr. Zero and Dragonfly. The first term was the only term Tom Carter taught, as on the first day of the second term, Carter told Quackenbush he was leaving and Quack had till the end of the day to decide what to do. Quack gathered around his students, some of which included CHIKARA mainstays Jigsaw, Eddie Kingston, Gran Akuma, Bryce Remsburg, and asked what they wanted to do. The students and Quack decided they were going to persevere and keep CHIKARA in full force. Quackenbush taught the third and fourth terms by himself (training Shane Storm in the fourth), and was joined by Jorge “Skayde” Rivera in the fifth. Chris Hero joined as a trainer in the sixth term, in which both Tim Donst and Hydra were trained. The seventh term saw CHIKARA join forces with the CZW Wrestling School, which Quack, Hero, and Skayde all trained. Hero (but not Skayde) trained in both the eighth and ninth sessions, but by the end of 2007, Chris Hero had become so overwhelmingly busy that he stepped down as co-head trainer. Since then, Claudio Castagnoli and Mike Quackenbush have been the head trainers of the school. Other names to come out of the Wrestle Factory include Larry Sweeney, Vin Gerard, The Colony, Lince Dorado, Ultimo Breakfast, The Osirian Portal, and Frightmare. Quackenbush has stated while much outside talent is booked for CHIKARA, he feels a sense of obligation to his students first and foremost. Many CHIKARA Wrestle Factory students have gone on to great success in outside promotions, and the school is considered one of the best options for training in the United States. The Wrestle Factory is currently located at The Arena in Philadelphia, PA.

The Rules

CHIKARA matches can be won in the style of your basic pro wrestling match: pinfall, submission, count out, or disqualification. In CHIKARA, a disqualification is rendered immediately if a wrestler intentionally takes off the mask of their opponent, or fouls (low blows) their opponent. Although rare, a referee can call for “castigo excesivo” (excessive punishment) in which a wrestler is no longer attempting to win the match, but rather trying to injure or harm their opponent. CHIKARA also utilizes a twenty count on the floor, much like most Lucha Libre or Puroresu opponents. Finally, in tag matches, a legal tag is recognized by tagging a partner, or leaving the ring and touching the floor. For example, were you to baseball slide out of the ring and touch the floor, that would count as a legal tag under CHIKARA’s system of rules.

Championships

The first of the championships in CHIKARA is the Campeonatos de Parejas (Tag Team Champions). The first champions were the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli), who won the belts by winning the 2006 Tag World Grand Prix. Tag Team title shots are not easy to obtain in CHIKARA. In order to become a challenger for the Campeonatos de Parejas, a tag team must accumulate 3 “points”. This means that a tag team must win 3 CHIKARA sanctioned tag team matches in a row. If you win two matches (accumulating 2 points) and lose a third, then you must start all over again. This gives the challengers to all title matches a sense of legitimacy. The current Campeonatos de Parejas are the The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian)

The other championship in CHIKARA is the Young Lions Cup. Current regulations say that any wrestler aged 25 or younger is eligible to challenge for the Cup. The Cup is decided annually at the Young Lions Cup tournament, and the current champion vacates the Cup when the tournament comes around. The Cup is defended throughout the year up to the tournament. The only two wrestlers to win the Cup in a tournament and not lose it before the next tournament are Hallowicked and Shane Storm. Until September, the rule was that once a wrestler held the Cup, they were no longer eligible to challenge for it. However, Leonard F. Chikarason stated that while you can’t enter the Young Lions Cup tournament anymore after holding the cup, challenging for the Cup is legal. The current Young Lions Cup champion is Equinox.

Tournaments

While CHIKARA has very few official titles, they hold many tournaments that can be just as important as holding a title. Here’s a list of CHIKARA’s tournaments:

Tag World Grand Prix/King of Trios: Simply put, these are tournaments of either tag teams or trios teams (respectively) that compete in a single elimination tournament. The tournament serves as a point to push wrestlers or reward tag team title shots (in Tag World’s instance).

