CHIKARA - Best of UK Tour 2016

This was another great DVD that came in a Wrestlecrate box. They've given away a few DVD's linked with CHIKARA UK tours in the past, and they've always been really fun. This was no exception.

Drew Gulak vs Officer Warren Barksdale

Really great Gulak performance here, as he has a really enjoyable match with a guy  who is very early into his career. The opening mat work was really fun, Barksdale not looking out of place against a more experienced opponent. Gulak locks in this wicked Gory Special, squatting low to the ground to really bend Barksdale. Also love Gulak kicking out of a pinfall and keeping hold of Barksdale, muscling him up into a slam. Barksdale keeps it simple on offence, going for basic impact moves, though his back suplex into a bridging pin was really good. The competitiveness of the match really boosted Barksdale, and the end was really nice. Gulak rolls under a Barksdale leapfrog and grabs the leg upon landing to flip Barksdale over for the pin. Really good stuff.

Hallowicked, Frightmare & the Batiri vs Princess Kimberlee, Heidi Lovelace & the Colony

For the most part, I really enjoyed this, and especially the underlying story that carried the match. After some fun early stuff, with neat Colony double-teams and a goofy 8-way submission, Hallowicked and Kimber Lee end up alone in the ring together. Frightmare takes out two of the technicos team with a big flip dive, and suddenly Kimber Lee finds herself in a 4-on-1 situation. To add to this, she’s defending the CHIKARA championship against Hallowicked in a forthcoming match so, having isolated her, the rudos proceed to work over her leg to weaken her for the upcoming title match. Lovelace is the only technico on the apron, and at one point she’s able to take out enough rudos for Lee to tag out….only for Lee to tag Soldier Ant, who has just got on the apron. Lovelace looks rightly annoyed, which feels like it’s setting up something. In a neat twist on the hot tag, the rudos throw Soldier Ant out of the ring, and drag Lee back in by her bad leg, continuing to work over it. Then, in a moment that feels like it undermines most of what we’ve just seen, Lee pops up and nails a string of German suplexes on the rudos, with each guy eating two. So the beatdown, designed to wear Lee’s leg out for the upcoming title match, wasn’t even enough to stop her being able to reel off a ton of suplexes on guys who all weight more than her, with no effect to the leg she’d be supporting all the weight on? Just feels like a waste. Everything breaks down, with no real hot tag, and there are some nice touches – dug one of the Batriri droptoeholding Lovelace face first into his partners knee, and the match-ending cross-legged DDT Hallowicked hits on Lee is pretty great – but the main meat of the match feels for nought.

Fire Ant vs Ophidian

Really great stuff here, these two worked really well together. Absolutely loved the opening exchanges, some really nice counter wrestling including a one minute period where Fire Ant was trying to prevent an Ophidian cobra clutch, stood up with Ophidian draped around his body, carrying his opponent’s entire bodyweight. Ophidian has some nice looking offence here, hitting two big boots to the head and nailing a nasty looking top rope double-kneedrop. Ophidian is really fluid, but gets caught trying to be too clever with an handstand on the apron, and Ant kicks him to the floor with a 619. A battle on the top rope ends with a super Frankensteiner by Fire Ant. The end sees Ant escape a cobra clutch, and nail a rana and a brainbuster for two, before hitting White Noise for the victory. Loved this.

Heidi Lovelace vs Nixon Newell

Even worked to start, but things heat up quickly following a big Lovelace forearm. Nixon nails her with an enzugiri, almost to prove she wont be backing down from hitting some big impact strikes of her own. Really dug Lovelace elevating herself out of the corner, catching Nixon’s head between her legs and propelling her facefirst into the turnbuckles. Looked really good. Really like how evenly they worked this, as the commentary highlights this is Newell’s CHIKARA debut and by being presented on a par with someone like Lovelace, it makes her look legit right off. Double superkick puts both women down and they get up to exchange some vicious looking blows, and both gets really close falls in the closing straight – Lovelace getting two from the Heidicanrana, and only a foot on the ropes prevent Newell winning via the Welsh Destroyer. A second try is blocked and they exchange roll-ups, with Lovelace getting the deciding fall.