Contemplating CHIKARA 8.22.09: And The Winner Is…

Oh lordy, it’s like I am on training wheels here at Contemplating CHIKARA. Two weeks off. It was much needed though, but I am happy to be back. Today we’ll talk Young Lions Cup results, matches announced for CHIKARA’s New England return, DGUSA in Chicago, and yes…finally the DVD contest winner will be announced! So let’s get to it.

Young Lions Cup VII results; Player Dos wins the Young Lions Cup!

Another Young Lions Cup tournament has come and gone and it seems to have been a great success. Lots of debuts, news, and other such ballyhoo occurred during the weekend. But at the end of the day, Player Dos toppled the rest to become Young Lions Cup Champion by defeating Colin Delaney in the finals on Night 3. One must wonder what will happen with him and his perennial tag partner Player Uno now that he holds singles gold, but that will obviously be unraveled in the future.

Here are the results for the weekend courtesy of The CHIKARA official website:

Night One:
First Round: Brendan Michael Thomas def. Frightmare with a Low Cross Body.
First Round: Hydra def. Tim Donst with a Front Bridge
First Round: Dasher Hatfield def. Jason Hades with a Sheer Drop Beach Break
First Round: KC “Cloudy” Day def. Chimaera with a Flipping Square Driver
First Round: Colin Delaney def. Stinky The Homeless Guy with the RKO
First Round: Lince Dorado def. Prince Mustafi Ali with the Spanish Fly
Brodie Lee def. Cheech Hernandez via Powerbomb
The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant) def. 2.0 (Jagged & Shane Matthews) with “Ants Marching” to gain their third point and a future shot at the Campeones de Parejas.
Semi-Finals: Colin Delaney defeated Brendan Michael Thomas, Hydra, Dasher Hatfield, KC “Cloudy” Day, and Lince Dorado to advance to the YLC Finals on Night 3

Night Two:
First Round: Vökoder (who replaced Bret “Ressle” Race) def. Yellow Dog with the SDT
First Round: Soldier Ant used the CHIKARA Special to defeat fellow stablemate Carpenter Ant
First Round: Ryan Cruz used the “Boom Shaka-laka” to defeat his tag team partner Drain Corbin
First Round: Trik Davis def. Shane Hollister with a Perfect Driver
First Round: Grizzly Redwood def. El Leonino with a French-Canadian Brainbuster
First Round: Player Dos def. Player Uno with a Frog Splash
Jigsaw def. Arik Cannon with a Jackknife pin
Pierrothito def. Mascarita Dorada with a Back-bridging chinlock
Semi-Finals: Player Dos def. Vökoder, Soldier Ant, Ryan Cruz, Trik Davis, and Grizzly Redwood to advance to the YLC Finals on Night 3

Night Three:
Dasher Hatfield, Player Uno, and Yellow Dog def. KC “Cloudy” Day and The Sea Donsters when Dasher pinned Hydra after hitting the Grand Slam

The Roughnecks (Brodie Lee & Grizzly Redwood) def. The North Star Express (Ryan Cruz & Darin Corbin) when The Roughnecks hit the Doomsday Device on Cruz. The Roughnecks now have three points and a future shot at the Campeones de Parejas.

F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma) def. The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (Ultramantis Black & Delirious), The Colony (Soldier Ant & Green Ant) and Chiva VI & Halcon Guerrero to win a four corners elimination tag team match. F.I.S.T. only scored the final pinfall on the Order, but in that they gained their third point and a future shot at the Campeones de Parejas.

Mascarita Dorada def. Pierrothito via the Paquete Dorada

Mike Quackenbush & Jorge “Skayde” Rivera def. Turbo & Frightmare when Quackenbush hit the Quackendriver I on Frightmare.

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston ended in a count out.

Golden Dreams Triangle Trios Match: Arik Cannon, Hallowicked, & Fire Ant defeated the trios of Jigsaw, Equinox, & Helios and Vin Gerard, STIGMA, & Chuck Taylor when Hallowicked hit a super Fisherman’s Buster on STIGMA.