Young Lions Cup Tournament: Held annually in the month of June, the Young Lions Cup tournament is a single elimination tournament of wrestlers aged 25 or younger. The winner becomes the new Young Lions Cup champion.

Torneo Cibernetico: As quoted from Wikipedia: “The match is a 16-man elimination tag team match consisting of 2 teams of 8. It uses standard Lucha Libre tag-team rules with elimination occurring with a pinfall, submission, disqualification and count out. A special ‘batting’ system is also used in which the wrestlers are given a specific order and may only tag in and out in this order. If two or more men from the same team remain, they must face each other to determine one individual winner.” CHIKARA usually has each team captained by rivals, such as Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush, Lince Dorado and Mitch Ryder, and most recently, Vin Gerard and Jimmy Olsen/Equinox. The winner of the Torneo Cibernetico usually garners a significant amount of recognition throughout their CHIKARA tenure.

Rey de Voladores: Translated, this means “King of the High-Fliers”. Two four man elimination matches are held, and the winners face off to determine that years Rey de Voladores. The eight men involved in the two elimination matches usually have quite the high flying acumen to them (obviously). Previous winners include Chuck Taylor and Incognito.

La Lotería Letal: A brand new (and potential one time only) tournament in 2008, this is translated to mean “The Lethal Lottery”. The rules of the Lethal Lottery work exactly like the WCW version. A pool of wrestlers are randomly paired into teams and put into a single elimination tournament. In 2008, the winners gained enough points to receive a shot at the Campeonatos de Parejas.

Other

Create-A-Wrestler Contest: Every year, CHIKARA holds the “Create-A-Wrestler Contest” in which fans submit their ideas for a wrestler, including an illustration. The winning entrant will be portrayed by CHIKARA Wrestle Factory student, Create-A-Wrestler, for roughly one year. The winner in 2007 was Moscow, and the 2008 winner was Ultimo Breakfast. Currently, the 2009 Create-A-Wrestler contest is in effect, and will be until the month of May. Go to chikarapro.com for more details.

The CHIKARA Special: CHIKARA has a finisher named after itself known as the “CHIKARA Special”. It was originated by Mike Quackenbush, who used the hold to submit Chris Hero to end their 27 month long feud in May of 2007 at “Aniversario?” Since then, graduates of the CHIKARA Wrestle Factory have used it in CHIKARA and CZW to win many big time matches. The CHIKARA Special is also the reason Equinox unmasked to become Vin Gerard and Shane Storm was excommunicated from the Tecnicos. There is a very well written history of the CHIKARA Special over at CHIKARA Fans.

Luchas de Apuestas: Translated to mean “Matches with Wagers”. The most common types of matches CHIKARA has had of these types are Mascara contra Mascara (Mask versus Mask) or Mascara contra Cabellera (Mask versus Hair). Six of these matches have occurred in CHIKARA. Icarus (then known as Ichabod Slayne), Gran Akuma, and Vin Gerard (then known as Equinox) were all unmasked thanks to these types of matches.

Hopefully after reading this, you have a much better understanding of the world of CHIKARA at large. Of course, there may be some things I have missed, so feel free to ask any further questions you may have. I appreciate you guys taking the time out to read this, and hopefully this has acclimated some of you to the wacky, yet oh so wonderful word, of CHIKARA professional wrestling.

What to expect from this column in the future

As one would would expect, this column will cover on the current happenings in CHIKARA land. This includes general news, news about upcoming shows, DVD releases, podcasts, and whatever else I feel like posting. I am also interested in hearing what you, the readers want out of this column. If there is anything in particular you want to see from the column in the future, please feel free to comment. Every idea will at the very least be taken into consideration.

Thanks everyone for reading the first edition of Contemplating CHIKARA. I’ll see you in seven for the skinny on the largest pro wrestling tournament of 2009 (in terms of sheer participants), and potentially CHIKARA’s biggest shows of the year: King of Trios!