First off, night one of this year’s Young Lions Cup tournament in Easton, Pennsylvania simply blew my mind. I was happy with the card beforehand, but every guy really stepped up to the plate and delivered on Friday night.
Despite the fact that CHIKARA is notorious for consistently putting on solid shows, I didn’t think that it was possible for things to match up to what I witnessed the next before. Little did I know that I was in for something even better on night two of YLC7.
Just like on the previous night, Louden Noxious introduced all eleven of this year’s Young Lions one by one. All of the competitors made their way out to the ring and took a group picture except for Bret “Restle” Race. A chant started for Race to show his face, but he didn’t want any of it. In addition to the introductions, it was also announced that Lince Dorado would not be competing due to injury and Turbo could not make it to the show on time.
Unfortunately for Race, he wouldn’t have too much time to hide, as his match against Yellow Dog was up first on the card. Race came out in a red cape and a funky mask, but had trouble getting to the ring. Leonard F. Chikarason saw that Bret was in disguise and unmasked him, revealing none other than an old CHIKARA face, Lester Crabtree, who has the gimmick of an old man presumably in his eighties. No amount of pleading was enough for Chikarason to change his mind and he disqualified him from the tournament almost immediately. Bryce Remsburg was ordered to bring out a hat and pull a new wrestler out. An individual by the name of “Vökoder” was chosen and he came out. Turns out that this guy was the same “masked man” that has been mysteriously appearing sporadically at CHIKARA events lately.
Vökoder defeated Yellow Dog via pinfall (SDT) – Vökoder moved around in a robot-like fashion and with the exception of a few moves, didn’t sell anything that was thrown at him. Yellow Dog goofed around when he had the advantage for a brief moment and this proved to be a big mistake. Vökoder stood up and quickly finished off Yellow Dog with an SDT in about four minutes to advance to the semis. A fun squash match with Vökoder looking extremely impressive. *¾.
Soldier Ant defeated Carpenter Ant via submission (CHIKARA Special) – Both members of the Colony came out to Dave Matthews Band’s “Ants Marching”. For a guy that was apparently making his in-ring debut, Carpenter Ant looked amazing out there, taking and delivering moves left and right. For a rookie, it was almost unreal to see Carpenter Ant locking in some submissions that I had never seen in my life before. In the end, though, it was Soldier Ant who came out on top by making Carpenter tap to the CHIKARA Special. Following the match, Carpenter and Soldier shook hands and celebrated together, which received a loud pop. Terrific debut match for the new guy. ***.
Ryan Cruz defeated Darin Corbin via pinfall (Boom Shaka-laka) – I can’t say that I have ever been a big fan of the North Star Express, but they put on one hell of a match on night two of this year’s Young Lions Cup. Early on in the match, Corbin and Cruz whipped out a perfect slow-mo sequence that the crowd played along with real well, including a “this is awesome” chant in a delayed fashion. Lots of near-falls here with Corbin and Cruz absolutely killing one another with signature moves left and right. Ryan Cruz managed to pull off the upset over former IWA-MS Heavyweight Champion, Darin Corbin, with the Boom Shaka-laka, which I believe was an inverted piledriver of sorts. Great stuff from these two gentlemen. Hopefully, the North Star Express will earn a regular spot on the roster soon. ***¼.
Trik Davis defeated Shane Hollister via pinfall (Perfect Driver) – Not too familiar with either guys’ careers, but they definitely impressed me last night. Davis is an expert at working the crowd and knows how to make an occassional hilarious witty comment or two. Hollister is almost just as good as a babyface. Both, Davis and Hollister, busted out some great high-flying maneuvers and proved why they are potentially the best available representatives out of the Illinois area for this tournament. Trik gets the pinfall over Shane Hollister for the win. ***.
Grizzly Redwood defeated Leonino via pinfall (brainbuster) – Despite the fact that he was making his east coast debut in Easton, Leonino was especially over. In fact, a few fans threw streamers for Leo that Grizzly angrily kicked away and out of the ring. This was a fun back and forth match all the way to the end. Leo nailed a beautiful dropkick, a headscissor, and even Monty Brown’s signature Pounce before taking the fall to a vicious brainbuster by Grizzly. Leonino received a nice ovation when the match had ended. Let’s hope we see more of this half-lion, half-man in the near-future because he’s clearly something special. **½.
