(CHIKARA) Small But Mighty

(CHIKARA) "Small But Mighty"
Burlington, NC – 10.7.2011
Where to get it: CHIKARA PRO

We are here for some Chikara! As they come to us on this day from North Carolina. Which is an area rich with a lot of classic wrestling history. I'm sure they had never seen anything like this, seeing as how Chikara isn't as much a tradition wrestling company, as much as it is a different and fun wrestling company. We go into this event with the first Chikara IPP (Internet Pay-Per-View) "High Noon" on the horizon, with the 12 Large Summit tournament to crown the first ever Chikara Grand Champion well underway. Once this night is over, we should be getting a very good look at who will be doing battle for that Championship at High Noon.

Jigsaw

vs.

Obariyon (w.Kodama)

Jigsaw is coming off dropping the Camepones De Parejas (tag team championship) with Mike Quackenbush. Obariyon is part of the evil trio known as The Batiri and it just so happens his regular partner, Kodama, is outside the ring with him. I expected a more comedic opener, but instead we get a more straight match and that's OK with me. Both guys go back and forth with Jigsaw showing his skills off here while trying to tend with the extra man outside the ring. Obariyon brought the hard hitting stuff while Jigsaw faught back with his high flying movies. And on a good note, we seem to have a fun loving crowd tonight that's right along with it. The ending came when Jigsaw nails his top rope double stomp for the win @ 9:44. Fun opener!
WINNER JIGSAW (pin)

Hallowicked

vs.

Icarus

12 Large: Summit Tournament Match (Block A)

The 12 Large is a round robin style event and the points are very important. Both men have been in Chikara since day one, with Hallowicked being the very first Young Lions Cup winner and former Campeonatos de Parejas champion with Delirious. Icarus, who is a member of the evil group F.I.S.T. (Friends In similar Tights), on the other hand, is also a former Campeonatos de Parejas champion with Gran Akuma and may very well have the world's worst back tattoo ever. The crowd keeps reminding Icarus of this fact as this plays a big part in the opening of the match. By the way, did I mention these two use to be a tag team during the start of Chikara in 2002? So, comedy is heavily inserted into the start with Hallowicked trying to cover up the terrible Icarus tattoo. The crowd loves this and rightfully so. Finally it turns into a more technical affair and things get taken into a pretty good pace that lasts for the remainder of the match. Sadly, the crowd has to see the fan favorite, Hallowicked, eat the pin as Icarus finishes him off with the Blu-Ray (It's better than the DVD) @ 15:16
WINNER: ICARUS (pin)

After the match, Icarus takes the microphone to talk some trash. And I want to point out that if nothing else Icarus knows how to get the fans to despise him, which is a great thing. He runs down Gregory Iron, who isn't even there tonight, accusing him of faking his Cerebal Palsy (Ouch!). Icarus goes on to say that at Chikara's High Noon he will prove that Iron is a fake! Great build up for that event here.

We now go to a short promo from female wrestler, Jessi McKay! She hasn't been in Chikara in three years, but she's back tonight to prove how much she's grown since. She is set to face Kana. Who many consider to be the best female wrestler in the world right now.

Jessie McKay

vs.

Kana

Jessie McKay is a very tall lady from Australia who is known today for being a regular on the SHIMMER roster, which is an all female wrestling company. Kana on the other hand is one of Japan's best and the current SMASH Divas Champion. If you have only seen female wrestling from WWE or TNA you would be in for a bit of a treat with this. It's nothing like what you see on Monday, Thursday, or Friday night when it comes to the women wrestlers and that's a very good thing. We end up with a bit of an extended squash here, as McKay gets in just enough to keep it interesting but spends the majority of the match being Kana's punching bag. McKay has shown signs of improvement since I last saw her here, but her selling is great none the less as Kana takes her down with some nasty looking kicks. MMA fans can appreciate the ending as Kana gets Jessie all wrapped up in submissions on the mat before some rolling and struggling that ends in Kana catching poor McKay in what looks like a Katagatame as Jessie taps out @ 8:37
WINNER: KANA (tap out)

Eddie Kingston

vs.