Young Lions Cup Tournament Finals: Player Dos pins Colin Delaney after a Super Plancha to win the Young Lions Cup

Notes from the three days:
– Jorge “Skayde” Rivera and Turbo missed Night Two making the lucha tag team match a second one on one match with Pierrothito and Mascarita Dorada.
– Vökoder is the the mystery man we’ve been talking about for a few months now. He debuted, dominated in the tournament, and seems to be a part of the roster now. Who he is, what his motives are, what kind of being he is are all currently unknown.
– Dasher Hatfield is Create-A-Wrestler’s new character. He is being nicknamed the The Old Timey King of Swing due to his new basbeball persona. Dasher impressed the live crowds winning two matches during the weekend and making it to the final two in the semi-finals of the tournament on Night One.
– After the six man tag involving The Sea Donsters on Night Three, Donst snapped and attacked his partner Donst. The CHIKARA roster page no longer has them listed as a duo, and Donst’s profile has been pushed to the bottom of the page. CHIKARA in the past has shown this is what they do right before a wrestler is about to switch sides (in this instance, Tecnico to Rudo).
– After the four team elimination match, a man in all white gave Ultramantis Black a box. A frightened Mantis opened the box, then lunged the box into the crowd. A note lay inside the box that read “A war is coming.” What this means and who sent it is anybody’s guess. With Cibernetico season upon us however, it could very well tie into that. It could also be bad karma for Ultramantis not relinquishing the Eye of Tyr like the legend says you’re supposed to.
– Chuck Taylor now has green hair. Oh yes. If you remember what The Hurricane looked like back in 2004 (green on top, the rest brown) that’s what it was like this past weekend. Chuck stole Green Ant’s costume and traded it to a Big Japan Wrestling young boy when Chuck went to BJW in June for hair tonic that would allow Chuck’s hair to grow back in an expedient fashion. He seemingly paid the price for it.
– As stated in the results, three tag teams now have enough points to challenge the Osirian Portal for the Campeones de Parejas: The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant), The Roughnecks (Brodie Lee & Grizzly Redwood), and F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma). A podcast was put out this week with Leonard F. Chikarason sorting the situation out:

And with that said…

CHIKARA’s return to New England happens September 12th and 13th!

Announced recently is what we can presume will be the main event of the “Man Makes Plans, and God Laughs” show on September 12th in West Springfield, MA as the current reigning Campeones de Parejas, The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian) will defend their titles against former champions F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma). Although these teams have been around for some time, they have never faced off against each other in a match (unless you want to count the 10 man “partners increibles” match from last year in Illinois). The two teams have been partners a few times in the past including at “The Battle of Who Could Care Less”, “Tragedy & Triumph”, and the Dragon Gate USA debut show in Philadelphia “Enter The Dragon” where Amasis and F.I.S.T. teamed up with Hallowicked. F.I.S.T. has had nothing but momentum this year winning this years King of Trios and gaining three points for their title shot. The Osirian Portal, however, have both been plagued by injury in recent history with Ophidian being shelved with a shoulder injury as we speak and Amasis hurting his ankle last Fall. F.I.S.T has been known as the most violent group in CHIKARA and have no qualms about targeting the vulnerable points of The Osirian Portal if that’s what it will take to regain the belts. Will The Osirian Portal be able to fend off Icarus and Akuma, or will the more experienced former champs become the first ever two-time CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas?

In a tag match that I am very much looking forward (also taking place in West Springfield), two teams vie for their first point as Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw battle Incoherence of Hallowicked & Frightmare. These teams have met in some fashion recently with both teams being on opposite sides in an eight-man tag at “Aniversario Yang” and at the Dragon Gate USA debut show with Hallowicked being on the opposite side of Quackenbush & Jigsaw. Of course, Hallowicked and Jigsaw have squared off dozens of times across the independents and have put on a great showing almost every time. Lest we forgot that just this past weekend at the Young Lions Cup Mike Quackenbush pinned Frightmare in a tag match that also included Jorge “Skayde” Rivera and Turbo. I have high hopes for this match as these four are some of the top performers in the company with Frightmare being the most impressive new comer the company has seen since The Osirian Portal. Jig and Quack have been motivated to collect those three points since they lost to The Osirian Portal in April so that will most assuredly play a factor in this match. However, do not sell Incoherence short; Hallowicked is a former Campeon de Parejas himself and has had success with Frightmare this year. This is a match I think has potential to be the real sleeper of the show.

