Pro Wrestling Chronicle

After two nights of ROH TV tapings, Brian Streleckis finishes up a long weekend of live wrestling with a Chikara chaser, as this year’s Young Lions Cup tournament closes and new developments arrive.

1. Dasher Hatfield & Player Uno & Yellow Dog defeated KC “Cloudy” Day & The Sea Donsters (Tim Donst & Hydra) when Hatfield pinned Hydra following his powerslam off the second rope, the Grand Slam.

Oh yes, this was such a fun way to kick off the show. Dasher Hatfield is Create-A-Wrestler’s third fan-created character (after Moscow the Communist Bovine and Ultimo Breakfast at the last two Young Lions Cup weekends), and hands down he’s the best one yet: an old-timey baseball player with a move set straight off the field (including swinging Hydra like a bat in an amazing feat of daring-do). This is Conan O’Brien-level awesome, he has a good deal of momentum after going far on the first night of this year’s tournament, plus CAW himself has really improved as a wrestler; I think the Create-A-Wrestler contest should be retired now. Meanwhile, one of his teammates in Yellow Dog was not Barry Windham, nor a reanimated Brian Pillman, but I believe Jaysin Strife, an IWA-MS regular who donned the persona so as to return to it after a loser-leaves-town match last year with Dingo (fittingly enough). He was doing the doggy shtick to the hilt, including a bulldog, lifting a leg over a downed opponent, and fetching his chew toy – when it was thrown over the top rope into a pile of wrestlers – by doing a tope to the floor. A very hot opener, the only low point being some fan making a Michael Vick remark. (8:12)

- After the match, with Hydra taking another pinfall loss, partner Donst let his frustrations take over and went Kurt Angle crazy. He gave Hydra a release German suplex, tossed Cloudy with a belly-to-belly, and STO’d Yellow Dog before Uno and Hatfield ran in to back him off. Au revoir, Sea Donsters.

2. The Roughnecks (Brodie Lee & Grizzly Redwood) defeated The North Star Express (Darin Corbin & Ryan Cruz) when Cruz was pinned following a doomsday double axehandle. The NSE had their hands full with Brodie, plus Corbin took a lengthy heel beatdown, but they found their groove when they managed to take Brodie off his feet and get the better of Grizzly. Sadly, a missed attempt at Cruz Control and a big boot to Corbin spelled the beginning of the end, plus Brodie & Grizzly picked up their third point with this victory. Pretty fun stuff. (8:47)

3. F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma) defeated The Order of the Neo Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black & Delirious) and The Colony (Soldier Ant & Green Ant) and Halcon Guerrero & some Chiva in a Four Corners Elimination Tag Team Match. The first fall started pretty slow, with Green Ant showing how Green he is, and Guerrero (a no-frills luchador I mistook for another no-frills luchador last December) and the random Chiva in the ring far more than Delirious & Black, but Icarus brought the heat pretty good. He received a yellow card for kicking Chiva in the corner, allowing Chiva to take a free kick with a soccer ball (because these Chivas have goat gimmicks and soccer gimmicks, plus this one was acting more like a goat), but opting for a dropkick. When Delirious tagged in, he hammered down on his opponent and spouted these gruesome moans instead of usual gibberish; nothing against experiencing Delirious Classic the previous two nights, but it was a nice change of pace with Zombelirious here. Mantis made his presence felt when he took out Chiva with a sit-out tombstone piledriver dubbed the Cosmic Disaster, eliminating the thrown together luchadores. Action picked up, and the Colony was eliminated after Delirious hit Green Ant with the Praying Mantis Bomb. Two straight pinfalls meant two points for the Order. Mantis looked to get the third point by attempting a Cosmic Disaster on Akuma, but out of nowhere came a masked man donned all in white, delivering a large white gift box to Mantis. The distraction allowed Akuma to roll up Mantis from behind. This match overstayed its welcome during the first fall, but the action picking up toward the end and a little story development helped. The Order lost their recently-gained points, while F.I.S.T. pick up their third, giving the Osirian Portal two potential challengers for when Ophidian heals up. (18:31)

- Speaking of story development, Mantis opened the gift as everyone speculated what it could be (I guessed a bomb, and thankfully was wrong about that). It ended up being a note, which Mantis read and was deeply upset about. He left frustrated and holding Delirious’ hand on the way to the back, while fans chanted, “What’s it say?” Very cool.

4. Mascarita Dorada defeated Pierrothito with a crazy lucha rollup out of a submission attempt. We had ourselves a Mexican minis match, and it was 10 times better than the last minis match I saw in person: a 2007 Chikara bout featuring the recently deceased La Parkita. Dorada, who’s gear resembles that of Mascarita Sagrada (he even used that persona for a while), is very small but very fast and agile. The cocky Pierrothito, the mini version of one of the luchadors who had a brief WWF stint in 1997, was much bigger and barrel chested. He talked some trash and showed his dominance through his power, but Dorada flew all around him in some dazzling instances. Very good stuff. (11:32)

- Intermission, where I snapped the photo above, picked up the new Super Smash Bros. shirt, and saw the still-injured Ophidian wandering around and hissing, and then…

