CHIKARA Chronicles: The Young Lions, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Quite a bit has happened since the debut edition of the “CHIKARA Chronicles” with news spilling out of this year’s Young Lions Cup tournament, some brief updates on CHIKARA’s return to New England, and much more. After receiving an e-mail that requested information on CHIKARA’s past, I figured that I’d dig a little bit into that in this week’s edition, as well.

For those of you who are not aware of it, I attended both, nights one and two, of YLC7. My live thoughts and reviews for each of the matches that happened this past Friday and Saturday have been posted on the main website. I would be appreciative if you guys checked those out and let me know what you thought of them. Sorry for the cheap plug, but thanks for giving them a look at.

The History Of CHIKARA

I first started watching CHIKARA at the end of 2006, but only began following it religiously since 2008, so please bear with me. For a more detailed and overall, better, recap of the company’s history, please refer to the link above, which is a great piece from the guys over at CHIKARA Fans.

Long-time buddies and two-thirds of the Black T-Shirt Squad, Mike Quackenbush and “Reckless Youth” Tom Carter, created the CHIKARA WrestleFactory on January 7th, 2002 with hopes of teaching their trainees all forms of professional wrestling, ranging from lucha libre to puroresu. Among members of the first CHIKARA WrestleFactory class were UltraMantis (Black), Mr. ZERO, Ichabod Slayne (Icarus), Hallowicked, and Dragonfly.

In May of 2002, CHIKARA grew from being just a wrestling school to also a full-fledged professional wrestling promotion. Around this time, several guest trainers came in to help out with the WrestleFactory, including WWE Hall of Famer, Terry Funk, and former World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk.

After Reckless resigned from his position as co-trainer, Chris Hero replaced him in 2004. Just a year later, “Tag World Grand Prix 2005” took place throughout various locations of Pennsylvania. In a recent shoot interview, Mike Quackenbush called this particular event one that helped the promotion jump off its feet, as no other company of CHIKARA’s size had ever tried to put on something so big that featured international talent. Legendary trainer, Jorge “Skayde” Rivera, also joined the WrestleFactory as a third trainer that same year.

In addition, in March 2005, the WrestleFactory moved from Allentown to Philadelphia, joining together with the Combat Zone Wrestling school at the ECW Arena. Wrestlers produced from the WrestleFactory around this time include Drew Gulak and Andy Sumner among others.

At the beginning of 2007, the WrestleFactory parted ways with the CZW school. Later that year, Claudio Castagnoli was promoted from his role as guest trainer to head trainer.

March 2008 featured the second ever King of Trios tournament, which was held in Philadelphia. For as long as I can remember, the DVDs for this event have been top sellers on Smart Mark Video. Not to mention, I have talked to many CHIKARA fans, personally, and they have told me that the 2008 tournament was what made them fans of the promotion.

Dragon Gate USA announced that they had formed a partnership with CHIKARA in April 2009. After impressive performances at the company’s debut show, “Open The Historic Gate”, several CHIKARA wrestlers have become members of the DGUSA roster, including Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, and Gran Akuma. I can imagine that more will be added in the near-future.

Now, before I reveal all that happened at “Young Lions Cup VII”, let’s quickly dive into some Inter Species Wrestling results from a show that featured some CHIKARA talent at the beginning of this month. The DVD for this particular event should be released on Fortune Editing within the next few weeks.

ISW “The Worst That Could Happen” (8.8.2009); Hartford, CT

● Hydra defeated Jolly Roger and Steve Weiner via submission (Hydralock).

● Brad Badd and Chad Badd beat Vin Gerard and Buck Hawke via pinfall (The Badd Move).

● ISW Other Title: Moohammad the Terrorist Cow defeated Stinky the Homeless Guy via pinfall (Lego-assisted piledriver) to retain his strap.

● Bunkhouse Brawl: Twiggy defeated Beef Wellington via pinfall (cow bell shot).

● Addy Starr defeated Sexxxy Eddy via pinfall (roll-up).

● El Generico beat Jigsaw and Zombified via pinfall (brainbuster).

● ISW Championship: Player Uno defeated Hallowicked via pinfall (Mega Buster) to retain his belt.

CHIKARA “Young Lions Cup VII: Night 1” (8.14.2009); Easton, PA

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Brendan Michael Thomas defeated Frightmare via pinfall (low crossbody).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Hydra defeated Tim Donst via pinfall (front bridge).

– Dasher Hatfield, an old time baseball player, is the winning gimmick of this year’s Create-A-Wrestler contest.

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Dasher Hatfield defeated Jason Hades via pinfall (Grand Slam).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: KC “Cloudy” Day defeated Chimaera via pinfall (flipping square driver).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Colin Delaney defeated Stinky the Homeless Guy via pinfall (RKO).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Lince Dorado defeated Prince Mustafa Ali via pinfall (Spanish Fly).

