The Magnus Analysis – Chikara Anniversario Blue

Chikara brought the first of it’s three Anniversario events to Reading PA on May 20th 2005. These were to celebrate the three years that Chikara had been around at that point (now four years and going strong). Commentary is done by Eddie Kingston, Larry Sweeney, Allison Danger and Bryce Remsburg.

We start with a great 7 minute music video highlighting the best bits of Chikara over the three years. This video is on all three of the Anniversario events.

Chikara’s Director Of Fun Leonard F Chikarason came out to start the show and basically thanked the fans for supporting Chikara over the three years.

Darkness Crabtree vs Equinox
This is Equinox’s Chikara debut, it seems like everybody debuts against Darkness Crabtree. To be honest, he’s not the best wrestler to debut against. Barring a few sloppy spots, Equinox was pretty impressive. He was largely in control, and pinned Crabtree with a Shooting Star Press. Way too short- *1/4

Dark Breed (Hallowicked and Ultramantis Black) vs Kabuki Kid and Kanjyouru Matsuyama
Kabuki Kid is from DDT in Japan, and Matsuyama is from Toryumon X. An interesting tag match, especially because neither team seemed to be able to speak English, and this made the match quite entertaining. It was also a good, high flying vs mat wrestling match. The Dark Breed came up with some unique submissions, while the Japanese team looked very impressive with the lucha style moves they used. However, there was a little bit of sloppiness as well. The finish saw Matsuyama accidentally spit mist into his partner’s face, then Ultramantis rolled him up for the three count- **1/2

NOTE: I don’t usually comment on promo’s, but I needed to here because this promo began the problems within the Kings Of Wrestling. The Kings Of Wrestling cut a promo backstage, with Chris Hero commenting on how Arik Cannon hasn’t gotten any wins lately, then tells him to either destroy Sabian or he doesn’t know what’ll happen to him.

Arik Cannon vs Sabian
Note the feud continuality as Kingston doesn’t root for Sabian because of the storyline in CZW at the time. A good match, with Sabian wrestling a high flying, high impact style while Cannon mixed hard hitting strikes with mat wrestling. Cannon did some very unique submissions in this one, and wrestled a slow, methodical style. Sabian fought back with that fast paced offense, getting a near fall with a Top Rope Double Stomp. Cannon won this though with the Glimmering Warlock after a Saito Suplex. An impressive match- ***1/4

Dr Cheung vs Niles Young
The debut of Dr Cheung here, and he didn’t impress me at all. He wasn’t all that bad, but nothing above average. Young was also pretty average, so this match was just about there, and nothing else. There was some good, solid action in this at times though. Dr Cheung won this with the yes, you guessed it, Doctor Bomb- *1/4

‘The Animal’ Davey Andrews vs Anthony Franco
The third of the matches in the ROH Students Round Robin Challenge. Another good match in this tournament, with Davey again just beating the hell out of his opponent. This was very hard hitting, with Franco throwing some good strikes and keeping up with Davey in terms of the strikes. We also saw some good matwork in this as well, which is what you’d expect from the fundamentally sound ROH students, but were a bit sloppy at times as well. The time limit expired on this match, so it was a draw- **

NOTE: The microphone that announcer Carolina Jim had stopped working, so he now had to shout out the introductions for the next match instead. Eddie Kingston seemed pleased on commentary.

Team FIST (Gran Akuma and Icarus) vs Men At Work (Shane Storm and Mister Zero)
This was a suprisingly and disappointingly short match, but storyline wise this was very important, you’ll find out why after the match. Yes, this is the match where Team FIST turned into rudos. This was good while it lasted, and they looked to be building to a good, long match, but then it suddenly ended with Storm pinning Icarus with a Inside Cradle- *3/4

After the match, Team FIST left without shaking hands.

We then cut to intermission where Team FIST come back out to shake the hands of Men At Work. But this just leads to them attacking Men At Work, turning into fully fledged rudos. Icarus hits Mister Zero with a Spinning Pedigree from the corner, taking him out of Chikara until the Torneo Cibernetico, and this starts Shane Storm’s push to the top of the promotion.
The next night, Icarus would join the Kings Of Wrestling along with Gran Akuma, and thus everything in Chikara changed for the better.

NOTE: The stipulations for the next match are as follows. If Sweet and Sour International lose, then they have to wear diapers. If Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy lose, then Allison Danger becomes Larry Sweeney’s slave for a month.

One thing I didn’t like was the fact that Larry Sweeney cuts a promo backstage about this match, then when he comes out to the ring he proceeds to cut an almost exact carbon copy of the promo. At least change it up a little bit.

Oh, and Carolina Jim had a new microphone that was plugged into the wall because of the problems with the last one, and yes there were problems with this one as well.

Sweet and Sour International (Larry Sweeney and The Sharecropper) vs Knight Eye For The Pirate Guy (Lance Steel and Jolly Rodger) w/ Allison Danger
This was good, a nice way to end this long standing feud. There was lots of funny verbal interactions between Allison Danger and the Sweet and Sour International team, and we saw some comedy in this now and again. Besides that, we saw KEFTPG do high flying, lucha offense (a little sloppy at times), while SASI slowed down the pace with basic offense and used some underhanded moves. Despite the good wrestling action, and near falls at the end, it was painfully obvious who was winning this match. After Sweeney accidentally hat his own partner with a huge chain (the biggest chain in wrestling history, seriously), Steel pinned Sharecropper to win the match, meaning Sweet and Sour International must wear diapers at the next event- **3/4

2/3 Falls Match- Skayde vs Nebula
A good lucha match between the experienced veteran and the young Mexican prospect. Again, a mixture of great matwork and high flying, with some nice submissions and chain wrestling. Just a really solid lucha match and nothing more. The first fall went to Nebula by submission with a Rolling Surfboard into a Mexican Stretch submission that made Skayde tap. Skayde equalised in the second fall with a very unique submission, almost like a Reverse STF/Cattle Mutilation combo, that got Nebula to tap. The final fall went to Skayde as he got the pinfall with the Skayde Special- ***

The Kings Of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) vs Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush
A slight variation on the match from last month, with Chris Hero replacing Arik Cannon. Anyway, a great main event tag team match, as Chikara continues to show it can have more than just great 6 and 8 man tags. The Kings Of Wrestling spent their time isolating Jigsaw with submissions and hard hitting strikes, while Jigsaw and Quackenbush wrestled a quick style, using lucha moves and high flying. Quackenbush really brought the fire in this one, especially after getting the hot tag where he just unloaded on both opponents. The KOW got a near fall with a UBS Neckbreaker/Sitout Facebuster combo, and Jigsaw and Quackenbush got a near fall with an inverted version of the Doomsday Device. Arik Cannon ran in though to cause a DQ, meaning a win for Jigsaw and Quackenbush- ***1/2

After the match, Arik Cannon unmasked Jigsaw, before RECKLESS YOUTH ran out to make the save, revealing himself as the mystery partner for the big six man tag at the very next Anniversario show (he had to do it without the microphone, which wasn’t working again).

The 411: I enjoyed this Chikara event, the wrestling was of a good standard throughout the night. Not only do you have three good matches in the main event tag, the Cannon/Sabian match and the 2/3 falls match, but there also a fun little Chikara vs Japan Indys tag, the emergence of Team FIST as rudos and a decent tag match involving the splitting of SASI. Plus you get to see Larry Sweeney in a diaper. What more do you need. If your a Chikara fan or want an introduction to the product, then get this show.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]