Guerrilla Chikarticles: A Recap of All Things Indy

Columns, News

Welcome to the return of Guerrilla Chikarticles! This was a good news week as I have tons of information on Full Impact Pro, UWA Hardcore, IWA Mid South, Chikara, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and more. Plus an exciting update on Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore and his recent gimmick change. In this week’s Opening Segment, I come to the defense of Ring of Honor.

Guerrilla Chikarticles 2.0
February 22nd Edition

I’m back at full force baby! I’ve realized that my effort has slumped since joining the Pulse Wrestling Staff, and it is with good reason. Feeling that it is unnecessary to talk about the reasons here, I DO feel it is necessary to say that the reasons have passed and it is now time to come back to the world of professional wrestling. I want to thank all my readers for sending e-mails noticing my hiatus, and I’m going to be holding a contest to thank all of you. If you didn’t send an e-mail, you CANNOT win. I keed, I joke. Check out next week’s Guerrilla Chikarticles 2.0 to see what the low-down is on that.

The Opening Segment
Ring of Honor Defense

About a week ago, I was browsing one of indy wrestling’s most known message boards and read the topic “How Long Before ROH Dies?”. Intrigued, I clicked on the link expecting to see some intelligent reasoning behind the risky topic name. Instead, I read what seemed to be a few horribly thought out sentences from what looked like to be written by a 10 Year Old. Reading reason after reason, I became more and more agog by the whacky and false statements he was giving. He claimed that ROH was losing a ton of talent as well as a ton of money.

I’m not directly attacking one member of said board. This is the result of reading a collection of topics from board to board stating that Ring of Honor has been on a severe downfall as of late that could possibly lead to their demise. You won’t hear this out of me often considering I’m not a HUGE Ring of Honor fan (though the most recent show I went to impressed ), but, I’m coming to the defense of Ring of Honor.

Ring of Honor Losing a Ton of Talent Whether it was due to financial problems or because of WWE and TNA calling up the talent, Ring of Honor has been losing a good amount of their wrestlers. After the first load of talent left (Samoa Joe, Matt Sydal, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) Ring of Honor was left with talent that weren’t really used to Main-Eventing or being in the spotlight with main storylines. They eventually got back on track and started putting on star-studded shows that surpassed the quality of most WWE and TNA pay per views. Now, Ring of Honor is having “financial problems” and they need to cut back on a couple people for a short while. They cut Daniel Puder after a few shows and are toying with the idea of releasing Necro Butcher. I’m sorry, but I don’t see the problem here. Ring of Honor cut back on talent that they only had for a couple of weeks and never signed to a contract. Not only that, but Puder wasn’t an important part of any storyline. As far as I’m concerned, Claudio Castagnoli spun him right out of Ring of Honor at their last show in Edison. The “release” of Daniel Puder in no way indicates that Ring of Honor is going to die in the near future.

Ring of Honor Losing a Ton of Money This is the one that tickles me the most. Ring of Honor has recently gone to Pay Per View and has been purchased by, from what I’ve read, a healthy amount of customers around the world. With the recent report of their Pay Per Views being pulled from Canada, the internet wrestling community went into an uproar thinking that this was a shot in the foot of Ring of Honor. A few wrestling websites stated that one of the cable companies only sold “36 Ring of Honor Pay Per Views”. Did anyone take into consideration that this could be the sale of only the first ROH PPV? Did anyone take into consideration that there could be be another Cable Company that sold more than 36? I mean, sure the pull from Canada means that they’ll get less income, but whose fault is that? Is it Ring of Honor’s? ROH is the most pure wrestling show you can find, and those Canadians love the shit out of that stuff. Could it have been the possibility that the Cable Company didn’t advertise their product enough? Yes. Essentially, the point I’m trying to get across is that it may be Ring of Honor’s fault; it may be the Cable Companies fault. But there is no way this pull from Canada will result in Ring of Honor’s death. Besides, it was only one Cable Company.

Everything Else Wrong With Ring of Honor Can you think of anything? I mean, besides a few personal opinions, I can’t think anything else wrong with Ring of Honor. They are a company that is rising year by year, and has shown signs of this with sell-out tours of Japan and England and a huge jump to airing their shows on Pay Per View. They even ventured into California, a territory which has been proven risky to run wrestling shows at, and had a successful outcome. The fact of the matter is that Ring of Honor is a business. Businesses fire people all the time. Business’s sales are constantly up and down. Considering this is the first time Ring of Honor has been at a reported “financial down time” impresses me because they’ve been open for business for over 5 years and they’re a wrestling company which is even more difficult to balance financially. Ring of Honor is far from dead and will get better than ever sooner than most expect.

Independent Wrestling News
Featured This Week: Chikara, PWG, FIP and UWA Hardcore

Chikara News
1. 27 of the 28 Trios have been confirmed for the 2008 King of Trios Tournament. The newest additions to the tournament are Los Ice Creams consisting (Hijo Del Ice Cream, Ice Cream Jr. and a mystery Ice Cream) and m.c. KZ with Up In Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy). Check out www.chikarapro.com for the 28th team later tonight.

2. Sunday March 1st 2008 will not only hold Night Three of the King of Trios Tournament, but also a Chikara Fan Conclave. From 3:00-5:00 at the New Alhambra Arena/Chikara Megadome/ECW Arena, you will be able to get autographs from your favorite Rudos and Tecnicos and to play Fire Pro Returns on the ChikaraTron. There will also be a Q&A Session between a few contestants of the King of Trios Tournament.

