Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Chikara! Dragon Gate! ECW’s past! TNA’s past! TNA’s imminent future? Stars of all walks of life converge in Philadelphia for the REAL biggest party of the summer.

Amazingly, this show is available for purchase on DVD right now as you read this. The announcement was made during the show that Smart Mark Video would get it out the next morning, and sure enough they worked all night to do so. The live show itself opened with a video introduction done in the style of a movie trailer. Very well done like all Chikara videos of this sort.

1. Tim Donst & Pinkie “Pink Ant” Sanchez & Lince Dorado & Tursas defeated The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant & Green Ant) & Frightmare after Pinkie gave Frightmare the Burning Snicklefritz. Jakob Hammermeier was sporting a neck brace after he was laid out by Eddie Kingston and Tommy Dreamer in May. Very fun match to kick things off. Frightmare did a sprint around the building after hitting a dive. Tursas remained nigh immovable and at one point plowed down everyone else while they were involved in a headlock chain. Frightmare nearly had it won with the Kneecolepsy on Dorado before Pinkie broke it up and finished him off.

- Right after the match ended, the lights flickered, the video screens went to static, and out came someone dressed like Vokoder, Donst’s old persona leading up the BDK unveiling. Only Pinkie seemed to notice him while everyone else, especially Donst, acted oblivious to it.

2. Shingo defeated Jimmy “Equinox” Olsen with a lariat. This was a special unannounced match that was teased days prior to the event. Many people including myself thought it might include Bryan Danielson, but I’m not complaining. This was a fun match that Shingo mostly dominated, working as the heel and even attempting to remove the Equinox mask (does that really matter though considering his identity isn’t a mystery?). The one down note was Jimmy taking a scary landing after doing a suicide dive. He seemed pretty out of it but still worked onward before Shingo finished him off with Made In Japan and one of his monstrous lariats.

- Eddie Kingston came out and introduced Tommy Dreamer, inducting him into the Arena’s Hardcore Hall of Fame. Dreamer gave a nice speech, during which he didn’t cry nor say that he promised himself he wouldn’t cry. He mentioned how the building may have changed in some respects but the spirit of the Arena is still strong thanks to places like Chikara. He also recalled a funny story of how he and Taz drove for two hours from New York to Philadelphia to work for ECW the first time, but then spent another hour driving trying to find the Arena. He closed by saying he was born in Yonkers, NY, but when he’s no longer living, it’ll be written that he was born here. Very nice segment, angle-free.

3. Sara Del Rey & Daizee Haze defeated Amazing Kong & Raisha Saeed when Daizee pinned Kong with a bridging German suplex (!) following momentum by one of Del Rey’s rolling kicks. Someone in the crowd shouted out to Kong to “do it for Haiti.” The women of BDK demanded this challenge, but Haze was quite intimidated by her opponents. In addition to Kong, it was nice to see Cheerleader Melissa wrestle in person for the first time, despite working under this goofy gimmick and at one point wailing to her Middle Eastern gods. Del Rey acted surprised that her shoulder tackles weren’t taking down Kong, despite these two wrestling a number of times, including the previous night. Fun match with a simple story, and the finish (both the outcome and the actual offense) was a big suprise that the crowd exploded for.

4. CIMA & Masaaki Mochizuki & Super Shenlong defeated F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma & Chuck Taylor) when CIMA gave Akuma the Schwein followed by double knees off the top. Shenlong was filling in for the injured Dragon Kid; I don’t believe he’s affiliated with CIMA and Mochizuki in WARRIORS. Just like at King of Trios (which I didn’t notice) and talked about in a blog battle with F.I.S.T. on Chikara’s site, Johnny Gargano popped up at some point to watch F.I.S.T. wrestle in person. One of Mochizuki’s kicks sent Icarus scurrying off the apron and into the crowd, during which he crawled over me. Akuma was the recipient of alternating kicks from Mochizuki and CIMA. F.I.S.T. got the majority of their offense on Shenlong before CIMA and Mochizuki could get back in. One of the heels received a massive Mochizuki axe kick to the lower regions. Fantastic stuff right up there with the F.I.S.T. vs. Osaka Pro match at King of Trios.

