That Was Then, Is This Too? 11.17.09: CHIKARA Special Edition

Welcome to yet another installment of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. As usual, we have comments:

Why does everybody talk about the Smackdown 6. It was clearly the Smackdown 5 + Chavo.

Chavo did nothing…NOTHING. He was just a way to get Eddie into the tag title hunt, thus feuding against the other 4.

All 5 of the others, you an rattle out at least 4 superb matches they had in 2002. Can you name 1 Chavo one?

Posted By: Loki (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 08:53 AM

It’s sad that Chavo only seems to be remembered for the comedy stuff. He more than held his own both as part of the tag division in 2002 and part of the cruiserweight division in 2003. One recent example of what a vicious little wrestler he can be is his match against Evan Bourne on ECW television last year, where he not only worked some incredibly painful holds, but also busted out the rolling Liger kick.

Had it not been for Benoit’s horrific actions, I’m sure we would all have a Smackdown Six DVD.

Posted By: Geoff (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 02:08 PM

Somehow I doubt that. It would certainly have made the recent Allied Powers DVD just a little bit better though.

Didn’t Edge have his Rob Zombie music?? I remember him having the music until around 2003. He had it when he fought Guerrero in that excellent match they had on Smackdown in a No Dq match.

Posted By: Ja (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 02:35 PM

Edge did use Rob Zombie music, roughly from his first singles run in 2001 until 2003.

Great column. Another SD era I think was great but never gets credit was after WM 22 to Judgment Day. It was a really short time period but I remember seeing great stuff from MNM, Londrick, Mysterio, Angle, Benoit, and Orton from that time. Mysterio’s first month as champ was pretty good when he defended the belt against Angle and Orton on SD! but when JBL came into the title picture things began to suck. The awesome Benoit/JBL Cage match. They even brought back King of the Ring that was pretty awesome and had some very good matches. Hell I even enjoyed Mark Henry to an extent and didn’t mind his feud with Angle leading up to JD that year. But yeah that’s just a small era of SD! I enjoy watching from time to time. I know it’s not better than both SmackDown 6’s but I still enjoyed that time of SD.

Posted By: Klossing (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 03:54 PM

I think that period will always be tainted by the absolutely horrid booking of Rey Mysterio as world heavyweight champion. The stuff with MNM and London and Kendrick was great though.

Meth Hardy is not now nor was ever part of the new SmackDown Six. That spot belongs to Dolph Ziggler. Any good match Jeff had was one in which he was carried.

Take your blinders and glow-in-the-dark wrist bands off, people.

Posted By: Tom Talker (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 05:29 PM

I think that Hardy has more than proven his worth as not just a crash test dummy but as a regular singles wrestler too. It started with great singles performances against Triple H late in 2007, and he only got better from there, both in the ring and on the mic.

Bottom line is the SmackDown Six in 2002-03 is the single greatest time of televised wrestling in the modern era. Not the cruiserweights of WCW in 1996-98, or late 2000, not the pure wrestling in ’95 ECW, and not even the second coming of the SmackDown Six this year.

The brilliance of the Original Six (your feelings on Chavo’s inclusion notwithstanding) was that as 2003 came around the term came to include the likes of Rhyno, Lesnar, TWGTT, Tajiri, Noble, and Nunzio, further expanding SmackDown’s awesomeness.

Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on November 13, 2009 at 04:09 PM

Smackdown was still good in 2003, but it definitely wasn’t as strong as 2002, especially on PPV. They still had some brilliant moments though, such as the US championship tournament and Angle/Benoit at the Royal Rumble.

That leads us to banner! 2.0!

Of all the bookers currently active, Mike Quackenbush has to be one of my favourites. Over the years CHIKARA has evolved into a company that perfectly mixes Lucha Libre traditions with American story lines and match psychology. Not only that, but he seems to be one of the last bookers around that understands the art of truly long term booking. Seemingly random storylines always eventually seem to come together in a complicated yet compelling whole that can stretch out for years. A great example of this is Delirious’ current involvement with the Order of the Neo Solar Temple. Even though Delirious only turned heel this summer, the seeds for this turn were sewn all the way back in late 2005, when Delirious first came into the company to form Incoherence with Hallowicked, who was without a partner due to Ultramantis Black suffering from a severe injury.

One such extended storyline involves the CHIKARA Special, a move first used by Mike Quackenbush himself to defeat former tag partner Chris Hero, putting an end to their feud which lasted for almost two and a half years. As a plot device, the CHIKARA Special has since been involved in two heel turns and three face turns. As a hold, it has been responsible for a CZW tag team championship win, an IWA-MS Ted Petty Invitational win, a CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix win and a Torneo Cibernetico win.

The CHIKARA Special seems to borrow heavily from various complicated submission moves that have become the standard in Lucha Libre, although similar moves have since become popular in Japan, mainly through the influence of Último Dragón and the students of his Toryumon Dojo. The move is applied to a wrestler lying on their back by standing over their chest, wrapping the left leg around their head, grabbing their left arm and right leg, twisting them together against the chest. When applied properly, the hold applies pressure to the neck and the ankle, knee, wrist, elbow and shoulder joints.

The most recent chapter in the history of the CHIKARA Special was written at this year’s Cibernetico Incredible show, where enigmatic rookie Carpenter Ant made his Colony stable mate Soldier Ant submit to a never before seen inverted variation, which looks pretty similar to the traditional version, but with the recieving wrestler positioned face down rather than face up. After the match Carpenter Ant was immediately confronted by CHIKARA head trainer Mike Quackenbush, who demanded to know where Carpenter Ant learned this variation of “his” hold. Carpenter Ant blew him off, informing his trainer that he’d be surprised what Carpenter Ant knows.