Eddie Kingston is a mean mofo to say the least. He's a good guy (or babyface/technico), but you still don't want to get on his bad side. He's also looking to be in the best shape I have seen him in in years coming into this match. Kobald, is a very high wired baddy who is in The Batiri. Speaking of The Batiri, here comes Kodama again! The match is spent with Kingston pretty much having his way with Kobald until Kodama does something to cause Kobald to gain some form of advantage. Still, no matter how underhanded they get they still can't seem to put Kingston away! Eddie, has pretty much already earned his spot in the championship match to crown the Chikara Grand Champion. And with him on a roll, once he finally found a way to make the outside interference from Kodama a none-factor, he's able to steamroll Kobald with The Backfist to the Future @ 7:04 for the win!
WINNER: EDDIE KINGSTON (pin)

Mike Quackenbush (who is THE man in Chikara) is in the back for a quick promo for his matchup with Sara Del Rey. Mike informs Sara that everyone knew she was a great wrestler. And that the only people who took that for granted was her former evil running buddies The BDK. He's proud she has the fans support now, but she's playing chess with the master. Very good promo from Quack here.

Mike Quackenbush

vs.

12 Large: Summit Tournament Match (Block B)

And we are about to determine the winner of Block B in the 12 Large, as both these two have 6 points. Quackenbush pretty much IS Chikara. If the company every had a measuring stick it would be him. He's also a former NWA World Junior Champion, IWA Mid-South Champion, two times CZW World Junior Champion, and Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas with Jigsaw. For my money, Sara Del Rey is THE best woman wrestler today. She was the very first SHIMMER Champion and trust me, she's soo good that her beating a male wrestler is totally believable. The crowd loves Quack, as they should, but they still can't help but get behind Sara, to spite her not shaking Mike's hand at the start, as these two proceed to give us a pure wrestling clinic. Sara comes all at Mike with her trademark kicks as Quack decides that they best way to stop this problem is to neutralize it. He does so by going to work on the leg/knee of Sara and it proves to be pretty darn effective. Finally, Sara breaks free and unloads on Quackenbush and even looks like she might pull this off. That is until Mike gives her a nasty looking punt to the knee that seems to make everyone cringe a bit! Quack connects with the trademark palm strike and rolls her into Lightning Lock Beta. Sara still refuses to call it a day until Mike adds a Stretch Muffler finally getting Sara to tap out @ 15:00 This is for sure the shows highlight at this point.
WINNER: MIKE QUACKENBUSH (tap out)

The Colony (Fire Ant, Soldier Ant, Green Ant) & Ophidian

vs.

The BDK: (Tim Donst, Tursas, Jakob Hammermeier, Delirious)

The Colony, who won the 2011 King of Trios, are staples of Chikara. And Green Ant in particular seems to be on the rise as of late. Ophidian, was once part of the fun tag team the The Osirian Portal until the injury of his now former partner, Hieracon. The BDK was lead by Claudio Castagnoli until he was signed away by the WWE. Now the remaining group is still together and still trying to cause havoc, but it does seem a little odd without Claudio. If you've never seen a tag match like this in Chikara, then you need to know that action of this nature is very hard to call. Tags are not needed and if someone from a team slides out of ring or gets knocked out of the ring, another man can then legally come in. This makes for some very fun and exciting action. And that is just what we get here as the action is all over the place and pretty soon people are flying in and out of the ring to the crowd's enjoyment. There are a lot of close calls, but finally BDK pull of the win when Donst blocks the Duat Driver, flips him into a Mad Scientist facebuster, and applies a new submission called From Dusk Till Donst on Ophidian for tha tap out win @ 16:37
WINNERS: BDK (tap out)

UltraMantis Black makes his way out for what is supposed to be a match against Vin Gerard. But, it looks like Vin couldn't be bothered to show up tonight so they announce Black as the winner by forfeit! Black still isn't happy about this and insist he wants to wrestler, bringing out none other than Archibald Peck, one of the more ridiculous and yet entertaining characters in this company, and his lady Veronica. Peck takes the microphone, runs down North Carolina a bit before introducing the new March Madness mascot..COLT...CABUNNY!? This wigs the fans out because they expected Colt Cabanna, who you may recall got a shout out from CM Punk on RAW not too long ago. The antics lead to action as Black gets Peck and goes for the Praying Mantis Bomb, but the bunny elbows him! Mantis corners the bunny, then gets Peck again kicking off an actual match!