Quite an interesting match-up here as someone who has competed in CHIKARA sparingly in the past year in the underdog role, Steve “The Turtle” Weiner, makes his return to CHIKARA for the second time in 2009 taking on Grizzly Redwood. Steve competed in this years Tag Team Gauntlet at King of Trios teaming with Beef Wellington, but failed to make it past the team of Ultramantis Black and Crossbones. Grizzly on the other hand has had quite an understated sense of accomplishment in CHIKARA. He has defeated Hydra, Create-A-Wrestler, and El Leonino in singles action all this year in addition to earning a shot at the Campeones de Parejas with his buddy Brodie Lee. Although Steve hasn’t heralded any success in his CHIKARA tenure, he will have the homefield advantage at this show considering he is a native New Englander. With the lumberjack crush the Turtle or could we witness quite an upset with Steve coming out on top?

This weekend won’t be easy for whomever comes out of West Springfield with the Campeonatos de Parejas around their waist. For the following night, when CHIKARA makes their Nashua, NH debut with the show “Hiding in Plain Sight”, whomever wins the titles will put them on the line against Fire Ant and Soldier Ant, better known as The Colony. The Colony has a history with both teams. Just earlier this year, Fire Ant and Soldier Ant had a hellacious battle with The Osirian Portal at “Revelation X”. In that match, The Osirian Portal retained the titles in the first ever one-fall Campeonatos de Parejas match (most matches are contested under two out of three falls). F.I.S.T. and Colony have a well storied rivalry, as F.I.S.T. retired The Colony’s buddy Worker Ant and The Colony won the hair of Icarus and Chuck Taylor. Whoever comes out on top in West Springfield, the title match against The Colony will be very interesting. The Colony should not be taken lightly against the Campeones coming in.

CHIKARA continues its showcase of women’s wrestling with the debuting Ariel squaring off with the top women’s Tecnico on the roster, Sara Del Ray. Although this is their first encounter in CHIKARA, they have met multiple times in other companies such as SHIMMER and Ring of Honor. From what I’ve been able to muster up, Sara is undefeated against Ariel. Wouldn’t it be just keen for Ariel to come in and bitch slap Sara off her mighty pedestal and beat her on her home turf? Probably, but Sara probably won’t let that happen, as she has fended off outsiders before (Portia Perez immediately springs to mind). Will Sara protect her turf, or will Ariel catch her with her guard down?

One of my biggest pet peeves in CHIKARA is that all these women’s matches seem to be extremely useless. I mean sure, they’re okay for diversity’s sake, but there is no women’s belt, no program between anyone, and the matches never seem to stick our as being anything truly worthy of discussing. Recently, however, it seems something has come out of a match from “Never Kneel At The Altar of Conformity”. Take a look:

8/17/2009: Hey y’all, Daizee Haze here. Let me get right to the point. So far in 2009, I’ve wrestled just two matches for CHIKARA. Just TWO! That’s ridiculous.

And don’t keep me waiting!
DH

What a demanding dame Daizee Haze turned out to be, eh? Regardless, I really hope this ends up in a match with one person: Amazing (Awesome) Kong. Sonjay Dutt was able to appear for CHIKARA last year when he was still under TNA contract, and Kong still wrestles in SHIMMER, so why not? I saw these two tag before in ROH and it was great. I can only imagine the bad ass dynamic that would come from diminutive Daizee taking on scary Amazing Kong. Please Chikarason, listen to Daizee and make this happen!

Dragon Gate USA news!

Well folks, since we last spoke, the entire card for the September 6th Chicago DGUSA show, “Open the Untouchable Gate”, has been completed. Let’s take a glance at the entire card:

Main Event #1 – Japan Ace vs. United States Ace
Open The Dream Gate Champion Naruki Doi vs. Bryan Danielson

Main Event #2 – Battle Of The Hard-Hitters
Shingo vs. Davey Richards

Main Event #3 – Did You Ever Think This Would Happen?
CIMA vs. Brian Kendrick

Rematch from Open The Historic Gate
Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino

Open The Twin Gate Champions Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi vs. The Young Bucks of Nick & Matt Jackson

Tag Team Grudge Match
Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. YAMATO & Gran Akuma

FRAY! featuring Hallowicked, Mustafa Ali, Johnny Gargano, The Great Malaki, Louis Lyndon, Shiima Xion, Flip Kendrick, and Arik Cannon

WWE Hall Of Famers Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler will be signing autographs before the live event.