3. Chikara has released a Best of 2007 DVD featuring three super amazing discs of awesome. Buy it now.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla News
1. Nothing big has gone down in PWG-Land except for the fact that you can now reserve The High Cost of Doing Business, All Star Weekend 6 and Pear Habra. I smell many, many buys for All Star Weekend 6.

Full Impact Pro News
1. At “Redefined” on 2/16, Roderick Strong once again claimed the FIP Title after beating Erik Stevens by countout. The match was said to be vicious and the brutality was through the roof. The match will be featured on an upcoming edition of the ROH Videowire.

UWA Hardcore News
1. On Friday 2/15, UWA Hardcore ran a show in Toronto for their first show of February. Josh Prohibition successfully defended his UWA Canadian Heavyweight Title after beating Delirious and the tag team champions Up In Smoke retained their titles after beating The Flatliners. Unlike Josh Prohibition and Up In Smoke, Hiromi Horiguchi walked in the venue with gold and left with nothing. The man to take the Light Heavyweight title from him was none other than Dan Paysan.

Just Plain Awesome
1. Nick Dinsmore recently dropped his “Eugene” character and returned to Ohio Valley Wrestling as “Mr. Wrestling” Nick Dinsmore.

Upcoming Independent Wrestling Shows
Featured This Week: Chikara, IWA-MS and CZW. (Dating to 3/8/2008)

Chikara: King of Trios Night One (2/29/2008) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1. The Colony (Soldier Ant, Worker Ant and Fire Ant) vs. Team El Dorado (Go, Michael Nakazawa and Mototsugu Shimuzu)
2. Team Ring of Honor (Shane Hagadorn, Alex Payne and Rhett Titus) vs. Team Las Chivas (Chivas II, Chivas III and Chivas IV)
3. Brodie Lee, Colin Olsen and Jimmy Olsen vs. Cheech, m.c. KZ and Cloudy

Also confirmed for Night One: The Order of the Neo Solar Temple (Ultramantis Black, Hydra and Crossbones), Naptown Dragons (Drake Younger, Dustin Lee and Scotty Vortekz), Team Kaiju (D.W. Cycloptopuss III, Unibouzo & Call-Me-Kevin), Team IPW:UK (Martin Stone, Sha Samuels and Terry Fraizer), The Osirian Portal (Amasis, Ophidian and Mecha Mummy).

Team BLKOUT (Eddie Kingston, Sabian and Joker) and Team Chikara Campeones (Delirious, Hallowicked and Helios) will receive a bye into the second round of the tournament.

IWA-MS: 500th Show (3/1/2008) in Joliet, Illinois
1. Eddie Kingston defends his IWA-MS title against Scorpio
2. Mickie Knuckles and Lufisto vs. Brain Damage and Deranged
3. The Vacant IWA-MS Strong Style Title will be rewarded to the winner of Drake Younger vs. Roderick Strong vs. Michael Elgin vs. Viking
4. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jack Thriller in an I Quit Match
5. Necro Butcher defends his IWA-MS Death Match Title against Danny Havoc
6. Toby Klein vs. Davey Richards
7. The Iron Saints will defend the IWA-MS Tag Team Titles against Sabian and Joker of BLKOUT.
8. Human Tornado vs. Ash vs. Devin Moore vs. Ruckus vs. Sexxy Eddy vs. xOMGx vs. Brandon Thomaselli vs. Dustin Lee

Chikara: King of Trios Night Two (3/1/2008) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1. Team IWS (El Generico, Stupefied and Player Uno) vs. Team First (Arik Cannon, Darrin Corbin and Ryan Cruz)
2. Team Stranglehold (Tim Donst, Andrew Sumner and Drew Gulak) vs. The Marvelous Three (Larry Sweeney, Mitch Ryder and Shayne Hawke)
3. Sweet and Sour INC. (Tank Toland, Sara del Ray and Bobby Dempsey) vs. Team FIST (Chuck Taylor, Gran Akuma and Icarus)
4. The Southern Saints (Shawn Reed, Marcus O’Neil and Reno Diamond) vs. Miyawaki, Susumu and KUDO
5. Team Mexico (Lince Dorado, Incognito and El Pantera) vs. Los Ice Creams (Ice Cream Jr, El Hijo del Ice Cream and a Mystery Ice Cream)
6. The Soul Touchaz (Acid Jaz, Willie Richardson and Marshe Rockett) vs. Team BSE (Kobra Kai, Super Xtremo and La Sabra)

Team WWF (One Man Gang, Ax and Smash) and Hawaii’s Finest (AkuA and The Immortals) will receive a bye into the second round of the tournament.

Chikara: King of Trios Night Three (3/2/2008) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This night will feature the semi-finals and finals of the King of Trios Tournament, as well as a number of non-tournament matches.

CZW: Lights! Camera! CZW! (3/8/2008) in Philadelphia Pennsylvania
1. Joker vs. Vordell Walker
2. Whacks vs. DJ Hyde

Glazer explains why ECW isn’t that bad.

Andy Wheeler talks about the misuse of Chris Jericho.

Jake Mulligan’s Spotlight on Japan impresses yet again.

Big Andy Mac hosts Danny Cox vs. Matthew Michaels. !HERE!

Well that about raps it up for this week’s Guerrilla Chikarticles. You can send feedback to OcopacabanaO (AIM) or in e-mail form. Just send your e-letter to jkirschner@4sternstaging.com. Until next time, I’m Jon Kirschner. And you are outta here.

Independent Wrestling Coverage