UltraMantis Black

vs.

Archibald Peck (w.Veronica & Colt Cabunny)

UltraMantis use to be one of the most evil and coolest heels in this company, but now he has found himself fighting the forces of evil himself. Archibald Peck is a marching band member, who is hilarious. He's also a very good talker on the microphone which means he can talk the crowd into a match even if it's a comedy match like this one. As things go along the crowd even chants, "Kill The Bunny!". Which shows you how awesome the fans at Chikara shows are. This, as I said, was more of a comedy match. Allowing fans to come down a bit from the previous awesome match and gets rested up for the main event. Still, it's a whole lot of fun and the crowd being troopers stay right along with it. UltraMantis Black does his thing and has to watch out for both Veronica and that darn Bunny! There is some flying, there is a steel chair, and it's all a lot of fun. Our ending sequence comes when Peck heads up top only to miss the Cranial Crescendo. Mantis then blocks a boot and nails the Cosmic Disaster for the pin @ 8:28
WINNER: ULTRAMANTIS BLACK (pin)

Johnny Gargano & Chuck Taylor (F.I.S.T.) who are the current Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas are in the back cutting a promo on Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada, which is our main event tonight! These two sure do pull off the annoying heel act very very well. If you've not heard of these two before, I'm sure you will. They are great characters and make up a great team.

F.I.S.T.: Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano (Campeones) 

Campeonatos de Parejas

vs.

Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada

F.I.S.T. are coming off winning the Campeonatos de Parejas from Quack & Jugsaw. They also have their F.I.S.T. pal Icarus trying to run around outside before being sent back to the backstage area. Kotoga & Harada are the current Osaka Pro tag team champions over in Japan. So, they are very well qualified for this type of match and spot on the card. Title matches for the Campeonatos de Parejas are done under a 2/3 falls rule. Which is very different and makes things interesting. The action kicks off here with the first fall naturally being the slowest. It all about the build and it goes back and forth with the built until things pickup and the champs pulls some underhanded tricks. One of these tricks result in Taylor rolling up Kotoge with a handfull of his tights to win the first fall @ 9:38
FALL ONE WINNER: F.I.S.T. (pin)
It should go without saying that Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada didn't like that result very much and neither did the crowd. Taylor and Gargano have no time to celebrate as Kotoge & Harada unleash the beast on them, showing everyone why they are the current Osaka Pro champions! We see a series of double teams and very well crafted moves as the Chikara champs just seems to be too overwhelmed in the second fall. Harada delivers a hip toss knee strike to Johnny Gargano. Kotoge then connects with a superkick to him from the apron. Harada then delivers a German suplex to win the second fall @ 15:15 with a very nice sequence.
FALL TWO WINNER: ATSUSHI KOTOGE & DAISUKE HARADA
Alrighty, we are one and one so this will give us our winners here as the deciding fall begins.F.I.S.T. attack at the start but out visitors from Osaka take over soon after. Things break down quickly and we have the standard high speed indie breakdown where tags are out the window and people are flying everywhere. If you've never seen this, it's very exciting stuff. Things start to look a little too bleak for F.I.S.T as Icarus once again runs our and gets in the mix of things, taking the referee out of the game before Kotoge takes Icarus. This distraction is just enough for the ref to miss Gargano nail Harada with one of the belts. F.I.S.T. double superkick Harada. They hit an assisted DDT, then follow that up by pop him up into Gargano’s Hurts Donut for the pin @ 22:43 YES, this is a main event that does deliver the good.
WINNERS: F.I.S.T. (pin)

Chikara is FUN, there's no other way to put it. They give you a great mix of fast paced action and comedy. They don't take things too seriously and unlike some indie promotions, they don't burn you out during the show. This was a fine event that makes you want to see High Noon even more than you probably already did. There isn't a bad match on the show, but the main event and Quack vs. Sara was the things that really stood out.

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