This card looks absolutely stacked and looks to be a show you don’t want to miss.

I’ll remind you also that on Friday, September 4th, the Dragon Gate “Enter The Dragon” Pay Per View premieres. It’s already getting rave reviews from the Figure Four Weekly so you should check it out. In fact, here’s what Bryan Alvarez and Vincent Verhei said about the CHIKARA Showcase from the Enter The Dragon show:

I’d also like to mention that the night before the Dragon Gate Chicago show in Berwyn, IL, AAW (All American Wrestling) will be holding a special show apply titled “Us vs. Them”. Bryan Danielson will make his AAW debut to take on Chicagoland independent wrestling star Silas Young. In addition, DGUSA and CHIKARA talents Jigsaw, Hallowicked, and Gran Akuma will team up to face Arik Cannon and The Northstar Express (who should be familiar to any true CHIKARA fan). Also, The Young Bucks will make their AAW debut and their opponents have yet to be named.

This should be another fabulous show where you can see the DGUSA stars for a fraction of the price you could see them for at the DGUSA show the night after (though if you’re in the area, you should go to both). Make sure to check AAW’s homepage for more details.

And the winner is…

Ladies and Gentlemen, after many, many entries were submitted I sifted through them all once more. When reading one particular early entry, I knew I had my winner. His entry stuck out in a positive way and really made an impression. No entries past it could even compare, but I re-read them all just to make sure. With that said, I would like to congratulate James Turnbull of Australia as he is the winner of the FREE CHIKARA DVD! James, please shoot me an e-mail to confirm you still exist (along with your address) and our FREE DVD will be sent out soon. Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy your first taste of CHIKARA.

For everyone else who entered, there is no need to fret. Future contests like this will come along so please don’t give up. Thanks so much for entering, and thanks so much for continuously supporting my article. Your feedback absolutely tickles me pink and motivates me to write this column.

Absolutely shameless shills!

Everyone, go to Pro Wrestling Ponderings. As most of you know, I actually came here to 411 because of my work over at the now defunct Cool Kids Table website. Most of the staff there is now here. We’ve added three new people from the Cool Kids Table to our writing staff (all three are former 411 writers as well): Jason Sterlacci, former Cool Kids founder Jake Ziegler, and former Cool Kids founder Brad Garoon! Brad and Jake did a podcast with us this week talking about Summerslam, why Lance Storm is an asshole, and other such shenanigans. I had a real fun time recording it and I bet you’ll love listening to it. There’s an earlier podcast as well where me and webmaster Jerome Cusson discuss Young Lions Cup, Kurt Angle fucking up, and ROH on HDNET results.

So please, I ask you check us out. PWP is becoming the new home for independent pro wrestling on the web.

YouTube Fun!

Here we have the 175th episode of CHIKARA’s Podcast-A-Go-Go, where clips from the show “King of Trios 2009: Night One”are shown. Matches covered are The Soul Touchaz vs. Team CZW and Team Uppercut vs. The Roughnecks. Be sure to check out my review of the show, by clicking the show name in a sentence or two above!

And here’s a video from a different PWP highlighting all the different Quackendriver’s of one Mike Quackenbush.

Thanks so much again everyone for checking out this weeks Contemplating CHIKARA! Make sure to check out my DVD reviews and all the other fine articles here on the website. My reviews of “Aniversario Yin” and “Aniversario Yang” were just put up this week so leave feedback to those if you haven’t already; I love reading it. Thanks so much again for reading, and I will see you in seven!

Links!
The CHIKARA Home Page .
CHIKARA Fans!
Buy CHIKARA DVD’s at Smart Mark Video
Follow CHIKARA on Facebook!
Follow CHIKARA on Twitter!
Follow CHIKARA Fans on Twitter!.
CHIKARA on MySpace
Dragon Gate USA Home Page
Follow Dragon Gate USA on Facebook!.
Follow Dragon Gate USA on Twitter!.
Dragon Gate USA on MySpace