● Brodie Lee defeated Cheech Hernandez via pinfall (gutwrench powerbomb).

● Fire Ant and Soldier Ant beat Jagged and Shane Matthews via pinfall (Ants Go Marching).

– After winning and gaining their third point for a shot at the Campeonatos de Parejas, Fire Ant and Soldier Ant confronted Ophidian, who was at the commentation station.

● Young Lions Cup; semi-finals; six-way elimination: Colin Delaney beat Brendan Michael Thomas, Hydra, Dasher Hatfield, KC “Cloudy” Day, and Lince Dorado via pinfall (avalanche high speed prawn hold) to advance to the finals of YLC7.

CHIKARA “Young Lions Cup VII: Night 2” (8.15.2009); Easton, PA

– Before the show began, Louden Noxious revealed that Lince Dorado would not be able to wrestle due to injury. Also, Turbo had not arrived to the Palmer Community Center on time.

– Leonard F. Chikarason unmasked Bret “Restle” Race to be Lester Crabtree and he was immediately disqualified from the tournament for being over the age limit. The mysterious “masked man” that has been appearing on CHIKARA shows recently, Vökoder, replaced him.

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Vökoder defeated Yellow Dog via pinfall (SDT).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Soldier Ant defeated Carpenter Ant via submission (CHIKARA Special).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Ryan Cruz defeated Darin Corbin via pinfall (Boom Shaka-laka).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Trik Davis defeated Shane Hollister via pinfall (Perfect Driver).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Grizzly Redwood defeated Leonino via pinfall (brainbuster).

● Young Lions Cup; opening round: Player Dos defeated Player Uno via pinfall (frog splash).

– After intermission, Louden Noxious announced that Jorge “Skayde” Rivera was not healthy enough to compete tonight as a result of flight sickness.

● Jigsaw defeated Arik Cannon via pinfall (superkick).

● Pierrothito defeated Mascarita Dorada via submission (cobra stretch).

● Young Lions Cup; semi-finals; six-way elimination: Player Dos beat Vökoder, Soldier Ant, Ryan Cruz, Trik Davis, and Grizzly Redwood via pinfall (frog splash) to advance to the finals of YLC7.

CHIKARA “Young Lions Cup VII: Night 3” (8.16.2009); Philadelphia, PA

● Dasher Hatfield, Player Uno, and Yellow Dog beat Tim Donst, Hydra, and KC “Cloudy” Day via pinfall (Grand Slam).

– Tim Donst attacked Hydra and Cloudy with suplexes after the match, completing his heel turn.

● Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood beat Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz via pinfall (Doomsday Device).

– With this victory, the Roughnecks of Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood have gained three points, which is enough for a title match for the Campeonatos de Parejas.

● Four-corners elimination: Icarus and Gran Akuma beat UltraMantis Black and Delirious, Soldier Ant and Green Ant, and Halcon Guerrero and Chiva VI via pinfall (schoolboy).

– The final two teams came down to F.I.S.T. and the Order with the winner gaining three points and a match for the tag belts. A man in all white came down to the ring with a box in hand, which distracted UltraMantis Black, and Akuma rolled him up to get the win. Afterwards, UltraMantis opened up the box that the mystery guy left behind and flung a note that was found inside of it into the crowd. A correspondent reported that it said “A WAR IS COMING”. Wow.

● Mascarita Dorada defeated Pierrothito via pinfall (Paquete Dorada).

● Mike Quackenbush and Jorge “Skayde” Rivera beat Frightmare and Turbo via pinfall (Quackendriver I).

● Claudio Castagnoli defeated Eddie Kingston via count-out.

● Golden Dream triple threat trios match: Fire Ant, Hallowicked, and Arik Cannon beat Jimmy “Equinox” Olsen, Helios, and Jigsaw and Vin Gerard, STIGMA, and Chuck Taylor via pinfall (avalanche fisherman buster).

● Young Lions Cup; finals: Player Dos defeated Colin Delaney via pinfall (super plancha) to win the YLC7 tournament and the Young Lions Cup.

Congratulations to Player Dos on a well-deserved victory. Quite frankly, I haven’t seen anyone look more impressive than Dos in a CHIKARA ring since the beginning of this year.

CHIKARA recently announced that they will be making their return to New England in mid-September after a one year hiatus.  The shows will be taking place in West Springfield, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire. So far, just one match has been announced for each of the events.

