Pro Wrestling Chronicle

The largest wrestling tournament of the year continued with the Quarter-Final round and two matches for Rey de Voladores, featuring “the greatest man that ever lived” and the magnificence of Johnny Saint and Kota Ibushi.

1. Rey de Voladores 4-way Elimination Match: Player Dos defeated Matt Jackson and Fire Ant and Austin Aries to advance. Aries did a complete 180 from the previous night, reverting back to his heel ROH character (complete with the Weezer entrance music) and standing out from the three faces. Dos had had swanky new gear, resembling a Mega Man character. Lots of fun stuff involving all four guys, including a couple of dives and Aries taking extra long to do his power drive elbow and missing to great comedic effect. Dos got crotched on the top rope after a collision in the corner, leading to Jackson and Fire Ant to do an exchange that ended with Fire Ant eliminating Jackson with the Beach Break. Dos got his act together just after Aries took down Fire Ant, allowing Dos to hit a frog splash on Fire Ant to eliminate him. Aries nearly submitted Dos with the Last Chancery, and his attempt at a 450 was stopped up top, leading Dos to connect with what looked like a Marufuji Mind Flip off the top for the victory. A really fun opener. (14:31)

2. King of Trios Quarter-Finals: F.I.S.T. defeated The F1rst Family after Chuck Taylor caught Darin Corbin with Sole Food and Icarus followed up with the Pedigree. Another fun match featuring Arik Cannon slapping the piss out of his opponents and, early on, a funny leg sweep pinning sequence where ref Bryce Remsburg got caught up in the action (getting a nearfall himself and nipping up with the other wrestlers in the ring). Later on came a dive sequence ending with Taylor going for a dive on everyone else, only for them to move and letting Taylor eat floor. The F1rst Family also had a visible pinfall after a doubleteam from Corbin and Ryan Cruz and a Glimmering Warlock from Cannon before F.I.S.T. broke it up and pulled Bryce away from it. Another really fun match, and Cannon and company got a standing ovation afterward. (15:03)

3. Lethal Wrestling Alliance Showcase: The Submission Squad (Pierre Abernathy & Evan Gelistico) defeated Davey Vega and Gary the Barn Owl after Gelistico hit Vega with a pumphandle driver. Gary had black makeup around his eyes and ran around the ring flapping his wings and hooing like an owl. What they did here was just okay/not-horrible, with the Submission Squad playing the heels and the babyfaces doing simultaneous dives on them at one point, but nothing made them stand out from everyone else on the card. Combine that with the fact nobody was familiar with these guys, and the result is pretty deadly. The most reaction this match got was chants of “Ba-Ba-Booie” towards Abernathy and his big teeth. And yes, it should be noted that the Submission Squad didn’t use a single submission, much less win with one. I can’t shit on it, I just have to say, “Whatever.” (6:02)

4. King of Trios Quarter-Finals: The Future Is Now defeated The Osirian Portal after Helios countered Ophidian’s Death Grip into a death valley driver. The Portal got a lot more cheers than The Future Is Now, who came out to a mixed/negative reaction. This match was pretty fun aside from a crazy twisting splash by Helios in the middle of the match missing by a good few inches. Granted, Amasis was doing some entertaining stuff, but the fact that the heels were getting more cheers than the team that’s meant to get cheers leads to a match failing in its story and failing in its goal. Amasis teased unmasking Helios, but then when Escorpion Egipcio tried to a little bit later, his partners told him to stop. Later, one of the ears on Lince Dorado’s mask got ripped off, and the heels went after his mask. Prior to the finish, Dorado and Jimmy Olsen went for dives on opposite sides, with Dorado’s tope suicida rocking Egipcio hard and sending himself into the second row. Fans were just as unhappy with this finish as they were with The Future Is Now defeating Team DDT. Jumping ahead a bit, it would be pretty lopsided to have three heel trios and one babyface trios advance if the Portal were to win here, but it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” mentality with nobody buying into The Future Is Now’s push. (17:53)