Player Dos defeated Player Uno via pinfall (frog splash) – Uno and Dos were about equally over, which made things even more interesting. It should also be noted that the recent diet Uno started has apparently paid off because he looks like he dropped some pounds since the last CHIKARA show he appeared on. Dos went to the air multiple times within the first few minutes, which hurt Uno going forward. Uno cracked Dos with the Game Genie and went for the Bubble Bobble Buster, but Dos blocked it with a knee to the temple. Without wasting any more time, Dos drove Uno down to the mat with the Final Smash and finished things off with a frog splash in about twelve minutes to put him into the semi-finals. A well-deserved standing ovation by the Easton crowd afterwards. Hands down, the best first round singles match of this year’s tournament. ***¾.
Shortly after intermission, Louden Noxous announced that Jorge “Skayde” Rivera would not be able to wrestle, either, as a result of plane sickness. This really put everyone down, but Louden promised that we would all be happy with the replacement bout they had planned.
Jigsaw defeated Arik Cannon via pinfall (superkick) – As soon as I heard “Rock the Casbah” playing over the speaker, I knew that we were about to see a great match. There was absolutely no holding back between these two, as every strike could be heard throughout the Palmer Community Center. This was one of those few matches that are hard to recollect because the action was so fast and intense. After kicking out of Cannon’s signature snap swinging neckbreaker, Jiggy caught Arik off-guard with a stiff superkick to walk away with the victory. Words cannot justify how truly sweet this was. I’ll leave it at that. ****.
Pierrothito defeated Mascarita Dorada via submission (cobra stretch) – An unexpected replacement, especially since these two were supposed to wrestle on night three, but I’ll take it without any hesitation at all. Just thought I’d note that there’s definitely an eerie presence live when you have two top international superstars inside of an independent wrestling ring right in front of you. Anyways, Dorada played some mind games with Pierrothito in the beginning, waving around the Puerto Rican flag and Pierro charged for it unsuccessfully like a bull rider. Dorada pulled off some impressive lucha moves throughout and Pierrothito struck back by grounding him with submissions. After surviving a spinning headscissor, Pierrothito forced Dorada to tap to a cobra stretch. ***½.
Pierrothito looked for a handshake from Mascarita Dorada after the match had ended. After some hesitation, Dorada agreed to shake it. This is when some trouble began, as Pierrothito brutally attacked the fan favorite and insulted him by saying slurs in Spanish and English that I shall not repeat here. The words Pierrothito decided to use are definitely against CHIKARA’s family-friendly overview and I imagine that the luchador was spoken to backstage about his promo shortly after he arrived backstage. The entire segment will most likely be edited when the DVD is released.
Player Dos beat Vökoder, Soldier Ant, Ryan Cruz, Trik Davis, and Grizzly Redwood via pinfall (frog splash) to advance to the finals of YLC7 – The eliminations went as followed: Vökoder pinned Ryan Cruz with the SDT, Soldier Ant pinned Grizzly Redwood with a roll-up, Vökoder pinned Trik Davis with the SDT, Player Dos pinned Vökoder with the Final Smash, and lastly, Dos won the bout and earned himself a spot in the YLC7 finals by pinning Soldier with a frog splash. Not particularly as good as last night’s elimination match, just because watching Dasher Hatfield make a star of himself was so awesome. However, this was still a fantastic match with Vökoder looking like a complete beast. It took both, Dos and Soldier, nailing their signature moves for Vökoder to be eliminated. The final minutes of the match between Soldier Ant and Player Dos were great with both guys teasing a win by locking in the CHIKARA Special on one another. The finish saw Player Dos advance to the finals in Philadelphia, though, as he crashed down on Soldier Ant with a frog splash. Good stuff. ***¾.
Following the elimination match, Colin Delaney came down and confronted Player Dos. Dos wanted to fight right then and there, but Delaney backed down. Dos was able to get the final words in, though, as Colin accidentally left behind his WWE “The Bash” shirt and P2 taunted Delaney by mentioning that he was wearing a shirt produced by a company that he got fired from.
An amazing night of action that could potentially be the best professional wrestling event that I have ever attended. There wasn’t a single match that I felt wasn’t executed well and if you look through my ratings, then that’s more than evident. Buy this show as soon as it comes out on DVD. I assure you that you will not be disappointed with what you put your money down for.
Night three of this year’s Young Lions Cup is actually going on as I’m typing this write-up. Unfortunately, because of distance reasons, I was not able to check out this show in Philly, so no live review for that. Sorry, guys. However, night three will be covered in my next “CHIKARA Chronicles” article that will be posted around noon tomorrow.
Like what you read? Didn’t care for what I had to say? Please let me know what I can do to make things more enjoyable by leaving me a comment below or e-mailing me at royreynolds@4sternstaging.com. Until next time, thanks for checking out this exclusive live review.