All this only fuels further speculation about the mysteries surrounding The Colony’s newest member. Carpenter Ant made his debut at Anniversario Yang, aiding Fire Ant and Soldier Ant in the big mask vs. hair match against Team F.I.S.T., but wasn’t seen again until this year’s Young Lions Cup tournament, leading fellow rookie Green Ant to question his loyalties. Since then Carpenter Ant has made limited appearances in the ring, but when he does wrestle he certainly doesn’t look like a rookie. Part of this might be due to Mike Quackenbush’s excellent training, but even that doesn’t explain some of the moves and counters he’s been able to pull out.

And then there’s the many times that, during backstage promos, Carpenter Ant went well beyond confidence and straight into the realm of the prophetic. A great example of this was the Colony’s pre-match pep-talk at Hiding In Plain Sight, where Fire Ant and Soldier Ant were scheduled to challenge the Osirian Portal for the Campeonatas de Parejas. While the other ants were understandably nervous, Carpenter Ant was the only one who didn’t seem to care at all, seeming absolutely certain that they would be successful this time around.

So once again Mike Quackenbush has managed to book a compelling storyline that could, in the long run, completely rescape the CHIKARA landscape as we currently know it. I have to wonder though, how does this chapter fit in the saga of the CHIKARA Special?

That Was Then…

As I said in my opening paragraphs, the CHIKARA Special was first applied by Mike Quackenbush on Chris Hero in the main event of 2007’s Anniversario? show. The move put an end to their feud, which had been raging since Hero turned on Quackenbush at the 2005 World Grand Prix. Hero had not only been Quackenbush’s partner, but also the co-trainer at the CHIKARA Wrestle Factory, which meant that Hero knew all about Quackenbush’s many holds and throws.

To overcome this problem, Quackenbush busted out his secret weapon, the CHIKARA Special. The plan worked, and Hero was finally put away for good. To add insult to injury, Quackenbush began to teach the hold to other wrestlers, both faces and heels and even Hero’s tag team partners, and soon one of the top wrestlers in CHIKARA found himself suffering a string of embarrassing losses, even at the hands of glorified jobber Equinox.

The losses to Equinox stung especially, and Hero sought to reclaim his honor in a hair vs. mask match. The match seemed to be over when Equinox once again applied the CHIKARA Special. To everybody’s surprise however, Hero managed to counter the hold and apply it on Equinox, winning the match and Equinox’ mask, exposing Equinox as Vin Gerard, a CHIKARA Wrestle Factory reject who made his way into the business by blackmailing Jorge “Skayde” Rivera.

With Hero’s mistery came a startling realization for Mike Quackenbush: Someone had betrayed his trust and taken away the one weapon the rest of the roster had against the tyrannical Chris Hero. After eight months of searching Quackenbush found the answer in young rookie Tim Donst. After several suspicious comments by Ultramantis Black, Quackenbush came up with a plan for Donst to infiltrate the Order of the Neo Solar Temple.

The plan worked, and the traitor was revealed at night two of the 2008 Young Lions Cup. To Mike Quackenbush’s horror, the man who had sold out the entire company was none other than long time tag partner and close friend Shane Storm. It was revealed that Storm had given up the secret of the hold to Ultramantis Black in return for Black’s help in ending the extended losing streak that Storm had been on for most of the year.

Quackenbush lashed out at Storm with unprecedented fury, losing their first singles match after he refused to release the CHIKARA Special after Storm’s submission. With no friends left in the company, Storm turned to fellow traitor Vin Gerard for comfort, transforming into the diabolical STIGMA, one of the fiercest monsters on the CHIKARA roster.

Gerard and STIGMA would complete their UnStable stable by teaming with Colin Delaney, the former Colin Olson, who had made his return to the company as the Extremely Cute Wrestler. This drew the ire of Delaney’s brother Jimmy, who took up the mask of Equinox, repeatedly beating Gerard with the help of the CHIKARA Special and eventually beating Gerard for his Young Lions Cup at this year’s Revelation X show in the company’s very first ladder match.

…Is This Too?

At this point, the history of the CHIKARA Special stretches back over four years, from the start of the Mike Quackenbush/Chris Hero feud to the current state of affairs. It has led to a seemingly endless stream of triumph and treachery, dividing old friends and uniting unlikely allies. It caused the breakup of the Kings of Wrestling, the most dominating heel stable in CHIKARA history, united Tim Donst with Hydra in the team of the Sea Donsters, and permanently drove apart Mike Quackenbush and Shane Storm.

And now it seems that the newest chapter in the story of the hold is being written by the mysterious young Carpenter Ant, who surprised friend and foe by winning this year’s Torneo Cibernetico with the inverted CHIKARA Special, a move not even Mike Quackenbush, the master of a thousand holds himself has used. With every passing show, the mystery surrounding Carpenter Ant grows, leaving the CHIKARMY to wonder where Carpenter Ant has found his knowledge.

One of the most disturbing aspects about this new inverted CHIKARA Special is that it seems to be impossible to counter. While the original CHIKARA Special could easily be countered by kicking the wrestler applying the move in the head with the free leg, the inverted variation seems to leave no room at all for the recieving wrestler to break free.

This leaves Quackenbush, and the rest of the CHIKARA roster, in a very awkward position, as the young upstart ant, who so far has shown very little regard for authority in general and his superior Soldier Ant in particular, carries a seemingly invincible weapon. Only time will tell how Carpenter Ant ends up using his newfound power. After all, the original CHIKARA Special was a weapon shared by the entire CHIKARA roster against Chris Hero. However, if Carpenter Ant decides to turn against the rest of the Colony, it seems that the only hope to find a counter lies with Mike Quackenbush.

The history of the CHIKARA Special