CHIKARA (SAT) 09/20 Streamwood Community Center, Streamwood, IL Lineup
0) Silas Young b Egotistico Fantastico [NWA MIDWEST HEAVY]
1) Helios & Lince Dorado b Los Thomasellis
2) Buck Hawke b Tim Donst
3) Soul Touchaz b Crossbones, UltraMantis Black, Trik Davis, Sami Callihan
4) Colin Delany b Jimmy Olsen
5) Discovery, Incognito b Guerrerito del Futuro, Aguila de Oro
6) STIGMA b Drake Younger
7) Vin Gerard b Fire Ant [YOUNG LIONS]
8) Mike Quackenbush, Player Dos, Gran Akuma, Solider Ant, Amasis b Hallowicked, Player Uno, Icarus, Worker Ant, Ophidan
So. I’m going have to rethink some of this if I ever do a live blog on the road again. Not happening any time soon, at least.
Show got rolling around 6:45 ish.
– opening title match was good, crowd got into it.
– Both Helios and Lince looked good in their match. (No Lince blown spot as far as I saw, though I missed his dive when Helios was diving at me.) Thomasellis did not leave a big impression, positive or negative (which was probably the idea, this match was about the tecnicos and succeeded as such.)
– Hawke impressed me even more as a character live. Donst is a lot wider (certainly not fat, maybe broader is a better word?) and I could not imagine him playing other role than amateur wrestler. I know he was, but there’s surely been others with similar backgrounds were who make more sense doing some other character. Donst is perfect for his role. I wanted more from this, but they’ll surely match up many more times in CHIKARA if they’re both there and this spot wasn’t for a big match
– Soul Touchaz were over huge from the moment their music hit and threw the match. They totally ran wild for a long time, to the point where I was wondering if the rudos were just going to get squashed without getting serious offense in. Marshe got trapped after some dives to solve that, but this was more the hometown boys doing whatever they wanted to do in front of the home town crowd, and everyone was happy to see it. Most curious about how this transitions to DVD
– Colin/Jimmy didn’t have the crowd as much as it would if this was in a CHIKARA home market, which isn’t a huge surprise but makes me wonder why they did it here. It was good, but not the super match you kinda hope for when ex-tag team partners collide. (Which is actually what happens a lot when tag team partners collide.) Jimmy was very sad after the match. I kinda wonder if they did this match here just becuase it had to be done before they Colin and the UnStable onto whatever else.
– Let me tell you, it’s pretty freaking humbling when you sit with a group of people who know you mostly as That Lucha Guy, four luchadors come out, and you can’t identify the original Mystico when they ask. At least Incognito was living up to his name. No one really knew the other three guys. I think the idea here was to make sure the card has some ‘authentic’ lucha libre so those who came for Oriental would be satisfied, which is an admirable concept but possibly unnecessary – it was your usual midwest indies crowd (with more kids), not the faces I see at lucha shows. Which is a shame, because I think they would’ve liked it, but crossing those two audiences is tough. Anyone who can come up with a Rosetta’s Stone is gonna make some money someday.
This was not a Rey de Voladors Incognito, this was a lot more power stuff. GdF and Aguila de Oro (may have wrong name) worked as the rudos, but Incognito towered over them and threw them around at will. Rudos really never had any control of the match, and the match didn’t have much of a flow – it felt like four guys who just met before going out there, which is odd since I think Discovery and Guerrerito at least are still working ELL MEX and have crossed paths plenty around Chicago. Discovery did little here, I’ve seen better of him around here and I know I’ve seen better of Guerrerito del Futuro and probably of Incognito too at some point. Finish was great, because no one outside the ring appeared to know Aguila gave up until the tecnicos arms were raised.
– STIGMA got dropped on his by a (I think) a half nelson suplex in an ugly manner, but kept living to get the distraction added win. I sure hope they’re just establishing the new faction by having them interfere a lot, and it’s not going to be three run-ins on every single show because it kinda was done by the final. Colin dresses to well to be hanging with this crew; I guess he’s still abiding by the WWE dress code?
– My only problem with the Young Lions Cup match is that I still had their last match in my head, and this could not be that and shouldn’t be expected to be that. But it’s tough not to compare, you know? There was pretty good, but not on that level. After Fire Ant took out Vin with a move while Vin was hanging from the apron, I thought they were going to do a double countout finish, but they made it in back in time. Ref bump came on the second Beach Break (first was kicked out) – PJ was way too close and got kicked in the head by Vin’s legs. Unstable had been doing more distraction/standing on the apron bits then actually getting in the ring all night, and I think this was that again, before Jimmy and Drake came out to run them off (going after their early opponent, of course.) Vin fouled Fire Ant, then faked a foul, I guess to cloud the issue as PJ got up. Bryce got to the ring just as PJ was recovering – I guess he was going in if PJ was out, but since he was stirring he couldn’t without causing an issue. At first, Bryce had PJ’s attention trying to explain the low blow, which I thought was going to set up Vin doing something more, but he just put on his STF, PJ turned around, saw Fire Ant giving up, and called for the bell. Bryce trying to point out the foul was clearly a story point, but I don’t know if it’s any deeper than the usual bit of two referees arguing a finish (maybe to set up the rematch?)
– Before the ten men, teams were announced as teams, so it was only when the ring started filling up with men but team members seemed to be moving to opposite sides of the ring that it became clear what was going on with the match.
Normal tag team partners fought each other with no hesitation, though Ophidan and Amasis avoided it until late – it might have been on purpose, but after they exchanged words/hisses about 20 minutes in, they were alright with it too. That said, SSBs and the Portal seemed particularly upset/conflicted when their usual tag partner was getting worked over by a teammate – Amasis and Quack had words about this at one point.
Quack very very subtly played rudo – like you could see it in an occasional facial expression, but it was no big thing – and I think his team controlling the match was more about Quack being a Leader Of Men and able to organize his partners into keeping a man in for extended time (Hallowicked, and later Player Uno) then some sign of turning evil or whatever. And it makes sense, because you wouldn’t expect the same of Hallowicked or anyone on his side. It was just odd how Icarus was the world’s most booed tecnico for the night.
Outside of the one lucha spot you expect in a lot of man tag match, I was thinking they weren’t making use of the numbers enough, but they were just putting that off in the first half of the match and doing it for a lot of second half chaos. (A highlight of the chaos was four different pins going on, SSBs left standing and free to break them up, but utterly baffled about which one to break up.)
Ten man tag was probably much better than whatever tag and six man they could’ve done in the same time – long breaks on the apron surely helped out in the heat and they had plenty left for the finish. A lot of what you would expect in a match this size – a sequence of one guy hitting a big move, someone breaking it up and hitting a big move on them, repeat and four dives going on at once near the end. (Well, 3 and 1 a little delayed, but it was a neat trick not running each other over.) Finish makes sense given the next title match.
Player Dos seemed still to be in an adjustment period with his mask. Amasis was messing with his knee brace late, but it seemed more an issue with the brace and not the knee.
Got my money’s worth. Had an urge to pick up a Blue Panther mask from the mask seller, but he said he only brought 2 and they were gone instantly. He said he had a Villano mask, but I’m too mad at him to buy that. Ants, Donst, Helios, Lince, Ophidan, UltraMantis (and probably others I’m forgetting) hung around after for lots of pictures and the like. UnStable were just outside the gym to sell their stuff and make fun of small children. A fun time was had by all.