- Intermission

5. Rey de Voladores 4-way Elimination Match: Kota Ibushi defeated El Generico and Nick Jackson and Jigsaw to advance. The match started with some expected fun stuff, then Jackson and Generico forming a brief alliance before they began breaking up pinfalls (yes, in an elimination match) and butting heads. After some really crazy moves (including Ibushi’s backflip kick into one of the guys perched on the top), Generico and Ibushi were left alone in the ring and put on a spectacular sequence of exchanges. This was essentially a redo of what these two did in ROH together last year, but it was amazing to see live and the fans were going absolute apeshit. This all ended with a reverse super frankensteiner by Ibushi that eliminated Generico. Jigsaw and Jackson, who stayed completely out of the ring and out of sight during all of this, came back in for a far briefer exchange that ended with Jigsaw eliminating Jackson with the Jig n’ Tonic. Then Jigsaw and Ibushi duked it out a for a while before Ibushi won with the Golden Star Press, which was all knees on Jigsaw. The other two guys were still at ringside, so all four wrestlers came in together and soaked up the massive amount of admiration. “This Was Awesome” during the match twice, “Five Star Match” a little bit afterward. A pretty stellar match, with Ibushi coming off like a god to the fans. (13:36)

6. King of Trios Quarter-Finals: The UnStable defeated Da Soul Touchaz when Vin Gerard pinned Trauma after STIGMA clipped his knee and held onto his feet from outside. This was a very easy match to watch, slowing things down a bit but still keeping the fans’ interest after what they just saw. Lots of fun stuff here, with Colin Delaney failing to get Willie Richardson off his feet, Willie putting Vin and Colin in a double Boston Crab, and Willie nailing giving Vin a spinebuster off the middle rope. The heel victory took the wind out of people’s sales, but Da Soul Touchaz still got a great ovation. (8:40)

7. Inter Species Wrestling Showcase/ISW Championship Match: Player Uno defeated Twiggy with Game Over (tombstone variation) to retain the title. A lot of fans of ISW in the building, so this match was already more successful than the LWA showcase. Twiggy first popped up in Chikara in October 2006 (at a show I was also at) and made a couple other appearances the following month, but this is his first time back since then. He was far more over here, presumably based on so many Chikara fans becoming ISW fans. He’s a really small guy (looking a bit like Topher Grace) who came out to Bon Jovi while sporting a Michael Jackson red leather jacket, tassle-laden pants, and a headband. Defending champion Uno has new gear himself that matches Dos’ gear, but I still have a soft spot for his old gear and mask (a lot more friendlier). So these two had a good, competitive match that had the crowd split. Twiggy looked better than remembered and connected with a solid senton during the match. The two beloved babyfaces celebrated together afterward to chants of “I-S-Dub!” (8:44)

8. King of Trios Quarter-Finals: Team Uppercut defeated The Masters of a Thousand Holds after Claudio Castagnoli countered a super frankensteiner attempt from Mike Quackenbush into a Super Ricola Bomb. Everything you may have hoped to see in this match happened. Johnny Saint had some top-notch exchanges with Claudio, Bryan Danielson, and Dave Taylor. Claudio and Quackenbush added more good stuff to their lengthy highlight reel. Claudio and Jorege Rivera clashed again, leading to a big nearfall from Rivera. Danielson and Quackenbush clashed again a week after wrestling in ROH, and things got pretty heated with some strike exchanges. Danielson was looking pretty angry and determined, but Quack paid him back for throwing strikes to his back by giving Danielson a small taste of his own Cattle Mutilation and the elbows of doom. Danielson got caught in the Chikara special after this, but it was broken up by his teammates. A wonderful match all around, and my favorite of the weekend so far. All six paid each other their respects, and then Quack let Saint soak up the admiration by himself. (33:35)

Overall: The first half of the night started out very fun with the first two matches before taking a dip with the next two, but the second half was aces all around between Ibushi’s 4-way and the main event. As much as I enjoyed Night 1, it didn’t have anything better than the top two matches on Night 2, so this may be the one DVD in this set to seek out unless Night 3 has some super stuff, especially provided if the last two rounds of the tournament are booked well. Night 3 also will have Kota Ibushi vs. Player Dos to determine the 2009 Rey De Voladores, plus two big singles matches of Arik Cannon vs. El Generico and (for the first time) Austin Aries vs. Eddie Kingston.