5. Mike Quackenbush & Jorge Rivera defeated Turbo & Frightmare when Quackenbush pinned Turbo with the original Quackendriver (a modified iconoclasm). Turbo and Rivera were supposed to team with Dorada and Pierrothito respectively the previous night, but Turbo had some trouble in his travels and Rivera was feeling under the weather (the two minis had a singles match anyway, won by Pierrothito, so tonight’s match evened the odds). Good thing they managed to make it tonight, as Turbo was looking very good here and both contributed to a strong, lucha-heavy match between teachers and pupils. A very competitive match with a couple of dives. (13:36)

6. Claudio Castagnoli defeated Eddie Kingston via count-out. These two didn’t pull out all of the stops as they did in their previous match in May, but they still put forth a solid effort. It was a lot more ground-based, with one guy trying to wear down the other, and not everyone was getting into it. Kingston took Claudio to the outside for some more punishment, but Claudio fought back and got the advantage following a suicide dive. Things got even more heated toward the end, as Claudio gave Kingston a giant swing of 8, a bicycle kick that ended up being more of a knee, and a spinning torture rack bomb that for an instant saw Claudio spin Kingston hands-free. Kingston avoided a second attempt at the Ricola Bomb, delivered a backfist, and then hit a Saito suplex to send Claudio to the floor. At the count of 14 or 15, Kinston decided to hit Claudio with a running dive off the apron to keep him down, but Claudio dodged it and Kingston ate floor. The count didn’t break, and Claudio got back in to win it in time. Pretty good match, and the finish continues the feud despite being kind of lame on the surface. (15:45)

7. Fire Ant & Hallowicked & Arik Cannon defeated Vin Gerard & STIGMA & Chuck Taylor and Jimmy “Equinox” Olsen & Jigsaw & Helios in a Triple Threat Trios Match when Hallowicked gave STIGMA a top rope Fisherman’s Suplex. This was dubbed a “Golden Dream” match, as all nine men were former Young Lions Cup holders, with a member of each team in the ring the same time start. Gerard came to the ring in a ratty homemade t-shirt that read “I [crossed-out heart] Vin Girard.” Taylor, my first time seeing him in person since he lost his hair in May, came out wearing a wool cap. According to storyline, he had stolen the gear of Green Ant so that a young boy in Big Japan could wrestle as him on recent Big Japan shows that Chikara talent was involved in. In exchange, Taylor would receive a special tonic to help grow his hair back. When his cap came off here, it was revealed that he had green, moss-looking hair to everyone’s amusement. One early moment had Cannon and Jigsaw taking turns bodyslamming Taylor, and ref Bryce Remsburg delivered a bodyslam of his own in the heat of the moment. Because of this, all of the wrestlers were bewildered and cornered him up a turnbuckle in a hilarious moment. Then things broke down in spectacular fashion, with six to nine guys in the ring at once. A massive dive sequence saw Fire Ant get launched by his partners – a traditional Colony spot – only to get overshot into the crowd and bending one of the guard rails. Gerard faked a dive, only to be grabbed and superplexed by Cannon into the group outside. They delivered a chain of kicks and strikes inside, and there were a number of nearfalls from the Beach Break and the Awful Waffle among other moves. An unbelievable spotfest, right up there with Chikara’s recent 8-man tags, and the crowd went crazy for it. (13:57)

- Something happened to ring (which was new) during this last match, and there was a brief break to fix it. Remsburg and Louden Noxious danced to “Apache” as things were getting put back together.

8. Young Lions Cup VII Finals: Player Dos defeated Colin Delaney with what looked like a urinage off the top rope to win the Young Lions Cup. A good main event, not as crazy as the previous match, but it told an old-school story. Colin slowed things down considerably, and put to use a number of WWE-trademark moves, including an Attitude Adjustment off the apron to the floor, a Twist of Fate (though he failed to live for the moment and couldn’t pull out the Swanton) and Randy Orton’s head kick of doom (only a two count here). Dos came back with some of his aerial offense, but a split-legged moonsault attempt was thwarted when Delaney pushed the ref into the ropes, throwing Dos off-balance. The finish came out of nowhere as Dos reversed a superplex attempt by Colin into this crazy-looking splat. As Dos celebrated with the cup, I noticed Player Uno come out by the entrance, give his partner a slow applause, but then just walk to the back again, with Dos not noticing. Dos did indeed defeat Uno in a first round matchup on Night 2, so perhaps some dissension in the Mushroom Kingdom? Not as emotional as the Vin Gerard-Fire Ant YLC Finals last year, but this was just fine. (18:27)

Overall: Another fun show, hat’s off to Chikara for it’s continued quest for awesomeness and overall need to be different. The show was pretty even with this weekend’s ROH shows in terms of action, though this show did have the Chikara flair not seen anywhere else, plus there were no unsupervised kids throwing trash into the ring. After recent matches and a great showing in the Rey de Volidores tournament over King of Trios weekend, Dos winning the tournament here is well deserved, plus he’s only the second man to hold both the cup and the Campeones de Parejas after Hallowicked. The semi-main was fantastic stuff, as was the opener with the awesome Dasher Hatfield, and it was very cool seeing those two minis in action. Even the two matches that weren’t quite as good as they could have been – Claudio vs. Kingston and the four-way tag – still progressed some stories. Next scheduled shows are two September dates in new venues – West Springfield, MA and Nashua, NH – along with returns to Easton and Philadelphia in October and November. The next Philadelphia show, October 18th, will have the 2009 Torneo Cibernetico.