CHIKARA “Man Makes Plans, And God Laughs” (9.12.2009); West Springfield, MA

Three teams in CHIKARA, including the Colony, the Roughnecks, and F.I.S.T., already have enough points to challenge Ophidian and Amasis for the Campeonatos de Parejas, but that doesn’t mean more duos can’t be added to that mix. After returning from injury, Quack has made it clear that his current goal is to win the tag straps with Jigsaw. On the other side of things, Hallowicked and Frightmare are also looking to do the same thing, as Frightmare just recently came up short in his Young Lions Cup debut on night one against Brendan Michael Thomas. Both teams haven’t exactly been on the winning side as of late, so it will certainly be interesting to see who prevails in a battle over one point.

CHIKARA “Hiding in Plain Sight” (9.13.2009); Nashua, NH

Widely considered to be one of the top female wrestlers to come out of New England in years, Ariel will have her hands full in Nashua as she takes on Sara Del Rey. Ariel has been wrestling for SHIMMER since the debut show of the company on volume one. It should be noted that Ariel and Del Rey have faced off in a wrestling ring before, but all that matters this time around is who comes out on top at CHIKARA in Nashua.

CHIKARA has also announced their final four shows of the year, which will all take place throughout Pennsylvania. On October 17th, “An Optimistic View of a Pessimistic World” will take place in Easton. On October 18th in Philadelphia, the annual Cibernetico match will return at “Cibernetico Increible” at the Arena. November 21st will see CHIKARA put up “Throwing Life’s Instructions Away” in Easton. Lastly, in the eighth season finale, “Three-Fisted Tales”  will take place on November 22nd in Philly. More details on these four shows will be announced in the near-future.

Links For Looking

If the image above didn’t tell you, Brian Kendrick has been signed to compete against CIMA at “Open The Untouchable Gate” on September 9th, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois. Not only that, but Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw will get a shot at revenge against YAMATO and Gran Akuma in tag team action. To see why this match is happening, click here. Also currently signed is Naruki Doi versus Bryan Danielson, Shingo versus Davey Richards, Dragon Kid versus Masato Yoshino in a rematch from “Open The Historic Gate”, and another “Fray” match featuring Hallowicked, Prince Mustafa Ali, Johnny Gargano, Shiima Xion among others.

Smart Mark Video has released CHIKARA’s only show in July, “Never Kneel at the Altar of Conformity“, on DVD. I picked this up for myself on night one of YLC7 and have already gotten through most of it. With that being said, expect to see a DVD review posted on Pulse Wrestling within the next few days. So far, it’s been quite good.

The tournament may be over, but Create-A-Wrestler and Lince Dorado both cut promos for this year’s Young Lions Cup. Both of them are quite entertaining and I recommend checking them out. You can do so by clicking here and here.

Episodes 173 and 174 of the weekly Podcast-A-Go-Go have been uploaded on YouTube. Matches from “Motive, Means, Opportunity” in February and night one of this year’s King of Trios tournament are covered.

In the blogging department, UltraMantis Black brought up his thoughts on the four corners elimination tag team match at night three of YLC7. Green Ant displayed that their may be some “sibling rivalry” between he and Carpenter Ant. Gran Akuma explained his actions against Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush at the DGUSA debut show. Not to mention, Les Thatcher recently made some derogatory comments towards CHIKARA and Mike Quackenbush defended his company in a great and heart-felt blog entry on his MySpace page.

Big thanks to Clayton Morris and Mike Quackenbush of the Grizzly Bear Egg Cafe for mentioning my column on one of their more recent episodes. Each week, an entertaining episode of their podcast is released, so be sure to give that show a listen and let them know what you thought of their work. On an amusing note, Mike brought up in the latest edition how he tried to get the guy who does the Law & Order intros, Steven Zirnkilton, to record a thirty second sound bit for CHIKARA. Everything was going great for Quack until he was asked to speak to Zirnkilton’s agent, who wanted just under two thousand bucks for the short piece. Such a funny story.

Pulse Plugs

John Wiswell puts an end to one of the most successful columns in Pulse Wrestling history in the final edition of “Cult of ROH“. We’ll miss you, Wis.

Michael Johnson goes through everything going on in the independent scene this week in “This Week in Indies“, including ROH, DGUSA, PWG, FIP, and even some CHIKARA.

Widro, PK, Daniels, SMS, and Grut go over Sunday’s TNA “Hard Justice 2009” pay-per-view in an exclusive edition of “Mango PPV Rewind” in quite a comedic manner.

Vinny Truncellito books his fantasy independent wrestling supercard in the most recent “Alternate Reality by Vin Tastic” article.

I look forward to reading all of your comments and feedback. Drop everything down below or e-mail me at royreynolds@4sternstaging.com. Tune back in in exactly two weeks, as the “CHIKARA Chronicles” returns for another new article. Plus, keep checking back later on this week for some DVD reviews from me, too. As Lince Dorado would say, “peace, love, and lucha libre”.