- Johnny Gargano entered the ring after the match with a disappointed look. Icarus attended to the fallen Akuma while Gargano and Taylor exchanged a few words and largely silent body language. Icarus took part in a little of this, and then he gave Akuma a pedigree, kicking him out of the group and replacing him with Gargano. Icarus and Taylor even removed the F.I.S.T. gauntlets from Akuma’s wrists and gave them to Gargano. Pretty big heat, and fans chanted for Akuma as he slumped away.

- Intermission. Right after it ended, another video announced that Manami Toyota, the acclaimed female wrestler from Japan, would make her U.S. debut on the Chikara shows in September (Baltimore and Brooklyn). That’s huge. On top of that, fans were handed exclusive (?) Chikara trading cards of Toyota.

5. The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian) & Drake Younger defeated The UnStable (Vin Gerard & STIGMA & Colin Delaney) when the Portal gave STIGMA the Osirian Sacrament. Colin wore a neck tie for whatever reason (Danielson-related?). Younger, who looked better here than the previous night, wore an Osirian Portal tunic over his usual shorts. Largely a three-on-three brawl around the ringside area with lots of chaos and a crazy dive sequence right in front of my section. The crowd loved it. Smartly, all six made sure to avoid the count-out at one point. Younger’s forehead cut from the previous night opened up again at some point. Younger dumped Gerard headfirst into a garbage can outside and did an Ole Kick into it. Shortly after this, Younger was taken out by STIGMA’s tombstone piledriver onto the ringside steps. After the finish, the Portal celebrated by dancing and convinced Younger to do his goofy white boy dancing for a big pop. Fun stuff once again, very different from everything else on the show.

6. Claudio Castagnoli & Ares (w/ Delirious) defeated Eddie Kingston & Tommy Dreamer after Claudio gave Dreamer a Ricola Bomb. BDK-affiliated ref Derek Sabato officiated this match and was terrifically dickish in this role (slow counts for Kingston and Dreamer’s pin attempts, fast counts for his buddies, etc.). Still under control of the Eye of Tyr in Ares’ possession, the zombified Delirious in cool new BDK gear was lead to the ring on a chain and remained motionless in the BDK’s corner. Ares has grown a beard, and Claudio has grown an unfortunate mohawk. Not to be outdone, Dreamer now wrestles with goofy-looking MMA gloves. Basic match that served its purpose. Dreamer did some of Kingston’s strikes like the Kobashi chops and the backfist. Delirious only got involved right after the end, attacking Kingston. He was straddled on the ropes as Claudio celebrated over the fallen Dreamer.

7. Chikara Sekigun (Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw & Hallowicked) defeated World-1 (Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi & BxB Hulk) when Quackenbush hit Doi with the Quackendriver 2. Yoshino and Hulk came out with their titles (and in Hulk’s case, his wig again for the entrance). Great main event with lots of crazy moves within its 17 minutes. Everything you could possibly hope for from these six guys. At the very end, Doi peppered Quack’s face with about three dozen slaps and went for his sliding kick, but that was avoided and countered into one pin attempt, followed by another counter, followed by the finish. The Chikara team invited World-1 back into the ring to shake hands, and they did so for the ultimate crowd-pleasing ending.

Overall: One hell of a super card. I actually thought this was a more satisfying overall show than Dragon Gate USA’s show the previous night, and I still really enjoyed that show. The two six-mans with Dragon Gate talent delivered big time, some good upper-midcard angles began, and Tommy Dreamer was used better than he probably will be in TNA. The best part is that everyone who wasn’t there can see it on DVD sooner than they could have before. Buy this sucka. Chikara returns to action at the end of August for the three-night Young Lions Cup VIII tournament in Reading, PA, then Baltimore on September 18th and Brooklyn on September 19th featuring Manami Toyota.